That Creepy Feeling - What is it with Source games?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ย. 2019
- A quick thinking-out-loud look at why so many players report feelings of uneasiness on empty Source maps.
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the worst thing isn't that you're scared of being alone, you're scared of *_not_* being alone and thinking you are.
That hit different, holy shit
Yeah I'm stealing this one.
im scared
@@Rickfernello ralsei no
@@Rickfernello RALSEI I'M FAKING PUTTING YOU IN RULE34 IF YOU DON'T STOP THIS ACTION
How to describe source games
“Things are quiet”
“Too quiet”
then there's TF2
@@throatychunk “LEEEEEEEEEETS DO ITTTTT.”
@@moraviancrusader3741 *"NO ONE OF YA WILL EVAH SURVAIV THISS*
@@TheDJBrojo *MEEEEEDIIIIIIC*
*HERE I COME!*
This is probably how a kid that stayed up late feels. When you were with other people it was fine but when you’re alone, it becomes scary.
I never felt that way and stayed up late tons of times as kid, I have always felt at peace alone.
it’s kinda wierd, but that’s sorta how I feel being the last person in a discord call after everyone leaves
@@woahnutreal af, lol 23mins ago
@@woahnutespecially after you've checked the clock and it's closer to 3am, everyone is sleeping, you're not sure if you want to keep playing alone since everyone has left already but you don't quite feel like going to sleep. Fuck man this videos comment section is bringin up emotions and I'm not sure if I like these emotions :D
@@woahnutI understand exactly what you mean.
Maybe it's how true loneliness feels?
I think the combination of photorealistic textures with a lowpoly, flat and motionlessly dead world. The light and shadows doesn't feel right. It's kinda reminiscent of the scariest show from my childhood: Courage the Cowardly Dog. It also applied photorealistic textures to surfaces, and it was really really creepy.
the corpses didnt need to be as graphic but they are
I think part of the reason is the pseudo-realism of the source engine. Everything looks real but it doesn’t at the same time
It's like the uncanny valley of architecture.
Uncanny valley x kenopsia/liminal space
yess and the bland repetetive textures on most big objects and lighting on default is like in a hospital
+1
the lighting is all really flat and it's hard to identify light sources in most cases. there also aren't really any shadows
I feel that it's because the worlds are largely unanimated. There's no sense of time.
Exactly my thoughts. Like the entire planet has stagnated . If I went outside one day and everything was empty and still I'd be creeped out.
Deep.
Yeah it's just dead silence, nothing there feels alive. All empty, but with an ambience sound in the background? Weird, maybe that's why I'm uneasy.
It all looks old and grimy but like it doesn’t age or move at all
The background noise makes it seem like it should be populated but it’s unnerving since there’s no one ther
What makes it so creepy is the liminal aspect of these games. The feeling like there should be people in these places where you hear city sounds, cars, and metros but have yet to see anyone is what gives you the creeps that you might not quite be so alone as you thought you were. Another thing that adds onto this is the layer of nostalgia. Many of these maps were played by many people as kids and teens then. But now, many sit empty, giving it an eerie feeling.
Expecting someone to be around the corner and it never happens...that's the core horror, I think. The endless failed anticipation.
Yet Ive never played GMOD as a kid, yet it still gives me a creepy feeling.
It feels like you're walking around and not able to see anything happening around you.
I thought it was very relaxing to not have people attacking you left and right. You can just take a nice quiet stroll down the street.
right on point
I have another thing to add:
(Speaking for the older, hl2-type maps, since the video talks about those.)
These (older) source maps are very often incredibly stationary; nothing or very little is moving (Other engines seem to care more to give plants, or other things affected by things like wind, at least some kind of movement).
The movement comes from the players on it and when they aren't there, only a frozen world (often with post-apocalyptic assets from hl2) remains. When you add a soundscape that hints at activity, you get a situation where you have two regions in the world you're in: an empty one, where you are now, and an active one, somewhere out there.
The scary part is that you do not know where the border between these two regions lies, you might cross it around the next corner and rationally we all know that in a source game, you will most likely not encounter it. Emotionally though, our brain does not know that and so, it needs to find out where this border lies to be at peace.
Humans inherently do not like suprises like this.
We don't nessecarily dislike being in either environment (active or empty), because we can adapt our state of mind to it, but we DO dislike being in one of them while we are in the state of mind of the other type.
--> Example: You're been walking alone, no one in sight for a while, and you turn a corner and suddenly you see a person just a few meters ahead facing/walking into your direction. (Slightly) scary? What if this happened while walking in a crowded city?
--> Example 2: You've been walking in said city, enough people around. You walk into a narrow side street. No one there. Not a big deal, you expected that, why would there be a lot of people in this connecting street? You reach the end but there is STILL no one there, same with the next few streets you wander into. Feel uneasy? You were in a social state, but you're being suprised because the way your brain prepared itself did not match the state you needed to be in.
Please excuse grammar mistakes I made, I am not good at explaining things in English.
TLDR;
Humans have learned to trust their instincts. If it says "There must be people here" and there are none, the human becomes weary/alert (which is very closely related to fear, arguably the same)
Ive experienced those things but didnt know it were supposed to be this creepy. 😅
Now I found out about why I was feeling like that when I was an 8 year old playing counterstrike 1.6
Underrated comment
Why this comment doesn't have more likes is BEYOND me
Old empty source maps have a backroom kind of feeling.
exactly!
I knew I wasn’t only one to notice that
Yep yep yep
I designed a few maps and while walking through them, i still get unnerved by this
i get that feeling a lot more with beta content, like the maps of test_citadel of half life 2, though half finished and completely different to the retail concept, the vibes it gives are really unnerving, specially the tiles covering the walls.
Imagine playing skyrim, but you're the only character. No npc's, no enemies, just you.
And I thought Doom without demons is already creepier than anything else
Holy shit
That would be boring asf
It would just be "hiking through the woods in 1450"
I remember that happening in Fallout New Vegas when I booted the game up it crashed at and I had to restart then it played as normal but there where no npcs at all
There’s a sound used in half life 2, portal and left 4 dead that comes on during the most quiet times. It’s like wind blowing down a metal tube. Can’t quite describe it but that shared sound effect that plays in valves games gave the ambience a much more larger than life yet unsettling feeling at the same time
I know exactly the sound you're talking about. Agree.
th-cam.com/video/5MsR51OOUyE/w-d-xo.html this one
Do you mind sharing a gameplay video from TH-cam? I am curious on the experience you talk about.
I thought it was just a dream. Now I remember.
I think i know what you mean. That sound fill the quiteness sudenly
I remember spawning alot of NPCs just to keep myself company. But the eerie feeling is still not going away
the graphics and visuals also play a part
Britness really dark while you playing and texture.
I think the creepyness comes from the 3D realistic art style. STALKER does this to a lesser extent, the rusted, lowres filtered textures make everything appear "realistic" but it's also not.
the feeling that you get in STALKER is unmatched, especially in Anomaly. It's a combination of ambience and the fact that you might be stalked as well by people or monsters that don't show up until the very end and jumpscare you. It puts me on edge every time.
It's something called a slavic setting bro. They're usually depressing and eerie.
@@communistbabushka9038 STALKER 2 coming..anu Cheeki breeki iv damke comrade
@̣ chernoby veterans join Duty on its triumphing march towards victory
@@COHOFSohamSengupta Slava Monolita! You infidels wont be our match when our glorious warriors in their eternal union with the Monolith march into the rest of the zone!
It’s just............so still, there is no wind, the leave or grass don’t sway. You hear ambience and sirens. But everything is completely still and motionless.
I get the same feeling with minecraft
Purgatory
That's the first thing i noticed
The textures too as well, the mix or dirty realistic style and now oldschool textures
Console games that ask too much visually like anything before the 360/PS3 era had this issue. Like many PS2 games having poor colour range.
Something I've noticed is that these maps are usually big, or at least look very big... but then you go to all the rooms, apartments... and you can't even see some chairs or boxes, or something destroyable or interactive.
It's like the world it's extremely big but there's nothing there, really. Like if you were living in a movie set.
Bro that zombie in cs_office just as you said 'See someone around the corner' really got me. That was genius. I had to replay to check if what I saw was there.
Part of the effect is that the interiors don't look lived-in. They look like they were designed by an unemotional AI to emulate human society, but completely missing the point of what makes a society feel alive.
Sounds like you might like the manga "Blame!" Or the game NaissanceE
@@The_Noblest_Roman blame! Is badass
@lunes feriado I think I saw that on release but It must not have stuck so I'm due a rewatch. My counter recommendation is th-cam.com/video/Zkv6rVcKKg8/w-d-xo.html
3 years later but I know what you mean. There's no individuality, just bare minimum to sustain an unfeeling life
The thing that makes source games creepy is that they're just so still. There's nothing moving, no wind blowing, nobody's talking. It's a dead world and it feels unnatural
To add to this there's artificial noise, things like birds chirping that don't exist..
yess. Ive been palying source games since 2017 bec my PC was trash and I wondered why this shit is running in like 100 fps. Then I discovered everything looks dead and nothing is moving or doing anything. also every source game looks the exact same. The shit im talking for 3 years now.
Dead and empty world but with everything quite recent. Not like a post apocalyptic world with everything destroyed justifying who no ones there. Just no one with recent and not destroyed buildings.
Also other stuff that gives the weird feeling : everything is flat. There are almost no 3d volume, just flat surface with HD textures, and also the scale of everything seems a bit off but not too much
It's a bit like that old Stephen King story, where a couple of people somehow get removed from the real world while on a flight from LAX to Boston. After they manage to land the plane they realize that they're trapped in this static, leftover version of reality where nothing ever changes and everything feels stale and dead.
That, combined with socialist/brutalist architecture which gives you unsettling feelings of someone always watching you
Never in my life have I thought Source engine games to be creepy. But that map's soundscape is made for horror.
7:30 I wasn't prepared for this
for what exactly?
There are many reasons:
1. The feeling of not being alone when you think you are.
2. The blandness of colors
3. The ambient noises
4. Nothing is moving.
True
Those are three reasons. The first one is literally because of the other three lol
@@mrflippy3578 iq has left the chat
Above all, the reason its creepy watching this video is PRIMING. Everything in this video was set up so we feel uneasy from the nostalgic start, to unnerving music, to the suicide story. I felt weird watching this video, but I played on this map just yesterday and I had absolutely no creepy affects on me.
i thought your pfp was the adobe logo
It’s the atmosphere. There are sounds of life and people around you, but there’s nobody there. the droning background hum, the police cars, the creak of seesaws, it’s filled with life, but nobodies home
It's probably comparable to that episode of the Twilight Zone where the soldier finds himself in an empty town, but little things keep happening like food appearing and vehicles running.
@@chiefr9627 now THAT'S creepy
Yeah, that's basically how I was thinking of it. Not only that, but the fact that these maps are meant to be multiplayer. A place full of other people around you, with something always happening, yet when no one else is there it's just... off.
Edit: I realize now that the video continues on to say pretty much exactly what I just commented
Yeah, I do believe you're correct
Yea indeed
The colour pallet has a lot to do with the tone as well. Personally, Source feels like home. It's like that favourite pair of shoes or old bike you loved to ride.
The engine places no restrictions on pallette though. It's just an engine. If you wanted to make a bright, over-saturated game in it then you can.
This is a very interesting video, as someone who was 13-15 at the time playing gmod on rp downtown V2 with so many other players and very fond memorable experiences I took the time tonight to revisit the map alone wondering it for 20 minutes. As maps have updated and progressed on and me being a 25 years old now it was a surreal experience, it was like walking through the remnants of the past, forgotten personal memories which no one else in my social circle can relate to or understand. The eerie noises in the background, the abandoned sewers for where i used to base with multiple other people and be filled with voice coms, only to be replaced by the sound of dripping or running water with faint sirens in the background. Simply chilling.
This atmosphere or garry's mod... You always hear wind, birds that doesn't exists. You walking on map and you doesn't see any life, all feels so empty and even dead. This is creeps me out always while i was playing alone on some sandbox standart maps.
i always play on neon construct and neon flatgrass because it feels less dead
i don't know why, but it does
gm_construct more than gm_flatgrass
Just put a few silly models in there an you'll get rid of it
The weird thing is though is you get this feeling even in TF2 when nobody is in the server
I actually like the dead atmosphere. I dunno why but It almost makes me cry from nostalgia.
It probably doesn't help that every single texture in Source is something that's meant to look 3d, but is just a completely flat surface.
That's pretty much what Normal Maps are, though. They're just alot more common and noticable in Source games. I think it's more the grimy, rundown nature of most HL2/CS:S textures that contributes to that uneasy feeling.
@@randomcatdude true their just normal maps, but I think he means the level of the detail on these normal maps really contrast with the flatness of the model itself, and source games have particularly flat models
To me, the textures are pretty unsettling because, although they might not be, they look dirty or old, and a bit weird
As a photographer, it has a lot to do with the negative space. I had the same sensation in Texas. There is so much negative space in Texas haha. When you have a lot of space and room between things there is a sense of isolation. When I compose frames and I want to intensify that feeling, I purposefully add a ton of negative space between the canvas edges and subject matter and make the background devoid of much distraction.
Design wise it also creates attention. There’s a sense of vulnerability with a lot of room. You subtract additional subjects and pair it with melancholic color palettes and you have a prime foundation for pushing those feelings of isolation, melancholy, and/ vulnerability. These are things that I definitely resonate with, but I take it as a calling that 1) Others feel the same way so I’m not alone in that respect, 2) an acknowledgment that what I’m feeling is not unique or special 3) that feeling of discomfort points out an inherent issue I maybe am dealing with 4) awareness of the issue means I can also glean the awareness of the solution to the issue.
If you ask me, there’s one thing that the digital world has shown us is our need for the real genuine connections in our lives. Maybe somebody is attracted to scenes like this because they feel strangled by people around them and maybe others are repulsed or scared of scenes like this because they reinforce a feeling they wish to escape. That’s the beauty of Art, it acts a microcosm of what’s happening between the surface for both the Artist and the Audience. Too often, I think, we focus on the Art itself versus how the Art impacts us personally. There’s insight to glean from our response to things.
Edit: you also get this feeling with Liminal spaces, or really anything that is uncanny. The unfamiliar is uncomfortable, we have a tendency to look for parallels in the unfamiliar to what we can know. So recognizable things arranged in unfamiliar ways can create a lot of mixed emotions that take a while to unpack. The more you study Art and create Art the more you start to realize it’s just people sharing ideas and emotions just to be understood better. Art is it’s own language and even Great Artists miss the message of other artist for the message they need to tell themselves. At the end of the day, it’s just people trying to connect with people, that’s what’s important.
Texas do that tho
What I love about Valve is almost each of their games is a flagship game. They reinvent the gaming industry over and over again.
The presence of background noise implies a bustling world nearby, yet no matter where you go, it is empty. It’s as if you are trapped a few seconds out of time, either in the future or the past.
Wow, well put thought.
State between future and past is where we live now
@@femboyelectronics6441 that's not what he said..
Ever watch the twilight zone episode where the rift in time is filled by construction workers assembling time before it happens? Reminds me of source maps
@@ultrabigfella know im just jokin
Older versions of minecraft give me an intense feeling just like this.
Even tho im 17, i just cant play singleplayer normaly, im just mining in one direction and then all of a sudden the herobrine memories of 2013 kick in and im scared to turn around and just leave the game
@@maximilianpetrov8176 And the cave noises are not helping either
yeah the older verson of minecraft had a simpler, emptier design to it. It was too simple, like anything could pop up anytime
Cave noises are one of the reasons I don't play minecraft alone, it scares me a lot !
Back then people thought herobrian was a thing which make it a lot more creepy
For some unknown reason this unnerving feeling of loneliness makes me more passionate and fascinated about source games, in gmod and hl2 in particular
Same, it just feels oddly... right, like it always fascinated me how these games could promote uncannynes just by their simple graphics, im looking foward to getting more in depth into this.
@@victordarkreapewr444 I think it has to do more with the Ambient sound effects and the level of detail put in the environment rather than the graphics
Windows 98 and 95 share the same empty feeling!
Man that's true! I have always felt that since my childhood when playing Counter Strike 1.6 without any BOTS or players. But never gave much time to think why? Knowing that you felt it too gives me chills.
Same here...
Left 4 dead with no zombies is terrifying, it’s just quiet dark and creepy.
i tried it out and i could only stand it by pretending theres zombies out there, far away in the map, and that they just havent seen me yet. otherwise, i'd just leave or turn the director on.
it's sccary, when that happens I would have my brother play the game
Its not scary at all
especially the swamp map
With zombies it isn’t scary, but without them is horrifying
Anyone else feel like the graphics are waaayyyy too realistic while being not realistic at the same time?
gritty photorealistic textures over shitty low poly meshes
@@technologicalwaste7612 and also how everything is kinda just flat
Yes
I think this is why I find Portal 2 less scary than Portal 1. Even though the setting should be creepier, the newer shinier graphics make it seem more alive. Portal 1 on the other hand feels dead and empty. Everything fits together but that's it. There's no life to it. In Portal 2 you get glimpses of the inner workings of the facility. Portal 1 only has this ominous red glow. Portal 2, despite having a more unfriendly world, made too much sense and felt relatable and lost a bit of that loneliness.
Games like Half life 2 look amazing for being that old
I understand how people might few uneasy in an empty source map, but honestly, I think is very comfy.
I love the concept of a place that is usually full of people that is now empty, with just me there. It feels like im in a secrete haven and the whole place is just mine. I had a similar comfy and relaxed feeling whenever I got too early on school, or stayed in the school after everyone left, because there wouldn't be anyone
Same here bro, when i was in highschool on class starts at 7am, and im already there at 4am. I dont know, i feel so comfortable alone before.
While I do get that eerieness on source maps, I have mixed feeling when experiencing what you are saying irl. I've always felt both comforted and creeped out when being somewhere alone. For instance, I work on my family cafe, and sometimes I leave very late in the evening (3-4 am) and the cafe is in the town square, which is almost always lively, but when leaving that late and walking home, I always have that weird feeling of both calm and uneasiness, I can't quite explain it
I agree, I love occasionally going into empty servers and just walking around. Sometimes noclipping around surf maps in cs:s just to appreciate the map architecture.
Thats not the problem. I dont mind being alone.
The thing that most are scared about is, *not really being alone but you think you are*. Some entity or being, stalking you out of every corner. You have this feeling of being watched. Sometimes you can almost see it! But you most likely never will. It might not exist. But it definetly feels like it does. In the corner of your eye. Something. You dont know what though.
I can relate to that as to when I used to commute early to work 4am to be in office by 5am. There was close to Noone on road and very few people about. I found peace in that. The night shift folks were still around and I was the only person that early.
I felt like this when playing Mirror's Edge. It was really eerie and depressing tbh. Got the same feeling when I played CS Source alone with bots after playing it every weekend with friends. It was a nostalgic loneliness. Or when you log onto Steam (for whatever reason) and see your friend "last online 5 years ago"...
For me it’s, an area that feels like it should have people, but doesn’t. It’s unnerving, like you might just turn around and see something, or someone.
Don't worry just your nervous system is in alert mode when your alone
check out r/liminalspace, most gmod maps are very liminal feeling
basically the definition of a liminal space
Allthemore scarier when at one point you do encounter something animated.
I think part of the reason is also the fact that you can hear a lot of city noises, especially when they're in sort of a reasonable distance for you to eventually see what's causing it, but you never do. Like police sirens, you'd expect to eventually either see the car, or hear the sirens stop, right?
noclipping out of source maps to see you're just in an infinite void, in the middle of nowhere gets me too.
LIMINAL SPACE
THE BACKROOMS
AMENOIA
Gordon....THERE'S NOTHING THERE.
really? cause for me when I saw him zipping around using No clip I was suddenly taken out of the creepiness and was mentally singing Sonic Adventure 2's City Escape theme XD
It's crazy how the creepiness of the game isn't even trying to be scary, It's your own mind scaring itself.
I got a similar feeling playing alone in certain multiplayer maps in Call of Duty: World at War. Especially Asylum map comes to mind, online in a multiplayer setting you wouldn't think of it but playing it alone in a custom game felt eerie. If you listened closely there were some whispering/crying in the bathroom area of the map, like if someone was inside one of the stalls.
There was also a ghost playing a piano if you stay quiet near the showers. Me and my friend use to run around in split screen looking for all the noises. Truly one of the creepiest maps and just as creepy in Verrukt.
I spent like 3000 hours on garrysmod, feeling was present everyday
Feels like you're being watched
DarkRP Admin is always watching
I spent about 200 hours on garry's mod
@@LucasAlvesMusic Feels like a post-apocalyptic city whenever people aren't there
@@Dantomer it's a great game
Theres a word for this, its called 'liminal'. Its the weird feeling of being in a place that should be full with people, but is empty.
Ever been in a school after everybody else already left? Yeah, that.
Wow. I have felt this before. It is the weirdest feeling ever and it is honestly quite creepy to experience it. Especially if you are in a place that is important to you like somewhere you used to go as a kid or seeing a house or neighborhood you used to live in.
Is it weird to enjoy feeling liminal? I'll be the last one to leave work every now and then and I personally love the solitude. Maybe it's from being around so many people for 6-8 hours prior and a sort of mental release.
I also remember having this feeling at school from time to time. I would hang out with some of the drama kids and would occasionally stay late after school with them while they rehearsed for school plays. Couple of the times, I would end up walking throughout the school, completely alone while on my way home.
I definitely enjoy being by myself a lot of the time. Not 100% of the time obviously, I would lose my mind if I was. But I can't honestly think of a time when I was alone in a place that should be crowded and not enjoy myself.
In games it's completely different for me though. I get this really weird feeling playing basically any game if I'm not either playing with another person and/or talking with them on discord. I know that part of that is now that I've aged I've realized that gaming is not a particularly effective use of my time. Considering I don't have the mechanical skill to make it as a pro with gaming, or the drive to become a popular internet personality in gaming, or the know how to develop games.
Maybe I'm a psychopath, maybe it's Maybelline.
Yes i remember that exact experience :O
maybe it depends on whether you have positive/negative emotions connected to whatever area, I get a similar feeling to this when I am alone at a hotel, but when i was alone at school working IT a year/two back it was hell on earth
Yup. We did a sleepover with my class in the school back then and I felt so weird going around these empty halls and staircases. We went everywhere and the big hallway itself was the most creepy thing. The basement was not a problem. Me and a female friend of mine even slept down there. Nobody was there anyways even when school was open so it just felt like normal. All other rooms where so weird haha. Good times.
When I was in Amsterdam a few months ago I was in the middle of the city and I didn’t see a single soul. Not one person. Most amazing feeling ever. That will never happen again and I‘m so happy that I experienced the beauty of the city without looking at thousands of people at the same time.
I def agree. Loading up a map and walking around by yourself does have an unnerving feeling. It’s almost like there is so little going on, it feels like something, somewhere is moving around watching you. I really miss that feeling to be honest. Games are so advanced and busy now, I miss that seclusion old games had.
Half life 2 is in a dark, and gritty environment. It is part of the vibe of the game. It is not a happy story, but a sad story, and the environment is meant to produce that feeling to match the tone of the game.
An empty Source map is like a closed amusement park at night.
Or a cellar in a new house that you haven't filled with shit.
*oh my god don't say that*
600th anniversary of the most important things that are available
or a abandoned school
easy answer: source games are 3d liminal spaces. The maps are usually believable as real urban places, so when servers are empty or there's no AI to take up the space, you feel this sensation like someone's going to pop around the next corner any second because your brain is trained to associate the terrain with crowds.
I thought the exact same thing. Source game levels are all meant to be moved through and bustling with activity, like a subway station, or a town center. Visit those place at night, or after closing and you get the same weird feeling. HL2, where most of the source art direction comes from, intentionally played with this feeling to give the sense that the world was this lonely dystopian place; so that caries over to everything else.
You know? I have other explaination. Empty servers bring loneliness, feeling of something that was once great, but fell. People where having fun there, but party is over and you are alone. It's a grim omen of humanity's future and memento of game's past. People link games with reality. If you have ever seen an MMO shutting down you know what I mean. It's like they were really dying, some people go insane, do worst shit they can, because they can avoid the punishment, have mental breakdowns, speak with the other, forget about their differences and speak waiting for the end or even sit with their enemies, forgiving them. It's somewhat exciting. Facing the end. Together with people who feel like your family. And Source games just look like you were late for the shutdown, but somehow you are still able to see locations you loved, but without people, empty. It's the very definiton of eerie for me. Loneliness, hellesness and realization that nobody will help them. Ever.
@@dehydrateddarkness3565 I have witnessed Club Penguin shutting down...and other games like NFS World, Skill Special Force 2, soon all the flash games too...
@@Andy_77799 Fortunately, there still ways to play alot of flash games, like BlueMaxima's Flashpoint.
@@dehydrateddarkness3565 Well I play gmod since 2011, I NEVER played it online or with friends, but I still have this feeling. It's not because we had good memories, but for another reason I can't explain
You're not afraid to be alone in an empty house. You're afraid of not being alone in an empty house
Old Minecraft, especially with that signature foggy render distance just made me feel a certain breed of unease as a child. It was maybe my first time playing Minecraft, a game which I’d always associated with laughter, commentary, and editing. Maybe that’s part of why it felt so creepy to play alone in that world. That and rumors of herobrine that constantly kept me on edge even while doing mundane things in game. It wasn’t long before I moved on to other games. Partly because of boredom and partly for a reason I couldn’t quite explain at the time. Thanks for the video. Glad to know some more about this feeling.
I always feel like im one step away from getting jumpscared
Boo!
@@SLENDAMANN *shits violently*
Dude same
@@Handkeliw Uhm.....
@@Handkeliw ANTI CITIZEN DETECTED SENDING UNIT 1969
There is a psychological phenomena that describes this feeling, often known as "kenopsia" or "kenophobia". It's the stressful feeling you get when you enter empty spaces, typically a location that you would expect to be bustling with people, only to find the area empty and abandoned. These are sometimes known as Liminal Spaces. For example, entering public areas after closing time, like a park or a school late at night, long after everyone has left. Another example would be spelunking through decrepit abandoned buildings. I would figure that this applies to abandoned servers on video games too.
When I was young, I would sometimes leave important school materials behind at my elementary school, and would have to go back after closing time. It's very eerie, because I am so used to seeing the place bustling with people, but late at night, there is usually nobody there. Sometimes there might be one janitor, but that isn't a guarantee. Most of the lights are also turned off. I can't help but get this feeling that I am being watched when I am there.
Thanks for explanation. I was thinking about that too.
Yeah I was thinking about it. It happened in winter evening. When I was studying at school there was a parents meeting. I stayed for the extra lessons and after finishing it I was forced to wait for my mom. I was sitting at the hall and I felt that I need to go to restroom. It was late so most of the places were dark and mostly there wasnt any light. Walking through hallway with half of the lights off was so unnerving and the constant buzzing sound of light add up to it. When I was going back to hall I felt that something or someone is watching. My instincts kicked in so I felt like I should get away fast as I could. When I saw parents leaving have never been so happy to see people
Probably i have kenospia
I get that feeling whenever I play on commonly played online maps in gmod or TF2 mixed with nostalgia as I've been playing those games for about a decade.
The comment I was looking for
I get this feeling when I go back to old co-op Minecraft worlds. Seeing every block exactly as it was, every item in every chest and every sign with a small message from the past, years later but with only you on the world with all these distant memories flashing is quite surreal and this feeling will only grow with time. Since I’m only 18 and a lot of worlds I created where when I was between 9 and 15, I will most likely able to look back on the same worlds in the same way in up to 70 years time which is a crazy thought.
I remember feeling like this when I played assassin's Creed 2. If you took your horse and walked through the Alpes to get to one location, there was literally nothing in the surroundings except you, your horse and the landscape. I remember feeling that uncomfortable feeling of being alone, and who knows if I was being watched... Anyway I was a kid, but that feeling is stuck with me
the thing is, whoever made those assets back at valve knew what they are doing, the whole idea of halflife and portal was to make you feel uncomfortable, in a way to immerse you in that world full of depression and despair not to mention the feeling of "big brother always watching". I'd say the primary driving force are the textures and assets (premade buildings and stuff) of this creepy yet familiar feeling of depressed, scared and being watched
Nice to see people still actually knowing George Orwell
That's what I also thought and because of that Valve amazes me yet again.
@@colbyboucher6391 no wonder, 1984 is an amazing book
To add up, with TF2 and Counter Strike, those two are deliberately made to ensure that you are still aware that an enemy is nearby at all times.
Yes exactly. Everything feels... abandoned, disposed of. Like nobody has been there for years. And yet you hear ambient sounds. Everything feels empty. Like something bad just waiting to happen. You're in a maze that you can't escape. No matter where you go it feels like that.
The color palette and Source's lighting are definitely contributing to the eerie feeling. They're dull, lifeless, nauseating even.
I love the color palette
Simple geometry, low contrast scenes, sharp lines and details... Etc.
Now we know where Kanye got inspiration for yeezy color palette
Did you guys play Team Fortress 2? Or do you mean _this map specifically_ and for some reason say "Source"?
true
When I was kid my parents didn't understand the internet so they didn't took it to our home, so I mostly played single player games, but I loved random roaming in old Call of Duty2 online maps alone. It was weird and interesting experience, I will never forget that.
That was something I never really noticed when I was playing Source games regularly because I was a competitive Half Life 2:Deathmatch player and... well... competitive HL2DM was fast-paced and go-go-go all the time. But now that you mention it, and now that I can stop and really soak in the ambience of these maps, I see what you are talking about.
this is like the feeling you walked through your old school, all the memories and fun activities youve done just to walk through an empty hall
Damn I actually expiereinced this when I visited my old school
Great comparison
@• 26 years ago facts
That's exactly how it feels
@Pandilleros Damn you were probably an introvert.
It's just the feeling of Lord Gaben constantly looking over your shoulder.
Lord gaben breathing heavily on your shoulder while telling u to buy something on steam.
@@xyzxyzzyxzyx2155 Ninty... Percent... Off... *Lord Gaben smiles as you reach for your wallet.*
Thank now I don’t have to watch the video
Don’t anger him or he’ll erase your entire library...
His presence is real!!
Its too still. It reminds me of the suburbs I grew up in, they were really quiet and sprawling and the land almost seemed to eat itself. It triggers some childhood trauma for me because I had a Bad Neighbour who let's say didn't respect the autonomy of a little girl. Good to see someone dissecting it, helps me contextualize things and not too upset in these environments.
This might be super bias of me because I always thought about this since a kid but one of the best videos on TH-cam! I love how you broke it down mane
Cities, and more succinctly, buildings are made exclusively by people, for their use. When there's no people in a building, in a city... we subconsciously think, "Something must be wrong with this place." I think it's a survival instinct. The reason it's common in Source games is because of the same freedom that people have used to mod the engine to hell and back. You're free to just wander around on an empty map, and it's easy to do.
How many games let you do this without tons of modding know-how? It's practically the default for Source. I bet doing this with a Fallout game would make it just as creepy and unnerving.
It is most definitely a survival instinct. Think how weird it would be to live in a forest as a caveman only to one day wake up and not see any small animals or chirping birds. Your first thought would be "Why did the animals leave? What where they running from?". Thus making you feel threatened.
It's an incredibly interesting phenomenon.
I think that wouldn't work so much in Fallout. The World in Bethesda Games already is pretty empty and eventless most of the time. When you wander from one town to another you would encounter maybe two or three enemies ant that's it.
The word you are looking for is 'Liminal Space'.
I have that feeling for Minecraft even though technically there are supposed to be no humans except you (excluding villagers) and it feels.. sad and a bit creepy at times
@@StabYourBrain
I think it's also the fact that Fallout has clearely gone through an apocalypse. The fact that you can see how everything has been destroyed is oddly reassuring in its own way. Empty Source maps are usually in this uncanny, clean, pristine condition. As if all the people there suddently vanished into thin air mere moments ago. It's more unnerving since you really don't know just what happened there.
The feeling hasn't been creepiness for me but a sence of dreadful loneliness, going through rooms meant for furnishing and people but there is absolutely nothing.
100% agree,, it's like the unsettling feeling of seeing something once so full of life now abandoned. You expect to see someone pop out from a doorway, but instead there's only yourself and the silence.
Dread, wait does that mean Quake's dread still exists in Source Games.
Now thats funny.
Yeah lol it’s just a feeling of dread and unnerving
The thing which disturbed me is that the soundtrack is that of a bustling city but u can find nowhere there and it creates a feeling that you are being watched
@@keeoh5815 the thing is, I never played multiplayer. I would constantly build little scenes to avoid the bitter loneliness, I never felt watched. 7 years go by still playing and it is only now that I have played multiplayer, it feels like I'm in a room with mannequins, strangely I had grown an attraction to my little scenes than to being with people.
If you’ve ever seen the PT mod that someone made where you can move the camera into third person.. it turns out that the ghost was quietly following you the whole time. It makes the play through more eerie than it already was
At 5:39 i used to spend hours in that apartment growing weed plants and getting raided over and over. This was easily 10 years ago. U brought back memories i didnt even know i still had. Thank you
My guess is "environmental uncanny valley" - It's realistic, but "off"
I honestly think it’s with every game mostly multiplayer ones I always got that same feeling when playing Halo 3 alone the idea that I could see something always terrified me because it wasn’t possible I wasn’t online so how could someone join.
I completely agree. It doesn't help that most of the graphics assets are from a dystopian setting, which furthers the "ghost town" vibes
I agree, I think this is a big part of it! The textures are all taken from photographs so they look real enough, but the geometry is always flat and blocky. Look at the buildings in the Gmod map - none of them have the imperfections and overhangs and details you see on real-life buildings. The chipped paint is there, but there's no difference in height between the paint and the wall. The bricks have cracks in them, but it's all on the same surface level. All the physical imperfections are there, without any of the physicality lol.
This was before normal maps were as common as they are in video games today so even though the textures are of real objects, the textures you'd see in an amateur source map lack the depth you would expect; the bricks on walls are completely flat and don't have any parallaxing as you walk past them, the walls have moulding but it's just projected onto the geometry and looks the same from every angle, and it just looks _weird_. Also, the textures are just slightly blurry/pixelated, which again clashes with the fact that they're photos of real life.
All that to say that it's just a lot of different things all coming together to make an object feel not quite right.
It's like our dreams
hmmmm
For me it was creepy due to hearing sounds that should indicate human activity but getting conflicting information due to seeing nobody. I think this confuses and causes this feeling of creepiness.
Also, seeing things that indicate people were there (ex: lights being on everywhere - why, if there are no people anywhere ?) not so long ago but not seeing anybody anywhere at any point. These kind of conflicting information raises an alarm in the brain and probably expresses itself as this feeling of something being wrong with the environment.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking and how the sound effects in some cases sound almost natural with just a hint of something being wrong
Sfx can also be creepy, even if you reverse them, you can hear some scary noises or messages thats hard to understand, but there actaully creepy that, you'll actaully get a feeling like fr, your feeling that your not alone in your reality or your game, in the game you think someone is watching you, and making these sounds, in the half life 2 sfx, there's a few sound effect which are also creepy, also you might not believe me the witch sound effect from both l4d is really creepy like fr, i can't stand to long.
My thoughts exactly. I think the constraints of the game engine (clean lines, lack of scenery movement, smooth player movement) also contribute to that feeling although it might just be me
True
It sounds like it's liminal spaces.
This 100% ties into the idea of liminal spaces, you know there should be people playing on the map, or watching you play/complete a puzzle, but you're entirely alone.
I once got lost in a hospital as a child. it ended with the most terrifying elevator ride of my life. I felt a strange nostalgic feeling while seeing those orange white striped walls of the apartments.
People: "this is so creepy, I feel like I'm being watched"
Me, chuckling as I watch you through the security camera: "Yes, yes you are"
Wait wha-
O-O
FEGELEIN!!!!
Where is it
*Laughs from the vent*
This is called a Liminal Feeling. It’s an unsettling feeling that comes from expecting a space or place to have other people, but there is a lack of other people. It’s similar to the feeling of schools at night, or movie theaters at night. The constant sounds of police sirens on this map may be recreating the same effect of expecting others to be present.
Top comment there
Thank u so much for this! For a really long time I have been trying to explain this feeling. I used to say "it's like loneliness but isn't loneliness"
I have a strange, nostalgic soft spot for these, to be honest, in anything Source, ever since I saw videos I "was too young to" as an elementary school kid in the late 2000's, born in '98, watching Garry's Mod on TH-cam, dreaming of playing it when I grew old enough.
There are entire games utilizing this concept e.g. Stalker lol
And then one day, something very peculiar happened.
Something that would forever change Stanley;
Something he would never quite forget.
He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he had realized not one single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow.
No one had shown up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say 'hi'. Never in all his years at the company had this happened, this complete isolation.
It's a liminal space. Something so close to reality but being "off" enough to trigger a sense of the uncanny valley. A very similar feeling occurs when in a space like the well lit parking lot of a closed gas station off the highway when there's no traffic around.
Not even a HL2/Source thing, I felt the same way about HL1 before Source was even a thing. It was something about the combination of atmospheric sound design, a lack of music, and the realization that the G-man was always skulking around somewhere keeping eyes on you in these quiet environments. It created a sense of loneliness and paranoia at the same time, and what's funny is that those maps probably weren't deliberately designed to have that unsettling vibe, it was probably more the result of shortened design development that they became these desolate and unnerving places with a creepy vibe. If they'd put a whole bunch of effort into making them super detailed and realistic, they wouldn't feel like liminal spaces quite so much.
"I didnt think about until he put a feeling to words" is very accurate.
Bro your profile pic damn 💀
EXACTLY
Pfp gave me a quick PTSD
The scary thing for me is red glowing ERROR's or pink and black textures.
Idk why but the black & pink textures is nostalgic to me
I feel you
im only 15 but when i was 7 i got really into watching people play source games but i never got to play them till 2020 till i actually got my pc to actually download and play these games once i actually got to play them i absolutely love the atmosphere ambience and just the feeling of creepy but also comfy especially with different garrys mod maps i only found your channel like 2 days ago and ive been binging your content i love your videos im glad to have come across this
It's kinda like exploring and old big industrial plant of some sort, with the echoes of all that used to happen still there. Like we leave some energy wherever we go, and epathic feelings can pick it up or something, it's indeed creepy
Ok good, I’m not the only one that got creeped out whenever I played Garry’s mod on my own.
I personally love the feeling. Made the game more interesting and expansive. Your own imagination is your limitation.
The fact that _I'm not the only one having this kind of feelings_ only makes it worse
I think it makes it better because you're not insane lmaoo
nah dude, i felt relieved knowing there are a lot of us who also feel the same.
@@guren2904 I don't know man, knowing something is actually wrong about Source games kind of creeps me out a bit.
@@sunlight941 You're right even gm_construct is creepy. Since other people feel the same it makes you think this was deliberate and there's something sinister behind a lot of it.
Weird as shit man
This feeling is something I experienced when I was like 14. I grew up in a working class suburb area of North Western Georgia, USA. A lot of hills and woods to get lost in. I one time went exploring for the first time in a while to just experience something other than my siblings screaming at COD and the visuals of my room. At first it was a peaceful experience: the sounds of birds in the trees, the scurry of forest rodents in the bush, and the occasional thump of a wood pecker somewhere far off in the wood. I wasn't too far away from the surrounding houses. Every house's backyard led to the woods and I could still faintly hear the sound of cars on a nearby road. At some point in my solitude of a nature walk I began to feel a crippling anxiety in my stomach. I felt like I was being watched, like every step I took was being accounted for by some entity just out of reach. I glanced around in all directions for some inkling that my fears were true but to no avail. I couldn't hear the birds, the rodents, the woodpeckers. It was like the woods had silenced itself and I was in the middle of it on a stage in which I was unaware being viewed by an audience I had no ability to witness. I began to run back home with the same intensity that you did as a kid when you turned the lights in the basement off. The feeling as if you lagged behind you would be left behind or snatched by some other-worldly being. I haven't returned since but that memory still comes up whenever I feel uneasy about an environment. It usually comes up when I'm home alone for extended periods of time.
To meet it feels like it's almost a familiar feeling, you hear the sounds of the outside world as you explore, recognize areas that feel like they are lived in but the people are missing. Like an uncanny valley of structure.
i never really got to feel that empty feeling on gmod mostly due to me immediately spawning a gazillion kermit npcs every time a map loaded most of the time
Yeah, although some maps have like places like sewers and caves which are Dark as fuck. And combining with some dark ambience with those 2 places, it starts to get creepy immediately once you set in
And that’s not creepy at all 😂😂😂
It mostly comes to sound design
@@sadcookie7401 Kermit can make anything not creepy
@@magnamouse1384 Kermit 4 sewers and caves!!
I hate that I found this video. Because it’s true, there was always something so unsettling about source games, Gmod included.
yeah, it’s like you got a feeling that a random monster or jumpscare will appear out of nowhere.
I've never been a PC guy (ok, maybe I was around 2011, but only played RPGs) and always played on console, and mostly platform/adventure games, and it if was a shooter it would be COD or Killzone. So I never grew up with Steam games or anything related to Half Life etc. I never liked them. But god damn, I always found the engine's graphics to be really disturbing to me. I can't pinpoint why, but they gave me a feeling that something was off. Kinda like the Uncanny Valley effect. I had watched lots of those GMod videos back in the day, and I guarantee you that I've never laughed with them. I always felt kinda stressed.
Bro I’m gonna be honest:
Gmod horror maps scare the shit out of me
I don’t think I could stomach gmod horror, I can only do Ravenholm when I’m in a certain mindset, and I’m not super immersed or invested. Usually play it in a small window, with 80-to early 2000s hip hop music in the background.
GMod is the worst. That default sandbox map scared me since the day I bought the game those two dark buildings seem out of their place.
I feel creeped out the same way minecraft makes you feel
The sense that your alone but you still think your being watched
I know I could of worded it a bit breed but I'm lazy
Back when Covid was in full force I started leaving my house and just walking for hours and hours, just wandering anywhere to see what I could find. I ended up finding some areas off the interstate and through the woods that gave me this same feeling. I'd find these old abandoned houses or buildings, remnants of businesses and industrial property. Lots of overgrown grass, car parts, old TVs, grafiti here and there. Kinda the same feeling when you go underneath an overpass or near a railroad. There's all this evidence of people being there but you never actually see anyone, for miles and miles its just dead. I'd very often get the feeling of being watched.
Sounds much scarier in real life since there's a more real possibility of actually being watched.
I think a big part of the feeling is the fact that Source manages to be a relatively realistic engine while still having the jank of 3D games created in that era. Everything is nice, but slightly off, creating an uncanny valley effect that combines great with a sense of loneliness to create unease and dread.
Best comment I’ve read and I’ve been scrolling for a while
Great way for it to be put. I think it's that era's slightly off-ness, the liminal space people are mentioning and for me the lighting.
everything is sort of too well lit / unlit. Which again is how it was in that era but especially so in Source. Daytime lighting is pretty flat so it just feels... wrong
perfectly put!
No wonder why hl2 scares me
Thank you hentai girl, very cool
The fact u hear sirens going off in the background while ur in a empty city as if you missed an evacuation of the city or something
godzilla vibin
Ive had dreams like that... a very specific feeling.
either that or just siren head
I find that feeling very comforting. Remember de_italy in counter strike condition zero? The whole map was so richly made but devoid of anyone or thing living.
BUT.
In a corner of the map, there was one lone radio. And on it, a soprano would sing the most beautiful melody. I was alone on that map, and i heard the music. It's a very warm childhood memory.
For me, it is like an uncomfortable open or closed area. It is either to narrow or to large. In Half Life, the areas were too large at most times, making me uncomfortable while the same thing happened in Portal, where everything was just too tight. Additionaly, I feel like the textures are always a bit dark and not so colorful, which makes everything feel even more empty.
A few other thoughts, or musings rather:
- A generally desaturated color palette.
- Stark, right angles, few curves.
- Mostly run-down assets.
- Mostly tall buildings, which, together with the angular, blocky feel creates large, sheer surfaces and consequently a feeling of being small.
Yeah, all half life assets and textures are quite depressing. That's because to make a convincing atmosphere of living under aliens rule they used some post-soviet country architecture as reference. It's all either a blocky cheap soviet housing or withered older buildings.
pl_upward
The lighting model is also quite soft. Which makes for a feeling of everything around looking like one big mass. No contrast.
No even colorful maps scare the shit out of me
This is so true! All of those things you’ve mentioned create this absence of warmth which most other games have.
My theory is that the blocky style of the architecture in source games falls in a kind of a uncanny valley, you can identify the basic shapes and forms of a city, a very familiar landscape, but at the same time it's not realistic enough so your body rejects it, maybe because it feels in a strange fake world, it feels like something is off and that translates into danger so your sub consciousness tries to warn you; the loneliness doesn't help with that feeling of danger since we are more vulnerable alone and since this feeling is more noticeable while you are not having fun with other people doing random stuff.
i know this comment is ancient, but i would like to add to it. because of the way the hammer map editor is, blocky buildings, tight corridors, and uncommonly steep ramps are all commonplace on source maps. the corridors are usually claustrophobic. the ramps are unnatural, and because open areas are not hammer's strong suit, something does feel off about them
The map he has shown in a city is very novice in its detail/scaling/texturing etc. aka babys first map-esque.
The relatively low poly architecture of source compared to the likes of ue4 and the default textures of hl2 and css deliberately create this feeling the color palettes are not vibrant as well. It gives the feeling of an abandonned soviet city. Nothing new tbf
Didn't know the uncanny valley also works on non-human objects.
Nailed it
i remember gmod when i was younger and i always used to feel very lonely on those maps and it really felt like you was alone but the sound would make it much weirder
The sound effects changing playing through the right or left ear depending on what direction the sound is coming from paired with the sounds of cars breaking, police sirens getting louder or quieter creates the illusion of being around other people... If you closed your eyes, you would imagine a bustling city around you, It almost sounds like the SFX was recorded by sitting in an alleyway next to a busy street.
The whole backroom meme thing was definitely inspired by these feelings. It’s quite funny because I feel like not many people have made the link. Most people jumped on the whole SCP bandwagon, adding monsters and other things.
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who has this weird feeling when playing Source games.
The original post even talks about noclip!
yeah when i first heard of the backrooms i 100% imagined the same feeling of noclipping in a source game and finding a strange room hidden beneath the map
Yeah I really do not like that whenever something strange or eerie like that happens on the internet everyone says “OMG this needs to be an SCP!!”
It immediately reminded me of the secret room on flatgrass
@Stimul yea that happens when you play lots of source games or put time into a source game
It's probably the fact that the soundscape sounds like the hustle and bustle of a busy city, however you being in the middle of a seemingly empty neighbourhood or district of the city. It makes you feel alone and isolated from all the police sirens.
this was my thought as well, figured someone else would say this
06:22
I feel like if they had things like NPC’s or cars driving around like GTA or sum, it would make it so much better
I feel like the creepiness only happens in the areas where the lighting is dim. It brings up my memories of Ravenholm and the sewers/waterways and dark alleys I travelled in the half life 2 series. All of these were really really scary and creepy even when I play now.
So I think the reason this gmod map feels scary is cus it uses those very same resources from Ravenholm and other half life creepy scenes.
The thing that creeps me out is that there SHOULD be people there but there isn't..
OH MY GOD YES IM NOT THE ONLY ONE
Oh , salut ceapa! Nu m-as if gandit ca o sa te vad aici. Apropo , continuă cu video-urile. Sunt tare blană.
Sall
Seriously what the fuck... I've been having these creepy feelings my whole life when playing Source games. Absurd to see I'm not alone.
The only source game I don’t get that feeling from is tf2
@@Vantablack000 Salut Bogdan si Ceapa! Nu ma asteptam sa gasesc romani aici.
I think it’s the fact that all these places are empty, and without people. It feels like a horror game without the proper lighting. Reminds me of the Backrooms concept in a weird way.
Wow exactly! Well said
Yeah it's a liminal space. Solar Sands did a full video covering why we feel this way
well the backrooms have monsters in it
One of the Backrooms, a lower level is basically an abandoned Town so it made me think of that. Like you can hear signs of Life but youre never able to reach it.
Same feeling man.
The sound design really sets the mood
I remembered so much of my childhood just from the thumbnail and title of this video. I know exactly what you are on about. These games made me realize how easy it is to make someone feel uneasy.