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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at the 10 horror games that shocked
00:15us, but only because they turned out so bad.
00:28Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:32Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:36The Callisto Protocol
00:47With Visceral Games shutting down in 2017, there was a gloomy air about wondering if
00:52we'd ever get another Dead Space game again, let alone a spiritual successor.
00:57But when Glenn Schofield, the creator of Dead Space, announced his brand new game,
01:02we were all ears, until the very last few months before launch.
01:07The Callisto Protocol understood one aspect that made Dead Space stand out, all those
01:13gruesome ways to die.
01:15As for the rest, we wish we could say it was serviceable.
01:20The Callisto Protocol missed the mark and became the victim of rushed development in
01:24an effort to beat EA's remake of the original Dead Space.
01:28As a result, we got a game that was technically unstable, utilized unpolished controls, and
01:34could not find a way to be interesting outside of visuals.
01:38In hindsight, maybe Krafton should have held off from publishing in order to get far away
01:42from Isaac Clarke and give Schofield and company more time to refine a few things.
01:57Bendy and the Ink Machine
02:04When the first two episodes launched, Bendy and the Ink Machine was a rather unique concept.
02:10At least it was in the wave of kid-stuff-but-scary that FNAF started.
02:15Bendy told the story about an old animation team creating a cartoon character that would
02:19soon become their worst nightmare.
02:22The visuals were unique, and Bendy and the gang did have frightening designs.
02:26However, as we dove into the third and fourth episodes, the quality of the game started
02:31to tank.
02:32The game became increasingly buggy while each episode got shorter and shorter.
02:37It wound up feeling like the sudden success of Bendy was causing the quality of the game
02:41to start taking a backseat in favor of merchandise.
02:45By the time Bendy and the Ink Machine finished development, plot points were thrown out,
02:49characters became uninteresting, and ultimately, nothing was resolved.
02:54Though the game did receive a sequel in 2022 with brand new visuals under the name Bendy
02:59and the Dark Revival, it just felt like another attempt to boost merchandise sales as the
03:04game bloated itself with even more twisted characters that don't really add anything
03:08to the franchise's story, and not even the gameplay.
03:21Call of Cthulhu
03:23Despite sharing the same name as the 2005 game from Bethesda, Call of Cthulhu was unique
03:34in how it was based around the tabletop RPG Call of Cthulhu.
03:38Unfortunately, the game failed in capturing what makes the tabletop RPG fun to play.
03:43Sure, it toys around with the concept of sanity and how often you indulge in learning ancient
03:48languages and detective work, however, it fails in roleplaying with the player.
03:53No matter how you've specced your character, the ending you get is really only dependent
03:58on what happens in the last hour or so of the game.
04:01Even then, your only real choice is whether you decide to take part in the ritual or not.
04:07Some folks can appreciate the game for what it is, but for us, Call of Cthulhu really
04:11could have been fleshed out more.
04:19The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
04:26With Dead by Daylight having such a strong foothold on the horror multiplayer scene,
04:30it's become next to impossible for any competitors to penetrate this niche market.
04:35At one point, it did seem like Texas Chainsaw was going to be a worthy contender.
04:40While Dead by Daylight kept killers and solo queues, Texas Chainsaw was shaking things
04:44up by letting you hunt down other players alongside friends.
04:48But in the fruitless endeavor to keep the game balanced, developer Sumo Digital gave
04:52victim players enough tools to turn into bully squads and speedrunners.
04:56It wasn't long before matches were ending faster than a Super Mario 64 speedrun.
05:01Killer players eventually left, and now Texas Chainsaw is a wasteland of long matchmaking
05:06queues and overpriced DLC.
05:09Dead Space 3
05:21In the late 2000s and early 2010s, some survival horror games were suddenly trying to be Call
05:26of Duty, or got codified as I like to put it.
05:30Dead Space 3 was one of many victims as the first hour of the game retains the horror
05:34atmosphere.
05:36As for the rest of the game, nah.
05:38This is only the third game in the series.
05:40Who needs horror anymore when we can just make weapons as ridiculous as Ratchet and
05:44Clank?
05:45Instead of finding new ways to terrify players, Dead Space 3 wanted us to team up with a friend
05:50and go super soldier on the Necromorphs, both approaches that effectively eliminated any
05:55ounce of horror that could have remained.
05:58Even then, the game wasn't even that great of an action-first game, and it's for those
06:03reasons why Dead Space 3 lives a life of infamy.
06:11Alone in the Dark
06:21On paper, Alone in the Dark could very well succeed in the modern era.
06:26With survival horror games like Resident Evil and a variety of indie titles to follow, an
06:30Alone in the Dark reboot would have plenty of ideas to pull from.
06:34Alas, this is the fourth consecutive time the IP has fallen flat on its face.
06:40The 2024 rendition injected quite a bit of money into its visuals and story, but what
06:45about combat, puzzles, and just decent writing?
06:49Doesn't seem like it.
06:51The tone is constantly inconsistent, as characters are bewildered and confused one moment, but
06:57calm and collected two minutes later.
07:01Combat, on the other hand, is clunky and unsatisfying, as you're practically flailing whatever you
07:05can equip.
07:06In the end, Alone in the Dark thought it could bank on brand recognition and being mysterious
07:11and confusing without actually delivering anything substantial.
07:15Developer Pieces Interactive was shut down in June 2024, three months after launch.
07:21Honestly, we're starting to think this IP might be cursed.
07:33Scorn
07:41Scorn had all the right cards it needed to play, unique art style, puzzles designed around
07:47the unsettling visuals, and a ton of imagination behind the world-building.
07:52So what exactly went wrong here?
07:54It was the intense focus on the puzzles and the lackluster combat.
07:58Nothing could prepare us for the amount of cart-pushing and gun-poking we'd have to
08:03go through for this game.
08:05On top of that, Scorn was an unstable mess at launch, as many players reported corrupted
08:10or missing save files.
08:12And this was all before they fixed checkpoints and properly dispersed them.
08:18Scorn really had everything going right in the months leading up to launch, but all of
08:22this made it crash and burn in the most miserable way possible.
08:27Fethriar
08:34Once upon a time, F.E.A.R. was one of the most well-respected and revered horror franchises
08:39in gaming.
08:40The scares that the first two games brought will always stick with us, but it only makes
08:44the memory of the third game more resented.
08:47Much like Dead Space 3, Fethriar made the mistake of teetering too deep into the shooter
08:53side of its gameplay and had the horror take a back seat.
08:56It isn't an awful game, but given what fans were expecting after the first two games,
09:02a proper F.E.A.R. 3 would have had a compelling narrative and remained consistent in terrifying
09:07us.
09:08But we don't have F.E.A.R.
09:093.
09:10We have F.E.A.R.
09:11FETHRIAR, as the game's box art wants to put itself.
09:15Martha is Dead
09:30Initially, there wasn't much reason to pay attention to Martha is Dead, not until Sony
09:35got involved.
09:37When it was revealed that the game would be censored on PlayStation and only PlayStation,
09:42suddenly there was interest in Martha is Dead.
09:45Could a game so shocking possibly be a new boom for horror games?
09:50Not at all.
09:51To its credit, the game does have a compelling narrative with its World War I setting and
09:55premise of posing as a dead person.
09:57The problem is mainly in its pacing, and it can kill a player's investment in a flash.
10:03For every minute of ultra-intense highs, you have long stretches of low, calm moments
10:09that kind of make you forget that you are playing a horror game, and it can get worse
10:14if you hit a point where you aren't sure what you should be doing.
10:17R.I.P. and peace, Martha is Dead.
10:27Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach
10:33Officer Vanessa, I do not know how I got here.
10:37What an abysmal missed opportunity.
10:41There were a ton of reasons to be hyped about Security Breach.
10:44Finally, we were getting a FNAF game in the style of a survival horror where you have
10:50to explore a large environment with enemies lurking around corners.
10:54If only the damn game worked.
10:58Enemies can detect you from a mile away and will somehow find you hiding even if you bolted
11:03around a corner or two.
11:05On top of that, the AI is broken to the point where you may be able to cheat your way out
11:10of getting a game over just by wedging yourself between objects.
11:15And this all goes without mentioning the lack of information the game gives you on where
11:19you need to go, or how cameras can sometimes fail in giving you the necessary info as to
11:26where enemies are wandering about.
11:28Security Breach wound up being one of the worst games to come out in 2021, and one of
11:34the worst horror games made in recent years, and even today, the game is still barely functional
11:40on PS5.
11:42I am still finding exploits for this game.
11:45That's how busted this game is.
11:53Which horror game disappointed you the most?
11:56I don't know if you could tell, but mine is Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach.
12:00I've been playing this game recently, and my god, it sucks.
12:05But did your pick make our list?
12:07Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great
12:11videos every day.