Infected Sounds - Voices (w/ possible decay)

[Tsukihi 1]

Having recently heard the new infected sounds, I have to say good job! It sounds much better than the current sounds, and when I heard them I couldn't help but think about how much better the atmosphere of the game will be once better infected sounds are implemented. And then I started thinking. What would a really good infected sound like to me? What would really make me feel so uneased that I had to take a break before entering a city, not because of the danger of the infected themselves, but because I have to hear the infected again?

 

I immediately thought of a video I saw on youtube titled DayZ: The Horror. It features the infected having more human-like sounds, wailing and screaming while running at you. It really made me feel like they weren't completely monsters, but something inbetween monsters and human. This makes it feel more creepy and unnatural, because they feel like us, but still not.

 

This phenomenon is called the Uncanny Valley. When a being appears human but something is slightly off; they move, look, and act slightly different. This is the reason you get creeped out when you look at pictures of distorted people looking through windows, or why slenderman and aliens are so terrifying for some. This is also the reason why moving dolls are so impactful in horror movies. Think about it, every scary horror movie that isn't based on jumpscares makes use of the uncanny valley. This is because when something that has human features obviously isn't, we are confused. It's so close to ourselves yet so different, and this makes it terrifying.

 

I think that when you're dealing with making infected humans scary, you have to build the fear-factor on the basis of the uncanny valley. It's such a powerful tool, why not use it? Here are my suggestions:

 

Infected sounds should, when decay is implemented, have three stages: 

 

Newly infected:

These infected sound more human than the rest. Their voices are like ours, but devoid of tone and emotion. It's just a monotone voice (in different pitches for different infected) that keeps saying phrases. These phrases should be jumbled up into a mess, but they could be things they said before they died or just everyday things. The infected are unaware of what they are saying, just like parrots, but they have the phrases in their memories, so they repeat them. Because humans are used to speaking all the time, and these infected are closer to human than the rest, them talking is as natural as the other infected's screams and groans. The muttering and talking gets more intense when the infected get aggravated, and they almost scream them, mixed with heavy breathing and groans, when they chase someone. This could be expanded upon, for example with mothers repeating their daughter's last words, making something akin to the witch in Left 4 Dead.

 

Regular infected:

These infected no longer speak. They should pretty much sound like the ones in "DayZ: The Horror". I think watching the video is better than any explanation I can give here, just watch the video.

 

Feral infected:

These infected are the most degraded. They no longer resemble humans in the way they sound. These should be the new sounds you guys are working on at the moment. They sound more like animals than humans, groaning and growling their way through Chernarus.

 

 

 

So yeah, tell me what you think. I really want to see DayZ make use of the uncanny valley more, as it's something that makes me more scared than anything else.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Tsukihi

[roguetrooper 201]

Useless until there are zombies of different behaviour (so far every single zombie in DayZ has exactly the same behaviour and the same level of zombification). Until then it would only be a bit variation in ambient sounds.

[liquidcactus 719]

I remember the horror video you speak of.. I posted it in the audio section on these here forums under the developer discussion and status reports sub forum

I loved those shriek scream sounds of half human, infected kinda transition. It was really special too me actually 

[degude 133]

I remember the horror video you speak of.. I posted it in the audio section on these here forums under the developer discussion and status reports sub forum

I loved those shriek scream sounds of half human, infected kinda transition. It was really special too me actually 

There you go 

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Beans for teaching me the term Uncanny Valley.

 

Also, I think the infected should have a VERY wide range of possible sounds/utterances.

 

Maybe single words of Cyrillic mixed in, almost lost in the sound.

 

Like, "It hurrrrrts!" "Pain!" "The pain." "Nyet, Nyet, Nyet, Nyet, aaaaaaaarrrrrgh!!!!"

[liquidcactus 719]

There you go 

That's the one buddeh ! 

I almost creamed the first time i seen that back when it was first uploaded

[BeefBacon 1185]

Beans for teaching me the term Uncanny Valley.

 

Also, I think the infected should have a VERY wide range of possible sounds/utterances.

 

Maybe single words of Cyrillic mixed in, almost lost in the sound.

 

Like, "It hurrrrrts!" "Pain!" "The pain." "Nyet, Nyet, Nyet, Nyet, aaaaaaaarrrrrgh!!!!"

 

That'd be cool. Sort of like the Zombies in Half-Life 2 that can be heard (I think when played backwards, but you know) saying things like "God please help me" and stuff like that. 

 

 

Also that 'The Horror' video is a really nice example of good sound design. The gun sounds could be better, but everything else is spot on.

[pale1776 375]

I liked the infected screams from The Last of Us