Jimquisition: Scare Tactics

[lead sharp]

It's about bloody time some one spoke out for jump scares! I'm a horror fan and I've seen good and bad. The Asian Shutter has GREAT ones in it and then there's everything after the first Paranormal Activity which just re-treads old ground. But they all get lumped together.

Game wise one of the scariest moments actually happened recently during Dishonoured, just before I went into the sewers to get back to the Hound Pits I had to break down some boards to go through a corridor or two. I could hear the weapers but not see them, that was unnerving. Checking all the way I got to the room with the sewer hatch all was silent, I turn around and there were four or five weapers doing a conga straight up behind me, I actually screamed like a girl. That was an effective jump scare and it was all the result of a bit of smart AI just happened to do the right thing at the right time in a game that isn't really a horror game.

 

[csoloist]

Couldn't disagree more on Doom-3 and Dead Space.

Dead Space was *meh* because it telegraphed pretty much every single encounter in the entire game.

Doom 3 gets shat on because it's, y'know DOOM 3. Long overdue return of one of the most seminal franchises in videogame history. Trouble is it wasn't anywhere near as good as Doom, or even Doom 2.

 

[HalfTangible]

Does anybody know which Jimquisition begins with Jim listening to his own self-help tape? I'm trying to find that one =/

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Not doing what you want it to do is not the same thing as not doing what it was supposed to be doing. It wanted to be horror. It achieved it. It was a good game.

What I want it to do? I think you misunderstand me, old boy.

I'm talking about general genre and franchise expectations. Would you play Halo if 343 decided that jumping on colorful platforms to get gold coins was the way to go? Even if it was a good platformer?

This is exactly what happened to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Rare wanted to make something different and I respect that completely. However, instead of injecting their ideas into a new franchise, they decided to inject it into Banjo Kazooie. A game that was not about vehicles at all. So, when it finally came out, everyone was very turned off, expecting another romp through huge imaginative worlds but instead, they got a bunch of vehicle challenges in vaguely different looking mechanical worlds.

DISCLAIMER: I LOVED the vehicle building in BK:N&B. The core of the game was absolutely great. The rest of it, however, was lacking badly. And also, once again. Doom 3 wasn't a terrible game at all. Presentation of it all was great and the weapons were nice and beefy. Monsters were done well, etc. The constant annoying darkness and the horror though was what brought it down.

 

[Nazulu]

the dark and jump scares usually work on me. I never heard of any one calling it cheap though. Guess I can understand why, since after being jumped out so much in Doom 3, it just wasn't as effective later in the game.

The unknown scares me a lot more. Like the Blair Witch Project, it took me awhile to get over. So it's understandable why people prefer to inspire that which I also think is more creative.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

Would you play Halo if 343 decided that jumping on colorful platforms to get gold coins was the way to go? Even if it was a good platformer?

Yes I would. I like platformers, and frankly, that'd appeal to me more than a Halo FPS, because the Halo series is something I've been unable to get into yet.

Hell, just look at Metroid Prime. A Metroid FPS? TRAVERSTY! Except it's beloved. It's all about the quality, at the end of the day. Not your expectations of static genres.

This is exactly what happened to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Rare wanted to make something different and I respect that completely. However, instead of injecting their ideas into a new franchise, they decided to inject it into Banjo Kazooie. A game that was not about vehicles at all. So, when it finally came out, everyone was very turned off, expecting another romp through huge imaginative worlds but instead, they got a bunch of vehicle challenges in vaguely different looking mechanical worlds.

But by all accounts, it was a good game. In fact ...

DISCLAIMER: I LOVED the vehicle building in BK:N&B. The core of the game was absolutely great. The rest of it, however, was lacking badly.

There we go. You LOVED the new changes, but the game failed you because you didn't enjoy the rest of it. But that was because you found it lacking, NOT because the changes ... which were the only bits you enjoyed.

And also, once again. Doom 3 wasn't a terrible game at all. Presentation of it all was great and the weapons were nice and beefy. Monsters were done well, etc. The constant annoying darkness and the horror though was what brought it down.

And again, you're pointing to matters of taste, not matters of the game failing on any technical level. The game did not fail because it was a horror game, it failed because you didn't appreciate its kind of horror and the dark palette. Meanwhile, I did, and feel it was a great success.

If you disliked Doom 3, that's perfectly fine, but you're applying a level of objective standards to it that it had no intention of applying to itself.

 

[Jamiethejedi]

"...he's scarier without the...WAAAAAAAAA"

lmfao

 

[Jamiethejedi]

"...he's scarier without the...WAAAAAAAAA"

lmfao

 

[Mikodite]

Definitely, Doom 3 is the only game that ever made me shit my pants. (For the record I was holding one in while I was playing Doom 3 but still)

I don't even think the Jump scares need that tense of a set up.

I still have fond repressed memories of Youtube or Newgrounds videos that say "Cool Optical Illusion" then 30 seconds in BAM! scary face... or alternately pancake face, which is equally as scary.

There's no build up, no tension and to me that makes it even scarier.

Thus why jumps scares are 'lazy.' Jim overestimates the amount of work required to pull off a proper jump scare. A jump scare is literally a monster jumping out of a closet screaming "Abloogie oogie whoo" and that is all it is, and they can do the job without any real buildup at all.

Something I want to add to this conversation is that most of us confuse 'being scared' with 'being startled.'

Being scared is walking down a dark alleyway knowing there is a strong change that you will be jumped on. Its being in a bad situation and not knowing if you will make it out in good standing - or even alive. Its having to make an important discussion that is make or break, knowing that a 'break' might not be something you can recover from.

Being startled is when your concentrating on doing homework in the school library when someone taps your shoulder. Or when a cat jumps off the road because a loud shiny demon roared by very fast.

The term 'jump-scare' or 'pop-up scare' are misleading as, even when done properly, they don't really scare you, they startle you. The difference in terminology is important.

 

[La Barata]

I gotta say, I've never flat out disagreed with Jim before.

I can understand where he's coming from, but I really can't say that the points he makes can outweigh the cons of jump scares.

 

[CleverCover]

The jump scare does work, but only when you don't really know it's coming or after a long period of waiting for it to come.

It worked in RE4 when the zombie of fire bursts out of the locker and made me wet myself, but the moment in the hospital with the doctor in bioshock scared me more because I was expecting something, end up building the moment up to epic proportions, get frightened of the goddamn shadows, and end up screaming and scaring everyone around me because I turned around and saw a body locked in a reaching out position going towards me.

A really great scary game has both...which is probably why Amnesia is so awesome...

 

[Zydrate]

My problem with jump scares is that they get very old very quickly. After the first few, the sting wares off.

The movie "Obsessed" employed them very badly. The woman was looking for the killer in the attic and the music gave us a spike several times. By the time the killer actually popped out, it didn't scare me. I was bored.

 

[Aeonknight]

I see a common criticism for dead space being that because you could fight back, it took away the edge because they weren't a threat.

To that I answer:

Play it on a harder difficulty then.

You'll definately raise the tension a bit when you're running around the room desperately searching for anything you can possibly throw at the enemy to kill it, cause you're bone dry on ammo.

 

[Iron Criterion]

Good horror will utilize both. Dead Space was about as scary as a week old kitten because it only had one move. Out of the entire game I can only think of one moment which actually scared me; the Invulnerable Necromorph hunting throughout one level. Though on one of the later levels you could hear a weird cult-like chanting noise, which was creepy.

Whereas Silent Hill 2 built up an effective atmosphere using its soundtrack and unsettling imagery; only sparingly using jump scares. And I guarantee they got me, every single time. Because the jump scares were uncommon, there were moments when I was absolutely terrified that something was going to jump out on me, even if it never actually occurred; the Historical Society section being a prime example.

Compare the two games, and you'll see that the scares in Dead Space are mostly cheap and ineffective, whereas Silent Hill 2 consistently hits.

 

[Boba Frag]

While I am a giant pansy and have only played Alan Wake, which many will flame me for referring to as a horror (I know, I'm slowly psyching myself up for Silent Hill 2... I just have to go into the attic to look for the PS2....), I'm finding myself drawn towards the genre lately.

Jim, I absolutely LOVED this episode!! You've outdone yourself! I sincerely hope you see this comment and consider doing something like this every Halloween- I'm just annoyed that I didn't see it last week on Halloween itself!

Loved the cues you took from Arkham Asylum- indeed those are my favourite sequences from that game. Shame there's only a handful of them.

I digress- I think Jonathan Crane needs to return to the Jimquisition next year, and basically freak us out again.

Well done on the costuming and the creepy Sam Raimi camera work at the start!!

 

[CyberEagle1x]

what was the game at 2.00?