The beating heart of the city.
It has been more than a decade since its release. 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV marked the new beginning of the GTA series. However, this reboot also meant a Darker and Edgier start, showing some very realistic horrors about the criminal underworld. That, and some mysteries some players have reported.
- The Statue of Happiness. On the outside, it just looks like the game's version of the Statue of Liberty with a rather creepy grin. On the inside, however, there is a massive, chained, beating heart in the middle of it. What the hell?
- All the Urban Legends that point to Ratman. To clarify, Ratman is presumably a half-human, half-rat creature that roams at night in subway stations and can attack the player. Of course, it has turned out to be fake, but still.
- Exploring abandoned subway places can be quite unsettling, especially at night. You are probably used to the sound of cars and people talking in the city. In such abandoned areas, like the one you explore during "Three Leaf Clover", you hear absolutely nothing, just an eerie silence. At that time remember the urban legend of Ratman, and although you know it's fake, surely you would not explore that area without your AK-47 fully loaded with the possibility of meeting a monster. Nothing Is Scarier.
- In general, the underground subway tunnels you can explore in Algonquin. Very similar to the empty apartments you can find around the city with an added dose of Nothing Is Scarier. Near the intersecting tracks at the mid point of the city, there is a large camp of tramps taking shelter in what appears to be a large site of waste. And on top of that, the sound of a train arriving or hitting into you, leading to instant death.
- Some players have reported a helicopter watching over them during free roam. While it could be a glitch, the mere fact that some government agency (probably U.L. Paper) is stalking you is unsettling.
- U.L. Paper itself is this. It's a government black ops organization dedicated to the fight against terrorism. Although their causes are necessary to protect the country, the fact that they dismantle Elizabeta Torres (a local drug lord) without problems and blackmail criminals who are too good to make them disappear, it's possible that we are before one of the most Machiavellian and powerful organizations in the game. For this organization, criminals are just mere pawns, and they will decide when to get rid of them or not.
- Niko's backstory is very horrific. He talks about how he went into a church and saw fifty dead children with their hands chopped off and their throats slit.
- We never saw flashbacks, but it is very clear that he witnessed extremely awful things such as child murder, mutilation, torture, rape, and having witnessed the murder of his own comrades.
- In one of his dates with Kate he also mentions how Roman's mother was raped and murdered and that he lied and told Roman she died in a house fire. Just the fact that there are some things that Niko won't even tell his own cousin tells you how truly fucked up the war was for him.
- This also grades as Real Life Nightmare Fuel: Niko fought in the Yugoslav Wars. Nothing is exaggerated, because based on testimony from war veterans and victims, this is exactly the kind of things that happened in that war.
- Niko himself. During the events of the game, Niko has a well-deserved reputation as someone who can and will break your arm if you make him angry or he will do everything possible to go for you and kill you if his bosses order him. Not matter if his target has at his disposal dozens of henchmen, he will kill them all and he will find his target, almost as if he's supernatural! He is also a Genius Bruiser, knows military self-defence and is an expert in survival and weapons. He's essentially GTA's version of Guts, and considering all that was said before, he's even more dangerous than the psychopath Trevor Philips.
- Seeing a firefight from the opposing side can be quite a Mook Horror Show. Imagine: you're member of a faction and suddenly a man with exceptional accuracy killed all your comrades. You are running away from the man who, not more than a few minutes ago, just wiped out your faction, so the guy goes after your friends, blows their heads off, and then finally goes after you. The mission "Holland Nights" perfectly portrays this, so Clarence's fear is more than justified.
- There is something really disturbing about the dark atmosphere of the game. In contrast to the bright colors of the next game, there's a bleak, eerie noirish atmosphere, even in the daytime. Of course, this only makes it more disturbing to explore the abandoned places of the city.
- In the game files, several unused death sound files are found, and they are ominous sounding versions of the main theme.
- Exploring abandoned apartments and buildings can be quite unnerving, especially at night.
- The building across the street from the Bohan safehouse have to be one of the creepier places in Liberty City. It may be the weird writing on the walls, or the distinct lack of human life in there, since pretty much every other apartment in the game has people hanging around in the halls. It's odd you can even enter the building in the first place when there's seemingly no purpose for it. Whatever the reason, the deeper you explore into the building, the more you feel like you'd be safer with your high-grade weapons out. Even though the building is completely vacant, you may find yourself fearing that something is in there and that your military-grade arsenal won't protect you this time. That's right, this building is the physical embodiment of Empty Room Psych.
- There are a few other locations like this. The tall + shaped apartment block near where Elizabeta lives is many floors of empty corridors, and eventually the stairs are blocked off, although there is another way up from this point, however. Once you reach a certain floor you will be running for the roof, which luckily you can escape onto.
- Dwayne's apartment is a very a disturbing place to explore. Here we can find strange symbols, a graffiti saying "Welcome to Hell", writings of the previous GTA protagonists,note and rooms stained with blood. What the hell happened?!
- The abandoned Sprunk Factory; a moan is heard occasionally when you fire your gun that gave rise to rumors of the place being inhabited by a ghost. It's been chalked up to either homeless people in and around the factory or the bouncer at the nearby Honkers, but that doesn't change that the place is just plain spooky (especially at night) due to a heavy dose of Nothing Is Scarier.
- Mikhail Faustin is a generally frightening invididual during his Ax-Crazy moments. During his first appearance, he kills his own underling just to prove a point to Niko.Faustin: So... Niko Bellic. You think it's okay to kill my people?Faustin: *shoots his underling* I agree.
- "Hostile Negotiation" in general. Niko's cousin is kidnapped and presumably tortured, and Niko goes in pure rage during the rescue. Imagine if your cousin gets kidnapped and had to fight all the way through without help. It is probably one of the darkest moments in the game. Also doubles with Tear Jerker.
- The very moment Niko sees the picture of Roman bound and at gunpoint in Dimitri's message... he immediately loses it.
- If Niko calls Dimitri after receiving his text, he threatens Dimitri with what is probably one of the most intense pieces of dialogue in the game:
Niko:I got your message Dimitri, you piece of shit. You're a dead man. A dead man. Before you die I'm going to cut your face off. Then I'm going to hang it on my wall to remind me what a lying, cheating, treacherous scumbag looks like. Goodbye, friend. - During the mission "Taking In the Trash", one of the Pegorino soldiers you're working with tells a story about Ray Boccino's temper that's downright chilling. Despite the fact that he's one of the only people in the city Niko meets who keeps to his word, this is one man you really don't want to get on the wrong side of.Niko: He has a temper?Luca: Are you fuckin' kidding me? The manager of one of his waste depots was holding out on profits a couple a years back. Ray fed him to a dump truck. There was this point where the sound of his screams stopped, and all you could hear was his bones crushin', then the pop of his skull goin'. I nearly lost my lunch.
- In "Flatline", Jimmy Pegorino has learned that one of his bodyguards is an informant for the FIB and tells Niko to kill him. The target is in the hospital under police protection after a heart attack (that he suffered when Jimmy confronted him about his betrayal), and Niko must disguise himself as a nurse to get in his room, at which point you can either dispatch him with a bullet to the head or disconnect his life support. If you choose the latter, you can hear him panicking as he asphyxiates to death as you walk away.
- Deal ending. If you pick this ending, Dimitri betrays you again, Roman gets killed at his own wedding and Niko goes into a Heroic BSoD, clearly distressed at his cousin's death. Thankfully, Dimitri gets his comeuppance, but it's still a very horrific way to end the storyline.
- Eddie Low, despite being easily killed (as he's going up against a former soldier now "problem solver") was an absolutely horrifying, demented person, such as when he has Niko take him to a place to drop off what is not so subtly implied to be the head of one of his victims, or when he decides he wants to hear some Algonquin screams tonight now that he's heard enough Alderney screams. Even the calm and stoic Niko is clearly disturbed by this man.
- The peak of the fear is reached when he's losing his temper just before he attacks Niko.
Eddie: Not COOL!? You say Eddie's not cool? I don't fit in with the "In-Crowd?" Well Mrs. Smith, Eddie's taken your star son, your prized little quarterback, and FUCKED HIM IN THE ASS, and then tied him up, strangled him into knots, and your daughter? Your pretty little daughter Mrs. Abrahams? Eddie's ripped out her intestines just to see if he could feel anything, and you know what? He couldn't...h-he couldn't...Niko: ....You should get laid or something.Eddie: Oh I just did, a little jogger down by the water. But you know what handsome? I've got a hunger tonight that can't be sated. COME HERE!- If you take away Eddie's knife when he attacks, he will run away. Shortly after, a text will appear, saying "Eddie Low is still out there, waiting..."
- And then there is Jeff. At first it's pretty funny. Jeff's a man who thinks his wife is having an affair. Seems legit, until you actually follow her to her destination. Turns out, she just wants to talk to this guy about her husband, who wants to install a tracking chip at the base of her skull which may paralyze her. 'Course, the guy is only half listening and does want an affair. So, you take a picture, he rants and raves, job done and a couple of hundred dollars. Then Jeff calls you again. He's murdered her. Stabbed her "fifty fucking times" and is so crazed he nearly shoots her corpse. Then reveals that she and him have a son. It's hard not to feel like you had a hand in murdering this truly innocent woman.
- To make matters worse, Jeff dies in the final encounter with him. Poor son of theirs will have to go around with no father or mother, unless he gets very lucky.
- A glitch may cause Kate to call Niko after the Revenge ending, where she's shot to death. To make matters worse, she shows up as Unknown Caller instead of Kate when she calls you, which means that the shock you get when you answer that call is ten times stronger.
- And what does she call you about? A date. One last date. If you accept it will go by normally, as if she had never died, but afterwards, she will never call you again, as she presumably finds peace within the afterlife and moves on.
- You could also think about it in another way. What if Niko imagined the whole thing? Perhaps his mental state has been so shattered after the ending, that he is literally hallucinating his dead girlfriend.
