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It’s Spooky Season, and right now is the perfect time to talk about spooky levels. I love the theme, be it a Halloween motif or something scarier. Games aren’t limited to skeletons and pumpkins, though. Spooky levels in games have lots of aesthetics to choose from, as well and plenty of fun narrative themes and mechanical quirks to play with. Design a great spooky level might not be as hard as you think. Let’s talk about how!
Featuring:
Banjo-Kazooie
Shovel Knight
Super Mario World
Zelda: Wind Waker
Outer Wilds
Resident Evil Village
Metal Gear Solid 3
Batman Arkham Asylum
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44 Comments
Desert of the Knaaren from Rayman 3. Now there is a level that utterly terrified me as a kid.
What a pleasant surprise to see The Fear from MGS3 here! Loved hearing your take on it in this context—I’ve always felt kinda similarly, but I actually don’t mind it. The way I think of it is, if I were in Snake’s shoes, fear would absolutely be the overriding emotion, even if that’s not the emotion I’m experiencing as the player. As you said, it becomes an interesting test of crafty thinking to discover all the different possible solutions. I found The End and The Fury to be MUCH scarier experiences as a player—even if narratively that’s not the driving emotion used by the combatant. Loved the video, Happy Halloween! 🎃👻🧛🏻♂️
Haunted mansion is the best spooky level song, i always I play it at Halloween parties
Von Everec mansion in the Witcher 3 DLC
Having recently played Outer Wilds, Dark Bramble has definitely been added to my list of "horror levels done right." There's two other entries on that list:
One is the Ocean House Hotel in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Fairly early in the game, you're given a mandatory quest to investigate a haunted hotel, which burned years ago but is being restored by one of the more established vampires in LA. She's having trouble getting construction done, so she needs a way to get rid of the ghost. That means finding a keepsake of the ghost's from the hotel…and you're an expendable pawn available for such a task. So you go to the hotel, and it's haunted as anything. Phones ringing, light bulbs bursting, random objects being thrown at you, and so, so much more. It's great, and ramps things up brilliantly over time. Very fun experience!
The other is Shalebridge Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows. This one is not so fun, and won't hit everyone as hard as it hit me, but it's super fucking creepy. Lore is that it's an orphanage, that briefly got used as an insane asylum, and then finally burned down, and is now super haunted. Which in this case means the spirit of the building is replaying its memories of when it was at its most miserable, and anyone who stays inside long enough winds up trapped in those memories too. It has some heavy themes – it's playing into the worst, most tortuous aspects of historic insane asylums (Bedlam but worse, definitely not the place where van Gogh did his paintings) and there's evidence of child abuse in there too. But the pacing is brilliant, and on my first playthrough I got so caught up in it that it took an interruption to convince me to do the ending of the level. This is a bit of a story, and if you're at all interested in playing this out yourself, the story includes major spoilers:
—–Spoilers below—–So…over the course of the level, you encounter the ghost of an orphan who was murdered. She wants to free her spirit from the building, which means removing proof of her existence from the ruins such that the building no longer remembers her. You go about this, from finding a vial of her still-warm blood in the basement and getting it outside (through some weird pipes that don't make logical sense to me) to going into the building's memories under the guise of one of the asylum patients, grabbing a cleaning chemical from the stores evading the shades of the staff and bringing it to where she was killed and cleaning up the bloodstain. You do all that, and the ghost announces she's free, and asks you to follow her. She leads you to the front door, but when you try to go through, you can't. She says it's because you've been in the building too long – it now recognizes you, and so you are trapped.
Here I am thinking: "wait…but I remember the start of this level. This door that I can't leave through is barred shut on the other side." (Which they do for burned down buildings IRL, even without the risk of a malevolent ghost deciding squatters get to be part of its story now.) Why don't I just leave the way I came in, through the basement hatch door?
Ghost: "You should go into the building's memories as yourself, that's the only way to get out."
Me: "Wait, when you introduced this idea, didn't you explicitly tell me that was what to not do?" (suspicion of ghost friend's true intentions rising)
I went to the basement exit, found it was, indeed, locked shut. At a loss for what else to do, I went to the cage that will put me in the past as myself. (Mechanical aside: so, earlier, when I was disguised as a patient, I had no gear (because asylum patients don't carry around bows and arrows and flashbombs and mines and so on. But if I got caught by the staff, they'd just see me as a patient, take away the item they're fixated on (which is what made me disguised as them, and ejected me back to the present. Being there as myself, I'm now in the guise of a thief sneaking through the building (because, that's the game, I'm Garrett the thief.), so they'll just straight up attack me. And unlike most missions, where there's a handful of guards and a couple people up late, I'm effectively there during working hours so the place is packed with Staff shades.
As soon as I enter the cage and go to the past, the ghost provides the rest of her plan: "You should climb to the top of the staff tower, there's a big window up there! Jump out of it! The building will think you've committed suicide, but because it'll see you as dead, you'll just be free, outside, where it can't see you." (suspicion of ghost "friend" rises to maximum)
I explored the rest of the level looking for ways out. I was convinced that ghost wanted me dead for real. I'm not listening to the voice that says "jump out the window of the tallest tower!" Oh and, at some point in this, I've somehow forgotten that this is a game. At this moment, I'm fully bought in, this is me, Rashkavar, not Garrett the Thief, who's in this haunted building looking for a way out. And if I jump out that window, I, not Garrett, am going to die.
Like I said, I needed an interruption to finish the level. This is why. Turns out ghost friend is actually a friend and is genuinely telling you how to end the level. Her plan works perfectly, and you escape safely. But until real life intruded on me and therefore reminded me that I can just save the game, yeet myself out the window, and then reload when it inevitably kills me.
I've since replayed that game many times. Never again has the cradle had as dire an effect on me. But it still creeps me the fuck out. There's plenty of times where I've played the 60% or so of the game up to that point before going to bed, and then just switched to a different game – if I want to get a full replay in (which I do, there's a good level after that one) I make sure I play the level before the Cradle and the Cradle in the same session.
What makes a good Christmas game next? I think of Batman origins and Spider-Man miles morales
Dark Bramble I understand but Giant's Deep literally made me stop playing the Outer Wilds at first. Somehow I went there first, got terrified and quit. I came back a months later and finished it 😂
I honestly had to think about the spooky things in pokemon games… ghost houses, ghost girls, graveyard in alola, creepy pokedex entries…
Persona Q's labyrinth's all have a different theme with an extra gimmick added, and I think the Evil Spirit Club nails it. It's like what if survival horror was a jrpg, and suddenly you're solving silent hill-esque puzzles and dodging horror game style monsters. The Osaka prison in Persona 5 Strikers I think also works, albeit to a lesser extent, as it really has the vibes of an Umbrella lab out of Resident Evil.
Really love the level in A Hat in Time where it just decides to be like a classic stealth horror game after having a more goofy sort of atmosphere
I adore the Halloween Event & Unique Quests in Wizards 101 & the Halloween units in FF:WOTV & all the Undead Levels in Skylanders & the full game the evil nun and the broken mask
Eternal Darkness gets creepier and creepier as you realize just how out of its depth the human race is against The Ancients. The scariest level is when you're playing as the doughey artistic character who's less physically capable, and yet the other levels are still scary because no matter how capable your character, they're still up against horrifying unknown monstrocities.
big shoutouts to the EMMI Zones in Metroid Dread, they really managed to make Samus feel under powered & when you do get the Omega Blaster it's still a very tense duel trying to get in position to actually shoot it before it reaches you
My favourite spooky(maybe just scary)level is ruins of Vectron from SteamWorld Dig 2, it's just so perfectly dreadful
Kinda disappointed how you talked about The Fear, but didn't point out Laughing Octopus from MGS4 to show how MGS has done it right in the next game
I absolutely LOVE the Spooky level in Pokemon Moon. Most of the games have a mansion or something but they don't actually tweak the mechanics. But the abandoned pokemart gives you a ghost-revealing camera before you enter, turning it into Fatal Frame for a few minutes. It's very creepy when all you're expecting is a normal dungeon with some Gastlies.
i always get scared when the level designer portion of the demon souls credits hits
"what's your favourite spooky level"
Me: "Bloodborne"
The clown level in Spiderman 2 for PS2 was pretty spooky
As a kid, I remember getting creeper out by The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass with the beginning segment of Tetra being pulled into a dark void. Just seeing her scared and reaching for help, alongside the music, made me uneasy. And even worse, the cutscene plays every time you start the game up to a certain point.
Weird to see Outer Garbage keep getting undeserved praise for how painfully bad it is.
VTM Bloodlines Coean House Hotel. The first few times you go through it it's genuinely scary.
Ambiance and atmosphere are some of my favorite ways to add an element of fear into a non-horror game.
Shortly after climbing out of your escape pod in Subnautica, you'll see the deep ocean. It's a stark contrast to the bright shallows and coral reefs you've been skirting around. The deep abyss stares back, tickling your thalassophobia, until you notice that hint of movement in the darkness… and the roar.
By removing distractions like background music and superfluous ambient sound, you can introduce a sense of dread and mystery. Gone Home is one such experience. More experiential museum than game, Gone Home lets you explore an empty lived-in house that is at once cozy and a little spooky. The latter isn't due to some gimmick, but through that chilly silence of a large house, amplified by all the hints of life despite its absence.
I'm surprised you haven't touched on the "pursuer" trope, making regular levels scarier if you're being chased. Mr. X in RE2 is a good example and so is the E.M.M.I. in Metroid Dread. Many levels have you deal with an unstoppable opponent until you either leave or obtain something to defeat it.
The Fear fight isn't a good example of a spooky level/fight done wrong because it isn't even trying to be the spooky level of MGS3. The Sorrow, however…. Especially if you play the game blind and without any knowledge of the Metal Gear series. Snake's nightmare (in the original PS2 version) is also really spooky and fun!
I'd like to call the glitched/cult areas in Epic Battle Fantasy 5 to attention! There's not really any ambient noise when you walk around the game, but the bubbly fun music that plays everywhere is instantly removed, and the entire game becomes completely quiet. No music, there's no footstep sound effects, the game is dead silent, which makes any noise incredibly off-putting. Love that game, and anyone who liked flash RPGs (and even people who didn't) should check it out!!
For a bad version, I'd say the massive difficulty spike in Skylanders Spyro's Adventure and Giants. Both have spooky levels where the difficulty goes up massively, each in different ways. The enemies hit a lot harder and the boss fight bullet hell segments in SSA are more complex, with zombies that need fire attacks to be defeated in one level. In Giants, it's janky platforming with very high damage spinning blades that easily take out the giants, who are large and slow.
Surprised you didn't mention Deepnest at all. That's basically the epitome of spooky levels in games imo.
A little construtive critisim: you have a tendency to use unnecessarily use in the weeds terms when generic ones would be clearer to the audience. For example you'll say "you can sublimate your winter crystals to get sword grease" instead of "you can use currency to buy weapon power ups". Ok sometimes the details matter but if you are talking about game currencies in multiple games the name of the currency might not matter and its easy to lose what your are saying if i havent played that game.
Love the channel.
Honestly I have so many examples that I'll just do like. A list:
∘ the Doomed Commercial Area from Disco Elysium (it features eerie music, is referred to as "haunted", and the area's main quest is about finding out what happened to the various companies who set up in the building, which – if you have the right skills – ends with meeting one of the nicest characters in the game)
∘ Map 11: "Hunted" from The Plutonia Experiment (a level-spanning maze where you're being, well, hunted by between 12 and 18 Arch-Viles; also one of the greatest uses of musical dissonance in any game I've played)
∘ the entirety of Dead Money from Fallout: New Vegas (the entire DLC is basically Dead Space meets Bioshock with a bunch of references to The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948) thrown in, and – in my opinion – it really works
as long as you play it like a survival-horror game and not an Action RPG)∘ 2 different levels in Black Mesa (namely the game's version of Unforseen Consequences, which manages to be scary in a way the original's version Half-Life wasn't, and the bit in Xen where you go through a human outpost and there are goddamn HEV Suit zombies as enemies, which outright doesn't exist in Half-Life)
∘ It Came From The Sky from Spore: Galactic Adventures (it's basically The Thing but more of a tragedy, and also there's a bit of The Last Of Us in there because there's a girl whose name starts with an "E" and who is immune to the infection)
∘ 0-S from ULTRAKILL (they take almost all of your weapons away and you have to run from a spindly dude, it's pretty creepy)
∘ the hallucination sequences in Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend (Garys… Garys everywhere…)
∘ the "Zombie Attack" mission from Saints Row: The Third (yeah the game kinda jumps the shark a little, but the zombies are at least somewhat mechanically different from other enemies, and at one point a two minute timer shows up and you have to run over to a garage to repair your gas-mask, and then the zombies are like a permanent part of the game afterwards, making traversing the map slightly harder)
∘ Holy Forbidden from Vampire Survivors (I'm not even going to try to explain this one)
∘ Persephone from Bioshock 2 (specifically the bit where you play as a Little Sister, and whenever you complete a step in the current objective it does the whole "everything looks clean and pretty but then it suddenly flashes to the horrifying reality" thing)
Nice
I would probably say that misty woods from ori and the blind forest is my favourite area
The pokemon girl in XY. The lights flicker, a girl floats up to you and says " no…. you are not the one " and floats away with more lights flickering
I don’t think The Fear boss level was meant to be a spooky level. But The End, the scared me.
The Skyrim bug where manikins load as people with idle animations then they "realize" you're there so they go back into being manikins has to be one of the most unnerving things to suddenly experience. Spooky in so many ways
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary: Spooky (spü-kee); adj. cozy with a knife 🧸🔪
My favourite is the mansion in Nier Replica. The game suddenly turns into a black and white resident evil 1 with spooky music and scares.
Fetid Necropolis in Etrian Odyssey V is so filled with classic spooky tropes that it almost loops back around into being a bit corny, luckily the gameplay itself really boosts up some of the horror since you don't know how far you can get before day turns to night and if the room you want to enter is a trap of some kind. I'll always have a soft spot for the ghosts, skeletons, and graveyard aesthetic though so I always enjoy going through that stratum when I replay the game
nobody mentioning the level 343 Guilty Spark from the original Halo CE? its a master class in spooky levels in unexpected genres
Gathering of the Qurio, from Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak. From what started as a normal quest instantly changed in tone to become arguably the creepiest level in the Monster Hunter franchise so far, and it’s thanks to how much they have taken away. There’s no endemic life, all the monsters, small and large, are dead, and there is barely any music. It’s super unnerving but at the same time has become absolutely memorable because of it. A great level in my opinion, and perfect for setting up the final boss that will come up right after the quest is done.
death's gambit afterlife has like 4 spooky levels, but the one I like the most is one that doesn't even really have a name. it's a hidden area only accessible after beating the game, and you have to go through a maze in a very specific order to access it.
what I love about this secret area is that it feels like something you'd read in a creepypasta. it's as if it wasn't put in the game by the developers (it obviously was, but you know). it's got weird environments, bloody temples to weird mountain and floating rock areas with a pitch black background. there's some weird puzzles, like one with a bunch of hanged men who chase after you and cause you to be hung if you touch them, or a completely invisible platforming challenge. and the area isn't ever really explained in-game, other than some vague relation to the game's secret boss (who himself is extremely convoluted to access)
The shop in Hogwarts Legacy
The Forest in Sin & Punishment Wii?
Or the Abandoned Mines from Wanderer from Ys (and its remake The Oath in Felghana)?
Skylanders has quite a few spooky levels like the undead levels in Spyro's Adventure filled with skeletons, spiders, zombies and living armors, there's also the Wilikin village in Giants that isn't supposed to be spooky but when you arrive you just see a bunch of wooden dolls that come to life once you hit a switch to wake them up, they're not enemies and they want to help you. Here's a few other levels from the series that are also spooky: Darklight Crypt (Adventure pack for Spyro's Adventure and Giants), Monster Marsh (Trap Team), Land of the Undead (Superchargers)