10 Scariest Levels In Non-Horror Video Games
1. Half-Life 2 - We Don't [Want] To Go To Ravenholm
It had to be, didn't it? It was the first thing I immediately thought of when I drafted this, and I'd imagine you thought it too.
The Ravenholm section of Half-Life 2 is the pinnacle of "from out of nowhere" horror sections in otherwise normal games, rightly deserving of all the backhanded praise it gets.
What makes it so iconic is that it's such a deviation from the cold and clinical nature of City 17, instead showing us somewhere that was once lived in and had a community, before being absolutely ravaged by the Xen hordes.
Being set at night doesn't help one iota, either. Horror and poorly lit areas work in tandem with zombies and ape-like nasties, but Ravenholm goes one further with just two words: poisonous headcrabs.
If Ravenholm didn't already creep you out with its blood soaked walls and zombified population, then these leaping liabilities were enough to put the fear into anyone, the poisonous little sh*ts.
It may slow the pace of the game down for this section, but only out of apprehension. It was such a turn that it stills haunt many to this day...