There sure was a lot of horror at The Game Awards this year

The Game Awards is meant to be a celebration of past work in gaming — as well as a glimpse of future games to come. But this year definitely had a different feel than previous ceremonies, and it’s probably because the show was stuffed top to bottom with incredibly scary monsters. The most memorable scenes of last night were focused on terrifying monsters who can find and kill you.

What we once considered a relatively tame animal can now be a major jump-scare. It might be something that you don’t think about The Us, As a social sabotage, in which the crew is replaced by impostors from aliens. But now that it’s coming to VR, it’s going to get a bit more visceral.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to some of the gruesome sights in the rest of the show, which included every terror you can imagine, from swarming rat hoards, to creepy alien carapaces, to monsters exploding out of people’s faces.

We watched Captain Titus from the Ultramarines fight back Tyranid genestealers waves, an aggressive group of aliens known for devouring worlds as fuel to their war. Destiny 2’s Witch Queen expansion looks unusually grim. Alan Wake 2’s trailer had a full on jump scare where a blood-splattered man leers menacingly into the camera. It’s the first survival horror game for Remedy Entertainment, so we can expect more monsters (metaphorical and otherwise) to emerge. And don’t even get me started on Senua and her battle against a baby giant man.

And then there was SlitterheadA survival horror game by the creator of The Original Silent Hill. SlitterheadIt was a shocking transformation of ordinary-looking people into terrifying flesh-spider beasts. Intense unnerving. A friend may look like an ordinary person at the time, but then they become a threat. The next thing you know, they’re a Dead Space Necromorph bone creature crawling on bone blades. That’s not great!

This was a horror show, but it got even more so. SlitterheadThe show was theirs. They had one of the scariest monsters of the evening, but there were many other scary acts.

And then, of course, there’s Gollum — the only game announced last night that’s brave enough to let you play as a monster. Take a look at him. He’s just a little guy. He must have come from some book. In any case, he’s just another example of how this year’s Game Awards was drenched in horror. It’s an interesting look at the industry, and we should prepare to have our socks shocked off over the next couple of years. We wish you all the best!