Jump Scares in Games

[molegato]

Ya, Silent hill has allways been more of creepy ambient than randommonsterguysappearingonyourscreenwhenyoudontexpectit.
That's why I prefer them over RE. I remember the big guy in RE2, that came out of a helicopter. It appears after a movie, so it doesnt surprises you. Until you decide to flee from him thinking he wont be able to get past a door, as enemies are stupid in those games. After a few seconds of 'hahaha, I'm on a safe room' he just crashes the wall. Niiiiice of him.

[Flygonmaster]

Okay, so I have one. Didn't really scare me much- I instantly knew "Oh wait, random encounter, okay" afterward, but I jumped.

Le watching my mom play Final Fantasy X. She's running along the path. I'm just sitting there watching, thinking "What's gonna happen no-"
Suddenly, it looks like the screen shattered. Then, random encounter. Got my heart pumping.

[MacSimon]

There I was, playing Metroid fusion

OH GOD I REMEMBER THAT. Metroid Fusion was

You get a few jump scares from SA-X throughout the game... if you have the sound off.

Spoiler! :

You can't hear the tapping.

Fusion had SA-X. That thing was like death in a battle suit and everytime I ran into it that music played and I ran like hell!

Spoiler! :

*SA-X sees me*"OHGODOHGODOHGOD!

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUU--

[RyoSoulreaper]

To expand on the MM thing, The Mask transformation scenes.

The Deku one especially.

Spoiler! :

[TerminalMontage]

To expand on the MM thing, The Mask transformation scenes.

The Deku one especially.

Spoiler! :

My mom regretted buying that game for me cause she thought it was really weird.

[Jops]

[...]Until you decide to flee from him thinking he wont be able to get past a door, as enemies are stupid in those games. After a few seconds of 'hahaha, I'm on a safe room' he just crashes the wall. Niiiiice of him.

Same as the werewolf from Vampires: Bloodlines.
The beast was petty much immune to gunfire and going melee meant suicide. So what i did was run like hell into the nearest building and locked myself in a closet. "He's too big to get trough that door." I thought. In fact i had just a second of relief, as i apparently couldn't hear him on the other side of the door, when suddenly he tore down the wall on my right.

But i think it was more effective in Dead Space. Your very first encounter with the monsters, when you don't even have a weapon yet.
Run, run, run... finally get inside an elevator, close the door. The creature bangs on the wall a few times, enough to dent it. Then it stops.
Just the time to think: "phew, this part is done!" and you see its mantis like arms sliding the door open... OHSHITGETMEOUTOFHERE!

[Seven Rain]

To expand on the MM thing, The Mask transformation scenes.

The Deku one especially.

Spoiler! :

The Zora one looks the creepiest to me, haha. Then again I wouldn't call it a jump scare since I didn't get to see it as a kid, having only played MM after it's VC release.
At this age I just think the Zora one is awesome despite it's creepiness. The Zora mask fusing with Link's face is like the most Black Metal thing in any Zelda game, right up there with the Hero's Spirit from TP.
... Okay TP and the Hero's Spirit training parts might still be more Black Metal than the Zora mask scene... And you did turn into a wolf in TP, but I digress.

[RyoSoulreaper]

To expand on the MM thing, The Mask transformation scenes.

The Deku one especially.

Spoiler! :

The Zora one looks the creepiest to me, haha. Then again I wouldn't call it a jump scare since I didn't get to see it as a kid, having only played MM after it's VC release.
At this age I just think the Zora one is awesome despite it's creepiness. The Zora mask fusing with Link's face is like the most Black Metal thing in any Zelda game, right up there with the Hero's Spirit from TP.
... Okay TP and the Hero's Spirit training parts might still be more Black Metal than the Zora mask scene... And you did turn into a wolf in TP, but I digress.

The zora left me un effected because I didn't get that far until VC. I always would get to around the begining of the Goron part and stop playing.

[adrilahan]

I have a whole shelf full of games I put away for good because of jump scares. In the real world, I do fine with 'jump scares', something in my brain gets to work and makes me react in a way that is beneficial. (Maybe honed by paintball, laser tag and Army Cadets?) In video games? Uh-uh. That switch only half flips. I twitch shoot whatever scared the heck out of me. If a double tap does it, no problem... I'll keep going. But when it's a big bad and a double tap doesn't do the job, I'm usually dead after that. And then I might never play the game again.

Recently though, I tried replaying the first jump scare game that gave me trouble: Overblood. This game is EVIL! My dad bought it for me when I was 13 years old, thinking 'hm, sci-fi, my daughter likes sci-fi'. It was nightmare fodder for years. Having just read the intro/synopsis on wikipedia, it's no surprise this game traumatized me. It's the second survival horror game to use a full 3D environment. When I was 13, I hadn't even watched my first survival horror movie yet. No wonder this game gave me a kind of "virtual PTSD" Thanks dad.

My experience going through that game for the first time:

13 seconds into this video Oh my f***ing god! Get me out of here! I stopped playing before I even got to the stuff where that health bar in the top corner becomes important, about an hour into the game (for me). Watching it again was only marginally less difficult than the first time through, and I still haven't played beyond this point.

Looking at the credits for this game, I think I know why it freaked me out. The Japanese have the cultural sensibilities with regards to horror that hits me the deepest. No other culture's approach to horror can come close, for me. I have to be so so careful watching horror stories written by the Japanese, or adapted from their horror stories.

Recently, I tried playing Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. ...needless to say, that one's on my shelf of 'nuh-uh, not no-how, never again!' My husband completed it though.

[JoMama69]

Nazi zombies

[Bre Ishurna the Wolf]

In Pokemon Black.
Shaking Grass.
Meeting Gothitelle.

It goes like this:

"Oh look! Shaking Grass!" *Goes inside shaking grass in route 9, wanting an Audino*

*Gothitelle pops up with it's freaky horror movie track cry*

"OH GOD MOTHER OF-"

Edit: Also, that freaky twilight statue in Twilight Princes.

You try to get the orb of light and...

*hears different music*

*Suddenly, it attacks you*

FFffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

[RyoSoulreaper]

Edit: Also, that freaky twilight statue in Twilight Princes.

You try to get the orb of light and...

*hears different music*

*Suddenly, it attacks you*

FFffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

"Oh cool this must be part of the dungeon puzzl-OHGODWHATISHAPPENING????!!!"

Also Skyward Sword Silent Realm Guardians.

Almost got it.....
*time up*



OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD

[FlamingDbag]

Any game the involves stealth and have been roaming around for 5 minutes with no enemies in sight the entire time, suddenly hearing "HE'S HERE!" and getting shot randomly by someone off screen makes me think "fuck" everytime.

Oh and in Deus Ex EVERYTIME I get seen by a bot. They are OP as fuck and you should always STEER COMPLETELY CLEAR of them, they literally kill you in like 2 seconds.

[RyoSoulreaper]

Fucking Cazadors.

[Mr Aids]

Fucking Cazadors.

FUCKING CAZADORS.

I've played quite a few horror games but I tend to avoid games with jump scares, I think that's a cheap way to scare someone. Silent Hill is void of these scares if memory serves right and Resident Evil is as well (most of the time). Although yesterday I was playing Resident Evil 5 with my brother and we were doing one of the DLC chapters and this thing swung an anchor thing right in front of my face as I turned a corner.

Spoiler! :

NOT COOL MAN.

I think Dead Space is made up entirely of jump scares from what I've seen so that's why I haven't played it yet, I may eventually.