Depends on the inhabitants. Undead dungeons should be darker and scarier. Dungeons with human or sub-human inhabitants -- should be reasonably lit, with torches / sconces along the wall.

Makes sense because men and mer cant inhabit every nook and cranny in the world so yeah that would be a plus.

Maybe not all the dungeons, but there definitely should be at least a few dungeons that are genuinely creepy. The Dunwich Building in Fallout 3 is a decent example, but it didn't go nearly far enough. A door opened on its own, some stuff fell off a desk, and there was a flashback at one point. For a genuinely creepy experience (at least for me), you need to try to psychologically mess with the player, IE: use of ambient noise and correct usage of shadows and lighting effects. Stuff like that is what made Amnesia one of the scariest games of all time.

Ever played a little game clled diablo 2......hardcoe !?!?!?!

Dunwich Building was great in FO3, with flashbacks, doors opening on their own, extremely dark environment, and once you reach the lower levels, there is a low audible sound emitting and only really becomes distinctive when you reach the statue.

Problem though...I've never been close to being that freaked out in OB than any other game. I blame it on the very similarish enemies, the idea of knowing what enemies I'll be facing, and there is just no foreboding sense of doom. Amnesia is great in the respect that you cannot fight back and the atmosphere was oppressive. Silent Hill, while you can fight back, had also had an oppressive atmosphere, and you weren't that great at fighting and the enemies were quite disturbing. In TES games, your character is quite adept at fighting, so one could just get in, slice, dice, and blast your way through and laugh with bloodthirst.

This.

i just got Amnesia: The Dark Decent, and i was just thinking that i want every dungeon crawl in skyrim to be equally terrifying.
and yes i like the idea of ACTUALLY having to use torches and night eye.

Depends on the dungeon, though I do hope dungeons are scarier. But to be honest, once again it depends on the location

OK so perhaps there are two of you who want hello kitty dungeons.

Stumble upon a massive ruin forgotten by time, and battle through some simple wolves, but as you delve within the cave you unleash a disgusting pile of putrilage with gaping maws that holds no true form. So yeah I'd say go Mountains o' Madness on people. :hubbahubba:

I tend to agree overall. Thing is, once your a high level or played the dungeon through before, itll never be as scary. I remember some Oblivion dungeons being creepy their first run, but then you are used to it. Having some thrilling moments is fine, but not every dungeon needs to be a scarefest.

Lovecraftian, or like Amnesia. Seriously, even the one in that video wasn't really creepy, it takes more than darkness and some music to get that atmosphere right and I would love to see it in a couple of places.

Good atmosphere is what I hope for in scary dungeons.

I agree. That why all my chars had non-overpowered weapons/armor (even the modded ones were daedric-level or less) and had their HP capped to 100 points.

I died a lot of times, but I recovered the "danger" feeling I had while playing a low level char in Morrowind.

Well, at least you should have a decent chance of killing most of the stuff you encounter in Skyrim. Although it would be nice if there were some exceptions where you just pretty much have to run like hell. Problem is that once you condition people to kill everything that threatens them, they're probably going to assume they have a chance even when ludicrously outmatched -- might be good to have an NPC tell the player explicitly to run. Still, it's possible to shake up player expectations and throw some terrifying stuff in the middle of a game that is otherwise more tense or heroic. No reason Skyrim can't have its own Shalebridge Cradle.

Part of the problem (of creepy dungeons) is music, though it can be turned off. Scary dungeons shouldn't even have music (battle or otherwise), just ambient sounds put together to creep you out maximally. Too bad they don't have Eric Brosius.

I want at least 2 or 3 dungeons to be 7 or more LARGE levels deep.

1. Disable Night Eye or make it cost an arm and a leg's worth of Magicka to use.
2. Make Dungeons really dark.
3. Put traps everywhere.
4. Add a ton of Undead enemies.
5. Proceed to crap pants.

Now amirite or amirite?

4.b. haunting sound design
4.c. insert Necromancer or similar faction with backstory, character dialogue and quests that are actually scary
4.d. overhaul ghosts, undead to make them actually scary
4.e. remove any enemy NPCs talking shop about mudcrabs from dungeon
4.f. more cramped, claustrophobic caverns, esp. where you must sneak past creepy enemies that can easily kill you

I'd like *some* dungeons to be really creepy and/or really really dark, like in the video. But I'd also like a torch to be better than a low yield/level light spell, so that spells might be a good backup but not the full solution. I also loved the way there were torches and lanterns already there that you could light manually or with a fireball. But I also want the occasional well lit dungeon, especially active mines and the like. It would really add to the feeling if at some places, close to the ground, there were passages up to surface, and in other places windows in the rockside, where light lit up the area if it was during the day.

So, daylight should affect upper levels of a dungeon, with the occasional daylight lit room way below if it happened to be near a rockside (you may even find it to be an exit you don't really get to use without killing yourself )

More variation between lit and dark dungeons, even if they are not quite as dark (complete blackness is a game design controversy) as in the video. A simple mod may fix that if lighting is done correctly.

Night eye is fine. Just make it variable in power. (100-skill)*normal vision + skill*night eye.

As long as it's not completely pitch black again. I would like some dark dungeons but c'mon let's not make another Doom 3.

Disagree. I found Daggerfall`s dungeons to be scary.

The eerie sound effects added a lot to that feeling of dread.

Now when I think of it Oblivion did have moments, I was once in a cave on a character that I play out as a kind of a monk, light armor, restoration, hand to hand... basically low damage, so I ran into this Dread Zombie in a cave and saw I didn′t stand a chance against its health regeneration with my low hand to hand damage (being the pacifist and all my monk didn′t really do much damage with anything...) so I ran into this side-way that was really tight hoping to be able to find another path out when I suddenly hear a groan in front of me and notice a headless zombie coming at me from the shadows in front of me, so I basically turned around and saw that I was trapped in a dark tunnel between a headless zombie and a dread zombie and all I could do was just say "Oh Arkay..." and then proceed to get mauled to death by two zombies in the shadows of a tight dark cave.

Had a lot larger scare factor back then, than how it sounds when I recall the moment, but it really was a "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, AAAAHHHH!" moment back then

I agree, some of those dungeons did a great job of giving you a feeling of dread. I remember when I first played it and I was just scared to go around the corner because of a bat I could hardly kill

haha that was the magic of Daggerfall. I actually found it more scary than either Morrowind or Oblivion.

That 1st dungeon at the start when you had to escape, I was literally sh*tting my pants, hearing all these noises -screeches, groans, oh and the doors when they opened..that rusty hinges sound. Ack.
I can also remember when I had to go and talk to Manimarco. I was terrified of him and the liches in that dungeon. I can also remember a mission when you had to wait for some Vampires to arrive that were after you. I used to hide up in the attic of the house, wondering if they would find me there...lol

Thats true atmosphere in a game.

Yeah, the sounds and erie music made it very scary, combined with a pretty tough starter dungeon. However, I think it was scary because it was new and fresh. If I wasn't used to it, I think also todays dungeons would be scary. If you try maximum difficulty, anything will be scary