Yeah, I particularly can't handle it when a game takes time to build up to the scare. Like Amnesia I guess, or the Penumbra games which I actually played a little. It's not constant, it's unexpected. That's why I had no problem at all with Doom3 but absolutely couldn't get an hour or so of Penumbra, or even get far in Slender.
My favorite jump scare was in the first FEAR game. That game was kind enough to telegraph when it was getting spooky... mostly... so I finished it pretty easily. And I think this area was all quiet, which meant something was coming. Then, you have to climb up a ladder. There's clearly nothing at the top when you start climbing (which kinda locks your view). When you get to the top, nothing jumps at you... It's just there, and then it's gone. A "jump scare" where you reveal the scary thing, instead of it charging at you. I think those can be scarier.
There's a flash series called Deep Sleep which I'm really surprised I finished, because the concept (trapped in a dream world) is an uneasy one for me, but it used the same sort of tactic... There are dark areas where you can only see a small area around the mouse. Somehow it becomes terrifying to move the mouse, for fear of what you might reveal. Nothing jumps out at you. But something does hide, and somehow that's worse.
The Cradle, in Thief 3. It uses various types of horror, but the beginning is the worst. When there's nothing there. Up to this point, you're basically Batman. The guards loudly exclaim everything they're doing, like good videogame guards, and you can tell where they are by their loud footsteps. It's not scary at all - YOU are the monster, or at least the sneaky thing in the shadows.
But here's this abandoned building. No guards. No zombies or giant lizards wandering around. Just a quiet, abandoned building covered in dust. So quiet. Everything about it screams trap, building up apprehension, until finally you hear a noise. Far off, a wooden knocking. Like a door. Hooray, zombies or guards to outwit! But, it never stops. It gets louder as you get closer, though. It's coming from this stairwell, and there's nowhere else to go. You climb the stairs, and it's different, it's not just closer, whatever it is is knocking harder now, faster, desperately beating at the door. Trying to get out. Terrified. Low to the ground.
I certainly didn't expect that from a Thief game, a series which (up to that point) had basically been a dexterity-based power fantasy. Where guards were bumbling oafs who only survived the night because you had standards, dammit (or didn't).
I guess what I'm talking about is the trope where someone pulls aside the shower curtain. Sometimes a reveal is scarier than a jump.
Also, I'm not sure why I couldn't fall asleep tonight. It's nearly dawn. Heh, I guess this didn't help... Keep hearing strange noises in the distance, and I have that feeling I get in my lucid nightmares (particularly during naps). Ah well... I have a book to read, I'll relax and sleep then. Glad tomorrow this is Sunday.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14945641 times)