Pathologic/Nightmare Fuel
The Nightmare Fuel page for Pathologic.
- You know what's absolutely terrifying in that game? The infected districts. The unnerving music that starts playing, the men and women in cloaks stumbling around, the scab-like growths on the houses, the children writhing in pain...but worst of all are the houses in the districts. Delapidated green walls, and you can only stay there for a limited time because the fog that occurs in the streets that makes you ill happens inside too, but now it's chasing after you. Oh, and since they tend to be deserted, there's a good amount of Nothing Is Scarier. When they're NOT deserted, creepy marauders clad in black are trying to kill you. They jump right the hell out of nowhere, so it's even worse.
- Oh gods, the infected houses. Not only is there everything in the above paragraph, but the rooms are so claustrophobic and the clouds are so fast that just going in is extraordinarily stressful.
- The worst part of Pathologic is simply the creepy juxtaposition of supernatural, surreal horror in an otherwise realistic setting. It's just so extremely unnatural and wrong, and evokes strong feelings of how this should not be happening. Plus there's the Psychological Horror aspect of how people realistically react to such a supernatural and nebulous foe...
- The use of the first-person perspective breeds tons of nightmare fuel on its own, due to you not having any peripheral vision. There could be a disease cloud right next to you and you won't know it until you either turn the camera or it's right upon you. And of course, there's always the fun game of guessing what's going to be in store for you when you turn around...
- The bad ending. Just...the sickening montage of the town itself literally rotting from within due to the plague, the images of the diseased people lying in the streets (including a child)...it's a pretty big incentive to not screw up during the main game. Oh, and speaking of which, while you watch, you know that it's your fault for failing to save your Adherents or being unable to make a choice during the final council.