It's a game about hunting ghosts, demons, and the like. What you'd expect?
- Even the slightest bit of paranormal activity can qualify, especially when the ghost becomes more active.
- Hunts in general qualify. You can be minding your own business when all of a sudden the lights flicker, the door to the house slams shut, and the ghost starts to sing, moan, or otherwise alert you that you need to run right now or perish. And if you find a hiding place, you are then forced to shelter in a small dark space, listening to the ghost roam the map looking for you, praying that it does not rip open the doors to your hiding place.
- The game's maps have a surprisingly oppressive and creepy atmosphere, with the eerie background noise that plays through all of them and the game's aversion of Hollywood Darkness.
- The three larger maps, the Brownstone High School, the Prison and the Asylum, are particularly creepy to explore due to their decrepit nature and how easy they are to get lost in.
- The smaller, more up-kept buildings are creepy in their own way; they can be disarmingly normal-looking until the paranormal stuff starts ramping up and they can feel quite claustrophobic after a while. It can be especially bad during hunts in smaller locations, because you can more easily trap yourself in a dead end trying to outrun the ghost, or get cornered in a room with only one exit the moment the hunt starts if you're really unlucky.
- The campgrounds are unique in that they're the only map where the player is primarily outdoors, with just some tents, a cabin and toilets dotted around. This means the player is lot more exposed and there are far fewer places to hide when a hunt starts.
- The appropriately named Nightmare Update. In addition to adding in new ghost types and maps, a new difficulty mode was implemented. What makes this mode so scary you ask? Well, to put it simply, hunts will not end immediately once a ghost kills someone. It will continue to hunt your ass. In other words, Nightmare Mode makes the ghost capable of doing a Total Party Kill. Good luck!
- The way some of the ghost types act can be frightening:
- A Banshee will only target one player at a time.... But that's little consolation to anyone who is the target. Especially if you're that target!
- Demons. They are known to be the most dangerous ghost type in the game. Among other things, they can activate Hunts quicker than other ghost types. So, if you go into a map and the door locks a few minutes sooner than normal, then you got a demon on your hands.
- Jinns. Specifically, during a Hunt. You see, they have the ability to speed up during this time, only slowing down when they're about 2 feet from a player. Also, if during specific conditions, can lower player's sanity down to 25% in a radius.
- If you stare at a Phantom, your sanity starts to immediately go down!
- Myling practically run on Hell Is That Noise. They are noisy, meaning that at least investigators will be able to pick up the noises with a parabolic microphone. When the Myling's on the hunt, however? Dead. Silent. Not even footsteps. You won't even be able to hear them growl, making the Jump Scare all the more jarring.
- A Deogen always knows where everyone is. As a result, hiding is worse than useless against them. The kicker is that if you don't know yet that the ghost is a Deogen, it's impossible to tell if hiding is a good idea.
- A Revenant is the fastest ghost in general out of all the ghost types. Even though they become one of the slowest if they don't have line of sight with a player, the moment it does, you will hear it booking it through the area. Even if a player it had in its sights breaks line of sight by turning a corner, it will continue its turbo sprinting until it reaches the player's last known location.
- The game's premise alone is somewhat uniquely terrifying in that while a lot of ghost-horror games involve the player escaping the ghost, this one requires you to actively seek out and interact with the ghosts, despite knowing the threat they pose and having minimal ways to defend yourself. Not even playing with others will provide much comfort, as some missions require you to split up to complete all the necessary tasks (Some ghosts won't interact with the players if they're together, while some ghosts actually become more hostile towards groups).
- The Apocalypse Update introduces the Sunny Meadows Mental Institution, which is subject to a fuck ton of Fridge Horror. When you first wander in, it looks like it'll be as empty and creepy as the other locations, right? You wish. The main cathedral area is the first hint that something is very, very wrong with this place. Crosses are flipped upside down across the walls, there's a satanic circle drawn on the floor, and there's a bloody streak leading from the cross into the pews. It gets worse when you wander further in, finding what looks like an honest-to-god torture chair and another room covered in blood splatters and piles of viscera.
- Some tests for figuring out a ghost's type carries its own flavor of nightmare fuel.
- The Spirit Box requires you to talk to the ghost, and if it has that as its evidence, it'll use its gravelly or whispery voice to talk back.
- As of the Ascension update, the ghost now communicates using audio snippets from news broadcasts. This makes the Spirit Box responses way more uncanny and creepy.
- The ghost journal has a handful of things a ghost can write, implying that the ghost writing it is in agony. Examples include random threatening words like "die" and "behind you," very violent-looking scribbles, a picture of a person running from a creature, and a couple of very legible cries for help."I've been here so long now, it hurts, so please help me, I need..." (Writing gets cut off)"I'm stuck here, please help me. It hurts. Please help me. Someone please come save me NOW."
- The DOTS sensor. A ghost will manifest and run across the sensor very fast. Creepy on its own, but made even creepier by the off-chance that the wispy form of the ghost runs straight at you.
- The Spirit Box requires you to talk to the ghost, and if it has that as its evidence, it'll use its gravelly or whispery voice to talk back.
