I second all the people saying it's what you don't see that scares you. Anyone here play Thief? That fantastic medieval/steampunk style first person sneaker game? Well for horror look up Thief 3's Cradle levels. It takes place in an abandoned insane asylum which used to be an orphanage. I only managed to play through it the once XD It had the creepiest atmosphere ever, mainly thanks to the ambient sounds... children crying and laughing, wind rustling around you, water dripping, and a banging from somewhere upstairs. You're looking at every shadow, every corner, waiting for something to attack... convinced you just saw something move at the corner of your eye. It has you crawling along, clinging to the walls, peeking around every corner, paralyzed with fear.

Then you creep to the stairs and start going up. Listening hard for anything coming towards you... the door at the top, you made it, you go to open it and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APDua__YcFo! Knocking, on the other side of the door, right in your face... It scared the ever living crap out of me, I turned and ran just about having a heart attack along the way.

Best thing is, on the first cradle level, there is absolutely nothing there. Not one enemy. The level is totally empty and devoid of actual danger. All there is is some spooky sounds and the player's overactive imagination. After finding that out boy did I feel silly... but nope, I'm still not replaying it XD

Dammit, it's almost midnight and I'm too scared to go to bed now after reading this thread!

The thing that actually made me jump were the Ice fields around Winterhold at night.
When all of a sudden a Snowy Sabre Cat jumps you from behind..
Since that day I never travel at night.. always wait 12-15 hours till its 7-10 am lol

honestly intelligent complex ai behavior in a game scares me. like with dead space 2's stalkers it wasnt there open rib cages claws shriek or deformed bird like skulls that scared me it was there ai that scared me i genuinely felt like i was being hunted.

The scariest are the "dragon word wall dungeon", whatever you call them. I was at a certain dungeon yesterday, and i had to run due to a trap that would explode constantly beneath my feet. And once i got clear of the trap, guess what?

Saywut? :celebration: Why, do you owe your dad money?

giant ice spike dlldoes stuck in my [censored] for the rest of the game

oh, the horror !

Horkers. Have you looked at that mouth?!

Play Amnesia: The Dark Descent

That's all.

Dead Space Esq Horror... always crap popping out. Though #2 I saw it coming every time sadly so eh.

Haha, no. I meant that as the like 'You turn around and someone had walked up behind you but you didn't hear them approach' kind of thing. You are not scared when you see that they are there, simply suprised.

However if that thing intends to harm you, and you have no defense, then it would be scary as hell... I shall use this...

In Morrowind, the darkness scared me... I did not know what to expect at night or in caves.

In Oblivion, the Trolls and the darkness scared me. (darkness a little less because it was fairly brighter compared to Morrowind.

In Skyrim... there is not much to be scared of. Trolls still scare me but I rarely see them, and everything is bright enough that I don't need any help seeing things. In Morrowind I constantly had a torch because it was too dark at night or in caves, which is actually realistic. I don't know why Skyrim has candles and lanterns all over. The scariest thing in Skyrim for me is just when the Draugs or whatever pop open their coffins, just that sound. Them coming out of the side crypts don't scare me because I always see them there and hit them before they come out! (Again a problem with the light!)

That is just me though

Play through the haunted hotel in Vampire: Bloodlines.
That was creepy .

if you can't play through that:
dimly lit hallways and rooms.
flashes of lightning that illuminate people who quickly disappear. walk down a dead end hallway, turn around and see an axe murderer right in front of you. you attack but he disappears.
incoporal enemies that you can't actively attack, but they also can't attack you - they just show up to startle you or lead you in a direction and then disappear.
ghostly telekenesis throwing pictures and vases at you - walking around a corner and having a vase suddenly crash into your face.
floors that collapse, dumping you in the creeepy basemant.
grandfather clocks sounding the hour as you walk past.
newspaper headlines, notes and journals that tell fragments of the whole story/mystery.
doors that open by themselves. a small childs toy rolling across the floor to stop at your feet.
lights that all go out in room you just walked in, then just as suddenly come back on showing a message scrawled on a wall.
whispers. sobs.
multiple ghosts - one trying to help you solve the mystery; one trying to scare you away.
sound is very important.

Saber tooth cats and bears, they scare the hell out of me after I've paid 1000 for a horse.

gets my heartbeating when i realize i have no shot in a fight and am low on health and am running away from the enemie, happens mostly with giants and mammoths, one of the most exciting things is when im out on a mountain and i hear a dragon shriiek and start lookign around for it in the sky

That is an incredibly helpful list! Especially clocks sounding, maybe I'll do like bells in the distance.

1. The possibility of random, sudden harm
2. Dying quickly
3. combining 1 and 2
4. your mother

Good list. My mom scares me too.

the undead :'(

when something is chasing me that i cant outrun

Things you cannot see and load noises that make you jump. It's awesome.

Swimming.

I don't know, when I get in the water, I keep imagining a giant shark killing me

Creepers.

Quiet, dark areas in which I know there are enemies, but can't see them. I can let myself get pretty immersed. Amnesia scares the crap out of me still. In Fallout 3 there were some unnerving areas, namely dark areas with feral ghouls. Skyrim isn't so bad, but I had a wolf sneak up on me and I nearly jumped out of my seat.

EDIT: After seeing the post above me: Yes, creepers. Freaking creepers.

The fact that if you're no khajiit, unarmed builds are pointless.

Molag Bal dominating my mind and body