![]() Nevertheless, their stories are usually focused on Good Guys fighting against Bad Guys and coming out on top. Taking it a step further, we have a need to believe that success is possible and that the good guys win (at least most of the time).Įvery last one of the Resident Evil games is hamfisted and corny as hell. We, as humans, have a fundamental psychological need to see our deepest values reflected in the world around us, and in the art and entertainment we consume. Great Horror is Dark, Just Not Pitch Black More specifically, they emphasize that even when evil is powerful and terrifying, good can still win the day. Here’s the controversial claim you’ve been waiting for: all other things being roughly equal (mechanics and design choices do matter, of course), the best horror games emphasize and elevate heroism by drawing clear lines between good and evil. After all, Alien: Isolation is one of my favorite games of all time, and it’s at least as good as Outlast on the atmosphere front, so why do I love one and have a largely negative opinion of the other? I have different reasons for thinking that, overall, it’s not a great horror game. ![]() In fact, I readily acknowledge that Outlast is terrifying as hell and that it’s superbly good at sustaining tension for exhausting lengths of time. I don’t disagree, except to say that I don’t think being scared is the primary appeal of horror games. If pressed, many horror fans will probably tell you that, to them, the primary appeal of horror games is pretty straightforward it’s fun to be scared as long as you know you’re not in any real danger. Whereas Resident Evil scared us primarily with threats of physical harm (to our characters), Silent Hill got into our heads, planted seeds of the bizarre and unfamiliar, and let our imaginations do the rest. Silent Hill was originally (and briefly) described as a Resident Evil clone until it became widely apparent that Konami was approaching horror from a fundamentally different angle. Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 refined and improved on the original’s best attributes to this day, the original Resident Evil 2 remains the fourth-best-selling entry in the entire franchise. It’s almost always a good thing when game developers try something new, and in Resident Evil’s case, its novelty was a big factor in its tremendous success.īut horror games can certainly be great without completely reinventing the medium. It broke new ground and employed a totally original set of mechanics to draw players into its nerve-wracking world. The very first Resident Evil was something almost nobody could conceive of in 1996. What’s the Most Important Element of Good Horror Games? ![]() There is a common theme uniting all of my top best and worst picks, though it may not be obvious at first glance-more on that later. You’ll notice that I’m not crazy about some horror games that are regarded as legendary classics ( Silent Hill 2 Soma and Outlast, to lesser extents). Take a moment, if you will, to peruse this table, the contents of which you’ll almost certainly disagree with on some level.
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