For me it was Dead Space 2 when I was 12-ish. For reference, at this point the most gruesome/gorey/violent media I was exposed to was the Halo 3 Flood levels and the original 2 Alien movies.
I had way too much fun playing it to be traumatized by it at the time, although when i was old enough to understand the horror of the whole “your memories and experience becoming food for a god-like being that has absolutely zero respect for your existance”, that did inform my perspective of other media such as Evangelion or Childhood’s end when I watched them for the 1st time.
What was your equivalent to this? I’ve heard the Resident Evil games are quite common for this but I want to hear your perspective.
Fallout 3 isn’t a horror game but man that atmosphere is crazy. I remember one of the very first missions has you go to galaxy news radio from the first settlement, megaton to talk to the DJ. It’s a really long journey through subway tunnels and ruined DC streets. The wasteland is pretty horrific and lots of enemies are disgusting and almost disturbing to look at.
As much as Bethesda gets shit for that game, they did an amazing job converting the atmosphere from the first two games into a 3D world.