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.
Same here! Silent hill 2 and 3. We usually played F-zero x or Diddy Kong racing to ease the atmosphere before wrapping up for the night. But it was so sparking creepy to go home at 3 in the night still…
I was about 13 so we played after school and before we had to go home for tea, it was super creepy though and I still feel uneasy in the fog.