10 Video Game Secrets That Tell HORRIFYING Stories
The cake isn't the only lie around here.
When it comes to instilling fright in your audience, sometimes it's best to be as subtle about it as possible. Especially when you're making video games, where easter eggs and secrets abound.
When making a video game where your audience would not normally expect something scary or even mildly terrifying to pop up, it's best to put that stuff in the background and let the player find it for themselves. That way it makes them feel all cool and smart and lets them make clickbait-y YouTube videos and online articles like - well - this one if I'm being honest.
It's a win win situation, so long as you do it correctly. Fortunately, there's a lot of cases of devs pulling it off with flying colors. While video game easter eggs are mainly known for being funny or weird, there are just as many that are infamous for giving a new layer of horror to an otherwise horror-free environment.
These video game secrets turn our favorite games into secret sneaky horror stories, and God bless them for it.
10. The Joker Gets Burned Alive - Batman: Arkham Knight
Despite being without question the worst of the Arkham games, Batman: Arkham Knight had a REALLY damn good opening screen, featuring the Joker being cremated after his death at the end of Batman: Arkham City.
The game literally refuses to begin until you physically press the buttons needed to ignite the furnace and roast the clown prince of crime to cinders. But of course, there is a second, more disturbing layer to this.
When you boot up a New Game +, when you ignite the furnace, the Joker's eyes will shoot open and he will begin screaming as his flesh burns off his bones and he is cooked like a Christmas turkey in the furnace.
This adds a whole new layer of horror to the end of Arkham City. the toxin didn't fully KILL the Joker, just put him into a deep coma resembling death. But he was in fact alive at the end of the story, and probably for the police autopsy that most likely followed Batman dropping him off on Gordon's car. Only to wake up just in time to be burned alive.
Gruesome.