Top 5 Scary Sounds In Gaming

Have you ever had a game where, no matter how much you played it, there were certain sounds or music that would make you unsettled, or anxious, or just plain know you were going to die?  Well these are my Top 5 Most Unsettling Sounds in gaming!

5) The 'Claymore Click'
I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this, with it coming from modern shooters, but there is nothing that makes you submit to the inevitability of death quite like the soft click of a claymore mine.  True, they don't always kill, but the sound is now pretty much synonymous with an explodey death (and shouts of exasperation at your local multiplayer buddies!)
I wanted to find a video of this, but searching Youtube for anything FPS related just gets you a metric tonne of videos of guys with small penises showing you how good they are at shooters...  So here's a cool jet kill from Battlefield 3 instead :)

4) ReDead Scream - N64 Zelda Games

These guys creeped the hell out of many a gamer in the N64 era.  Stepping out of the Temple of Time as adult Link for the first time, and seeing ReDeads littering Hyrule Town Square was a pretty unnerving experience by itself; but then hearing this scream and being frozen in place was just horrifying!  The next few seconds would then become a blur of button-mashing as you attempt to free yourself before the monster straddles your head and humps the crap out of it - pervs!


3) The Crying of Witches - Left 4 Dead Series

This is more of a two-for-one creepy deal - the music alone is really unsettling, but the crying of a girl over the top of it...I get shivers every time I play this game.  And to top it all off, the Witch is one of the strongest and most dangerous enemies in the games, so you'd think a signpost telling you one was near would be handy, but it only serves to let you know that if one of your party is a dick (or just has a deathwish) you are going to be annihilated by a little girl.


2) Minecraft Creeper Hiss

This will only make sense to those of you who have played Minecraft (but really, how many people does that not include by now?) and value your creations and possessions. Hours of work can be undone in just a split second, and as the video above shows, even if you know it's there, the Creeper will still have its way with you. There is nothing worse than having spelunked in mines for hours in search of diamond or lapis lazuli, only to turn a corner and have a Creeper blow up right in your face. Though the hiss is, again, more of an "oh shi-kabloom!" sound than being actually scary, I still think it deserves this high place on my list.


1) The Drowning Countdown in Sonic Games

Water sections have always been (and will always be) the bane of computer games.  They change the mechanics you have become accustomed to and often come with insta-death if you stay under too long.  The original 2D Sonic games on the MegaDrive/Genesis are the perfect examples of the tension these sections create - the way the music cuts jarringly to the countdown, and then the countdown itself speeding up gives me chills.  I defy anyone to watch the above video and not become unnerved with the memories of dying this way.


Any game sounds I've missed, or just anything you think needs saying, the comments are down below!


Follow me on Twitter for not-so-occasional insights into the geek world: @IFeed_Dish


Dish Out!