My buddy Iane came over with a 12-pack of beer and we sit down to play through a couple of hours of Bioshock yesterday. Lights are dimmed, volume is cranked and alcoholic beverages are consumed. Fun times are to be had by me, since I'm doing the playing.

Anyway, we progress through the start of the game pretty easily since it's basically the same demo we've played over and over until we swap levels and find ourselves in the medical pavilion. We make our way through, picking up several new plasmids along the way.

We're instructed to find a key in a dentistry office. Okay, no problem. I shoot down an annoying turret that was blocking my way and crawl into a window. I'm in the office and unlock the door behind me so I can move in and out easier next time. I start searching the room; nothing. There must be something I missed.

Moving around, I notice a back room with a dentistry chair billowing fog from the intense cold in the room. I move in slowly thinking some crazy doctor must be in there waiting for me to innocently step in so he can charge me 100$ for a 10 minute cleaning.

Slowly, I creep into the room's door frame. The back wall can't be seen; the fog is too thick so instead, I stick to the left. I start making my way forward and rummage through a few cabinets and waste baskets. My HUD freezes and thaws while I wait. There's nothing here. Damn.

Okay, no problem. I keep searching random bins and picking up medical supplies on the floor when my HUD goes white again, presumably from freezing. Once it thaws, I turn around to head out the door and THE CRAZY DOCTOR IS ABOUT A FOOT AWAY FROM MY FACE JUST BLANKLY STARING AT ME WHILE HIS HEAD TILTS! A buckshot and about a tenth of a second later, the doctor was down but my heart was just pounding.

By far, one of the scariest moments I have ever felt from a game. Holy crap. Just thinking about it is still sending shivers down my spine.

I've since finished the Medical Pavilion level and made it unto the docks and thankfully haven't had any other "OMGWTF" moments like that since.