If you see one of them while you're running low on ammo, then RUN!
One of the scariest game mods that has been made for Half-Life requires its own page to elaborate fully on the fear within. The mods title lives up to its name, you see, and the main article is becoming full of it.In short, if you aren't afraid of monsters when you start this game, you will be.
- The mod's first Nightmare is one of the most frightening moments. In David's nightmare, he is told to Follow the Red. Without the ability to do anything else, he does. One part of the nightmare is darker somehow, and the player might notice it seems to be a tunnel. Regardless, he has to go through it. And then half-way through it happens: The lights turn on, revealing him to be in a room with caged monsters in the walls, screaming when they see him. Then they calm down and don't do anything but constantly blink, staring at David until he leaves the tunnel to continue following the red dots on the black road. To more scares.
- The first time you encounter a zombie is definitely another big shocker. When exploring the hospital after the nightmare, David encounters a two-legged monster which he kills easily. The monster happened to be in a closet with a button, that David has to push to progress. So when the player goes in, the zombie comes from the door behind and attacks David. You don't even have time to react — you are looking at the button when you suddenly hear a high-pitched gibberish and start taking hits from behind. The zombies are fast so if you were unprepared when it came, you probably lost half your health on that single enemy!
- The blackout. You have to turn off the generators that yields electricity to the hospital from the basement. When it is done, it becomes pitch black everywhere, followed swiftly by VERY SPOOKY music
. There are many more zombies running in the hospital now, and the only things to help you against them is a knife, a pistol, some ammo, and a puny flashlight. Save Scumming for your life.- You might receive damage as you fumble in the dark, and you might need health. You are not worried about that, as you remember, there are more painkillers in the bathroom where you started the game. So you get there, and as soon as you open the door there is another zombie standing there, waiting. You'd think the area where you started the game would be free of enemies, but it isn't.
- Markland Forest manages to become even worse, because it introduces one certain enemy that you have been lucky to avoid all this time: Invisible zombies. You hear their uncanny screams but cannot find see them, and you don't realize they are invisible until you take hits. However, you can see them with the flashlight; when you aim at one of them, the light becomes a glowing orb around the zombie's feet. That is how you know it is running after you too. They're also very fittingly introduced when David (you) suddenly start hearing eerie, unintelligible whispering voices that'll certainly unnerve first-timers a very great deal
- As hilarious it might sound, the first time one can actually get scared is before you start playing Director's Cut; the menu has a dark picture of a Twitcher in the background, with loomy music playing (which is Stone In Focus by Aphex Twin). But even then you might notice that the music is in low volume, so you crank it up and decide to start playing. But then you scroll over New Game and- BZZ BZZ ZZZ
- The Half-Life engine has two sound systems. One is for noises caused by the game, and the other for music playing while the game is on. It just so happens that the DC mod has the noise filter much higher, and the music filter lower on default. You have to change this in the options to set it right; something not required with other Half-Life modifications...
- When you're fighting the final boss — yourself — stabbing him for the first time makes him pull an axe out of his body, bleeding, even. To wit — the fire axe is the best melee weapon in the game. Crap.
- Mona Lisa's new look.◊ Worse than it sounds.
- On the Sven Co-op server, whenever the admin (IceBlueDeer) decides to show up as the original protagonist, David Leatherhoff. So far, he's appeared out of nowhere to kill a random player in full view of everyone, burst open out of previously unopenable doors (or some CAGES) to kill someone, fuck with the players by using macros to open their CD drives, and other scary tricks. Needless to say, they did more to the mod than just porting it to Sven Co-op.
- Here's a few examples.
- Did we mention he has access to some weapons other players do not? Armoredscout 1 was recording a playthrough on the server, and around a corner in the subway came David carrying a machine gun.
- If you for some odd reason decide to play the game in a Sven Co-op Server alone, you would realise that it has an extra creepy addition: The enemies have audible footsteps now. A fast zombie running at you is one thing, but when everything you hear in the dark is a thundering thumping marching your way that is anything but a player? It gets worse due to the fact that Sven Co-op is supposed to be played with others, so the monsters have much more health. Truly one of the most terrifying things you can experience is being alone in this case, and it's the easiest way to die. And that's if the server admin isn't bored and doesn't kill you themselves.
- Watching the game from David's perspective is quite scary as he types in commands to the console to create incredibly scary noises. If you watched his perspective during the live finale on Spike and Barley Play, then you'd notice that when the screeching occurred in the house, his viewpoint twitched around wildly, the same thing occurring during the final battle in the good ending where the view twitched throughout the whole fight.
- Here's
- Most of the screams and mumbles heard in the mod are from different sources on the internet. Sources such as Liquid Generation Screamers. If you are enough of a schmuck, this mod might actually continue to haunt you after you stopped playing it.
- Double that for the soundtrack. The majority of the music is taken from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, which is one of the most acclaimed ambient albums (containing not only some of the most beautiful tracks in the genre, but also some of the scariest). There is a high opportunity that you'll hear these tracks outside of the mod sooner or later.
- The wheelchair-bound enemies are surprisingly disturbing. In contrast to the other enemies in the mod, they are slow, and it is quite easy to be thrown off by that. But they still pack a punch, and they mostly appear as Jump Scare.
- The floating heads that can shoot their own eyes at you and teleport. They love showing up in cramped spaces, such as office cubicles and bedrooms.
- Afraid of Monsters can best be described as "Silent Hill meets Half-Life." Despite being on an outdated engine, it was scary, and apparently programmed in the language of sheer terror. The forest level is probably the worst, but some of the endings might top it. One includes finding out that the monsters you were killing throughout the game were actually innocent people that only looked like monsters due to your psychosis and the massive amount of drugs you've been taking. Player Punch indeed.
