In the realm of horror video games, it’s not just the monsters that play the part in providing the scares, but the environment. Some of the most iconic horror series have taken players from the radioactive wastelands of Earth to the darkest regions of space where no one can hear them scream.
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If you’ve ever played a game with a setting that made you feel uncomfortable, unnerved, or just unwelcomed, then it’s done its job in creating a creepy atmosphere. Of course, there have been so many places that fit that description, that it’ll be hard to narrow down the top best. So, make sure to pack extra maps, because it’s time to get lost in some of the creepiest locations in gaming.
10
Ravenholm
Half-Life 2
Hailed as a masterpiece, Half-Life 2 redefined the FPS genre. Of all the locations players went through on their adventure, the one that will always stand out is their experience in Ravenholm. The first time you hear about it, Ravenholm is built up as a place you should never go. So, naturally, you end up fleeing there to escape an attack from the Combine.
Right from the start, the location is disturbing. The music score becomes unsettling, corpses are hanging from cables, and though it feels abandoned, the former inhabitants have been converted into zombies by a Headcrab infestation. It doesn’t help that this is also the level where you encounter its terrifying subspecies: the poisonous and fast Headcrabs. The only comfort about Ravenholm is that you acquire the most powerful shotgun in gaming here. By the time you escape, you’ll be grateful to be fighting the Combine again.
9
The Sierra Madre
Fallout: New Vegas
The world of Fallout is known for its hazardous locations, yet none have earned a more infamous reputation wrapped in mystery than the Sierra Madre. Presented in the Dead Money add-on for Fallout: New Vegas, the Sierra Madre is a treasure hunter’s fantasy turned nightmare, its legends of lost treasure luring the foolish into a claustrophobic city that is both metaphorically and literally a ghost town.
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There are no traders or friendly NPCs, just hostile locals referred to as Ghost People. They’re strange enemies, even to the Fallout series, because when they die, they get right back up. The only way to keep them down is by dismemberment. Even worse, the villa is covered not in radiation, but a toxic red cloud that’ll poison anyone who lingers too long. In other words, you’re better off staying in New Vegas. At least the gamblers and Securitrons would be more pleasant company.
Not-So-Fun Fact: When the player arrives, all their weapons and gear are taken away, and they can’t leave until they’ve completed the Main Quest. It’s literally a nightmare you can’t escape.
8
Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Think of the worst experience you ever had at any restaurant or fast-food chain. Guarantee none of them could compare to having to spend a day at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. It doesn’t matter which location or time period it’s set in, the Five Nights at Freddy’s games have shown again and again that nothing good happens there.
Between children going missing, nightguards turning up dead or having their organs scooped out, and the haunted animatronics jump-scaring everyone, it’s best to steer clear of the Fazbear franchise. Next time you want to take your kids out for dinner, take them somewhere safer, like Taco Bell. Sure, they might get food poisoning, but at least they’re not at risk of being stuffed into an animatronic.
7
The Library
Metro 2033
Surviving in post-apocalypse Russia was already scary enough, yet the first game of the Metro series wins out for one level that made players freeze up in terror: The Library. Sent into Moscow to retrieve crucial documents, the player encounters a race of unique mutants known as the Librarians.
Besides their imposing appearance, the Librarians can kill the player within seconds, but there is a way to avoid confrontation. Just look them square in the eye and don’t move. Easier said than done when you have an abomination trying to make eye contact. Unfortunately, because the surface is irradiated, you have to wear your gas mask throughout the entire level, meaning you’re on a time limit before your air filters deplete. So, you have two options. Take the pacifist route and pray you don’t run out of oxygen, or fight and pray you don’t run out of ammo.
6
House Beneviento
Resident Evil Village
Dolls. Why did it have to be dolls? As if being stranded in some frozen medieval village wasn’t enough, poor Ethan Winters’ quest to save his daughter takes him to one of the most disturbing locations in Resident Evil.
The house starts out chilling already with Donna Beneviento’s creepy doll collection staring at you, but then you go into the basement, and it gets so much worse. Down there, Ethan encounters what is hands down the most hideous and haunting monster in Resident Evil history: The Baby. Unlike the other creatures in the series, you can’t fight it, only run while it pursues you with its hideous wails. Once you escape, you never see it again throughout Resident Evil Village. Was it a hallucination or some abandoned monster? Who knows? Who cares? Just pray it was annihilated along with the rest of Beneviento’s doll collection.
5
Fort Frolic
Bioshock
The fallen society of Rapture stands as a horror icon. Trapped under the sea and exploring decaying locations in a city whose inhabitants have turned into spliced-up killers is scary already. Then Bioshock sends you to Rapture’s entertainment and art center: Fort Frolic.
Art and horror are like insane lovers. They may go together, but the end result is never pretty — Fort Frolic in a nutshell. Like the rest of Rapture, it’s populated with enemies, but here there are Plastered Splicers crawling out of the walls. What’s even creepier is that they don’t speak when attacked. They’re utterly silent — as if their mouths have been sealed shut. Even more distressing is the array of plastered corpses scattered throughout the area, put on display in unnerving positions. Art might be subjective, but critics will agree that Fort Frolic deserves an A-Ranking, for avoid.
4
Brennenburg Castle
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The horror genre was reinvented when Amnesia: The Dark Descent hit the scene. Along with its mystery and story, the game couldn’t have picked a better location to trap the player—a colossal 16th-century fortress populated with monsters.
Brennenburg Castle is like a labyrinth with the number of rooms it houses, each one more terrifying than the last, from its guest rooms to the dungeons below. Besides being pursued by Lovecraftian abominations that’ll drive you mad from just looking at them, you’re utterly defenseless throughout the game with a lantern as your only tool. Between its size, the darkness, and the creatures, Brennenburg Castle should be relabeled as a Madhouse of Terror.
3
USG Ishimura
Dead Space
The Dead Space universe represents the pinnacle of cosmic-horror gaming as Isaac Clarke is stranded on the USG Ishimura, a mining ship out in space that’s become infested with hostile creatures. As if trying to survive in an enormous spaceship with Necromorphs crawling through the vents wasn’t enough, the accursed place is coming apart. There are moments when it feels like the ship itself is out to get you with hazardous wiring, crushing steel doors, or throwing you into the vacuum of space.
Everything about this ship is just unsettling, from its confining corridors to how dark it gets. And since you’re stranded in space, when the lights go out, all you have left is your flashlight. The Ishimura is such a frightening location that it was brought back during the events of Dead Space 2. And yes, it was the scariest level in the second game.
2
Dead Zone
Subnautica
Fans can agree that Subnautica is the Jaws of video games with how it makes the water terrifying. What can be scarier than being stranded at sea? How about being stranded on a planet that’s entirely sea?
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There are loads to explore, mine, and study with various fish life that range from the cute and interesting to the strange and frightening. Of all the places to go, however, there’s one location players should never venture: The Dead Zone, the outer edge of the map. All you’ll find is pure darkness as the crushing depth increases the further you get, and beware the Ghost Leviathans, the hostile lifeforms who inhabit the Dead Zone. In a game about exploring, there’s no reason to venture here, but that doesn’t remove the lingering fear of knowing that the Dead Zone surrounds you and is one mistake away from being stumbled upon.
1
The Town of Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2
Most scary games have locations filled with monsters, but in the case of Silent Hill, the location itself is the monster. While its appearance started in the first game, Silent Hill 2 is where the town earned its place as the stuff of nightmares.
Swallowed by fog, with a mysterious siren that sounds before taking its victims into another world, it’ll bring your demons and fears to life in the form of unimaginable horrors. Spend one day there, and you’ll come to learn that something supernatural has taken the town. Silent Hill feels less like it’s haunted and more like it’s become possessed by some otherworldly entity, one that wants to torment those with guilt or pain in their souls. So, if you’re planning a vacation soon, stick to a less horrifying location, like Florida. On second thought, Silent Hill would probably be more tolerable.
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