But before I analyse Resident Evil...
Tonight was interesting. So I thought I'd quickly note down what happened.
Admittedly a trip to a forest late at night wasn't intentionally educational (educational being relevant to what I'm investigating at the moment), but after traipsing around in the pitch black with only a few torches you start to question what you are actually afraid of. Until you see what looks like a figure in the distance.
There were 6 of us, me included, with 4 torches. I think. The moment I stepped out of the car I knew I was in a scene reminiscent of a horror film. Teenagers go off to forest, say they'll be right back, and don't. We did, and I knew we would. There was nothing in that forest except the unknown. Which was exactly what was scary.
Of course, this has an obvious connection to survival horrors. As noted in this brilliant article I found on GamaSutra, the kind of scares I was experiencing were created out of nothing but my own imagination running wild. As the article states, "Being visual creatures, humans are most comforted by sight because of our ability to discern objects, action and consequences based on a picture". With only the ability to see only a few metres ahead, I was unable to know what we were walking into, or more importantly, who we would walk into. On top of this horror fiction cliche, it was also unbelievably foggy, just the perfect night to get spooked in the middle of nowhere and not see the axe murderer who was probably watching us walk into his trap.
All of the survival horror games I've ever played have utilised this obvious but incredibly powerful tool. Who knows what's round the corner? In the game world, anything is possible. We wouldn't (hopefully) see zombies shuffling towards us in the real world, but in game imagination is endless. Anything could pop from anywhere.
So as I clutched my feeble wind-up torch, glancing around quite a bit for some sign that there in fact was something there, there suddenly was. I saw a moving light, and later on, what looked like a figure. Just thinking that you've seen something that has any similarity to an object with it's own mind can set your adrenaline pumping. Even the smallest things can mess with you when you only see a small part of them. As mentioned in said article, "Even if visual stimuli is used, limiting or obfuscating the player’s view can enhance the horror in a game, especially if the player sees it for an incredible short time. This can hint both at the difficulty of an upcoming encounter, or even allude to matters earlier in the narrative that the player will soon have to face". You've seen something ahead, now you know what you're dealing with, but it's disappeared. Where has it gone? Has it seen you?
Condemned and Resident Evil have used this technique, like many other games, very well. In the former, enemies may make an early appearance just as you enter a new area and hide. You know you have to progress past them and you know that they're there, but you don't know when or where they will strike. I found myself moving very slowly throughout the course of Condemned, the fear of not knowing when you're going to get hit by a 2x4 piece of wood is not something to run head first into.
Resident Evil is also guilty of using snippets of enemies which disappear as soon as you hear/see them. My personal favourite is the famous debut of the Licker in Resident Evil 2. As you move along a corridor in the police station, with no sounds of zombies groaning off screen, something 4-legged crawls across one of the windows you pass by. As soon as you take a second look, it's not there anymore. Immediately this triggers feelings of caution in me, you know that you're going to have to face it. And you do, sooner than you expect. Walk up to that puddle of blood and the FMV introducing the Licker dangling from the ceiling kicks in.
No more unknown.
Now, you've got to deal with what you've found.
[1] GamaSutra: Opinion - What makes a Horror Game Scary?, 27/02/09, Nayan Ramachandran. Retrieved on 03/04/09.
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