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Realism Induced Horror / Video Games

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  • In Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, despite the presence of giant unmanned airships, massive railguns, rapid fire laser weapons, and semi-sentient Artificial Intelligence, the most terrifying part is the lack of proper communications across all parties involved in the war. The ablation cascade that occurs near the end when Osea and Eurusea launch a simultaneous A-Sat strike, makes it even worse because with communications completely blacked out, no one can tell whose an ally and whose an enemy. It also leads to an escalation of violence between both sides, and some units from both countries even end up fighting each other due to a lack of communications. Kessler syndrome is a very likely threat in real-life as more and more satellites are launched into orbit in order to fuel what is now everyday technology, such as cell phones, internet access, and global positioning systems.
  • Action Taimanin: Sakuya Igawa's character arc exploring her abuse of demonic substance to get ahead out of envy towards her partner Sora, pressure to live up to her relative Asagi's legendary accomplishments and Sakuya's own Inferiority Superiority Complex is nothing new even in real life. The extremes people such as athletes will go to take shortcuts by using performance-enhancing drugs unaware of the detrimental side effects, or aware but willing to pay the price because they feel they need to be better. Made even worse that she is still underage.
  • Annabelle (RPG Maker): Despite all the Surreal Horror and nightmarish imagery, the true horror of the series is entirely, chillingly mundane and realistic in nature.
    • The villain and "monster" of this horror series, Jason Sunray, is not a supernatural entity or a larger-than-life masked killer, but an ordinary guy living in an apartment who happens to be an abusive husband and father, beating his wife Melissa and molesting his daughter Annabelle while the police will not do anything about it.
    • The Dreams Of Melody Moonlight deals with the fear Melody has that her religious mother won't accept her homosexual relationship with Annabelle.
    • Annabelle: Projection focuses on the relentless bullying at school Annabelle endures and how it has left her with severe body issues and low self-esteem.
    • The antagonists of The Exorcism Of Annabelle Sunray are a religious institution, The Church, that mistreats the children under its care, forcing them to live under horrible conditions while telling them that all their suffering is their own fault for being sinners. Also, the guy in charge is a Pedophile Priest and Straw Hypocrite who only cares about getting government money. All this can bring to mind the Catholic Church child molestation scandals of the late 20th-early 21st century.
  • Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning: It's generally agreed among fans that one of the scariest things about the game is the anxiety and Paranoia Fuel that comes from having a teacher get furious at you and chase you down simply for failing to solve a math problem you don't understand. This has led to multiple fan theories, such as this, suggesting that the protagonist is a child in the real world, possibly with a disability of some kind, and they're imagining themselves being chased by an Evil Teacher in an Edutainment Game world either as a result of general anxiety from school or possibly from traumatic experiences with an actual abusive teacher.
  • Chilla's Art sometimes dabbles in Mundane Horror rather than the supernatural:
    • Parasocial: Despite having no supernatural elements whatsoever, several VTubers who have played the game have remarked on how close to home the plot hits for them, particularly when Nina's face is suddenly revealed on stream.
    • The Closing Shift draws its horror from the depiction of being stalked and the feeling of helplessness throughout the whole experience, with many a player congratulating the game on how realistically it portrayed stalking and the terrifying ordeal of knowing you're being stalked, but being unable to really do anything about it.
    • In The Karaoke, the threat turns out to be the entirely mundane one of an authority figure taking advantage of those in their care.
  • Call of Duty:
    • It’s for this reason the nuke scene in “Shock and Awe” from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare remains one of the most disturbing scenes in FPS history. The game up until that point was largely a Rated M for Manly jingoistic shoot ‘em up display, the ending of the level however has everything come crashing down to grim War Is Hell reality. After rescuing a female pilot Pelayo when her helicopter is shot down, you the player as Sgt. Paul Jackson are flying out of Basra with their squad and then a nuke (later revealed to be triggered by Makarov) goes off destroying the city and making the plane crash. After a brief segment of the US military reacting to the nuclear explosion, we cut back to Jackson’s perspective as he slowly crawls out of the crashed helicopter and into the ruined hellscape that is now the city. We watch through Jackson’s eyes, as miles from his home and all alone, he slowly succumbs to the radiation and dies. People find this moment so effective not only because of the realism portrayed, but because of how much it strips away the sense of glory from war and shows how horrific it truly is. The fact the world is still very much in danger from nuclear armageddon doesn’t help either.
    • The infamous “No Russian” level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you’re taking part in a terrorist attack on a Russian Airport as a undercover American CIA agent while Makarov and his henchmen gun down innocent civilians. You the player don’t actually have to shoot the poor people (you even get the option to skip it all entirely), but it’s entirely possible for you to do so. The unflinching and realistic depiction of a mass shooting got the game embroiled in controversy and the level censored internationally. Plenty of critics felt the game would only serve as more fuel to the “violent video games inspire shootings” argument.
    • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's shock moment, while less graphic or lengthy than the previous examples still hits very hard, particularly for anyone with children. During Makarov‘s attack on London we cut to the prospective of a Family Man, not a soldier, filming his wife and daughter on vacation and clearly having a great time, the girl runs towards some pigeons on the sidewalk just as a suspect truck pulls up and the mother is about to call her little girl back — the truck explodes killing the family. While most FPS games, COD included usually deliberately avoid showing things from a civilian’s perspective and especially don’t detail how innocent families could be killed, MW3 in this instance flips the script completely. In reality this kind of tragedy cruelly happens all the time and similarly often without any warning.
    • Vladimir Makarov is such a frightening and loathsome villain for ultimately how realistic he is. Unlike so many other video game antagonists he’s not some fire breathing monster like Bowser, cackling mad scientist like Dr. Robotnik nor some demon or alien that Doomguy or Master Chief would fight. Makarov is just a normal looking, very evil human man driven by ambition and cruelty, who’s more than happy to kill anyone who stands in his way and make sure that he does as much damage as possible; even when on the backfoot. His crimes run from simply money laundering, to human trafficking, to the deaths of thousands of innocent people and for two games he’s able to get away with killing most of the heroes before being finally stopped. The scary fact is despots like Makarov are absolutely Truth in Television from Hitler, to Stalin, to Putin. He’s a chilling Big Bad for how simply he could be plucked from our own reality.
  • The original de Blob had a simple and Saturday-Morning Cartoon-like story about the INKT Corporation taking over Chroma City through brute force over a single cutscene, with most references to real-life authoritarian regimes or political uprisings being done in a tongue-in-cheek manner (the INKT leader being named "Comrade Black", for example). Come de Blob 2, however, and INKT's methods of taking over involve exploiting Prisma City's social problems to build up a cult of followers, and through rigging the local elections to benefit them (the latter is shown to be done in a cartoonish manner, but the impact is still the same). Once they take power, INKT proceeds to declare immediate martial law, imprison poll workers and their political opponents, override the city's news broadcasts with their own propaganda, and attempt to quash protests from students— all of which is more in-line with what happens when authoritarian regimes in the real world take over and attempt to silence any calls for democracy and freedom. To drive the point home, there's a moment where a single Raydian stands opposite to a line of INKT tanks pointed in their direction, in a scene clearly meant to be reminiscent of the famous "Tank Man" photo taken from the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
  • While Deltarune is primarily rooted in the same meta-horror that defined its Undertale counterpart, to many players, the real horror comes from how it merges with real life horror:
    • Chapter 1 already has some examples.
      • When the game was only SURVEY PROGRAM.EXE and you tried to install the game, the computer thought you were installing a virus on your machine.
      • Kris' bullying at school, particularly Susie's attempted murder, can remember painful memories to some people, especially if you consider they're the only human in a monster town and that this has uncannily palpable consequences on their daily life: their thoughts show that they seem disconnected from the rest of the world (which is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of dissociative disorders), and the scenes where they tear their SOUL out are not much different from a lonely teenager harming themselves.
    • Chapter 2 takes the cake for realistic horror:
      • Spamton was praised for the meta-horror surrounding him and how he represents an amusing parody of spambots and their Non Sequitur promisesnote , but what makes him disturbing in the first place is how he scams Kris. While they are already lonely and almost suicidal, Spamton isolates them even more by creating a fake sense of complicity with the teenager to further his goals, always promising and expecting more until he gets what he wants or revealing a more menacing side when he faces refusal.
      • To many players, the most unnerving element of the No Mercy/Weird/SnowGrave route is how Kris (or rather, the player) corrupts the otherwise sweet Noelle into killing enemies by herself. The route also involves Kris insisting on them and Noelle being an item and being outright possessive of her, and then forcing her to do things she doesn't want to, giving the strong impression of an abusive and toxic relationship. Eventually, Kris forces her to kill Berdly (essentially cutting her off from her friend and driving her dependence on Kris even further), which pushes her over the edge. Spamton Slut-Shaming Noelle despite her being the victim is another painfully realistic consequence of this abuse.
  • Devil May Cry is largely fantastical Stylish Action with the plot being outlandishly supernatural. Yet some true-to-life horror more scarier than any demon managed to sneak through.
    • Arkham’s abusive relationship with his daughter Mary aka Lady from Devil May Cry 3, is easily the darkest element of the game. Apart from hurting her multiple times as she tries to avenge her mother whom he killed (despite her loving Arkham dearly), the most upsettingly chilling scene is where Arkham, pretending to be mortally wounded, uses Lady’s feelings for him as his daughter to his own advantage. He effectively gaslights the sobbing Lady into thinking he was actually possessed all along and makes her go after Vergil. Exploiting their children’s core attachment to them is a common tactic of abusive parents in the real-world, as is making them believe what they thought was wrong. That’s not even getting into Arkham in his Monster Clown Super Mode Jester threatening to spank Lady, which rings with disturbing implications.
    • Corrupt Church Order of Sword and specifically Santcus its leader from Devil May Cry 4 hit rather too close to reality, especially historically when it comes to the Catholic Church, even if the context is the usual supernatural demons and hell affair. Santcus‘ cruelty and tyranny is really no different from the several corrupt Popes that have existed in real-life such as Alexander VI, Sergius III, Urban VI etc. and the Order killing anyone they deem a threat to their dogma is very akin to The Crusades. Even putting the Christianity aspect aside, the fact that Fortuna is an isolated island gives the Order of the Sword disturbing cult vibes, which are all too common in real life.
    • Dante’s Flashback to Eva’s death in Devil May Cry 5 when one strips away the supernatural premise of a house being attacked by demons, is hauntingly realistic. It’s just a panicked mother hiding her precious child away in a closet and telling them what to do if she doesn’t return, all before she’s killed off-screen, a situation that could be taken from any third world home or even suburban home invasion. The fact we see it from kid Dante’s POV makes it all the more upsetting and tragic. The DMC3 manga’s version of Eva’s death was even more disturbing with Dante explicitly witnessing her getting ravaged by demons, which barring the demons, is viscerally close to a real world scenario.
  • One of the most chilling scenes in Disco Elysium does not come from the murder that the game revolves around, but rather a side story in which the Detective and Kim discover the dead body of a man on a boardwalk, who died because a board broke underneath his foot, causing him to fall and bang the back of his head against the bench, killing him instantly - there is no supernatural element, no connection to the murder case, and nobody to really blame, it's just an accident that could happen to anyone at any moment. What makes it even worse is that it turns out the man is the Working Class Woman's husband, whom she hadn't seen in days and simply assumed he wandered off drunk and would eventually come back as he was known to do - a loved one dying an unpredictable and sudden death is a very real fear that many people experience first-hand.
  • Dreaming Mary: The horror in this dream-and-nightmare themed games come from the subtle and horrifying implications of what Mary's home-life is like in the waking world; specifically, the numerous hints about her being a victim of Parental Incest at the hands of her abusive father. The game has a lot of creepy moments, but it's the realistic portrayal of her father that makes the game as horrifying as it actually is.
  • Final Fantasy VI:
    • Terra’s backstory of being taken from her murdered mother by Emperor Gestahl, is disturbingly real compared to other protagonists’ backgrounds and worse still Monster Clown Kefka treating Terra like a possession through brainwashing all echoes human trafficking and slavery which are still far too common in the real world.
    • Gau’s backstory of his mother dying in childbirth and his father abandoning him due to blaming him for her death is a situation that has occurred far too often in real life, as is cases of feral children who have trouble reconnecting with society.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • The infamous Kill the Cutie of the game Aerith getting stabbed by Sephiroth was intentionally supposed to be this. Hironobu Sakaguchi (whom had lost his mother during early development) wanted to depict a death that was closer to reality i.e completely unexpected and out of nowhere, with the party forced to live on with their grief. Suffice to say it worked.
    • Shinra Electric Power Company, while it’s easy to forget between all their mecha bots, anime-sword wielding super soldiers and genetically engineered monsters; are still the most realistic and chilling antagonist force Final Fantasy has ever known. Industries that pollute the planet and drain natural resources absolutely exist in the real world with Shrina not being much different from Peabody Energy, BP, ExxonMobil and the many other companies that ravage the planet. Even the abuse of Mako energy can be seen as an allegory for carbon.
      • Shinra’s apathy towards the lower levels of Midgar, to the extent of dropping a plate on Sector 7 killing thousands to exterminate La Résistance Avalanche, isn’t all that dissimilar to the many cases and conflicts in reality such as third world governments being okay with bombing innocents civilians for the sake of quashing opposition. Final Fantasy VII Remake makes it all the more horrific with the Adaptation Expansion aftermath sequence of Cloud, Tifa and Barret climbing through the ruins of their former home, desperately trying to save anyone they can whose trapped under the rubble all while the surviving Sector 7 residents are just shocked senseless by what’s happened — which is very Truth in Television just see ground zero reactions in any disaster.
    • Cloud’s Loss of Identity which is a core element of the game, is upsetting and disturbing for just how ultimately realistic it is - despite the fantastical context. Many people suffering from dissociative identity disorder and other similar illnesses can sympathise with Cloud’s grief upon Sephiroth revealing he wasn’t in the Nibelheim photo or a First Class SOLDIER at all, having taken Zack’s memories. Even Tifa’s plight having known of Zack’s existence and kept it from Cloud to protect him from a mental breakdown, is akin to loved ones in reality trying to protect a family member with D.I.D from suffering. Sephiroth taking full advantage of Cloud’s mental troubles, even using them to make him distrust Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is something many abusers have done to those with susceptible mental disorders in reality.
    • As silly and Large Ham as he is, Don Corneo and his enslavement of women is frighteningly akin to reality from pimps to human traffickers. Aerith’s statements about Wall Market where Corneo rules being a bad place for girls like her is very true and in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Trace of Two Pasts the beautiful Tifa was in danger from being preyed upon by traffickers who wanted to take her to Wall Market; even getting attacked by one at a certain point. A situation horribly close to reality.
    • The same tie-in novel also has Tifa struggling to get by in the slums and getting embezzled by Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Rakesh who has a Entitled to Have You infatuation with her. All of which rings familiar to countless destitute young women in the real world.
  • God of War Ragnarök has monsters and godly powers aplenty, but much of the drama is driven by the entirely human flaws of various characters; Kratos is a father trying to strike the balance between letting Atreus grow into his own man and preventing him from making fatal mistakes without driving Atreus further away, Freya's attempts to protect her son utterly ruined his life and others', the effects of Thor's alcoholism on his wife and daughter are treated totally seriously, Gryla refuses to accept Angrboda's help in dealing with her addiction and lashes out with incredibly hurtful comments when forced to go cold turkey etc.
    • However, Odin sets himself up as such a despicable villain precisely because of how unassuming he seems; his demeanour of a soft-spoken, slightly bumbling and overworked grandfather is so convincing (because it's not entirely fake) that Atreus (and possibly the player) can find it embarrassingly easy to forget all the terrible stories about how cruel and manipulative he is. His abuse of his family comes not in the form of thunder-voiced Zeus' murder attempts but constant dismissiveness, sarcasm, passive-aggressiveness and mockery that whittles down the will to resist of all those around him until they end up like Thor; convinced he is good for nothing but slaughter and driven to drown his guilt and self-loathing in the alcohol that is destroying his only healthy relationships. The atrocities Odin commits against the other realms are not because he's an Omnicidal Maniac, but a Control Freak who will choose between slaughtering the giants and sabotaging the dwarves attempts to grow their own food instead of trading with Asgard for it entirely on whatever is most convenient and practical. All in all, the magic could be entirely removed from the story, and you would have a completely realistic Corrupt Corporate Executive Domestic Abuser, who seems so disarming that it becomes all too easy to assume that he's not actually as evil as he's painted by his surviving victims.
  • Grand Theft Auto:
    • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Everything about Tenpenny and the C.R.A.S.H. is horrific, but even more horrific is the fact that this kind of corruption actually exists in places where crime is rampant.
    • Grand Theft Auto V: In this game known for its crazy, over-the-top action and setpieces, just about everyone agrees that the most harrowing part is "By the Book", the level where Mr. K is brutally tortured for information. Not only is it played with dead seriousness, it's something that can and does happen in real life, and has even been known to be done by supposed "good guys". What makes this even worse is the fact that he's both perfectly willing to talk and innocent of any wrongdoing besides happening to be acquainted with a suspected terrorist, which underscores Trevor's point that for all the justifications that get used for torture, it's more often than not done simply to give the torturer some kind of satisfaction.
  • Hades:
    • Zargeus’ plight with his titular father despite the fantastical Classical Mythology setting and Black Comedy tone, is ultimately a youth desperately trying to escape an emotionally abusive parent, something that occurs all the time in real life. Not to mention the rest of Olympians initially weren’t even aware of Zargeus’ existence, which is realistically akin to a Domestic Abuser cutting off all outside contact to extended family who would otherwise help.
    • The horrible circumstances of Zargeus’ birth. Persephone giving birth to him as a stillborn and her leaving her in grief, is a situation that could happen to any mother, regardless of her being a goddess and numerous women would understand her trauma. The only difference is that Zargeus unlike real-world babies is able to be brought back to life.
  • Haunting Ground is probably the most disturbing game Capcom ever produced entirely for this reason. From the beginning the premise of an attractive young woman Fiona, being captured, stripped and imprisoned in a secure place with her captor explicitly intending to rape her is utterly horrifying and sadly all too common in reality; regardless of the more supernatural aspects of the story. Many female gamers have cited the game and its themes of voyeurism and unwanted pregnancy being especially disturbing.
  • In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Vace is somehow more terrifying than the alien creatures he fights on patrol, even the Faceless. He's an arrogant alpha male who intimidates and manipulates more vulnerable people such as Anemone into submission, and their relationship becomes worse when he starts physically abusing her. Rex, an innocent, laid-back man, is afraid of him and his troop because Vace broke Rex's arm in a hazing session as children, and Rex believes that they're only putting up with his toxic attitude and stroking his ego in his militaristic endeavors. Things then come to a head when Vace publicly beats up Rex for becoming "too soft", and Sol can further enable Vace's bullying by cheering for him and letting him get away with it. It's no wonder that many people are reluctant to romance Vace, let alone complete his character arc and add him on the title screen.
  • Ketsui gets its horror factor from the fact that while other CAVE games get dark plots from supernatural or science fiction elements (killer robot girls, evil psychics, a miasma threatening to kill everything), Ketsui's backstory consists of things that could plausibly happen in the future: climate change causing the ice caps to melt and sea levels to rise, nations going to World War III over increasingly scarce resources, and a MegaCorp that profits off of said war through the production and sale of weapons and even the maintenance of a private army (while real-world examples have never been able to really reach the levels of N.G.O. Superpower, a sufficiently rich corporation with sufficiently little regulation could theoretically reach that level) to keep themselves untouchable.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Twilight Princess: Some of Zant's actions are pretty disturbing by real life standardsnote , but one particular detail is how he treats Midna like a lust object. The Lakebed spring scene where he drools into her ear and where she's too afraid to move makes him look like a sexual predator holding his victim under his claws and trying to submit her to his will (he even calls her "My Midna" in the process), and during the flashback before the Twilight Realm, he looks like he's about to physically assault her.
    • Breath of the Wild has the premise of Calamity Ganon, an Eldritch Abomination incarnation of the series' Big Bad, using an army of possessed Starfish Robots to destroy Hyrule's civilization a century before the beginning of the game. But one optional encounter with a character named Brigo managed to unnerve players because of the subtle and realistic Fridge Horror it involves. If you stand on the ledge of the bridge he patrols near the Great Plateau, he'll start Talking Down the Suicidal, assuming that you plan to drown yourself in the river below. The way he brings this up implies that this is a fairly regular task he carries out. While the main After the End premise of the game is pretty fantastical, the implication that people living in such a setting would pass the Despair Event Horizon and try to kill themselves unnerved a lot of players.
  • Part of what made Lethal Enforcers 1 and Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters so controversial was the use of digitized actors (much like Mortal Kombat). Because of this, it looks like you're killing real people instead of just cartoon characters. However, unlike Mortal Kombat, which takes place in a fantasy setting with sorcerers and ninjas, this game depicts the frighteningly realistic scenario of a police shooting (or even a mass shooting). Unfortunately, it's a scenario that might hit too close to home for some people.
  • Some players of Lily's Well have noted that even removed from the context of Antonio using some kind of magic and/or advanced science to clone Lily, the game's plot is a disturbingly realistic presentation of a parent emotionally abusing and manipulating their child, and how hard it can be for someone to break out of an abuser's control even if it looks easy on the surface (especially if it's all they've ever known). A notable example is if the player tries to call 911, Lily will say she can't do that because her father told her she wasn't allowed.
  • Mad Dog Mccree depicts the player character as a gun fighter who is tasked with clearing out a town filled with outlaws and setting out to rescue the mayor and his daughter from Mad Dog's hideout. Similar to contemporary games like Lethal Enforcers, you are fighting live actors who portray characters who die from gunshot wounds (with Bloodless Carnage), and by the end of the game, the player character has a high body count. Again, like Lethal Enforcers, the game depicts situations like hostage-taking, and outlaws taking control of a small location and holding the townspeople hostage by implication.
  • MapFriend's main horror comes from the player character being the captain of a plane crash and suffering from Survivor Guilt from the entire ordeal from it. To make matters worse, there are heavy implications that the plane crash may be based off the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crash, with many people who have heard of it felt that it hit too close too home.
  • Max Payne has Max face vast, fantastic criminal conspiracies and secret societies that are larger than life but Max Payne 3 is very down to earth with Max fighting ruthless street gangs, rogue law enforcement groups, and most chilling of all, an organ harvesting ring. The last item is so horrifying that even one of Max's arch enemies is irate and horrified. The elements in 3 generate horror for how much they play off of real life fears of warlords and tyrants manipulating themselves into positions of power to trample human rights for personal gain.
  • Missile Command is pretty much based off this trope. Ditto in that it was released at the height of the Cold War, in 1980. You must protect six cities from an onslaught of nuclear missiles by shooting them out of the sky. The head programmer himself had nightmares about it.
  • Near Death is a survival simulation that emphasizes the horror aspect of being stranded in a dangerous place. There's no monsters, no people, no hostile wildlife, just you and the fierce winds and blistering cold of an Antarctic winter.
  • The New Order: Last Days of Europe: Some of the various nations' worst routes are considered this not because of horrific, outlandish ideologies or sheer amounts of death and suffering brought in all of a sudden, but because their rulers at least pretend they're tame and sane while sneaking in crimes against humanity and slowly turning the nation worse, but stable and able to last and perpetuate its awful ideas because it won't collapse for the foreseeable future. Things like Igor Shafarevich's Reformed State of Russia and Albert Speer's Reich if he fends off both militarists and the Gang of Four are examples of states that could last long enough to make Fascism or even National Socialism the winning ideology of the Cold War, especially when contrasted against their particular opponents being either decent people or near-psychopathically mad.
  • NOISZ STARLIVHT has a group of four idols fighting off supernatural "Noise Beats" with equally supernatural Magitek, and who are employed by an incredibly shady corporation who gave them their powers. The prequel visual novel 2ECONDS TO STARLIVHT: My Heart's Reflection features a more realistic kind of horror for transgender readers: Hakuno, a newly self-realized trans girl, decides to put on the girl's school uniform (after having been sent both boy's and girl's uniforms by the school by accident) so she can present the way she's always wanted to. Unfortunately, she gets repeatedly misgendered (called the wrong gendered terms and pronouns), has her fear of letting her parents down preyed upon, mistaken for dressing up the way she does as a prank, and called a "creep" and "trespasser", and school staff demand that she put on the "correct" uniform the next day or else. And that's just on her first day back at school.
  • Octopath Traveler II is full of scenarios that become more horrific because of their realism.
    • The Big Bad, Arcanette, is considered so vile because her tactics and behavior is identical to real life mass murderers, serial killers, and cult leaders. Specifically, manipulating Tanzy by pretending to love her right after Tanzy had lost her fiancé just so Tanzy will do Arcanette's work for her.
    • Claude being a serial rapist is in line with some of the methods real life evil cults use to increase their numbers.
    • Partitio's first chapter consists of a greedy landowner using hired thugs to steal money from the silver miners in Oresrush, raising the taxes so much that some of the workers are so broke that they fight over literal scraps of bread. This kind of thing happened all the time in real life, especially in periods of time that were similar to the game's budding-Industrial setting.
    • Castti's first chapter has her dealing with a disease epidemic sweeping a town, that turns out to have been caused by contamination of the water supply via diseased animals. Many of the worst outbreaks in human history had similar origins, so it's very lucky someone capable of containing it arrived in its early stages.
  • OMORI contains numerous nightmarish scenarios, but the hardest-hitting of them all is the brutal depiction of a young boy's borderline suicidal depression stemming from having accidentally killed his sister.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 4 is a murder mystery Urban Fantasy with plenty of supernatural elements, but its most frightening characters are the first suspect and the true killer, as their motives and actions are disturbingly true to life.
      • The suspect is an emotionally-distant teenager who committed a murder and took credit for two others just for the attention.
      • The true killer tries to sexually assault a woman, only for his supernatural powers to kick in and accidentally cause her death. He then lures a high-school girl, abusing his position as a police officer to hit on her under the guise of an interrogation. He kills her when she rejects him. When cornered, he blames everyone but himself for his own situation and claims those women deserved their fates. An entitled manchild who resorts to murder when he doesn't get what he wants is chillingly realistic, especially since he puts on an affable facade until he's exposed.
    • Persona 5:
      • Part of the reason why Suguru Kamoshida is considered by players to be the best antagonist of the game is that people like him do exist in real life. Kamoshida is a realistic portrayal of a sexual predator who is given free rein to do whatever he wants under the protection of the system, simply because his talents make him a valuable asset. And unlike future palace rulers who are influential members of society such as a famous artist or head of a company, Kamoshida is just like any other ordinary school teacher that people can encounter on a daily basis.
      • Although the circumstances surrounding him are rather fantastical, with Yaldabaoth brainwashing the people of Japan to worship him, there's a rather real horror behind Masayoshi Shido: a politician who's ruined the lives of many in his rise to power, uses his connections to keep him from being found out, and is beloved by the public so much that nobody is willing to stop him once he's accused of his crimes because they feel his political influence is what the country needs. Even outside of Japan, politicians such as Shido are already in charge of their countries, and have managed to let their crimes go unnoticed.
  • Pokémon:
    • Ghetsis from Pokémon Black and White and its sequels Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 earned his reputation as "the most heinous Pokémon villain", even after the release of other generations down the line, largely due to his abuse of his son N. He kept N secluded with little-to-no human contact, dehumanized him, and is implied to have had plans to kill him once his plot was done. Even the reveal that N is an orphan boy that Ghetsis adopted doesn't ease the horror of the abuse. Come the Rainbow Rocket arc of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, where the villain team Rainbow Rocket consists of leaders of past villain team leaders who won in an alternate universe, and Ghetsis is the penultimate leader fought just before Giovanni himself, aiming to pull the strings behind the Kanto leader akin to what he did to N, and isn't above using Lillie as a Human Shield. His former employee Colress from the prime universe takes great pleasure in neutralizing him.
    • Lusamine from Pokémon Sun and Moon is an effective villain because she's a realistic portrayal of a narcissistic abusive parent. She underwent a Sanity Slippage after her husband disappeared years ago. Lusamine became controlling and emotionally abusive towards her two children, to the point where both ran away from home. Lusamine also shows apathy in general, such as when she put various Pokémon in a frozen stasis.
  • While The Quarry has its main, violent threat being of supernatural nature, there are two characters whose behavior can lead to a chilling, realistic fear.
    • Jacob is mostly a Jerk Jock and definitely didn't seem to take Emma's way of dumping him the day before Summer camp ended well. He sabotages the van they took to force everyone to stay one more night, in hopes of mending his relationship with her, and becomes incredibly jealous and possessive of her when he sees her with another guy. Jacob's a rather tall, muscularly built guy, so even with Emma having her foot firm on the ground about not being his girlfriend and that he needs to knock it off, he's still the realistic jilted ex that won't take a break up well.
    • Nick initially appears to be a rather soft-spoken, sweet person that seems to have a mutual Cannot Spit It Out situation with Abigail. But partway through the game, they start acting a bit more short, and become almost possessive of her, begining to use their injury as a way to get closer to her and emotionally manipulating her, indicating that she only says she likes them because of their current state. While the behavior could be caused by the werewolf-infection, the change in personality does have shades of manipulative lovers that show a nice side before displaying their true colors.
  • In Rakuen, we find out that a nuclear meltdown has happened, all but stated to be the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that was triggered by an earthquake and a tsunami. The workers at the plant die while completing a shutdown, and the hospital loses supplies, patients and space to the flooding. Some of the most unsettling portions of the game involve navigating the locations and memories that were hit the hardest by these disasters.
  • Receiver 2, while not a horror game, can be quite disturbing when a Threat Echo tape is picked up. The Psychic-Assisted Suicide attempt they induce is done from a first-person view, with you quite literally staring down the barrel as you're forced to pull the trigger. This can be especially bad if you've been there yourself.
  • Resident Evil:
    • This duo comprises of two of the most horrifying villains in the entire series, despite operating on a much smaller scale than the likes of the Umbrella Corporation, Wesker, and the Cult Los Illuminados; and not being horrifying mutated monsters:
      • Resident Evil 2 and REmake 2: Chief Irons is quite possibly the darkest RE villain. While far from the worst threat this series has to offer, the fact that he’s so grounded puts him in a completely different category from his competition. Serial killings, sexual assault, police corruption (or just corruption in general), and child abuse/murder are sickeningly common and sometimes even overlooked a lot in the real world. RE2make is especially scary because Claire and Sherry get victimised by Irons with Claire getting handcuffed at gunpoint by him while Sherry gets trapped in a secure place with him, actions far more scary and sinister than just getting attacked by a zombie or bio-monster.
      • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard: Lucas Baker, while not as repulsive as Irons, is someone just as likely to be found in real life and more disturbing because of it. In real life, you'd probably be very unlikely to run into mad scientists or a virus-enhanced superhuman, but Lucas could really be any weird kid you knew in school, who happens to have predatory sociopathic tendencies just waiting for the right situation to unleash them.
    • MegaCorp Umbrella Corporation themselves, while outlandish and often comic book-level ridiculous, they are still far more realistic than you would expect. Numerous real life corrupt pharmaceutical companies to this day deal in illegal and horrific practices from animal testing to infective and hazardous medicine. Although the threat of superhuman Mad Scientist Wesker and Gas Mask Mooks like HUNK are larger than life, the fear still comes from an all too real place.
    • Derek Simmons the Big Bad of Resident Evil 6 is largely more pathetic and ridiculous than scary, being a petty Abhorrent Admirer to Femme Fatale Spy Ada who turns himself into a monster like other villains in the series. However there are several elements to his character that are genuinely uncomfortable and scary. Firstly there’s the fact he kidnapped over 12,234 innocent women trying to clone Ada with them all dying except for 12,235th attempt who was his own Dark Mistress Carla. Women all over the world can be victims of human trafficking making this aspect of Simmons’ character more stomach turning than any fleshy monster he transforms into. Secondly there’s the fact he’s the one who raised Sherry, being her legal guardian. The real fear of your child being taken in and brought up by an insidious figure, is something anyone can have, and explains why Leon (her previous guardian) freaked out so hard upon learning about it.
    • The opening cutscene to Resident Evil 3 (Remake) with the citizens of Raccoon City having a mass panic over the outbreak, hit way too close to home for numerous players in 2020, during the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. The same game has Jill suffering PTSD with her explicitly fearing getting infected along with anyone she cares about. A fear countless people have in this day and age.
    • It’s for this reason why a portion of fans dislike Leon and Ada’s relationship and find it disturbing, despite the campy Dating Catwoman angle. Simply because it’s all too similar to real life cases of romantic and emotional abuse. Ada throughout the games and remakes willingly exploits Leon’s feelings in their relationship for her personal gain with little regard for the damage it inflicts on his wellbeing, something that is far more horrific than any slobbering B.O.W. The RE2 and RE4 remakes to their credit, do remove the Rule of Romantic filter when it comes to this with Ada’s manipulation being treated as unmistakably sinister and Leon is extremely cold towards her in RE4make, refusing to be swayed by her. His behaviour being akin to a real-world recovering victim encountering their ex again after a long period, right down to him still having romantic feelings he is actively suppressing.
    • Speaking of Resident Evil 4 (Remake) the game does a good job making Ashely’s character and situation more terrifying than the camp-laden original. She fully comes across like a real girl caught up in a horrifying situation, with abduction being an all too real scenario for a young woman like her. The most upsetting aspect is Ashely being infected and at certain points is forced to attack Leon by Saddler before realising what she’s done, as her virus-induced mood-swings and grief are distressing reminiscent to those with Borderline Personality Disorder.
  • Silent Hill especially its first four games were masterfully effective when it came to this trope. The series of course has spooky supernatural and otherworldly content, but the majority of horror in the franchise originates from a very real and human source.
    • Harry’s situation in the very first game, is every parent’s worst nightmare. Not only crashing your car while driving your seven-year-old child around, but losing said child in an unfamiliar environment and at one point seeing a video of her crying for help. Regardless of the Soul Jar Literal Split Personality Kudzu Plot reasons for Cheryl disappearing, numerous parents have lost their children in similar circumstances to Harry.
    • Silent Hill’s cult the Order, while much of their actions are supernatural i.e. summoning a God of Evil to be birthed from a girl, they’re still ultimately horribly Truth in Television to many real-world cults. Their practices such as using drugs to keep their victims and followers docile, abusing young women (such as Alessa) and forcing them into pregnancy and being supported by the towns and communities they inhabit, have all occurred in reality. Even Silent Hill 4's Big Bad Walter Sullivan being deeply traumatised by the Order to the point of insanity has happened to real life cult survivors. People like Dahlia do exist in reality and are sadly all too common.
    • Silent Hill 2 very much has this concerning James, Mary, Angela, Eddie and Maria.
      • James and the late Mary’s situation with Mary suffering a severe terminal illness and lashing out at her husband in grief all while getting worse and worse, is all too real; just ask anyone who’s had a loved one suffer from cancer and other similar diseases. Even James eventually snapping in his misery and euthanising Mary, which kick starts his journey to Silent Hill, as horrible as it seems from the outside; many people who’ve watched their family members, partners and friends wither away helpless to do anything would sympathise with James — even if the act breaks him. The suicidal self-hatred and grief James feels, which the town exploits, is terrifyingly realistic to anyone who’s gone through similar events.
      • Angela’s stilted and nervous temperament, reacting violently to James reaching out his hand (even if it was just to take a knife off her) and the fact she looks and sounds older than she actually is — is all indicative of the fact she’s suffered horrific sexual assault from her own father and brother. Worse still her mother apparently claimed she deserved such treatment. While in real life, while you’d likely never encounter anything like Pyramid Head, human monsters like Angela’s family do exist and are disgustingly too common for comfort. Many survivors of sexual abuse would understand why Angela perceives the world as on fire and the suicidal feelings she has.
      • Eddie making his first appearance by puking his guts out into a toilet, exclaiming he never killed anyone, is very Truth in Television to the Stress Vomit of the guilty. Eddie’s behaviour increasingly deteriorates when he starts becoming apathetic to killing and it’s revealed he was a victim of severe bullying until he eventually snapped and took revenge on his tormentor. What makes Eddie Jumping Off the Slippery Slope due to bullying so disturbing and sad, is how similar it is to the numerous young spree killers in reality.
      • Maria, Mary’s Identical Stranger because of this manages to be scarier than the majority of the Humanoid Abomination nightmare monsters that inhabit the town. On the surface she just seems like a sultry and fun-loving woman who takes a liking to James, yet the longer the player spends time with Maria the more demanding, entitled and manipulative she becomes. The iconic jail scene in particular, is so disturbing because Maria just with inflections gives a subtle sense of threat to James without doing anything overtly sinister. Putting aside the supernatural aspect that she’s a Tulpa created by the town Maria could be any manipulative sociopath from the real world, preying on a person’s weaknesses.
    • Silent Hill 3 much like Haunting Ground delves thematically into the countless fears young women have of stalkers, voyeurism, sexual assault, and unwanted pregnancy that Heather really should not be having at the age of 17. Supernatural elements and connections to the first game aside, the most chilling aspects of the plot are Heather being confronted with things that any attractive young woman in her place has similarly been subjected to. Even something as simple as a weird old man following you around in the mall, though thankfully Douglas turns out to be harmless. Not to mention Heather losing her father Harry, is a real trauma that sadly too many people who’ve lost one or two parents have gone through at an early age.
    • Silent Hill 4's plot of being trapped inside one’s apartment and how increasingly horrible that can be, wasn’t too scary in 2004, but in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic where millions of people were stuck in lockdown Silent Hill 4 suddenly became infinitely scarier. Many people can empathise with Henry’s plight from the very outset, regardless of the supernatural reasoning behind his imprisonment.
  • In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the first zone (Angel Island Zone) starts out as just a tropical island, but Eggman launches a massive napalm attack which in turn creates a huge wildfire. This seems a lot darker in general than his usual goofy plots such as turning people into robots or building giant space stations with his face on them. It's also pretty obviously meant to be reminiscent of The Vietnam War, and considering you never see the zone after, you also wonder if the whole place just burned down eventually.
  • Street Fighter 6: Take away JP's Psycho Power-infused cane and you basically have a ruthless, cutthroat businessman willing to destabilize corporations and countries alike, with relatively normal methods such as drone strikes and deepfaked footage, not caring about how many people suffer as long as he makes a quick buck out of it. All of this, especially when compared to the more fantastical and megalomaniacal schemes and motivations of his predecessors, makes JP a much more chilling and believable villain than the likes of M. Bison or Gill, as war profiteers and corrupt corporate figures such as JP can and have existed in reality.
    • What makes him even more scary is how dismissive and indifferent he is to those against him. After the Player Character beats him at the end of the story, he doesn't have a Villainous Breakdown like many Big Bad's do. Instead, he laughs and points out how him losing a street fight, doesn't change his situation and what his corrupt plans are. This is the case with many corporations and CEO's who are deemed too big to fail, often getting away with their actions, despite growning complaints and protest.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Spider-Man (PS4): The game has its fair share of darker moments, but the City Hall bombing sequence is often cited as the most horrific, as the entire sequence was noted to be heavily reminiscent of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. As if to hammer the parallels further, the Demons (the gang responsible for the bombing) act more and more like a terrorist organization from that point on, and are outright treated and labeled as such in-universe.
  • Until Dawn much like its successor The Quarry, has plenty of realistic fears among the outlandish horror.
    • The story kicks off with a Prank Gone Too Far. Emily and Jessica wanting to punish Hannah for coming unto Mike, Emily’s boyfriend, lure Hannah into thinking Mike wants to sleep with her leading to Hannah to start undressing in front of him; Jessica, Matt, Emily and Ashley who are hiding with Matt even outright filming her on his phone. In real life similar bullying and cruel pranks have happened to numerous people, with Hannah reacting like anyone would in that scenario.
    • What makes Josh aka The Psycho's situation so scary and upsetting, is that it’s something that genuinely could occur to anyone with mental disorders and in fact has. Sam can discover he’s had issues since the age of 11 and as it turns out has been misdiagnosed by doctors throughout his life, he was subscribed antidepressants but he shows all the symptoms of schizophrenia, for which he received no medication for. These facts combined with his sisters’ disappearances, which he very much holds himself responsible for (despite having been passed out the night of the prank), it’s no wonder Josh lashes out at his friends in revenge by scaring them. There’s countless people like Josh in real life who are improperly diagnosed and mistreated by the medical system and what he's going through because of it is more horrible than any masked killer or Wendigo.
    • It’s for this reason why many players find Alpha Bitch Emily so awful, she immediately dismisses the aforementioned prank as minor e.g “It was just a prank Han!” and throughout the rest of the game is largely unapologetic and uncaring towards what she says and does to others, simply because Emily believes she’s “always right”. Happily Slut-Shaming Jessica Mike’s new girlfriend out of jealousy and belittling Matt her rebound boyfriend, while several other characters in the game have bad or uncomfortable traits, Emily is disturbingly true to what a real-life narcissist is like. Emily is even willing to slap and shove Ashely into mortal danger all because she didn’t reveal the Wendigo‘s bite wasn’t infectious at the right moment and prevented Mike almost shooting her — even though Ashely only discovered this knowledge after the fact.
    • Matt depending on the player’s choices can be quite easily jealous and possessive of Emily, to the degree of attacking Mike her ex and even refusing to save Emily’s life until she promises to never see Mike again. This behaviour is disturbingly close to any real-life abusive boyfriend.
    • In the cabin scene with Mike and Jess if the player has already treated Jess poorly and chosen as Mike to be insensitive to her nervous discomfort rather than comforting, Mike will just try and pressure Jess into sex. In real life there’s numerous men like Mike in this instance who often don’t respect their partners’ right to feel safe and be totally willing.
  • This War of Mine demonstrates that War Is Hell from a civilian perspective, with more overt horror such as rape and crimes against humanity mixed in with more mundane horror such as stealing food to survive. The fact that the game is based on real life conflicts such as the Siege of Sarajevo solidifies this trope.
  • When The Darkness Comes is chock-full of creepy visuals and unsettling moments, but the true horror comes from the realistic portrayal of how depression and anxiety feels. Players are more likely to walk away feeling emotional over the psychological elements than they are creeped out about the glowing-eyed people or strange settings.
  • What makes Siegfried more terrifying in Wild ARMs: Million Memories compared to the first and third games in the series? He's able to manipulate people into doing what he wants by preying on their desperation. It's one thing to do so with the Prophets (keeping them alive but not transformed to maintain control over them), but something else entirely to do to Rudy one of the nicest characters in the series. It turns out the predicted betrayal did not happen due to magic or brainwashing- just the manipulation of an emotionally vulnerable fifteen year old, who's most likely dealing with freshly renewed grief due to recovering the memories of his late grandfather minutes before the demon corners him.
  • In the technologically-advanced Nazi-occupied world that showcases the full extent of Nazi brutality that is MachineGames Wolfenstein, a few stand out due to how plausible they are in reality.
    • Rip Blazkowicz being so down-to-earth even within the game's setting is what makes him such a detestable character. Bigotry and domestic abuse were (and still are in some areas) disturbingly common in the real world. Also, Rip selling out Zofia could even give off some Anne Frank vibes.
    • Average Americans' reaction to Nazi occupation of the US is that of as if it's regular day-to-day affairs, and some are even casually conversing about selling black people in slave auctions. With the reveal in The New '10s and The New '20s how white supremacy and fascism have been so normalized in American society for so long, it becomes a lot more chilling how easily-accomodating average Americans are to Nazi occupation.

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