When Code Goes Rogue
Sometimes, video games break in ways that feel almost haunted. Not just bugs or harmless quirks but full-on, spine-tingling anomalies that mess with reality and are just totally weird. So, here we are with the 20 most terrifying game glitches you’ll never unsee.
Assassins Creed Unity "No Face Glitch?!" by rob
1. Skyrim: Headless NPCs Walk Again
In Skyrim, decapitated characters sometimes get back up and casually continue their routines without a head. No panic. Just eerie silence and business as usual. Watching one serve ale with nothing above the neck doesn’t just break immersion.
Skyrim: How To Make NPCs Headless (Check Description) by NorwegianVikingGamer
2. Fallout 3 And New Vegas: Face Terrors
Fallout 3 and New Vegas are known for post-apocalyptic horror. Still, nothing tops when NPCs’ faces sometimes distort due to engine bugs, with misaligned eyes or stretched textures, creating unsettling appearances. These aren’t mutants but normal folks rendered into living nightmares by engine bugs.
Fallout 3 NPC Glitch by B0mbH3ad
3. Pokémon Red And Blue: MissingNo. Destroys Reality
Triggered along Cinnabar Island’s coast, MissingNo. spawns from broken code after the Old Man tutorial. It can duplicate items or corrupt your save entirely. Distorted graphics, glitched menus, and mangled memories turn a kid’s adventure into a gaming breakdown. It felt less like a bug and more like a ghost.
Pokémon Red Version: Missingno. by Platinum
4. Portal: Eternal Fall Trap
Place two portals just wrong, and you’re no longer solving puzzles—you’re plummeting endlessly. In Portal, a misstep in placement can lock players into a fall loop with no ground or exit, just a dizzying descent. It’s fixable, sure, but for a moment, you're trapped in digital purgatory.
Portal 2's Most Broken Glitch by Msushi
5. The Sims 4: The Ghost Baby
You cradle your Sim’s newborn, only to find a nightmare. In one of The Sims 4’s most disturbing glitches, babies morph with elongated limbs and twisted torsos. During animations, they writhe unnaturally, like something half-rendered from another dimension. It’s not parenting—it’s horror.
Exploring Hilarious & Creepy Glitches in The Sims 4 by onlyabidoang
6. FIFA: Twisted Body Physics
In FIFA 12, a well-known glitch causes players to contort violently after tackles, spinning midair or collapsing unnaturally. These animations often resemble breakdancing or body spasms resulting from collision and ragdoll physics system errors during specific impact scenarios.
FIFA 22 | Funny Bugs & Glitches! by CastroHD
7. Assassin’s Creed Unity: Faceless Terrors
Glitches in Assassin’s Creed Unity stripped NPCs of their skin, leaving just eyeballs and grinning teeth: no eyes, no hair, just floating parts. You’re meant to sneak through Paris, not be haunted by eyeless ghouls grinning through conversations.
Assassin's Creed Unity no face glitch by William Li (William Li)
8. Animal Crossing: Villagers Turn Demonic
Animal Crossing promises comfort—until it doesn't. Sometimes, villagers glitch out: eyes misaligned, limbs twisted, phasing halfway through walls, or floating eerily above furniture. The cheery tone shatters as your cozy paradise warps into something uncanny.
Strange Glitches From Every Animal Crossing Game by Rocket Elijah
9. The Witcher 3: Horse In The Sky
Roach, the horse, isn’t bound by physics or reason. One moment, she’s trotting along the trail; the next, she’s perched on a rooftop or hovering midair. At first, it’s funny. Then you need her, and she’s floating uselessly above you like a ghost horse.
Witcher 3 Flying Horse Glitch by BrickArts295
10. Silent Hill 4: The Room: Prison World Progression Bug
The Prison World holds more glitches than ghosts. Even after completing every task, the basement keypad may remain unreadable, triggered by misaligned water paths or room holes. You’re trapped, not by the game’s horror, but by the code refusing to let you go.
SILENT HILL 4 THE ROOM Gameplay Walkthrough FULL GAME (4K 60FPS) No Commentary by Shirrako
11. Call Of Duty Zombies: Spawn Inside Walls
Call of Duty Zombies is intense, but it’s worse when the dead don’t play fair. Glitches sometimes spawn enemies inside walls or beyond the map, letting them slip through barriers and strike unseen. Just as you’re reloading, you’re suddenly ambushed by something that shouldn’t exist yet. It’s chaos incarnate.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies goes through wall Glitch by Blahsheep
12. GTA IV: Stretching Pedestrian Horrors
A bug in GTA IV turned ordinary pedestrians into elastic nightmares. Arms would slingshot across streets; bodies would twist skyward like possessed marionettes. Looked hilarious at first, but when they scream mid-glitch or lurch after you in slow-motion spasms, Liberty City doesn’t feel so grounded.
13. WWE 2K20: Rope Entanglement and Distorted Limbs
In one unforgettable WWE 2K20 glitch, Ronda Rousey writhes, tangled in the ropes like a marionette with cut strings. Nearby, Dakota Kai’s knees bend in ways no human body should. Then, ladders vanish, and steps melt into the ring. It’s a full-blown animation meltdown.
Rope glitch (WWE 2K20). by Lord Sieciech
14. Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Eye Mishap
Characters sometimes stared through you instead of at you. Missing eyelid shadows, broken blinking patterns, and glassy, misaligned gazes gave life to the uncanny. The visual bugs—born from rushed lighting and animation work—turned human faces into cold masks that never quite blinked right.
15. Minecraft: World Turns Into A Void
In version 1.12.2 of Minecraft Java Edition, some players loaded into their saved worlds only to find… nothing. No ground. No trees. Just sky, sun, and moon suspended above an endless abyss. The terrain was gone. The glitch often signaled world corruption. It was an erasure you couldn’t undo.
Unraveling Minecraft End Dimension Glitches: Part 1 - Into the Void by Sayaf_v2
16. Resident Evil Village: T-Posing Invasion
Resident Evil Village players reported random T-posing mobs mid-fight. Eyes lifeless, arms outstretched, bodies frozen as they hovered menacingly toward you. They didn’t move right, but they didn’t stop either. This static army somehow felt worse than anything intentionally scary.
Resident Evil 4 Remake T-Pose Enemy Glitch by SneakerStreet
17. Mafia II: Mac Port Glitch
In early Mac versions of Mafia II, players experienced severe graphical glitches, where characters stretched unnaturally or clipped through environments. The bugs were later patched, but not before players witnessed floating heads and collapsing bodies that turned a gritty mob game into pure digital nightmare fuel.
Mafia II MacBook Glitch by EliZissou
18. Battlefield 3: Giant Character Model
At launch, Battlefield 3 had a bug that turned soldiers into towering monstrosities—character models ballooned in size, with stretched limbs and distorted faces. Sometimes, just the eyes or mouths floated midair. The result? A battlefield haunted by freakishly broken avatars, as if reality cracked under pressure.
Big Player Bug in Battlefield 3 by Karbonat Erol
19. Elden Ring: Doom Loop Trap
A now-patched Elden Ring bug lets griefers invade your game and trap you in sorrow loops. You’d spawn, then instantly pass away. Over and over. Your only option was to delete the save. It was sadistic—like the world itself turned against you.
This Shouldn't be a thing.. (Trap Online Player in a Loop) by opossum
20. Call Of Duty: Dead Body Animation
In several Call of Duty titles, especially Black Ops, players have encountered glitches where dead enemies briefly move post-mortem, opening their mouths. Sometimes, they twitched or stood unnaturally. These ragdoll or animation errors made it feel more cursed than broken.
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Dead Body Glitch (REVISITED) by Generalkidd
