(logo beeps) - [Falcon] Random little
sidequests that are easy to miss are sometimes the most interesting
moments in video games. Some are heartwarming, some touching. Others are downright terrifying. Hi folks, it's Falcon,
to today on Gameranx, The 10 Most Unsettling
Strangers in Open-World Games. Before we get going, just to give you a
little disclaimer/teaser, we're not considering
this our definitive list. We are definitely gonna be
coming back to this later because there is just an
absolute ton of moments like this in video games, and they are usually
really interesting moments. So without further ado, let's get going. At number 10 is the crying woman from "Red Dead Redemption 2." For a game being about a
cowboy, "Red Dead Redemption 2" sure has a lot of creepy stuff in it. There's nothing really that
spooky in the main story, obviously, but when you wander
outside in the wilderness, you're bound to encounter some
weird stuff once in a while. For example, this bizarre thing, it randomly happens in the
swamps of Lemoyne at night. When riding around, Arthur hears the sound of a crying woman. She is wearing a white gown, she's barefoot, and it
seems like she needs help, so Arthur tries to console her, but when you get close enough, she turns around and attacks
you with a butcher knife. She's got this bizarre
white paint on her face and howls like crazy
before running off, and (woman howls) that seems like it, but
if you're not on guard, then you'll find yourself
getting an ax to the gut by another one of her
friends waiting in ambush. These are the Night Folk,
a bizarre clan of bandits that hang out in the bayous of Lemoyne. You almost never encounter them normally, almost all of their encounters
are random and rare, and they're actually pretty
creepy and mysterious for this reason. Their weird white face
paint and disgusting clothes make you think they're
ghosts or zombies at first, but they're really just
some freaky raiders. The fact that they barely
make any noise and don't talk when they fight you kind of
makes them hard to notice, and if they get close enough,
then it's basically over. This little encounter is basically right out of a horror movie. It is creepy as hell
and totally unexpected. At number nine is the Madness
of the Stones world event from "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla." This series isn't exactly
known for its creepy moments or anything, but with "Valhalla," the developers tried to
add a little more spice to the many sidequests and
encounters you'll engage with over the course of the game. There is a lot more weird
and wild stuff that happens. Some of it is goofy,
sometimes it's kind of sad, but there's also stuff
that can be pretty creepy. I'm gonna skip some of
the obvious creepy stuff like the random serial
killers or ambushes, and I'm gonna focus on
something a little more unique. This, event which you encounter in Cent, is definitely unique. That is for damn sure. It's both kind of funny
but also kind of creepy, depending on how you're feeling. It's bizarre, totally easy to miss, so I think either way deserves a mention. What happens is you see this dude standing in the middle of
nowhere, counting rocks. He kind of seems like a madman, shouting at the rocks in
a circle for some reason. The actual quest? Simple as it gets. Count the number of rocks and
tell him how many there are. And the guy's gone mad
for whatever reason, and he counts a different
number of rocks every time. So it seems simple enough. You just count the rocks, but
when you give him the number, he seems to think that it's different than the last time he counted
them, so just try it again. The only problem is, there is a different
number of rocks this time. Try it again, and once again,
the amount of rocks changes. The man says that now
you're caught in its spell, and you black out. When you wake up again, there's now a rock where the guy was, and it ends the quest. Why did that happen? Just some kind of existential
nightmare or something, or is it just a really creepy
but also kind of funny quest? I don't know. It's
probably the second one. At number eight is Babette's snack from the "Skyrim - Dawnguard" expansion. There are all kinds of random
events that occur in Skyrim, but most of them are not all
that interesting, really. There's gonna be a bandit attack or you'll meet a merchant or something, but rarely any noteworthy things happen. This one instance is
totally different, though. It's not scary, exactly. You're not in any real
danger, but it is creepy. This is one of those wandering events that could happen pretty
much anywhere in Skyrim, so that alone makes it
kind of difficult to find, but on top of that, you need to both have the
Dawnguard expansion installed, as well as be a member
of the Dark Brotherhood to get it to trigger, so there are a few roadblocks
in seeing this event. One member of the Dark
Brotherhood is Babette, a vampire with the
appearance of a little girl. She's mostly just around to sell you items and add some flavor to
the Brotherhood base, but on rare occasions, you can actually find her
out in the wilderness. As far as I can tell, it
only happens at night. When you see her, she's
standing by a corpse, and if you talk to her, she
mentions how there's a cook at the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary, but that she has more refined tastes. Like I said, it's not scary. She's your ally after all,
but it's still kind of creepy to stumble on this little girl, standing around with the person she killed acting like it's no big deal. Let's be real. A little kids in Skyrim can be creepy even in broad daylight, so this one's just kind
of extra unpleasant. At number seven is Flowers for a Lady in "Red Dead Redemption 1." Here's a stranger mission
from the original RDR that is as disturbing as it is sad. It's something that a lot
of people probably started because the actual stranger
is pretty easy to find but didn't bother to finish. On the road from McFarlane's
Ranch to Thieves' Landing, you can find this old
man out in the field. He wants you to pick some
flowers for his wife as a gift, which is kind of a pain, to put it mildly. He wants three types of flowers. All of them are in the middle of nowhere, and they all blend in pretty easily with the environment, too. It's not exactly visually
distinct, let's say. Pretty much the only
sensible way to pull this off is to buy a Survivalist Map, which highlights any flowers
you can pick on your map and then just start looking
up the general locations of all these flowers. That's the reason a lot of people never
bothered finishing this one. The requirements are just kind of a pain. But if you do manage to
get the required flowers, then the guy invites you
into his house for tea, where are you can find his
wife propped up in a chair, looking like she's been
dead for, well, a long time. The guy is in total denial
about her death, too, just pretending that she's alive. If you bump around the house, it's even possible for
her head to fall off, which is just another gruesome detail to an already creepy scene. The guy's not a psycho or anything. He's probably overwhelmed with grief and can't handle anything, and he doesn't try to
kill you or anything, so it's not full-blown scary, but the whole thing is unsettling, to say the very, very least. Beyond that, it's also sad,
so you feel kind of unsettled in terms of your character's safety, but also this melancholic,
wow, that sucks feeling. - I'm sorry, Mister. I guess I forgot I had an
appointment with planet Earth. Nice to meet you again, ma'am. - [Falcon] And number six is the mourning woman of
Toussaint in "The Witcher 3." It's a simple surprise
that you can run into while playing the "Blood and
Wine" expansion to "Witcher 3." There is a lot of creepy stuff that occurs during main quest missions and even prominent sidequests, and it's not really the
random stuff you find, so this little event is
maybe a bit of a surprise. There is a treasure marker in the abandoned town of Olive Grove, near the Dun Tynne Crossroads. When you go there, you'll find this hooded woman
standing over a dead body. They do not respond to you
at all if you approach. They don't seem to do anything, but if you attempt to loot the body, she'll suddenly transform into a hulking vampire
monster called a bruxa and attack you. It's a small thing, but
the minimal storytelling and the spooky atmosphere of
the place really add to it. It's similar to the crying
woman from "Red Dead 2," but with a "Witcher 3" twist. Both are pretty classic jump scares, but they're things you
wouldn't expect to encounter in a game like this, and that's a big part of
why it's so effective. At number five is the Alpine River cabins from "Fallout 76." For all its faults, "Fallout 76" actually has
some pretty interesting areas to explore. It's rare that something
really unique happens in them, though, and that's how this unassuming
little place stands out. When you approach the cabins, everything seems super normal,
but it doesn't take long for some weird stuff to start happening. There's random shaking, ghostly screams, and the doors seem to open
and close on their own. Inside the cabin, sometimes the pictures on
the walls start spinning. Basically, it really seems
like the place is haunted. The Bethesda "Fallout" games always had a kind of creepy vibe. I don't know what it is about them, but I always get kind of
paranoid and creeped out, especially after playing a few
hours, maybe late at night, and finding this place for the first time really weirded me out. The best part about this location is there actually is a lot more going on. If you explore the area a bit more, you'll find a treehouse
with a computer in it that actually controls all
the weird stuff going on. All the spooky effects were just a way to get more attention on the cabins. It's basically a "Scooby-Doo" plot if Old Man Johnson had been
dead for years, more or less, which is weird. At number four, the smoke
monster from "Just Cause 3." These coordinates, north
40, 48.085, east 5, 34.910, this is kind of an Easter
egg/creepy encounter because it's well, 2021. The smoke monster from
"Lost" isn't really a thing. The "Just Cause" games are just so big that they could drop an Easter egg at any random spot on the
map, and nine times out of 10, a player probably couldn't notice it. That's how big these worlds are, so the chances of running into this thing are actually pretty low, but man, if you did just
find this on your own, I have a feeling it'd
be pretty damn creepy. How it works is if you
land at this random beach and look towards the
lake, there's a sound. When you turn around to check it out, there's a literal smoke monster that kills some people and
then disappears into the woods. To add to the creepiness, there's some wooden planks on the ground that just spell out "RUN,"
and it's not kidding because this thing will kill you instantly if you get close enough to it. Yeah, it's just a reference to "Lost" and also appeared as an
Easter egg in "Just Cause 2," but the "Just Cause 3" version is just a little more
elaborate and freaky, at least to me. It's a pop culture reference, sure, but it'll kill you all the same, and if you wandered into the encounter without knowing about it,
it'd be freaky as hell. At number three is the Pickman
Gallery in "Fallout 4," a location with no associated quests or really anything noteworthy. Looking about it is
where you'll find this. Nothing really is notable, but inside, it's a different story. It's located on the north end of Boston. It's a gallery that contains
a lot of unsettling paintings, as well as, well, some mutilated corpses. The whole place is just
creepy as hell and disgusting. Between the bodies and
the weird paintings, the whole place has got
a pretty freaky vibe, but when you get into the basement, you find out what's making
all these paintings. The artist is using human blood. To make matters worse, it's possible to help the freak out. The is being attacked by raiders, and it's possible to help out Pickman. He'll thank you for his efforts and even give you a key to his safe, which contains a special knife, which was most likely the weapon that he used to kill all his victims. Of course, there's little stopping you from just killing him, but it doesn't make the
place any less creepy. It's pretty cool when developers
put in the extra effort to make unique assets for stuff like this, and the bizarre blood paintings really make this location notably creepy. At number two is "The Legend
of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," the Shrouded Shrine quest. "Breath of the Wild" isn't
really a scary game at all. I mean, it's "Legend of Zelda." These games are supposed
to be for everyone, but one totally optional area really stands out as creepy. Found way up north in the Great
Hyrule Forest section map, this shrine is found
within the Typhlo Ruins, and if you're scared of the dark, then this place is probably the worst. It's pitch black, and even
when you're carrying a torch, you're not gonna see anything. Anytime you swing a torch
or weapon, it'll go out, so you gotta go into this place prepared or you'll just be wandering
around in pitch black. Probably the scariest
part comes near the end when you find the shrine entrance. Looking around a little more, you can find the orb
that you need to open it, but it's attached to a giant Hinox, which ambushes you from the darkness in a moment of total
pants-shitting terror. Maybe it's just 'cause it's
a Zelda game or something, but I found this place really freaky. It's so dark and oppressive, it really stands out compared
to the rest of the game, and if I'm totally honest, it is great. Finally at number one is the
serial killer from "RDR2." I had to put it in at least
one more from this game. There are so many creepy moments, though. However, I feel like the whole hidden serial killer sidequest
is the creepiest of them all. It's likely that you'll
run into at least one spot left behind by a psychotic
murder in the game, and these spots leave a
hell of an impression. There's body parts strewn
around, there's blood everywhere, and somewhere, you can find a creepy note with a clue leading to
some kind of treasure. I can't understate how disgusting
some of these sites are. For most of "Red Dead," the level of violence
is like a puff of blood and a guy falling over, but the stuff you see at
the three murder sites are stuff that would make
John Doe from "Se7en" wince. It is nasty. If you follow the clues
that got left behind, it'll lead you to a creepy basement that seems to be the killer's hideout. Examining a bloody
knife stuck in a corpse, you'll suddenly get attacked from behind and get knocked out. And the only way to stop this dude is to throw a severed
head at him to stun him. It's just really grotesque. This is one chance encounter that might keep you up at night, actually. That's all for now. Leave us a comment. Let
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