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

[Fsyco]

Wow, I think Yahtzee was actually nicer to FNaF in his review than he was in his Let's Plays/Drown Outs. That's gotta be a first.

Wait did Yahtzee actually upload a video of him playing it?



OT: It is a shame how Yahtzee could not get into the story cause he cant handle prolonged exposure to the game. Shoot I know every detail about the games and i still get nervous playing them. Im also one of those people that are not bothered by the FNAF jumpscares, yes they make me jump but they are the punishment. Unlike other 'cheap' jumpscares they are avoidable if you are skilled enough, unlike for example alot garry's mod horror maps where there is no build up and you have to walk through the hallway where the face pops up to progress.Thats why i think people who rope them in with other jumpscarefest games are wrong because they actually have some thought put in to how they are used.

Yahtzee hasn't uploaded a video of him playing it, but he has a series of videos where he and his friend Gabe talk about various things, and in those videos, Yahtzee talked about how he didn't particularly like FNAF, and felt that it relied too much on jumpscares. It sounded like he was gearing up to hate the shit out of it, but he seems to have been kind of nice to it.

I'm not sure you can get into the story of FNAF just by playing the games. The first one had little bits of text on one poster that were easy to miss and essentially required the player to screenshot them in order to actually read them (or just look it up on the wiki). It was pretty interesting text, and I wanted to know more, but it was still not presented well to the player. How you present your story is just as important as what the story actually is (See also: Far Cry 4 and every book by Cormac McCarthy). The sequel seems like it did a better job of presenting the story.

Okay in all seriousness, this is why I claim Yahtzee is biased nowadays: it seems like he actually IS looking for superficial excuses to hate something. Really? You find FNAF TOO SCARY?

What's he biased against, exactly?

 

[Evonisia]

Five Nights at Freddys really does just seem like a game I would find frustrating to play. As somebody who likes a jump scare when it can be pulled off (Silent Hill 4 attests to that), I don't really like the idea of being punished with one just because those fuckers cheat (yes, I know they don't disappear before they reach your doors, but they do occasionally not appear on any of the monitors or the sound-monitor).

 

[Kajin]

I gotta disagree with the assessment that This War of Mine is dictating how you should feel. It's just a stat to manage like everything else. Do I take a hit to my character's happiness for these extra food supplies or do I try to hold out just a little bit longer until my rat trap produces some more meat for us to consume?

 

[Dalisclock]

Okay in all seriousness, this is why I claim Yahtzee is biased nowadays: it seems like he actually IS looking for superficial excuses to hate something. Really? You find FNAF TOO SCARY?

How is that a superficial excuse? He's saying it's incredibly effective at creating an atmosphere that he finds incredibly unpleasant. It's a remarkable achievement, sure, but that doesn't mean he wants to subject himself to it.

He also mentions how your character is weirdly limited to "Sit there and watch monsters on camera" instead of "Bring gun to work, shoot monsters when they try to force the door" or "Run like screaming hell when the monsters start moving around when they're not supposed to." You know, like a sane person would do in this situation, not "Get almost murdered every single night, come back the next night and somehow expect it to be different". Yeah, it sucks to starve and be homeless. Getting murdered by robots sucks even more.

 

[Alexsi]

You know, somehow I knew Yahtzee wouldn't really like FNAF. Possibly it's because virtually no one actually likes jump scares, but I still wanted to hear his opinion on it...

Because of one of the things he said about Silent Hill 2:
"The BEST horror is the one where the man in the scary mask is right behind you, and you just KNOW he's going to go a-bwoogy-woogy-woo; but you don't want to turn around because he might stick his cock in your eye."

And that is pretty much 100% of Five Nights at Freddy's: men in scary masks that you just KNOW are going to go a-bwoogy-woogy-woo that you're too bothered to look at.

 

[Saika Renegade]

I'm always pleased to see a bit of indie two-fer-one on ZP.

I will say that this is about as accurate a description of FNAF as I've come across, and this is with me as a casual fan of the franchise and enjoying the game's backstory, premise, and sheer novelty. It's fun to watch but definitely not a game for anxious individuals. It feels like it's played for the tension it builds, and the relief seems to be more in escaping being murdered by homicidal pizza mascots than in the scares when they happen. Jumpscares are cheap, but my reading is that FNAF uses them as punishment, not reward. Screwing up is something to be avoided because we'll fling clanking anthropomorphic horrors at you. A good round of FNAF seems to involve lingering tension, a lot of paranoia, the growing realization that the world is full of blithely nutty humans and crazed robots and you're not any better by taking the damn job, and hoping you didn't screw up at 5:30 in the morning.

Liked the bit of Doctor Who in the middle there, but I honestly can't say as much about This War of Mine. Fascinating delve into the human condition and how we treat each other in circumstances, but I think it could've benefitted from giving us a single survivor whose perspective we could view it all from rather than being able to control everyone, relying more on a combination of social interaction, necessity, and the results of their natural traits and tendencies to steer them to do what needs to be done. Granted, I think I just described some combination of the Sims and The Walking Dead, but there you go.

 

[octafish]

That George Hamilton face just makes me think of Natalie Wood in All the Fine Young Cannibals, hmmmm Natalie Wood...

Ahem. Anyway...

Hypnosis face!

Putting on the ritz, getting dressed up.
Flapper, a girl.
Hotsy-totsy. Boo-boop-be-do.
Red-hot mama.
Twenty-three skidoo. What is this?

 

[GrumbleGrump]

I guess Yahtzee :uts on shades:: wasn't ready for Freddy. ::YEEEEEEEAH::

Okay in all seriousness, this is why I claim Yahtzee is biased nowadays: it seems like he actually IS looking for superficial excuses to hate something. Really? You find FNAF TOO SCARY?

Also I'd like to point out that he probably didn't play it enough if he thinks it's all jumpscares and YouTube trending. Like, oh I don't know, the atmosphere and the hidden lore. For someone who likes his horror subtle Croshaw, you sure were quick to ignore the newspaper articles that sometimes appear in place of posters that give insight on why the animatronics are out for your blood. Oh and don't get me started on Golden Freddy.

And that's just the first game. Let's see you tackle the sequel.

Oh and we quit with the running gag on Smash Bros. already? It's really starting to get on my tits. To the people who keep requesting that: HAVE YOU NOT LEARNED YOUR LESSON FROM THE BRAWL REVIEW?!

He didn't really hate it, he made abundantly clear that he just couldn't handle the fear of mascots and heightened anxiety combo. Anyone with at least some kind of imagination would guess that he simply couldn't pay attention to a changing newspaper clipping because of said fear and existing anxiety. Besides, you pretty much admitted that the lore is pretty easy to miss by simply using the phrase "hidden lore". If it's hidden, then you can't expect everyone to find it.

And no, don't stop banging on Smash, Yahtzee.

On an unrelated note, I would pay money for a full LP of FNAF featuring Yahtzee and ONLY Yahtzee.

 

[JimB]

My view of Five Nights at Freddy's is a bit different. It's torturous to watch, but I discover that when I actually play the thing, the fear goes away and it's all just tension and frustration. Having my hand on the mouse does make me feel powerful in a way a let's-play video doesn't, if only because I can act on that change in the music instead of having to yell impotently as the screen for someone to pay attention. It becomes more like a puzzle game than a horror game.

A part of me thinks that Liveinable was an accident but Yahtzee just steered into the skid.

Me too, but I've created this weird game I play with myself where I try to guess what kind of week he had based on how the video sounds (I can't be the only one who's noticed the quality of his voice tends to vary from episode to episode), so maybe I shouldn't be talking.

This is why I claim Yahtzee is biased nowadays: It seems like he actually is looking for superficial excuses to hate something. Really? You find Five Nights at Freddy's too scary?

No, I believe what he said was he finds it the wrong kind of scary. Like, if I say I love chocolate for its creamy sweetness, and someone gives me a piece of Mexican chocolate with cinnamon (and peppers? Are there peppers in that?), I don't think I'm being a hypocrite for saying that wasn't what I wanted. It's a relative, sure, but it ain't the cousin I was asking after.

 

[Atmos Duality]

From what I've heard of FnaF's gameplay mechanics, it becomes more of a clusterfuck of random chance and trying to game the system than threat management (actual gameplay); basically, it's bait for streaming channels like PewDiePie rather than a proper game.

 

[Himax9]

I love jumpscares myself, but mostly because I'm a borderline masochistic weirdo who loves challenges.
(Sticks and stoned may break my bones, but whips and chains entice me).

But can certainly understand why a more cerebral player like Yahtzee might not like them as much as me.
( I'm still going to make fuin of him for being a giant pussy, of course)

Let's be frank though, knowing that Yahtzee claimed the game was too scary for him will give this game the kind of advertisement boost we haven't seen since Painkiller's "This game has a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning. This gun could only be cooler if it had tits and it was on fire"

 

[Grabehn]

I have to disagree a bit on the "This War of Mine part.

I played it for a while, and there's pretty much one or two members that are better than the rest on specific tasks, but since you can get any combination that's rarely important.

On the "you now feel sad" part though, all the game did was to say "this guy feels sad now" and since it's not a sociopath and he/she killed two old people minding their business, I get why they would feel sad, since portraying that is kind of the point of the game, sort of a "war scavenger sim".

But I think the game did that pretty well, because even when there's a character that feels sad, there are a few that are a bit more detached, and if I remember correctly there's one that wasn't even shaken about that stuff.

Actually, this is why I don't like any kind of horror games. You said FNAF was just scary but not fun, but I don't see the fun in any survival horror game, which is why I don't play them.

I actually don't get scared by games, but I realized that I really liked "Survival Horror" games because of the pace more than anything else, even more so since I tend to shoot enough to kill stuff and that's it, so usually the "survival" aspect tends to become mute also.

So they pretty much tend to become just slow shooters for me.

 

[Lieju]

A horror game criticized for being too scary. Ha.

Actually, this is why I don't like any kind of horror games. You said FNAF was just scary but not fun, but I don't see the fun in any survival horror game, which is why I don't play them.

Things like these are very individual, I think.
Some games (and movies etc) are very good at pushing your buttons and triggers, and for some people it's too much. While others will not be affected at all and come out of the experience with a 'so that's all?' attitude.

A bit similar, but while I appreciated Papers please, I was unable to play it. It just made me too anxious.
FnaF2 is especially good at pushing my buttons, and I just can't even watch an LP of it, since it WILL trigger a panic attack in me.

So it's very individual.
And as far as art goes, well, it got a reaction out of me? So... a success?

 

[TheUnbeholden]

takes on indies Five Nights at Freddys

What about Five Nights at Freddys 2?

 

[maninahat]

I quite like the idea of the alternative recommendation at the end. Yahtzee should do these more often; suggesting a game that better scratches the particular itch, when the one being reviewed doesn't meet the standard.

 

[Jburton9]

Thank you for the post, good stuff all around and a combo review as well : )

Jump scared to death, yeah not a great way to go, I am surprised they did not hippity hop and pogo stick in and out the doors at that point hehe.

Maybe next they will do horror polka and ball room dancing because that would be pretty cool and uh ohh..

 

[el_emmens]

Good reviews today. Though Five nights it practically a retro review at this point given the second sequel is in development.

 

[mr.io]

+1 for papers please ipad port.

 

[mr.io]

+1 for papers please ipad port.

 

[mr.io]

+1 for papers please ipad port.