Jimquisition: Scare Tactics

TwistedEllipses

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I'm..I'm...impressed...? is that what this emotion is? I can usually take or leave Jimquisition (mostly leave) but this was really, actually, surprisingly good. Kudos!
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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I'm afraid of Jim doing more videos with his pants off and dry-humping small furry animals. :p
 

AgentLampshade

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Nov 9, 2009
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I'll join the chorus of "Best. Jimquisition. Ever"

That was very nice, even if I did expect a massive screamer halfway through with all the talk of jump-scares.
 

Tradjus

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Apr 25, 2011
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I don't agree with Jim's points here.
I never once felt scared playing Dead Space 1 or 2. I was certainly startled very momentarily a few times, but that's not real fear, paranoia, and dread of the kind that the Survival Horror Titans like Silent Hill 2 can conjure.
As for Doom 3, the utter predictability of the monster spawns deflated any hope the game might have had to scare you, you could always tell, -always- and it wasn't scary, it just became a chore after a while.
That's the real heart of this whole thing, when you play a Survival Horror game, you want to feel the emotions associated with horror, not check off "Scripted Sequence #557" on your list as you trudge through a fake plastic Haunted House without a single genuine feeling of terror that lasts more than .5 seconds under your belt the entire time.
 

Beryl77

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I don't fully agree. I don't mind the occasional jump scare and Dead Space did a pretty good job in setting the right atmosphere but there is just too much there. The beginning was very scary but I quickly got used to it and expected the jump scares. IMO, Amnesia is still far superior. The suspense of knowing something is there but I don't know what it is and when it will attack is much more scary for me, than a body with claws and teeth attached to it, attacking me. Especially if I have really strong weapons which can easily dismember them and they should be more afraid of me.
I don't think most people don't like jump scares, it's just that when it's the only thing that's supposed to scare you in a game and when it's overused, it won't really work.
Pyramid Head is a good example of how it done well but the scary part about him isn't the jump scare. The monster in Amnesia is also very good example of that. Dead Space only at the beginning I'd say.
 

loc978

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Sep 18, 2010
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First off, thank you for not resorting to an ear-raping volume hike anywhere in that video (unlike Spoony, the magnificent rat bastard).

As for the rest of it... this is pretty much why I require any form of horror to also be a comedy. Jump scares barely work on me, and atmospheric scares tend to bore me. I don't consider myself highbrow for that, just incredibly jaded.

...which is why the only horror series I love is Evil Dead... because it's hilarious.
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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My problem with Dead Space was . . . okay, yes, I am annoyed by its constant reliance on jump scares, I'll give you that Jim. Okay, fine, so a jump scare isn't by itself bad.
But Dead Space still isn't something to praise because it's jump scares were predictable. The parameters under which the jump scares were programmed to occur was too damn easy to figure out and once I figured it out, I found I could walk down most of the halls perfectly calm because I knew nothing was going to come out and when they finally did come out, I could see them long before they did, so there was no tension.
 

carpathic

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Oct 5, 2009
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Jim,

You have the best toys.

And I mean that.

A pretty good costume, let us be clear. Not as good as the huge purple dildo sword, but still good!
 

Roman Monaghan

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Nov 20, 2010
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I like how even in the episode defending Jump Scares, he kinda admits that jump scares aren't scarey. His entire argument was that when a jump scare happens, suddenly the time where there aren't any baddies trying to eat your face becomes the scariest part of the game. The anticipation of something scarey happening is far, far more effective then anything the game could throw at you. No one says jump scares are bad on their own merit, it's just that over reliance on them becomes tedious and lame. It's far more effective to only use them once or twice, because then you're constantly on edge the entire rest of the game dreading an experience that probably will never happen again; far better at getting under your skin then just running in the room and punching you in the balls.

Jump scares aren't scarey. They're startling. But startling someone once and then putting them in an environment where it might happen again but never does can lead to real teeth gritting horror.
 

Mortamus

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May 18, 2012
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Those familiar with the discussions at the Expo may understand when I say that it feels like this might have been Jim's response in a debate with Yahtzee as to why horror games are bad now.

In all honesty, jump scares are best at making a person want to scream like a child. I can't deny that about Dead Space or Doom 3. However, Dead Space 2 was just annoying with it due to the fact that EVERY room you entered had them show up. That build up was gone.
 

Rad Party God

Party like it's 2010!
Feb 23, 2010
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Psychonauts Kinect... that would make me completely lose faith in humanity (I still have a little scrap of hope for it).

As for scary games, well, I'm a nerve wreck and although I'm not a fan of Doom 3, I must admit it did have lots of effective, although cheap scares. I also liked Dead Space.

Thief is another great game with horror elements, kinda like Amnesia, you have to hide to avoid combat, but unlike Amnesia, you can defend yourself, but it's a very ineffective way to dispatch guards and monsters are even harder to kill. Not known as a horror game, but it definitely can get quite scary sometimes, especially Thief 3.

Also Stalker and it's randomness of creepy-as-shit monsters can make (almost) anyone jump out of their seat.
 

Azuaron

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My problem with jump scares is that they're usually scripted events and, honestly, I die a lot in games. Not because I'm bad, but because I try to find/do everything and, well okay, my resource management is pretty bad.

So the second time (and third and fourth and...) I'm walking up a flight of stairs and the same demon tries to grab my legs, it's not scary, it's just tedious.
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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Sep 4, 2009
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Aliens Vs Predator 2000 was the BEST for scary mouse throwing pants peeing moments.

Well worth $5 if you haven't played it yet http://store.steampowered.com/app/3730/

The engine was written from the ground up to capture the feel of the movies and it pulled it off perfectly.

Also the game had no static spawns except for a very few "boss" fights, and almost no static lighting, all of which could be destroyed.

By a few marine plays through you started tossing grenades at your feet whenever you heard the click-click-click of a face hugger scuttling around because getting killed by one was the best jump scare in any game.

Honorable mention goes to STALKER SoC for the underground levels. No scarier moment than when
the controller first attacks and the camera zooms in on his face
 

lancar

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Aug 11, 2009
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I never play horror games, jump scares or no, because I don't like being frightened. That people actually play these things willingly has always puzzled me.

While I get the point about jump scares.... There's nothing inherently wrong about them, but no matter what Jim says about em, they're always the lowest form of horror. Even if you can make them more effective with extra care, they're still the easiest to pull off by their very nature, and thus: the cheapest.
 

inkheart_artist

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Jan 22, 2009
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Dead Space? Pacing? You lost me, that game bored the hell out of me and I really didn't get a feel of pacing in it. I ended that game feeling like a janitor tasked with cleaning out a spaceship of monsters and that killing monsters was just as boring and mundane a job as mopping. Shoot the legs, shoot the arms, rinse, repeat.
 

Darth_Payn

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Aug 5, 2009
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So, long story short, the key to an effective scary game is the right amounts of atmosphere and pacing. As you play, you just know something scary is about to happen; it's just a matter of when. I haven't played any Silent Hill games (I know, shame on me), but they nailed it.
I also like scary moments in games that don't fit in to the horror genre. Examples: Ravenholme and the Headcrab zombies from Half-Life 2, and the Cyber-ninja carving up a hallway full of Genome Soldiers and any bit with Psycho-Mantis from Metal Gear Solid.
What about the rest of you guys, any moments like that you can recall?
 

The Lugz

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Apr 23, 2011
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i think the real issue here is that jump scares have their place in horror, but they do not define the concept of horror

horror is, at it's core psychological torture

once you realize this, you understand that the 'jump scare' is simply one tool in the horror scare box

used at the right time it could be devastating, used poorly and repetitively? not a chance
in my opinion a truly first class game will use the jump scare every 3-4 hours
and use it so well you wet your pants
and use it someplace that is not the obvious 'jump scare point'
instead of opening a locker and seeing goo drip out, have a creeking noise follow you then a ceiling panel drop on your head and knock you down and a big ass thing standing on you
as far as the player is concerned.. any ceiling panel is now a threat but what are you going to do? avoid the roof? no. you're going to realize bad stuff is after you and if you don't play well it might overwhelm you
'creaking noise' 'looks at ceiling' 'nothing happens' 'player waits a minute' 'nothing happens'
GOD DAMN YOU DROP!!!!!
^ psychological horror.

if every door you open has a zombie behind it screaming at you, it quickly stops being scary and starts to become boring routine and annoying unimaginative padding
a game cannot exist entirely on the jump scare

that would be like trying to bake a cake entirely consisting of Cherry's
you might well end up with something hot that is cake shaped,
but it would be abusing the medium and not produce something worth having
( a sticky sickly mess. )

if you use all the established elements of horror, or cake making you have a far better chance of producing a quality scare or tasty treat


Bottom line: the jump-scare is the cherry of horror, use it wisely and nobody complains
( even if they don't like Cherry's, 95% of the cake is not a cherry. )
Edit:
[sub][sub] The other 95% is a lie, if you're keeping score. now i feel meme dirty :( [/sub][/sub]
 

Orinon

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Jan 24, 2010
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Personally I don't see why people think no jump scares is a good thing, to a point they're almost necessary,
let me give an example of a rare occasion, I was playing Bioshock, good game pretty scary, and they're came a point where i was in a tiny room and tense music was playing, I had an image of Raving insane Psychopaths outside the room trying to find me, Now I believe i had a glitch going on that was making the music still play even though the splicers were gone because i was in there for a while, however my brother, decided to play a prank, he opened the door very quietly and said
"Hello Beautiful" in a creepy voice, that scared me, not in a screaming manner but i was seriously scared. now this was all a rare coincidence however it was a very scary moment it showed how a game can scare you by keeping you on the edge of your seat thinking you will die, but there's a major catch, you need to have a release, a payoff after this tension. if that music had kept playing and I had not surprise eventually I would have realized it was a glitch, and just gone out, in that instance even if there were monsters it's wouldn't scare me because the tension had gone out, imagine a tight cord on a bowstring being pulled back, as you pull back the cord, it gets more and more tense, there's a continuing thought, when is it going to snap? when will the arrow be released, if the bow is held taught for a while it will build tension, you know it's won't hold, its got to snap, this causes little panic, you need to release that arrow though, and you need to do it at the right moment.
If you don't have a release a jump-out scare to release the tension you lose all chances of being scary, you also can at times use a surprise without scary pacing.
I once want into a haunted house sort of building at first i was all cocky and brave laughing as we saw skeletons and such this was lulling a false sense of security I was expecting a lame jump out scare and static scenery. then at a door a loud noise sacred me and everyone else, a voice told us to come closer.
now I'm going to try to analyse how this scared us so well.
1. the door we were to enter was dark. they essentially removed light after this scare before this we had some light to see where we were going.
2. The scares, used tactics, they'd trick many into thinking they were someone they knew, the classic who;s holding my hand, and when this is discovered it give a monetary scare, and also makes it scary because you don't know who is really close. separating you and removing the group safety.
3. the Cheesy and lit area at the beginning created false expectations, you assume you'll be able to see and predict when a scare might come out. this meant when we saw the dark doorway in my head I wasn't expecting anything odd because before I could see anything that I assumed was supposed to scare me.

SO a pop out scare works, the only real problem is knowing how to do it correctly, as such I'm going to make some plans on Halloween.