Line #20 NightmareFuel/METALGEARSOLID


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/870.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou Do you still feel safe?]]]]
3
4	* Any time you get spotted, especially if you weren't expecting it. For the most part, Snake ''can't'' out-fight a group of enemies, so you have to find somewhere to hide until it's safe.
5	* The complete MindRape that is Psycho Mantis. He's part fourth-wall-breaking fun ("You enjoy playing name of game you have on your memory card, don't you?") and part horror (watching as Meryl is helplessly forced to put a gun to her head).
6	** The dreaded HIDEO screen, forcing gamers to shriek as they think their [=PlayStations=] blipped out, or if they knew what they were doing, frantically struggle to switch controllers before ''that thing'' un-screws the screen and starts pummeling you while you have ''nothing'' in ''either'' hemisphere of your "brain."
7	** Just when this guy couldn't get any creepier, there's his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Zhml23DqU&feature=related theme]], which encapsulates the man perfectly.
8	** Even worse? '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVilwJHryII&t=3m52s He can actually turn off your TV set!]]''' [[labelnote:Explanation]]Whenever Psycho Mantis triggers the fake HIDEO error, it actually changes the console's resolution (noticeable after the first few seconds when the text gets smaller). Some older CRT monitors are not programmed to be able to handle this, and as a result this sometimes triggers them to turn off by themselves, including resetting their video input.[[/labelnote]]
9	** In the ''Twin Snakes'' version of his psychokinetic demonstration, the [[SpookyPainting portraits]] behind him start to [[CreepyHighPitchedVoice laugh at you]].
10	* Gray Fox's massacre of several soldiers. Snake steps through a door and finds himself in a hallway. The walls and floor are smeared with blood, the walls are full of bullet holes, and the mutilated corpses of Genome Soldiers are everywhere. You head forward, as creepy music plays accompanied by some heavily distorted voice chanting... something[[note]]It's actually Gray Fox [[RunningGag listing stations on the Myōken Line]][[/note]], and then you see a dying soldier stagger down the hallway, gasp "It's... it's a ghost!" and collapse, dead, as a pool of blood forms under him. Continuing down the corridor, you hear screams and the sound of gunfire, and at the end, you see a twitching Genome Soldier held up by the translucent outline of Gray Fox, who decloaks, kills him with a single slash, and stalks through a nearby door.
11	** It's actually worse in The Twin Snakes. Much, '''MUCH''' worse. In this version, the cutscene starts with Snake approaching the door to the hallway, peering through a window at a Genome Soldier firing wildly at something- and then we hear a slash, a scream, and the soldier is slammed against the window, sliding down it and leaving a smear of blood. Snake backs away, and we see Gray Fox stalking down the hall, slaughtering the Genome Soldiers one by one, and ending by kicking one's legs out from under him and [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe slicing him in half in before he hits the ground]]. He rounds the corner and advances on the last surviving soldier, who fires everything he's got at the Gray Fox [[ImplacableMan to no avail]], and finally draws a knife and charges... only for the Gray Fox to snap his arm and slice him open. The rest of the cutscene plays out almost the same as the PSX version, except this time the "It's a ghost!" soldier and the one Gray Fox hoists in midair are the same one, and he hoists the soldier by impaling him on his katana, then finishes him off by roundhouse kicking him into a wall.
12	** Same goes for whenever he goes through a mental breakdown; his erratic movements, that horrible screeching, the way he bangs his head against the floor...
13	* The underground caves definitely belong here. The creepy music combined with the [[HellIsThatNoise distant howling of those dangerous wolf-dogs]] are really unnerving. Even worse, you have to go through them at least four times.
14	* Poor Meryl being shot down by Sniper Wolf several times, with Snake being unable to do a thing about it without getting himself shot and possibly killed as well. Bear in mind that this happens to someone who's still barely 18.
15	* Vulcan Raven getting eaten alive by a group of ravens, even if he did [[FaceDeathWithDignity face it with dignity]].
16	* So, you get on a service elevator towards the middle of the game, and are riding down on it. But the ride is much slower than usual. Then, you get a codec call from Otacon. Someone has taken his [[InvisibilityCloak stealth suit]] prototypes, so he can't give them to Snake. Then they start talking about how the elevator is so slow, how that would only happen if the elevator were overloaded. But how can that be? You're the only thing on it. [[OhCrap Then it hits you.]] You aren't alone on the elevator. Suddenly, you find yourself in a fight against four invisible Genome Soldiers in a very confined space. Now, [[ParanoiaFuel any long elevator ride gets a lot more nerve-wracking]].
17	** The JumpScare delivered by a panicked Otacon, with his face suddenly zoomed-in on his Codec portrait, who frantically screams at Snake that the Genome Soldiers wearing the stealth suit prototypes are in the elevator with him. What makes this notable is that Otacon is the only character to have this notable feature.
18	-->'''Too late, Snake! Now die!'''
19	* Snake having to share a cell with the maggot-infested corpse of the real DARPA Chief. Doubles as NauseaFuel.
20	* [[BigBad Liquid Snake]] deserves special mention here. Solid Snake has an IQ of 180, speaks six languages, is a decorated member of an elite black ops unit, and is one of the greatest soldiers to ever live. Liquid is more than a match for him. Over the course of the game, he survives [[ImplacableMan a helicopter crash, dozens of Stinger missiles to the face, being beaten up by Snake and thrown from the top of a giant robot (which kills Snake if it happens to him during the fight), hundreds of shots from a Gatling gun, and a Jeep crash]]. The only thing that takes him down is the experimental virus FOXDIE. So again, Liquid is one bad [[PrecisionFStrike motherfucker]] who should be well feared for these reasons!
21	** The fight on top of the Metal Gear Rex. The whole fight is a nerve racking bout. You have to defeat Liquid Snake within a short time. If you fail, you're welcome to [[LaughingMad Liquid's maniacal laughter]] and the infamous "Game Over" screen.
22	** The very idea of FOXDIE, both for its carrier and its intended victims. Imagine just having a normal conversation with someone, only to suddenly watch him die of a heart attack right in front of you, all because you were right there. Or being on the receiving end; the picture of health one moment, suffering a painful death in the next. And then there's Naomi's revelation to Snake that FOXDIE may eventually kill him as well, but out of spite and a twisted sense of revenge for her brother Gray Fox, she programmed it to go off ''at a completely random point in the future'' that even she doesn't know when it will happen.
23	* Metal Gear REX in general. It's a stealth mobile nuclear launch platform (its stealth missiles are, if not technically possible, at the very least plausible, even if only as a nuclear gun which is horrifying enough), funded by actual US government arms manufacturers no less, who would neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a project. And it isn't technically illegal since it uses a rail gun to launch its nukes... had the project not gone FUBAR, who knows what it would've been used for, not to mention that, unlike most nuclear weapons known worldwide, as it uses a rail gun to fire its nukes, the projectile itself '''cannot''' be intercepted and stopped like other nuclear warheads in their common missile form... The best that Snake and Fox could do was to take out its radome. And, as [=MGS4=] shows, it's tough enough to be ''fully operational'' despite being in disrepair for years and can outfight its successor, Metal Gear RAY, with some support. It would still be a few years until technology advanced enough that Rex was truly obsolete.
24	** Otacon gets increasingly panicked as he reads through REX's simulated combat data, especially since ''the simulations went better than expected''. "This thing could mean the end of the world!"
25	** Otacon and the rest of Snake's support team have a MassOhCrap when Liquid brings REX online to fight him. Colonel Campbell's initial response is "God help us!"
26	* Snake's torture at the hands of Ocelot. The pain he's going through is bad enough, but the knowledge that Meryl will die if he gives in pushes it to downright horrifying.
27	** Just the idea of torturing anybody in who-knows-where in general, when you think about it. And it gets progressively worse in later installments of the series.
28	** Ocelot warns you in advance that "[[BreakingTheFourthWall there are no continues]], my friend," at which point you are probably stopping to remember the last time you saved. Which is hopefully not more than a few minutes ago, and he does know if you haven't saved in a while:
29	---> '''Ocelot:''' Snake, it's been a long time since you saved your game. If your body can't survive the torture, it'll be game over. You really wanna travel down that long road again?
30	----
31	'''''[[ScareChord !]]'''''

Context NightmareFuel / METALGEARSOLID