A "Shark Cage Moment" (Anyone else like this weird thing I love experiencing in games)

One of my favorite games of all time is Half-Life 2. Fantastic game and one of my favorite moments in Half-Life 2 is when you're dealing with the ant-lions. There are these large machines on the beach and coast that when activated begin to stomp the ground, which keeps the ant-lions away from you. They don't disappear or get killed, instead they skitter around near you. I would sometimes be surrounded by 5 or more of the cow-sized bugs, but they can't do anything to me. All they can do is walk and fly around the area waiting for me to leave.

This is what I call a "Shark Cage Moment".

When something dangerous, deadly or hostile is able to be viewed safely. Sometimes, like in the Half-Life 2 example, up close. Other times from afar, or behind a glass wall. Maybe you're on top of a building looking down on some nasty creature who just 10 seconds ago was right behind you, ready to kill and eat you. Now you can sit there and watch it pace back and forth. I love that feeling.

In GTAV I would drive my car into the forest areas and wait. Pretty soon a cougar would come on by. And I was completely safe. I also did this on a wooden structure in the desert. Eventually the cougar attacked glitched his way onto the platform and killed me, but the few minutes before that was great. Watching him walk around, looking around, looking at me, growling and roaring at me.

I don't know why I love "Shark Cage Moments". Maybe its the thrill of being so close or seeing something that would usually want to kill me. Maybe it's the fact that you get to see animations that I would expect not a ton of people see. I mean, I wonder how many people stopped and watched the Glowing One that was captured and behind glass in Fallout 3. I watched for at least 10 minutes. Or how many people stood ontop of a building and watched zombies shuffle around in State of Decay.

Actually now that I think about it, I really hope I'm not alone in this weird love of "Shark Cage Moments". I probably sound a bit crazy and strange to be honest. But I can't help it, I really love these moments in games.

Does anyone else out there feel this way? Any moments that come to mind?

I usually turn around and look, but not in awe.

Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games ever made but after playing it a million billion times, that particular moment is kinda tedious.

There's that bit in Mass Effect 2's finale where one of your biotics creates a field that holds out the vicious Collector swarms.

The first thing that springs to mind is standing outside doorways in Dead Space - just out of reach of the necromorphs. It's fun watching them do their silly little necromorph dances :3

@beachthunder: Yeah, Ibut sometimes Dead Space does a EVIL Shark Cage, you see them outside and think OK Im safe, then bam your being attacked. (Though that trick got old by the end of DS1..)

Half Life 2's ant lion is really an amazing momen.

Hmmmm how about the sharks in Crysis 1? At first you want to test your boundaries on the island. There are clearly gun boats, and then you start to see shapes inside the depths of the water. Then it's a big fat shark acting as an invisible wall.

There's literally a part in Half Life 1 where you jump into an actual shark cage.

@veektarius: Hmmm, I don't remember that part. But it sounds pretty cool.

Yeah, actually. I seem to do this most with zombie games like Dead Rising. I suppose I do this mostly to gauge just how smart and versatile are the zombies in the game I'm playing, but it really is just entertaining to be able to stare at what could conceivably kill you right in its face knowing it can't.

@thatfrood: And get the crossbow, right. Yeah. Thats a literal shark cage moment. lol

@rjpelonia: Yeah, Dead Rising has a ton of great moments, where you can see zombies, but they cant hurt you. Loved those moments.

@crithon: Wow, I never knew about that. I think I would crap myself if I saw that.

@random45: well it's clever design, it's an invisible wall, but the whole depth of water you just see a shape as your swiming along thinking you passing under the gun boats. And then you think you see something and then TEETH! It's brilliant design.

@crithon: Similar to GTAV, which I think does it great as well. If you try to fly or drive to far into the open ocean it causes your plane or boat to stall and eventually crash/stop. Then sharks start to spawn and its a matter of time.. I really enjoy that method as opposed to how Oblivion just says "NOPE" and has an invisible wall.

Dead Rising 3, just standing on a car surrounded by hundreds of zombies is insane.

@zombie2011: Yeah, watching videos of that looks awesome.

It's not quite the same, but I really enjoyed just watching the Big Daddies in Bioshock. If you don't attack them they don't really mind you, so you can just follow them around and observe them. I really liked that.

Dark Souls has many of these moments, where you can see or hear a boss monster before fighting it. The Hellkite Dragon on the bridge and the big rat in the sewers come to mind.

I'm a fan of Shark Cage/Take a Breather moments as well. Everything about them is pretty fun, even the moment where you go "Okay, I've been here long enough, time to move out." And making that tense decision of where and when your best exit strategy will be, although I am hard pressed to actually think of many examples where this happens.

Much like State of Decay, in Dead Rising there is plenty of situations where you are on top of a roof or a stand just watching the zombie hoards gather at your feet, there is even an animation you can unlock to safely walk amongst them. I guess any zombie game where you can climb to safety but the zombies can not is a pretty good example, Dead Island as well. And in Left 4 Dead whenever you reach a safe room nothing but the Tank can break down the doors, and even then he can only break down the door to the start of the levels safe room, so there will be really tense moments in that game where you are just booking it away from a hoard and get into the safe room and watch the hoard uselessly beat at the door.

In Deus Ex there are some monsters/aliens you can find trapped behind a door and you can just leave them in there and look at them if you want. Although I usually let them out because I love to stir shit in games.

In Shadow of the Colossus there are a few safe spots where you can watch whichever one you are fighting just lumber about.

I know there is more but that's all I can think of right now, I think that is part of the reason I love sniping in games so much, it's like a constant Shark tank moment of I can see the enemy/creature, but they can't see me and I can just watch them go about their business and the danger wont happen until I make it happen. Far Cry 3 was great for that, find an enemy base with an animal in a cage, let the animal loose and just watch the chaos, how sweet it is.

I was gonna say the same thing. In a game where everything can easily kill you, I sometimes stand and watch enemies out of aggro range.

@zolroyce: I forgot about Shadow of the Colossus. I used to watch some of those big guys just slowly moving around. I forget which ones, but one was pretty close and it really gave me that feeling.

The first thing that came to mind especially when I read this

..was the first Witcher. The swamps are a massive and gloomy place where all kinds of godforsaken beasts roam in the filthy water between entwined bushes and swamp trees, and if you keep your distance you can see the Wyvren, Drowners, Bloedzuigers and Echinops move around in the distance in a mesmerizing trance, or fight each other. I used to stand there and watch in awe.

@jackentrote: That sounds amazing.Sounds a little creepy too, which is always a nice touch.