- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I was playing at night, alone, and I nearly shat myself. I could tell from the start that something was up, and that I'd be in for a scare, but I just didn't know what. As soon as I got to the Marine, I was already getting very twitchy, in fact the moment the door opened and I saw movement I shot him in the face and subsequently wasted half my assault rifle ammo... by the time I actually began to fight the Flood I was terrified and shot anything that I saw that had even the vaguest resemblance to one. Just to make things worse, I got totally lost and disoriented, it took me nearly 2 or 3 hours to finally find a way back to the surface, by which time I had an empty shotgun and only about 3 pistol rounds left. I still try and avoid playing Flood levels whenever I can... they seriously freak me out. And after reading the books, it only gets worse.
What really scares me is when they pop up out of what seems to be nowhere, and you stand your ground blasting away with the shotgun, "DIE YOU MOTHER, YOU WANT SOME TOO, -blam!- YOOOUUUUU!"... but they just keep coming and forcing you back, and no matter how many rounds you pour into them, you just can't see an end coming... you sit there while thier mangled corpses pile up at your feet and still they throw themselves at you, until after about 10 minutes solid of this you realise with a shock and a feeling of despair and impending doom that you only have 3 shotgun shells left, and your pistol ran out of ammo half an hour ago back in the deep rooms... not only that, but the ambient sounds, the level, the fog, the terrified Marine, the whole ddamn level is one of the best, scariest ones I've played in any game. Halo and Halo 2 have to be the only two games where I will literally jump out of my seat in fright while playing, and that goes for multiplayer too like on Rat Race when I hadn't seen my friend for about 10 minutes, there was this oppressive silence, and then he jumped out from around the corner and actually ran into me... that was insane.
One other insanely scary thing I remember was when I was playing the Maw once (it's happened a few times since)... I killed about 10 Flood and was just picking up ammo before moving on, when I realise one of them wasn't quite dead. The others were all dead, their tentacles flopped limply, but this one's were waving about in the air as though it was still alive. It didn't get back up, but I made sure I kept careful watch back the way I'd come...
[Edited on 12/15/2005]