Quoted from Cheeks:God I've been waiting for someone to agree with me about this. I literally don't understand everyone who says this game draws you into the experience. It *could* have done that with better use of the Halloween music. But UnPleasance dominates the audio. My wife ridicules this game strictly because of the terrible voice. And if that wasn't enough, "follow the trail of blood" all the time, and the cheesy lines really feel out of place "...someone must have given him lessons." UGH! Cringe-worthy!
I also agree with you completely about Ultraman. I love the audio in that game.
This next point isn't about the audio, but your role in the story is a hot mess too, which to me eliminates being drawn in. Sometimes you're Michael, sometimes you're running from Michael. To me this is a strange (and poor) design decision. In Ultraman, you're always aiding UM. You can get drawn in because you know your role in the story.
If you were only Michael, the game could focus on killing people and trying to amass the largest body count. I could get into this. If you were Laurie or another "victim" the game would be more tense, and you would spend the whole game running from Michael or trying to sneak attack him. This would have been the smarter choice in my opinion. That would have drawn you in, and if the 2 main Halloween songs dominated the audio (instead of UnPleasance) it could have been a nail-bitter.
I'm a fan of both themes, and currently own both games. If I had to pick the theme I like better, it would be Halloween. I'm a HUGE horror movie fan. Before I bought the games, I was sure Halloween would be the one I would keep. Now it's 100% the other direction. I'll keep Halloween long enough to see it through the code development, and hope the value rises to where I don't take a bath (like people are now). But I can't imagine keeping this game. Ultraman however, I have no plans of that game leaving anytime soon.
It baffles me that there are so few of us that feel this way!
Completely agree within everything you are saying...
I actually ordered Ultraman way back when it was first announced because, while I thematically prefer Halloween, I was not convinced Spooky would be able to do the movie justice. To try "Horror" with pinball is nearly impossible and I commend Spooky for trying to give it a shot.
I recently decided to buy Halloween after playing the "Aliens" table on Pinball FX3.
If you want to experience the best "Horror" pinball experience, I suggest giving it a shot.
(Although, it is virtual pin, everything that makes it exceptional could be translated to a real pin. And yes, it is more Sci-fi than horror, but it has an element of suspense that I have yet to experience on any other pin.)
Horror is an extremely difficult genre to successfully translate into any "game" format.
Horror story telling almost HAS to be linear in delivery because every time an element in horror storytelling is repeated it diminishes the experience, (because you know what will happen). This is a huge disadvantage when trying to develop a horror movie into a pinball where elements are continuously repeated.
It means those elements MUST BE FLAWLESS IN DELIVERY to maximize the impact.
Horror (or fear) is also a very basic emotional/ instinctual response, so if an element is conveyed without any emotional attachment (in the case of the "UnPleaseance" voice) it completely kills the perception of fear. If you watch the Halloween films, you will notice that, regardless of the words he is saying, there is almost always a "desperation" in Donald Pleasence's voice. He is always trying to convince (or save) people but is unfortunately always one step behind. There is absolutely no "desperation" or "fear" in the "UnPleaseance" voice in the pinball machine, which translates to the player's subconsciousness that there is no element of fear present. Roger Ebert said this of the film; "a visceral experience—we aren't seeing the movie, we're having it happen to us".
Because the dominant audio element in the game is the "UnPleaseance" voice, it is constantly reminding the player that there is nothing to fear, even though the music, art and video display are doing everything possible to convey the opposite. This critical flaw in the game completely destroys the entire experience, because the experience is "supposed" to be fear. Although I guess one could argue that it is a pinball, so it is just supposed to be fun...but then why use a Horror movie as the subject matter?
In terms of subject matter, Halloween is a 100% serious horror film. There are no one liners, no comedic relief elements, nothing "unbelievable" (monsters, aliens etc.), nothing purposely cheesy. Any "bad" elements are due to budget, acting ability, amateur filmmaking skills etc. However, there was NEVER any intention other than to make a very serious horror film. And it did that exceptionally well for the time. I could be wrong, but I believe it was the most successful independent (and most profitable) film made at the time. I really think Spooky set out to translate that seriousness into a pinball machine and they ALMOST did it.
I implore Spooky to release an alternative code update that removes the "UnPleaseance", (or all) voices. It should take hardly any work to remove the audio. Or give the players the option to turn them off. Let players try it with just the sounds and music. It is a quiet film, why not make it a quiet game? This game deserves to be the best that it can be.
As a former Horror movie buff that has seen literally thousands of 60's-90's horror films and as a former professional audio engineer, sound designer and musician of 14 years, this is a perfect case for; "Less is more".