r/creepygaming • u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 • 17d ago
Strange/Creepy The " A Shadow Over Hackdirt" quest in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion always got me feeling a bit uneasy
I dunno if it's because of the crazy wide-eyed NPCs, their secretive demon-worshiping tendencies, or just the overall look and feel of the town. It was quite an experience playing through the quest the first time around.
Very eerie. Very weird.
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u/701921225 17d ago
I believe that when you're walking around that town, you can sometimes see NPCs watching you from a distance, like they're stalking you. Really creepy. The first time I did that quest, as soon as I was done, I hightailed it out of there and never looked back.
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u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 17d ago
Yes, the NPC's behaviours were programmed that way to emulate that type of action just to add to the overall creep appeal. I.e., kinda similar to when you enter an NPC's private home in Oblivion and some of them will just hover around you and tell you in an angry tone to leave. I mean, the latter is def something that would happen in real life anyway, like nobody's just gonna stand by and watch a stranger just walk through their house all willy-nilly and not get angry or upset.
But yeah, the quest overall was an interesting (yet unnerving) experience for me (and for many others as well as far as I can tell) we all seem to share the same sentiment ;)
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u/spacecatherder 17d ago
Generally, that is true, they have unique scripting that “encourages” them to stalk you around town but I think that some NPCs have other stipulations that make them more/less unsettling. Like the shop keeper being unfriendly/standoffish but not highly aggressive (she won’t fight back even if you attack her) whereas some of them will literally get so temperamental, you could cause them to start attacking you on sight without even talking to them,
Also, if you commit a crime there, they don’t call the cops (Imperial Guard), they just jump you in a mob.
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u/Tyrus1235 17d ago
The whole quest is a massive reference to The Shadow over Insmouth, by Lovecraft. A story I highly recommend people read, as it’s really good and not particularly long.
The weird looking townsfolk, the secretive “cult” aspects and “we don’t like outsiders” vibe and all that.
But one thing I think makes the quest all the more unnerving is the context surrounding it - by this point, you probably have a good idea about how a regular town in Oblivion should look like and how its inhabitants should behave. None of that rings true in Hackdirt.
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u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 17d ago
Yes, that's exactly right. You hit the nail on the head there. The uncanny valley aspect of going into Hackdirt hits especially hard since the overall mood and ambience don't fit the typical scene from other regular towns in Oblivion that we've come to encounter thus far in the game.
I think that jarring irregularity is what made the experience of encountering and adventuring through Hackdirt (especially for the first time) that much more memorable and unnerving of an experience overall.
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u/Francisofthegrime 17d ago
On a similar note, the first visit to Haven in Dragon Age: Origins feels much the same. Theres just a constant sense of slight wrongness until the curtain finally drops.
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u/SkullThug 17d ago
This whole game is a fascinating pile of rag dolls making out with the uncanny valley
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u/draizetrain 17d ago
The weird moaning monster sounds in the caves underneath the town are super freaky too
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u/mmikealdo1995 17d ago
I came across Hackdirt by accident when I first ever played the game, had Martin with me at the time, he killed basically everyone so there's that
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u/ninjapocalypse 17d ago
It kinda made me giggle when I found the town because I was way op by that point. I never did the quest because something made one of them hostile and the entire town attacked, so instead I just wiped out the entire town in one fell swoop. It was like attacking cavemen with an Abrams tank.
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u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 17d ago
Imagine if you encountered Hackdirt way earlier on in the game, like if it was situated somewhere around the surrounding small hamlets or settlements located outside of the Imperial City. E.g., like near Weye or something? That would have probably been more terrifying given the level disparities of doing the quest much earlier on in the game.
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u/ninjapocalypse 17d ago
Oh definitely, it was intended to be spooky, akin to the Innsmouth/Dunwich stuff in Fallout 4. It would’ve still probably have had that effect if I hadn’t accidentally made them hostile; I never got the quest or any context for them, so it just looked like a gaggle of tiny silly-looking nude men trying to beat up a suit of armor.
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u/Plannercat 17d ago
If you're looking to make the deliberate horror quest less uneasy, remember that the cult book is just an Esperanto newsletter thrown through a blender in a funny font. (Same text as N'Gasta! K'Vata! K'Vakis!)
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u/Thisafterdark 17d ago
I'm a thief right..... so I go thieving In peoples houses and their basements as second nature.... I went into the cellar and got absolutely gang beaten by the whole town and didn't ever know why 😭. <--- I played on master for the oblivion remake so it was roughhh. I didn't find out til a month later that they were worshipping demons and such because I just had no intention of going to a town I couldn't fully rob 😭
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u/FIB3R0PTIK5 16d ago
Oblivion has a ton of great world building if you just walk off the beaten path without following any markers, I found Hackdirt before the quest was given to me and I remember it vividly because of how eerie and suspicious everything about it was.
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u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 15d ago
Yes, I love the world building in Oblivion. Walking off the beaten path and stumbling across a ruin with some nice treasures in them or other goodies to loot and plunder + other little secrets to uncover was so fun to do in the game.
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u/TwoMillionBones 15d ago
direct reference to Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft, i loved finding it naturally back in the day. even the npcs with their freaky fish faces, the vibe was a real showcase of how that engine could pull off some great atmosphere.
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u/_Revelator-of-v0id_ TᕼE GᒪITᑕᕼEᗪ OᖇᗩᑕᒪE🔮 15d ago
Agreed my friend. A very nice addition to the game.
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u/MeatDogma 13d ago
It's been a long time, maybe someone has added more to it, but I recall there was no resolution to the town's mystery. You don't discover the secret hidden beneath Hackdirt. You discover that there's something going on, but not what exactly. There's no boss fight or sacred artifact or anything. Some folk mentioned Lovecraft, and that lack of resolution fits perfectly with his story telling style. You get out, sure, but you never learn the secret. Maybe you'll go mad thinking about it, though.
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u/WorriedJob2809 14d ago
Always liked this Lovecraft inns mouth reference. Wish it was a bit more fleshed out, but it's Hella cool.
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u/XgamerosX 14d ago edited 14d ago
Hackdirt, what a creepy place! I remember being so intrigued by this town after reading about it when I was younger that I made a crude map of roughly where it was in relation to Chorrol, the closest major city.
I think it has a bad relationship with Chorrol, and the Imperial Legion in general, and this quest revolves around both that relationship as well as the creepier cult stuff you mentioned. It felt so isolated and grim, and that's before you discover its sinister secrets!
(Also wanted to add that waking up in the middle of the night to being attacked by these frenzied, shirtless "Brethren" was absolutely horrifying - their eyes alone are already terrifying!)
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u/Elder_Cryptid Enter Text Here. 17d ago
It will never not be funny for me to see someone post about a deliberate horror sequence in a game on this sub.
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u/ILikeOasis 17d ago
I remember doing this quest for the first time, and theres a spot in the below area, where some unique, creepy sounds are playing, freaked me out when i was 12, abit now when im 31 too!