Why use jumpscares?

[Spudbar]

I'll be honest when I say that the game has a lot of suspense, a great atmosphere and is always keeping you paranoid and afraid. This is a great thing for a horror game to have. However when you're building up to something, you expect that something to be something great.
What does the game build up to, every single time? No exceptions? A jumpscare, and game over. This is all I have really seen from the gameplay videos that I watched, and it's all the game really seems to have for a climax. Something pops out suddenly, screams really loudly, you die.
I thought we were done with this sort of thing, honestly. Jumpscares aren't a bad thing to use, plenty of great horror games have something suddenly appearing and scaring the living ♥♥♥♥ out of you. For example the older Resident Evil games had a scene where a zombie dog jumps through a window as you're running past it. You could run or fight it, but it became a threat immediately after getting the jump on you.
Now I see games using it in a really, really lazy fashion. This game isn't any different from Slender. Suddenly the monster appears in your face, screams "Boo!" at you, and you're dead. Game over. There was no threat at all, you get your surprise and that's it. You can't do anything, you're dead. Scary, right?
Actually, no. This is why I really hate so many of these "Besht horrur gamez evur!11!1!" despite being a fan of horror games. This game has a LOT of elements that keep you on the edge of your seat and I love that, but then that's all there really is. There's a really basic story that the game offers, and the main scare is just a basic jumpscare. Really loud, annoying as ♥♥♥♥ noise, and something popping up in your face suddenly.
Why are jumpscares even scary? Well, because it's a natural human reaction to something unexpected, of course! In fact plenty of animals have a similar reaction. If you turn around, and suddenly you see something in front of you that wasn't there before, and you weren't expecting it at all, you would get a moment of fright. Same goes for if, say, someone sneaks up behind you and yells something in your ear. You get scared because you weren't expecting it and it could be something life threatening. What you feel is fear, and I GUESS that's all a horror game is trying to do to the player. Instill fear in them. Well, you know what? Jumpscares do scare you. But it's ♥♥♥♥ing lazy. Abusing a natural reaction over and over is a complete cop out move and doesn't deserve to be the face of horror games.

TL;DR - Game is awesome overall, but personally seems to fall flat on it's face when the main end-scare is always a jumpscare.

[RabidBurp]

It's a bite-sized dose of creepy atmosphere, tension and horror for $5USD.

[Overlord XON]

If this is the future of survival games, where you have no options whatsoever and jump scares are the only scary thing in it, then I guess I will quit survival horror, because this has nothing to do with survival or horror anymore in my humble opinion. Hell, even the story as like the ending of this games was disappointing. There was no conclusion or anything and yes, if I play a game, I want a conclusion to what I try to archive. If you liked the game, good for you. As for me, I was pretty disappointed... once again.

[ChaosConvexum]

Dear OP.
Jumpscares are the minimal part of this game, I can assure you. This game heavily relies on atmosphere, clever use of sound and yes, paranoia. The jumpscare is only there to tell you: "You lose". Sure, it becomes old in a few times, but it kinda sends chills up your spine to see one of them peeking through the door, motionless, only accompanied by that brief scare chord, doesn't it? Most jumpscares used in other games only cover the "scare" role, forgoing the "threat" role. What keeps you on the edge, in this game, is mainly the amount of concentration required to play (on later nights, this becomes more and more apparent, just watch a 6th night on youtube and try putting yourself in that player's shoes).

A good story can be a good element for a horror game to have, but not every one of them needs it and not every one of them needs it explained. If you look for a horror-themed story, Amnesia's always there and not running from your Steam Library. If you look for some hide&seek mixed with tag, play Slender. If you look for a game developed by one person, costing about five bucks, with an original concept and pretty efficient for what it is, FN@F is there.

There's no naked teleporting guy here. Every jumpscare has a use, other than surprising you. Fear here comes from what you know, or assume to know, or anticipate. Tension comes from the frantic search for the animatrons while they "hide" in the building. Pure, unadultered concentration for keeping track of every single one of them, and making sure they don't break your personal space's threshold. That's a good distraction from a jumpscare, thus they get you most of the time. Jumpscares aren't that numerous, just well positioned. A small group of 4 soldiers can look like an army when teamwork is applied and nobody is left for dead.

Also, "Besht horrur gamez evur!11!1!" is not what I'd call it. It'd call it "Bring me my brown pants"

[Carloslmar]

The way I see it, there's no reason for it to have such loud, screeching noises... They really bother me and my hearing being sensitive due to a sight issue makes it worse. I'm also the kind of person that hates, hates, HATES jumpscares with the passion of a thousand suns and also hates when something becomes popular because it always gets ruined by imbeciles.

Slenderman went from being a mysterious, unknown, Eldritch horror that feeds on your fear until you go insane to "lol slendy so scawwy ecks dee he just wants a hug :^D please go to my deviantart and subscribe to my youtube guise lol" LP bullcrap, completely ruining what the creator was going for and turning it into Youtube, reddurp and ♥♥♥♥ fodder.

FNAF had me really skeptical: It was popular, cheap looking and a jumpscare factory, "another indie lol so scawwy crap" I thought... Well, my friend gave it to me. It is actually a very good concept with a very good execution. It isn't original, let's get that out of the way. It is the kind of game that you could find on New grounds back in the day, but the execution is very very well done. It does today what no horror game has been able to do since Resident Evil Remake and Demento, that is making you feel actually scared for your life as well as having a way to defend yourself along with management of resources, which adds a layer of tension and it makes you feel like failure is due to your own inability to conserve power. The jumpscare being your punishment is not a bad idea at all and while they 'can' be predictable, the tension built up from trying to keep it from happening, as well as those excruciating last seconds where you just know you're screwed, make them effective and fitting.

It isn't what I'd call a "survival horror" but more like a "horror tower defense," and a very good one at that. It is well worth the 5$ it's asking for and it deserves the praise it has gotten. The developer took what little he had and made an unexpected hit that manages to do almost everything right as a horror game, with the only exception being the 'jump' hits. Look, they don't need to be so freakin' LOUD. It would've scared you anyways because of all the tension. I HATE how people don't get how to do jumpscares. Again... Capcom had it right. It wasn't super LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS but it was still effective. Silent Hill 1 did it right as well, with small noises here and there that shouldn't really happen, but since you're not expecting them, they scare ya. All this without being LOUD.

TL;DR: I'm a bitter a-hole who enjoyed this game because it brings back an experience I never had since the PS2/Gamecube days and it does it well, except for how loud the jumpscares are.

9/10