10 Scariest Video Game Monsters

Fall is the time when the leaves fall off the trees and our fancies turn to bobbing for apples and scaring the pants of ourselves so what better time to take a look at the Top Ten Scariest Video Game Monsters of All Time!  Let’s face it, the level of immersion that video games afford make everything more intense so it’s no shocker that video game creators have been responsible for coming up with some the most horrifying creations of all time.  Here we go . . . you got your flashlight handy?

Number Ten:  Nemesis (Resident Evil)

Not only were these buggers near impossible to kill, they were just plain ugly.  What made it worse was the fact that they were once normal humans just like you and me before the Umbrella Corporation got their greedy claws into them.  One thing’s for sure, you see one of them coming down the hall at you, you want to be running the other way.

Number Nine:  Pyramid Head (Silent Hill 2)

This huge nemesis skulk around the nightmarish landscape of Silent Hill like sadomasochistic bondage fiends, always just around the corner and half a step away from cleaving you in two with their humungous knife/sword/axe contraptions.  But playing as James, you’re not the pyramid heads’ only prey as they hack and slash their way through the dreamscape’s lesser haunts.  This muther is one seriously freaky dude and if there were any monsters on the list prone to appear in your nightmares, this would be the one.

Number Eight:  Chainsaw Guy (Resident Evil 5)

This baddy is like a sack boy on crack and takes his fashion tips from Jason Voorhees.  Resident Evil 5 is a fairly difficult game with some challenging bosses but one of the most challenging by far comes early in the game when you run into this one-eyed freak skulking around the village.  He’s lean, mean, and got a seriously bad attitude.  There’s no talking to this fella as it appears all he wants from you are your insides.  Unlike other hulking enemies such as the Nemesis from previous RE games and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill, you can’t run away from Chainsaw Guy—you have to kill him to get the key he holds in order to move on.  So stockpile your ammo and remember to pack a change of undershorts because if he gets his teeth into you it’s all over with.

Number Seven:  Nihilanth (Half Life)

This giant mutant baby-like thing with the gaping head wound is just plain disgusting.  It reminds me a trashy horror novel I once read and left a bad taste in my mouth from the very moment I saw it.  Not to mention that the character design and combat mechanic were so far from anything else protagonist Gordon Freeman had run up against that it felt like Nihilanth was just throw in for the heck of it as some sick practical joke.

Number Six: Lickers (Resident Evil 2)

These four legged freaks were creepy just to look at (you can see their brains and their tongues will strangle you fer cryin’ out loud) but the worst part was the RE 2’s crappy camera always cheated and kept the things out of sight until they were right on top of you and it was too late.  You just had to stand there and listen to the tippy-tap of their poorly manicured claws until (hopefully) you saw some sign of them and could get your weapon up and fire off a few rounds.  Playing that game I learned a lesson I have never forgotten:  Always check the ceiling!

Number Five:  The Guardian (Dead Space)

These things are reanimated corpses that have been reconfigured into horrific burglar alarms.  Get too close and the reach and grab you.  Deep fry them with your lasers and they disgorge the contents of their foul insides.  It’s not a new concept (been around since the barnacles in Half Life) but Dead Space did it right.  Not only do these guys still creep me out, the turn my stomach!

Number Four:  Mainliners (The Suffering:  Ties That Bind)

These skinny little twerps pop in and out and scamper around like disease monkeys.  Anyone with a rational fear of sharp objects will be frightened to the core by these representations of inmates who have died by lethal injection--because they’re skewered by gigantic needles filled with poison.  The worst part about them are the two needles erupting from the bloody eye sockets.  Thankfully they’re not that difficult to dispense with but every time I came across one my skin just crawled. 

Number Three:  Facehugger (Aliens Versus Predator)

These little nasties share a lot in common with head crabs but add the wonderfully mind warping element of strangulation and suffocation into the mix.  There’s really nothing more frightening that slowly being “choked out” only to have your insides burst and a little bugger come leaping out.  This game was one of the best in the franchise and the face huggers were deceptive, sneaky, and damned deadly whether you were playing as a predator or a colonial marine.

Number Two:  Faceless Nurses (Silent Hill)

Hospitals are just plain creepy.  Dilapidated condemned hospitals are even creepier.  Throw in faceless nurses and the fear level goes through the roof.  The nurses combine sexy (short skirts and cleavage) and scary (no faces and jerky movements) in that weird combination that really gets under your skin.  If you could manage getting past a gaggles of the gorgeously gory girls without shining the light on them you were doing good.  If you couldn’t, you probably died.  These ladies were just as deadly as they were ugly.

Number One:  Head Crabs (Half-Life)

These little nasties sound like something your high school health teacher might have warned you about but they worse, much worse.  This sickly white spidery things have a knack for hiding in dark spaces, leaping out with blood curdling squeals, and making gamers across the world ruin their shorts.  While Half Life 2 showed a surprising lack of originality when dealing with these little buggers, the prequel more than made up for it.  I even found myself tweaking the gamma settings in game just so I could see these little critters coming.  No way was I letting one of them nest on my skull and turn me into a zombie.