The Haunted Mansion: Fun With Grim Grinning Ghosts

Welcome foolish mortals, to the next installment of Halloween-inspired posts on Strange Moments in Gaming.  If you're a fan of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, then the game featured today is right up your alley.  This game is none other than The Haunted Mansion, a ghost-filled experience that is somewhat unique due to being based on a theme park ride.

Ready to dive into this massive house of spooks?  Ok then, there's no turning back now.

First thing's first, don't be deterred by the fact that this game was released in the same year as Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion movie, this game has nothing to do with that mostly-unfunny film.  This means no annoying subplots involving kiddies trying to face their fears or whatever nonsense happened in the movie (I've only seen it once).

In the game you play as Zeke, who has applied for the caretaker job position at the mansion, not knowing that the house is packed with nine hundred and ninety nine happy haunts (sorry, it's very hard to write about this game without referencing the ride's audio track).  Anyway, the truth about the mansion hits Zeke the moment he walks through the door and encounters his welcoming committee AKA a large group of ghosts.

Soon afterward we are introduced to Madame Leota, who you may remember from the ride as the talking head inside of a crystal ball.  It is here that you learn about the plot, involving an evil wizard who has enslaved the ghosts of the mansion and forced them to do his bidding.  In short, you have to explore the various rooms of the mansion while fighting off evil spirits and gigantic spiders, in order to restore peace for the happy ghosts who inhabit the place.

The majority of evil ghosts you encounter aren't all that scary.  They'll usually just spawn in large groups and then charge at your location, making them easy cannon fodder for your magical spirit lamp (your only weapon in the game).  However, there is one type of evil specter that can be somewhat freaky, due to the fact that they don't make any sound as they slowly stalk you through the rooms.  Once they get in striking range though, they will scream like a banshee to inflict damage (oops I mean "fear" as the game puts it).  I was pleasantly surprised to receive a couple slight jump scares from what I initially thought was a kid's game.

The best part of The Haunted Mansion though is its various references to the ride it's based off of.  You'll explore rooms containing the famous "changing" paintings from the ride's queue, as well as the statues whose gaze follows your movements.  You'll have a humorous encounter with the hitchhiking ghosts, and the singing quartet busts from the graveyard even make an appearance, complete with new songs to serenade you with.

In short, if you're a Disneyland fanatic this is a game you should have in your collection.  If you can get past the simple gameplay you will find this to be a game with a very enjoyable spooky atmosphere.

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Five Nights at Freddy's: The Pizzeria From Hell

It's October again!  Time to drag those dusty Halloween decorations down from the attic, then load up a horror movie while you carve up some pumpkins.  October also means it's time for Strange Moments in Gaming to transform into Scary Moments in Gaming, where you'll find articles about all sorts of creepy and/or terrifying segments of games.

So let's kick off the month of horror with one of the scariest and most suspenseful games I've played in years: Five Nights at Freddy's.

Freddy Fazbear, your new best friend.

The premise of Freddy's is that you are a security guard who works the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a sort of alternate universe Chuck-E-Cheese where instead of a single ugly rat mascot, there are four animatronic animal mascots.

Aww, they are so....unsettling.

So far you might be thinking "hey this isn't so bad, I'm just making sure nobody breaks in and messes with the animatronics."  Upon starting the first night of your job this assumption is quickly shattered as you receive a phone call from a security guard who previously held your job position.  It turns out that after the pizzeria closes for the night, the animatronics are set to a free-roaming mode to prevent their servo motors from locking up (or so the former guard says).

He also notifies you that if any of the mascots see you at night they won't recognize you as a human, but will instead think you are an animatronic who hasn't gotten into costume.  This will result in the mascot forcibly stuffing you into a vacant suit (which is full of various electronics, leaving no room for a human to fit), instantly killing you.  Remember that line in Jurassic Park when Jeff Goldblum states that when Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists?  Apparently something equally nasty happens in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Anyway, upon starting the game you immediately experience a feeling of helplessness.  The whole game takes place in the pizzeria's surveillance room, where the only movement you are allowed is a slight turning of your head.  So much for running away...

While in the office, you can check out the various cameras to see different locations in the pizzeria, including the room where the animatronics are stored.  You can also light up the doorways to your left and right, just to take a peek at any potential "buddies" standing outside.  There's also a panic button that shuts the doors to the office to prevent the mascots from seeing and killing you.

Now you might be wondering why you can't just lock both doors and wait out the night, and here's where strategy factors into the game.  You are given a limited amount of power, and performing actions such as looking through the security cameras or closing the doors will drain the power at a faster rate.  If the power drains completely, all the lights go out and you're left completely exposed to the horrors patrolling the place.  Therefore you must conserve energy and hope you have enough to keep you alive until 6am.

Basically, the "you're screwed" moment in the game.

Ok, now that we've established the atmosphere (although the only way to do it justice is to experience it yourself), let's talk about a typical night on guard duty.  The night starts off fine and dandy of course, a quick peek at the security cameras shows the animatronics all safe and sound in their room, standing completely still.  Coming back to this camera later will usually show one or more of the mascots have gone missing, which is when the terror begins.

They are all there.....for now.

At this point you have to frantically switch between the various cameras to keep track of which rooms the mascots are currently patrolling in.  A "fun" fact is that on the security cameras you rarely actually see the animatronics move, they will just be standing frozen in a different position each time you check on them.  To screw with you the game includes one camera with audio only, so you can listen to these horrors knocking over pots and pans and various props as they stalk around.

Also to mess with your head, every once in a while a hallucination will quickly pop up on the screen, usually involving one of the animatronics in a disturbing state, such as missing their eyeballs.  You know...in case this game wasn't scary enough already.

Barney the Dinosaur has really let himself go.

Anyway, if you notice that one or more of the mascots is getting a little too close to your office for comfort, it's time to quickly shut the doors and wait for them to go away.  If you don't close up in time, you will be presented with an absolutely terrifying jump scare where one of the mascots will appear directly in front of you and proceed to lunge in your face (one of the only times we actually see them move), causing an instant game over.  I'm not exaggerating about the terror of this jump scare either; the first time it happened to me, I was switching out of security camera view so I could shut the door, only to be greeted by a screaming and biting animatronic in my face.

Warning: Do not play if you have a phobia involving animatronics.

It's the anticipation of this jump scare that makes Five Nights at Freddy's the most suspenseful games in years.  It's all about avoiding this one-hit, wet-your-pants death.  You have a feeling of dread the entire time you're playing, it is seriously stressful.  And as the title suggests, you have to make it through five nights of this, with increasingly difficult AI.

Words really cannot describe the experience of playing Five Nights at Freddy's.  If you have a love of horror games this is a must play.  If you don't have nerves of steel....well I warned you!

For everyone who has already played this game, what did you think of it?  Did you survive all five nights?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad