Line #53 NightmareFuel/TombRaider


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6
7	!! Across all ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games
8
9	* Core Design's games paid a lot of attention to the death animations, and the player is often treated to several seconds of Lara writhing in agony/burning up/drowning/turning to gold/stabbed with 6 swords/getting mangled by a T-rex, etc.
10	** Falling onto spikes in games pre-AOD shows Lara being painfully impaled through whichever region of her body she landed on. You're then forced to watch her slowly slide down the spikes.
11	** Diving/falling from too high is universally represented by breaking bones and an unnaturally-twisted neck.
12	* Drowning is particularly more graphic in the newer games.
13	* Winston, Lara's butler, followed her around in II and III when you played in her mansion, leading to some scares (and possibly AccidentalPervert). He also got in the way a lot, so many players ended up locking him in the kitchen freezer.
14
15	!! Specific games
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Tomb Raider (1996)/Anniversary]]
19	* The scene where Lara and the Peruvian guide get attacked by wolves counts as this in both versions. Especially since, once Lara opens the doors to the tomb, the guide sees creepy, yellow eyes in the darkness which turns out to be the wolves.
20	* The centaur statue in Tomb of Tihocan, which explodes with absolutely no warning to reveal the skinless Atlantean demon beneath it, which then lets out an otherworldly scream as it starts shooting exploding balls of muscle at you.
21	* The Hand of Midas, a stone hand apparently broken off a big statue that [[spoiler:turns Lara to gold starting at her feet if you stand on it. By the sound effects, she dies of suffocation just before her head is transformed. You need to use the hand to solve a puzzle.]] Original-to-VideoGameRemake [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZM7g2D27sA comparison.]]
22	** Even worse, if you happened to have been playing the 1996 original, it's possible that when it first happened you might have missed the name "Midas" inscribed on the base of (what's left of) the statue due to the pixelated graphics and [[SchmuckBait the hand and a nearby boulder]] [[GuideDangIt obscuring it from your peripheral vision.]] The fact that the "statue" apparently wasn't rendered anywhere above the calfs and instead ended at the ceiling likely didn't help either.
23	* Since this game doesn't really change facial expressions, Lara can die and then just... [[DiesWideOpen stare at the camera with her usual, serious expression if the camera is positioned right.]] It's incredibly jarring.
24	* Some decorative objects in the levels were billboarded 2D sprites rather than 3D models. Meaning that when Lara moved, they would appear to spin around to face her. One especially jarring instance of this was a sprite of a mummified corpse seen in the Tomb of Qualopec.
25	* The huge drop in the final two levels which gives poor Lara time to scream three times before falling to her death. Oh yes, and the floor is made of magma that causes [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Lara's corpse to burst into flames as soon as she hits it.]]
26	* In the Tomb of Qualopec, the room with the Scion piece, Qualopec's skeleton and his two mummified bodyguards can be seen on one side of the room. If Lara goes over to investigate, she'll notice that raw muscle is sticking out of the wrappings, foreshadowing the reveal of the Atlantean race. She'll also quickly notice that one of the mummies is ''turning its head to look at her''. If she approaches it, it...falls over. This, with no background music at all.
27	* The oversized rats that usually manage to sneak up on Lara are unnerving. They have a hideous screech and an unpleasantly wet 'n crunchy sound effect when you kill them.
28	* The mummified creatures in the Egyptian levels, as well as the regular Atlanteans, are incredibly unnerving - even when they aren't actually attacking Lara. You can hear them stalking around, just out of sight, and uttering creepy, raspy groans. They're also fond of unexpectedly leaping around corners at Lara, shrieking, which usually succeeds in giving the player a good old JumpScare.
29	** The design of all Atlanteans is pure BodyHorror. Strange, contorted creatures that mostly lack skin and instead expose their raw muscle, and explode into bits after being shot to death. Even the non-antagonistic ones seen in cutscenes look like this.
30	** The now-primitive graphics in the first game actually makes things ''worse'' because you couldn't see the mummified creatures clearly. You look at them and think "What the hell is that?" And the groaning...
31	** Also the entire inside of the Atlantean pyramid - especially in the original. You're basically walking through [[WombLevel an immense living organism]] grown into its stone shell. The convulsions of the fleshy walls with visible veins were as horrendous as they were nauseating. The twitching bloody "umbilical cords" on the eggs - oh boy. The dated graphics arguably made it worse. It also gave an impression that being a living thing the fleshy tunnels could simply contract and simply crush Lara or smother her to death.
32	*** The organism created a perfectly mimicking doppelganger of Lara. While it looks more like a cross with the [[Film/ETTheExtraterrestrial E.T.]] you still require some "blueprints" to make a copy of anyone. How and where did the organism acquire Lara's genes? Not only that - the doppelganger mimics her movement with laser precision.
33	*** Now apply some BizarreAlienBiology an imagine the organism would actually try to [[FateWorseThanDeath absorb]]/[[AndIMustScream assimilate Lara]]. Oh god.
34	* The various Atlantean creatures bursting out of their eggs. The fact that [[ParanoiaFuel not all of the eggs explode when you approach them]] (some explode much later on, others do so when you pull a wrong lever in one particular puzzle) makes the sections of the game with the eggs even more tense.
35	** The Mummycat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz2K5nXy0yU cutscene]].
36	* The Abomination. A large, legless creature with random patches of skin, and just barely enough muscle to function. Watching it shamble about by its arms trying to catch you is as sad to watch as it is horrifying.
37	** Lara's death at the hands of the Abomination. It grabs her by the leg (and she is clearly terrified,) then proceeds to wreck her stuff by smashing her against the floor three times (all the while you hear her bones breaking with each hit). Once the Abomination notices Lara is dead, it curiously swings her around a little to verify this and then casually drops her body (which is now mangled enough that it contorts upon impact) to the floor. The scene plays out like a child being a little too rough with a toy and accidentally breaking it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2W2K8oUplw&t=2m18s Observe.]]
38	** In the ''Anniversary'' remake the Abomination '''[[SwallowedWhole eats Lara alive]]'''! You can see her struggling inside its stomach, drowning in the digestive juice.
39	* The Playstation 1 versions were (comparatively) barely graphic when it came to Lara's many deaths. When it came to Tomb Raider Legend and the remake Anniversary, the death scenes were ramped up if players failed to keep her alive in a QuickTimeEvent. One example, which is somehow violent without any bloodshed, is Lara being flung into the air by a T-rex and then being ''[[EatenAlive eaten alive in one gulp]]''.
40	* The Lost Island is pretty creepy in Anniversary--the flying demons were already bad, but where they come from...
41	* Natla's knife welding, trench coat wearing henchman [[ScaryBlackMan Kold]], who has one white eye and speaks in a [[EvilSoundsDeep low, threatening voice]].
42	* The original Lara Doppelganger, A.K.A [[FanNickname Bacon Lara]] which is basically Lara without any skin. It copies your movements perfectly, and acts as a puzzle, since you can't get past it by shooting it (try to, and it retaliates by zapping Lara). It's very firmly within the UncannyValley. In ''Anniversary'', it not only looks more realistic, but the means of dispatching it (tricking it into jumping into a vat of lava) causes it to flail in a clear panic and scream in pain.
43	* Just the way death by FallingDamage is represented in the series. "CRUNCH!"
44	* The revised soundtrack for the PC version which cut out all of the musical cues from the PSX version, leaving only a few unnerving ambient sounds. This combined with the low draw distance ensures that NothingIsScarier starting right from the very first level.
45	* Out of the Core Design games, TR1 has the creepiest level ambiances.
46	** Peru: mostly silence, broken by low drum beats and strange rushing sounds
47	** Greece/Rome: howling winds
48	** Cistern/Natla's Mines: strange shrieking sounds and water drops
49	** Atlantis: low, steady heartbeats, ominous chanting, JumpScare-worthy sounds of machinery
50	* The original game lacked proper skyboxes due to engine limitations, resulting in a [[AlienSky pitch-black sky]] that could easily be mistaken for a cavern ceiling so high that the surface can't be seen. Not that knowing you're really outdoors helps much.
51
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Tomb Raider II]]
55	* The Jade Swordsmen in the Floating Islands. Notable in that they slowly fly through the air towards you with an unsettling droning noise, and can be even more unnerving if you can hear them but can't see them...
56	* The soundtrack alone for II... here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ah8L5f5kE the one]] in particular that used to make the Floating Islands level so much worse.
57	** In the Maria Doria levels, the main ambiance for the level features silent water drops and heartbeats. It's actually the ambience theme from Atlantis in the first game, which is equally or more creepy.
58	* Most players when they get to the end of the first level will use a zipline to cross a massive pit and reach the finish. More inquisitive players may decide to climb down and check out what shiny powerups could be down there. [[spoiler:When you finally get off the cliff and onto the pit floor, as you're about halfway across the pit, a T-rex pops out of the cave in front of you.]]
59	** [[spoiler:Then, should you kill (or just run past) the T-rex and find the secret hidden at the back of the cavern and start to run back, a ''second'' T-rex appears.]]
60	** Even better? Unless you're using your flares, the cave is almost completely in the dark.
61	* The spiders in ''Franchise/TombRaider II'' are quite creepy, what with how they tend to suddenly appear and the loud shuffling sound they make as they move around. [[spoiler:The [[GiantSpider giant ones]] in the Temple of Xian level are [[SpidersAreScary much, much worse]]. And they're encountered in a [[OhCrap dark cave filled with huge webs]].]]
62	* [[https://youtu.be/NnGNEahuStY?t=361 The giant eel]] in the Living Quarters level. It only appears once, but it comes out of nowhere & does huge amounts of damage.
63	* The yetis in the Tibetan levels, hulking creatures that have loud stomping noises and loud roars.
64	** Especially when you encounter them in a temple that is '''completely''' dark.
65	* The Opera House. This is one of the darkest levels in the game with some of the creepiest ambiences. It doesn't help that Fiamma Nera members, some of which are wearing creepy opera masks, come out of nowhere to attack Lara.
66	* [[UnderTheSea 40 Fathoms]]. The level starts with Lara swimming at the bottom of the ocean in near-total darkness, with no way of surfacing for air or obvious means of escape while her OxygenMeter rapidly drains and [[ThreateningShark sharks]] are circling her. It's panic-inducing even if you know where to go. It also gets bonus marks if you've been using the level skip cheat to casually pass through the game, since ''[[NoFairCheating you can only input the cheat when you're on solid land.]]''
67	** For extra points, as soon as you ''do'' find where to go and get some air to breathe, you're immediately treated with an ominous HeartbeatSoundtrack the second your head pops out of the water.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Tomb Raider III]]
71	* The Damned; they say they are immortal and have tried suicide to no avail, along with the fact you have to find embalming fluid to stop them rotting, which is scary in itself. There's also Lara shooting them in the previous level, when using bullets it can be assumed they just got up later or something, but she can also blow them up with explosives, [[FridgeLogic which comes with the idea]] that they are still [[AndIMustScream fully conscious while blown to pieces.]]
72	* The Temple Ruins where you go into a room and find one of the explorers suspended in midair with a hole through his chest. Cue scary music.
73	* The Shiva Statues in the Temple Ruins. The first one encountered is an inanimate stone sculpture, holding up its 6 swords menacingly with an unsettling SlasherSmile on its face. In the very next room, Lara finds another statue...which glows with a strange orange mist, then promptly comes alive, turns completely black with red eyes, and chases her around the room with its ''6 swords''.
74	** The second time they appear as enemies, the player might try to find a safe spot by climbing a set of stairs and taking refuge on the higher ledge. Not a wise choice, as the statue is savvy enough to ''climb up the stairs after Lara''.
75	** Lara's death animation at the hands of these statues. They pick her up using the pointed ends of two swords, use the other four to [[DeathByAThousandCuts slash her to death]] and throw her on the ground. The statues ''[[EvilLaugh laugh wickedly]]'' as they do so.
76	* The [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]]-esque enemies towards the end, who spit blue fire and take several rocket and grenade blasts to kill.
77	* The unfortunate RX-Tech scientists, who have [[BodyHorror mutated horribly]] as a result of the energies from the meteorite. They come in two types: those who still look vaguely human aside from the fact that their legs have fused together and they can spit poison, and those who have become gigantic brutes who can pummel you to a pulp. The very first encounters with each type are huge {{Jump Scare}}s, and the first type comes with a ScareChord for good measure.
78	* One particular room in the RX-Tech Mines forces Lara to slide down a long slope into a pitch-black room with steam rising out of grates on the ground. A giant mutant rushes out of the hallway as she approaches it. After defeating the mutant, Lara must [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption go into the pitch-black hallway from whence it came]] and crawl under the grates to pick up some items. As she does so, the player gets to watch another giant mutant run by right above Lara, enter the hallway, then wait patiently right outside the crawlspace for her to emerge.
79	* ''Franchise/TombRaider III'', more so than the other games, often played [[ScareChord a jump-out-of-your-seat musical sting]] to shatter the ambient silence before rolling a boulder or similar trap towards you. Sometimes, it would pop up [[NothingIsScarier for no apparent reason]].
80	* Some of the sound effects in the game are just...off. Pulling the switches that raise/lower the water level in London's water tanks produces a [[https://youtu.be/SAsMkJNtsKw?t=4m9s noise that does not sound anything like water flowing]][[note]]It's actually supposed to be the sound of the turbine/pump[[/note]].
81	* Also, the second-to-last level, the Lost City of Tinnos, has the creepiest, most unnerving ambience of any level in the game. Fittingly it's a remix of the Floating Islands theme from ''Tomb Raider II''.
82	* Lara's crash when trying to break into Area 51 is over-the-top and yet somewhat unnerving, because this is one of the only times short of a fall or death scream that she canonically [[OhCrap screams for real]], before eating dirt and stone in a quadbike incident that knocks her clean out and would've killed the average person not as lucky or as much of a {{Determinator}} as her.
83	* Area 51, which has creepy ambient noises that you don't know the source of, cryo-frozen aliens, and the big, [[NothingIsScarier devoid-of-enemies]] UFO hangar.
84	* The appearance of the final boss, Dr Willard mutates into a creature that combines BodyHorror, GiantSpider and MyBrainIsBig into an unholy combination.
85	* Towards the end of the bonus level All Hallows, Lara swims through a set of flooded tunnels riddled with floating corpses. This level was originally supposed to be the second London level, but it wasn't the case due to time constrains. Since it has to do with Sophia Leigh's experiments, those corpses are likely the bodies of who didn't survive those experiments.
86	** The Gold expansion, the Lost Artifact, has "Sleeping with the Fishes", set in an underwater laboratory that is used by Sophia Leigh herself for experiments on humans once again, this time with the Hand of Rathmore. There are giant mutant fish through the level, and there are naked humans with fish scales. And there's also a dolphin held captive that Lara has to save.
87	* The end of the level "Coastal Village", where Lara ends up finding a mercenary who had his leg chewed off. While there are plenty of [[IAmAHumanitarian cannibals]] around, Lara notes that they don't eat down to a person's bones. As they continue to have their discussion, the tribal music starts and steadily gets louder. The mercenary mentions that the cannibal tribe's god lives up in the hills. Guess where Lara's heading next?
88	--> ''There's something spooky in that jungle.''
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation]]
92	* In the Cambodia levels, Lara finds many skeletons of unfortunate explorers, and later finds one impaled on some spikes near a plinth, with its backpack in a hand (which Lara takes). Lara is just a teenager when she witnesses all of this.
93	* Von Croy being trapped in the Isis' defensive mechanism (and the tomb sealing itself afterwards). From the looks of it, he was trapped there for many, ''many'' years, as the next time he is seen is after Lara becomes an adult and completes her last 3 adventures at least.
94	* For some reason the first level's ambience is a remix of the Floating Islands theme. This has predictable results.
95	** On that note of disturbing ambience, there is a track that plays in several areas, notably the Tomb of Semerkhet, that is incredibly unnerving to listen to. It's a sinister-sounding low tune that is interspersed with heartbeats, something banging against a metal rail repeatedly, and inhuman shuffling. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4IiP60OXo This]] is the track in question.
96	* In the first level, if Lara dawdles too long at the first slope, a jarring cutscene plays showing the point-of-view of an unknown creature swooping towards Lara, while strange wailing sounds play in the background. [[spoiler:Turns out the creature is just a rabid dog.]]
97	* The "entombing of Set" cutscene shows him placed in a sarcophagus, as a spiked ceiling slowly descends onto his body. The camera cuts to the drains on the contraption, through which blood now freely flows.
98	** When Lara herself finds this area and takes the Ankh, blood again flows...filling the pools in the next room. Lara can ''swim in this blood''. Perhaps this scene served as inspiration for the 2013 version...
99	** The mummies in the same room as the blood pools. They're impossible to kill and make a noise that sounds like the unholy cross of a death rattle and vomiting. But the creepiest thing about them? It's very easy to miss, but if one looks closely, like the falling mummy in the first game, ''their heads follow Lara's every move.''
100	* ''Tomb Raider 4'' has giant scorpions in later levels.
101	* Towards the end of the game, things begin to get much darker. By the time you reach the Cairo levels, the sky has turned to an [[AlienSky unearthly shade of dark green and then a stormy red sky in the Giza levels]] to make it clear just how ''bad'' things have become. The enemies also go from being largely human and animal enemies, to undead beasts and mythological monsters, and the atmosphere in Cairo feels post-apocaliptic with the empty streets, closed shops and locusts all over the place.
102	* The ending,[[spoiler: Lara ends up trapped under the pyramid. Sure she survives and was rescued by an Egyptian Tribe (As cut AOD content/pre-release interviews about AOD told us) but the idea of being trapped and unable to move, slowly waiting to die for at least a day or two is utterly horrific, no wonder Lara's on edge and angry Von Croy didn't find her earlier in AOD.]].
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Tomb Raider Chronicles]]
106	* The entire Black Isle level. From the heartless corpse hanging from the tree to the pale imps that would follow you around.
107	** The hag in the page image deserves special mention. It is a creature that zealously guards a certain item, and when you try to approach said item, it grabs Lara and hammers her stomach with its elbow, forcing a return to the surface for air. You have to trick it into a cage at one point, which results in it getting taken out of the water and eaten alive by the changelings, which you don't get to see by virtue of the camera angle but can certainly hear.
108	* Whatever TheSpearOfDestiny does. It's [[NothingIsScarier never really shown]] what exactly its power is, but it is implied that it is terribly destructive and, worst yet [[ItCanThink displays some sort of intelligence]]. On top of that, all we ever really see is a creeping white light, but whatever the characters that encounter it see visibly terrifies them.
109	* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUlr7Tk3xMc submarine ambience]]. The droning alone is enough to drive you insane, not to mention the creaking and groaning under the pressure of tons of water. It also serves as a foreshadowing of the horrific depths you're heading to.
110	* The gallows tree soundtrack is simply haunting.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness]]
114	* [[spoiler:Karel]] invading Von Croy's apartment, violently dismembering him, and sticking his glove into the body to retrieve... ''something'' while Lara is knocked out on the floor.
115	* The near invincible sea creature found in the ''Bio-research Facility'' and ''Aquatic Research Area''. It can't be killed without using an large amount of ammunition, is incredibly fast, and has an unusual looking mouth full of sharp teeth just waiting to gobble you up.
116	* Wandering the deserted streets of Paris at the beginning while that ominous music plays in the background can be pretty unnerving, especially since you've been hearing about the Monstrum and have no idea where they might be.
117	* Coming across one of the Monstrum's victims in Bouchard's hideout. The loud gurgling noises he makes are downright horrifying.
118	* Brother Obscura/The Red Ghost in ''The Hall of Seasons''. His groaning is quite scary, and if he even touches Lara, it's a OneHitKill.
119	* [[spoiler:Bouchard]]'s death, warning Lara that she is ''not'' safe from the Monstrum, no matter where she hides. Lara is visibly freaked out when she discovers his body.
120	--> '''Lara:''' What the hell’s going on around here?!
121	* At one point in the Strahov Fortress, Lara witnesses Luddick being brought to Eckhardt, having been caught loitering around the loading zone. Amid pitiful pleas for mercy, Eckhardt reaches up to Luddick's face with his glove... and [[ShockAndAwe his death isn't pretty]].
122	* Kurtis' two levels mix gritty, disturbing horror with constant paranoia fuel. Throughout the abandoned prison facility, there are shackles, dirty wooden benches, rusty cells, rotten smears of brown food-like material on the ground, and the crazed, deformed prisoners with whips for hands... interspersed with dead soldiers, whose bodies have recently been ripped open by a creature you can only hear bounding around in the ventilation shafts.
123	* The fate of Boaz and the resulting boss battle against her.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Tomb Raider Legend]]
127	* [[NightmareFuel/TombRaiderLegend See here]].
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Tomb Raider Underworld]]
131	* The Kraken. The whole level around him is filled with ParanoiaFuel: you have be super careful and if you touch him, you're dead. The fact that you first meet his tentacle underwater [[ViolationOfCommonSense (and you must follow it)]] and the noises it makes only add fuel to the fire. Get too close to it and it will actively chase you down.
132	** That's to say nothing about the way Lara dispatches it: she winches a giant platform with sharp spikes on the bottom into the air, then shoots the supports, causing the spikes to impale the Kraken- [[EyeScream including its eyes]]- and force it to write in agony for several seconds before finally succumbing. In the HD version, a large amount of its blood spurts into the water while this happens.
133	* The new doppelgänger; it breaks into Lara's home, steals the Wraith Stone, detonates the mansion, and kills Alister with ruthless efficiency. It turns out to possess superhuman speed and reflexes, and very nearly kills Lara the second time they meet.
134	* Amelia's fate after being locked up in the underworld for twenty-odd years.
135	* In the 360 expansion ''Lara's Shadow'' only, Natla's ultimate fate, while cathartic, is far more horrifying than simple death...
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Tomb Raider (2013)]]
139	[[NightmareFuel/TombRaider2013 See here.]]
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Shadow of the Tomb Raider]]
143	[[NightmareFuel/ShadowOfTheTombRaider See here.]]
144	[[/folder]]
145

Context NightmareFuel / TombRaider