History NothingIsScarier / VideoGames

** While less liked than the previous three games what ''VideoGame/SilentHill4TheRoom'' undeniably did well was this trope. In the spirit of Hitchcock's ''Film/RearWindow'' you’re just trapped inside one claustrophobic room, and can only glimpse outside world where people either who want help you like Aileen or people who want to kill you like Walter. Worse still even when you do make it out of the room, you only met the people Walter has killed and you can do nothing to prevent their deaths.

** ''VideoGame/{{PT}}'' the interactive trailer for the canceled ''Silent Hills'' is all over this trope. In practice literally all you’re doing is waking down a L-shaped corridor with only one adjoining bathroom. But there’s clearly something very, very wrong [[HauntedHouse with the house]] and the limited space makes for great claustrophobia, worsened by the fact in true [[MindScrew Silent Hill fashion]] the corridor repeats itself when you get the end. Not to mention while you don’t encounter anything in the first few times you progress, there’s the unshakeable feeling that you’re BeingWatched. Then you encounter Lisa.

* ''VideoGame/BlackSnow'' takes this to extremes. A good deal of the game is spent trying to fight off the cold and scrounging for a way to get off the station. And your enemy? [[spoiler:It might as well be the literal darkness, as it's a very aggressive form of fungus that looks like a malevolent shadow.]]

* This trope is everywhere in the ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', and all three seem to be in play. Any node you're in has a limited view of visibility, and areas only get brighter when you move to them. Navigating the second floor hallway can make you think something's going to happen...but most times it doesn't. You do catch glimpses of some of the other guests from time to time, but most of them actually seem friendly.

** The weirdest part about JENOVA? You see and fight her scattered limbs, you see her severely-downsized form, you see her reborn form...but you never see the planet-destroying original.

* Much of the pacing of ''VideoGame/SpookysHouseOfJumpScares'' runs on this, since for a good portion of the game there is nothing that can really harm you. The themed areas in particular. In these areas you have to explore an area that is usually themed after a certain kind of horror. For the majority of it, there is really nothing threatening aside from maybe some ApocalypticLog but at the tail-end of each of these segments the Specimen of the area spawns and chases you for several rooms. If you haven't looked at the CAT_DOS computers you will have no idea what these monsters will look like. Oh and after each segment you encounter a new Specimen there is a random chance they can chase you again later in the game. Making even the normal stretches of the game a mix between this and the "Nothing At All" variety. Even once you can recognize the periods you're in an almost completely safe area, the accompanying forewarning will maintain the pressure to analyze every new quirk of architecture for when you'll need to navigate by instinct, as well as studying the shifting soundscape so you'll pick up instantly on the intrusion of another presence.

* The Endless Staircase in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' is downright creepy, especially if you don't have the prerequisite 70 Power Stars to reach the top (if you don't, it's impossible, unless you can use a glitch only found in the N64 and Virtual Console version). While there's nothing that can hurt Mario, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6LxO6Jql1s the eerie music]] combined with a dark staircase that seems to go on forever can be unnerving.

%%No images, please. Our nerves are already high enough...

* ''VideoGame/{{Shivers}}'' has you walking around a haunted museum of weirdness. Alone. With evil spirits hiding in inconspicuous objects, just waiting to suck out your soul.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' (in contrast to its predecessor ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls") utilizes atmosphere through this way throughout most of the game. For example: Anor Londo is one of the most beautiful areas in the game, but its lack of enemies keeps you on edge; this is reinforced by the silence, because among the enemies present only the Batwing Demons make any noise when they are in combat.
** [[spoiler: It gets worse if you end up killing a [[ShatteringTheIllusion certain fake goddess]]. The sun sets, most all enemies disappear, and all life fades from Anor Londo. Everything you fought up until this point is an illusion, and arguably wasn't really there.]]
* The "Gamer" minigame from ''Game and Wario'' plays this trope well. The objective of the minigame is to hide from 9-Volt's mom, 5-Volt, while trying to complete a certain number of ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' microgames. 5-Volt can bust 9-Volt by opening the door, opening the bedroom window, or coming through the TV. 5-Volt's entrance is usually foreshadowed by PsychoStrings, although they can just as easily be building up to a CatScare (9-Volt's cat coming through the door, a balding man opening the window and flashing a peace sign, a silhouette of a hand making shadow puppets appearing on the TV, etc.) What's worse, sometimes 5-Volt will appear with little to no build-up, doing things like sprinting to 9-Volt's door or ''shattering his window''. The third mission culminates in 5-Volt ''diving headfirst out of the TV, pacing around the room, running up to 9-Volt's bed and standing mere inches from him, all accompanied by OminousLatinChanting and PsychoStrings.''
** The Wii U version of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' features a stage based on this minigame, featuring almost all of 5-Volt's entrances and fake-outs, along with a few new ones. If you start a match on the stage and notice a strange-looking platform or background prop (an easel with pictures of [=WarioWare=] characters on it, the handheld game 9-Volt was playing in the original minigame, etc), there's a large chance 5-Volt will somehow appear from it. One of the music tracks for this stage is complete silence, heightening the tension even more.
* Some might say that the online point-and-click game ''VideoGame/DaymareTown'' is this. The lack of audio and stationary, colorless, environment.
** Lampshaded when you're forced to go into the pitch black cellar of the lowest floor of the library to obtain an item; the game refers to the cellar as "scary," and labels the exit as "get out!"
** Really, this is very common with most of the games made by Mateusz Skutnik. ''Videogame/{{Submachine}}'' features very creepy sound effects and soundtracks, with only vague hints about where you are and what has happened. ''VideoGame/CovertFront'' features dark stone areas that look like agents from the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Empire]] could pop out of at any second. And in ''VideoGame/TheFogFall'', the aftermath of the nuclear holocaust is made deathly apparent by the lack of people and stark environments.
* Speaking of ''Videogame/{{Submachine}}'': When you first start ''[[http://www.mateuszskutnik.com/submachine/index.php?id=submachine_2 Submachine 2]]'', there is a record player providing background noise of chirping crickets and other peaceful woodsy sounds. When you turn it off, the actual soundtrack kicks in, which begins with a near-ScareChord and is full of creaking and electronic distortion sounds. Nothing horrific happens, but you might spend a good few minutes waiting for it anyway.

* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' Usually has more than one instance where the music stops. One of the earlier ones occurs inside one of the warehouses of [[FirstTown Grass Town]], where everything is quiet, the cheery music from the level is gone and is replaced with a small room, the only things to interact are the chimney and a treasure chest, the chimney has nothing on it (Or does it?) and interacting with it will only get you a comment about the breeze. While you could just walk out and leave, the chest contains a missile expansion, which is very helpful for later bosses, however if you do an [[spoiler: enraged mimiga]] will come out of the supposedly empty chimney and immediatly attack you as the boss theme stars playing, in a twist, it actually has low health, and once he loses enough exp he drops to the floor dead, as the cold silence returns to the room, interacting with the chimney again will confirm that there is nothing else there. There is no happy victory jingle like other bosses, there is no reward other than the chest you just took, you just entered into an abandoned warehouse, killed a thing, then got out. You may notice the bed is full of red petals, just like Arthur's house, and if you've talked with some of the local [=NPCs=], the more you continue the story, the darker the implications of that encounter will become.

* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' Usually has more than one instance where the music stops. One of the earlier ones ocurrs inside one of the warehouses of GrassTown, where everything is quiet, the cheery music from the level is gone and is replaced with a small room, the only things to interact are the chimney and a treasure chest, the chimney has nothing on it (Or does it?) and interacting with it will only get you a comment about the breeze. While you could just walk out and leave, the chest contains a missile expansion, which is very helpful for later bosses, however if you do an [[spoiler: enraged mimiga]] will come out of the supposedly empty chimney and immediatly attack you as the boss theme stars playing, in a twist, it actually has low health, and once he loses enough exp he drops to the floor dead, as the cold silence returns to the room, interacting with the chimney again will confirm that there is nothing else there. There is no happy victory jingle like other bosses, there is no reward other than the chest you just took, you just entered into an abandoned warehouse, killed a thing, then got out. You may notice the bed is full of red petals, just like Arthur's house, and if you've talked with some of the local NPCs, the more you continue the story, the darker the implications of that encounter will become.

** The developers knew what they were about. The first screen of the game, even before the Nintendo and Sillicon Knights {{Vanity Plate}}s, consists of an Creator/EdgarAllanPoe from ''The Raven''[[note]](''Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,\\ Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before\\ But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token\\ And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'\\ This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'\\ Merely this and nothing more.'')[[/note]], from its beginning through "doubting..." It even trails off into an ellipsis.
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''

* The GameOver shots from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' and [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 the sequel]] show what happens to you if you get caught. What does the GameOver screen in ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' show if Springtrap gets you? Nothing but a black screen and the words GameOver written in red neon. [[spoiler: [[GreaterScopeVillain Considering]] [[FauxAffablyEvil who]] is [[SerialKiller inside]] [[WouldHurtAChild the]] [[TheManBehindTheMan suit]], [[TakeOurWordForIt maybe it's best that we don't know what happened]].]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fatal Frame V|Maiden of Black Water}}'' there's a ghost of an inhumanly tall woman who wears a feathered sunhat and [[EtherealWhiteDress a white dress]]. She is easily one of the most recognisable, memorable and iconic ghosts in the game. So, what's her name? How did she die? How did she get so damn tall? And why the fuck is she [[SlasherSmile smiling like that]]!? No-one knows. The database only lists her as "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tall Woman]]" and that's all we ever learn about her. She has a few spoken lines, but they only serve to make her ''even scarier'' since the one thing they reveal is that she's an OutsideContextProblem who wasn't dragged into [[BigBad Ouse Kurosawa]]'s grudge against her will or is only reacting to your presence like almost all other ghosts are, instead she is a malevolent presence in her own right and ''she's actively hunting you down''.[[note]]As [[http://bcl.rpen.us/zerowiki/index.php?title=Tall_Woman the wiki]] suggests, the Tall Woman seems to be an adaptation of a Japanese CreepyPasta or urban legend character called [[http://www.scaryforkids.com/eight-feet-tall/ Hachishaku-sama/Hasshaku-sama]] (or "Miss Eight Foot Tall"), a creepily tall woman in a white dress and sunhat who kidnaps children.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' uses this with a little of the classic version in the underwater laboratory. Eerie music, no apparent enemies, ominous logs and corpses spread around, flat out informing you of every enemy you will face. The music and locations all build up towards ''something'' but that something ''never occurs''.
** And ''[[VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar Invisible War]]'' does this with the abandoned Antarctic base. Parts of the level have only a few guards and penguins, the music is just this ambient wind, and inside is dead silent. Scattered throughout the level are datapads that serve as [[ApocalypticLog the diary of a researcher long dead]], adding to the creepiness. Lastly you have to fight mutagenic creatures that have escaped into the base, and it is nearly a relief towards the end when you finally run into a few humans.
** ''[[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Human Revolution]]'' uses this trope on three occasions:

* What's scarier in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' than when the monster crashes through a window? When that same corpse that's been slumped in the corner of that room you've passed through a handful of times over the course of the entire game... just never gets up. Worse still, there are a couple of corpses that you don't see get up: you come through the hallway, the corpse is just gone, and ''[[ParanoiaFuel you never find out where it went]]''.

* Unlike [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys the game it was obviously inspired by]], ''VideoGame/{{Tattletail}}'' is a bit of a slow burn. Right off the bat the game warns you that running makes noise, and gives you an icon on the HUD that shows when you're audible, so you assume you're expected to keep quiet, probably so you don't wake your mother. There's even a prompt for knocking on her door just so you can not do it. Then you pick up the eponymous chatterbox itself, and it ''won't. Shut. Up.'' You have no idea how much noise is too much noise, except that Tattletail is definitely making more noise than you're comfortable with. It's a red herring; your mother can't wake up [[spoiler:until the very end of the game, and even then only if you got all the eggs]]. And then on night two, the actual horror starts when you discover the Tattletail can somehow get out of the box on its own. This, too, is a red herring -- it's not this one you should be worried about. There's no way to get a game over on the first two nights, but it doesn't stop you from being constantly on edge.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' has the mysterious ''thing'' lurking in the very bottom of [[spoiler:Area Zero]]. While you can find a book with a description of... whatever it is, its [[NoNameGiven name is never given]], and the player never gets to see it face to face, so it's a complete mystery as to how accurate the book is. All that's known about it is that it's huge, disk-shaped, and ''somewhere'' [[spoiler:deep in a place that's already an EldritchLocation]].

** And on a broader scale, the dream worlds are so big and have so much empty space that you never know when you're going to stumble onto something, and after you've found a few of the... ''[[NightmareDreams weirder]]'' parts of Madotsuki's dreams, you realize that whatever it is, it's going to be deeply disturbing. But then, this ''is'' basically ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' meets ''Franchise/SilentHill''...

** And on a broader scale, the dream worlds are so big and have so much empty space that you never know when you're going to stumble onto something, and after you've found a few of the... ''[[NightmareDreams weirder]]'' parts of Madotsuki's dreams, you realize that whatever it is, it's going to be deeply disturbing. But then, this ''is'' basically ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' meets ''Franchise/SilentHill''...

** ''Remake'' does employ this with the Grain Graveyard which has been expanded into a whole level. For the first part of it, Cloud, Aerith and Tifa are just travelling through an abandoned junk heap and crawling over and walking through broken train carts. No ghosts appear since it’s a non-combat segment but the whole place is very clearly haunted and ominous that even the heroes (particularly Tifa) are creeped out and reluctant to progress. When the ghosts do show up, it’s almost a relief.

** Milla's Dance Party surprisingly also has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Ltd-RWqrQ example]] of this. While most of the MentalWorld is colourful, fun and groovy if you levitate over to an easily missable opening [[SurpriseCreepy you find a conversely dark and creepy room, sparsely filled with children’s toys]] and a mental vault revealing Milla used to run an orphanage that accidentally burned down. Milla tells Raz it’s no fun in there, advises him to leave and ''definitely not'' to jump into the chest when it opens. Of course when the player naturally does exactly that, what they find next is the most infamous NightmareFuel in the game [[spoiler: the burning nightmare souls of the orphans screaming at Milla in a hellish room.]]

* ''VideoGame/PowerDrillMassacre'': One of the scariest parts of the game and what makes it so unique is that [[RoamingEnemy the killer is spawned at all times and is endlessly patrolling the factory]], meaning he can be around the corner at ''literally any second''.

* In ''VideoGame/TheShipMurderParty'', there is nothing more likely to crank a player's heart rate than another character walking nonchalantly past them in a wide hallway.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Swat 4}}'', many levels will leave you in silence, attempting to clear large areas with your vulnerable four man team, in many cases only aware that there may be armed perpetrators. [[ParanoiaFuel You don't know where, you don't know how many.]]

* ''VideoGame/BlackSnow'' takes this to extremes. A good deal of the game is spent trying to fight off the cold and scrounging for a way to get off the station. And your enemy? [[spoiler:It might as well be the literal darkness, as it's a very aggressive form of fungus that looks like a malevolent shadow.]]

** Even better is the fact that the monsters are attracted to light and sound, so you can either check out what's going on and at least have an advance warning, or avoid bringing attention to yourself as much as possible and risk an ambush. The ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' games invoke a similar compromise.

* Players of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' will quickly learn to cower at the sight of a stretch of empty terrain while exploring a planet in the Mako, as flat terrain surrounded by hills is a sign of a [[EldritchAbomination thresher maw]] nest. Only not every flat area is a nest. Which means that every time you are forced to drive over flat terrain, you will be on edge, waiting for the thresher to pop out.... This example actually fits into both the first and second categories, as sometimes the thresher will pop out and scare your pants off, and other times there really will be nothing there.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', we get a side mission where we have to investigate an abandoned mine. We're treated to the standard zombie outbreak environment; ominous datapad logs, the shrieking of husks in the vents, and we even get to shoot a few husks. Then we reach the room we had to reach, and it's filled with dragon spikes, but barely any husks. Then we get to the exact spot in the room we need to be in and BAM! Husks come at us like locusts in a fucking swarm.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' features the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery. The first half are traversing suspiciously empty rooms, and the game even throws in a humourous CatScare where the player character gets alarmed at something falling over... followed by a squad member apologising for knocking over furniture. The last half sees you swarmed with nasty psychic vampire alien zombies with a horrific, gaunt appearance and the ability to OneHitKill you. Have fun!
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''
** [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 The first game]] is odd in that it uses all three versions of this trope, all to the scariest possible effect.
*** It uses the "Wait for it" version, in that using the cameras littered around the facility, you can always tell where the enemies are, either through simple deduction or being able to see them. There are blind spots around your room, and since you can usually tell when an enemy is there.. then you press the light, you're treated to an Uncanny Valley, still picture of the animatronic abomination, and then you slam that "shut door" button like there's no tomorrow. Then there's [[LeeroyJenkins Foxy]], who [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140815104916/five-nights-at-freddys/images/c/ca/Satan_be_runnin.gif rushes down your position]], but it can be hard to tell when.
*** It uses the "Nothing at all" version, in which you are peacefully sitting in your room, flicking through all the cameras, and you see all the animatronics are scattered around, and nowhere near you. You put the camera tablet away, and... nothing but the fan. No sound, no monstrosities to defend yourself against. Nothing.
*** It uses the "He was there all along" version in that the animatronics can sneak into your room and not be noticed until it's too late, [[HopeSpot which is equal parts terrifying and unfair]].
** In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'', [[KidHero Gregory]] crawls through the duct system past the animatronics' rooms. Glamrock Chica is jamming on her guitar and Roxanne Wolf [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex is giving herself a complimentary pep talk]]. However, Montgomery Gator's room is labeled as temporarily off-limits and all Gregory (and the player) can hear are smashing noises.
* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' uses a good amount of this.
** The Xenomorph spends most of its time in the vents. You can't see it, but you can hear it creaking around, never knowing when it's going to emerge. It's even worse when the alien is out and about stalking you. Not knowing where the monster located is often a more frightening prospect than seeing it across the room. To make matters worse, when you can't see or hear the alien and its disappeared from your motion tracker, it doesn't mean you're safe. It means the the Xenomorph is up to something, which will likely result in your demise.
** For the first few hours, the Xenomorph doesn't show up at all. The only indication that it's there is that you sometimes hear rumbling in the vents or a spine-chilling shriek in the distance. When it finally does show up, all you see is the tail impale someone and then leave. The next sequence has the player waiting for a tram that seems to take forever, in near total darkness, with the shrieking constantly being heard and the music building the tension. It's so effective that you might genuinely think that the Xenomorph could be virtually anything else if you didn't already know that this was an ''Alien'' game.
** This trope even ties into the games’s mechanics. If you’re are particularly well hidden and well out of the sight, the Xenomorph’s AI will slowly but surely figure out your location as it will ''always'' be within a certain distance from you at all times and if you hide or wait for too long, it will find you. The utter dread of sneaking from location to location, often without seeing the alien but knowing that it is searching relentlessly for you is agonising.
* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' is organized in chapters, during each of which the player controls a different character. Most of the characters go mad or die horribly at the end of their chapter. The story is tied together by the main character, who is reading their stories. Between each chapter she wanders around the LovecraftCountry house looking for the pages of the next chapter. ''Nothing'' happens to her until after the much later chapters, even after [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity finding a weapon right at the beginning of the game, as well as several better weapons]], and even playing a level in the same house she's wandering around. It doesn't help that there's a good chance that her SanityMeter might be low just from reading a chapter, leading to [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness Sanity Effects]]. It's almost a relief when she starts meeting things that can actually be killed...
** The developers knew what they were about. The first screen of the game, even before the Nintendo and Sillicon Knights {{Vanity Plate}}s, consists of an Creator/EdgarAllanPoe from ''The Raven''[[note]](''Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,\\ Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before\\ But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token\\ And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'\\ This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'\\ Merely this and nothing more.'')[[/note]], from its beginning through "doubting..." It even trails off into an ellipsis.
* This trope is everywhere in the ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', and all three seem to be in play. Any node you're in has a limited view of visibility, and areas only get brighter when you move to them. Navigating the second floor hallway can make you think something's going to happen...but most times it doesn't. You do catch glimpses of some of the other guests from time to time, but most of them actually seem friendly.
** But what really runs this trope into the ground is the Basement Maze. There's never any way to tell which passage you've been down because every single one looks the same, and there's always the chance that you'll run straight into a dead end. And if you do, a ScareChord hits you in the face, and Stauf utters, "Feeling...lonely?"
*** Ego even lampshades this trope just before entering.
---> "I have a bad feeling about this..."
** Subverted in the sequel, though, since Carl Denning happens to have a flashlight handy, so you'll always see whatever's in front of you.

** And how about your wingman yelling "The [[spoiler:8492nd squadron]] does not exist!" then the music stops and tons of enemies appears from nowhere.

** The pale girl/Psychic Trainer [[RandomEncounters encounter]] from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' strongly invokes this. Upon entering the second floor of a certain building in Lumiose City, the music stops, the lights flash and a StringyHairedGhostGirl appears behind you gliding towards the bottom of the screen in a frozen walking animation and saying cryptically “No you're not the one“ before leaving the frame and disappearing. She can appear later on in a bedroom standing creepily by the wall and says “Don’t talk to me... If you do, I won’t... hear the elevator...”. Absolutely no explanation is offered in the game to exactly who or what the hell she is. Some [[WildMassGuessing speculate]] she’s an inter-dimensional traveler or a ghost, the most likely explanation is that she’s a spooky EasterEgg left by the developers.

* In ''VideoGame/TheExcavationOfHobsBarrow'', the player never gets to see the true form of [[spoiler:the mysterious pagan god [[EldritchAbomination Abraxas Rex]]]]. They only get to hear the rather creepy growls and sounds it makes as it rewakens in the game's climax, and see the PlayerCharacter, Thomasina Bateman, regard it in utter wide-eyed horror as it looms over her from off-screen. [[spoiler:In the aftermath, Thomasina declines to details what she saw in her account of the events, noting that "How does one even attempt describe the indescribable? The vision before me defied all logical explanation."]]

* Dormant [[DemonicSpiders F.O.E.s]] in the ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' series, especially those that turn into mundane obstacles when not awake. Probably the worst are Cruel Slayers in ''Etrian Odyssey IV'', which first appear as panther-like statues. You just ''know'' when you spot the first one that it's going to attack you, but you have to walk past it anyway. And it... does nothing. They don't activate until you're spotted by an entirely different FOE, at which point every Cruel Slayer in the area will wake up at once and chase you down at double speed. Boulder Boars and Medusa Trees in ''Etrian Odyssey Untold'' are also major offenders, forcing you to look funny at all the rocks in the first stratum and dead trees in the fourth. (And there are a ''lot'' of dead trees in the Fourth Stratum.)
* In ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie,'' you explore Terrydactyland, a dinosaur-themed world. Like most of the game, it's bright and cheerful, with cartoony characters. But then you climb to the highest point of the level, and find a place called the Stomping Grounds. When you first enter, the BackgroundMusic stops as you look around--it's a wide open space hemmed in by walls. Sure, the colors are a little drabber, and that silence is getting deafening, but how bad could it be? Then you take a few steps forward...and a GIANT DINOSAUR FOOT EMERGES FROM THE SKY, TRYING TO CRUSH YOU, as the game's ominous boss music abruptly starts up, punctuated by a horrific-sounding roar. Banjo and Kazooie are about as big as one of the claws on the dinosaur's toes, and to make matters worse, you ''never see the entire thing''--just its foot. Somehow, imagining the rest of the Stompadon is a thousand times scarier than any depiction could be.

* The whole Oldest House where the Federal Bureau of ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' works can be interpreted as this: to newcomers, it is an {{Expy}} of the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' where some corrupted item freed a mysterious energy called the Hiss plans to invade the Bureau, and maybe the entire world. Because of the [[BigBadEnsemble simultaneous invasions]] of the Hiss, the Moss (both of them transform their victims into [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]]), the Clog, the Astral Plane and Emil Hartman, you can be sure you won't have a moment of peace. The floating corpses coupled with the aseptized conception of the Bureau make these sensations even worse.