Hell Is That Noise/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


You'll forget you're safe behind your screen when you hear these...

Examples of Hell Is That Noise in Video Games include:

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Other Examples

  • Sinistar. "BEWARE, COWARD!" Every single sound he makes is pure Nightmare Fuel.
  • The original Atari/C64 Spelunker game blasted a stock spooky theme out at the maximum volume whenever a ghost was nearby. Sure it doesn't seem so bad... until you hear the tune when you are about to scroll the screen and one is RIGHT THERE and KILLS YOU while the screen is scrolling to the next area. At that point it goes from annoying to downright panic inducing. The infamous NES version has the theme too, but it sounds a LOT less scary, as it's is mixed in with the incredibly bouncy background music that is completely absent in other versions.
  • Most of the monsters' battle cries in Doom. The Cacodemons and the Barons of Hell (and to a lesser extent, the Hell Knights) are the biggest offenders.
    • The massive, bone-chilling roars of the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind are bad enough, but even worse is their footstep noises, getting louder and louder...
    • The Archvile's "on alert" noise once it knows someone's there. That hollow-throated sinister giggle is enough to give grown players the bug-eyed shivers.
    • Lots of these in Doom 3. In particular, the creepy wailing sound increasing in pitch that happens near the glowing pentagrams and on the Hell level.
    • The gurgling baby-talk noise the Cherubs make is terrifying, especially when you can't tell where it's coming from.
      • "Mama. Maama. Maa-ma." Now imagine that coming with a distinct insect-like quality. Yes, it's that disturbing.
  • Psychonauts has the asylum rats squeaking. It's not that scary at first, but once you get kamikaze'd, confused, and swiftly dispatched several times, you will learn to loathe that noise, as every time you hear it, you are about to get rushed by 5-10 of those things, exploding for several brains of health. Also, sometimes the sound glitches so you hear it when they're not actually there...
  • The Drowning Music from Sonic the Hedgehog.
    • De...de...de...de...de...de...de...de..de..de..de..de..de..de..de..de..de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de- de-de-de-de-de-de-de-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDE! BWOP... ... ... ... ...blub-blub-blub-blub-blub-blub...
    • Sonic Colors made it ever WORSE.
    • The worst has to be the one from Sonic Generations.
  • Super Mario 64: In the world "Big Boo's Haunt" if you plummet into a certain pit from inside the mansion the first thing to greet you will be the creepy calliope music from the carousel. Listen to it here.
    • Topped big-time with the endless staircase at the end of the game, with its chromatic xylophone scales OF DOOM.
      • Guess what else? It was remixed and put into Mario Strikers Charged. Sure, it lessens the creepiness, but it's the theme for Boo, so there you go.
    • There's also that sound Bowser makes in the background the first time you enter Peach's castle or when you ran into a door when you didn't have enough stars to open it, or if you die: DAH DAH DAAAAAAAH NAH! BWOAR WOAR! HAR! HAR! HAR!
    • The main background music for the "Big Boos Haunt" level is creepy enough but there's also the piano with teeth. If you get close enough it comes after you angrily mashing its teeth together along with something that sounds like someone angrily banging their fists on the piano keys.
  • Welcome to my world... stupid bear and bird... lots to do and seeeee... Stop and Swop on 360...
    • "THAAAANK YOOOU..."
    • The sound of Gruntilda's evil laughter that you hear when you hit the "Save and Quit" option in Banjo-Kazooie or sometimes when you die.
    • The first game works an evil laugh into the beginning of the "Grunty's Lair" theme and all its variants, which restarts every time the music loops back to the beginning.
    • The music in certain areas — especially deep underwater, or inside other living creatures — tend to play a high-pitched string sound reminiscent of Psycho Strings.
  • Descent 3 had the metal scraping sounds made by the evil robots trying to kill you. Even more fun was the fact that you would often hear the machines before you saw them and much Hilarity Ensues when you try to find the damn things in the maze like surroundings.
    • Subverted in that those same robots also make noise when idle. If you wear headphones or turn your volume up a bit, you can use this to identify and locate the bots without being detected. Some robots, though, still play the trope straight even then...
    • One of those sounds is also used in the first two games when a Lifter or Diamond Claw attacks you.
    • Heck, any sound made by a robot in any one of the Descent games, as well as the sound the Mook Maker makes when it spawns a robot (which, ironically, is the same sound made when you spawn), especially when you don't expect a Mook Maker to even be there.....
  • The death scene music from the NES game The Uninvited does an outstanding job of letting you know that you've just royally fucked up. Here it is, along with the freakiest death in the entire game.
    • The Windows version caps its death scenes with an echoing voice saying, "I've got you..." Just for that extra "You suck" potential.
  • Secret of Mana- 'Ceremony' and 'The Oracle' -- themes associated with Thanatos, unsurprisingly.
    • ... although The Oracle could easily double as Crowning Music of Awesome ...
    • Another in the Thanatos category - the creepy little kcrrrtschk sound Dark Lich's hands make when he clenches his fists. Particularly bad if a character is affected - you find yourself wondering if some part of your anatomy made that noise.
    • The weird whale-esque moaning uuuwwwwuuuuuooooOOOUUUuuuuooOOoouuUUUUuuuuwwwwhhhhh.... sound the Mana Fortress makes. This is the first sound you hear when you turn the game on, and you don't learn what the hell it is until it reoccurs seconds before Thanatos beamspams the Mana Tree to death. THEN it becomes apparent.
  • Shadow Hearts has quite a few, both in exploration and combat. In the first game, you walk on blood and corpses quite often, producing a disgusting wet noise with every step. And the music for some areas would include screams, hysterical laughter and strange pants. Then the monsters come along and assault your ears with their weird moaning, nauseating squishy noises or gut-wrenching screams.
    • In the dungeon called the Dollhouse, there is, in the boss room, a doll sitting on a rocking horse, creaking slowly back and forth as you examine this creepy room. When you try to leave the room, the rocking stops, but you'll swear you hear that sound for a few seconds afterwards.
    • There's also a scene in this game where an old woman tells the party a horror story, with sound effects. At first, the woman is going "Shloop, shloop, screee!" to describe a man who returned from a death by drowning (the shloop being the sound of him dragging his corpse slowly across the pier, the screee being the noise the seagulls made, drawn to the smell of death), but steadily, in the background, you hear the noises in the background of her telling this story, to the point that it becomes very disturbing. (Scariest description of a zombie walk ever.)
  • StarCraft - The Battle Aboard the Amerigo cutscene has this, shortly after one of the Marines is stabbed through the face and lifted away by a lurking Hydralisk, the remaining troopers are watching all corners, trying to hear the sound of the Zerg. All they hear is the whirl of the large fan blades...which turns out to be scraping along at a pitch that quickly synchronizes with the screeches of the oncoming Zerg Rush.
  • StarCraft II: "Class 12 psionic waveform pattern detected, the Queen of Blades is inbound"
    • A legitimate Oh Crap moment in itself, worse if you're familiar with Expanded Universe material - yup, that scale usually caps out at 10.
    • Also, the Nydus Worms. Not only is their scream freaky by itself, but it heralds the arrival of a potential horde of the Zerg and you have no idea where from.
  • Resident Evil - The sound of breaking glass, as it was often the sound that preceded a dog attack. You'll cringe every time you hear a window break.
    • The zombie shuffling noises were also pretty danged disturbing.
    • RE4 cranks it up a notch with the creepy, Vader-esque breathing from the Regenerators. It's a million times worse when you can't actually see them, too.
      • The Iron Maidens, an even more nightmarish variant of the Regenerators, sound even worse.
      • Oh no, the noise from those two is much worse then Vader's. His is just in and out, creepy but simple. Their's is this Godawful gasping, wheezing breath. Like someone who's drowned or what one would imagine someone with their throat cut sounds like. Sweet dreams
      • What, nobody still cringes to this day at the sound of a chainsaw and "Te voy a matar!"?
      • Another one from the 4 is the dry, shuffling sound made by the Novistadors. Particularly horrific because they're essentially invisible, half the time. Not to mention the first encounter in the sewer. A very loud SPLOSH followed by an increasingly louder series of sploshes indicating footsteps...
      • In RE5, the distinctive pitter-patter of the lickers walking on metal catwalks (and the metal ceiling will also have you aiming your shotgun in a frantic 360.
    • There's also the horrible screech of the Reapers. I've emptied magnums and machine guns into the walls because of that sound.
    • A friend told me that the thumping steps of the giant spiders are even scarier.
    • The sounds of the hunters are scarier still. Tap, tap, tap, AYIAAAR!!! BWEER, YOU DIED.
    • "* STARS* ", Nemesis comes crashing through the window with a bazooka.
      • And the music that plays when he is stalking you. As well as the police station's first floor music in RE2. Even creepier, the BGM is dead silent until you encounter the Licker, then after you defeat it and enter the next hall, only then does the main music start.
      • You think the first floor music in 2 is creepy? Try listening to the first floor music they were originally going to use.
      • And before that, RE 1.5 used this for the police station theme, which became the Vacant Factory music in the final version.
      • Worse, RE 1.5 used "Distant Memories" for the safe room theme.
    • The first floor revisit theme. The most pants-wetting music in the first game. And the underground.
    • In the Resident Evil 1 remake, you enter the Aqua Ring, silence except for water dripping, then suddenly Psycho Strings start up and a giant mutant shark (the one that kills you instantly) is after you.
    • The Psycho Strings theme of the leech zombies in Resident Evil Zero.
  • In one area of Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, an insane hag is making loud screeching noises and rambling on about killing and eating people. Other players in your party occasionally comment that they would like to either kill the noisemaker or cast Silence on her.
  • The motion sensor in the Marine campaign of Alien vs. Predator. In the remake, they also use the Scare Chord from the movies whenever xenomorphs appear in the Marine Campaign.
    • Also the sound of xenomorphs bursting out of air vents; that combination of clattering metal and alien screech, after a few ambushes, can swiftly induce emptying the clip of whatever weapon you're holding while screaming swearwords incoherently at your monitor.
  • Haunting Ground: The disturbing sounds heard during the Game Over/"Acta est Fabula" screen for each of the stalkers. The music that plays when a stalker is not currently chasing Fiona is also quite creepy, especially Debilitas' (which is more or less all ambient sounds like a dog panting, a strange swallowing noise, and obscure clicking).
    • The second half of "White and Red Carousel". Where did that horn come from?!
    • The failed homunculis' gibberish.
  • Clock Tower has the noise Scissorman's scissors make as he follows you. SNIP SNIP SNIP!
    • It's even worse in the second game, where the sound of Scissorman's scissors can be heard even if he's in a different room. Not to mention how they changed it from a somewhat loud *SNIP* into a very loud *SHING*. The music that accompanies this is pretty scary on its own.
  • Blood: The Choking Hand's squeaking "I'll swallow your soul!" Once you hear it, the proper response is to leap in panic at the nearest table or run away into a corner while blasting randomly at the floor.
    • The zombies' death screams. While their "knock down" groans are very mild and the kind you'd expect from an undead, when they die they emit an incredibly loud and heart-stopping mix of a shriek and a yell. Trust me, you will jump out of your seat the first time you kill a zombie, even if it's from a good distance (and sometimes, not only for the first time either). At least, when you happen to decapitate them, you have the option of kicking the head around like a ball.
    • Blood II has the various sounds of the Bone Leeches. Whether they're just in idle in a pool of water or jumping to attach to your face, you will not be able to focus until you're absolutely sure every leech in the area is dead. Same goes for the Thieves. Strangely enough, the Hands are mostly silent in this game, and the sound they make is rather funny.
  • There's something that sounds like a wheezing, whispery voice, or a heart stopping screechy sound in First Encounter Assault Recon whenever Alma is nearby. Oh, and then there's Alma's music box, (listen to it here). That horrible, sad, upbeat, painful, tear-inducing, pants-browningly chilling tune. It's like someone scientifically formulated the perfect theme song to emphasize every single aspect of Alma, and then used it in the most disturbing manner imaginable.
    • Child Alma's trademark deranged little giggle.
    • In the locker rooms of Wade Elementary you are attacked by ghosts that are hard to see and they make this horrific noise.
      • Plus the horrible rapid-fire slamming sounds of the double doors, making it hard to hear anything coming at you, and they steadily grow louder and louder as you get closer. The noise itself is just plain disturbing....
    • The game also pulls off a few audio stings when certain scary elements come into the field of vision. It's also used - in slightly less dramatic fashion - to alert the player to a crisp packet on the floor, letting them know that Norton Mapes is still alive.
    • The Scare Chord played when the automated gun turrets pop out of the ceiling.
    • Rattling objects. In the first game they can be ignored safely, because it's possibly a malfunction of the collisions engine, and it's only things like soda cans, chemical flasks and other small gadgets. Doesn't detract any from the scary factor, especially if you remember the common aspect of ghost stories that they lightly disturb objects whith their presence alone. And then you go through the Vivendi sequels... Where the rattlers are much larger objects, and it often means a pack of the mostly invisible Shades is out to get you. Don't be surprised if you shoot a steel drum you're walking on top of just because it scraped on the floor, especially after the nuclear explosion in Perseus Mandate.
      • It doesn't help that near the end of the Perseus Mandate you have to go through an area where all the automatic doors produce a sound similar to the cackle/laugh that was the only hint those near invisible shades gave you before attacking.
    • The sound the Phase Commanders make.
  • Eternal Darkness. The knocking on doors and the footsteps are more effective at causing fear than any other sanity effect, especially since you know the house is empty.
    • To the point where, when things actually do show up, your initial reaction is "oh, they're not there, I'm just- OH SHIT!"
    • Not to mention that when your sanity meter is low, you constantly hear agonized wailing, warped laughter, and other eerie noises even when no larger sanity effect is present. Keep it low, and your character will occasionally mutter to him- or herself in a crazed, terrified voice. Keep it low long enough--some people do run-throughs with zero sanity or as little sanity as possible--and the silence when your sanity is normal will come to unnerve you.
    • In the Maximillian Roivas stage the initial music that plays, Black Rose, isn't incredibly creepy, just reminiscent of an old house. Then it ends and you're left with the far-off, booming sound of drums typical to when nothing is going on, and then you get creeped out.
      • Especially since by that point in the music you should be to the point where something happens.
    • The sounds of certain enemies, especially when off screen. In particular the lightning from Horrors and the chittering of Trappers.
  • The Ravenholm chapter of Half-Life 2 is very good at conditioning players to jump at audio cues. Rattling gutters? Incoming fast zombie (though the bastards don't always show up immediately). Soft little chirping hiss? Cue vitriolic cursing and emptying of clip into anything even vaguely shaped like a poison headcrab.
    • As has been mentioned in developer interviews, upon hearing the poison headcrab hiss playtesters would often compleatly ignore anything and everything else in order to find the poison headcrab, even going so far as to throw all their grenades and empty entire weapons' worth of ammo.
    • Or the sound of the headcrab zombie moans. Or even worse, the poison headcrab zombie moan. And in Episode 1, Alyx thinks it's funny to freak you out by imitating one.
      • Or even worse than that, a headcrab zombie on fire's bloodcurdling screaming...
      • No, no, no! Oohhhh... Help! God help me! Please... Whhyyy?
      • Zombine radio chatter gets pretty damned unnerving in the dark.
      • While you are going down a building in Episode 2, you will pass by what appears to be a blocked off, busted elevator shaft. This isn't creepy at all, except there is a poison headcrab zombie a story or two below you, constantly grunting and making you increasingly paranoid as you try to find the source of the noise.
    • On the opposite end of the spectrum, the mechanical whine of Manhacks - piercing, echo-happy, and harbinger of little tiny flying death machines.
      • The sound effect is recycled in Portal 2. There are no Manhacks in that game. It's still creepy.
    • As has been mentioned elsewhere: Nothing that makes a clanging noise in the Half-Life universe is ever any good. Ever.
      • Tentacles in the original. Not the fact that they could kill you in an instant if you made the slightest sound. Not the bang, bang, bang as it goes after some noise. That constant tapping it does the rest of the time. Just poking around looking for you.
    • Episode Two gives us the Antlion Guardian, which makes this roaring sound, coupled with a very unique running sound and for a good part of the chapter cannot be harmed. Cue terrified moments of hiding in caches of Antlion Grubs, as you hear the Guardian skitter around outside, all the while making that sound, and not being able to pinpoint just where it is.
      • Speaking of the grubs, the first time playing Episode Two, it's easy to mistake their chirps for poison headcrabs. Incredibly unnerving. Especially in the spots in the hive where you can also find actual poison headcrabs.
      • Also, some of the caches you need to hide in are filled waist-high with blood, causing you to squelch with each step.
    • That loud 'PHFREEH' noise Acid Antlions make. Especially when it's coming from behind.
    • Not an example (well, YMMV), but related to one from Real Life: Half-Life 2 featured, right after Dog opens the Combine gate for you at the beginning of "Anticitizen One", some really creepy music that seems to be coming from nowhere in particular (it is actually coming from a TV set tucked out of the way). It sounds suspiciously similar to the introductory music from some of the numbers stations mentioned below (particularly "Bugle" and "Swedish Rhapsody" respectively).
    • The weird digital horn sound that the Striders make.
      • Anything by the Striders is unnerving. The loud BURKABURKABURKA of their machine guns, the thunp they make when they walk, and the ray-gun sound their lasers make.
    • Then there's the bizarre moaning/wheezing sounds heard in Half-Life 1, during the chapter "On a Rail". They're only heard in a couple of places, but they're really creepy sounding and never explained.
    • Speaking of the first Half Life... The Ichthyousaurs' horrible growling as they charge at you. BMABMABMABMABMABMA
  • Any sufficiently creepy enemy that's given a distinctive audio cue to warn you when it's around can become subject to this, including the various malefactors from The Suffering, the Necromorphs from Dead Space, or the drones from The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
    • Speaking of The Suffering, The Creeper from Ties That Bind has a very... distinctive voice. If it doesn't do this to you just from sounding really creepy, it will start getting this reaction once you get to know him. Not what he says, mind you -- that's creepy enough all on its own, but not what we're talking about -- just the sound of his voice.
    • The Gorgers. When they were eating something, it was the most sickening sound I've ever heard.
    • What about the spiders from System Shock 2? These things sound like water running in a very small river, and that very sound strikes terror every time. Also, the nursery rhymes of the cyber-nannies.
  • The metroids in the Metroid Prime series. Most notably Prime 1 in which one part of the game has the lights go out and you're stuck in the dark with their cries and no way to see them until they start charging at you, even with the Thermal Visor equipped.
    • Just the metroids? How about the Chozo Ghosts? The scariest part isn't just the room going dark, or even the doors locking you in - it's the bone-chilling shriek that signals your impending doom.
    • One of the most terrifying sounds in the series is the high pitched "eeee" noise that happens when you shoot the corpse of a metroid victim and it instantly rots away in Metroid Prime 3.
    • The Game Over Screen from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The BGM is already filled with metallic grinding and clunking, and then you get the Game Over screen, complete with heavy static and flatlining EKG pulse. Check it out.
      • Not to mention that when you actually DIE, you hear a noise over the static that could very well be Samus screaming as whatever she's fighting rips her guts out... Or something to that effect.
    • The SA-X Approaches from Metroid Fusion, which plays when the SA-X is in the same room as you. And then you hope it doesn't turn into Escape from the SA-X, because it sees you. The only sound worse is the horrifying 'tap tap tap' its footsteps make.
    • When exploring Dark Aether, one of the sounds that plays as part of the BGM is what sounds like a low moan. This sound appears no matter which part of Dark Aether you're in, regardless of whether there are any enemies there are. Switching visors does nothing to reveal the source of the sound; it's just there.
    • The 'Low Energy'-sound effect of Metroid II: The Return of Samus. Combined with the already sparse Background-music, that sound gets really creepy as you try to find an Energy Battery or kill Enemies like mad JUST to make that sound stop. To make matters worse, the sound speeds up the less energy you have.
    • The music of the high-Phazon sections of the Phazon Mines. I have a theory that it's what sufficiently-infused creatures hear constantly.
  • The Tzimisce's claw-walking head monsters in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines seem to have asthma, what from all the wheezy gasping they make as they lope around before jumping claws-first at your torso.
  • Fallout 3. Holy shit, the barely audible background music used in the abandoned Vaults. Particularly in Vault 92. It's very faint sounds, like dark, eerie music playing underneath a malfunctioning air unit of sorts, noted with a double-bass sounding mechanical sound every so often. Combined with the hissing sound of the sonic things in Vault 92, and it was the most terrifying horror experience ever experienced by me in any media. Made even more terrifying by the fact that the Vault (aside from some stupid crabs) was completely and utterly empty, and everyone who had ever been in the Vault had died 200 years earlier.
    • "Heeeeeey, GARY!"
    • And there's something truly mind-scrambling about a nice, torchy love song by the Ink Spots playing, as you casually turn around and—shitShitSHIT! Why didn't I save!? Although you may find the soundtrack uplifting and give you the strength not to scream and throw things at your computer when a Glowing One sneaks up on you...
    • The racing approach of Yao Guai, and later Deathclaws.
    • The raspy shouts of Feral Ghouls when they detect you. Not too bad, until you start encountering the Reavers...
    • How can you not mention the baby carriage bombs, oh god the baby carriages.
      • Click Whirrr WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH BOOOM
    • And let's not forget the rattling sound of ants down in the metro. That constant sound that seemed to come from every direction and just gave you shivers down the spine.
    • Huh? What's that clicking sound? It's coming from behind—OHFUCKRUNAGIANTRADSCORPION!
    • Everything inside the Virulent Chambers section of the Dunwich Building. If you actually go all the way down, and get into a certain passageway, you end up at a weird monolith that seems taken out of H.P. Lovecraft's literature. Then the background sound starts sounding very creepy.
  • Fallout: New Vegas. Bacon sizzling. That means there's a Cazador in the area, which is basically a wasp about the size of a lap pet. That flies several times faster than you can run. And stings for around sixty hit points per attack. And poisons you. And usually flies in swarms. Travel too far off the roads before you have a damned good weapon, and you're bug food.
    • It Gets Worse. First, if those aren't lap-pet sized Young Cazadors, those are bigger than coyote-sized wasps. Then, it goes Up To Eleven with the boss-level unique Legendary Cazador and Specimen 73, which are considerably larger than you are, and faster than a freaking Deathclaw. Plus, they have LETHAL poison, and without an sprayed full-auto or a shotgun, you're going to be missing often if the bastard knows where you are. This Troper's pretty damn good with this, and he still stims up and brings out his Riot Shotgun if I hear that damn noise.
    • BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEBEEBEE. Especially on Hardcore.
    • Nightstalkers. Take a perfectly good coyote, splice a rattlesnake head and tail onto it, and then make them highly-damage pack hunters that half of your bullets will just pass through for no reason. Finally, while they aren't as fast as cazadors, they can close the distance fast enough that all you will see in VATS is a mouthful of sharp, horrid teeth. And they're poisonous. Point is, you now have more reason to fear the sound of a rattlesnake's rattle.
    • The wheezing sounds of the Ghost People. Similarly, the weird, metallic noise the holograms make when they spot you.
  • Sound effects and background music in Saya no Uta, when experiencing the world through Fuminori's twisted perspective. Special mention should go to "Scare Shadow" - which, despite being only about 16 seconds long on the OST, is still a guaranteed tipoff that something seriously nasty is about to happen.
  • In Max Payne, the sharp clack... clack of a grenade bouncing on the ground. Scripted sequences often involved fleeing enemies suddenly tossing them through doors or down flights of stairs, and they are often difficult to see. Once you hear that sound, you've got about a second or two to haul ass, or you're toast.
    • Also, strangely, the sound of someone knocking on a door that repeats throughout the first game's Dream Sequence.
    • The Address Unknown theme park in Max Payne 2, even though there's no one there -- it's almost a comfort to meet Mooks on the second trip through the area. Also, quotes from that Show Within a Show that blare randomly from TV sets.
  • The chirping sound of the Thief Bot in Descent, one of the most annoying enemies in a video game. The agile Thief Bots are incredibly hard to kill and will use hit-and-run tactics to steal your weapons and flee, forcing you to hunt them down through enemy-saturated territory to get your hard-earned stuff back. Descent players soon learn to dread and despise the mocking chirp of a nearby Thief Bot.
    • Worse is the screech of the demonic Drillers in the first game, which sounds like a malfunctioning car starter.
    • The engine sounds of many of the bosses, especially the Level 8 boss in D2. That is Nightmare Fuel.
  • American McGee's Alice has the shrieks of those goddamn boojums.
    • The opening EA logo that pops up before you've even started the game. Just the sound of a bright, cheery child's giggle warping into what sounds like monstrous, distorted sobbing really makes you realize what kind of game you're actually in for.
  • Trauma Center gave us the Triti strain of GUILT. This strain is a Puzzle Boss which has do be disassembled quickly, in a certain manner. If the player attempts to extract Triti without properly disarming it, it multiplies in size. And screams at you.
  • The cry of Left 4 Dead's witch.
    • Or the Hunter's high-pitched screech. Or the Smoker's wheezing scream. Or the Boomer's putrid belching.
    • Hell, only Valve could make three notes signaling an incoming zombie rush seem so menacing.
    • Worse than those are the sounds an idle Tank does. Huffing with flared nostrils, growling in barely contained rage... and you know you'll have to face the wall of meat that is making those noises, as the Director never spawns one anywhere you can circumvent.
  • The original version of Castle Wolfenstein had the random chance of an SS officer shouting "SS" in computerized Mockingboard speech and appearing out of nowhere behind you. Back then it would scare the bejeebies out of you.
  • The creepy muttering of the Disciples of D'Sparil in Heretic. They weren't scary, just the sound was.
  • Hammer Haunts in the Thief series. First you'd hear rattling chains, followed by creepy, ghostly whispering, and then you'd pray it didn't turn into blood-curdling maniacal laughter, because that meant they saw you.
  • Mother 3: The Chimera Lab. Oink, grunt, oink, grunt... oinkgruntoinkgruntoinkgrunt SQUEAL SQUEAL SQUEAL REEERRRRRRRR
    • KA-TING! Chomp chompy chomp
    • BWAAAAAA!!!! [character] took mortal damage!
    • As if the Cuddle Bombs weren't already bad enough, they get this nightmarish theme.
    • The Tanetane Island theme, which just adds to the most terrifying Mushroom Samba ever depicted in fiction.
    • Battle Against the Masked Man, the final boss theme. Not quite as discordant as the Giygas theme, but every bit as nightmarish.
  • The hellish shriek of the Flood Combat Forms in Halo 2 and 3. The Scarab in 3 makes a demonic roaring sound. In fact, its core is organic, composed of the same Lekgolo worms as the Hunters.
    • In Halo Combat Evolved in the level 343 Guilty Spark in the underground complex in certain rooms you can hear flood screeches.
    • Also, the music and ambient sounds that accompany them.
    • Plasma grenades. Clickbwwwweee EEEEEEEEE
    • Spartan Laser. bwuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUH
    • The rocket lock-on noise from Halo 2.
    • The Plasma Launcher noise.
    • The sound of someone racking a shotgun slide.
    • The sound of a sword energizing.
      • An Elite roaring in fury. Because you're about to hear the sound of an energy sword.
    • "Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. ..."
    • Probably applies to any game, but the "click ... click ... click click click" of running out of ammo in Halo is so damn scary.
    • The first time you hear Suicide Grunts charging you, you wont know what it means.
    • Wraiths have a pretty singularly scary firing noise.
    • On a significantly sillier note, Grunt Birthday Party.
  • The main theme from Nanashi no Game starts off as a pretty good but oddly melancholic chiptune, but quickly devolves into this trope when it starts crackling and breaking up and the synthesizer just generally goes to hell. After playing the game, most players will find the normal theme just terrifying enough anyway. Also, watch this trailer to the end, why not?
  • "Be careful! I sense Death!". And then there's the sound of dragging chains... faster... faster... faster...
  • The piano music that plays during cutscenes connected to and featuring the killer or the Devil social link in Persona 4. This will give you the creeps every time.
    • And in the last parts of the game, the new town music: an ominous beat that fits the prolonged blanket of fog in Inaba.
    • *chest opens* *PUNCH!!* Your HP/SP has decreased!
  • Everyone who's ever played the old Super Solvers games (the original MS-DOS versions, not the Windows remakes) has a hard time forgetting the absolutely freaky sound effects when the robots show up to kick your ass.
    • Don't forget the sound effect that plays if you run out of time or make a wrong guess. Now that was scary!
  • "A in C Major" from the .hack series that generally plays before the appearance of A Virus or Hostile AI, but always signifies that the player is drawn too deeply into the world. Experienced fans learn to cringe when they hear it.
    • It is the pitch (A440) to which musicians in most places tune most instruments, pinged out on a tuning fork. Presumably, this is why Mai Minase is one of the few in-series people who can isolate this in-series Brown Note; she is a talented violinist.
  • Okami, in the Sunken Ship. Baww. Look at the cute dollies. Wait... are they giggling? Oh god make them stop. (1:30 in is the best quality.)
    • Also the music that plays when you enter the spider queen's lair before fighting her. You know shit's about to go down when you hear this.
  • Most of the music in Albion is either cheery enough to make your ears bleed, or mildly dark by way of cacophonic. However, the music in the second plotline dungeon does something that outdoes almost every purely instrumental tune on this page.
  • The bellowing roar made by the Big Daddies of BioShock (series) can only be described as a whale song from Hell.
    • Let's not even get started on the Splicers' insanely creepy Madness Mantras ....
    • "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
    • "Mr. Bubbles, Mr. Bubbles, are you there? Are you there?"
    • "In the house of upside-down...cellar's top floor...attic's ground..."
    • "Big Sister doesn't want you playing with me..."
    • BioShock Infinite hasn't even been released yet, and Songbird's screaming is already terrifying.
  • Eversion: Ta-naaaa, na-na-na-na--DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Ta-na-na-na na-na-na-na...
    • To clarify, you get past obstacles in this game by, essentially, turning the universe inside out. In level 3, you're walking along, probably in the aforementioned Sugar Bowl, and suddenly you're involuntarily shifted into a darker realm with accompanying music and accompanying Advancing Wall of Doom. This is even worse in level 7, since the music for the level you're shifted into is a very Dark Reprise of the Sugar Bowl music.
    • The only sound worse? The horrible "SCREEEE!" of the GODDAMN HANDS.
  • La-Mulana's "trap activated" sound.
  • Minecraft
    • When "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" is heard and it's not a dynamite set up by a player.
    • Really, when you're underground, ANY sound at all especially footsteps, and the "Banshee Cry" that came with the ambient sound update.
    • Ghasts. When you first hear them they sound like a baby cooing or something at least similar to that. Walk into their line of sight and it becomes as one person described it "a baby goat being sodomized".
    • Being in cave/outside, waiting for creepers. Then an arrow shot from a skeleton makes players jump.'
    • The sound portals make from the outside; the creepy ambiance of the portal itself, with the subtle sound of ghasts and zombie pigmen mixed in for taste.
    • If you're thieving from a particularly malicious and clever player's lair, the sound of a pressure plate you didn't notice until you stepped on it is probably the worst sound you can hear.
    • The new Endermen sounds. The first time you hear it you turn around expecting to see a zombie pig-man and then it begins ...
    • In the newest update, a cracking sound can be heard whenever an item breaks. Imagine this being your sword during a siege of spiders.
    • Blazes. They sound like creaky metal with a subtle hint of Darth Vader, and since, like all the other mobs in the game, they're Demonic Spiders, their sound heralds royal over-screwage.
  • Do Don Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu's True Final Boss theme. At about 0:18, you can hear some inhumanly fast rapping.
  • Yume Nikki. One word: Uboa.
    • Or as they are/it is commonly referred to, and to sum it up, UboAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
    • Almost all of the game's soundtrack counts too. Special mention goes to the forest highway subarea, which sounds like a hyperactive cicada that gets increasingly louder until it stops, just as it gets nigh unbearable. One more worth a mention is the candle world theme, that...I don't even know what to compare this one to.
  • .flow, a Yume Nikki fan-game, also has a few, including:
    • That warped muttering sound. It's used a lot, like when you get hit by red demons. Also used when you enter or TRY to enter a door on a lower floor of the school.
    • The high-pitched, tinny (and somehow just off) giggling sound. It's used a lot. It plays during a rare random event in Sabitsuki's room (when you turn on the TV and then try to turn it off). Kaibutsu (white-headed people in school clothes) giggle and turn angry when you hit them with the lead pipe. There are also some angry Kaibutsu who giggle while they chase you. The door to their area randomly shows up in the place with the big red eye background.
  • Anything spoken in Mongolian in Thunder Force VI.
  • The music for Raiden Fighters Jet's Real Battle Phase 2. There's also the alarm-like music for Simulation Levels 35 and 50, which if heard means you've failed to unlock Real Battle.
  • Plenty of music in Earthbound...
    • The cave music isn't much more than some eerie tones sliding up and down very quietly.
    • The path up to the Devil's Machine, the conversation before the battle with Pokey, and after the Devil's Machine was turned off, and everything after that. The battle against Giygas was only MORE traumatic because of the music (if that's what you want to call it). Some people have claimed to be able to hear wailing and crying once you defeat Giygas.
      • Actually, most of these accounts of the wailing and crying after Giygas' defeat also claim you can only hear it if you're playing the actual cartridge, therefore you can't hear it with emulators or by watching videos directly recorded from a SNES.
      • And, of course, the Giygas music itself, in all its horrific, discordant, jarring glory. If an Eldritch Abomination became a song, this would be it.
    • Ambush! and Whoops!... whichever one plays when a) the zombies in the Threed hotel attack you. b) you eat the Magic Cake in Summers.
    • The intercom chime in the Fourside Department Store.
  • Your reward for defeating Marx, zombified in Kirby Super Star Ultra is a cut-your-ear-off scream as the boss splits into two halves. Followed by Kirby holding all three Arena trophies and a victorious fanfare.
  • Every Track in the OST of Baroque's remake contains the noise one of the enemies on those floors will make. They make this noise only when you can't see them.
    • There's a track that only plays on dark floors that starts with a long, drawn out, eery gurgling sound.
    • The original is even worse in this regard. While the noises don't match enemies, it almost makes them scarier because of the fear there may be a new enemy just around the corner. On top of that, many of the songs are primarily dissonance. Without a doubt, though, the worst of it all is The Little's theme. The remake's was terrifying enough, but it's nothing compared to hearing babies laughing then slowly falling into a faint cry in the original.
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the bell that turns the people of Twilight Town into pigs. If that sounds funny to you, you probably haven't played the game. Trust me, when the bell tolls its deep, slow, mournful toll, you will not find it funny at all.
    • From Super Paper Mario: Crick..crick-crick-CRRSSSH The sound of Mimi's neck turning 180 degrees as she becomes...that THING.
    • And the River Twygz. If the bony hands weren't disturbing enough, the background music is a jumble of distorted noises that will haunt your nightmares.
    • The various sounds in Forever Forest from the first Paper Mario: The rustling of trees, bat wings, owls, laughter...
  • So you're driving around planetside in Mass Effect, picking up resources and investigating the occasional anomaly. Fortunately, there aren't any baddies wandering around or anything, right? Wait, why is the ground shaki-AAAAGHH THAT NOISE MAKE IT STOP!
    • Seriously, the shriek of the Thresher Maw sounds like the wails of the damned and considering that it heralds the arrival a horrific monstrosity that erupts forth from the earth to eat your face, you will very quickly learn to fear its call.
  • If you've played Mass Effect 2 on Insanity, you will come to loathe three deep-voiced words: "ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL."
    • Somewhat diffused by that phrases Narm and Memetic Mutation.
    • Also on high difficulty levels, the groaning of the Husks or the "dak-dak-dak" sound of a Scion's weapon.
      • Dear god, the hellish squeals and squeaks the Praetorians make. If they didn't scare you when you fought them on Horizon and the Collector ship, Joker's mini-mission will make you hear that sound in your nightmares.
    • In the Overlord DLC mission, Shepard is called upon to deal with a rogue VI controlling an army of Geth. This wouldn't be too bad, if it wasn't for the hideous mechanical scream the VI frequently makes. It's one of the most ungodly sounds you'll ever hear.
      • And it's incredibly loud. When your volume is at a normal level, the scream is ear-splitting. You'd have to turn the volume down so low that you couldn't hear dialogue or other sound effects to manage the scream at a decent level.
        • Worse still is when you figure out that it's not just random screaming, but a phrase repeated every time you hear that scream: "QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
  • Mass Effect 3 has the loud, mechanical 'GNRRRRGHHRGRGRHHGRGRHRR' that the Reapers make. Either during a mission or in space, hearing that foghorn from hell is never a good sound. It's mentioned in the game as well; supplementary materials reveal the Reaper horns are specifically tuned to produce a panic response in many organics.
    • And then there's the scream of a Banshee. You will learn to fear this scream.
    • The sound of a Cerberus turret firing.
  • The sonar pings of the Slicers in Spectre Supreme and VR. Nightmare Fuel much.
  • 'Who... Are You?' from Final Fantasy VII. It's a relatively simple chord played on a saloon piano, on an infinite loop. It's known to cause old-school FF7 players to panic if they hear it with the lights off.
    • Or the infamous 'gong', a loud shrill note thundering over and over. That's when you know that really bad shit is going to happen.
    • Sephiroth's theme, 'Those Chosen By the Planet'. The fact that, under the ominous bell chimes, the drum beat emulates a human heartbeat really does amp up the haunting atmosphere...
    • The 'Voice of the Planet' when Tifa and Cloud fall into the Lifestream. It sounds like high-pitched static that almost seems like screaming voices, and loud rumbling moans. You can tell that the Planet is very, very unhappy.
    • This tropette can go unphased by the above themes, but JENOVA makes her at very least shiver.
  • Crisis Core has a wonderful roulette-based limit break machine and you'll love hearing Modulating Phase .. but then you come to the end and it's proof that Zack is dying and losing his memories.
  • The Scare Chord in the original Alone in the Dark. Even worse, the guttural demonic chanting when a ghost is disturbed.
  • In Parasite Eve, the song that plays when the final boss chases you on the ship.
    • The "DUN DUN DUN" noise increases in speed to match the weakened Ultimate Being's final, futile attempt to catch up to and kill you. DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNDUNDUNDUN DUNDUNDUNDUN...!
  • Lavos' cry. Even after all these years.
  • Chrono Cross: Star Tower, fittingly played inside the The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • So you're wandering through an underground tunnel in post-Chernobyl Russia, when you see something in the distance, vaguely humanoid, lit from behind and thus completely in shadow. And a noise begins to fill your mind as you're drawn into it...
  • Kefka's laugh from Final Fantasy VI is one of the "You're in the jungle, baby, you're gonna DIE" indicators that seem to make so many noises qualify for this page.
  • Irem's old shmup X-Multiply has a lot of music that falls somewhere in the "eerie" spectrum (makes sense, considering that the entire game takes place in an alien-parasitized woman's body), but the first version of the st. 3 theme "The Rolling Worms" really takes the cake. Oscillating synth in the foreground, rapid liquid bass line in the background, all the while with you surrounded by rampaging larvae and eyes studded in the surrounding tissue...Brrr.
  • The ticking clock in the main hall from the Nancy Drew game Message in a Haunted Mansion. Never play that game at night (or even during the day with the shades pulled down, for that matter).
  • Starlancer has the impossible-to-describe torpedo launch noise, which generally lead to a mad rush to blow up the launched torpedoes before everything went to hell.
    • Whenever your copilot screams "THE ION CANNON IS TARGETING US! GET OUT OF ITS RANGE!".
  • While not a game, behold: The Playstation 2 "Wrong Disk Format" message. It's not so much scary as it is absolutely unnerving. And this is ALL BECAUSE YOU PUT IN A DISK THE PlayStation 2 CAN'T READ!...which includes legitimate games if the lens gets too messed up to read the disk as well.
  • In Rage Racer the Infinity Plus One Car, the Assoluto Squaldon, has a high pitched whining engine sound.
  • The protagonist of The Crystal Key is an extreme Featureless Protagonist--you don't even see his / her hand reach out to pick up items, instead seeing the items levitate into your inventory. However, he / she is most definitely not a Heroic Mime if captured and tortured by the villain. Gender neutrality is preserved anyway, because the resultant screaming is barely recognizable as human.
  • Demon's Souls has the Tower of Latria, which in turn has Illithids, which carry tiny little bells that will haunt your dreams.
  • Gradius Gaiden's announcers, on you dying in later stages: "Get outta here, forget about it!" "HAHAHAHAHA!"
    • The penultimate boss of Gaiden doesn't get background music. Instead, you get constant klaxons.
  • Cave Story brings us "Quiet", the music that plays in the emptied-out Mimiga Village or any Mimiga's home after the Doctor snatches away the Mimigas. It really makes you feel like you're in a ghost town, with not a single living organism around.
  • Manfred von Karma's Objection! in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. In Ace Attorney Investigations, Ambassador Alba gets his own villainous Objection! as well, despite not being a lawyer or prosecutor! And the music... Every time it starts playing, your argument is about to get SAVAGED.
    • And then in AAI2, you have Bansai Ichiyanagi who's somewhow manages to be worse that the two above examples combined.
  • In Lands of Lore, the Throne of Chaos. The player cannot wander off the paths into the scenery - but apparently the monsters can. Even when you can't see anything around, you can hear them pacing. TEP-TEP. TEP TEP TEP. TEP. The worst part is that when you clear an area out for real, the pacing stops. But if you can't find the monsters...
  • The nightmare level music in Alundra gives a good impression that "THIS IS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE! SCARY SHIT IS BOUND TO HAPPEN IN SCARY SETTING!".
  • Several of the creatures from System Shock 2:
    • Hybrids running towards you while they scream things like "Kill me, KILL ME"
    • The psychic monkeys are also really creepy, their screams echo throughout the halls.
    • And even with the monkeys and the hybrids the game still ups the ante considerably when it introduces the damn Cyborg Midwifes. Not only is their cry of "I worry so much for my little ones" realy scary they also make a horrible sound whenever you hit them or shoot them.
    • And the spiders. Spiders don't make noise, right? Right??? Then why do they make this unassuming sound of water gently trickling down a small rivulet? OH GOD THEY'RE NEAR!!!
    • The malfunctioning protocol droids say friendly things as they saunter towards you...
  • Pokémon. Anyone remember the broadcast that would play at the Ruins of Alph?
    • How about the original Lavender Town theme?
    • Back with the broadcasts, the Lake of Rage signal is pretty distressing itself.
    • The Old Chateau theme from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Then you throw in ghosts, glaring statues, a haunted portrait with glowing red eyes and an evil television.
    • The opening notes for the Legenary Beast Encounters in Crystal and HG/SS. Mainly because the Dogs are Random Encounter battles. You don't even have to be looking for them, you'll just be in the grass level-grinding and DIRI-DIRI-DIRI.
      • This one at least has a practical use, so you don't just think it's another typical wild encounter to run away from.
      • Because this theme means you're going to encounter a cool legendary, especially when you're been looking for them for ages, this might also qualify as Most Wonderful Sound.
    • Arceus' battle theme makes a good job in telling you you are fighting something that ancient cultures thought to be God. Giratina's scream also qualifies the first time you hear it, but you get used to it.
    • Something about the standard Pokemon "error" music just does NOT sit right. Most people hear this because of a printing error. Either way, it's just plain haunting.
    • Silph Co music takes the cake for creepy music in this game series. The original version starts out kind of cool, and quickly descends into increasing horror. The version of the songs in the remake is something more akin to riding a merry-go-round through a carnival run by the devil himself as the last houldouts of sanity and virtue in a dying universe fall one by one to the madness of their own minds. Made appropriate when you realize that this company has been under siege for quite some time by a terrorist organization who operates throughout the world in a nearly dominating aspect without any sort of organized opposition.
    • Maybe it's just me, but those creepy bells in Mt. Pyre and Shoal Cave sound like something just died...
    • If glitches count, boy oh boy could some of the RBY glitches give Uboa one hell of a run for its money. Try Yellow Missingno on for starters!
    • The Unknown Dungeon and Cinnabar Mansion themes. Brrrrr.
    • Several of the battle cries can also fall under this. Honorable mentions goes to Musharna, and Gochiruzeru.
    • On rare occasions in the Gen 3 games, you can sometimes hear a wild pokemon's cry when wandering around in the area. When it happens in Mt. Pyre, well...
    • Some of the attack sound-effects from R/B/Y can fall under this, most notably Screech.
  • Every enemy in Ghoul's Forest (a mod for Doom). Whether it's the high pitched and eardrum breaking screech of the Sjas soaring towards you from behind or the low, choking cackle of the Jitterskull as it strafes towards you with gratuitous Teleport Spam.
  • The bloodcurdling screams of people on fire in Syphon Filter.
    • Also, the thump you hear just before an explosion from an M79 being fired at you.
  • The whispers heard throughout 5 Days A Stranger and Trilby's Notes. This is only compounded by the fact that they only start when something creepy and freakin' scary is happening, or just about to happen.
  • The Sound Effects of the Loputousu and Naga Spells in Fire Emblem 4. Both very similar, both very creepy. Worse on an most Emulators, because the effect can only be done properly with the SNES's Hardware... SNES 9 X's attempt at them is noted for being pure Nightmare Fuel... and it should be noted, that the Final Boss fight usually consists of the spells going off against each other repeatedly.
  • The part in Dragon Age Origins where Hespith is reciting her kid's song style poem from behind the walls of the passageway - about betrayal, cannibalism and rape.
  • Many ambient noises in Marathon 2: Durandal, eg the electric hums(especially with the volume at max), the "printing press" and other mechanical noises(one sounds just like the Cyberdemon stomping), and the alien ship sounds.
    • Marathon Infinity went crazy with this. Since the first level the sounds of metal rattling and ominous roaring sort of justified the W'rkncacnter's existence.
  • X-COM Terror From The Deep. Imagine these two noises happening at the same time.
    • WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOwooooooooooooooooWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOwooooooooooooo
    • .......dundun dundun dundun dundun DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUNDUN-
    • that is the music you will constantly hear for this game. What is it building up to?Why does it stop!?
    • You're on a Terror Mission with Snakemen. Suddenly you hear the high pitch shriek of a Chryssalid attacking. Hope you brought enough firepower for a mini-Zombie Apocalypse.
    • The sequel, Apocalypse, also does a fairly good job at making your next night miserable.
      • The soundtrack is outright terrifying and wouldn't feel out of place in a horror game. It starts off with creepy ambience that freely alternates between alien noises and sounds of machinery to keep you constantly paranoid... and then it'll make you jump at the first sight of an alien. Oh yes, it will.
      • Assuming you've chosen the real-time mode, you'll hear every alien on the map move. You will literally just sit there, listening to all the stomping and hissing, futilely trying to gauge their numbers. The moment you get used to one sort of aliens, the game gleefully breaks out the next, even more powerful one, with its accompanying sound effects. Makes for one massive Oh Crap moment when it's accompanied by a huge blip the likes of which you've never seen before on the motion scanner.
      • And for the icing on the cake, the little Brainsuckers don't make any noise at all.
  • The NES adaption of Friday the 13th plays a rather unnerving Scare Chord whenever Jason appears, or has killed one of the children. The Commodore 64 version of Friday the 13th turns this Up to Eleven, delivering a blood-curdling scream whenever Jason shows up, or kills someone. Even worse, the deaths are accompanied with unsettling images, like an axe in someone's head.
  • Two things in Mitadake High. The sound of an axe hitting a door, because it either means that somebody is a bad roleplayer, or sombody's lost it. And Ramiel's Music. 'Nuff said.
  • The makers of Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game) Dark Corners of the Earth used a lot of very creepy ambient sounds, some of them very subtle, to back up the "sanity loss" mechanisms. They did their job very well, possibly too well: playing the game at midday through cruddy laptop speakers=unnerving; playing it at 3AM, with a decent 4.1 set of speakers? Pretty soon the player will fancy checking into that hotel with the rubber walls and those dashing jackets with the extra-long sleeves.
  • Monster Hunter Tri gives us the ear-splitting scream of Diablos, also in previous games, where it was arguably worse since you couldn't dive to avoid it.
    • Also, the roar of Deviljho that sounds more like a cannon just went off, signifying that you're about to wish that was the case.
    • Conversely, you can inflict such a noise on some monsters in the form of a Sonic Bomb. Take the aforementioned Diablos for example: if you toss one while it's burrowing/tunneling (and it's not enranged) you can cause it to prematurely surface and get stuck for a while.
    • In Monster Hunter 2 and Unite, the second Rajang's roar from The Final Invitation, especially if the first one is not dead yet, means That One Boss just turned into Those Two Bosses.
  • The clink of a grenade in any of the Call of Duty games.
    • Or the dogs.
    • Or "TACTICAL NUKE INCOMING!"
    • "Enemy AC-130 above!" Along with the crescendo zhing of an incoming 105 artillery shell. If you hear the sound of detonation You're Already Dead. Especially when a) you're not loaded for anti-air - and one missile won't be enough; b) you're in the open; and c) you don't have Cold Blooded to hide you from view - though the AOE of the shell means not being visible on IR might not save you either.., although it is pretty funny hearing the Russian announcer completely losing his shit.
    • Click. Claymore, ohshi-
    • In one of the Russian missions in World At War, the soundtrack for that particular level contains this horrid chord right smack dab in the middle. Apparently its the kind of chord that penetrates to teh exact center of the brain and shuts everything down.
  • Cougars. Just... cougars.
  • The music and moaning heard just before fighting Necron in Final Fantasy IX. Even creepier in the Black Mages' remixed version.
  • The battle music when facing Encroaching Parallel Universe: Kuiper Belt in Wild ARMs 2.
  • In Splinter Cell Conviction, if you hear the distinctive ping of an active sonar and know it isn't from Sam's goggles, prepare for enemy Splinter Cells. The enemy has LOS on Sam and detected sounds are also harbingers of Bad Stuff.
  • Painkiller has Daniel's grunt when you get hurt, with the blurred screen only making it worse.
  • DJMAX Technika 2: YOU FAILED!
  • Some songs by DJ Yoshitaka (specifically, ones done under his "Suzaku" alias) have a signature Scare Chord. You can hear it here, here, and here.
  • Point Blank: The "BZ-BZZZZZ!!" that's played whenever you shoot a target marked "Don't Shoot!", thus costing you a life.
  • On Pogo.com's Yahtzee Party game, at the end of every game you get a bonus "Free Play" round. If you don't score any points in this round, it makes an awful, jarring wolf-howling sort of noise.
  • GET OUT.
    • There are others that qualify.
      • From the same game: The creepy, ominous laugh that plays whenever you're about to face a boss. The music of the room is all nice and peaceful, then you enter the door, which shuts behind you and you hear that evil laugh.
  • In the opening of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 when you're in WWII, half way through the mission, you hear this odd sound. Once you find the scientist you came to save, you will hear it again. (by this time you've gotten a bit used to the sound, although it is still a bit unnerving...) This time however, the scientist FLIPS at the sound. He begins saying how you're all doomed etc. At the end of the level, the secret weapon that was making that sound completely DESTROYS you, the boat you're on, and sends a huge tidal wave crashing down on you and your squad. Cue time skip to present day Towards the end of the game, you start hearing it again. Your squad is commenting on hell is that noise? you the player of course KNOW what it is, and as far as you're aware, there's nothing you can do about it but watch them die again. granted the weapon goes off and practically LEVELS the city, but your team is Made of Iron so yeah.
    • In the game as well, buildings can collapse. While you are in it. It's distinctive creaking sound prior to that happening will lead you to attempt to sprint out of the building no matter how many people are firing at you at the moment.
  • Special mention for Final Fantasy XI in the Gusgen Mines. One of the creepier sections of the game, an old haunted, abandoned mineshaft with a vaguely-defined horrific tragedy in its past. You can occasionally see the ghosts of miners or children walk right through you in places, and it's loaded with a variety of undead. Still, it's a great place to prospect for ore...and then the evacuation/emergency siren goes off, and a random mineshaft will be haunted by one of several similar bosses that can threaten you even if you brush off the regular enemies around here (apparently the vengeful ghosts of various miners killed in cave-ins). They're also remarkably aggressive at seeking you out, and you can't really run or it brings down tons of undead on you.
  • Limbo has buzzsaws with disturbingly realistic sound effects. And you'll have to dodge some of them really close.
  • "I'm going to sing, they love it when I sing"
    • "Everything is black...everything..."
  • Horrifically done and well executed in the semi-obscure RPG Live a Live. The true form of Orsted, the final boss of the game uses a move which emits a terrifying, high pitched wail that sounds like a woman in distress...while a sprite of a woman's face melts into an enraged, screaming skull with a mouthful of fangs, with no warning the first time you see it as to what will happen. Thanks Squaresoft.
  • S4 League: The BGM for the Chaser in Chaser Mode, MonoXide.
  • The O2Jam song "Electro Fantasy HD starts off with a Scare Chord. It's the song's way of telling you, "You are going to die."
  • Because Nothing Is Scarier, a quiet stretch in the middle of a BGM can take a creepy or dissonant song straight into nightmare fuel territory. See "Ruins Dungeon" (1:52) from Skies of Arcadia and "Voice of the Darkness, from the Abyss" from the first Mana Khemia. You'll be begging for a random encounter just to change the music.
  • Anyone who has been playing too much Red Alert 2 will cringe at the sound of Tesla coils discharging AKA the "You just lost tanya. Game over." Leitmotif. Don't even start me on the Gatling guns from Yuri’s Revenge.
  • In a similar vein, the little bleeping noise when a sentry gun on Team Fortress 2 as it acquires its target, if you know its target is you.
    • Or if you are an Engy, the sound of your kit getting sapped.
    • Hell, hearing the sound of a Spy's cloak. You might only have a second to respond before you get a knife in your spine.
    • The sound of an enemy Heavy revving up his Minigun, especially coupled with the sound of an Ubercharge being deployed.
      • Or, if you're the heavy, the *chk-chk-chk* when you're out of ammo
    • What about enemy Spies that cloak and abuse their voice commands to frighten the hell out of the other team? The worst one is the Spy's hiss. Especially if you hear it while playing on a Zombie Fortress server.
  • And combing the above with Creepy Child and Uncanny Valley, the sentry turrets from Portal.
    • What about the radios? If you pick one up and move it around the music turns to static followed by beeping.
      • Even worse, the noise the radios make if it goes through the Material Emancipation Grill.
      • Take a turret through an Emancipation Grill sometime. It terrified me the first time I heard it. Very unexpected.
    • In Portal 2, the creaking and groaning of the facility in Old Aperture. It creates an impression that the place could cave in at any time...
      • GLaDOS' agonized, autotuned shriek as her head module gets ripped off.
      • How about that one Den found in one of the earlier chambers of the game? Get too close to the wall and you begin to hear a man psychotically chanting.
  • The sound of a Droideka unfurling in Battlefront 2. Click-clik-chunk followed shortly by deedeedeedee followed by death.
  • In Penumbra, a tone plays whenever monsters are nearby.
    • You can hear most monsters before you see them. The low, demonic growl of a rabid dog, or the shuffling of a spider getting closer...
  • The song that plays in Amnesia: The Dark Descent whenever a monster is nearby. And the roars made by said monsters. And their footsteps. And the random screaming/crying/etc. you hear while wandering around. Actually, pretty much every sound in the entire game.
  • The title theme of Quake has a very freakish distorted screaming noise. Also, the roars/shrieks of Shamblers and Vores.
    • The sound of a nailgun being fired, when it's not your nailgun. Usually accompanied by a pain sound from the Ranger.
    • This particular track from the Quake soundtrack serves a lot to set in the freaking eldritch mood of the game. Halfway through the BGM you will hear something that sounds like meat-slurping sounds. All in all, it sounds like a soundtrack for H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
  • The Avernum series' Vahnatai make unearthly, bloodcurdling shrieks as they die.
  • "You cannot warp because you are warp scrambled"
  • For experienced and rookie stalkers alike, that distinctive wheezing coming from nowhere but at the same time closing in on you usually means panic. One night trek through the Zone is all it takes to make you paranoid for life.
  • The Final Trial - [1]
  • The Scare Chord that played in the original The Sims when a burglar (or raccoons) appeared on your lot. You can hear it for yourself, along with some of the other musical cues from unfortunate in-game events, which might qualify in themselves.
  • Last Window: "Creeping Shadows", the music for the 4th floor. Also played when you're snooping into Will's and Margaret's rooms.
  • The sounds of every single non-human opponent in Blood2. Especially the attack sounds of the Goddamn Bats, because once you hear them, you know the screen is about to be completely obscured by something really ugly and disgusting. And let's not forget the Cabal Stormtroopers, and the threats they scream on the top of their lungs, or their loud battle-cries, used just before they blow themselves up, or the creepy mash of Latin and Sanskrit words uttered by the Cabal's mages... yeah, Blood loves these.
  • Most of the music from Creatures 3. Maybe it just comes from playing it when one's age is in the single digits, but the music depresses me still today. It's all right, if a little melancholy, until you realize that it seems to change subtly in response to events like a Norn dying, and your Norns just keep dying all the time, and the Grendels keep coming over and beating them to death, and you have no idea how to succeed at this game.
  • Ray Storm's Stage 6 and 7 boss music, "Molecular Clock".
  • Oregon Trail 2. The Scare Chord. The goddamn scare chord. (For those who hadn't played 2/5: Most negative events come with a loud "Dun-DUN!")
  • The Dragon Quest series has a Scare Chord that plays when you don a cursed item that can scare the pants off of an unsuspecting player, especially when it's their first time equipping a cursed piece of equipment.
    • You'll also hear that tune in the NES games if one of your save files gets erased.
  • The song "Pressure Road" in Ys II, which plays at the very end of the game, sounds a lot more unsettling than most other music in the series (especially in the PSP version), which tends to consist of catchy and upbeat songs.
  • The Taken from Alan Wake are constantly talking. What they're saying isn't scary...but their words are slurred, halting, and often dip alarmingly into an almost incomprehensible growl. And they always talk when you can't see them...

CARL...Stucky. Pleased...to meetcha.

    • The noise made by Elite Taken when they're running around, almost completely invisible and moving to fast for you to hit them, is quiet, constant, and nerve-wracking.
  • The zombies...are coming...
  • While not exactly a creepy tune, Mr. Resetti's music in Animal Crossing leaves the player with just the right amount of regret and that they could have just saved the damn game, even after multiple occurrences.
    • Also from Animal Crossing: that horrible rattling sound you hear on summer nights... pretty creepy on its own, but combined with the fact that there's one of the two scariest insects in the game out there with you...
  • Final Fantasy XII has a glorious one in the esper Zalera's laugh...and the subsequent delighted quiet tittering of the shamaness who is allegedly (but may not actually be - this is Ivalice after all) his thrall. The first is bad enough, but the second will make a rat-like chill crawl up your spine.
    • Similarly, Zalera's defeated noise. Zalera himself has this strangled yowl, and then...? THEN the shamaness buries her face in Zalera's shoulder and cries a bit. WHAT. AAAAA.
  • If you're ever in the Undercity in World of Warcraft, go to the throne room, stand in the middle, turn off the music and sound effects, and crank the ambient sound. You'll hear the echoes of the events that led to the city becoming what it is... Don't do this in a dark room, though. And be careful about moving around too much, or you could get creepy whispering right in your ear.
    • To be specific, it's Arthas's "Succeeding you, father," from that one cutscene in Warcraft III. While THAT LINE ALONE is freaky enough, the fact that you are probably hearing that line delivered exactly where and how King Terenas heard it adds so much more "OH GOD D:" to the whole experience.
      • Similarly, Ashbringer's whispers. There is, if you listen closely, a second voice layered under the main whisper. What - or rather, WHO this is becomes apparent when you hear "kill...them...all." Congratulations, you done got your eardrums felt up by the Lich King.
      • Speaking of which, Any time the Lich King starts laughing. A 'you're screwed so very badly' sound if ever there was one.
    • If you're in Hellfire Peninsula, a buzzing rumble that rises to a mechanical squeal is a very bad sign.
    • "Bask in his power! Rise as an agent of the master's rage!" This is a sign that Corla has turned either one of your party members or one of her cultists into a drakonid under her command, and you will likely wipe unless you're in a good group and/or on a well-organized attempt at the achievement.
  • Three words: Baby Mario crying
  • From Xenosaga, we have Albedo's Evil Laugh. Made even more terrifying as he is laughing while decapitating himself in front of a little girl.
  • From RuneScape, the loud WAWAWAWAWAWA noise that heralds a Revenant attacking. Any veteran Runescaper knows the first thing to do is lunge for the run button and the prayer tab the moment you hear that.
    • Also, if you're in a PVP area, that hideous screeching Ice spells used to make.
    • The ambient sounds in the Wilderness are terrifying, especially with the music turned off.
  • There's the quirky Super Famicom sci-fi RPG Idea no Hi (a spiritual sequel to Maka Maka) which starts with the protagonist getting tortured in a lab by means of some kind of machine. It's accompanied by a truly awful rending, glitchy noise that really lets you sympathize with him.
  • In the (defunct) MMO Tabula Rasa, the sound of an incoming Bane dropship, especially the part where it came complete with indecipherable whispering.
  • Any submarine simulation, from the Silent Hunter Series to DOS-era games, has the "ping!" of an inbound active sonar. Means that they know you're in the area and they're trying to localize you (if they haven't already) as you frantically attempt to dive out of depth-charge range. The pings get higher-pitched and louder as your hunter closes in.
  • Metal Gear Solid has the series' iconic "!" Scare Chord.
  • Shivers has quite a few for background music.
  • A Most Annoying Sound from Mega Man 8 becomes this after you spend about ten minutes trying to beat the level. It involves a part where Mega Man rides a surfboard and has to jump and slide through a Turbo Tunnel-esque obstacle course. This wouldn't be too bad except that for EACH jump, a little robot enters the screen and says "Jump! Jump!" There are so many jumps, you'll often just hear "JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP-"
    • For some, the "Bwoom, Bwoom, Bwoom..." of the disappearing blocks. Play it for any old school player, and you'll see a look on their faces that might remind you of somebody experiencing a 'Nam flashback.
    • And as if that wasn't bad enough, the robot often comes in too early, so since you're under so much pressure, you jump too early.
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni has plenty of this in the soundtrack, but it really perfected it with EP7's "ridicule," which may not even count as music anymore.
  • Devil May Cry: "Psycho Siren." The experienced player knows there are only two proper responses to those dissonant opening chords. An electric cage appears? Death Scissors [dead link] are attacking, pull out your shotgun. Nothing apparently happening? A Shadow is about to skewer you from offscreen, JUMP!
    • Somehow, the echoing cries during Mental Machine make the fights against the amorphous Nightmare that much more, well...nightmarish.
  • The sound of a Panzer tank in the Medal of Honor games.
  • AAAH! Fresh meat!
  • Dark Reign:
    • THOOM-burrummrummrummmrrrruuum (Shockwave, a powerful anti-building weapon)
    • ssssssssssssssss (Rift Creator, which drops a miniature black hole anywhere on the map and is as destructive as it sounds)
  • I don't know about anyone else but the sound of linking from Myst scares the hell outta me. Just about any noise about the background ambience is terrifying in a place where you're pretty sure you're alone but not totally certain. Also, the sound of the crystal shields dissolving in Myst III is pretty creepy.
  • The Assassin Confirm jingle of Medieval Total War. Especially when you're not expecting it...
    • Another from the Total war series, from Shogun one, when you Try to assassinate a Daimyo using a ninja and he fails, and its the one where the Daimyo awakes. Try to ask yourself, "What killed the ninja?"
  • In Sonny you get Captain Hunt, the boss of Zone 2 in the second game. He gives orders to his sniper and medic in a deep, demonic-sounding voice. Contrast with the higher, almost stereotypically geeky voice in which his sniper responds, "We'll take care of it, Captain!" Keep in mind that every male character in the games is voiced by the same guy.
  • Racing Lagoon's "Nightmare" music comes up with a very creepy laugh accompanying the already creepy music, and it's in almost every cutscene in the final chapter. Did I mention this is a racing game?
  • In all Fatal Frame games, EVERY. SINGLE. NOISE. People whispering, objects moving, music, you name it.
  • The Fanatic Tower of Persona 3, anyone? You know, the boss that makes the sounds of chains rattling and then a low-pitched yell each and every time it attacks? Courtesy link.
    • Die in Persona 3 or 4, and the protagonist will let out a...distinctive cry. Often accompanied by your Mission Control crying out for your life...
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and falling boulder sounds in Nanosaur 1. It is safe to say that Nanosaur 1 and this trope were made for each other, take a listen.
  • Strange Journey: "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH..." Mission failed.
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Blood Relations, a warped version of "Divine Bloodlines" from Rondo of Blood.
  • The cackle of a Heaven Smile from Killer7.
    • Even worse is that if you listen closely and don't fire a shot, you can hear them whispering something...
  • The grinding noise heard when running out of HP in Yoshi's Story -- surprisingly scary for a game aimed at a young audience.
  • Devil Survivor: Accident, often played during disastrous events.
  • If you ever had to walk anywhere on foot in Far Cry 2 you understand how scary a revving car engine can be, especially when it's behind you.
  • You wouldn't think that an infant would ever be able to utter one of these, but Pathologic accomplishes it. The game is game already known for being one of the most horrific experiences ever created (by the few who have heard of it) and it has this gem: if you kill an innocent person, you get treated to the disturbing sound of a baby crying. The fact that this means your Karma Meter just took a hit (in a game where keeping it high is problematic and very, very important) doesn't help matters. The sound that plays if you kill an evil person (a boy laughing maniacally and applauding) is arguably even worse.
    • There's also the sound effect that plays when you're infected. It sounds like a distorted, drawn-out sound of glass screeching and then shattering, all while freaky whispers that sound like they're played backwards assault your ears. It doesn't help that infection level is one of the hardest meters to manage, so this will quickly evoke feelings of dread from players due to gameplay reasons as well.
  • Game Boy Camera had "who are you running from?" which is Hell to every sense.
  • Company of Heroes: on map Artillery, Nebelwerfers and V-1 Rockets.
  • Read this whole article, for one Dead Space reference, I mean, that crap was messed up... The Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Dead Space 1, ruined childrens songs for me forever. Or the lack of sound running through the Ishimura, before the first fight in Dead Space 2.
    • The roars of the Hunter. Especially when it wasn't attacking you, because you knew it could sense you, was hunting for you, could at any moment pop out an-ROOOOOOOAAAAAAGGGGHHHH
    • Near the end, when Issac reaches the marker he built, the noise generated is terrifying to say the least. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
  • Simple sound that inspires terror; a door opening. Why is it terrifying? Because you're playing Daggerfall and you're walking down what you -thought- was a blank hallway...until you hear that sound behind you. Cue you getting your face eaten off.
  • Nyeh Nyeh NyehNyeh Nyah!
  • VVVVVV has the unused music, "Phear." It's tough to describe.
  • Super Mario World has the key sound effect, which sometimes glitches up and ends with a shrill, unpleasant noise. Unique in that it was supposed to be a Most Wonderful Sound.
  • Just try and escape ME! THRASHINGALE!!

I KNOW YOU'RE THERE...MAL...PER...CI...O...!!

SURRENDER!!

    • More Wiseman goodness; this time, it's his battle...noises. Don't listen to this at night. Ever.
  • The DANGER noise in Endless Ocean: Blue World. Partly because it usually means there's a predatory or territorial creature within a certain range, but also because, while it's going on, you can't salvage anything. It's especially bad if you're in an area with tons of aggressive sharks, or even in the Mangrove Maze, where instead of sharks, you have electric eels that move around -- including bumping carelessly into you -- and can't be made harmless by the Pulsar.
  • I Wanna Be the Guy has at least TWO for sure, with one even leading directly to the other: the SHANNNNNNNNNG sound that spike walls make as they bear down (and up, and from either side) on you, and the out-of-nowhere metal riff that plays as the screen surprises you with GIANT letters telling you "GAME OVER - PRESS 'R' TO TRY AGAIN."
  • Batman causes this for the thugs out to stop him on orders of the Joker. Especially once you buy the upgrade that allows you to drop down from a stone gargoyle to take down enemies and dangle them from it. Though it is turned on Batman by Killer Croc in the sewer level.
  • From Gauntlet (1985 video game): Dark Legacy: "(color) (class) has lost a level!"
  • Summoner had the noise of howling wind, which always accompanies the worst of the Orenian bosses. Gives you a real scare in a couple places when you think you're about to encounter such a boss, and then it turns out to actually be the wind.
  • Skyrim, the flapping of wings informs you of any imminent dragon attacks. Brought up in the prologue, where soldiers comment on wondering what that noise was.
      • Subverted when you don't hear the wings or the roar. Then the awesome dragon fight theme reminds you of it. The first time is brilliant: Oh, I forgot how good their soundtracks are. I like this...what the...AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
    • The rattling sound of a chaurus is even scarier, at least the dragons make for an epic fight, while the chauruses are giant poisonous bugs that stalk you in dark underground areas.
      • The chattering of a falmer, made even creepier when you're attempting to sneak past them.
  • The incessent, wordless whispering of the Imps in Rule of Rose definately qualifies. As it turns out, it's inverted speech, and in one cutscene you can hear what they're really saying:

Imps: A bright red crayon just for you. Lots and lots and lots for you.

  • This charming scene from Drakengard. Warning, massive spoilers for one of the endings. Also, here for the setup to said spoilerific ending. Yeah, perfectly normal in the world of Drakengard.
  • Terraria has the noise burrowing enemies make when nearby. Not too bad when it's a giant worm, terrifying if it's the Eater of Worlds. The worst part? As they get closer, it gets faster.
  • VEEEEEEENGEEEEAAAAAAAAANNNNNNCEEEEE!!!
  • Courtesy of Resident Evil: Revelations come the distorted 'Mayday' cries from the infected communications officer when you approach the promenade, right before you have to get the key to the communications room. There are tales of tropers who had their nightmares haunted by that voice.
  • Ghostbusters the Video Game was loaded with these.
    • The library, dear lord the library. Especially once you hit the children section. The disembodied sounds of children laughing, playing, crying... pleading. Goodbye!
    • The whispers coming from the Dark Slime. Some are everyday conversations, as if you are listening to past conversations. Then some are warnings... some are welcoming you in. Some... don't like you very much. In combination with the previous entry, so... so disturbing.
    • The... noise you hear once you are seperated from the rest of the team on the risen island. Going through the basement of the slime producing facility and finally ending up in some kind of underground reservoir. That wailing, screaming noise in the background. The hell is that noise?
      • You get a possible answer at the end when you face the boss creature. Then again, it might be the agonized screams of trapped souls for all you know.
    • And who could forget the noise the Demonic Spiders make? Yes, those laughing little cherubs. On higher difficulties you certainly won't be laughing very much.
  • Touhou is not immune. In the eleventh game, after you've fought your way to the Hell of Blazing Fires, you are greeted by a cute little crow girl, her Badass Boast, and her sweet battle music... periodically interrupted by freaking air-raid sirens whenever she pulls a spellcard. What the hell is that noise? It's the sound of YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET NUKED.
  • Cry of Fear is a game with a great soundtrack, but the track Fucked is one of the more horrifying songs that play. It triggers when the world around Simon swiftly changes to a nightmare, and the song is downright psychotic.
  • Mortal Kombat: Deception: Shao Kahn saying "Hara Kiri!"
  • The alarm in DEFCON that sounds whenever a nuke is launched.
  • The Suicide Bombers from the Serious Sam series. The minute you hear one of them screaming, you know This Is Gonna Suck. Especially if you hear multiple screams at once. While a million other things are on the screen trying to kill you. And then there's the times they spawn from behind, or around corners you can't see past. The minute you hear them coming, you know you have to find and kill them fast, or your health's going to drop like a rock.
  • Mega Man X Command Mission has the final battle themes for Colonel Redips. Phase I sounds dark, foreboding, and sinister. Phase II averts this with by sounding less fiendish with a vocal chorus and forceful trumpets. Phase III... takes the Phase I music and puts it on steroids.
  • The creepiest things in Dark Fall: Lost Souls are its sound effects, particularly the hissing grub-creatures and the scenes where it's too dark to tell what the hell is creeping up to you.
  • Ethan Mars's scream during his third trial in Heavy Rain. You know the one. I ended up flinging the controller at my boyfriend and cowering under a chair like a child. (For the record, I was nineteen years old at the time.) That scream still haunts my brain to this day.
  • The soundtrack of The Path has some very disturbing songs.
  • Due to the rather simplistic graphics, Survival Crisis Z has to scare the player with sounds, and boy does it succeed. There's the the unhinged laughter of the newly infected, the low growls and moans of the rotted ones, the sirens that sound in the night, the screech of the ghost children...
  • Subnautica: The howls/roars of leviathans. If they suddenly get very loud, very fast... well, you may be out of luck.
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