The gameplay in general; you're all alone as you make your way through claustrophobic, badly run-down environments piecing together vicious murders while fending off angry, homicidal maniacs that are either running rampant or hiding in the shadows as they try to attack and murder anyone they come across.
The Mall Level. The living mannequins, dilapidated interior, mysterious deaths, the dead body down the escalator, the weird warped Christmas music playing incessantly, and finally "The Matchmaker" killer you were supposedly chasing is found dead, posed, and killed by his own methods.
You think being attacked by a psycho disguised as a mannequin is bad enough? Wait until you see what they look like beneath their disguises.
The abandoned school level. Those little imp-like people, the creepy, messed up Lunch Lady, and the final scare in the form of the torturer's last victim found in a locker, supposedly dead. Then Rosa HAS to ask for a closeup.... Its made worse by the fact that you're expecting it to happen...
He cut off his victim's goddamn lips!!!
Also the part where you come across the dead body of yourself.
The underground tunnels. They're populated by bone-white, anorexic looking psychos, who appear to be teenagers, who'll try to kill you regardless; it's cramped and attacks can come from all sides as well, and if you go far enough, you'll face giant sledgehammer or shovel wielding psychos in firefighter coats.
What's particularly disturbing about the subway tunnels is that signs around the station warn people not to travel in the subway tunnels and imply that the civil disorder and deranged, violent behaviour has been going on for some time. Everyone knows about it...but the authorities are seemingly powerless to stop it. It feels like society is collapsing completely.
The basement in the Library level. It's burnt out, smoky, highly claustrophobic, and constantly has bizarre mutants reaching through the bookshelves at you while you run through the thin areas between the stacks.
When you reach the farm house within the apple orchard and you must walk through the seemingly empty house. Complicating things is the fact that for the most part you are without your flashlight because you need to have the blacklight on to see the trails of psycho babble written on the ceiling and floors. It's even worse because after an entire game of being attacked by psychotic hobos and plagued with mind screwing hallucinations the first and second floors of the house are completely empty albeit very disheveled and creaky. Then when you finally go down to the basement a couple of the pale junkies pop out and rush you.
Should you choose to explore the attic first, you'll be charged by what can, in comparison with the previous monstrosities that you've encountered, only be described as Satan incarnate.
Then there's the moment you leave the basement only to discover you're not alone anymore...
In the last few minutes of the game Ethan freaks out and seems to transform into some kind of deranged monster. Then he roars at the camera. The end.
In the subway level, you open a cupboard and get a medkit. You open the cupboard next to it-and a crazy zombie-like lady jumps out and smacks you with a rebar.
At the climax, the player is stripped of their flashlight and taser and forced to trek through a dark orchard and surrounding farm buildings, wielding only a flaming 2x4 that acts as their primary light source. And throughout this experience, you are attacked by six foot tall burn victims wielding the same weapons that can be seen moving through the darkness towards the player from a distance, as well as the stick-wielding, pale-white, ninja-like enemies with metal devices attached to their jaw. Definitely one of the scariest segments of the series.
Speaking of the latter group, the juxtaposition between them and the normal enemies is its own form of jarring. In a game mostly filled with violent, mentally anguished drug addicts and homeless people that just swing at you with reckless abandon because you probably look like a monster or someone who fucked them out of a better life with their addled state, here comes a single, pale-skinned thing that expertly wields a pair of metal perforated sticks and completely, wholeheartedly wants you dead.
Burnside. An area of the town mentioned by Rosa, and the setting for the Mall level of the game amongst others. It's simply referred to by her as a place where the police don't go. Judging by what Ethan sees of it, it's pretty much entirely run by territorial groups of psychopathic murderers who do whatever they want and sadistically kill whoever they want.
