Terrifying Video Game Monsters

Video games are the perfect medium for immersion, combining aspects of both passive and active entertainment. It’s hard to beat a game in terms of immersing the player in the experience you want. Perhaps this is why video game monsters are so terrifying. There is no safety net of being able to hide behind the couch pillows, instead you actively have to head towards the noise, into the dark woods, or in the direction you just saw the monster go.

Making your experience feel more like a nightmare then a video game, here are 7 terrifying video game monsters. Before you worry about seeing the same cliché pyramid head at top spot, I have tried to pick some more underrated choices. Aswell as ones tied to my personal experiences playing the games.

Terrifying Video Game Monsters: Top 7

Terrifying Monster: 7  – Sea of Solitude (The Monster)

In Sea of Solitude, you fight your loneliness, and your worries. These manifest themselves into a big shadowy fish, donned with big, fiery red eyes that emit a hue of evil light, as well as dagger like crooked teeth. For lovers of deep-sea terror movies such as Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, The Meg, The Shallows, and more will certainly feel the unease as you jump between objects desperately trying to stay out of the water! Set in a beautiful, flooded city covered in darkness that Kay must light up again whist absorbing the corruption.

In more than one instance in the game you have to time the monster’s route, accurately pick when to jump then swim like your live depends on it to the nearest building or floating dumpster to save you from the looming red eyes and white jagged teeth. It makes you tremble as you pick your time wisely. If you picked poorly your immediate demise would be signaled by the vibration of your controller just before the monster engulfs you with their jaws. Your only safety in the water, your little wooden boat.

Terrifying Monster: 6  – The Forest  (Mutated Cannibals)

The Forest is a survival game that imagines if Lost crossed over with the Wrong Turn horror franchise. After crash landing on a strange island, you have your son ripped from your custody by some mysterious cannibal. Whilst you try to survive the harsh environment you will notice naked men and woman watching you from the forest. The first time you die to one of these cannibals the game spawns you in one of their caves. Filled with discarded corpses that have once been used to sedate the monster’s hunger.

In the caves scattered around the map is where you will find the most gruesome, Cronenberg styled mutants you will encounter in the game. From mutated cannibal babies, to some form of the mass of extra arms and legs that defies all logic as it lacks a head of any kind. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop the mutated monster from being able to track you down in the darkness of the caves. Make sure you to enter prepared or you may just never leave!

Terrifying Video Game Monsters: Top 5

Terrifying Monster: 5  – The Quarry (Werewolves)

From kings of horror – Supermassive Games’ The Quarry is a perfect ode to campy 80’s horror. With the tone being more of a comedic one that Until Dawn. Now that doesn’t mean The Quarry isn’t scary, quite the opposite. Mainly it’s that in Until Dawn where your comedic breaks would come mainly from character dialogue, in The Quarry the comedic breaks come in many different forms. The overall tone of the game is goofier, not always taking itself seriously. This allows you to recover from the scares when you notice the accident you have made in your pants.

The monsters of the Quarry are werewolves. Yet not like ones I have seen elsewhere, they are creepy, more humanoid looking mutants. It’s kind of what I would imagine a Cronenberg werewolf would look like. This contrasts from the big, brutish, overly hairy that are usually displayed in media. I actually found it more uneasy, petrifying even that these monsters resembled their old selves even more than the Wendigos from Until Dawn.

Terrifying Monster: 4 – Subnautica (Reaper Leviathan)

Subnautica is an open world survival game where you crash land on an alien planet labelled Planet 4546B. Starting with no more refuge than your little buoyant escape pod to shield you from the deep-sea terrors that lie beneath the water. One particular nightmare inducing creature is the Reaper Leviathan. Looking like some Lovecraftian mutant snake, this bleach white and red monster will stalk you in the depths.

Your reward for taking on such a formidable foe? Absolutely nothing! The development team at Subnautica didn’t want to entice players into killing the apex predators. So, in order to demotivate players into wiping out the apex predator nightmare fuel they make it not really worth doing so. However, nothing can take away the pure fright you experience the first time the Reaper Leviathan encounters you!

Terrifying Video Game Monsters: Top 3

Terrifying Monster: 3 – Alien Isolation (Xenomorph)

Alien Isolation is the best Alien game hands down! It manages to seamlessly put you straight into a brand-new Alien experience, worthy of its own movie. It’s one of the best thriller/horror games available. With the whole experience being accompanied by your heart repeatedly beating out of your chest, as you hastily hunker down inside a locker. Desperately trying to remain hidden from the lurking, all black, stalking, killing machine. The way the alien lurks around the spaceship is unnerving to say the least.

Equipped with nothing but your senses and a little portable scanner. This is all you have to identify when the threat is close. When you detect the alien threat you had better run to cover! For only if your even just a moment too late at hiding, the alien will hunt you down. Bringing an end to your terrifying experience aboard the spaceship if it does catch you!

Terrifying Monster: 2 – Halo 3  (The Flood)

The first game I got with my Xbox 360, Halo 3 was the best thing I had ever experienced at the time, apart from Jaws. From the first wave of alien baddies, I was hooked but little did I know about what awaited little old me further in the game. When the flood was introduced I was terrified the level design looked like you was in this massive alien colon, or digestive system. It was bizarrely weird and disturbingly designed. The twists and turns of the level bent around one another all the while little flood spiders burst out of eggs Alien style.

Appearance of the flood takes on something akin to a Lovecraftian monster with the creatures having prolonged tentacle like body parts. Obviously returning since the actual flood might not have the same terrifying impact on me as it once did, but the level design still evokes fear.

Terrifying Video Game Monsters: Top 1

Terrifying Monster: 1 – Until Dawn (Wendigos)

Originally coming from Native American legend and folklore, the monsters were front and centre in the breakout hit- Until Dawn. Released on PS4 as a PlayStation exclusive, the game features several characters who spend the weekend in a cabin in the snowy mountains only to discover they’re not alone. A curse plagues the mountains, the curse of the wendigo. Upon eating human flesh someone will transform into a creature of pure nightmares, the wendigo.

The creatures are fast, agile, and lanky. Their iconic appearance means they are easily conjured in your mind at night. Wendigos really do leave their mark on you, ensuring you never forget Until Dawn.

Summary – Terrifying Video Game Monsters

That was 7 Terrifying Video Game Monsters. Did we leave any you would have included? Let us know in the comments!

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