Interactive Terror
03 Nov 2009 3 Comments
in uncategorized Tags: alone in the dark, america, black plague, halloween, history, horror, left 4 dead, penumbra, pop culture, popular culture, pyramid head, red pyramid, resident evil, silent hill, siren, survival horror, terror, video game, zero punctuation, zombies
IGN recently published a reflective article on the history of survival horror for Halloween. This is a very sensitive subject to me, being a fan of the survival horror genre of video games. Truth be told, this storytelling medium for horror is a sad story at best. A point I would like to make is how survival horror has become something else entirely. Some call retro games such as Sweet Home or Zombies Ate My Neighbors the first survival horror games, but I’m not so quick to include them in this already limited subgenre of titles. Survival horror, as I see it, began with three prominent series of the 90′s. These were Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Alone in the Dark came first, and opened the doors for japanese developer Capcom to create its zombie infested Resident Evil series. Next, came Silent Hill 1& 2– the latter of which introduced gamers to pyramid head– the most feared and recognizable villain in survival horror.
What needs to be said is that each of these classic series is still living in one form or another today. Sadly, none are what they once were. Some, you could say, are zombies themselves. Neither living nor completely dead. One of them is Alone in the Dark. The last title attempted a reboot of the series, which had mixed reviews and less than pleasing sales. While it presented a number of innovative features such as inventory use and management and cinematic style, it fell on its face due to clumsy controls and a bland story. Resident Evil is kicking and has become a lucrative action series, but purists point out that it is no longer survival horror. While Resident Evil 4 and 5, the most recent flagship titles in the series have been of excellent quality, they have completely traded frights for thrills. Scares have been traded out in favor of explosions and ammo is plentiful. Silent Hill, which always prefered overwhelming dread, oppression, and psychological torment over jumps, has at least attempted to keep to its roots. Unfortunately, none in this series have been very good since the third game, and even it couldn’t hold a candle to its predecessor.
So what is the point of this sob story? Well, I think it has a lot to say about western audiences. Most of the argument against pop culture revolves around it being a steady decline into entertaining the simplest facets of the human mind. It’s difficult to not see the possibility of truth in this. Of the three founding fathers of survival horror, two have attempted to stay on path, and have become less successful, both critically and with the masses. Resident Evil strayed far from the path into the realm of action and has become very successful. Sure, I will admit that the last two Resident Evil games have been great, number 4 was possibly one of the greatest games of all time, but at what cost?
Does this show that we don’t care about atmosphere anymore? I would hate to think so. Even amongst these issues, hope remains. More recent games such as Dead Space and Siren: Blood Curse have offered satisfactory frights for gamers. Sadly, many survival horror enthusiasts, me included, believe that this genre is knocking on death’s door. Perhaps this genre will never truly return to its roots, but we still have hope that it will carry on in one form or another. And of course, we always have the memories…
IGN Presents the History of Survival Horror: http://retro.ign.com/articles/104/1040759p1.html
For further reading, consult this list of some of my favorite horror games past to present:
Silent Hill 1-3, Resident Evil 1-3, Penumbra, F.E.A.R., Resident Evil 4 & 5*, Dead Space, Condemned 1& 2, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly, STALKER, Siren: Blood Curse, System Shock 1 & 2, and Left 4 Dead*
* Not really survival horror, but great action horror games.
My favorite of all time is Silent Hill 2. I could tell you why I think it’s great, but Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is better with words. So if you’d like, watch his video review here:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/878-Silent-Hill-2
Nov 16, 2009 @ 01:27:52
There are few moments in video game history as scary as the dogs jumping through the widows in the original Resident Evil. Few moments that genuinely immersed me enough to temporarily convince me that this isn’t just another video game. In fact, I think that moment stands as the only instance where I actually dropped the controller. Then came Silent Hill.
Silent Hill wasn’t as much ‘scary’ as it was ‘disturbing’. It traded ‘BOO’ tactics in favor of a consistent sense of dread. You knew when something was coming for you a distance before it reached you… you just didn’t want to find out what it was; much less attack it. But that is the only way to move forward in video games: confronting and destroying the enemy. Silent Hill made this monotonous task cerebral.
Unfortunately, this leads me to think you’re right about western audiences. Generally speaking, entertainment should not be intellectually challenging. Generally speaking, entertainment should offer escapism. There are obviously exceptions to this rule and the exceptions become ‘cult classics’. But, what’s wrong with that? True, this trend (along with monetary worries) leads uniquely creative ideas back to the beaten path eventually… but that effectively makes the original titles even more memorable. This is what gives me hope for upcoming titles like “Alan Wake”… though technically I doubt it will be categorized as ‘survival horror’.