Zero Punctuation: Five Nights at Freddys and This War of Mine

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Five Nights at Freddys and This War of Mine

This week, Zero Punctuation takes on indies Five Nights at Freddys and This War of Mine.

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[CelestDaer]

So, Yatzhee's part of team Hollywood now?

 

[fwddgs]

*ahem*
Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able *bounces along*

 

[Toblo1]

So FNAF is good, but not for you, Yahtzee? Makes sense......
Also, we seem to have the same philosophy when it comes to jump-scares in horror games: wanting the option to either fight back or run like hell from them.

A good and funny review, nonetheless.

Mental note: Find a way to use the phrase "Biscuit proximity alarm" or "Engaging sadness, Tears deployed!" in normal life.......

 

[LaughingAtlas]

It's not quite horror without encroaching madness on the part of the player, is it?

live-in-able,
live-in-able,
live-in-a-ble,
live-in-a-bul,
live-in-a-bull-Ooh, wait, that bit from Amnesia: Dark Descent comes to mind...

 

[FinalDream]

Horror is a difficult thing to achieve in games, and it can sometimes fall on personal tastes. I love Silent Hill 2 but Dead Space is an action game to me, devoid of horror and piled high with the jump scares like it's afraid of loosing your attention. However P.T. has a very effective jump scare with the ghost and in isolation and used infrequently I didn't really mind it as much. I think I've been spoiled by Alien Isolation though recently!

 

[PunkRex]

5 Nights at Freddy's is one of those things I can respect but not some thing I'm actually in to. The concept and execution are original/interesting and the fan base has made some really creative stuff out of it.

Unfortunately it also attracts a lot of aloft wankers who use the fan bases excitement as an excuse to talk down to them, e.g. 'I'm only getting mad because 5NaF-fans won't shut up about it, fneh, fneh, fneh!'

WHY THE FUCK DO YOU CARE!?

That's what fans tend to do, yeah it's obnoxious but more so is using it as an excuse to belittle people.

Not to mention watching my big brother play it and a bunch of LPs on Youtube, it shit me up.

 

[Elijah Newton]

*ahem*
Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able *bounces along*

?you beat me to it. Damn these human legs!

Also, thanks to Yahtzee for sharing his stance on jump scares. I, too, declaim as lame ( in the main, possibly excepting Final Frame ) reliance on the amygdala's reign to reinforce immersion in a game. All the same, who's to blame as when consumers fan the flames for developers the decision must be plain.

?

(*groan* oh no I'm going to be doing this all day. send help.)

 

[Optimystic]

He didn't like FNAF? Well, a rebuttal from Freddy:

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I get his point though - FNAF isn't really that good a game to play on your own. If you're playing to an audience - surrounded by IRL friends, or streaming to followers - then the core engagement is had by them watching you nervously triple-check camera 2 again, and not so much had by you yourself. And then you either get the satisfaction of feeling awesome when you survive another night, or the satisfaction of knowing you made everyone else had a good time watching you leap 500ft out of your chair and start crying. Either way, a win.

For someone like Yahtzee, who wants no interaction with other people while he plays at all, it makes sense that FNAF would disappoint.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Looks like this year's Indie Double Feature is early! And good to hear more musical moments on Zero Punctuation. I'm trying to write words for the part of the Doctor Who theme music that starts at dooooWOOOOOOOooooooo WOOOOOOOOooooooo...

So to get horror as close to "right" as it can get in video games, indies are the way to go. But then I think "Wait, existential dread and misery? In video games? Who the fuck wants that?! If I did, I'd just turn on the news! I play games to shoot, stab, punch, and bomb my daily frustrations away."

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ha he finally reviewed FNAF althought I didn't expect his weakness was jumpsacred? It make me think what his scare reaction from jumpsacred look like?

 

[coolbond]

*ahem*
Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able, Live-in-able *bounces along*

is that not the doctor who theme? i mean seriously try to sing those lines along with the opening atleast it sounds like its the base rythem

 

[geldonyetich]

I think only me, Yahtzee, and 12 other people know what Little Computer People even was.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Apart of me thinks that Liveiable was an accident but Yahtzee just steered into the skid

 

[Szierra]

The problem I have with FnaF is the same I had with Alien: I. After a while I simply stop being tense/scared and just very frustrated and it becomes a grind, FnaF is really good during the beginning but loses something along the way and it turns into a "I just want to be done with this shit".
HOWEVER, the story is really intriguing, I have read tons of fan theories and looked at stuff ingame to see if there's something hidden and after a while I found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_LYe97ZVc
Storytelling like this is my favourite and I'm suprised (unless he was scared shitless I guess) Yahtzee didn't draw attention to it.

I'm just afraid the developer is gonna milk the shit out of the franchise and it will be run into the ground, on the other hand I wouldn't blame him, that game basically prints him money.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So is there gonna be an impromptu song in every review? 'Cause I can totally do that!

Also I agree with his FNAF. Its too good as scaring me, its hard to get through more than one night in a sitting =,

 

[tzimize]

Hehehe, liveinable.

Also: This War of Mine. Is it kind of like Banner Saga, where the point of the game is that you lose?

 

[HiddenViper13]

Got to agree on the issue of jump scares. It still bewilders me how games and films that rely on them can get critical acclaim.

Also, regarding the "Still holding out for that Papers Please iPad port" - I'm relatively sure it's already available.

Unless it's been banned, of course.

 

[insertclevername1]

five nights at Freddy was way better then he thinks and i'm disappointed that he did't look for the much bigger story much like half life a simple story at first but if you just dig a little you find it to be a much more interesting and a lot of story