That Creepy Feeling - What is it with Source games?
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- Опубліковано 25 лис 2019
- A quick thinking-out-loud look at why so many players report feelings of uneasiness on empty Source maps.
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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
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
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 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!
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 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.
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.
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!*
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
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.
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.
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
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.
lol it was jimmy neutrons dad! i also saw it and was like wait a minute
Never in my life have I thought Source engine games to be creepy. But that map's soundscape is made for horror.
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
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.
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!
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
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
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
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.
7:30 I wasn't prepared for this
for what exactly?
@@Patches_Idk the spooky monster
I was hoping i wasn't the only one that got spooked lol.
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
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
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.
What I love about Valve is almost each of their games is a flagship game. They reinvent the gaming industry over and over again.
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
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 ua-cam.com/video/Zkv6rVcKKg8/v-deo.html
3 years later but I know what you mean. There's no individuality, just bare minimum to sustain an unfeeling life
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.
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...
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?
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
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"...
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.
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.
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.
It's crazy how the creepiness of the game isn't even trying to be scary, It's your own mind scaring itself.
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
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.
@@DehydratedDarkness 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.
@@DehydratedDarkness 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
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.
You're not afraid to be alone in an empty house. You're afraid of not being alone in an empty house
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
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 I feel like the creepy factor of these games is coming from the environments looking SO close to reality but not quite right but it's so subtle that it leaves us not quite sure what's off.
Somwthing its called environment supposed to be the background not the subject but if the subject is missing it has eerie factor.
I forgot whats the term called
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Prior to my medical internship, at the peak of the pandemic, I had to go downtown to get some papers, and the place was completely empty, no soul anywhere, It felt creepy as hell, It was the exact feeling from source games, however, I loved it, i wish I could experience that again.
Move to the midwest. Government buildings in small towns have 1 or 2 employees and no one else for miles
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.
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
This is the video that kicked off your success, Librarian, and drew many new people to your channel, myself included, four to five years ago. Still a Librarian enjoyer to this day. Even looking back, I can tell you understood the feelings, and it's so good.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 used to have nightmares as a kid about being stuck in empty game worlds like this. It was completely empty. It was terrifying. As an adult, i want to go to an empty game world and juat hang out. All alone
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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 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!!
Being out of bounds in most games gives exactly this creepy feeling. Examples: gta sa, Minecraft under bedrock, portal with noclip. One of the worst feelings of my childhood…
The feeling of walking in an empty town you’re feeling that someone is always watching someone is always behind you
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
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
I’ve never played Gary’s mod in my life and that clip creeped tf out
Play it
Ive been watching your channel for less than 2 years, and by checking my "watch later" list, I realized that I had this one video there, probably since you released it 4 years ago, and thats insane, how I just saved a video of yours, then completely forget about it, just to become one of yours viewers years after this and still dont notice Ive seen you way before than I thought I did
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 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
I just played on a simulation map of the WTC complex before 2001, and I had this feeling of kenopsia that made me feel weird and I had to leave the game pretty quick. It was like seeing a place where things should be busy and bustling, but the entire complex was empty.
Same here, i ended up in this video after playing the map alone for 10 minutes at 2am
@@jaalcaid yeah, weird feeling.
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.
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
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*
Agreed. Gmod maps, HL2 maps and Source games in general have always had a naturally unsettling feeling to them. I really think it's a combination of the textures and ambience.
I do not know the map, but what the heck is the thing on the end of corridor at 7:34?
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 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've never realized it until now that I watched a Librarian video 3 years ago. I thought I first discovered The Librarian from his playthrough of The Long Drive. Never really made the connection as well because it was a different form of content and not to mention the difference in how the Librarian speaks.
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
I think it’s just the general emptiness. The world looks realistic enough but lacks emotion or presence. It just feels like the regular world but wrong
Wouldn't the Mirrors Edge world feel like this?
@@brodriguez11000 I feel like its different there as we spend the most of the game on top of roofs and construction sites where it's kind of expected to have few ppl while in this we are in houses and in livable environments expecting to see people, but we don't and that is unsettling us
Yeaah no ambient noise either or wind. Just... still
Look up liminal spaces on UA-cam
@@brodriguez11000 It does a little bit, and that’s intentional. The stark white landscape symbolizes how Faith views the cold, lifelsss dystopia.
This game has environmental sounds of a packed city, but you're completely alone
The graphics too feel good enough to not have to think about what objects are supposed to be, stepping over the barrier from 'not realistic' to 'realistic enough', coupled with the sounds the feeling is increased.
And then it's void of actual life.
That's the creep factor for me.
Poison nailed it on the head. You're in this map alone. It's closed off and you can't see outside the boarder. You're completely alone. And yet you can hear the white noise of cars on a freeway, distant sirens, the dull roar of a crowd. You are alone but the sound design tells you there's people everywhere and our brains can't reconcile that.
This. Adding to it is the largely empty rooms and outdoor environments.
@@NXHLVS it's more than that. It's human nature to be social, we instinctualy seek out other people to interact with. When we are put in a world where there are no other people and even worse no animals, pets or even insects, we become uncomfortable and one could say, scared. The sound track then only serves as haunting reminder of the once living world that no longer exists. The map is in essence skeletal remains.
Am I the only one that didn’t feel anything? I think it’s that people are used to playing with other players in RP servers.... but for me I never got to experience it. So I’ve been playing the maps alone. I’ve just never felt it. If anything it feels almost like forge world on halo
I feel the sirens set off some sort of flight or fight in our brains which cause weird effects since we link that with danger or death and such
The colour pallette and the way they made things is like constantly being in one of those liminal spaces that have nostalgia, it's all so similar but you can't understand why
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!!
I just consider single player Garry’s mod like drinking alone
I like this comparison
Drinking alone is underrated 😋
I find playing gmod solo is also pretty fun.
This hit close to home. You're not wrong.
This is why I like downloading npcs and hostiles, to at least emulate i have someone with me
Back in 2015 when I still had my old steam account, I came across the "barracks settlement" track from the game yume nikki, I thought it was a bit unnerving but didn't think too much of it, a few days later I went into gm_construct on gmod singleplayer, when I joined the song started playing back in my mind as I walked through the map, since then I almost never play source engine maps alone out of fear, I will never forget looking into the dark room while that track played in my mind.
This might be super bias of me because I always thought about this since a kid but one of the best videos on UA-cam! I love how you broke it down mane
Garry's Mod alone is the scariest thing ever.
yes, it’s the most uncomfortable thing
Well i just spawn alot of npc’s and stuff.
Ikr, you got that feeling that someone is watching you. 😣
@@Godsecution its like going into dark spot and random fire everywhere.
i used to spawn npcs so i wouldn’t be by myself lmao
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.
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.
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.