Scariest Game Scenes Outside of Horror Games

[Menegrothx]

Sonic drowning? Ace Attorney? Pft.
Shalebridge Cradle of Thief 3 is easily the scariest "horror level" out of any non horror game to date. I wasn't even wearing headphones while playing the level and I damn near had a heart attack when one of the enemies surprised me from behind while I was lockpicking a door. This level alone was scarier to me than Dead Space and many other horror games are from start to finish.
In general all of the Thief-series games have horror elements and scary atmosphere. The fact that they're first person sneaking games where you generally have to avoid detection and that they all have really good audio design makes them so much more intense.
Return to the Cathedral is another scary level from the Thief-series.

System Shock 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are both FPSRPG games with a horror theme. VTMB has some scary and gory missions. SS2 is a proper survival horror game though, and one of the scariest in it's genre.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R-games can have incredibly tense atmosphere at times.

Ravenholm.

This one was OK too

[Valkyrie-Favor]

The agonising screams in the first area of Unreal, along with what I've come to call the L-shaped corridor trap, where the lights start going out one by one, those were the first scary moments for me in gaming, and Unreal wasn't scary but the clever use of lighting and sound was incredible at the time.

Somewhere in the second or third level of Unreal, an adventure FPS, you are walking down a very narrow corridor. Suddenly all the lights turn off and you hear a horrible screeching. No matter where you're facing, two powerful monsters appear behind you and rush at you. All you can do is fire your weak pistol and hope you hit, or use the glow of your even weaker laser to shoot them while running away backwards.

Unreal does not mess around.

[hashiriya1]

Anyone mention Spec Ops: The Line? Sorry, I didn't go through the whole thread.

Anyway, that game had some pretty intense spooky scenes.

[JayJaySut]

Something about Yoshi's island was always kind of unnerving to me as a child, it's such a happy game but you get the sense that there's some real darkness underneath, I guess the constant threat of a baby being carried away by monsters might have been it, Pikmin also had a similar vibe to it. You know come to think of it I seem to get that from a lot of Japanese children's entertainment. Also I feel like someone else said it but SONIC CD!

[muhanad]

Something about Yoshi's island was always kind of unnerving to me as a child, it's such a happy game but you get the sense that there's some real darkness underneath, I guess the constant threat of a baby being carried away by monsters might have been it

YES!! I feel exactly the same about Yoshi's Story on N64! Its so colorful and happy, but every time you die you see this depressing darkness and yoshi being carried away

[Solus_Emsu]

The "toasty" pop up from MK really scared/startled me when I was a kid and I was always paranoid afterwards when playing that game.

[deadpixels]

I'll never forget the first time I strolled into the kitchen in Maniac Mansion, only to be chased after by a raging Nurse Edna. Scared the hell out of me! I remember having nighmares as a kid of her sprite chasing me.

I probably needed to lay off the sugar as an eight year old.

[GazongaJoe]

I always got pretty freaked when I encountered Exor in Super Mario RPG.

[GazongaJoe]

Along with The Master in Fallout.

[optmusprimenumber]

Just found this thread.. cool.

I remember the first Quake on PC being damn spooky when I was a kid. Now I just think it's badass, but a cousin and I used to play it and we agreed once that it was too late to play that game..lol