One of the most intense scenes in a horror movie is the “I’m hiding in a closet while the bad guy roams freely around the house looking for me” scene. Even in less than perfect horror movies like “The Messengers,” you fear for the kid who has chosen to hide in the cupboardry while the bad man looks around for him. You hope beyond all hope that he won’t be found, but then, that wouldn’t make for much of a horror movie. But what if a video game could capture this horrific, adrenaline-pumping, heart-wrenching moment?

Obviously, depending on where the game takes place and what the story line is this idea would have to be tweaked accordingly. Bear that in mind!

For the purpose of this exercise in creativity lets say your character is running around in an abadoned city. At the moment he’s just opened the doors to a historic hotel and you note the reception counter, the elevator, the trash can, and turned over plant vases. Suddenly, you get a headache, a warning headache. You’re about to be found by one of the gigantic baddies that roams this free world and you have 1 minute from the time the headache begins to find a hiding spot. And by “hiding spot” I mean you either need to jump behind the reception desk and hide underneath, run for the elevator and pry open the non-working doors to jump inside, or tip the trash can over to get rid of the trash and duck down inside its stinky bowels. You must do this while your character continues to have the headache, heightening his panic level which is displayed in your onscreen HUD by a glowing bar. The headachle also blurs your onscreen vision. You’re too small and too insignficant to tackle these beasts for now so you must hide quickly. Maybe later in the game you’ll get a chance to soundly kick their butts. For now you have chosen to hide underneath the slightly exposed desk and its up to you to perform a series of button mashing cut scene moves at the right time to calm your character down. If you can successfully calm him down the baddies leave and you go undetected. If you fail to calm him down the baddies can suddenly smell or hear the heart beat of your character so they haul butt towards your location, rip you from your hiding spot and tear you to shreds.