Especially when you are swimming in an underwater caves and yiu don't know when the next place where you can take a breath will come.Every time I swim deep in the water in a 1st/3rd person RPG.
Generally, I dread underwater adventures as well because of the inevitable breathing mechanic. Usually a status bar or a counter that gives a limited amount of time before your characters drown. Very tense.
Roguelikes are the scariest since a tough monster will make you start over and not just restart (if you can't run away, at least).
Ogre Mages are always scary early on in ADOM - they cast invisibility so you can't see them, and they cast quite damaging ice bolts. But from where they cast the attack spell, you can judge their current position. They do walk around you constantly instead of sitting still, though.
Werewolf Lords are another possible early threat - they're much faster than most PCs, and summon more wolves, sometimes even more werewolves, to their side. This often makes running away impossible. They also hit very hard with their melee attack.
Tower of Elemental Flames and the Ancient Chaos Wyrm in it are probably the most exciting setpiece fight, you can never be 100% sure you make it unless you grind a lot.
But now when I think of it, when I played enough, it wasn't frightening to meet these guys so much. Just a welcome, exciting challenge. With time you learn that not even stat draining monsters are such a big deal in the long run.
At that point in the game you're sure to have a Wand of Monster Detection + Item Detection to see what's in there both monster- and artifact wise. And even if you just go in there blind, at that point in the game running away is very easy.Roguelikes are the scariest since a tough monster will make you start over and not just restart (if you can't run away, at least).
Ogre Mages are always scary early on in ADOM - they cast invisibility so you can't see them, and they cast quite damaging ice bolts. But from where they cast the attack spell, you can judge their current position. They do walk around you constantly instead of sitting still, though.
Werewolf Lords are another possible early threat - they're much faster than most PCs, and summon more wolves, sometimes even more werewolves, to their side. This often makes running away impossible. They also hit very hard with their melee attack.
Tower of Elemental Flames and the Ancient Chaos Wyrm in it are probably the most exciting setpiece fight, you can never be 100% sure you make it unless you grind a lot.
But now when I think of it, when I played enough, it wasn't frightening to meet these guys so much. Just a welcome, exciting challenge. With time you learn that not even stat draining monsters are such a big deal in the long run.
For me, the most tense times in ADOM are when you're about to pop open a crypt/greater crypt. Usually, encountering those things is a boon - one monster type, so put on the right gear and you've got a reasonably safe way of getting a metric fucktonne of exp and (more importantly) 1-3 artifacts. It can bump up a solid, marginally over-powerful character into one that's powerful enough to start thinking about taking on the optional super-bosses and special victory conditions.
And then sometimes you open one up, and it's full of greater undead / greater chaos / greater dragons, and you're fucked.
Aerie from Baldur's Gate 2.
I'm terrified of Beholders for no good reason
Underwater areas are scary as they really put you into a vulnerable state. Water is of course a hostile environment to begin with, as simply staying in there for too long is enough to kill you. Your movement is seriously slowed down, you can't see shit, and the threat can come from any direction, even directly underneath you. In a fight you will be at a serious disadvantage, not being able to utilize your usual movement patterns (and possibly some of your weapons), facing an enemy that can probably move a lot faster than you can, and of course having to take the precious oxygen into account at all times. In short, underwater areas will take you far away from your comfort zone, and facing even weak underwater beasts can be a lot more stressful than taking on a dragon or some other powerful but rather familiar monster that you can fight on your own terms.Generally, I dread underwater adventures as well because of the inevitable breathing mechanic. Usually a status bar or a counter that gives a limited amount of time before your characters drown. Very tense.
Yeah, just a fish with sharp teeth is enough. It is not even needed to be some kind of gargantuan monster.Underwater areas are scary as they really put you into a vulnerable state. Water is of course a hostile environment to begin with, as simply staying in there for too long is enough to kill you. Your movement is seriously slowed down, you can't see shit, and the threat can come from any direction, even directly underneath you. In a fight you will be at a serious disadvantage, not being able to utilize your usual movement patterns (and possibly some of your weapons), facing an enemy that can probably move a lot faster than you can, and of course having to take the precious oxygen into account at all times. In short, underwater areas will take you far away from your comfort zone, and facing even weak underwater beasts can be a lot more stressful than taking on a dragon or some other powerful but rather familiar monster that you can fight on your own terms.
Morrowind dropped the ball on this. Letting you fight the Dreugh and shit mean swimming ain't no big deal.Yeah, just a fish with sharp teeth is enough. It is not even needed to be some kind of gargantuan monster.
I'm terrified of Beholders for no good reason
you mean this:I'm terrified of Beholders for no good reason
"Reflection Shield" yawn
Every time I swim deep in the water in a 1st/3rd person RPG. Knowing that every moment a giant fish or a predatory water monster can jump from somewhere while I am surrounded by water... Fuck that.
I have no problems swimming in real life, but in real life there isn't all kind of shit living underwater while you are near the beach or in a swimming pool.
Fuck that, man. I ain't trying it.Have you ever tried to go in the open sea in Far Cry? That was by far the most scary thing I have ever experienced in a game. The sound the oxigen mask does, the limited visibility, and the fact that you know there are sharks swimming in there somewhere, the psychological fear from the anticipation was heavy for me. Getting killed by one eventually was somewhat less scary than swimming around.
Freelancer wasn't all that soul crushing.The voidness and emptiness of it all is soul crushing.