Critical Miss: Telegraphing
- Thread starter The Wooster
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Monsters aren't scary because they can't hurt you. If they jump out they can startle you but that's a poor excuse for a horror game. If you want scares you need to telegraph monsters arrival. What messes it up is playing the same note over and over until it becomes rote.
OMGZ DID YOU EVEN PLAY DED SPAZE!?!? ISACC WOULD NEVAR SHOOTS THEM IN DA BALLZ IT DOSE NO DAMAGE AND WAZTES AMMO!
xD But i do have to agree, the music, dramatic sounds, and following necromorph attack does get you into a bit of a loop.
You can almost always guess when you need to back into a corner and cower for your life.
xD But i do have to agree, the music, dramatic sounds, and following necromorph attack does get you into a bit of a loop.
You can almost always guess when you need to back into a corner and cower for your life.
i really liked this one! ive only ever watched ppl play horror games cause i get REALLY INTO EM.
PS. i also loved how the aimer was positioned on one of the necromorphes dick.
PS. i also loved how the aimer was positioned on one of the necromorphes dick.
Homerun on that this one XD
i've always thought Silent Hill 1 did it best with the radio static. Almost no music and just an eerie static noise when monsters are near. Also the fact you only had a lead pipe and maybe a kitchen knife helped with the dread.
The second you get the means to dispatch you're enemy efficiently it ceases to be scary telegraphing or not
i've always thought Silent Hill 1 did it best with the radio static. Almost no music and just an eerie static noise when monsters are near. Also the fact you only had a lead pipe and maybe a kitchen knife helped with the dread.
right at the beginning. when you're helpless and frantic
The second you get the means to dispatch you're enemy efficiently it ceases to be scary telegraphing or not
I would call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more profanity laden frustration than anything that might be either terror or horror. When some soldier NPC ganks you for the umpteenth time because even though you have the same or better quality gun and armor than they do, they have a magic accuracy canceling button, I think I am perfectly within my rights to say "fuck this game" after about 50th separate time this happened.The_ModeRazor said:
Good thing I played a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R then. Was it Clear Sky? I didn't have that problem in SoC, and I didn't have it in CoP. Clear Sky I never played.matrix3509 said:
I was actually always kinda relieved when having to fight humans, 'cause I'm a far better shot than the AI, and because at least I get some loot out of them
I remember a similar gag in a comedy film with Leslie Nielsen and that means Isaac Clarke looks like Leslie Nielsen under his helmet. FULL CANON ACTIVATE.
This webcomic seems to be rapidly turning into an unrelated parody series. It feels like it's been a long time since we've had any continuity from Erin's job as a reviewer, it just seems to be spin-off after spin-off.
...Which isn't entirely a bad thing. They're pretty funny, i really liked the Bioshock reference in the previous comic, and this one has some truth to it.
Although i think the music is really there to startle you and make you panic, as opposed to setting a creepy atmosphere. When monsters jump out, it's normally a loud obnoxious shriek that makes you jump or give you less than perfect aim because it's distracting and makes you panic. The comic kind of implies that you start hearing a riverdance song or something each time you get attacked.
...Which isn't entirely a bad thing. They're pretty funny, i really liked the Bioshock reference in the previous comic, and this one has some truth to it.
Although i think the music is really there to startle you and make you panic, as opposed to setting a creepy atmosphere. When monsters jump out, it's normally a loud obnoxious shriek that makes you jump or give you less than perfect aim because it's distracting and makes you panic. The comic kind of implies that you start hearing a riverdance song or something each time you get attacked.
While I agree in part with your post, I would not go so far as to say something this extreme. At every moment a player is at the mercy of the mechanical systems of the game. Murdering a player in an instant is trivial. Giving them an impossible task is the easiest of all possible tasks. Presenting an enemy that is impossible to beat is easier than producing one with any semblance of weakness. But these things are not exactly fun.Therumancer said:
A player who is killed by a trap or ambush in a single player game should feel chastised for not noticing the signs telling them of the doom that lay ahead. In some way, every danger significant enough to really harm the player ought to be telegraphed in some fashion. This could be as simple as revealing the surprise just a little bit too soon (thus giving them time to react), it could be with music or audio, it could be some small graphical detail. While I agree that the "dynamic music" of Dead Space 2 (Remember when that was a new feature in games?!) makes it just a little too obvious, it performs it's function just fine.
So, while I agree that few games really try to be scary (and that the level of information given to a player regarding their environment and dangers lurking therein is a big part of this), I tend to think that instances where a danger is not telegraphed ought to be the rare exception rather than the rule.
No it was SoC. Trying to use the ironsights was an exercise in futility for me. I actually enjoyed fighting non-humans because it was a challenge without resorting to outright bullshit. After a while of fighting human stalkers and military types, I started to suspect that the firearm mechanics were ruled by some sort of sadistic random number generator.The_ModeRazor said:Good thing I played a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R then. Was it Clear Sky? I didn't have that problem in SoC, and I didn't have it in CoP. Clear Sky I never played.matrix3509 said:
I was actually always kinda relieved when having to fight humans, 'cause I'm a far better shot than the AI, and because at least I get some loot out of them