Scary Games

[Guitar Woman]

All three Thief games scared me pretty badly. In addition to the ever-present, oppressive vibe gained from being an intruder in every level, all three games have a point where you stop having to match wits with and hide from human opponents and move on to supernatural shit. Zombies, something like 5 different kinds of notzombies, ghosts, Eldritch beings, giant spiders, steampunk battle mechs with nightmare faces, the beastmen, etc. Thief 2 even had something resembling Cybermen from Doctor Who.

Deadly Shadows is particularly nasty, probably to make up for the levels being about 1/4th of the size as in the first two. In addition to the Shalebridge Cradle, easily the scariest level in any video game, ever, you've also got the ghost ship, the Hag, her statues, the Keeper Assassins, the Hammer Haunts and Zombies rendered with more than 5 polygons per model (note that they were still scary back then), and, well, did I mention the fucking Cradle?

I've only played through Deadly Shadows once, and I don't plan to do it ever again, in spite of how great it was, because I'd have to deal with the Puppets again. Fuck those things.