10 Cruel Tricks Horror Video Games Played On Players

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem may have been a commercial flop upon release in 2002, but its legacy as one of the most ferociously creative and slippery horror games of all time endures.

Its big selling point, and one which unfortunately failed to entice many GameCube owners at the time, was the "sanity effects" - complex and creative hallucinations intended to trick the player and throw them off-kilter. And that they certainly did.

Whenever the player's sanity meter drops low enough - through encounters with enemies - their reality will change. The effects can be as nutty as the player's body exploding, but the more "subtle" ones are typically the best.

Back in 2002, when players saw the game randomly changing the in-game volume, resetting the game, throwing up a "blue screen of death," or apparently deleting their game save, it was tough not to be freaked out.

These effects were integrated so seamlessly into the core gameplay that players - especially younger ones - had no idea quite what was on-the-level and what wasn't.

The fear and anxiety of triggering another reality-warping effect was real, in what remains one of the all-time best instances of a game smashing the fourth wall to pieces.