Jimquisition: Scare Tactics

La Barata

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Apr 13, 2010
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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

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Nov 17, 2010
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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... :D
 

Zydrate

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Apr 1, 2009
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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

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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

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Feb 4, 2009
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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

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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!!