7. Solid Snake and the Corridor of Death
Metal Gear Solid spent more time trapped in my PS1 tray than the Robeson children did under the stairs. It was a revelation when it came out: "ah, so you don't always have to kill your opponents." The quality of the series may have waned over the years, but the original still remains a landmark in gaming - perfectly marrying stealth and action together. MGS also saw the Solid Snake's ascension from badass to
badass with a majestic voice.
So, what's so disturbing about Metal Gear Solid? Aside from everything about Psycho Mantis, MGS' main source of weirdness came from its hammy antagonists and dense conspiracy thriller plot. If you discount those two aspects, it's actually a pretty grounded stealth 'em up. And whilst the Psycho Mantis stuff does get pretty bizarre, I was too busy having my mind blown by his memory card reading trick to be disturbed by him - even though he does look like he came straight from a
Voldo cosplay convention. So nothing too disturbing. But then Snake heads down
a certain corridor... What made this scene so effective is that it came out of nowhere. Discounting a few brief appearances from the psychic powered Psycho Mantis; there was nothing too bizarre about Metal Gear Solid. And then we have this grisly image laid on us. The directing of scene is what makes it so effective; Snake enters the hallway and we are shown the bodies through a series of sharp jump cuts, not too dissimilar to an episode of
CSI. When the player actually encounters the perpetrator - the samurai sword wielding cyborg ninja, Gray Fox - it's done in such a way that heightens his intrigue: we initially see him as semi-invisible and in the middle of holding an enemy up on his sword. The remake (Twin Snakes) upped the ante and violence as we get to see the entire battle taking place, though this ruined the beautiful simplicity of the original scene. It probably didn't help that by the time Twin Snakes came out, the series' storyline was as convoluted as the average pub story; with robotic ninjas being one of the less questionable elements.
Bonus round: Let's not forget the ghost photographs. They're one of those gaming oddities assigned to a long forgotten an era before the internet became truly commonplace. When that one kid from school would tell you that if you took a picture of the urinal in the men's room you would get a super-secret awesome weapon, and you had no choice but to take it at face value. So you took a picture, and, much to your horror, you end up with some utterly creepy results...
When you realise the 'ghosts' are just the developers blowing off steam by pratting around they do lose some of their effect-
Good lord.