History NightmareFuel / Stalker

** One particularity scary encounter occurs in ''Call of Pripyat''. There is a small cave in the northern part of the first area that can be rather easy to miss, or mistake for one of the fissures nor far away. You go down the dark cave, when suddenly you hear from out of nowhere "'''LEAVE NOW, MAN'''". If you continue on, out stomps a Controller. ''[[OhCrap Oh,]]'' ''[[ItCanThink shit.]]''

* Pay attention to all of the background that you're given on the zone in [=SoC=]. Not only does[[spoiler: Strelok meet a brutal fate in the bad endings, but the good ending is the only one where the zone is stopped from expanding. If C-Consciousness is still around, the zone continues to expand.]]

** That is, unless you encounter them out in the open fields. If you're outside of their [[Franchise/MetalGearSolid MGS-style]] field of view, they will not attack and you can snipe them from a hopefully safe distance, thereby making their telekinetic ability useless. But if you happen to be in an enclosed, tightly-packed building and you're unfortunate enough to stumble upon them (which, by the way, is going to be inevitable in two particular sidequests in ''Call of Pripyat''), knifing them is the only way to defeat them for good.

* It may be NightmareRetardant in that there only 60 km (expanded to 200 km in one of the books) of the planet are like this, and the rest of the world is doing phenomenally well. [[ALoserIsYou Doesn't help your case, though.]]

** What made the Bloodsuckers ''really'' terrifying was not their invisibility, or their crazily-powerful claws, but the fact that the bastards were ''smart''. The things will actually hunt you. They don't just go into combat immediately all the time. Let's not forget [[HellIsThatNoise their loud, distorted and ragged panting as they chase you]]

* The underground labs: You just fought your way across an extremely dangerous area of the Zone, swarming with bandits, various mutants (including bloodsuckers and snorks), and boatloads of anomalies, not to mention the radiation. You killed the bandit leader, and made your way to an abandoned factory, to find a blast-type door hidden in a tunnel underneath it. You enter the lab, and it's about 90% pitch black the whole time. There's a dead body literally five feet from the entrance, and a skeleton in the corner. You loot the body, keeping in mind you're guaranteed to be on the edge of your 60kg carry capacity already, hear a noise, and turn around. [[NightmareFuel The skeleton seems to have moved about a foot towards you.]] Getting goosebumps on the back of your neck, you turn back towards the staircase to see a floating crate in the air. Cue the crate smashing you in the face, taking out half of your health bar. Bandaging up, you proceed onwards to find snorks, which are the remains of a military team sent into the lab. You take them out, pushing the innate desire to shudder at their [[HellIsThatNoise ragged, strained, barely audible breathing]] into the back of your mind. After navigating a hallway full of [[KillItWithFire burner anomalies,]] you find the corpse of a scientist who used to work in the lab who has a passcode on him. Keep in mind the whole time you're being pelted with anything that isn't nailed down (literally), and the only way to stop it is to kill all of the poltergeists in the lab, which are fast moving and near-impossible to hit, much less kill, especially considering that the only light you're guaranteed to have is your flashlight. Then you encounter a [[OhCrap pseudogiant,]] which isn't that big of a problem since you took an AK-74 with grenade launcher earlier in the lab. Or at least you would have, if you could carry any more. After using up what little ammo you may have left on the beast that you could hardly see, you find another passcode. After finally making your way to the room with the documents you need, you find indescribable experiments, evidently on the psyche of the human mind, going by the wires hooked up to their brains, and the Poltergeists, as well as a special poltergeist that shoots flames at you. But the fun doesn't end there, you then have to fight your way back out of the lab, through a mix of a [[EliteMooks Spetsnaz]] strike team, and bandits who showed up wondering what all the commotion was about. [[SarcasmMode Have fun trying to get out of there as fast as you can while being unable to move at any rate faster than a hobble due to wounds and a bulging backpack.]] Oh, and this is your introduction to the labs.

* It may be NightmareRetardant in that there are small less-than-sustaining communities in the Zone as well as the fact that everything outside of the 60 km (200 km in one of the books) Zone is going on completely well, if not thriving. Then you realize they are thriving off of your suffering. So, on the one hand, you know that it's not the entire HUMAN RACE that's under threat, it's just you and the other Russian/Ukrainian men you meet up with. On the other hand- you're in the Zone. And the people outside are profiting and cheering.

* The entire trek in ''Call of Pripyat'' through the underground tunnels from Jupiter into Pripyat. 4 squad members + the player versus: a 3-mile hike through poison gas-filled abandoned power plant tunnels, filled with [[GoddamnedBats hamsters]], snorks, anomalies and zombies. And that's before you're attacked by wave after wave of heavily armed fanatical Monolith troopers, including snipers from walkways dozens of feet up. Did we mention it's pitch black the entire time?

* One of the first really "HOLY SHIT!" moments is during the first underground tunnel level. You come to an old generator room, with some anomalies pinging off in the background, and if you are looking in the right spot, you can see a pair of white eyes looking back at you as well as a huge roar that you will never have heard in-game before. The only way to your objective is where the roar came from. And it's a tight corridor around the generators. You here the sounds of the monster breathing, and getting closer, until you turn, and BAM tentacles in the face, it slashes you then turns invisible so it can ambush you again and again. And you '''have''' to get past it. For the novice stalker how deadly this game is, when just one creature can annihilate you if you aren't prepared or if you make mistakes.

* It may be NightmareRetardant in that there are small less-than-sustaining communities in the Zone as well as the fact that everything outside of the 60 km (200 km in one of the books) Zone is going on completely well, if not thriving. Then you realize they are thriving off of your suffering. So, on the one hand, you know that it's not the entire HUMAN RACE that's under threat, it's just you and the other Russian/Khazakstani men you meet up with. On the other hand- you're in the Zone. And the people outside are profiting and cheering.

* It may be NightmareRetardant in that there are small less-than-sustaining communities in the Zone as well as the fact that everything outside of the 60 km (200 km in one of the books) Zone is going on completely well, if not thriving. Then you realize they are thriving off of your suffering.

* ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl''[='=]s Bloodsucker. Based upon appearance alone, these things are pretty damned creepy, as this picture [[http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd175/sir_evil2/xr_cs_screen_31_pre.jpg demonstrates]]. But, a combination of secondary characteristics moves them out of creepy and straight into downright terrifying: 1) They scream real loud when they attack you. 2) They are ''hella'' fast. 3) They only come out at night (usually). 4)They are completely invisible with the exception of its eyes and the body's blur effect on surroundings until they attack you. That's right, unless you happen to catch one off guard (which you won't) the only thing you will see is that mother([[ThisTropeIsBleep beep]]) lunging at your face a split second before it tears you several new ones. If you are very lucky, you might just see their freaking glowing eyes, wandering aimlessly over the landscape in your direction before the attack comes. And the best part? The beginning area is the only area safe form these things, and they can show up anywhere. You'll just be walking along, minding your own business, dodging better equipped Stalkers and the military, when you hear, perhaps the faintest hint of movement. You stop, readying your trusty assault rifle, but no enemy makes itself apparent. You continue to press on towards your objective, when suddenly there is a bloodsucker in your personal space. Cue Bullet Spamming.

* There are few video games on this page which come close to the level of creeping, grinding dread this game and its sequels inspires. The atmosphere of crushing horror is made far worse by the fact it [[NintendoHard holds quite old fashioned views]] about what the average player should be capable of. In other words, it wants you dead. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Very dead.]] Remember those other [=FPSes=] where you had limitless supplies of ammo which took up no room in your [[BagOfHolding magic bottomless bag]]? No. Remember those games where there'd be some guy who would helpfully fill you in on the [[ForMassiveDamage boss's weak point]] before you fought him? No. Remember those games where the people not shooting you spoke the same language as you? Nyet. Remember those games where you didn't have to eat, [[CriticalExistenceFailure where being injured was just a reason to be slightly more cautious]], and you could heal by simply walking away and waiting for a bit? No, no, no, no, no.

** It's even worse at night. You might be out for a late-night stroll, when suddenly it's noon-time bright at three in the morning. Yeah, that's not creepy.

* Pay attention to all of the background that you're given on the zone in SoC. Not only does[[spoiler: Strelok meet a brutal fate in the bad endings, but the good ending is the only one where the zone is stopped from expanding. If C-Consciousness is still around, the zone continues to expand.]]

** The day-time, too. Walking through the Cordon in Shadow of Chernobyl, you can sometimes hear screaming and wild gunfire off in the distance, but it's not from a nearby group of Loners that you [[VideoGameCaringPotential can run and help]] (or run and loot, if that's how you're playing). You might be doing alright, but other people out there are getting killed, and often.

* A section in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' has the player fight through a sewer of military officers and bandits, which is chock full of deadly anomalies. This is one of the first missions. You see the exit and finaly want to get out, but wait, what was that noise just the- the camera shakes, the health goes down, and you notice...Leatherface.

* The Jupiter factory complex in ''Call of Pripyat''. It is an insanely large abandoned factory complex with fully modeled interior of most of the buildings. The majority of the rooms has no lightning, and certain rooms in the complex have hidden anomalies in them. Due to the often murky weather and the color pallet used in the game, it makes the entire place looks significantly more menacing than it seems.

* There are few video games on this page which come close to the level of creeping, grinding dread this game and its sequels inspires. The atmosphere of crushing horror is made far worse by the fact it [[NintendoHard holds quite old fashioned views]] about what the average player should be capable of. In other words, it wants you dead. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Very dead.]] Remember those other FPS s where you had limitless supplies of ammo which took up no room in your [[BagOfHolding magic bottomless bag]]? No. Remember those games where there'd be some guy who would helpfully fill you in on the [[ForMassiveDamage boss's weak point]] before you fought him? No. Remember those games where the people not shooting you spoke the same language as you? Nyet. Remember those games where you didn't have to eat, [[CriticalExistenceFailure where being injured was just a reason to be slightly more cautious]], and you could heal by simply walking away and waiting for a bit? No, no, no, no, no.

* There are few video games on this page which come close to the level of creeping, grinding dread this game and its sequels inspires. The atmosphere of crushing horror is made far worse by the fact it [[NintendoHard holds quite old fashioned views]] about what the average player should be capable of. In other words, it wants you dead. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Very dead.]] Remember those other FPS s where you had limitless supplies of ammo which took up no room in your [[BagOfHolding magic bottomless bag]]? No. Remember those games where there'd be some guy who would helpfully fill you in on the [[ForMassiveDamage boss's weak point]] before you fought him? No. Remember those games where the people not shooting you spoke the same language as you? Nyet. Remember those games where you didn't have to eat, [[CriticalExistenceFailure where being injured was just a reason to be slightly more cautious]], and you could heal by simply walking away and waiting for a bit? No, no, no, no, no. There is no salvation, no [[HopeSpot Hope Spots]] in the crumbling, radioactive ruins of the Zone; you will die and you will not understand what happened, except that your end was quick but not quick enough. Around the next corner from your near fatal encounter with an invisible mutant you will find not a safe house but a band of disinterested Ukrainians waiting to kill and loot your slowly bleeding-out meat. It is a game that will hook and hold you even though half the time you wish you WERE dead, such is the level of fear and suffering you are being put through, because just surviving in the Zone feels like a tangible achievement. That is ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.''

* Night-time in the Zone. At night, you seem to hear various noises in the distance. Not to mention that terrors come out of nowhere like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_81pngrgDRg this]]. Yes, even with night vision goggles. Just sleep. There's absolutely nothing you need to do that's so urgent it can't wait until a less terrifying time.