True terror that grabs you by the lower lip and makes you eat your own head.
The monsters are another thing entirely. The fact that you can see them in part by how the moisture on their skin reflects light realisticly... and then they open, or turn, their eyes towards you. I aimed my flashlight into a corner and screamed out loud when one of them slammed against the glass seperating me from it, and it was drooling for crying out loud. I could see the drool dripping out of it's mouth and the wet spots where it hit the glass. I considered just peeing myself and eatting the machinegun barrel at that moment. The fact that some of the NPCs who are still alive in the game are oblivious to what is going on is one of the most amazing parts, the fact that they've been left alone in a show of intelligence for the scripted characters working towards forwarding Hell's goals, leaving crucial workers alone so that they don't need to worry over if the facility will blow up before they can launch their master plan. That in and of itself is a sign that the writers at ID really put some forthought into what they were doing here, rather than just having everyone zombified or slaughtered for you to stumble across. But they come out of the walls, the ceiling, the break through the damn stairs and start swiping or hucking fireballs… I’ve jumped, screamed, cursed, and paused to take a walk around while telling myself it isn’t real. And my friends all laugh when they hear me shriek like a little girl Theres nothing quite like walking along in a game, paranoid as hell to even go through a door because you don’t know if you’re about to get your face bitten off by a monster or a zombie, and when they do pop out they’re not in swarms, in part that it would lag the system, but also so you have a moment to go; “Huh, I need new pants… and WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM!?” before they charge in. The sheer amount of weapons fire you need to pump into some of these buggers is both frustrating and realistic in the fact that they ain’ people, they’re freaky freaky monsters that want to make a hula skirt out of your internal organs. It’s like taking a stroll through your worst nightmare, if games like this can get you scared. The voices crying for help, the people running for their lives on occasion in areas you can’t get to, and the screams of the dying moments later, all make to cause you to wonder “Was this a good idea?” The only problem I’ve had is the dark, thank googly moogly for the Duct Tape mod, simply for the sake that it makes no damn sense that the marine can’t just tape a damn flashlight to a few of his guns, some may call it cheating, I call it good sense, because the gun beams are narrower, and less powerful, making you either struggle on in near blindness, or switch to the main flashlight if you want to see everything more fully, right before everything punches you in the face.
Overall, a masterful example of what games should be. Something that has been lost in recent years has been substance in exchange for flashy special effects or just plain gruesome looking violence. This game delivers all in one fell stroke, and despite the zombie nightmares I am getting from this game, I shall persevere... and will not stop until I see the damn Cyber Demon... 'cause I know it has to be there somewhere.