Nightmare Fuel / Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• The attack on the villa in the first stage of the game has two levels of scary.
  • First the in-universe waking up to cannon fire, except it's not just practice by the guards, but a genuine attack. Ezio realizes this when a cannon ball crashes through his bedroom. This is followed by frantically galloping to the walls and firing at the enemy to hold them back, and failing at this, killing the soldiers getting over the wall. The enemy keeps pouring in and quickly forces Ezio into retreat through the rear.
  • Second the out-of-universe for the player. The horse scene is chaotic and unstable, like a blur in Ezio's memory. Firing a cannon is a new mechanic so the player is flying by the seat of their pants (like Ezio himself) and then they have to quickly adjust to being Brought Down to Normal versus a lot of enemies.
• The Truth puzzles are back, now called "Rifts", and they're just as sinister as their Glyph predecessors. Let's elaborate on that further, shall we ?
  • The fact that Ubisoft had to only slightly modify historical events to make them appear as if they were part of an ancient conspiracy (mainly by adding references to the Templars).
  • Oh, and instead of having to hear Subject 16's ramblings, these puzzles take place in almost complete silence. The only thing that keeps you company is the Animus' OS voice, speaking in a creepy Machine Monotone, even when it starts channeling Subject 16 and the line spoken reads like it should be screamed.
  "Infinite rooms. Dimensions unknown. I am alone, nothing alive. No light, no warmth. packets moving, husks through the darkness. I am frightened. I am frightened."
  • What's the grand conspiracy this time, you may ask? Well, nothing more than the fact that capitalism was created to replace the divine right of kings for Templar rule. Sleep tight.
• We are introduced to the rest of the Borgia family in this game, and they're just as fucked up as Rodrigo, similarly to their Real Life reputation and beyond. Perhaps worst of all is the deeply unsettling scene in which Cesare kills Rodrigo with a poisoned apple.
• While the Borgias are already a treasure trove of Nightmare Fuel (especially Cesare), some of their lieutenants also qualify. A notable offender is The Doctor, Roma's own Jack the Ripper. Even Fiora Cavazza, despite all the killings she participated in and madmen she encountered at this moment, is scared out of her mind when she has to meet him for Cesare. Thankfully for her, she realizes seconds before it's too late that he's a Dirty Coward.
• The Lair of Romulus mission "The Sixth Day" is a masterclass in Nothing Is Scarier. It's set in the dilapidated ruins of the Lateran Palace, the home of the popes before they moved to the Vatican. Ezio must work his way through room after room of collapsed rubble and abandoned finery, all with faint choral music in the background creating the impression of a constant murmur of voices just out of sight. There's no combat in the entire mission, but as the surroundings grow ever more decrepit and oppressive, you're certain those damn wolves are going to leap out any second. All in all, the whole level feels like tresspassing on haunted, sacred ground that doesn't want you there.
• Most of "The Truth" puzzles fall into this category, but the most chilling is one of the phone recordings from Abstergo. It's of a man calling customer service for a problem with his television. After talking nervously to the overly-nice phone operator for awhile, he reveals that while flipping through the channels, his television randomly froze on a menu that lists information about himself and his son, including their interests and personal information. The call suddenly gets redirected to an Abstergo executive who apologizes for any inconvienience and says that a technician is on his way, just as it starts to dawn on the father that his television company has been watching him through his TV. Then his 12-year-old son reports that there's someone knocking very hard on the door. "Have a good day. Mr. Jameson."
  • There's also an Abstergo field recording from an author who's managed to discover Abstergo's holdings in the majority of the world's companies and their ambitions of world domination, and he's planning on exposing them in his next book. Unfortunately for him, Abstergo fits all their vehicles with monitoring systems. A Templar agent, far too casually, asks that the security risk be corrected and congratulates his colleague on his promotion. Probably not the first time this has happened.
• Almost the entire final scene. Aside from Juno possessing Desmond and forcing him to stab Lucy, her cryptic messages get increasingly more frightening as you climb around.
  WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU AS YOU WERE!

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