Fourth wall breaking is nothing new in the gaming world. Whether it’s a quick reference to another title or a self-aware joke, these days almost every game has some out-of-character moment, and some of them are fully designed around messing with the player.
However, fourth wall breaks can serve a greater purpose than cheeky jokes and easter eggs.
Sometimes, the game designers can use them to make a scene more shocking or intriguing, but in order for this kind of twist to be effective, they only have one chance to make their immersion break work.
These moments are not your typical moments of self-awareness. The games will keep a straight face for hours so that when the mask finally drops and reminds you that you’re playing a video game, the revelation will hit you like a truckload of immersion-breaking shock.
From the game secretly using your console information to freak you out to sudden rule breaks that surprise you in the middle of the fight, the following moments deliberately break the fourth wall at the least expected moments so that they leave the greatest possible impact on your fragile psyche.
After you witness them, you’ll never look at your favorite titles the same.
Zombie Army 4 is the horror spin-off of the Sniper Elite series. The setting includes Nazi zombies and weird satanistic rituals, but this said, because you play as a mass-slaughtering zombie killer, none of these new elements feel all that disturbing.
The most terrifying part of the game is, oddly enough, its pause menu.
On the surface, the game’s menu isn’t anything extraordinary. However, in the console version of Zombie Army 4, if you leave it open for a while, the game will secretly start whispering to you through your controller!
The message is delivered in a creepy, ethereal voice, which tells you to come back and keep playing.
The voice is already scary enough as is, but the fact that it speaks to you through your controller instead of the regular speaker elevates it to a whole new level of terrifying.
Not to mention, the fact that the voice addresses you directly gives it this weird personal touch that never occurs in the game.
Jeez, Rebellion Development. We get that you want us to keep playing your game, but there’s no need to be so aggressive about it! Let people get their snacks without traumatizing them with spooky subliminal messaging!
