Peanuckle on 16/1/2008 at 02:13
I had no problem with the inverted manse. Heck, I ran in the front gate and had me a good ol' fashioned melee. For me, the undead are only scary when you don't have a reliable way to defend yourself (that anti-zombie sword). My fear factor comes in when you have limited resources to deal with an endless foe.
TheDorkProject on 16/1/2008 at 17:22
The zombies didn't bother me too much in Thief when I first played it, what got me was The Sword. Constantine's mansion just freaked me out... completely. I made the mistake of killing everyone because back then I was just sort of a trigger happy FPS player who wasn't really trying to play the game the way I suppose it's more meant to be played. As I got deeper in I got more stealthy, and on subsequent play throughs of the game I was even more so.
Anyway, killing all the guards removed the one connection to sort of other normal human beings that place had, at least the guards seemed to be normal guys just doing a job. Once they were all dead and gone, maybe with a couple blackjacked but, still, effectively the same as dead... it became a very isolated, freaky place to be. As I completed the mission and ran out of the mansion my heart was pounding, I was literally terrified more than I've ever been in real life of anything, and wanted more than anything to get OUT of that place.
Cathedral was pretty scary for me too, maybe bonehoard somewhat, but cragscleft wasn't too bad for me.
I think a big part of why Thief has so much power to scare is the bad graphics, there was something very gritty and REAL feeling about the dark engine. The Quake 1 engine had the same thing. They both just felt very gritty and real, like they didn't LOOK like reality but they had some kind of quality in common with reality that few other games have hit upon, and yes the sound engine of dark had a huge deal to do with it also.
Another hugely important factor in it's ability to frighten was the low low polygon enemies. This was the case for SS2 as well, in both games the polygon count on all the humanoids was so low as to create the impression more of a posessed marrionette (puppet) than a person. They always struck me like that, like some kind of living dolls, with blank expressions and you know those wooden little models that art teachers would have and they could pose in any way they wanted to help them draw a figure? reminded me a bit of those too. To my mind, the idea of something like that, come to life, is extremely scary in the right context. A lot of factors came together in Thief to make it a terrifying experience, and that wasn't even the primary purpose of the game. However, I don't doubt that a lot of this was intentional.
I had a more visceral response like the original poster described to the hybrids in System Shock 2. The first time I encountered one it inspired a 8 month or so hiatus from even attempting the game. Now I'm not going to say that factors like forgetfulness, getting distracted by other games, and life in general, didn't play a part, but fear was certainly a big part of it too.
ataricom on 16/1/2008 at 18:40
Christ, don't even get me started on SS2. CREEPY ASS SHIT is what it is. I had nightmares for weeks after my first Midwife encounter. Again, like you just said, DorkProject, the low-poly contrasting with the (for the time) relatively clean rendered Von Braun, scared the crap out of me. Of course, the Rebirth mod (yay pretty high-poly models) made it too comical for me.
We need more games like this. FEAR and Doom just don't cut the cake. I'm sorry but the BOO! factor is nothing compared to something that makes you hide in the corner with the all the lights on for a month.
Good Cog on 21/1/2008 at 01:42
Why are you afraid?
Thief 1 and 2 speak to the unconscious mind in a very direct way - they are great gaming achievements. The only other time your unconscious mind controls your brain so completely is when you watch a really gripping film - or perhaps at night, when you dream. Your conscious mind knows that the game isn't real, but your primitive subconscious can't make the distinction - all it needs are a few cues to accept a scene as absolute reality. As you focus on the screen and get absorbed by the surroundings (a hypnotist would categorize this as a trance-like state), your subconscious reacts in a purely animal way to any perceived danger - fight or flight? Both require huge amounts of adrenalin, which get released at regular intervals while playing Thief. It's a rush. What too many game developers these days fail to realise is that the graphics hardly matter - in fact, in some ways, the more basic, the better (the unconscious doesn't require details, only mood triggers). The graphics may be crude by current standards but they still work as 'heightened reality'. Think of a bad dream you once had - how detailed was it really? Most dreams are quite simple in detail but you can still have a powerful emotional reaction to them. Thief is terrific at evoking deep-rooted fears through simple mood settings. Then there's the music. I've always admired the background music in Thief 1 and 2. It's hardly music at all, it's often just a single tone held for a very long time - then it rises or falls, signifying...what? Sometimes it matters that the tone changes, sometimes it doesn't, but that creates an exquisite tension. Again, it plays on subconscious fears. The zombies are effective because everyone is scared of death at some level - however much you try to rationalise it, being attacked by a corpse is... well..scary. Stir into this brew the fact that the main character has to spend a lot of time hiding (which manipulates the unconscious into thinking that there must be something dreadful out there) and you have the perfect recipe for a waking nightmare. In fact, that just about sums it up.
This game encourages a trance-like state in the player which is more akin to an open-eyed dream (or nightmare) than anything else I've ever played.
Haplo on 21/1/2008 at 02:09
I stopped being afraid of undead after I finished The Inverted Manse on expert, achieving all the optional objectives.
I recommend it to all the people who are scared of the undead.
jtr7 on 21/1/2008 at 03:25
Quote:
This is the first time I've
ever been scared!
So, to bring the thread back to the original question. Why is ataricom more frightened during
recent attempts to play Thief, than the
first time, when it wasn't so bad? :)
Peanuckle on 21/1/2008 at 20:48
Maybe it took time for the fear to really sink in, like how sometimes when a person suffers great emotional loss, they're fine for a week or so, then randomly break down. Delayed grief reaction its called. So this could be a delayed fear reaction?
ataricom on 21/1/2008 at 21:09
Over a period of eight years? Possibly, I guess.:confused:
nickie on 23/1/2008 at 15:00
Just wonder if perhaps its an age related thing. Just reading this thread reminded me that I used to be terrified of dying. And one day I realised I wasn't and put it down to the fact that my children were grown up and could take care of themselves and I didn't have to worry what horrible person they'd have to live with if we died.
So maybe you've just reached an age where your imagination has kicked in, or maybe an event has triggered some unconscious/subconscious fear, or maybe something has happened which has, on some very deep level, changed the way you think about things or maybe etc. etc. I could go on for quite a while on this theme. But I won't. :)
Nightcrowe on 24/1/2008 at 19:04
Well, I've always been terrified of the undead ever since I first played TDP (back in the Dark Ages :p ). The haunts scare me too, but I especially detest the undead :eek: .... so if it can get worse over time for some people, what chance do I stand? :erg: :wot: .
