World Ten: Freaky Enemies in Video Games

Been a little while, and I did intend to do more Hallowe'en content than just this post...but shit happens and things come up, so I'm afraid this'll have to do. I'm gonna sound off on my top 10most disturbing enemies from video games...ones that are grotesque, unnerving, or just plain stressful to even be around. As video games have become visually more impressive, more and more freaky critters have started to sprout up, so don't be surprised if this W10 entry contains a lot of material from more current game series!

Let's dive right in, shall we?

Abstract Daddy (Silent Hill 2) - Silent Hill is, generally, a pretty fucked up game series. It's frightening, suspenseful, and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you inch your way into rooms or through hallways, listening closely for the sound of static on your portable radio which indicates some weird-ass monster is nearby. Ever since Silent Hill 2, the creatures within these games are all psychologically linked to the main character, as well as other characters that you may encounter in the game. You likely thought that I'd stick Pyramid Head in this list...but instead, I'm including the Table Daddy from Silent Hill 2 which I find far, far more disturbing.

Well that's just fucked right up.

During the course of this fucked up game, you (as James Sunderland) encounter another character named Angela. She's strange to say the least, and seems to be emotionally unstable a lot of the time and has a dark, disturbing past. When she was younger, she was apparently physically and sexually assaulted by her own father, and her mother never intervened, simply telling Angela that she deserved what she'd been getting. Well, thanks to the occult effects of Silent Hill, this dark memory manifests itself as a boss monster called Abstract Daddy. It's very hard to tell in-game unless you look close...but the shape of this creature is that of a man raping a woman or girl on a bed/table (some refer to this boss as Table Daddy, actually). I've always found this concept to be extremely disturbing, and although it's a detail that's hard to notice at first, it really drives home the psychological horror ideals behind the concept of the Silent Hill series.

Regenerator/Iron Maiden (Resident Evil 4) - Resident Evil 4 really isn't that scary at all, especially when compared to other entries in the series such as the GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil. With more of a focus on action and a completely different camera perspective, RE4 changed the entire series around. Some say this is for the better, others say it's for the worse...I consider it more of a sidestep, personally. Resident Evil 4 is a great game that impacted video game design in a phenomenal way, but the originals were always much more frightening with their fixed camera angles, creepy atmosphere, and some tough enemies to tackle.

That being said, Resident Evil 4 has its share of creepy creatures, and nothing illustrates that better than the Regenerator. You don't encounter these filthy bastards until late in the game, but once you do, you'll be dreading every future encounter with them. These are tall, lanky, heavy-breathing humanoid monsters that shamble toward you at a fairly slow pace. When you shoot a limb (or head) off of them, they'll lose it and grow it back eventually as if no damage had been dealt. If they get in range, they leap at you and just start tearing apart poor Leon's shoulder with their nail-like teeth, so you'd better find a way to take them down fast or you're screwed. The only way to do this is to pinpoint small parasites (usually 4-5) on the Regenerator's body using a thermal scope mounted on a rifle and blast them off.

The stuff of nightmares.

This introduces a pretty tense game mechanic, in fact. If you smoke one of the parasites, the Regenerator reels in pain, steps back, and gives you enough time to line up another shot. However, if you hit any other part of its body, your reload animation will take up enough time to let the monster gain some ground on you. As I'm sure you can imagine, this makes for some tense situations as you try to blow away the parasites while this gross thing slowly ambles in your direction. You also encounter Iron Maidens a bit later, which are basically Regenerators with spikes all over their body. Don't let them hug you...it damn well hurts.

Cherub (Doom 3) - The views on Doom 3 were very divisive upon release. Unfortunately, it was being compared to Half-Life 2 which a majority of people seem to like more...but that's not the case for me. I loved Doom 3, and it's the only game that I ever actually constructed a desktop computer for in order to ensure it would run! Despite the fact that people disagreed about its flashlight mechanics and monster closets, there's one thing that was pretty unanimously established: Doom 3 was creepy as all hell.

I DON'T want my baby back!

Along with a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere comes a startling and disturbing cast of enemies to blast away, one of which is the Cherub. Forget your standard vision of a Cherub, which likely takes the form of a chubby little angel with a halo and wings. These are Cherubs from the depths of Hell so they're a little bit different. With the upper body of a 2-year old kid, glowing eyeballs, and insect-like wings, arms, and abdominal segments, Doom 3's Cherub is a creepy amalgamation that will ruthlessly lunge at you and tear you up while also making you shit your pants. Add in the fact that it's small, agile, and occurs in groups and you have one scary-ass monster to keep an eye out for.

Gaping Dragon (Dark Souls) - Prepare to die. That's the slogan of Dark Souls, one of the best action-RPGs that's ever been created. You're thrust into a grim world with insane inhabitants and a wealth of messed up creatures that are all bent on ending your life. Among these are the bosses, which will not only kill you over and over again, but also give you the biggest sense of accomplishment once you've finally taken them down. They're all well-designed and awesome, but the Gaping Dragon is the most grotesque and epic boss of them all.

Flossing those pearly whites must take hours.

You battle this monstrosity in a large sewer aqueduct, and when you first see this boss poking its head out, it actually looks sort of adorable. However, once it reveals the rest of itself, it's clear that this first impression was completely wrong. From the depths of the sewer comes its giant dragon body, complete with six bony legs and a massive gaping maw that runs along its sternum, basically where the ribcage should be. It tries to kill you by slamming its rib-mouth on you and vomiting acid all over the ground...and it will likely succeed at least once or twice. Although completely disgusting to look at, you can't help but marvel at the sight of this monster and appreciate the dark, twisted art style that Dark Souls infuses into its universe and the creatures that reside in it.

Legion (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) - This creature is just messed right up. Legion is first encountered in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but makes subsequent appearances in many of the later Castlevania games. In SOTN, you eventually gain access to the very bottom area of the map which appears to be some sort of ruin. Coffins occasionally line the halls and you can see bones in the walls, but it's not really that weird for a Castlevania title. However, upon entering one room near the end of the area, you encounter shambling, naked humans as they make their way out of the door at the opposite end. That's...a little odd.

I think Dracula took the idea of a Body Worlds exhibit a little too literally.

Well, of course you need to investigate by entering the next room, but I'm sure that once you see what you've gotten yourself into, you'll wish you hadn't stepped through that door. The doors close and suddenly Alucard is staring at a giant floating ball of human bodies. This is Legion (or Granfaloon, as it's initially called), and it wants to kill you. How does it do that? How about by dropping shambling naked people onto you and scattering them all over the ground? Yeah, sorta gross. As you attack it and deal damage, corpses fly out all over the place and parts of the body-sphere eventually peel off to reveal a central, fleshy core. Eight tendrils stem from the core and fire powerful laser beams at you, but if you keep whacking this disgusting ball of meat, it'll eventually deflate and you'll emerge victorious! Also, heavily traumatized.

Redead (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker) - Yeah, yeah. I didn't pick the Ocarina of Time Redeads. That's because they're not scary and didn't scare me as a child either, unless you count the fact that they look like they're trying to rape you to death when they attack you. THAT'S creepy! I personally found Wind Waker's depiction of Redeads to be much more startling and unsettling.

It's freakier in motion. Trust me!

Wind Waker is well known for adopting a cel-shaded art style that makes it look not unlike a Disney film or something of the sort. Smoke puffs look like those found in Aladdin and the enemies are highly stylized and have greatly exaggerated features that give them a lot of character and memorability. Redeads are no exception to this rule. Encountered in the Earth Temple, Redeads stand in coffins for the most part and remain completely motionless. Once you get too close however, they let out a shrill scream that sounds like an elephant being tortured, their eyes light up, and gape their mouths open as they begin to wander toward you. Poor Link can't move either, since he's been paralyzed by the Redead's banshee-like wail. The look of these enemies in Wind Waker has just always freaked me out, coupled with their reaction when they have you in their sights

Oh, and they still rape you as well.

The Hunter (Dead Space) - I love this game. I've gushed about it before on my blog before, and for good reason. The game plays amazingly, the sound design is perfect, and the attention to atmospheric detail is off the charts. In Dead Space, you play as an engineer named Isaac who's pitted against ugly-ass aliens (sort of) called Necromorphs. They come in many forms over the course of the 12 chapter campaign, but the most unnerving one is the Hunter.

Better hire a new engineer for the Ishimura.

Introduced around halfway through the game, the Hunter is a ruthless, unstoppable tank of a Necromorph. Unlike previous targets, it can regenerate its limbs extremely fast once they're sliced off, meaning it can just keep chasing you throughout the ship. It's always lumbering behind you, making the moment extremely tense and frightening as you try to dodge and escape it. Perhaps the most nerve-wracking parts of the game occur when you have to fend off the Hunter as your oxygen depletes from ship decompression, or when he pursues you through a set of moveable shelving that you can manipulate to impede his progress if you're quick enough. In a game that oozes tension from every pore, the Hunter is one of the elements that really makes your heart pound.

Icon of Sin (Doom II) - In Doom II: Hell on Earth, the demonic horde that originally invaded Mars, Phobos, and Deimos has made its way to our world. Demons are tearing up cities and murdering everyone, and it's up to you to stop them. Doom II is one of my absolute favourite games and it improves upon the original in every way: level design is much better and more complex; the Super Shotgun was introduced to the series; and a whole new set of demonic enemies are patrolling the halls. Those demons have to come from somewhere though, right?

Oremor Nhoj, em llik tsum uoy, emag eht niw ot.

Well, that's what the Icon of Sin is for. He's the final boss in the game, and resembles a massive, demonic goat-ish head built into the wall. There are parts of his skin and skull peeled back, revealing his brain underneath...and it's from here that the demons themselves are pouring out. He launches cubes from the hole in his head that'll turn into demons once they hit the ground somewhere, meaning that you have an onslaught of enemies to fend off while you fight this hideous creature. The only way to send the Icon back to where he came from is to ride a very slow elevator upward and fire rockets directly into his brain as you pass by. The battle itself isn't really all that scary, but I've always thought the design of this enemy to be pretty disturbing, with pipes leading into and out of the massive demonic face and skin-flaps peeled back to expose the brain. Leave it to id software to come up with something like that!

Lisa Trevor (Resident Evil remake) - The remake of Resident Evil on the GameCube pretty much improved upon the original release in every way. The game is much better graphically which drastically improves the atmosphere, the sounds and voice acting (thankfully) are much improved, and there are entirely new enemies to escape from and areas to explore. Behind the iconic mansion itself is a cabin that can only be accessed by a narrow dirt path, and it's here that you first encounter the most terrifying enemy in the game: Lisa Trevor.

I hear Lisa's favourite movie is Face/Off.

Foreshadowed in documentation that you pick up throughout the game, Lisa Trevor was exposed to multiple strains of the G-Virus and experimented on for years until about the age of 14, at which point she escaped and began wandering around the Spencer estate. During experimentation, her parents were also exposed to the virus but killed when they showed no reaction. After this, guards disguised as Lisa's mother and father tried to interact with her, but she realized they weren't her parents and slaughtered them, tore their faces off, and started wearing them around. This is freaky enough as it is, but add in her slow, shambling walk, the claustrophobic areas where you encounter her, and the fact that she can potentially kill you with one solid hit and you've got a pretty disturbing creature to deal with. Oh, and you can't kill her conventionally either...she's pretty much invulnerable as a result of G-Virus testing. Have fun with that!

SHODAN (System Shock 1 and 2) - Screw BioShock, System Shock 2 is where it's at! The spiritual precursor to the BioShock series, System Shock took place on derelict ships in the depths of space, where no one can hear you scream, as we all know. The main antagonist of the series is SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) a human-constructed artificial intelligence that was hacked in the first game of the series, resulting in her ethical code being removed and the AI going completely rogue. She gains control of robotic systems and turns staff into freaks and cyborgs, while remaining essentially omnipresent throughout the game, monitoring your progress through security systems and taunting you through e-mails. Eventually, her plan is stopped and her central processing unit is ejected into space.

I seeeee youuuuu.

In System Shock 2, it turns out that SHODAN survived by hibernating within the escape pod she was ejected in. She was pulled onto a ship in deep space called the Von Braun, where she began to take control of everything again and converted the crew into cybernetic soldiers, including SS2's protagonist. This is only hinted towards at first, but her involvement in the plot of SS2 is revealed as you make your way through the game. Basically, she wants to destroy and enslave the human race...so naturally, you stop her! Sort of...there's a cliffhanger in there that could lead into another sequel, and I wish this series would be re-released or updated or something, because the engine is really beginning to show its age. It's the kind of game that could benefit from an atmospheric overhaul. Overall though, it's the fact that SHODAN is always watching you and judging your progress as you make you way through the System Shock series that really sets her apart and gives her that creep factor. You never truly feel safe.

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That does it for my Hallowe'en World Ten entry! Hopefully you all enjoy it and maybe (maybe) I'll post some content a little  more frequently over the course of November. No guarantees though, as always! Have a good Hallowe'en evening, stay safe, and keep on gaming!