Five Nights at Freddy's and the Nature of the Jumpscare

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Five Nights at Freddy's and the Nature of the Jumpscare

Yahtzee takes a moment to explain the jumpscare and how anticipation is more his enemy than the actual scare itself.

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[Evonisia]

I think that's a fair argument, and if I'll be honest some of the stuff to do with the story in FNaF is only stuff you can put together from trial and error or if you go back and look at each detail carefully (probably in a YouTube video). That's not usually a problem, but quite a bunch of lore in FNaF can only be deduced after the fact. And the story suffers because of the abysmal horror logic of the premise (as unique as it is), all the interesting lore built on a foundation of failure.

Take this for example, crap as it may be:

Spoiler

A nice theory for the way the Phone Guy gets defeated (I'm on the fence about whether he's dead or not) is that all of the animatronics joined together to break in. You hear Golden Freddy's kill noise, Freddy's signature jingle, Chica's weird groaning sounds, Foxy's door banging and so on. That's cool and all, but you wouldn't even be able to tell without failing at the game so hard. Foxy can be held at bay, Golden Freddy only shows up if you fuck up in a trial and error showcase, Freddy only shows up if you run out of power (until Night 3 or 4, admittedly) and you can barely hear Chica on the final recording by Phone Guy.

It's cool in retrospect, but when you first experience it you could very well assume that the door was being banged by any of the animatronics and only one actually got him.

 

[Pescetarian]

Wow, you can't be pleased w/ anything, can you Yahtzee? You really think you can't induce horror on someone when they're stuck in one room? Yeah I'm done going to Yahtzee for opinions on any horror that isn't part of AAA gaming.

You didn't read what he wrote, did you? His issue wasn't that the game took place in a single room, it's that it was all jump scares and nothing else. There are lots more ways to do horror in a single room (Saw, anyone?) than just creepy monsters going "abloogy woogy woo".

Also, yaaaaay, Yahtzee likes Half in the Bag too.

 

[CaitSeith]

"Give me a call when they add the option to run down the corridor braining things with a hockey stick."

Ironic closing statement from someone whose favorite horror games sometimes don't have any weapons.

 

[Shannon Spencer Fox]

I do find it interesting that Yahtzee came up with the same 'solution' to the game's main problem that I did: the ability to actually move around and explore the restaurant would've helped the game immensely, either to just simply explore (and find some of the vaunted story elements people have mentioned, rather than just happen across them at the right moment) or to fix an issue caused by Freddy and his friends (such as fixing a sabotaged cameras, getting gas for a generator to get more power, and so on).

Of course, we technically did get that in the form of Alien: Isolation, so there you go. Perhaps you could say it's a matter of scale, given that FNaF's was done by one person and all.

Still, I've never personally understood the appeal of the game; I've seen several playthroughs of it by other people, and it's looked incredibly boring to me, jump-scares aside. Admittedly the lore is rather interesting (especially MatPat from Game Theorist's two videos on the subject that were excellent), but the game itself... eh.

(On a related note, I'm personally hoping Yahtzee takes a crack at the older-style horror-themed adventure game The Last Door myself.)

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

As somebody who has struggled with internet "screamers" (do we still call them that?) from a very young age, the very nature of Five Nights at Freddy's should be a game that I shouldn't attempt to come near with a ten-foot pole. Yet as I say this, I am looking at both currently-available games sitting in my Steam library. Having attempted to play the game quite a few times, I fall along the lines of what Yahtzee is talking about here: the game handles anticipation and paranoia almost too well.

The entire time you are playing the game, you know what is going to come. Every audio cue and quirk that comes causes me to jump, so much so that I never even made it to the "real" jumpscares that come when you lose. That being said, I still find myself deeply enthralled with the game's simplistic premise and all-too-familiar setting (I used to work at a Chuck E' Cheese). While I may not find the game all that enjoyable to play, I can't very well seem to tear myself away from the story that the game has developed for itself.

Jumpscares have always been a problem with me, as I was exposed to the now internet-famous "Blue Maze" game when I was in around the 5th grade or so. I've struggled with nightmares regarding these moments in the past. Five Nights at Freddy's wants to scare me so badly and it succeeds to a great degree, but Yahtzee does have a sort of point...it is little more than a jumpscare waiting to happen.

 

[Elijah Newton]

I like the links made between horror and comedy. The observation I've been intrigued by is short fiction horror relies on punch lines just like longer form jokes. Good horror also builds on itself like callbacks in a comedy routine. I'm curious if the 'rule of three' works in horror, too. I suspect it does, or has an analog.

 

[warmachine]

The anticipation by FNAF would really irritate me for a different reason. If I think something bad is going to happen to me, I ask the following questions. Can I find a way to block it? Can I find a way to destroy or disable it? Can I find a position where I have sufficient warning and a reliable escape route? If the answer to all three is no, the correction action is to realise no consequences are worse than being killed and walk away. I would spend FNAF constantly thinking "Quit the job now, you idiot!"

 

[Bindal]

I think that's a fair argument, and if I'll be honest some of the stuff to do with the story in FNaF is only stuff you can put together from trial and error or if you go back and look at each detail carefully (probably in a YouTube video). That's not usually a problem, but quite a bunch of lore in FNaF can only be deduced after the fact. And the story suffers because of the abysmal horror logic of the premise (as unique as it is), all the interesting lore built on a foundation of failure.

Take this for example, crap as it may be:

Spoiler

A nice theory for the way the Phone Guy gets defeated (I'm on the fence about whether he's dead or not) is that all of the animatronics joined together to break in. You hear Golden Freddy's kill noise, Freddy's signature jingle, Chica's weird groaning sounds, Foxy's door banging and so on. That's cool and all, but you wouldn't even be able to tell without failing at the game so hard. Foxy can be held at bay, Golden Freddy only shows up if you fuck up in a trial and error showcase, Freddy only shows up if you run out of power (until Night 3 or 4, admittedly) and you can barely hear Chica on the final recording by Phone Guy.

It's cool in retrospect, but when you first experience it you could very well assume that the door was being banged by any of the animatronics and only one actually got him.

Well, that's only example where that "after the fact"-thing applies to something you see or hear in the game. The lions share of the lore is told by the phone guy when you survive (mostly in the sequel) and via what you see in the cameras (e.g. the very first mentioning of the 'missing children' incident). The sequel also adds a few "death mini-games" which you see by chance when you did die - but that's also a bit of a different thing.

Game Theory made two videos about disecting the lore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_LYe97ZVc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1kw1RmzrPc
(First video was made before the second game was released and hence uses guesses on things proven wrong since then)

The anticipation by FNAF would really irritate me for a different reason. If I think something bad is going to happen to me, I ask the following questions. Can I find a way to block it? Can I find a way to destroy or disable it? Can I find a position where I have sufficient warning and a reliable escape route? If the answer to all three is no, the correction action is to realise no consequences are worse than being killed and walk away. I would spend FNAF constantly thinking "Quit the job now, you idiot!"

The answer is indeed no to all three - or at least two of them. "Blocking" is kind of the whole game-mechanic - but you can only do it almost immidiately, while simultaniously dealing with a DIFFERENT thing. In the first game you need to conserve power while USING said power to find out when to close the doors in the first place, which itself also consumes power. The sequel has you regularly go into the cams to wind up a music box - while the only way of defense is to NOT be in the cameras and wear a Helmet which prevents you from winding up the music box or fight off Foxy (which requires the usage of your flashlight which, again, can't be used while wearing the helmet).

And yes, a lot of people asked why the main characters don't just quit their jobs - but there probably ia a reason for that. Theories even include "they actually enjoy it" (especially for the first game!)

 

[joecool5000]

He referenced RedLetterMedia!
It's the best feeling when one of my favorite Internet entities mentions another one.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm with The Horror Master on this one.

Yahtzee worded it similarly - "fart joke" instead of "laugh line" - but it really boils down to the same thing. All jumpscares and nothing else screws up any notion of timing.

 

[hentropy]

Jumpscares are more or less the reason I got out of the horror genre almost altogether. I have a very sour attitude toward the genre in general because of it. Not because jumpscares put me through the roof, but because they're just not that entertaining. They're like explosions in Michael Bay movies after a while. Formulaic and lifeless. The "good" horror movies that people tell me to see before judging the entire genre just tend to be super meta (like Cabin in the Woods) and the rest just do jumpscares with a bit more artistry and story.

Things like body horror and gore I can stand. Probably the best thing I have consumed that can be considered "horror" is Saya no Uta, both its ability to gain new and interesting perspectives on insanity along with being made horrified/uncomfortable by what is going on.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I still don't quite get why Yahtzee is complaining about the anticipation in this game when he praised Amnesia for relying on anticipation over cheap surprises. And now here he's saying that cheap surprises are better? Hell, the gameplay in Freddy's reminded me of nothing so much as Papers, Please, where you're stuck in one place and trying to operate equipment as quickly as possible, constantly afraid of what will happen if you screw up.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I'm with Yahtzee on this one. Jumps scares are good when used right, but after a while they get tiring. Wears you out and eventually it comes down to, "Is this all there is?"

I like my horror to be more than just, "Boo!" on the rare occasions of my wanting horror at all. I fall into the camp of you being your own worst enemy when it comes to horror. The small noises playing tricks on you, the sense of dread that slowly builds in the back of your mind, that feeling of terror as you walk down a hallway and even your own footsteps unnerve you. It's a buildup, but it's a different type of buildup than a jump scare build up.

 

[Mike Fang]

I can't resist pointing this out: it's funny how Yahtzee previously said that taking combat out of a horror game or making it difficult or a last restort kind of measure improves it, and now here he is lamenting it's not in FNAF. That said, I have to agree with him about FNAF and on jump scares. Jump scares are fine as a tool to keep the audience on edge, but too much of that sort of thing and it becomes tiresomely predictable and the audience gets burned out on it. It doesn't register as much on an emotional level either; it's a fast moment of shock, like getting thumped on the knee with the rubber mallet at the doctor's office, and just like that, it's a purely involuntary reaction. Some folks may enjoy that partiular brand of scare. Me, I find the lurking fear (no pun intended) of not being sure of what's around the corner over knowing something's going to happen and it's only a matter of time. Eventually you get burned out with having images thrust in your face and loud, grating shrieks blasted at your ears. Eventually fear gives way to frustration, and your shouts are less in terror and more in anger.

And, as Yahtzee said, the excessively passive nature of your role in the game is frustrating. Being able to at least try to defend yourself in a game is always appreciated, but even if it's not an option, being able to explore at least makes you feel proactive. It would also give you the option of being able to hide. How much more interesting would FNAF be if the player could venture out into the hallways and rooms, hide under tables and behind fixtures to try and avoid the robots? It would at least give you an option besides just sitting with your thumb up your ass when your power runs out. Plus it would spice things up by allowing players to listen for approaching robots, then duck into a hiding space and wait, listening, and hoping they'd pass them by, maybe peeking out to see if they're thare, but if the robots catch even the slightest sight of the player or sense movement, they rush them and drag them out of their hidey hole.

Maybe they'll try something like that in FNAF 3. Frankly, though, even if they did, I wouldn't feel right about jumping into a series without playing the back games, and at this point, I'm really not relishing the thought of trying to finish the first one or even making an effort at the 2nd.

 

[Thanatos2k]

I just don't understand you, Yahtzee. You hate jumpscares you can see coming but are completely fine with random ones you don't? I feel COMPLETELY the opposite. "Random" jumpscares are the absolute worst a horror movie or game can use as horror because it's not horror at all, just exploiting unavoidable human reaction.

Anticipation is the BEST horror that horror can produce. Tension and a creeping sense of dread is exactly the emotion horror sets out to evoke. FNAF's model is that you know exactly what will happen should you fail - a jumpscare and a Game Over. You obviously want to avoid this, and have the tools at your disposal to do it, if you'd only pay attention to everything. And the more you pay attention, the more the game requires you to pay attention by ratcheting up the difficulty, the more tense you get. Your reward is the exhalation and relief you get when you succeed, like beating a boss in Dark Souls after chipping away at them between blocks for 20 minutes. Fun? No. Satisfying? Yes. I think you're focusing too much on the jump scare aspect. It would be pretty much the same if there was no jumpscare, the game was made of giant squares and circles you had to constantly monitor, and it just cut to the Game Over screen. You fear FAILURE, not the jump scare. The freaky imagery and concept just add to it.

I don't think horror is supposed to be "fun." Fun horror is the equivalent of the popcorn horror flick - you squeal and hug the person next to you, then laugh about it later.

Real horror is not fun. Real horror sticks with you. It makes you think while you're laying in bed later after the movie is over.

FNAF is one of the ones that stuck with me, both the concept and the execution. It's extremely effective, in a way that garbage like Paranormal Activity is not. I think Yahtzee just likes what he likes, but he can't adequately explain why, given his views on this conflict with earlier stated opinions on other things.

But ten thousand points for mentioning Redlettermedia though, the smartest comedy and best review show on the entire internet.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Plus it's funny that people have been saying for years "Stop giving so many weapons, stop making the player able to beat everything, horror is better the more helpless the character is!" at games like Dead Space and you get a game where the character is completely helpless and the same people are like "That's too helpless! I want to be able to fight back and run around!"