For me it was Dead Space 2 when I was 12-ish. For reference, at this point the most gruesome/gorey/violent media I was exposed to was the Halo 3 Flood levels and the original 2 Alien movies.
I had way too much fun playing it to be traumatized by it at the time, although when i was old enough to understand the horror of the whole “your memories and experience becoming food for a god-like being that has absolutely zero respect for your existance”, that did inform my perspective of other media such as Evangelion or Childhood’s end when I watched them for the 1st time.
What was your equivalent to this? I’ve heard the Resident Evil games are quite common for this but I want to hear your perspective.
Doom 3 when I was a young teen, although much later it was Amnesia: The Dark Descent that got me more interested in horror games.
I really wanted to enjoy doom 3, but even 20 years later I haven’t finished the main campaign. Too many cheap jumpscares and the switching to the flashlight just to see, really put me off in the end. However, it was a pretty game for the time.
Amnesia is great, I haven’t finished that one either but it’s the good kind of horror, much more creepy and slow-burning.