Bethesda describes "Bleak Falls Barrow" to be a terrifying dungeon. If you missed this information here it is:


The quote was taken from the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1178265-details-on-skyrim/page__p__17430187__hl__terrifying__fromsearch__1#entry17430187 thread

Thing is, to me, Oblivion presented no horror factor at all, I really wanted to find myself hesitating while exploring a dungeon, but I found myself just jump forward slashing everything in path even if it was stronger than me, all I'd do is just run. I didn't hesitate, cause I didn't feel I needed to.

Can't say the same for Morrowind. With its general lonely-gray-scary feeling, I did hesitate quite a few times. Thing is Oblivion is more recent than Morrowind, and I'm just not sure I'll actually feel "scared" while walking through a dungeon, I hope they won't make us feel like we're invincible or anything (Meaning with all the new features battles have now, not that we are actually over-powered or anything).

I'm sure Skyrim will make me hesitant quite a few times, but as for "terrified" while exploring Bleak Falls Barrow or any other 'scary' dungeon... well, I'd just have to wait and see it for myself.

Question at hand: Do you think (based on past experiences with TES games) that you'll actually be terrified as Beth tends to describe their dungeon?

The only horror games that can terrify me are games like Amnesia, which is mostly based on psychology and things that actually aren't there. And where you can't beat every scary thing that jumps at you with a pointy stick or a fireball.

No doubt Oblivion's zombies were also called terrifying at some point in the previews.

I am great at freaking myself out. All i will need to do is enter a cave without any torch and try and defeat the enemies in darkness.

In a game so open as TES games, it's difficult to terrify the player exactly at the point you want, but you could be scared in places not supposed to have that effect. I remember when played morrowind, I entered a house in Ald'rhun and finding in the basemant a dim candle ilumination and a lot of corprus creatures. this was suposed to be part of an easy redoran quest, but I had entered by my way, without knowng anything about corprus. I didn't even try to exprore the place, I simply go away.

They had the right look, but I think Oblivion failed in the way it used them. They were indeed scary looking, but seeing them from a far, and knowing that they are already there, plus, I always knew what to expect from dungeons.
I think Oblivion was wrong with presenting zombies right at the beginning, when there was this one zombie running towards you, I got used to them too quickly, or even immediately

oblivion aint so scary but has great atmosphere.. marching across the dementia swampland in the dead of night is very cool.

passwall during the battle of passwall quest.

the external ruins of sancre tor in the early hours during a light snowstorm.

dungeons in OB are much scarier when you turn the brightness down on your TV so you need a torch.

I agree with your statement in general but look at Morrowind, it did great with creating different scary atmospheres in the game, though it was more psychological than actually being scary.


I did in fact turned down my brightness while playing OB, but I still couldn't find it scary... it just didn't really feel right. I guess you can't argue on taste.

In order for it to be scary there have to be scripted events. It can't be scary if we just know that there are skeletons walking around a dungeon on a pre-set path. There have to be scripted plot sequences or moments and that would be very hard to do for 120 dungeons. So my guess it it either won't be scary or it will, just not through scripted events. I dunno what else could achieve it though.

Ok...this is gonna be skyrim.... i bet'cha it will be scary. I think that dragon looks scary Scary as in dangerous, but with the new elemtal traps and stuff i bet it will be so much more scary. Like you can be stuck in a web while a spider slowly comes at you with a pedo face

Oblivion's dungeons aren't scary, because they're not supposed to be. Neither were Morrowind dungeons, at most you were agitated by the possible stronger enemies.

This dungeon going to contain spiders, so it will be instantly scarier...

It's a bit scarier when the difficulty is up.

I found Oblivion dungeons scary at first, because I didn't know if I would survive the next thing that came at me, and it could be really tough, and I didn't know what was around each bend, the occasional moan or crackle putting my nerves up slightly so I was always looking around. But then I realised that it was pretty much the same thing everywhere, they were generally pretty easy, and all about the same difficulty to kill.

The orphanage level in Thief - Deadly Shadows takes some beating. I think I crawled slowly through the entire level.

pretty much what it smooths out too, in morrowind it was a bit dire since some tomb enemies sapped your strenght or made your Fatigue worthless so you'd get pounded on, that coupled with the fact the ghosts don't have foot steps or as Neon bright as oblivions as well as having a iron dagger be worthless beyond reason for its skeletal companions really shoved first time players in the pit :laugh:


Don't over anolyze these statements, remember they are pitching the game they are going to spam all kinds of eye catching and thought provoking terms when there really is none

I hope they put in some more horror elements into dungeons, at least some of them,
it would be nice to explore some dark occult cathedral or something. Almost makes me think of Diablo 1 , that game had a great atmosphere.

Great Nord warriors are fearless. Good luck making anything in the game scary.

That said, I don't expect much. Don't get freaked out at all by any scary games/movies. When the game can actually threaten my life, then I might be scared. I would say that it's going to kill my social life, but that's been dead for some time now lol. Not that I wouldn't like the attempt, I think they should try to make it as "scary" as possible for the atmosphere.

Obviously, I can't say for certain, being as I haven't played the game, but based on past experiences with Bethesda games, I can't say I expect Skyrim to scare me. Oblivion never scared me, and neither did Morrowind, maybe with mods, they could succeed at getting a few scares out of me, but the games, as they were upon release, just didn't do it in that regard. Of course, they Elder Scrolls is not a horror game, it doesn't really need to be able to scare me to succeed, but if Bethesda ever meant to scare players in Morrowind or Oblivion at any point, then it did not work for me, and I don't really expect Skyrim to succeed where past games failed in that regard. For one thing, the developers have never given me any reason to believe that they're able to scare me, and for another, the Elder Scrolls isn't really the type of game that lends itself to being scary, and I don't just mean that in the sense that it's not a horror game. Aside from the open world thing already mentioned making it difficult to intentionally craft situations to scare players, there's also the fact that even when you have monsters that LOOK scary, once you realize that you can handle them, the fear they can inspire is diminished considerably, and I think that's part of what makes games like Amnesia work well, because the things that you're afraid of aren't things you can kill. I often find that horror games like Dead Space really aren't that scary, and aside from overreliance on jump scares that often become quite predictable and gore, I think part of that also comes from the fact that all too often, your character ends up becoming a badass. Monsters suddenly become a lot less frightening when you can kill them reletively easily, as it diminishes the sense of helplessness, like your dealing with forces beyond what what you can handle, and your only choice is to struggle to survive, if you can even accomplish that, and that feeling doesn't exactly mesh with being the all powerful hero who is the world's only hope.

Now, past games could potentially inspire a sense of danger, but that's different from being scared, any game can do that, if you know there's legitimate risk involved, but actual fear is much harder to do, and based on past experiences with the Elder Scrolls, they might SAY Bleak Falls Barrow is "terrifying", but I'll have to see it to believe it.



That's not a statement I can agree with. Now, Morrowind was able to inspire a number of things in me, but fear was never among them.



That really depends on who you ask. If you have arachnophobia, then yes, it would make them scarier, but since I don't, spiders really don't do much for me, I just find them to be cliched and kind of boring as far as monsters go.

Don't confuse Stupidity with courage :flamethrower: :tongue:


Nords are afraid of Alduin

Nords ran like little children from the elves and had to get the big brother to fight for them

Nords are afraid of Hircine's Werewolves

I only played the beginning, but you know what was scary? That pitch black mine with the hard to hit spiders and the sudden flock of wolves from nowhere in Nehrim!

11.11.11 cant come quick enough ive never wanted a game so bad
and i hope there are lots of random scary moments when you least expect them not jus strollin into a dungeon an a spider casualy decends from the roof i want it like on aliens where they lock onto your face or somethin ehh what would i know
i think im havin withdrawrals and its not out yet wish i was in a coma till november :sadvaultboy:

A pretty scary moment in Morrowind was when you find gems in daedric shrines. Sometimes you could take them without risk, while some other times a dremora lord was summoned to destroy you. It was very tense for low-middle level characters.

Are you actually saying that everything that is not scripted is not scary?



Can't agree with you here, it's very noticable that Oblivion's dungeons and Morrowind's dungeons were made to be scary.
And I don't find spiders scary... so...

Nope. This isn't Project Zero or Silent Hill 2. To really be terrified one must be powerless, and that ain't happening in a TES game.

I've never been truly frightened by a game. I'm a big horror fan and watch a lot of horror films, so games don't do it for me in this regard. So to answer your question, I don't expect it to be "terrifying".

Oblivion never scared me, but there were a couple points in Fallout 3 that I felt were genuinely creepy while playing alone at night, so I don't think it out of the realm of possibility that Skyrim will pack a few scary dungeon crawls.

this subject is simply way too subjective. LOL each person has a different threshold as to what scares them and what does not. it is IMPOSSIBLE to scare everyone especially in a game environment. so, threads like this really aren't productive and pretty much degrade into a flame fest. it's threads like this that are the scariest dungeons of all. LOL