What do you do when...

[zohmbee]

... you get scared in a horror/horror-survival game?


I usually take the pussy route by screaming and handing off the controller to someone else, but on rare occasions when I'm playing alone I just scream and press every button on the controller, throw it across the room and run upstairs to hide in my closet for ten minutes.

Ex.: Playing Outbreak yesterday with a friend, a zombie came down the hall at freaking MACH 10 and scared the hell out of me. I still remember the combanation of buttons I pressed...


Start, Triangle, O, O, X, Square, Start, Triangle and Select before finally pausing it.

 

[Karmic]

That's very sweet. I generally take my headphones out and troll a forum for a while, waiting for the adrenaline to stop pumping (whilst playing Silent Hill: Origins in the dark as recommended in the opening blurb!)

 

[zohmbee]

That's very sweet. I generally take my headphones out and troll a forum for a while, waiting for the adrenaline to stop pumping (whilst playing Silent Hill: Origins in the dark as recommended in the opening blurb!)

I played the PS2 version, so it didn't tell me to play in the dark. We did ANYWAY, but I love it when games tell you to do that. xD

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

... you get scared in a horror/horror-survival game?

Ex.: Playing Outbreak yesterday with a friend, a zombie came down the hall at freaking MACH 10 and scared the hell out of me. I still remember the combanation of buttons I pressed...

Start, Triangle, O, O, X, Square, Start, Triangle and Select before finally pausing it.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I'm laughing with you, not at you. I don't have problem with horror movies generally, but for some reason horror games make me jump around in my chair like I wasn't properly strapped down for my electrocution. And I don't know what it is about zombies but they really get to me! Aliens, monsters, evil dudes, no problem, but zombies--I think it's the double hit of scary and gross. Ahhh! I just lost my shields and a bunch of my health AND I HAVE ZOMBIE GOO ALL OVER ME!

 

[L4Y Duke]

I find what scared me and kick it's ass.

 

[end_boss]

I'm generally immune to most scares. My friends and I are a film-making team, and we've won awards for our horror shorts. Games rarely scare me, and movies *VERY* rarely scare me. And there's a huge difference between "startled" and "scared." Resident Evil 4 startled me. Resident Evil: Code Veronica was scarier (relatively speaking). Fatal Frame was a great mix of both. But I don't think games had ever truly scared me as much as the original Alone in the Dark, or The Colonel's Bequest, though the latter was a lot scarier thanks to playing it when I was very young, on a monochrome display. And those games were scary because of their atmosphere, not necessarily because of an imminent threat.

So, what would I do? Well, it hasn't really come up. When I get startled, I just keep playing, though a bit more chaotically. When I get scared, it's usually to do with atmosphere, so I just keep playing.

 

[Mr_Cynical]

I have a standard reaction to things that scare me in games:

"KILL IT! KILL IT! oh fuck, where did it go? Where did it go?! Oh fuck, oh fuck.... ARGH! There it is! Kill it!!!"

That being said, the only thing in a game to scare me recently was those creepy plaster statues in the Fort Frolic/Sander Cohen arc in Bioshock. Those bastards came out of freakin nowhere... *Shudder*

BTW, If anyone hasn't played Bioshock yet, I'm sorry for spoiling the surprise...

 

[Another]

I don't have problems being scared by a game, unless its one of those things that creeps into the back of your mind when you stop playing. Anyone remember the shower scene of Psycho? Stuff like that in game form.

 

[Minky_man]

I find what scared me and kick it's ass.

Yup that sums me up.

But sometimes I find myself scared of dying in a game and being overly careful. Then after some time it snaps that its a game and I can ressurect if I die.

So then I become reckless and die lots XD

 

[Jolly Madness]

I did really not like fast zombie, and when one jumped me in city 17... Luckily I had my shotgun up and hit him in the air. I had to have friends around when going through Ravenholm...

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Usually, if I'm really scared, I just moan "Get me the fuck out of here..."

If I'm creeped out, any sound will make me shout. God, first time playing Doom 3 was fun, me being in a dark room and all.

 

[jiffmcgriff]

I usually go into a corner or room with only one entrance and get the biggest weapon available and wait until the lurching monstrosity comes within my death range, it really throws me off in games when the devious little buggers come through the wall.

 

[Nickolai]

I usually do two things at once. My body leaps a few inches off my seat while my heart rate accelerates to around Mach 3. At the same time my brain locks on to the new threat and dispatches it with chilling efficiency (sp?).

I can recall just today in Half Life 2: Episode Two. I unblocked a door with the Gravity Gun, switched to the SMG and a poison headcrab zombie bashed through the door and headed right for me.

I nearly had a heart attack, and meanwhile I blew a clip and a half of lead into his head, then took out a stray headcrab that had leaped off his back right before I killed him. After all was said and done, I realized I'd been holding my breath.

I'm not immune to most scares. A barnacle in Half Life 2 will scare me, even after I've killed it. I'm perfectly fine against the Flood in Halo. Doom 3 scared me for awhile, but after the Hell level I kinda got numb to it. Even right before you fight Sarge and you're being informed how badly you're about to die, I just said, "Meh."

Condemned damn near broke me, FEAR did the same, and I honestly have nightmares about Ravenholm. And the parking garage in Episode One.

I still play those games though. God help me, but I find being in a state of abject horror to be quite the motivator for improvement to my hand-eye coordination, reflexes and reaction time.

 

[IronMuck]

to Crap_haT: Ah, the resident evil series has always been able to frighten young minds. Resident evil 1 seriously messed me up. I was 5 or 6 when it came out. I used to have nightmares, proper wake-up-screaming nightmares. to this day anything involving zombies intrigues(In a weird way) me greatly. Having said that, the resident evil 1 remake on Gamecube, while scary, didn't stop me playing it to completion 2 or 3 times.

I'm with Nickolai on condemned, its a different brand of scary, but holy shite that game horrifies me. Not the idea of it or anything, i don't have nightmares about being attacked by hobo's: (Though i probably should upon mentioning it) Its so visceral, so damn intense. You just never feel safe, its simply its unrelenting brutality that i find so difficult to cope with. I'm only up to the dept. store level.

Films i'm not so bad with in terms of watching. After however, is a different matter: Once i get into bed, i usually find my imagination runs riot and envisions my ever so painful death over and over in as many grisly scenarios as it can conjure... I still love me some Dawn of the dead though

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

Movies have got nothing on games for scariness. Anyone remember the original AvP? Before the patch came out you wouldn't be able to save mid level, face huggers killed you instantly, and Aliens killed you ridiculously fast. Nothing scarier than walking through a dark corridor with that fucking motion sensor....beep----beep---beep-beep-beepbeeeeeeeeeARGHSHIT!!!!

Anyway, I remember I once stayed up until 5 o clock in the morning playing Project Zero 2 (Fatal Frame for any americans) and right after I'd finished playing I went to the bathroom and the light blew out. Didn't get much sleep after that.

 

[cravethought]

I don't play horror games.

Man, I could barely get through Dead Rising. Those Small Chainsaws really eliminate any sense of vulnerability you might have in that game.

 

[boyitsme95]

I never get scared, but FEAR has manage to do otherwise. making me sit in a corner of my bed, sucking my thumb, after having to go throuugh one of alma's visions. especially the last one

 

[Goldberg1111]

Mostly agreed on FEAR, just a few moments did make me jump, like creepy-ass girl spider-crawling towards me on a dark, narrow space; naked Alma is just pure nightmare material, as is the whole lack of "regular" enemies in the end of the game

It actually makes the rest of the game a lot of fun, releasing the tension on the poor slow enemies, since you can't make Alma eat your grenades.

Oh yeah, what I do when it happens is crouch a little bit on my chair, hoping the horrible sequences end so I can get back to the killing.