I was always jealous of the people I knew who had top of the line computers. PCs held the limitless possibilities of modifications, expansion packs, and the brand new concept of online gaming. When I was 13 the only computer I had available to me was a six year old Dell that would struggle to play a pirated copy of Oregon trail. A First World Problem by definition I know, but it did mean a lot of the games my friends enjoyed were off limits to me. The only reason I'm saying this is so you understand why ten years later I decided to blow my tax refund on a high end gaming PC.
It all started one night when I passed the idea of building my own rig by my friend Ian. Ian was a technology junkie for as long as I had known him and after giving him my price range he quickly compiled a list of the parts I would need. After drinking a little more than I should have and a few quick Amazon searches, I was less than a week away from having what would essentially be a thousand dollar PlayStation. 13 year old me shit himself.
It took a night of head scratching, swearing, and Wikihow articles, but I eventually had a black and red box connected to a brand new 1920X1080 HD monitor. I plugged in my headset and told my friends it was going to be a few days before they heard from me again. Payday 2 became a fast favorite. So did This War of Mine. Then after a few afternoons of trying to find the perfect game to truly test my new PC's capabilities, I discovered Arma 3.
If you've never heard of Arma 3, I'll give you a quick explanation. It's a first person shooter with graphics above and beyond what I previously thought possible for a game. But what caught my eye, was how heavily modded it was. DayZ started as an Arma mod. Arma 3 Life basically turned the game into The Sims with automatic weapons. As a treat for both 13 and five year old me, there was also a Jurassic Park mod that let you hunt dinosaurs.
I spent hours on that game's multiplayer looking for anything weird that caught my eye. It was a Thursday night when I found the first game that ever truly scared me.
I didn't have work the next day and was looking forward to a hermit night of beer, Doritos, and a turned off cell phone. At about 8 PM I sat down at my desk and began clicking on any server with a strange name. I don't think there is a human being in history as stoked as I was to be shot in the face.
A few hours later I was scrolling through the Multiplayer games when one line of yellow text caught my eye. Arma 3: Sherman's Horror (Scary). I grinned and nodded my head in silent approval. Two clicks and I was in the lobby. A picture of the map popped up and the orange loading bar quickly ran to the right side of the computer. I silently applauded Ian as the screen went from black to life.
Two things struck me instantly. The first was the game wasn't set in the dead of the night like most horror games. Sherman's Horror took place during a cloudless sunny day. The second was the sound, or better put, lack of. There was no other vehicles, helicopters, gunfire, or any other indication of other players on the server. I turned up the volume and took a few steps forward. Directly in front of my character was a black pickup truck. White letters on a gray box popped up on the side of my screen. Enter The Vehicle .
I entered the truck and the gray box slid back into the side. A moment later a new gray box slid out. Go To The Waypoint . A gray arrow appeared in the distance with 1.2 km written under it. I drove the truck down a dirt road with the sound of the engine mixing with my deepening breath. Then it hit me. There was going to be a jump scare. I would get nice and comfortable then something would pop up with a loud scream. Having a fairly righteous buzz going I said out loud, Sneaky sneaky , and turned down the volume to 40%.
Nothing ever popped up. The screen never cut to black. The only change was the countdown under the arrow.
The waypoint led me down a dirt road that went deeper and deeper into the woods. My mind was racing imagining how this game was going to scare me. Is something going to jump out from the woods? Will the sky suddenly get dark? A scream? Whatever it was, I was going to see it coming.
The sky didn't get dark. Nothing jumped out except for an AI chicken that literally crossed the road. Then, as I reached the end of my 1.2 km drive, something appeared in the distance. A white two story house in the middle of a clearing in the trees. I slowed the truck down to a stop and looked at the building in front of me. Flames shot from every window, bathing the area in a strange orange glow. Bodies were scattered around the house in strange positions as if half of them were attacking and the other half were defending. Another order appeared on the screen. Exit the Vehicle .
Boots met dirt and I saw the sheer amount of detail that had been put into the modification. The bodies had realistic battle wounds. Quarter sized bullet holes, missing limbs, and half gone heads. The virtual sun and the cyber inferno lit pools, puddles, and streams of photo realistic blood. Limbs and rifles were scattered across the ground. A new message popped up. Enter The House . I looked towards the front door to see the fire begin to die down. I walked over to one of the rifles and much to my surprise was allowed to pick it up. Even more shocking was the splatters of gore covering the rifle.
I walked up a few white wooden steps onto the house's front porch to a black wooden front door. I hit the spacebar, opening the door onto a bright white hallway. Halfway down the hall was a Victorian roll top desk placed below a portrait that seemed more photo than painting. I took a quick glance at the portrait as I walked past it, trying to take in every detail before the game had a chance to make something jump out at me. An attractive young woman with a faint smile sat on a chair with a stern looking man standing over her. His hand rested upon her shoulder while she cradled an infant in her lap. Next to them stood a young boy with golden curls and a smile. My attention left the portrait when I heard soft music began to play.
Each step towards the open door opposite my entrance was calculated. The sound of my quiet footsteps were joined by a pleasant fiddle and a jolly sing song voice. Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton. Old times there are not forgotten. Look away. Look away. Look away. Dixie land . I crept towards the music, making the first mistake made in every horror film. In Dixie's land where I was born, early on one frosty morn . The second I reached the door frame the record began skipping like a needle caught on a scratch. Look away. Look away. Look away. Look away. Look away .
I stepped into the kitchen and the scene changed. The walls were covered with soot and long snaky burns. A charred cast iron stove stood in the corner. In front of it was a huge black mound. I stared at it for a few seconds before putting my hand over my mouth. The black mound was three bodies melted together. Two adults and a child. The two adults covered the child with their bodies in an apparent attempt to protect him from the encroaching fire. All three of them were heavily detailed right down to the point of a silent scream etched on each of their faces.
A new gray box appeared. Go Upstairs .
The song started to become distorted as the same happy note slowed down. Looooooooookkkkkkk Awaaaaaaaayyy. Loooooooookkkkk Awwaaaaaaayyyy .
I went back down the hallway towards a flight of stairs that had taken the place of the front door. I made a slight note of the knocked over painting and the smashed roll top desk. The fine white walls were now burnt black and covered with blood and bullet holes. I walked up the steps towards a single wooden door at the top. I hit the spacebar and it slowly creaked open. Even though the volume was only on half way, the music was blaring.
The door opened into a master bedroom. The furniture was destroyed and a record player laid on it's side with it's black disk still spinning. To my right was an open window. Below its sill was a man with a rifle by his side. His white shirt was stained red. His stern gaze was eternally fixed to the ceiling.
I looked away from the man to the ruined bed. Beside it lay a motionless woman curled into the fetal position. Her arms were wrapped around a bundle of blankets she held tight against her chest. It took only a single step and a single look at the blood splatter before I got the full picture. The bundle was her child. A bullet had gone through her abdomen and into the infant. I turned from the woman towards the record player My computer screen suddenly went black. I stared for a moment before it came back to life with a new window in the middle of my desktop.
Have you ever experienced something so surreal it takes you a few seconds to react? A moment of This can't be right that lasts an eternity before flight or fight kicks in?
The window was from a web cam. A video shot from my desktop of me sitting in my computer chair with a dropped jaw. Over my left shoulder stood a woman with pale green skin and jet black tears running down her cheeks. Her abdomen was a still dripping pool of black blood.
I fell back in my chair trying to reach the other side of the room. The woman just stood there on my computer screen, staring forward with a slight smile on her face. That's when a strange thought entered. I was looking at her but not at her back.
The mod, whatever it was, had hijacked my web cam and edited a picture of the woman onto the screen. I laughed for a solid 20 minutes. Mostly out of relief.
I clicked the box off and turned off my computer thinking that I had enough for one night. I went into my kitchen for another beer and turned on my cell phone. A text message from Ian popped up. How's the computer Running? . I called him to tell him about the game I had just played. He laughed and responded, Dude. That's fucking sick . We came to the conclusion that next time we hung out, we'd have to design a horror mod of our own. I spent the rest of the night watching some TV before heading off to bed.
Lying there in the darkness I let my mind wander off. I was already mentally designing a level of my own when I had a horrifying thought. I rolled over to my side and looked at the wall between my room and my study. Beyond it was a black and red box filled with top of the line electronics. A brand new 1920X1280 LCD Monitor. Several installed games including Payday 2 to Arma 3. By Victor_King on Reddit Here is the link to is Reddit Page.
user/Victor_King I only fixed what was wrong that's all.