7 Horror Game Openings That Didn't Eff Around

These games did NOT ease you in gently. Here are seven horror game intros that drop you straight into the scares...!
Written by Louise Blain
Additional words by Outside Xtra
#horrorgaming #scary #jumpscare
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Outside Xtra is a companion channel to Outside Xbox, covering the wider world of gaming with weekly list videos, Let's Plays and shows with your hosts Ellen and Luke. Look for regular appearances by OG Outside Xboxers Andy, Jane and Mike, and generally more of the videos you love, about more of the platforms you enjoy, from a team now two people larger overall.
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[@GradyDP]

As a person who hates being scared but loves horror games, I heartily approve filtering them through The British.

[@shadowolfkiller9337]

Bruh, the EXACT same

[@tkf15]

Same!

[@TherealZombieproman]

The British are here for you my chums Anyway must be off pip pip tally ho and all things are tickaty boo 🎩

[@JesseR2571]

Indeed

[@mtnman8783]

They've got that stuff upper lip and all that

[@sambridgett]

Bless you Luke for gifting me the mental image of Frasier Crane wandering around the Baker mansion and dispensing catty putdowns about the décor.

[@Numbers-06127]

Martin would love it. So many hideous chairs 😂

[@brentage5000]

"Well, lookie here! We got us a _smart_ city boy! Well if you're so smart, how come you're about to die, huh?" "Because as Dante once wrote -- and forgive me some paraphrasing -- heaven awaits after the journey through hell, and I cannot imagine a greater hell than the one on your face."

[@FrankyBabes]

​@@Numbers-06127Martin: "it's eclectic!"

[@bjchit]

Meanwhile, in Code: Veronica; “We’ve got to get out of here! We have a mentally unstable man chasing a vulnerable young woman around in a gothic mansion in the middle of a thunderstorm! The only thing missing is someone shouting “Heathcliff” across from the moors!”

[@AtheistPirate]

All while being hounded by his monstrous alter ego, Old Man Crane.

[@riksweeney]

I love Ellen's smug smile after her follow up pun.

[@oxfanblink4115]

We all do 😅

[@laura121684]

I'd like to point out that in The Evil Within's save icon, that's not a nail going into a brain, that's a tool for a lobotomy going into a brain, specifically an orbitoclast (which is used in conjuction with a hammer). That is SO much more disturbing that just a nail going into a brain.

[@G0rgar]

I was about to post exactly this, typed it all out and thought wait... this video is a week old, I'm sure someone else beat me to it. Glad I searched before I did.

[@incrediblyangryskeleton]

And if you don't know what a lobotomy is, it's basically a procedure that resettis your spaghetti

[@chouser25]

Ellen is a delight. Never stop making puns, no matter how much pain it causes your fellow KZbinrs

[@JRTraas]

*Because* of all the pain it causes them. 'S half the fun.

[@danejuglass8238]

Ellen will outlast them all in the pun department

[@kieranhair37]

There's something that really tickles me about the fact that they all make puns, yet Ellen gets most consistently booed for it. I saw a bizarrely angry comment one time by someone who decided she deserved the boos more, but that just makes it even funnier because that commenter will never reach her success.

[@kieranhair37]

As an example of the others making puns, I have to reference the Mouse Trap LP where Andy hated the game so much that he said he "camembert it."

[@kcollier2192]

Leon Kennedy: "Hey, the first few minutes of my game was pretty rough!" Issac Clark: "But did you do it with your arms behind your back?"

[@VideoAcid]

5:37 this is why I love you guys. You make the jokes that hurt me physically but leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy. I wish I could make dad jokes on OX’s level, but I just can’t _crack the code._ … I’ll see myself out.

[@donaldgow6673]

All I could think of when watching that Evil Within sequence was Hallowstream from a few years ago, in which Ellen was playing while Jane watched on laughing and eating popcorn.

[@theaikidoka]

Jane, who uses the GLaDOS school of interacting with people...and we love them for it.

[@oxfanblink4115]

As brilliantly funny as she is helping Ellen through Poppy Playtime as best as she could considering she didn’t know it really either. The Evil Within is a better watch since she’s nearly Andy delightfully evil as well as amusingly enjoying her popcorn 😂🤣😂🤣

[@STRAKAZulu]

Ellen gets more and more skilled at bad puns. And I’m here for it.

[@natk7349]

Ellen deserves a pun-nishment 😛

[@SimuLord]

Luke's reactions are similarly escalating to suit the rising stakes. Wait...are you pondering what I'm pondering? "I think so, Brain, but I thought Jane was the vampire."

[@ErroneousPower]

😅yes!!❤

[@Peter_The_Great]

Those are excellent puns. Puns are the most entertaining form to demonstrate intelligence.

[@coyoteartist]

Guess she wasn't born in London after all but Pun-sylvania.

[@marybdrake1472]

Dead Space 2 did not mess about even a little at the start. That opening was bloody intense. 😱

[@azuredragoon2054]

And intensely bloody.

[@marybdrake1472]

@@azuredragoon2054 Yeah.

[@erainmartinez8175]

The Evil within doesn't mess around

[@Barghaest]

Loved DS2. Second best tutorial sequence I have ever seen (Far Cry: Blood Dragon being first).

[@injektileur]

I'd say the first one is, to this day, the scariest game I've ever played, though. Can't wait to get my hands on the remake. Hope they'll do the same with this one because this intro is memorable indeed.

[@chriscoombes6751]

Only Ellen & Luke can make a scary list this hilarious! 😂 Do love us a good list, but must say one is missing Show of the Weekend!! ❤❤

[@ryanahr2267]

Yeah see Ellie is the exact kind of person I enjoy playing horror games with because how easily she gets scared. Her reactions to scary stuff are just pure gold.

[@KaladinVegapunk]

Don't forget the intro of RE7 also straight up kills you and turns you into a mold clone which you aren't aware of yet hahah

[@toschiworlds7212]

I mean, pretty much every Fatal Frame throws you straight in. Though my personal favourite is the opening section of the first game, running around the mansion with Mafuyu and looking for his missing friend and mentor with the slow build up to the first ghost encounter. Still scares the living daylights out of me.

[@cristyablad]

In Fatal Frame 3 when Rei says "I heard this place was haunted, too bad it's not" Miku is polite when she replies but there is the biggest passive 'F*CK YOOOOOUUU' vibe I've ever managed to see in a video game... which is an accomplishment.

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

One horror game intro that doesn't eff around is the beginning of Alien Isolation. In the first few minutes of the game, Amanda Ripley goes to the decommissioned Sevastopol space station to retrieve the flight recorder unit of her mom's ship the Nostromo with her colleagues Samuels and Taylor when they're separated by an explosion. And when she meets the one person on Sevastopol station who isn't hostile, he gets murdered moments later by the xenomorph.

[@DirgeTV]

Oh that's just the peak Sci-Fi Horror Experience. A sane person in a derelict ship? Yeah, they totally are gonna die.

[@DrBrangar]

"Few minutes"? That takes like an hour.

[@jlogan2228]

Yea but it takes a half hour at least to even get to any of that whereas all these are in the first 5-10 min

[@Bluesit32]

Nonsense. You're forgetting the part where you wake up on the ship, get dressed, talk to Samuel and...what's her name...look at some tidbits on the computers, save for the first time...

[@Bluesit32]

@@steampunkwardynNot sure what game you were playing.

[@StevePhoenix]

I remember playing Resident Evil 7 for the first time 4 years ago. I had spent the previous 3 months playing Escape from Tarkov and, as a consequence, I was checking every corner I came by just in case someone leaps out to kill me (a frequent occurrence in Escape from Tarkov). As a result, the cutscene where Mia nails your hand to the wall with the screwdriver and proceeds to go to town with the chainsaw was 100000 times as scary. You see, Mia isn't rendered in-game until the cutscene starts. So what happened is I checked the corner, saw no one there and made 2 more steps only for Mia to pop out of the corner I had just checked. Needless to say, I screamed like a little kid.

[@brandenp1944]

And you can do it all in VR

[@tba113]

FEAR doesn't exactly wait around. You're all of two rooms into what seems like an FPS in a dystopian near future, and you've probably only just now started to get a feel for the game mechanics, when you start getting slammed by hallucinations and radio chatter of the more conventional spec-ops team you're a new guy to getting horrible-ized.

[@Maria.Annette]

I love videos like this! All the fun of being scared witless, none of the anxiety of a firsthand experience.

[@xeromalicious5382]

My cousin played Eternal Darkness when I was younger. He went to save the game, on my motherès Gamecube Memory Card. When he hit to save it, the game claimed it was deleting all data on the memory card. He panicked, because it was my mother's memory card. He thought she would kill him, but having played the game myself longer, knew it was a trick. When he saw nothing happened, he relaxed, but I never told him it was a trick beforehand. XD

[@FrankyBabes]

My brother was playing in early 2021 and got this same thing. My OTHER brother, panicking, leapt across the room and heroically turned off the Gamecube. Absolute scenes Edit to add: we were all in our mid-late 20s

[@jackieclan815]

Please add the horror game Fear and Hunger, when the pack of feral dogs tear you to pieces! Please do this!!!

[@past3lgh0st]

Fear and hunger is craaaaazy

[@jackieclan815]

@@past3lgh0st yeah it is lol!!!

[@dorpth]

It's hard to convey just how mindblowing that Silent Hill alley sequence was in 1999. Every previous survival horror of the last 7 years had been static camera angels, mainly the Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil games. The part where the camera starts swooping around corners to follow James and twisting at all angles made our jaws drop back then.

[@kyleshaw5186]

Silent Hill 1- Harry Mason Silent Hill 2- James Sunderland

[@dorpth]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[@Bluesit32]

@@kyleshaw5186Everyone forgets about poor Harry. They focus on Captain Charisma, aka James Sunderland. Harry had more emotion in his voice and he was of the usual late 90s video game voice acting age.

[@darrienjones8917]

So my thing about Outlast is that my canon beginning and ending are at the closed Asylum gate, because I was too scared to go inside. I can safely say I made the right choice.

[@illise]

I never played beyond the body falling from the ceiling in Outlast. I closed the laptop so fast that I'm impressed it didn't break lol

[@FoolOfTheStars]

I’d definitely recommend finishing it if you can, the game is such a surreal experience!

[@illise]

@@FoolOfTheStars I started playing it again but having come back to it

[@darrienjones8917]

Well you got farther than I ever did. Stopped right at the asylum gate and knew immediately this was going to be a bad time.

[@AngelBeatYunara]

"a total plonker" Oh Oxtra, never change.

[@oxfanblink4115]

To be fair she’s not wrong since Miles is a idiot for going to a mental Asylum that doesn’t have any ethical doctors

[@feathers8233]

I get so stupidly excited every time I see Evil Within being mentioned in such a list and in a positive way. I love that game so much xD

[@TransGuyShane]

I feel like the evil within game play is from the fear academy Ellen did with Jane ♡ I can just hear the popcorn being eaten 😅

[@oxfanblink4115]

Same and Ellen being Ellen with her aaaaaahhhhhh and funny noises while trying to make Sebastian outrun the chainsaw wielding psychopath 😂🤣😂

[@Athlynne]

My worst ever was Siren. I was so excited to play it, and never got past that creepy police officer. Way too scary for me, and I love scary.

[@YoungAce904]

I know they can't show it, but that point blank view of the Necromorph transformation in DS 2 is probably the most gruesome thing I've ever seen in a video game

[@Bluesit32]

Have you seen the Necromorph transformation in the Dead Space Remake?

[@VideoAcid]

14:13 maybe it’s because I’m stoned and lacking sleep but Luke killed me 💀 “I’d describe it but there’s that Stephen King thing where the monster is always scarier in your head.” *barely keeping a straight face

[@nicklindberg90]

I literally remember thinking, "C'mon Dead Space2! I just got here!"

[@AJTheGeek]

Luke obviously wished Ellen would dial down the safe puns... She's a lock for the joke awards.

[@kingflumph5968]

Did you get that one from Tumblr? Eyyyyy

[@wraitholme]

The best part of all of these videos is Ellen's post-pun smirk

[@melvinkachere8782]

Monster Ellen at the end was much funnier than it should have been😂

[@SimuLord]

It brought to mind the Ninji Incident :D

[@oxfanblink4115]

⁠@@SimuLordOmg 😂🤣😂🤣 Somehow Luke’s especially Ninji was actually freakier than Ellen being the monster she tricked Luke with 😅

[@spunoffsee]

Damn it Luke, I now want to see Fraiser and Niles running through the Baker Mansion freaking out about everything...

[@WraythSkitzofrenik]

Any list that includes Eternal Darkness is a good list.

[@policavosn3469]

5:43 her smile made me laugh more than the joke, omg😂😂

[@MoonFaceNick]

I used to make my friends play through the 1st 15 minutes of Dead Space 2, I called it the Dead Space challenge.

[@gamerguy19981]

For me one of the most iconic horror game openings is Resident Evil 3 Nemesis (the original). You start the game by diving out the window of a exploding building, only to be immediately surrounded by zombies, and have to flee while trying to navigate the absolute chaos that is Raccoon City.

[@xenogil180]

Fun video as always, especially enjoyed Ellen's trademark pun surprise

[@TheOmegaXicor]

Yea they were cracking puns but some were playing it safe

[@xenogil180]

😂😂😂@@TheOmegaXicor

[@oxfanblink4115]

@@TheOmegaXicorbooo

[@mikeshultz6562]

Obscure goes straight into madness almost immediately.

[@thatsMRjames]

The coffee milk and water in any combination got me lol

[@DarthTitanGaming]

Wait... so you're telling me that having a chainsaw fight with my wife isn't normal???

[@KratonWolf]

It's only normal if you both have a chainsaw, and your dog has a chainsaw, too.

[@Marx1684]

I love how you shoot these kind of videos from that chair. The humor is great.

[@Darkman9000]

The Suffering has a pretty insane intro. Main character Torque is being escorted to the death row section of the fictional Abbott State penitentiary, where we overhear several of the hardened inmates talking about Torque's crime; killing his wife and two children, whilst also getting some little characterization moments from the other death row inmates... before everyone except Torque is slaughtered by the demonic creatures that appear after an earthquake shakes the entire facility. Monsters are seen crawling on the walls like spiders made out of shivs, and every character swears more than a South Park character in every other word of their sentences

[@grindsaur]

The thing in the Evil Within logo is an orbitoclast, an icepick-derived tool for performing lobotomies (through the eye socket, no less) - and it's inserted in absolutely not the right place ;)

[@Jasmine-wn9ek]

I was so surprised there was no jump scare in the intro to this video 😅😂

[@pockylovingranger]

The opening to Dead Space 2 is one of the most f-ed and intense moments in a video game I’ve ever played xD

[@abydosianchulac2]

It's a Luke! Welcome back, and great t-shirt!

[@reptarkingoftheozone9447]

Pretty sure that guy was going to say "you're in terrible terrible danish!"

[@parcyman3050]

You guys have such creative video ideias it's crazy

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

Truly an understatement

[@sswishbone]

Obscure game time! "Hell Night" from Playstation 1. You literally have a train crash and then are chased by a demon for the entire game. Good luck!

[@maccaebus]

Luke's Frasier reference absolutely caught me off guard. Absolutely out of the blue, I love it.

[@durk5331]

Love that Safe Joke Pun, it was a wonderful triple entendre

[@barbaragagner7053]

My favorite thing about Eternal Darkness is that one of the sanity restoration items is a bottle of whiskey. Just imagining the the protag going "well that was effed up!" taking a swig and the saying "Carrying on then!"

[@Bluesit32]

My favorite bit is that he'll use it himself in a cut scene. You may get the spell to restore sanity and never use the sanity restoration items yourself, but the designers of the game made SURE that bottle of "liquid courage" is used one way or another. And it works. He hallucinates a massive worm like creature, takes a swig, and it's gone.

[@kaidose]

"Sadly, no one's ever played past this point" thats hilarious. I too never made it past that point

[@killeing]

I'm surprised Another World wasn't mentioned on here. That game is the very first thing I think of of "not effing around"- the very moment you start it, you're not given breathing room, you're teleported to the middle of some pool of water and need to swim for your life to avoid some deadly tentacles, and if you thought you were safe there you're literally DEAD WRONG because if you dont move from the pool immediately the tentacle thing will still pull you in and kill you!

[@vaette]

They did already cover that one in "7 Games That Tried to Kill You Immediately" though! :)

[@killeing]

@@vaette yeah, but i feel it would work in this game too. It isn't just the water part, there are literally a near-dozen things from the beginning that try to kill you right off the bat- even in these games above it's only for a short while the game tries to kill you immediately but that one lasts a good long one :/

[@kookoo47]

HAHAHAHA! Ellen's face after the "safe joke" - AWESOME!

[@roguedogx]

Alan wake. The very first moments have you running from an ax murder and a dark tornado.

[@danielwolf8365]

That air raid siren still gets me.... no matter what context. I'm probably screwed during an actual air raid now ;)

[@Baeraad]

Love that smug smile at 5.43. :D

[@MrOuest]

Calling someone a Plonker?! British insults are so whimsical.

[@smurphftw2008]

How in the absolute hell is Alan Wake not on this list!

[@ajzephyros7454]

That ending bit, I don't know why but it was exactly what I needed after those 7 no eff around openings

[@Numbers-06127]

Gears of War freaked me right out. Bodies everywhere, humanity basically dead, weird creatures and, oh ye, your main kit requires you to chainsaw said weird creatures in two. Then you meet Baird... enough said.

[@SuperCrazyMacho]

Outlast Trials should be on this list that tutorial was mad spicy

[@slipperysoul9630]

I loved the mandatory cutscenes in the beginning of the evil within. On my first playthrough, I used three landmine arrows to destroy the creature that came out of the floor. Even with the creature dead, there's still a camera clip of the well she's supposed to come out of, but it's much less scary when nothing comes out. When I replayed the game, I learned that there isn't really a rush to go past the first trip wire, but as soon as the trap goes off, there's a cutscene for that, too

[@tjyukuri5371]

Great games, Ellen should play all of them next October. Also RE4 Remake gets to the point rather quickly.

[@oxfanblink4115]

She definitely already has Dead Space 2, Resi 7 and The Evil Within there’s brilliant videos of all 3 😃

[@thewaycokid1]

That Frazier joke is pure gold.

[@Boizemannen]

BEAUTIFUL t-shirt Luke! I love it!

[@TheBloodswordsman]

Honestly the first Clocktower game for the snes is pretty good at throwing you into the deep end. From multiple angles too! No matter where you go, inevitably, one of your friends will be unalived, and you will get chased.

[@Bluesit32]

Depends on whether or not you hit quick start or start. If you hit start, you get the chance to chat with the other girls, look around the main hall. Quick start puts you right in there. Head left. Then choose whether to investigate a loud dripping noise or ignore it.

[@jimmyp4024]

Loved the hitchhiker's guide reference

[@rileytimes]

Absolutely amazing. Love you all!!!!

[@patrikhjorth3291]

Fun fact: the thing getting shoved into a brain in the quicksave icon for The Evil Within is not a nail, but an orbitoclast, an instrument used for lobotomy. It was developed when surgeons discovered that ice picks, which were typically used in the procedure, had a tendency to snap off inside the skull of the victim, sorry, patient, and a stronger implement was needed. No, I am unfortunately not joking.

[@nathangoedeke694]

Nice safe-related puns, did you get them off of *Tumbler*

[@j.a.shawkins7640]

Ellen's puns are always delightful. XD

[@calebgresch9604]

Nun Massacre/Night Of The Nun goes from 1 to 100 within 5 minutes. You start off at your somewhat creepy home, then you're on the side of a cliff, then in the school. You get about 1 minute to ease into the school before a nun with a knife is screaming at you and sprinting towards you.

[@BooshMeBaby]

I love watching these videos knowing I am too jumpy to ever have the cajones to play these games 😂

[@animage2867]

Bio shock 1 gave a good scare in the early moments

[@dandominare]

Realms of the Haunting! You barely get through the door of the typical spooky mansion before you're being accosted by weird sword-wielding demon things.

[@Tikuros]

I only play horror games where you get weapons to shoot or slash your way out of a situation. That is why Ellens assumption of never getting past the first 10 minutes of Outlast is sooo accurate. I noped out of that game faster than you can you "jump scare"

[@dandominare]

If you get weapons then it's not really a horror game, it's just a shooter with some horror elements.

[@fungi5350]

Ahh nice to have a non-TOTK video, I appreciate why you guys are making them, but I just haven’t had the time to make it to the game yet. I’m avoiding for any potential spoilers 😢

[@hermtastic]

Alone in the Dark was similar to Eternal Darkness, but it wasnt a dream. It didn't tell you at all what to do, and no weapon to start, so it seemed safe, but then things just started coming in the room one by one.

[@Bluesit32]

Doesn't help that the controls are confusing as all get out. You want to pull something? Don't just go up to it and press the action button. First, go into the menu. Select pull. THEN use the action button. Oh no! A monster! Quick, go into your menu. Select "fight"...then figure out what combination of action button and direction serves your purpose the best.

[@evolancer211]

The outlet guy puts a battery in his camera like he's reloading a gun ha

[@user-hs1xb9tv6e]

Your videos are the only thing that makes me stand horror. Im a big chicken.

[@Forgottensnapdragon]

🐔

[@porygonpete]

Been a couple years - but Ellen is still amazingly eloquent and Luke still makes smart quips for good chuckles.

[@SensibleStuff]

as i was watching this video at midnight, i kept getting flashbanged 🙂

[@MrAlbieWan]

"In any... Combination!" We're not disappointed, Ellen... Just angry.

[@IndriAndri340]

Omg the evil within being included in something! My fave horror series

[@mommalion7028]

I used to watch every upload as it came out with my husband from this channel. We had kids and haven't kept up with the channel. I missed this group.

[@Alsebra]

Oh, Luke...you can catch a glimpse of Jack Baker roaming about the grounds at the start of RE7, but he disappears if you end up following him (I think he's actually walking towards the "art installation" area).

[@icereaper187]

Another great video 👍 gotta compliment Luke on his awesome elden ring, radahn festival t-shirt 10/10

[@presshusfightlady3966]

This is the first comment I've found about the shirt and by golly I *need to know where he got that shirt*

[@dasaggropop1244]

tbf to eternal darkness, there is also a segment where you have an m16 and explosives. the games really comes around and makes up for it.

[@nursemain3174]

The evil within opening scared me a lot, also a good addition would be amnesia or siren blood curse

[@kattCl0ud]

Oh man, I remember that opening bit in Dead Space 2 way too well.. For some reason, the A prompt was always mostly off-screen for me, so I spent waayy longer at that part than probably everyone else lol

[@justinthebeau2590]

Of all the RE games I have played what scared me the most is when Mia suddenly got back up after she had just bashed her head into the wall

[@Icam_here]

man games these day with there opening not messing around, back in my day you walked 15 miles in the snow just to see a jump scare and all it was a bitmap image of a face

[@chadjones1266]

COOL AND CHILL

[@tomtomtroller2577]

2:11 is 100% true for me, I was younger and this made me jump so far up I never reached the controller again. Ill probably try it again some day.

[@mischa1981]

Resident Evil 2 (PS1 original) was the same. After the intro you're immediately being thrown into action and zombies start walking towards you without any hints or tips how to shoot :D

[@amazingridence3119]

Love the radahn festival shirt!

[@finn_in_the_bin5263]

For the outlast thing I personally feel like the character being a reporter can usually subvert this trope to some extent, like for most people yeah it's 'gtfo' but if you have the equipment and connections to warn people about this place there's a certain level of fucked up/dangerous you can still get away with the protagonist actively ignoring or even seeking out further, like the whole complaint is 'why would you go there' and journalists actually have the valid answer of because they can show other people how dangerous it is to *stop* the idiots that would just ignore it and maybe even bring justice if justice needs to be brought

[@jordanpritchard5226]

A Horror game that drops you in the deep end and doesn't eff around is easily Siren for Ps2. The game just tosses you into a small area with a cop, armed with a .38 pistol looking around for you, and all you have is a flashlight.