Why am I scared?

Started by Nidoking76 August 18th, 2014 9:19 AM
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Nidoking76

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Lavender Town. I ain't afraid of no ghosts!
Seen April 14th, 2015
Posted March 4th, 2015
498 posts
9.2 Years
A week or two back, Markiplier made a video about a game called Five Nights At Freddy's. Since then, dozens of people have played this game, and it is universally agreed upon that Five Nights At Freddy's is the most terrifying thing possible.
Spoiler:



But why is this game so bloody terrifying? Is it the animatronics? The style? The intense feeling of dread? The well timed jum scares? What is your opinion on this unique horror game?
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El Héroe Oscuro

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Posted August 21st, 2021
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Hey another Markiplier fan, nice!

I didn't watch his whole video - only the part when the animatronic started running at him at the end - and I haven't played the game myself, but I saw Gavin and Michael from Rooster Teeth play it so I sort of understand the basics of it. I think the reason why many people are so scared of this game is because of the impending doom that it imposes. You know that you are working on borrowed time as your power over the cameras slowly drains away, and that fact combined with the lighting effects and lack of music creates this feeling of dread that you otherwise might not feel in other games.

However, I believe many people are just saying it's super scary because of the jump scares. If you're a first time player, the part say with the animatronic running at you would probably make you poop yourself, as well as the ending sequence when the music plays and he jumps out at you would probably scare you as well. But like many games, I think that feeling would go away after due time when you get more of a feeling as to when these scares or going to occur.

Or not. I don't play these kinds of games because I'm a real puss when it comes to the horror genre, so I could just be barking up the wrong tree.
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Incinermyn

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OMG, I watched some gameplay footage posted by a guy on Youtube last night. At first I thought this was one of the crappiest "well-made" horror games ever (by that I mean it was actually made better than most horror games I know or have played, but it's lackluster graphics were sort of a buzz kill. That's just me, though.), but then the bear just appeared before the player's in-game "eyes" after he just got done checking the security cameras for the umpteenth time in a row to make sure none of the animatronics were nearby (he shut the right-hand door, but forgot about the left-hand one). To be honest, I actually found this game outright stupid at first just because it's pretty much a knockoff of Night At The Museum, only with animatronics that want to kill you instead of mostly friendly exhibits. Still, I'll admit it's scary as ****, but it's not something I'm about to play because I generally disdain horror games.

Pinkie-Dawn

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I discovered this game by name only on KYM, and gameplay footage from Yammimash's Let's Play video. I try to avoid eye contact when watching the video to prevent myself from getting a heart attack from the animatronics' jump scares. This game has caused me to never look at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant the same way again, seeing as how Five Nights at Freddy's reminds me of. Unfortunately, "popular" youtube Let's Player, darksydephil (DSP), finds the game terrible (warning: strong language).

Incinermyn

The Abomination Lives!!!

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Posted May 21st, 2016
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I discovered this game by name only on KYM, and gameplay footage from Yammimash's Let's Play video. I try to avoid eye contact when watching the video to prevent myself from getting a heart attack from the animatronics' jump scares. This game has caused me to never look at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant the same way again, seeing as how Five Nights at Freddy's reminds me of. Unfortunately, "popular" youtube Let's Player, darksydephil (DSP), finds the game terrible (warning: strong language).
Oh, yes, I definitely agree with him. However, I have to say that the game itself actually deals more on a psychological level than anything else. The point is to shock, scare, and otherwise traumatize the player (something most horror games don't actually do unless they're done EXTREMELY well). The game does exactly that, though I personally think it would translate better as actual written fiction than in digital media.

Klippy

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I'm too much of a sissy to play horror games. :/ ZombiU was about my limit on horror and it wasn't even as scary as some of these games are purported to be. Much of my fear comes from the inability to move forward when I know scary things will be happening. I didn't even get past ONE door in Amnesia, despite owning it for awhile now.

Aether★

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I like Markiplier videos a lot, I subscribed to him. He's yelling a lot nonsensically sometimes but still I enjoy his videos. Five Nights at Freddy's is truly creepy, it's much worse than SCP Containment Breach, in this game you have completely no idea what's going to happen, Markiplier and Bigbug beaten this game with A.I on the maximum difficulty, yet it took them a lot of hours to achieve it. They both said that even if they master the game perfectly, they still can fail, because of randomness that game can give them at the very end.

I haven't tried that game honestly, and I'm not going to. This is too much, I played SCP Containment Breach and sometimes got jumpscared, but Five Nights at Freddy's makes SCP look like game for little children. You can master SCP and avoid every single one of them with no sweat later, FNaF is unpredictable, that's what makes this game so scary.

Nidoking76

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Posted March 4th, 2015
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I think the worst part of this game is the timing. The jumpscares as well as the intense feeling of dread make you constantly expect this.
Spoiler:

However, I have to just post this on the only Five Nights At Freddy's thread there is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18A5BOTlzE
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El Héroe Oscuro

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Posted August 21st, 2021
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14.3 Years
I think the worst part of this game is the timing. The jumpscares as well as the intense feeling of dread make you constantly expect this.
Spoiler:

However, I have to just post this on the only Five Nights At Freddy's thread there is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18A5BOTlzE
Damn, that song is really good. Mad props to the user who made that.

I was actually a little disappointed in Nights 4 and 5. I wish they had added some kind of new mechanic into those nights, like a new prop that the player had to avoid or something. It would have added a new dynamic to the game instead of an impossibly hard difficulty where the slightest mistake meant your imminent demise.
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Nidoking76

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Damn, that song is really good. Mad props to the user who made that.

I was actually a little disappointed in Nights 4 and 5. I wish they had added some kind of new mechanic into those nights, like a new prop that the player had to avoid or something. It would have added a new dynamic to the game instead of an impossibly hard difficulty where the slightest mistake meant your imminent demise.
Well, I think a boosted difficulty was actually easier to deal with. If they added a new enemy, well, it's hard enough to keep an eye on four animatronics. Get where this is going?
Also, the creator of that song is The Living Tombstone. He makes lots of good fan songs that are mostly about My Little Pony.
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Corvus of the Black Night

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I haven't played the game and I have no interest in doing so (horror isn't my gig) but good god seeing it all over the place reminds me of the real world horrors that happened at my first job - Chuck E. Cheese's.

Sadly, that wasn't due to the animatronics, but rather just lazy coworkers and practically the worst manager ever.

Nidoking76

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I haven't played the game and I have no interest in doing so (horror isn't my gig) but good god seeing it all over the place reminds me of the real world horrors that happened at my first job - Chuck E. Cheese's.

Sadly, that wasn't due to the animatronics, but rather just lazy coworkers and practically the worst manager ever.
Well, as long as the animatronics never came to life and tried to stuff you into a giant bear suit, I'd say it was pretty reasonable.
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El Héroe Oscuro

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Well, I think a boosted difficulty was actually easier to deal with. If they added a new enemy, well, it's hard enough to keep an eye on four animatronics. Get where this is going?
Also, the creator of that song is The Living Tombstone. He makes lots of good fan songs that are mostly about My Little Pony.
I still think I would have preferred that level of difficulty over the current one to be honest. Yes, it may be deemed a little bit more difficult to some, but it adds something fresh and new to the formula instead of the repetitive nonsense that I feel a lot of games fall victim to. It would also add another depth of "fear" to the game because you had never seen this new animatronic before and you (most likely) wouldn't know what it looks like until it was too late.
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Nidoking76

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I still think I would have preferred that level of difficulty over the current one to be honest. Yes, it may be deemed a little bit more difficult to some, but it adds something fresh and new to the formula instead of the repetitive nonsense that I feel a lot of games fall victim to. It would also add another depth of "fear" to the game because you had never seen this new animatronic before and you (most likely) wouldn't know what it looks like until it was too late.
I guess that makes sense. But, I still have to ask one question: where would all the new animatronics come from?
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El Héroe Oscuro

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I guess that makes sense. But, I still have to ask one question: where would all the new animatronics come from?
I know a bunch of Let's Players while playing the game kept saying "he's walking through the kitchen!", so what if on one of the nights - probably 4 or 5 - they decided to add an extra camera and an extra room for that section? Easy peasy lemon squeezy fix I believe.
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Nidoking76

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Posted March 4th, 2015
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I know a bunch of Let's Players while playing the game kept saying "he's walking through the kitchen!", so what if on one of the nights - probably 4 or 5 - they decided to add an extra camera and an extra room for that section? Easy peasy lemon squeezy fix I believe.
Maybe it's just me, but that does seem a bit far fetched.
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El Héroe Oscuro

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Maybe it's just me, but that does seem a bit far fetched.
Adding another camera into a new room? Not really compared to what a lot of other games do.
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Juno

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I'm sure this mostly has to do with the fact that I haven't played it personally, but it doesn't look terribly scary to me. Though I think what makes it so scary to some is, for one, definitely the atmosphere and design of the animatronics (they look quite creepy - there's always something about "cute" things made scary that's incredibly creepy), and also the fact that you have absolutely no means of defending yourself besides that door and light. In most horror games that I know of, you are generally, at the very least, armed with the ability to run for your life even if you can't attack, but you can't even do that here - you are completely helpless in your impending doom as the time ticks by slowly and your battery drains quickly, so I think that feeling of vulnerability is largely what makes it so scary.

Like I said, I haven't played it yet so I can't really judge, but it looks like the gameplay gets repetitive and dull after a while. Not that it's meant to be a long game, anyway, but I mean once you've seen your first few jumpscares and gotten used to looking at these
Spoiler:








The scariness kind of wears off, and then it's just a game about timing and battery preservation. I really like the idea and the atmosphere, and while I know that this game is highly praised for its simplicity, I kind of wish they did a little more with it.

Slightly off topic, but I love the nonchalance of the guy on the phone. :) "Yeah, them creepy bears and such might come to life and try to stuff you in a suit, but there's really nothing to worry about. 'Night!"

Dustmop

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Posted September 7th, 2016
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9.2 Years
I'm sure this mostly has to do with the fact that I haven't played it personally, but it doesn't look terribly scary to me. Though I think what makes it so scary to some is, for one, definitely the atmosphere and design of the animatronics (they look quite creepy - there's always something about "cute" things made scary that's incredibly creepy)
I could not agree with that sentiment more. Dolls, man. ****ing dolls.


and also the fact that you have absolutely no means of defending yourself besides that door and light. In most horror games that I know of, you are generally, at the very least, armed with the ability to run for your life even if you can't attack, but you can't even do that here - you are completely helpless in your impending doom as the time ticks by slowly and your battery drains quickly, so I think that feeling of vulnerability is largely what makes it so scary.
Honestly, that whole "you can't defend yourself" schtick is often more frustrating to me than anything. Especially since that usually means most of the 'scary' bits in the game are just pop-scares. Most games really just don't do it terribly well. Penumbra and Amnesia were the only exceptions for me thus far, and those were still more atmospheric.

While I do have to agree that the concept of the game on its own doesn't seem all that 'scary'.. I'm still interested in this one. FNaF seems to run with that gimmick pretty well.. At least, more-so than some other little Indie 'minimalistic horror' games that got ridiculously popular on The Internet overnight. (I'm looking at you, Slender.)

So yeah, I'm inclined to agree with everyone else that it's likely the atmosphere that makes it scary, but I have yet to play it. $5 on an iffy game is too high for me, but $1.89 for it now that it's been bundled doesn't sound too terrible, lol.

Juno

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$5 on an iffy game is too high for me, but $1.89 for it now that it's been bundled doesn't sound too terrible, lol.
That's what I was thinking too, haha. I love how all these bundles have got us thinking $5 is too much for a game. But yeah, it does seem pretty short and doesn't look like there's a lot of replay value unless you want to get the three stars or something.

Necrum

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The game nurtures a sense of paranoia in the player, and what could be worse than the thing you're paranoid about happening? Personally, I think that the game is brilliant. The phone calls give you just enough story that you have no idea what's happening, but you feel like it has a good reason. But that's assuming you're not thinking about the fact that there are killer robots coming for you! I think a lot of people probably find old animations really creepy. This combined with the new Silent Hill teaser have me really excited about the future of horror, cuz they both rely more on psychological fear rather than jump scares (even though 5NAF does have jump scares, they are only used as a punishment for failure rather than the main source of the fear). Hopefully movies can keep up with the evolving game industry, as horror is very much dieing these days. :(
Well I just played it not too long ago... So I might as well put in my two cents.

What makes the game scary (But keep in mind that this is just my opinion) is the atmosphere. For one thing you have no way of defending yourself or avoiding these anamatronics, other then closing the door if they get too close. That in of itself makes you feel like a sitting duck. And that game makes you feel really paranoid because at any moment you could die if you aren't careful. And that's what makes the game scary. Sure, the jump scares get repetitive, but the game doesn't rely on jump scares. And that's good, because games that rely on jump scares usually aren't that scarey.
Maybe I could be wrong, but that's my perspective.