History NightmareFuel / ARKSurvivalEvolved

This is a game where you find yourself stranded on a desert island inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, so you can obviously expect [[NightmareFuel that things won't be pretty]]...

* In ''Genesis 2'', one of the biomes, "Rockwell's Proliferation", borders on being ''a WombLevel''. It's a dimly lit location on the spaceship where [[MeatMoss the walls are covered with flesh]] [[TheWallsHaveEyes and eyes]] ''belonging to Rockwell". And that's not all - the location is also host to a variety of hazards, namely some very dangerous creatures like Reaper Queens (which have been freaky from the start) and Noglins (which will [[MindManipulation try to steal control of your body from you]]), and then there's stuff like [[HeartbeatSoundtrack the sound of a beating heart in the background]] and ''literal acid''.

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** The Grad Student journals are also plenty disturbing. They're [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]] written from the point of view of 5 modern-day grad students who've been stranded in the Aberration's world; imagine ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' set in the [=ARK=] universe. You get to see them all picked off one by one from their point of view, and even the SoleSurvivor, [[spoiler:Imamu]], gets his butt handed to him by [[spoiler:Rockwell]], leading to these terrifying final lines.
---> [[spoiler:I've been a fool this whole time. All of us, we were nothing but fools! We never had a chance of surviving this terrible place. Only death awaited us in the end, only him!]]
---> [[spoiler:This is a prison with no exit. It is an endless hell.]]
---> [[spoiler:There is no escape from the Master! There is no escape from Rockwell!]]
* In ''Genesis 2'', one of the biomes ''borders on being a WombLevel''. To be concise, the location in question is called "Rockwell's Proliferation", a.k.a. "a dimly lit location on the spaceship where [[MeatMoss the walls are covered with flesh]] [[TheWallsHaveEyes and eyes]] belonging to Rockwell". And that's not all - the location is also host to a variety of hazards, namely some very dangerous creatures like Reaper Queens (which have been freaky from the start) and Noglins (which will [[MindManipulation try to steal control of your body from you]]), and then there's stuff like [[HeartbeatSoundtrack the sound of a beating heart in the background]] and ''literal acid''.

* The possibility of unexpectedly dying and/or permanently losing something hard or impossible to replace simply by the virtue of bizarre game logic is real and frightening. Just imagine for an example: you are in the Dragonmalte Trench on Ragnarok with your best flyer and no other tamed dinosaur to back you up because your flyer covers you completely. With no wyverns in sight, you land in an alcove to grab a wyvern egg. But then the moment you dismount, your flyer suddenly decides that it is a good idea to [[TooDumbToLive land right on top of the stream of hot lava]], killing itself in the process... Or, a friend tries to pick you up with his Pteranodon at ground level, momentarily clipping you into the ground, only for the game to instantly kill you and remove everything you had in your inventory for "anti-meshing".

This is a game where you find yourself stranded on a desert island inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, so you can obviously expect [[NightmareFuel that it won't be pretty]]...

** Night time in general is this, especially nights of the [[BlackoutBasement new moon]] or when it's [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight raining]] or [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight foggy.]] Some times the night is so dark that it's literally impossible to see what is [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight lurking]] more then a few feet from any light sources which turns the night into a terrifying waiting game.
** Boss caves in the Ragnarok map are littered with the remains of doomed human explorers and dinos that either wandered/fell in and died or were hunted by the inhabitants.
** Much like when night falls, the oceans in general can be pretty scary, but ''at any time''. Part of it is because, being in water and all, sounds don't carry as well so you probably won't hear a hostile critter until it's practically on top of you, and there's something unsettling about many of the bigger animals that lurk deep underwater, particularly the plesiosaurs. Ragnarok is surprisingly nice since it features far more open water, though that can be creepy all on its own, but then there's the waters around the Island. Space is cramped, particularly down near the bottom where you'll want to be going since that's where the oil rocks, silica pearls, and other valuable resources are, hidden away in the crevices and canyons along with--OH GOD ALPHA MOSASAUR!
*** Special mention has to go to the Eastern Trench on The Center. One of the more unique features of the existence of domes of air on the seafloor where you can go and build an underwater base without having to unlock the Tek tier, which in turn will encourage you to do more exploring in the deep ocean. Off the northeastern dome, which is next to the northern of the two tropical islands in the east of the map, you'll find a drop-off that has lots of giant glowing seaweed in it, which of course will encourage you to go exploring there since it's not like that's a typical feature of the map that you'll see just anywhere. You dive down...down...''down...down...'''''''down...down...'''''seemingly deeper than even in the enormous oceans of Ragnarok, and in an enormous cavern system that seems like it runs under the entire rest of the map where the bright lighting of the seaweed actually makes it ''worse''. Thalassophobes beware.
** Most predators in this game do not announce their presence vocally. At most they might make a quite chirp or hiss on spotting you. Instead of alerting you with a roar or something similar like most enemies in games they come at you quickly and quietly, often going unnoticed until they're right on top of you. The tyrannosaurs were actually made somewhat ''less'' scary by the fact that an update made them announce that they were about to attack you by roaring, which signals an OhCrap moment for an unprepared player but is nowhere near as frightening as potentially hearing their footfalls ''and nothing else'' in the pitch black nighttime setting when you're most likely to blunder into them and then suddenly a superpredator is right on top of you, especially because their footsteps are surprisingly quiet compared to the likes of the carnotaurs. If caught in the center of the roar, [[BringMyBrownPants the player automatically poops]], leaving them stunned for a few seconds, and vulnerable enough to balance the Tyrannosaurus out.
** The possibility of unexpectedly dying and/or permanently losing something hard or impossible to replace simply by the virtue of bizarre game logic is real and frightening. Just imagine for an example: you are in the Dragonmalte Trench on Ragnarok with your best flyer and no other tamed dinosaur to back you up because your flyer covers you completely. With no wyverns in sight, you land in an alcove to grab a wyvern egg. But then the moment you dismount, your flyer suddenly decides that it is a good idea to [[TooDumbToLive land right on top of the stream of hot lava]], killing itself in the process... Or, a friend tries to pick you up with his Pteranodon at ground level, momentarily clipping you into the ground, only for the game to instantly kill you and remove everything you had in your inventory for "anti-meshing".
** The Surface in ''Aberration'' is a really terrifying place to be. During daytime, [[SetTheWorldOnFire it's literally on fire]] and will burn anything and everything to a crisp in seconds. It's just barely better during nighttime; while it becomes survivable, it also becomes spawning grounds for the horrifying Nameless and Surface Reaper Kings, the latter of which ''has an alpha version''. And since the night doesn't last forever either, it means that if you're currently scouting the Surface for loot (or to specifically fight the enemies that spawn), [[TimedMission you only have a limited time to get back underground before the Surface turns into a giant fireplace again]]. Best pray that you're not stalled and/or too far from a cave entrance just as the sun is rising...
*** The Grad Student journals are also plenty disturbing. They're [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]] written from the point of view of 5 modern-day grad students who've been stranded in the Aberration's world; imagine ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' set in the [=ARK=] universe. You get to see them all picked off one by one from their point of view, and even the SoleSurvivor, [[spoiler:Imamu]], gets his butt handed to him by [[spoiler:Rockwell]], leading to these terrifying final lines.

** In ''Genesis 2'', one of the biomes ''borders on being a WombLevel''. To be concise, the location in question is called "Rockwell's Proliferation", a.k.a. "a dimly lit location on the spaceship where [[MeatMoss the walls are covered with flesh]] [[TheWallsHaveEyes and eyes]] belonging to Rockwell". And that's not all - the location is also host to a variety of hazards, namely some very dangerous creatures like Reaper Queens (which have been freaky from the start) and Noglins (which will [[MindManipulation try to steal control of your body from you]]), and then there's stuff like [[HeartbeatSoundtrack the sound of a beating heart in the background]] and ''literal acid''.