Your creepiest maps

[anonymous]

Okay so, the title says pretty much it. What do you find the most scary map you've ever played. Which map, upon playing solo and with full sound on, sketched the most horrific atmosphere for you?

 

My personal top 3:

• #3: Verrückt. While the map itself I don't find that eerie myself, once you pay attention to the location's backstory, the wallwritings of a madman and the interactive screaming/banging easter eggs, this place'll give you some real creeps.
• #2: Blood of the Dead, while I have never played it. Merely watching the trailer and gameplay, listening to the character quotes, etc, made me feel this one has a solid, deserved place in rank 2. The atmosphere is very grim, with all the bodies everywhere, the suffering that had happened at this place is very visible. Combine that with the idea Primis are trapped in Hell, and watch the music video.
• #1: Die Rise is, for me, the absolute winner. The idea you're the last person in the world, running around in the quiet, depressing, narrow corridors full of cockroaches and undead. The sickening 'sleeping cages', the constant moaning in the distance, and the malfunctioning Perk-a-Cola jingles. Your only company are the elevators, who cannot be trusted as well. I got the ultimate 'abandoned' feeling in this map, and in my opinion this is Treyarch's masterpiece concerning atmosphere.

[RadZakpak]

3 maps in particular freak me out for different reasons.

 

3. Moon - The map itself isn’t that creepy but there are some very unnerving elements that make you uneasy with full audio. For one thing there is the muffled audio and light breathing of your character when you don your space suit. There’s the low hum of the alien pyramid that must hold something deeply terrifying. There’s the relatively clean laboratories which make it feel like the station’s crew packed up in quite a hurry to escape something. There’s the astronaut that could be lurking around any corner, always watching, waiting for you to come too close. Finally there’s the game over screen, which is one of my favorites. It’s just the echoing cackle of something evil, slowly fading with no music as your lifeless corpse rests in the void of space never to be found. It is isolation in its truest form.

 

2. Zetsubou No Shima - The island itself seems to be alive... there is this perpetual feeling of being watched by something that views you as an unwelcome guest. The natural fauna is corrupted and ever-growing, consuming what is left of mankind on the remote facility. Just around any corner, you could spot someone who looks like an ally, but this is only a delusion brought upon you. There is no one. Division 9 left behind several vats holding aberrations of nature, man horribly disfigured by plant growth. They seem to be dead inside, but there is no way to be sure. Everywhere you roam, you hear the pitter-patter of eight-spindly legs from overgrown spiders, as they crawl through every vent and crevices of the landscape. Staying long enough on the island, you begin to grow paranoid. You may even begin to believe some Lovecraftian horror wanders the outskirts of the facility, searching for sustenance.

 

1. Shi No Numa - Once again Division 9 has left in its wake a monument to those who have suffered in the name of very little scientific discovery. This is very much an earthly location, yet it feels other-wordly, trapped under a blanket of fog, surrounded by thick mud that would swallow you should you attempt to escape. In the distance you hear the howling of wild dogs, roaming the forsaken swamplands. Standing outside will kill you slowly from Malaria, the unbearable muggy heat, and of course, the undead. Inside, however, is where the fruits of Group 935 and Division 9’s evil reside. Discovering the diary of the Mad Doctor may drive you insane. The voices of the damned reside in the electronics, making any attempt to reach the outside world a spine-chilling experience.

 

Okay I was just going to write some stuff that freaked me out but then this became a whole thing.

[anonymous]

@RadZakpak Yes, I agree with them all. Moon and Zetsubou would be my number 4 and 5. Once again, it's the remote, 'isolated' as you called it, atmosphere. I personally find the zombies in Moon one of the creepiest ever, as their faces have been eaten by the cold space while, for how long they've been there, the lack of oxygen makes them unable to rot. They are damned to eternally wander the isoluted, grey landscape of Earth's sole satelite. In Zetsubou, I mainly found the underground laboratory part eerie, but your outline of 'Honour's Suffering' made me see the facility, and the island, exactly the way you described. Like the island itself has gained a soul, evil and enemy to any form of life. Like it has consiousness. Almost like the carnivorous island in the movie Life of Pi. 

 

The splashing of water when a zombie wanders through the mud gives Shi no Numa a high level of creepiness, though I would rate said maps above it.

[RadZakpak]

Shi No Numa gets special mention because it creeped me out the most as a kid, well, eight years ago now. I remember playing Solo wandering around the Comm Room area, waiting for the last zombie and I got a tingle up my spine just listening to the ambiance, and hearing the howl of a dog in the distance. I wish the first time I saw Hellhounds was a surprise, because I'm sure I would have been terrified. Thankfully Ultimis' quips help dampen the terror in the maps they feature in.

 

Also I should mention I have a very specific fear of singular people or creatures in the distance surrounded by nothing else, which probably stems from my fear of the deep ocean. So that is why just thinking about the distant monster on Zetsubou terrifies me. Any video where someone no-clips on maps like Zetsubou or Shadows of Evil I get chills looking at the monsters just sitting alone in the skybox. It is incredibly irrational and I don't know why they freak me out.

[anonymous]

Atmospheric sounds is one underrated thing the zombie developers are absolutely masters in. Even if they don't fit, like Hyena "laughing" in Shi no Numa, or baby crying in Zetsubou, hearing it makes you feel like you're experiencing more than merely playing a game. Its so overlooked yet so essential. I also always felt like they, espessially in the older maps, combined horror with some sort of fitting humour perfectly. Some random examples of it are zombies falling over the Sliquifier glue, zombies wearing hats in Buried, the laughing at the end of a match you mentioned, ... I always found that latter one sorta funny, but today I heard my mom saying she found it sounding terrified. The mystery box, the monkey bomb, teddy bears and Perk-a-Cola machines. Seeing happy stuff in an unhappy environment contributed to scaryness, in my opinion. 

 

EDIT: Your personal reason that gives you the chills is odd, but understandable. I self cannot explain why, but indeed seeing somwthing lonely has something abnormal and eerie. Don't laugh, but my personal childhood weakness (a.k.a. things I found scary) were pale, balt movie villians. Like Voldemort, the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth and any grey/white alien with a big head and eyes. I dunno why, but the fact they were so pale made them creepy as fuck XD

[Lenne]

3. Kino der Toten - People always say the sounds on Verrückt are creepy etc. but I gotta say, Kino isn't too far off, for me at least, but maybe I am just hearing things on there. haha Another thing I find creepy is the dark cinema itself being "visited" by us in the daylight. I like the contrast of that, but it always kinda freaks me out, cause daylight is suposed to be something positive, you know?

 

2. Mob of the Dead - For me personally it was a return for Treyarch to the more creepy maps, which I liked and I mean just look at the context, prisoners just trying to escape while the only thing they find is death in an endless cycle. I also find that the red eyed zombies are the creepiest.

 

1. Revelations - I hate this map, with a passion as you know, but that is not the reason why it is my creepiest, so it has at least that going for it. The reason is, usually we find ourselves in a destroyed place or version of the place, but in Revelations the whole world/universe whatever is literally falling apart. Can you imagine how horrifying that must be? Not to mention the Margwas.

 

Much love.

 

P.S. Anon, have you overdosed on brains yet?

[Mysteryo]

3. Nacht der Untoten - Where it all started. Small, colorless map in an abandoned airfield while zombies starting to overrun you. I've only played it on BO3, but they really nailed the atmosphere.

2. Mob of the Dead - The Alcatraz... in an alternate dimension where the entire prison is bathing in blood… while every prisoner either died and you can see them around the map hanging or turned into zombies. Endless cycle between the 4 survivals who turn against each other to live… at least until the next cycle, but leave. Hopeless and creepy map to be sure.

1. TranZit - One of the hardest & tedious maps of all time, but anyone can say anything, I love TranZit. The atmosphere with the fog and the denziens jumping you while trying to survive on a destroyed Earth. Lava is around you everywhere and no other survivals are left. Plus typical horror things: farm location, cornfield + (destroyed Nacht), horror sounds, T.E.D.D. is creepy as hell… the whole map is hell 

 

It was hard for me to make this list since none of the maps are really scary to me. And if they scary or creepy… I just love them. I think I was only once scared from that damn ZnS jumpscare when the Ricthofen got me and screamed into my face lol.

[anonymous]

I really like it how anyone thus far found different maps creepy, and how, besides me, no one mentioned the clichée scary-map Verrückt yet. I second you conceening Kino, @Lenne, the fact that you can get outside and see it is daylight makes it double as creepy. 

 

"Enough brains" is something I cannot find in my dictionary, what does it mean?

 

@Mysteryo Your description of Tranzit sounds so familiar to me. Yes, the cornfield, combined with abandoned farms, a town, the cabin, etc. It all sketches some kind of X-Files atmosphere. Initially, before I learned about the story, I always thought the Denizens were some kind of aliens. In my opinion, Tranzit also has the eeriest loading screen ever. It creates the perfect ambiance.

[ZombiesAteMyPizza!]

3. Nacht. I think it's cause it's the first map I ever played and it's so bare-bones, it just feels like horror movie where you're shacked up in a bunker with zombies coming at you until you inevitably die. The sounds and atmosphere on the W@W version were creepy as hell.

 

2. Verruckt. Similar to above with the sounds and atmosphere (war time asylums are always gonna be creepy), but the general feel of the map and how tight everywhere is and the sprinters upped the ante.

 

1. Blood of The Dead. It's just a scary map. The story behind it makes it creepy enough, and there's writing in blood all over the walls, bodies everywhere and the cutscenes just give you this impending sense of doom. Atmosphere-wise, we need more of this, we haven't had this level of eeriness since W@W.