How horror games use retro tech to scare you
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Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 30
-Gungriver
Interesting video, but i've gotta completly disagree with you on point about -----HORRUR----- games from early/mid 2000's. as you put it. They did what first Predator movie did. You are not a schoolgirl on a spring break, you are some badass guy, packing some serious heat. And yet, you encounter something that can't be put down with bullets, something, that hunts you down for sport. The roaming pack of bloodsuckers at night from S. T. A. l. K. E. R., the witch from Left 4 Dead, Ghosts from F. E. A. R. and that one chainsaw enthusiast in Resident Evil 4: they all had a common thing. Each of those encounter hits really hard, because it makes your guns unreliable, it makes you doubt if it's all worth it, and makes you want to hide and run away in a game, where you previously dispatched foe after foe. All of them de-power your fantasy. All of them make you clutch your shotgun, like a kid clutches a teddy bear on a stormy night. And this is what most of the newer ---survivor--- horror games lack (looking at you, Benny Hill's simulator a. k. a. Outlast, they straight toss the self-defence option out of window, and you just play gorified game of tag with the monsters.
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Interesting video, but i've gotta completly disagree with you on point about -----HORRUR----- games from early/mid 2000's. as you put it. They did what first Predator movie did. You are not a schoolgirl on a spring break, you are some badass guy, packing some serious heat. And yet, you encounter something that can't be put down with bullets, something, that hunts you down for sport. The roaming pack of bloodsuckers at night from S. T. A. l. K. E. R., the witch from Left 4 Dead, Ghosts from F. E. A. R. and that one chainsaw enthusiast in Resident Evil 4: they all had a common thing. Each of those encounter hits really hard, because it makes your guns unreliable, it makes you doubt if it's all worth it, and makes you want to hide and run away in a game, where you previously dispatched foe after foe. All of them de-power your fantasy. All of them make you clutch your shotgun, like a kid clutches a teddy bear on a stormy night. And this is what most of the newer ---survivor--- horror games lack (looking at you, Benny Hill's simulator a. k. a. Outlast, they straight toss the self-defence option out of window, and you just play gorified game of tag with the monsters.
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-AlexOlinkiewicz
Funnily enough, I'm a Solo Indie Dev who is working on a horror game that basically uses old cameras. As I view it the other reason why we tend to use older devices is because of the added limitation they have, and limiting is a useful tool in horror. Example what is a more effective weapon, a 6 Shooter Pistol or an Assult Rifle? and for Camera what is easier to take good images, your smartphone or a polaroid camera? When it comes to horror the player does need to feel week but when you give them a tool that is like giving a piece of armor and that means the player is less week, so the best way to keep them week is giving the player a week tool and of course on obsolete device is, of course, a week tool.
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Funnily enough, I'm a Solo Indie Dev who is working on a horror game that basically uses old cameras. As I view it the other reason why we tend to use older devices is because of the added limitation they have, and limiting is a useful tool in horror. Example what is a more effective weapon, a 6 Shooter Pistol or an Assult Rifle? and for Camera what is easier to take good images, your smartphone or a polaroid camera? When it comes to horror the player does need to feel week but when you give them a tool that is like giving a piece of armor and that means the player is less week, so the best way to keep them week is giving the player a week tool and of course on obsolete device is, of course, a week tool.
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-Fillthrill
I would agree that certain design-styles of technology can look scary, but I am not sure that it is just because it is old. Then again, the more alien a something is, the more it's mystery grows.
Alien: Isolation is good example, I spent solid hours looking at the tech designs in that game, but they were more of a comfort than the opposite for me. The dim lights, androids and the f-ing xenomorph had me screaming, until they grew annoying. But if I had to escape xeno's, facehuggers or what ever, while stumbling through some crashed space-jockey ship inspired by H. R. Gieger's sticky tech designs with similar graphical fidelity as Isolation, I'd be terrified, grossed out and helpless.
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I would agree that certain design-styles of technology can look scary, but I am not sure that it is just because it is old. Then again, the more alien a something is, the more it's mystery grows.
Alien: Isolation is good example, I spent solid hours looking at the tech designs in that game, but they were more of a comfort than the opposite for me. The dim lights, androids and the f-ing xenomorph had me screaming, until they grew annoying. But if I had to escape xeno's, facehuggers or what ever, while stumbling through some crashed space-jockey ship inspired by H. R. Gieger's sticky tech designs with similar graphical fidelity as Isolation, I'd be terrified, grossed out and helpless.
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-chickensangwich97
Another thing about old cameras that's scary. their image quality is way, way worse. So you're trying to adjust your eyeballs to these less vibrant colors, these less clearly-defined shapes, and it's not always clear if that fuzziness in the background is just fuzziness, or something about to attack you. And if it is something about to attack you, you can't always make out what it looks like. All the while, your panic might lead you to make mistakes. The clunkiness and imprecision of old technology leads to ambiguity, and ambiguity is always unsettling to us as human beings.
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Another thing about old cameras that's scary. their image quality is way, way worse. So you're trying to adjust your eyeballs to these less vibrant colors, these less clearly-defined shapes, and it's not always clear if that fuzziness in the background is just fuzziness, or something about to attack you. And if it is something about to attack you, you can't always make out what it looks like. All the while, your panic might lead you to make mistakes. The clunkiness and imprecision of old technology leads to ambiguity, and ambiguity is always unsettling to us as human beings.
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-screwthenet
NOICE! btw they used typewriters in Resident Evils mansion because the creator was a retro nutjob ( HAIL TO HIM) and also because Umbrella could not risk exposure from leaked information with a computers let alone network in everyones bedroom. So they typed reports and diaries the old fashioned way, and only used tech in the monitored spaces below ground. Aside from that, which I am sure you already knew, this was a great vid! ---
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NOICE! btw they used typewriters in Resident Evils mansion because the creator was a retro nutjob ( HAIL TO HIM) and also because Umbrella could not risk exposure from leaked information with a computers let alone network in everyones bedroom. So they typed reports and diaries the old fashioned way, and only used tech in the monitored spaces below ground. Aside from that, which I am sure you already knew, this was a great vid! ---
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-FeebleAntelope
Resident Evil 4 gets a mention ahead of RE 1 or 2?
They haven't aged well, but for their time, they did horror pretty well by giving the player less control over the camera and making players scrounge around for ammo.
So there was no way one was going to shoot their way through that.
By the time they got to RE4, they had lost the actual horror.
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Resident Evil 4 gets a mention ahead of RE 1 or 2?
They haven't aged well, but for their time, they did horror pretty well by giving the player less control over the camera and making players scrounge around for ammo.
So there was no way one was going to shoot their way through that.
By the time they got to RE4, they had lost the actual horror.
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-joegt123
1: 45 You call real games that are scary -'horror' games-. I call shitty hallway simulators with no real gameplay -horror 'games'-. If a game can't scare you while you're fully capable of defending yourself, it doesn't deserve to scare you.
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1: 45 You call real games that are scary -'horror' games-. I call shitty hallway simulators with no real gameplay -horror 'games'-. If a game can't scare you while you're fully capable of defending yourself, it doesn't deserve to scare you.
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-blacktearsforshow
you touched on this a little at the end, but on the other end of the spectrum we have sci-fi horror that features technology so new you have no idea how to even begin to use it. I think Soma and Abzu handles this pretty well!
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you touched on this a little at the end, but on the other end of the spectrum we have sci-fi horror that features technology so new you have no idea how to even begin to use it. I think Soma and Abzu handles this pretty well!
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-DrPizzle
I want to make a game where you use new technology. -not futuristic tech-, but just new tech. It would teach you just how powerless you are, even when you feel empowered because you have your brand new iPhone etc etc.
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I want to make a game where you use new technology. -not futuristic tech-, but just new tech. It would teach you just how powerless you are, even when you feel empowered because you have your brand new iPhone etc etc.
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-rybread1346
Unless you're playing SOMA and you're trapped in a futuristic underwater dystopia harboring the remnants of humanity and a mad AI meshing machine and man into horrific abominations. Future stuff can be scary too
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Unless you're playing SOMA and you're trapped in a futuristic underwater dystopia harboring the remnants of humanity and a mad AI meshing machine and man into horrific abominations. Future stuff can be scary too
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-spaceddoggo3647
What the hell was that, stalker? You're saying that S. T. A. L. K. E. R's atmosphere is not horrorful and all it is is just shooting people, stalker? No. You're not a stalker anymore, you're a dead woman.
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What the hell was that, stalker? You're saying that S. T. A. L. K. E. R's atmosphere is not horrorful and all it is is just shooting people, stalker? No. You're not a stalker anymore, you're a dead woman.
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-CattyAttie
Fatal Frame is one of my favorite horror games. The implications of items and rooms through the story and observation really made me uneasy and hella scared to go in places or look behind me.
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Fatal Frame is one of my favorite horror games. The implications of items and rooms through the story and observation really made me uneasy and hella scared to go in places or look behind me.
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-laurah7051
1. this is a great video thank u jenna i love your work
2. that's. that's a mollymauk shirt, right? you're wearing a molly shirt? if i am correct in that, thanks for breaking my heart
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1. this is a great video thank u jenna i love your work
2. that's. that's a mollymauk shirt, right? you're wearing a molly shirt? if i am correct in that, thanks for breaking my heart
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polygon
Kentucky Route Zero isn't a horror game, but it's definitely Lynchian, and I quite appreciate the use of quaint, tactile tech as a means of communicating the profound in that.
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Kentucky Route Zero isn't a horror game, but it's definitely Lynchian, and I quite appreciate the use of quaint, tactile tech as a means of communicating the profound in that.
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-computersocsci
I love the way the old camera next to you is attached to a modern tripod underneath; it's a subtle metaphor for how the retro tech is rendered by modern computers.
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I love the way the old camera next to you is attached to a modern tripod underneath; it's a subtle metaphor for how the retro tech is rendered by modern computers.
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-LanieMae
I just remembered that Octo Expansion has a lot of retro stuff and 80-s themes and the game scares the crap out of me. Also the final boss is inside a RETRO telephone
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I just remembered that Octo Expansion has a lot of retro stuff and 80-s themes and the game scares the crap out of me. Also the final boss is inside a RETRO telephone
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-vint-zent
SHIRT BY SAD RIOT [sadriot. com] AND PINS BY JOYCE HWANG [taigaandmako. etsy. com]! So exciting to see one of my fav content creators repping some of my fav artists!
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SHIRT BY SAD RIOT [sadriot. com] AND PINS BY JOYCE HWANG [taigaandmako. etsy. com]! So exciting to see one of my fav content creators repping some of my fav artists!
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-kylekyle4169
I absolutely love that Jenna mentioned FNAF in this. it's such a unique horror game with a crazy scary use of upsettingly outdated and unreliable tech.
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I absolutely love that Jenna mentioned FNAF in this. it's such a unique horror game with a crazy scary use of upsettingly outdated and unreliable tech.
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-boltcry9349
2. 26 haha, my bro played outlast when my friends came over, and he was the only one getting scared. We were laughing at him doing high-pitched -eee-s
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2. 26 haha, my bro played outlast when my friends came over, and he was the only one getting scared. We were laughing at him doing high-pitched -eee-s
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-anarchyantz1564
My uncle actually has an Eastman Kodak as well as a few others like the retina series and used to still take pictures with them a while back.
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My uncle actually has an Eastman Kodak as well as a few others like the retina series and used to still take pictures with them a while back.
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polygon
i've gotten to the point where i can correctly guess who will be in a video solely based on the title. i don't know if i should be proud or ashamed
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i've gotten to the point where i can correctly guess who will be in a video solely based on the title. i don't know if i should be proud or ashamed
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-thepoglin8479
i feel like the only modern piece of technology you can use while still having it feel like youre using 80s technology is an ink jet printer
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i feel like the only modern piece of technology you can use while still having it feel like youre using 80s technology is an ink jet printer
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-adammerrill9751
I don't think that's fully it, its also because old cameras are lower quality, and lower quality is scarier because you can't see as well
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I don't think that's fully it, its also because old cameras are lower quality, and lower quality is scarier because you can't see as well
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-ThePhantomBeaver
i CAN NOT WAIT until flip phones become retro enough that POV horror games use a shitty flip phone camera instead of a tape recorder
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i CAN NOT WAIT until flip phones become retro enough that POV horror games use a shitty flip phone camera instead of a tape recorder
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-joegt123
There was an indie horror game a couple of years ago where the girl had to use her smart phone camera to see the ghosts. Not always old.
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There was an indie horror game a couple of years ago where the girl had to use her smart phone camera to see the ghosts. Not always old.
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-ZoeBateman
how about the fact that if someone did make a horror game with modern tech well enough, we'd all be scared of everything around us
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how about the fact that if someone did make a horror game with modern tech well enough, we'd all be scared of everything around us
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-JennaSoberman
this is a great video, love you jenna, love you polygon! so many superb and hilarious soundbites in this scripting it-s unreal
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this is a great video, love you jenna, love you polygon! so many superb and hilarious soundbites in this scripting it-s unreal
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-ajg8600
If you think fnaf is better than alien isolation you have problems. Fnaf isnt even a good game, it relies 100% on jumpscares.
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If you think fnaf is better than alien isolation you have problems. Fnaf isnt even a good game, it relies 100% on jumpscares.
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-mcr-fobpatd1147
Wish I would-ve made that connection sooner, I could-ve written my IB extended essay on it. Would-ve been fun.
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Wish I would-ve made that connection sooner, I could-ve written my IB extended essay on it. Would-ve been fun.
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-avgchoobafan
What about that game where you find a cellphone and use it to locate the owner? I dont remember the name sadly xd
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What about that game where you find a cellphone and use it to locate the owner? I dont remember the name sadly xd
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