And these are usually the least of your worries.
Zeds and Bosses
- Every. Single. ZED. In. The. Game! The already disturbing looking specimens from the first game have been amped up to eleven.
- As if the regular Zeds weren't bad enough on their own wait until a special event rolls around and gives them a makeover. While some of the new costumes are fairly comedic others make the already scary monsters even worse. For example:
- The Summer Sideshow turns all of the basic cannon fodder Zeds (and Bloat) into monster clowns and even transforms the Abomination Boss into a giant evil clown as well! Needless to say, people with coulrophobia might have trouble taking on the season's events, even with the help of friends.
- The Summer Sideshow again. You'd think evil clowns would be bad enough but the event has some other ghoulish designs in store for unsuspecting players as well. Gorefests become swordswallowers impaled with their own swords, Crawlers become freaky conjoined twins and the Scrake becomes a monkey man with a very creepy mask. But hey, at least you get prize tickets, right?
- As if the regular Zeds weren't bad enough on their own wait until a special event rolls around and gives them a makeover. While some of the new costumes are fairly comedic others make the already scary monsters even worse. For example:
- When zeds like the Clots grab you, the camera turns to the offending zed as the prompt for the melee bash appears. While this helps prevent a scenario where you don't know why you're immobilized, it also provides an easy Jump Scare.
- When fighting Hans Volter, one of his phases involves him throwing up a shield as he runs about, sometimes away from you, sometimes towards. When he runs towards you, you have to damage the shield enough before he gets to you. If he catches you, you get to stare right at his Nightmare Face as he siphons away your health.
- The Abomination, first introduced in the 2017 Christmas event as Krampus. Dear Lord. This monstrous elite version of the Bloat comes not only heavily armoured and wielding two giant axes, it also eats up nearby zeds and then barfs them back up as half-digested suicide bombers that run towards you and explode in a shower of acidic bile. Horrific and disgusting! Wonderful!
- If you listen closely, you can occasionally hear a wet, flatulence-like noise when it is creating spawns, indicating that it doesn't just barf spawn up.
The Maps
- The appropriately named "Nightmare" map, released in 2017 takes place within the dreams of a serial killer clown. Yeah...
- Even better, not only is it a new map. It's actually a collection of maps that get more weirder and more insane the longer you fight the waves of ZEDS. Two maps in particular can really deny you some good night's rest.
- One map is literally an arachnophobic's worst nightmare. Trying to describe it with words does not do it justice. It's better to see it for yourself.
- Another map appears to be some sort of mix between a laboratory and a furnace. For the most part, the map isn't all that scary, except for THIS
THING staring down at you. - The last and final level for the map where you fight the boss is pretty much "Evil Is Visceral" incarnate.
- The "Nuked" map. Remember that infamous level from Modern Warfare where you crawled around in the aftermath of a nucelar strike? Imagine a whole map like that and fill it full of Specimins. You're stuck in a red dustcloud, in the middle of a city that's just been hit by a nuke. God knows how much radiation your characters are soaking up just being there...
- Oh yes, and halfway through the map? You get to see a second nuke firsthand. Air raid sirens go off and then BOOM, the screen shakes and a mushroom cloud appears in the background. Also very much a Moment of Awesome, but still.
- Even better? Come the boss wave, SEVEN MORE NUKES APPEAR ALL AROUND YOU.
- Oh yes, and halfway through the map? You get to see a second nuke firsthand. Air raid sirens go off and then BOOM, the screen shakes and a mushroom cloud appears in the background. Also very much a Moment of Awesome, but still.
- "The Descent" map... Whoo boy where to even begin?
- As the name of the implies, you slowly begin to descend into a series of underground Labs under the Volter Manor. If you thought the original Volter Manor's underground laboratory was bad enough, you ain't seen nothing yet.
- The "Catacombs" map is one of the most mundane ones, but no less horrible than the more fantastic supernatural and sci-fi themed maps. Fighting and running from Zeds in the burning streets of Paris or an abandoned base is one thing, but how about being trapped hundreds of feet below the surface of the Earth in the dim cavernous halls of what is essentially a giant underground cemetery? The whole place is dark, cramped, isolated and just plain creepy even before the hordes of murderous mutants come hunting for you. Better bring a flashlight, a good gun and a lot of bullets...
- The (as of this writing) new map, Sanitarium is just chocked full of cosmic horror imagery
- The second floor of the asylum is lined with corridors of cell doors, with literally dozens of arms shaking and reaching out of the cell door windows while the inhabitants scream and make all sorts of unearthly noises.
- In some entrances to the 3rd floor of the asylum, you're treated to lovely images of areas where people have been skinned alive, with all of their flesh hanging up nearby.
- The third and fourth floor take the cake, where it's an entire catacomb (not unlike Infernal Realm), presumably from what a appears to be an evil cult dedicated to some sort of Eldritch Abomination.
- In the center of the stairs from the third to fourth floor is a giant symbol engraved into the ground, with what appears to be a whole solar system underneath it, with a star, a couple planets, and even a black hole. It's not even clear what or where it is.
- Come halfway into the round, all subtlety of cosmic horror just breaks down when a storm starts up and god damn Cthulhu appears out in the ocean and spends the rest of the map looking down on you.
- Hellmark Station, the seasonal map in the 2020 Halloween Horrors event reeks of this trope, harkening back to much of the visual design that permeated the predecessor:
- To start off, it takes place inside a British subway station overtaken by demons, and the aftermath is highly visible across the map. Spiky rock-structures, orange glowing cracks in the ground, lots of blood, flesh and skeletons lying around all combine to make you feel uneasy while navigating what remains of the station.
- In one area, a cage with skinned corpses can be found hanging over what appears to be a pool of magma. If the victims didn't die from the pain of their exposed flesh, it was certainly the aversion of Convection, Schmonvection that sealed their fate.
- Orange portals scattered around the station reveal where the demons made their entrances, and they're still active. Meaning they could return at any time if they want to "finish" the job* .
Other
- The main menu theme, which takes the already chill-inducing main menu theme from the first game and ramps the nightmare factor up to eleven.
- Pumpkinhead, theme for the 2020 Halloween Horrors event Infernal Insurrection is a complete contrast to most of the game's other seasonal themes, fully embracing the horror aspect of the game. Throughout the track, single continuous beats can be heard, which can symbolize a heart pumping in response to fear.
