I spent 40 minutes in an elevator in a video game last Tuesday. No, I wasn’t playing through Mass Effect again. This was all in one go, and while I was in the elevator I saw aliens, dinosaurs, cats, war zones, storms, fire, and demons. Now, thanks to the magic of video and the idea of a longplay, you can, too.

The game, or rather, add-on to a mod of a game, is Elevator for Garry’s Mod for Half-Life 2. It takes everyone’s favorite machinima playground and turns it into an elevator ride through different worlds. The floors are random, and can be beautiful, nightmarish, mundane, or utterly bizarre. It’s a simple and safe ride that is still freakier than going on Disneyworld’s Tower of Terror ride after chugging a liter of Dimetapp. It’s utterly mesmerizing, and worth at least one playthrough by anyone.

In one playthrough I fell down an elevator shaft, got attacked by a dinosaur, watched the world melt away into a black void, stood awkwardly next to a skeleton, watched someone blow his head off, and got shocked by a screeching anime catgirl witch hag. If I play again, it could be a completely different experience.

Elevator isn’t a game as much as it is a ride. You stand there, in an elevator, trying to get to the top. Some floors people join you, and other floors nightmares threaten to claw at your brainholes. You can look at your watch, cough, and slap people, though the slap has a ten minute timer. That’s it. You’re there for the ride.

If you want to see it for yourself, watch my longplay of Elevator. It’s pretty strange. If you like it, grab the free Elevator add-on for Garry’s Mod. If you don’t have Garry’s Mod, get it for Half-Life 2. If you don’t have Half-Life 2, then you better be reading this from 2003. The video has a few hiccups, probably because my computer doesn’t like physics-heavy scenes happening when it’s recording high definition footage. It’s still very watchable, and really, really strange.