Dying in a horror game is usually bad enough, but it gets worse when developers add horrifying death screen animations and Game Over screens solely to add insult to injury. Yeah, they do that. Here’s a list of games you should definitely avoid if you don’t want to give in to cosmic despair.
Alan Wake 2’s game over screen is an absolute nightmare
The original Alan Wake already verged on horror even though it was equal parts a mystery tale. Alan Wake 2 has a death screen animation that really wants you to know you’re about to know real terror.
AW 2‘s Game Over screen shows a quick succession of cuts accompanied by the sweet sound of distorted screams and some pure noise. Honestly, no words can really explain it. I recommend you make the mistake of succumbing to your own curiosity and check it out.
Imagine having to deal with that whenever you die. Now that’s the inspiration we all needed to go for deathless runs.
When the hunter cuts your head off in Resident Evil 1
One of the great things about the original Resident Evil is that it never stops upping the ante. Rather late in the game, players meet Hunters, the only enemies that will just cut your head clean off. Even in a game with flesh-eating ex-humans, extra-rabid dogs, evil sharks, a giant snake, and even an evil plant, this is quite a shock.
Few sights humble your ego more than that of the unkillable hero taking a permanent nap away from their head, and Resident Evil did it better than most.
Leon loses his head in Resident Evil 4
How many brave RE4 newcomers have entered the game’s first area, the iconic Spanish village, only to find a very surprising and humbling death? I remember getting ready to serve roundhouse kicks with the spec ops-upgraded Leon, only to see his head lopped off by the first chainsaw-wielding maniac that I was unlucky enough to cross paths with.
Resident Evil is a gory franchise, and players are accustomed to the idea of literally losing their heads. Still, in true Resident Evil 4 fashion, this game does it better than any other in the franchise. This is the only time when we see a full-health main character biting it in such a deliberately slow and up-close manner.
I’m not joking when I say that’s the only time in the franchise that it gets this good. Even the awesome remake fails to reach the same level when it comes to chainsaw-related deaths.
Fission Mailed in Metal Gear Solid 2
There’s more to terrifying moments in video games than just explicitly horror franchises. In fact, the most powerful kind of horror comes from subverting the player’s expectations.
Hideo Kojima is the master of messing with players. He trained PS1 players to use a second controller port to beat a boss in Metal Gear Solid, then used the same trick on a console without controller ports in Metal Gear Solid 4 just to mess with them.
But it’s the special Game Over screens in Metal Gear Solid 2 that show him at the peak of his troll powers. “Fission Mailed” Game Over screens show up later in the game and are triggered even when players did nothing wrong. They’re there mostly to mess with the minds of players, but they also serve a narrative purpose. These fake Game Over screens draw a parallel to the events of the game, where an evil AI is interfering with the mission at hand.
Fission Mailed screens aren’t terrifying because they show something explicitly scary or gory. Instead, they implant the idea in the player’s head that they’re powerless over their own game.
An honorable mention goes to the “Time Paradox” Game Overs from Metal Gear Solid 3, which interrupts gameplay when we kill someone in the past who’d have an important role in the future.
Eternal Darkness’ fake game overs still haunt us
If we’re speaking of fake Game Over screens, we can’t ignore Eternal Darkness. This game is about 40% fake death screens that exist just to have players doubt their sanity.
Yes, Eternal Darkness could’ve been a psyop hellbent on ridding players of their love for video games by forcing them to experience abject amounts of failure. This game has not one, but 23 minutes worth of footage dedicated to fool players, much of which is fake Game Over screens.
Eternal Darkness is either a great game or a vile one that has bullied so many into liking it. Based on how often fans rally for a sequel or a remake, we’re betting on the former.
The original Ninja Gaiden’s Game Over screen
Arcades tried to get money out of players by making games extremely difficult to beat. Still, they also had other tricks up their sleeves. In Ninja Gaiden, they asked for ransom money to save Ryu Hayabusa — on top of the difficulty, that is.
And the devs didn’t just write a message asking for money. They showed Hayabusa tied up while a rotating saw descended upon him to the count of the continue screen.
Seeing someone who’s just one coin short of getting sawed in half is way more than we’d expect from an old-school title made famous by Nintendo.
Heather gets dragged to a dark fate in Silent Hill 3
Heather, the protagonist from Silent Hill 3, doesn’t die once her health reaches zero. That’s a departure from the other games in the series, albeit far from a nice one.
After getting knocked out, there’s a chance that the game will show you her true fate. When this cutscene plays, we see Valtiel, a mysterious monster from the game, dragging her away to an undisclosed location.
We know from the get-go that he has bad intentions, but we don’t know to which extent. We learn later that an evil cult wants to impregnate Heather with the embryo of their “god”. SH3 spends a long time building up this mystery, which ends up making it all even darker.
Luigi’s Mansion deleted game over screen
Luigi’s Mansion‘s regular Game Over screen isn’t anything to write home about, but did you know about its forbidden Game Over screen?
At some point during development, the game featured a different game over screen. In it, Luigi seems to either turn undead or to be going through one hell of a hangover.
Either way, this is definitely not something you’d usually see in a Nintendo game. It’s no wonder this one never made it to the actual game. Still, Nintendo should’ve known that there’s just no hiding this kind of thing.
Published: Oct 14, 2023 10:35 am