Did screamers ruin anybody elses life?
I was, recently, trying to figure out why singleplayer games ALWAYS set me on edge when I'm not in combat, where I instantly calm down. The fact that silence and calmness puts me on edge, makes me jittery, and freaks me out is the reason I can't play any horror games except DOOM 3 (lol horror), really. I was like 12 when the kikia/screamer craze hit, and ever since then I've never trusted silence from games or animations.
Why am I afraid of sound and not the thing trying to devour my soul?
Why am I afraid of sound and not the thing trying to devour my soul?
Comments
When I was like 13 or so I saw the screamer where you follow the lyrics to a song that's playing in the background for like 3 whole minutes before a hideous demon corpse face fills your screen and screams at volumes roughly 500% louder than the music itself. I was never the same again.
There are a few games that have honestly scared me, and one of them was actually HL2. No, not Ravenholm (more just shock value there), but actually the sequence where you are climbing around under the bridge.
I have no fear of dieing in video games (quick save ftw), however I DO have a serious fear of heights, and more specifically falling. HL2 was able to create a engrossing environment that actually triggered my fear of heights.
So if a game can make you forget that it isn't real and then trigger a fear you have, GG game maker.
Otherwise resort to shock tactics.
doom 3 was just cheap and it didn't scare me after i got used to it.
But back on topic.
Thief 3: The Cradle. Probably the most tense I've ever been playing a game, ever. Even though I had (rather stupidly) read about it and knew almost exactly what to expect, I was still scared through most of it.
Also Stalker has some genuinely creepy areas.
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I saw the title of the thread, and I thought "Wow, someone else has actually seen that 90s sci fi film with the underground chainsaws". And I felt glad I wasn't the only one.
But back on topic.
Thief 3: The Cradle. Probably the most tense I've ever been playing a game, ever. Even though I had (rather stupidly) read about it and knew almost exactly what to expect, I was still scared through most of it.
Also Stalker has some genuinely creepy areas.
quick edit: Oh yeah, Thief 3 is the only game to actually make me chuck my mouse off the desk in fright. One of those walking statue things. I thought I'd sneaked past it and I was sizing up the next room, when RIGHT BEHIND ME (with headphones on, at 3am) there was "SMASHANDSTOMPANDCRUSHANDKILLANDSTOMP". Mouse went one way, keyboard went the other.
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I realise what I just did there, and I leave it up as a testament to my nubness.
FEAR
Simply pwnage. I never had a game that made me shoot a random burst at something that wasn't there. 13 year old nude girls or in a red dress with long black hair crawling at you at insane speed inside an air duct is freaky.
Or when she reaches out of a black cubicle saying "my baby."
Can't wait for the expansion. ^.^
Maybe, one day, I'll get more than an hour into a horror game and enjoy being spooked. The closest I got was making it through the hotel in V:TM - Bloodlines, which was pretty awesome.
I saw the title of the thread, and I thought "Wow, someone else has actually seen that 90s sci fi film with the underground chainsaws". And I felt glad I wasn't the only one.
But back on topic.
Thief 3: The Cradle. Probably the most tense I've ever been playing a game, ever. Even though I had (rather stupidly) read about it and knew almost exactly what to expect, I was still scared through most of it.
Also Stalker has some genuinely creepy areas.
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...yay, quotes/
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I realise what I just did there, and I leave it up as a testament to my nubness.
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I saw that movie...
I thought this thread was about that movie...
I mean, it's not a great movie...but it's okay...
...coincidentally, the Cradle in Thief 3 is the only game that has given me an adrenaline rush besides "holy crap, I'm behind enemy lines in a multiplayer game."
Well, there was AvP, and I started with the marine...I went up the elevator, walked around the corner - the metallic corridors bathed in green light from the NVGs... and then steam's shooting out of vents and you can't hear anything, and you can't tell if there's an alien through the steam or anything and then - "OH MY GOD THERE IT IS, FIRE YOUR WEAPON!" Then I'm covered in acidic blood, losing health, missing many of my pulse rifle bullets.
I played the Predator 'first' instead <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> .
For the most part the aliens in that were unscripted, but it was kind of unfair, because it spawned 8 of them relatively near you and then the pathfinding just took its course, but it was usually an infinite number of aliens until you hit a trigger, and then a few more the next time you hit a trigger. AVP2 was far more scripted.
...flash movie screamers, who bothers making those anymore?
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It's funny, because I never have any sense of apprehension or second-guessing in a multiplayer game. Ducking behind enemy lines and sneaking around picking off people in there and playing hide and seek is one of the only ways I have fun in team-based gameplay. Weird. This is what made me obnoxious as a marine in the Hidden. Since I have nothing to fear if it's not AI, I was never jittery or jumpy in The Hidden, and I would end up basically demolishing Subject 617 every time he tried to jump me.
Man, I came into this thread thinking the more naked type of screamers were somehow ruining lives. What a let down.
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I thought they were talking about the movie. :/
the environments were bland, the aliens were easy to put down, but f*** me the sound of the MT picking up something made me jump
also the first time you meet those psychic nutjobs in stalker...
FEAR had it down nicely too, but over-used it. half way through the game you just think "OKAY ALMA DISAPPEAR DOWN THAT CORRIDOR SO I CAN BRING SLOW-MO SMACKDOWN"
doom 3 was just sooo cheap. hear a sound, turn 180 degrees, hold down mouse1. cheap, but i guess it worked.
However, I was told once to mute the volume and play, and it would help. My first thought is how much I relied on sound to know the enemies position, but after trying it, the fear/atmosphere was wrecked and you could casually walk through the game with no problems. I never thought sound effects and ambience added so much to the experience, but it does.
Goddamn things make my skin crawl.
I'm the same as the parent poster. I never got past Ravenholm because it scared the bejesus out of me, then when I went back to complete I lost interest in it. IT's not the screamer/sudden loud noise for me, it's the anticipation of it. Knowing it's about to come, but not when. I can watch other people play the same areas/levels/games with no worries, but at the helm, I get skiddish.
However, I was told once to mute the volume and play, and it would help. My first thought is how much I relied on sound to know the enemies position, but after trying it, the fear/atmosphere was wrecked and you could casually walk through the game with no problems. I never thought sound effects and ambience added so much to the experience, but it does.
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I actually REALLY enjoyed Ravenholme, mostly because zombies aren't scary at all. Black headcrabs were annoying though.
HL2 also has the ###### black headcrabs.
Goddamn things make my skin crawl.
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As much as I hate them, I have to admit they're masterfully designed. The one thing worse than a toxicrab is a toxicrab zombie. Especially the first time you meet it. "Oh, haha, it's slow and has lots of hp and a melee attack, it's basically just an ammo-sink, easy pi-.. OH GOD TOXICRAB IN MY FACE AAAH GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!"
I wish I could play The Hidden. The Hidden doesn't scare me at all, but the problem is I can't see him. Ever. I actually had him stand right in front of me once and he was so difficult to see that I would probably never have been able to detect him if I hadn't known he was there. Damn buggy shaders. >_<
Crack Zombies bothered me (specificly with the CLANG CLANG CLANG up the drain pipes).
One of the cames that actualy used to get me alot was Wolfenstien 3D. There were tiems when enemies would open doors that you couldn't see yet and it would just make me spin looking for the bad guy.
STALKER never bothered me, even my first run in with the psychic buggers and with the ones that toss stuff at you.
But again, most of this is just unexpected sounds makign me jump.
I personaly can't wait for Bioshock. That looks creepy enough to actualy create a decent level of suspense (little sisters ftw!)
But Half-Life 2 didn't really do it for me. Ravenholm and the toxic headcrabs and stuff were certainly immersive, but they really didn't scare me. The only really scary part was during the part when you're driving the airboat. There's a side tunnel that you can explore on foot with knee-deep sewage and a few ammo crates. When you walk through the sewage a zombie pops up out of it, yelling. I jumped out of my chair, but that's the only time HL2 scared me.
But back to the main topic, Testament, I actually get that vague sense of unease and fear when I'm wandering through an FPS and there are no enemies around. I've gotten a handle on it lately as I've matured, but still, even for a game like No One Lives Forever which is as far from scary as you can get, it still feels a little eerie to be walking around what is basically a ghost town or something waiting for the next firefight.
Having to run back and forth in the front halways trying to trigger all the stupid scenes with the ghost walking around just was anoying......
I tihnk it is the fact that it is rather damn hard to get killed in V:TM if you are playign a physical character at all...
Yeah, the hotel wasn't really scary. I think it scared me the first ten seconds or so, then I suddenly realized that *I* am the big bad*** vampire, the ghosts should be scared of ME. It just lost the effect right then and there.
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That was part of it too, yeah.
ooooo paint can, scary.
ok, so the exploding wall lamp made me jump, but it did like 1/20th of my HP in DMG.
The kitchen consisted of sittign in a corner till it calmed down.....