When I was a little girl I played Resident Evil for the first time. Well, I say ‘played’ – I meant I had my nose stuck in a guide book 90% of the time so that it could tell me what horrible thing lurked behind the next door. I was basically cheating but I didn’t care. I was scared. When I was a little older, I had thrown away all the guide books and magazine walkthoughs and was shuffling my way through Silent Hill. I had a love/hate relationship with those games for years. The first, second and third Silent Hill games were the most uncomfortable, stress-inducing and horrible games to play, but I played them, and I played them again. It’s so odd.
Survival Horror games used to be about just that. Survival. Most of the time it will be about an average person who has been caught in an extraordinary position, like say, the dead being not quite dead, or the protagonist choosing a rather unfortunate place to go on holiday that year.
But fast forward to 2009, and the Resi games are all about muscle, steroids and hot babes. I’m not complaining about the last two games. In fact, I rather enjoyed them. But I would like to know which gym Leon and Chris have been going to, because they certainly weren’t capable of gracefully dodging lasers and beating up rocks in the first few games. Okay, so maybe Chris has always been a bit ‘ard, but Leon… hmmm, I’m not so sure. The thing is, as enjoyable and cool as these games have become, they are not scary in the slightest. And while I embrace change, and understand that some things have to evolve, I would like to see more horror games. In the Xbox 360 world of readily available guns and endless bullets, I would like to see a quieter, eerier game that psychologically knocks you about a bit.
But wait! Surely there are newer titles to take the Survival Horror crown?
Well, we have Left 4 Dead, the Condemned games, certain sections of F.E.A.R. I guess, the brilliant Dead Space and, at a stretch, Alone In The Dark. We also have the upcoming title Alan Wake (if it ever gets released), but I’ll reserve judgement for when I finally get to play it. Silent Hill: Homecoming could have been great but it was ruined by the worst control system in the world (thus making bosses that should have been easy as pie a lot harder to beat). Maybe I just want to be spoilt but I want more! I would like to feel the way I did when that dog suddenly burst through the window, or when the Tyrant came crashing through the wall. I want to amble through a quiet, almost black corridor, wondering if the distant sound I heard was a prelude to impending terror.
Horror films these days don’t seem to work. They seem to rely on make-you-jump tactics only and that’s why most of them aren’t very good. But these tactics, although they shouldn’t be used alone, seem to work in games because you are the person in danger and it’s your life at stake! …ish.
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