What’s scarier? Fighting a shambling corpse out in the depths of space where no one can hear you scream? Or fighting a spider? Easy answer: the shambling corpse would be better company. Unless it’s Spider-Man, spiders in video games are no fun, just like the ones in real life. At least real spiders serve a purpose.
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In video games, spiders only exist to feed on players’ fears and make them squirm. Granted, it makes sense to encounter something creepy when playing ahorrorgame, but there are plenty of non-horror games out there that love using spiders as enemies. So, for all the arachnophobes out there, you’ll probably want to avert your eyes, because the only thing that these video games have in common is that they’re infested with eight-legged freaks.
This list will not be fun for arachnophobes. It certainly wasn’t fun to make for the writer who IS one. You’ve been warned.
10The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Ugly Enough to Make Any Veteran Witcher Retire
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
In the vast world ofThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, fighting monsters is your bread and butter. From small Nekkers to flying griffins, the uglier, the better. Of course, there are plenty of Insectoid monsters too, the kind that love lurking in caves and flinging acid in your face. Fortunately, there are no spiders to be found in the base game. Then the two expansions changed that.
Say hello to the Arachnomorph. These red-eyed black nightmares are as big as horses, quick and agile, can trap you in webbing, and they always,alwaysfight in packs. Suddenly, fighting vampires and the Wild Hunt doesn’t seem so scary anymore. The reason these ugly beasts belong at the bottom of the list is because they’re optional encounters. Except for a few side quests and one contract, you’re able to avoid these spiders. Call it cowardly, but you’re a monster hunter, not an exterminator.
9The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Half Woman, Half Spider, All Kinds of Wrong
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
When the gates of Oblivion opened, all kinds of horrors came pouring out to blight the people of Cyrodiil. Among their numbers, the ugliest creature to scurry out has to be the Spider Daedra. These things were already unsightly to look at, a spider with the torso of a woman, but thanks to theOblivion Remastered, they’ve been given an HD facelift and made even worse.
Review: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
This isn’t a remake by any means, but the updated visuals create the world of Cyrodill that’s been in your mind for years.
Players will usually encounter these unsightly beauties when exploring the realm of Oblivion, or sometimes lurking near open Oblivion Gates. Spider Daedra will also summon a smaller spiderling who can paralyze players. On top of that, enemies with high Conjuration skills can also summon Spider Daedra to fight for them, including the player. Thanks, but no thanks—summoning killer skeletons feels less disturbing.
8Kill It With Fire
Burn It All Down
Kill It With Fire
Kill It With Fire is basically every player’s chance to live out their ideal fantasy of killing spiders through any means necessary. Burn down the living room. Shoot up your bedroom. Blow up the bathroom. No matter the collateral damage, your only objective is to wipe out all spiders. Although Kill It With Fire has a good sense of humor, it remains uncomfortable for those with arachnophobia.
The noises the spiders make as they scurry are creepy, not to mention their realistic design hits all the wrong checkmarks. And since the point of the game is to seek out and destroy spiders, it’s guaranteed that one or two are going to jump out at you from their hiding spots. If you can swallow your fear, this game will make you laugh and can be a blast to play.
7Minecraft
Spider Cube
Anyone who’s ever playedMinecrafthas no doubt seen this ugly critter lurking about. The world ofMinecraft is littered with legions of hostile mobs, but when it comes to Cave Spiders, you’ll see them often. Sure, from a distance, they may look harmless, maybe even cute compared to other spiders, yet you won’t be singing the same tune when one’s coming at you.
During the day, spiders are mostly harmless, but when night comes, they join the mobs and hunt down the player. There’s nothing worse than mining in a dark, cramped cave, then you turn around and see this thing jumping on top of you. Even the noises they make are disheartening, and nothing stinks more than spending hours building your dream home, only for a spider to spawn in a cave beneath your house. All you can do now is move and burn the place down.
The Not-So-Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Limbo stands as one of the bestindietitles in gaming. A black and white 2D side-scroller about a young boy and his journey in a strange land littered with dangers. Yet, of course, one of the first major threats you encounter near the beginning of the game turns out to be an enormous spider. It might be just one, but man, did it leave an impression.
The way it moves as it chases your character is unsettling, like something out of a dream. The beast constantly harasses you at various points in the game and can kill you in one hit. And just when it can’t get any scarier, after you finally defeat the giant spider, you have to use its corpse to solve a puzzle. Playing with beartraps sounds safer.
5Metro: Last Light Redux
Keep Your Flashlight Charged and Ready
Metro: Last Light Redux
If you’re afraid of spidersandthe dark, then here’s a match made from your nightmares. In the radioactive hellscape of theMetrogames, specifically Last Light and Exodus, you’ll be forced to confront many mutant abominations in the remains of Russia. That includes these crawling monstrosities: the Spiderbug. Yes, that’s their official name. Maybe it sounds better in Russian?
Given the tail, they seem more like a cross between a spider and a scorpion, yet that only makes them that much deadlier when they charge at the player in the darkness. That’s another fun fact, these critters only thrive in the dark, and that’s where players will encounter them on their journey. Sounds terrifying, however, the Spiderbugs have one major weakness, and that’s light. Any flashlight or lamp instantly causes their shells to burn, which will send them fleeing before they die from overexposure.
4Lethal Company
Spiders In Space
Lethal Company
You think you have a rough job?Lethal Companyshows there are worse ones out there. The company sends you and your team out to collect items to meet a quota. Because nothing is ever easy, every abandoned site is haunted by some unknown hostility, which can range from shadowy entities to toy soldiers with shotguns. Yeah, this game is crazy. As if Lethal Company wasn’t scary enough, it also has a huge Bunker Spider to deal with.
This ugly critter will chase you across the whole base the moment you aggravate it. Besides its intimidating appearance, the heavy thuds its feet make as it chases you are just unnerving. Though it is killable if you have a weapon handy, it’s best to just avoid this thing altogether. Or better yet, hope you’re faster than your teammates.
3The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
“Everyone Has His Weakness, and This One Is Mine”
So many players wish they could go back and experienceSkyrimagain for the first time—the quests, the characters, the dragons, and so much amazing fun. Yet out of all thecreepy creatures you encounter on your journey, there’s one thing players wish they could forget and never see again: the dreaded and hideous Frostbite Spider.
No matter how much Skyrim ages, no amount of nostalgia will ever make these things seem appealing. The disgusting noises they make, the way they lunge when attacking, and just their appearance are so unsettling. And it doesn’t matter where you go in Skyrim, you’re going to encounter them. From caves to ancient temples that haven’t been opened in centuries, Frostbite Spiders are everywhere. This is where the Dragon Shout button turns into the panic button.
2Hogwarts Legacy
“Why Spiders? Why Couldn’t It Be Follow the Butterflies?”
Hogwarts Legacy
The amount of polish and detail that went intoHogwarts Legacyis phenomenal. Everything from the school down to the creatures felt straight out of the Harry Potter books, including the spiders. It wasn’t enough that they made these things so perturbing—they went the extra mile in making them look downright evil.
When exploring the Forbidden Forest, you’ll find it infested with these horrendous things, including one creepy as-all-hell spider boss known as the Absconder. Of course, they had to make it a huge black and red-eyed spider. Just the sight of this monstrosity had most players fleeing back to their Vivarium to be with their cute animals. It seems someone on the development team thought they were going too far since the game comes with an Arachnophobia Mode, which turns the spiders into more comical enemies. So, thanks?
Honey, I Shrunk the Gamers
Groundedis a great survival-crafting game, but the setting is like if someone took an arachnophobe’s worst fear and turned it into a video game. Shrunk to the size of an ant and trapped in a backyard teeming with large insects and spiders. Suddenly, a zombie apocalypse sounds more appealing.
Among the selection of enemies you’ll encounter, there are loads of spiders. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to just include one race of spiders. In Grounded,you’ll encounter several species of them, including infected types and boss types. You think that’s enough? Grounded was kind enough to include a setting for arachnophobes in the form of a slider, which removes details from the spiders until they’re just floating blobs. Sadly, the spiders still look pretty messed up, and the sounds they make go unchanged—unless you mute the audio. So, in the end, there’s no winning with this game if you’re afraid of spiders.
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