00:00If there's one thing the open-world genre excels at, it's pure, sorry, what, surprise.
00:05Yes, you can hoover up a few days' worth of side quests, or embark on an 80-hour character
00:09grind with one hell of a payoff, but the question of what's round that next corner only really
00:14lands with all-out open-air freedom. With that in mind, we're currently seeing two
00:18definable approaches to open-world game design. Either you go down the Ubisoft and Sony route,
00:23peppering landscapes with icons, signposted collectibles, quests, etc., or you prefer
00:28the Nintendo From Software approach. Gargantuan worlds filled with things to see, do, and
00:33interact with, where navigation is entirely on you. No matter which you pick, both give
00:38developers plenty of opportunities to throw in the occasional creature-based curveball.
00:42A mini-boss or what-the-hell-is-that style reveal that leaves you dealing with an encounter or
00:47scenario you really didn't expect. I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are 8 terrifying
00:51monsters hidden in open-world video games. Number 8. The Giant Squid
00:56Assassin's Creed Black Flag Possibly the most beloved Assassin's Creed
01:00of them all, Black Flag's world felt impossibly large, whilst being endlessly inviting. Scores
01:05of tiny islands stretched past the horizon, character and pirate ship upgrades were left,
01:09right, and center, and you had the ocean's depths to plunder for even rarer treasures.
01:13Enter underwater gameplay that was genuinely enjoyable, letting Edward Kenway navigate shipwrecks,
01:19fend off animals, admire things like light-blocking whales up above you, and honestly, encounter
01:24some things that were genuinely terrifying. Almost like a callback to Assassin's Creed 2's
01:28random AF giant squid, travel to the Antocca wreck and you'll see a tentacle whip through
01:33what's left of the ship as you approach. Providing a creepy jumpscare in the moment,
01:38hover around the window it leaves through and the squid will appear in full, tackling and
01:42killing the giant whale right in front of you. Number 7. A Planet-Sized Anglerfish
01:47Outer Wilds. Outer Wilds plays an Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild-style hand of nudging you in a
01:52certain direction, and letting the joy of whatever you'd then come across propel you the rest of the
01:56way. Playing as the Hearthians, a wannabe spacefaring race who occasionally send willing members of their
02:01group across the stars, it's totally up to you where you head first. Pick one direction and you
02:06might find a teleporting black hole spitting you out somewhere completely different. Another and
02:10you'll find a set of twin planets trading their surface's worth of sand thanks to cyclical gravity
02:15spitting it back and forth. Best slash worst of all though, especially if you encounter it before
02:20comprehending what you're supposed to do like I did, is a whole planet of giant anglerfish.
02:25Supremely terrifying creatures on this earth, never mind an alien version with another landmass
02:30inside its mouth, venturing inside the dark bramble planet has you greeted by a huge set of teeth
02:35biting back out the darkness to consume you whole. Number 6. Hydras. Dark Souls. From software have
02:41quickly become the masters of hiding the best and worst things imaginable just around the corner.
02:46From placing ambushing enemies in shadows to tucking a game winning item away in a hidden treasure
02:51chest, you're incentivized and should remain wary of every single step taken. Whilst we've all got
02:56our personal picks for which enemy made a horrifying impression, Dark Souls 1's hydras take the cake for
03:01something only getting worse as you get closer. With two examples both equally imposing as hell,
03:07your first is often seen through the gaps of the trees while wandering Darkroot Basin.
03:11That far off creature actually being a multi-necked serpent firing all those energy blasts is one
03:16hell of a realisation, though things do get worse if you wander farther from the beaten path later on
03:21and end up in Ash Lake. This more formidable version of the hydra has splash damage attacks
03:26in literal waves, wiping you out with any one of its heads if you're standing in the wrong place.
03:31Combined, the hydras are both badges of honour, only a portion of the Souls fanbase will seek out and
03:36conquer. Number 5. Biological Horror. No Man's Sky. No Man's Sky was always supposed to be a galaxy of
03:42endless potential. Yes, that initial first year of launch was disappointing for many,
03:46but Hello Games have bulked out their procedurally generated universe into a concrete framework now
03:51supporting scores of hefty expansions. One is the Desolation update, where you'll just come across
03:56derelict ships floating through space, housing all sorts of mutated alien things inside, having done
04:02whatever your mind then conjures to the rest of the crew. Another addition that came from the No Man's Sky
04:07next update, though, were Whispering Eggs, valuable-looking collectibles strewn across various
04:12planets. Keep in mind, years before Desolation and even as Next rolled out, there was zero reason
04:17to associate anything horror-based with the otherwise Asimovian delights of No Man's Sky's art design.
04:22Touch a Whispering Egg, though, and suddenly, as the screen flashes, saying biological horror detected,
04:28out of the ground come practically a swarm of xenomorphs. Called biological horrors to avoid
04:33trademark infringement, these horrible aliens will chase after you and press themselves against any
04:38windows that you try to take cover behind, forever waiting for an opportunity to take you out.
04:42Number 4. A Clicker, Dying Light
04:45Nowhere near enough praise really gets thrown Dying Light's way for its depiction of infected
04:50zombies. Yes, the first-person parkour, yes, those slick animations, chunky combat, and awesome vertical
04:55world making it an instant classic, but having enemy aggression shift on a dime once the sun goes down
05:00as a stroke of genius, and something I wish way more teams would have taken note of.
05:04Anyway, amongst this smorgasbord of moans and leaps is one hell of an easter egg that doubles as pure
05:09nightmare fuel as it appears from nowhere. None other than a Clicker straight from The Last of Us is
05:14hiding in the game's town hall, though you can only trigger it by activating SideQuest the Bunker.
05:19A transformation from a regular enemy after you've fought your way through most of the level,
05:23this is the closest Dying Light gets to all-out body horror alongside more formidable AI that swarm you
05:29everywhere else. Number 3. A Chort
05:31The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
05:33The Witcher 3's release across 2015 was legendary, single-handedly giving us hope for the generation
05:39after a 2014 dogged by buggy half-baked toss like watchdogs, it was CDPR to the rescue,
05:45designing a fantasy world millions of us are still enamored with, crafting a world of characters
05:49and consequence you could get completely lost in. Enter then, the Chorts, creatures that pose the
05:54strongest threat in the entire game that spawn if you kill too many cows at once. Why? Because CDPR
06:00recognized that players were getting far too carried away slaughtering the local livestock,
06:04and then making a ton of money on the side. Think South Park's Make Love Not War episode in a darker
06:09fantasy land and you're pretty much there. Chorts came to spawn in The Witcher 3 after a random amount
06:15of cows are killed in quick succession, the monster then wiping out all but the most skilled players as a
06:20warning to not abuse the system. Number 2. Slaughter Spines and Tide Rippers
06:24Horizon Forbidden West
06:25As the best showcase of PlayStation 5 tech yet, Horizon's second installment has a gorgeous art
06:31style and tons of side missions, creatures, unlockables, and gear to find. Guerrilla truly
06:36went all out crafting something we'll be playing for another five years before the supposed end of
06:40the trilogy. And in a post-post-apocalypse ran by an AI overlord trying to replicate the fauna of
06:46Earth's history, that means all sorts of dinosaurs slash animal hybrids to take down.
06:50While Forbidden West is easier than Zero Dawn when it comes to all-out combat, there are some
06:55super rare creatures that eventually pop up in the story, roaming the plains regardless.
06:59One is the Tide Ripper, largely inspired by real-world plesiosaurs, and another is the
07:04Slaughter Spine, a full-on combo of every bipedal T-Rex-looking beast you can think of. With only five
07:10Tide Ripper spawned in the whole world and three places you can find a Slaughter Spine, the latter even
07:15needs you to go hunting at night, so make sure you're prepared for what's always one hell of a
07:19fight. And number one, Spider Hand, Elden Ring. Elden Ring is home to a great many disgusting
07:25creatures. However, nothing I've encountered in my 40-plus hours of game time so far has come close
07:30to the sheer skin-crawl vibe of the Spider Hands. Located in Carrier Manor to the initial northwest
07:35of the map before that thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger, you'll first see these tarantula-aping
07:41finger demons hanging off the walls. No problem, you think, exploring the ground instead. They'll
07:45just stay up there and I'll stay down here. Well, that doesn't remain the case for very long.
07:50Besides smaller spiders chasing you around and some larger ones dotted around the place too,
07:55Spider Hands actually bury themselves in the ground and pretend to be regular items. Pick the
08:00collectible up without scanning for exposed fingertips alongside, and the whole palm of this
08:04thing will appear, grab and likely kill you in one horrible animation. And those are our picks for
08:10the eight most terrifying monsters hidden in open-world video games. Let me know your favourites down in
08:15the comments below, and please subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast. For now,
08:18I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com, and I'll catch you soon.
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