Why am I scared?

Nidoking76

Not splitting the party
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    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?
     
    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.
     
    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.
     
    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).
     
    Pinkie-Dawn said:
    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).
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    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.
     
    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.
     
    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.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18A5BOTlzE
     
    nidoking76 said:
    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.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18A5BOTlzE
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    elheroeoscuro said:
    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.
    Click to expand...

    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 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.
     
    daigonite said:
    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.
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    nidoking76 said:
    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.
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    elheroeoscuro said:
    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.
    Click to expand...

    I guess that makes sense. But, I still have to ask one question: where would all the new animatronics come from?
     
    nidoking76 said:
    I guess that makes sense. But, I still have to ask one question: where would all the new animatronics come from?
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    elheroeoscuro said:
    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.
    Click to expand...

    Maybe it's just me, but that does seem a bit far fetched.
     
    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!"
     
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