Practical Analysis: Resident Evil

Now I will start my primary research into how the first three Resident Evil games, which I believe are all very similar and fall under the same umbrella (ha, get it?), use audio and visual elements to create fear and tension. I will look into the pinnacle moments in these games; the events, the characters and the environments which may be used to build an immersive and frightening gaming experience. 

Following this I will test my own personal accounts of these games against secondary research and opinion. Additionally, I will also have a bit of fun and ask some of my friends to personally play the games I will look at and video their responses while playing.

But that's all (hopefully) to come!

PRESS START

NEW GAME

*Deep, intimidating voice sneers*

"Resident Evil"

Immediately, considering whether you find this narration humorous or terrifying, you know this is something special. And somewhat proud- the game creators had the confidence to sneer at the player in an almost Vincent Price-esque manner, a possible sign of the game's self-assurance. It knows (or at least hopes) you're going to be scared by this game, and players are hopefully going to be rattled by it. 

The original Resident Evil had a hold on the survival horror genre straight from its 1996 release. The trademark moments in-game cemented its place in PlayStations around the world and allowed many sequels to be spawned.

As you move along the corridor you hear a tap on the window. 

Keep on walking and the dogs will make a sudden entrance.

One of the first and most notable moments in the game is, of course, the zombie-dogs crashing through the window in that corridor. This kind of cheap scare became a staple fear device in the rest of the series, with enemies popping round corners, out of walls and a host of other places. The problem I found with this however is how, when playing, the player starts to become desensitized. As I was progressing through the game I found myself gradually not becoming as frightened by the things that would jump out at me. Certain clues would start to give away when an enemy would appear, like when you haven't seen one for a while or you see something which quickly darts out of view. As I've already wrote, this can be disturbing. You don't know what it is, where it's gone and when it will attack, but after a while I found myself being prepared for anything that would appear. This raises questions of how to avoid this happening and what games would have to do to keep this type of cheap but useful scare tactic fresh and exciting.

Regardless of it's life value, the "sudden appearance" scare still had an effect on me while I was playing. Going back to my first example of it, the zombie dogs, I was still shocked by their entrance, bringing me into the game experience and allowing me to expect things like that to happen again. But what if they didn't? What if the cheap scare was only a precursor to the rest of the scares in-game, making us believe that all we are going to see are monsters popping up, when really new and fresh scare tactics await the player? Unfortunately for Resi, the series has always relied on the cheap scare, just as horror films have. But to truly scare players nowadays, who are wise to the ways of the survival horror genre, something new must be introduced to keep the fear flowing. But what?