Author Topic: Welcome to the Survival Horror  (Read 4179 times)

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Offline Halbred

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Welcome to the Survival Horror
« on: March 17, 2011, 08:13:55 PM »

It's Resident Evil's 15th birthday, kids. Ah, the terrifying memories.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25722

Way back in 1996, Capcom released a game considered by many to be the grandaddy of modern horror games. Games from Silent Hill to Clock Tower, Haunting Ground to Eternal Darkness, and everything in between probably owe their very existence to this old PlayStation classic. NWR is celebrating its 15th birthday with a trio of articles. In the first one, Zach Miller reveals the wealth of re-releases and remakes of the original — now ancient — PSOne game. Next, Andy Goergen reminisces on the joys and scares of the GameCube REmake. Last but certainly not least, Pedro Hernandez reviews the history of the series on Nintendo systems. While often thought of as a Sony-friendly series, Resident Evil has a long, and perhaps more substantial, history over at Nintendo.

So turn out the lights, turn up the speakers, and join us for a look back on Resident Evil.

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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2011, 09:36:18 PM »
Was the series ever that scary? I've heard the first three are, but I guess that sort of thing is subjective.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2011, 09:43:44 PM »
My first experience with the game was with the GC remake, which I rented. I hated it so much that it led to me ignoring all the praise of RE4 until I played a friend's copy of the Wii version.
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Offline pandaradox

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2011, 01:56:43 AM »
The unfortunate part of Resident Evil is that you had to be there at the time of the game's release.  These games have a hard time standing the test of time because the stuff introduced in each gets copied, compromising originality and the experience.  When I played RE 1 on the saturn, I was thoroughly impressed with the danger of the game and it's great sense of atmosphere.  When I went back to play the remake, it only held it's own because I had the perspective of the first game to relate back to and those feelings were still very much engrained in me.  If you weren't there, you simply missed out.  This is why RE 4 probably resonated with you much more because it's not as old.  It's the whole great conversation and whatnot that can skew the context that each iteration needs to be taken in. 



Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2011, 03:02:51 AM »
I remember watching the first Resident Evil game being played around and I'll be honest, I thought it was pretty disturbing and scary. It was the first game of its kind for me. I mean, that first zombie you see in the first game actually impressed me. Note this was before zombies were EVERYWHERE in the media, so the rarity of the creature made it that much fascinating and disturbing to watch.

I didn't have a PlayStation, but I did have a Gamepro subscription so I learned a lot about the series. I finally managed to play the third game thanks to my cousins, and it was really fun. The game startled me, but I still had fun.

The problem, I think, the RE series has now is that zombies are no longer scary. They are now overused to the point where they are no longer appealing. I think it was smart of them to change them for RE 4.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2011, 03:12:02 AM »
RE4 had the Regenerators, which were their own kind of disturbing.


Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2011, 03:23:52 AM »
RE4 had the Regenerators, which were their own kind of disturbing.



It also had some of the most disturbing deaths in any game to date. :O
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Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2011, 01:57:54 PM »
Like with insano, my first time playing a RE game was with the GameCube remake (and that was because of how great EGM made it sound). However, I liked the game and found it really fun.
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Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2011, 08:21:37 PM »
The next page of the feature is up, Andy Goergen remembers his experience with the Resident Evil Remake:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25743
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Offline Razorkid

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2011, 08:24:53 PM »
When I was in high school, I didn't know anything about this game. I remember watching my friend play the first RE during a sleep over on playstation and it scared the crap outta me. For one, the graphics were incredible at the time, and I've never played or watched a game up to that point which was intentionally trying to scare you!


Also, I too miss being able to seclude myself and just get lost in hours upon hours of gaming (breaking only to eat and go to the bathroom).
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Offline oohhboy

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2011, 08:37:37 PM »
I don't think the RE games have ever been scary. Startling yes, disturbing yes, cool yes, but never scary. The last time I saw something scary on TV was back when I was 5 and saw bits Aliens. I don't doubt it would be scary for people with much weaker mental constitution.

There is a game I have, but I don't play. It's called Penumbra. I watched a LP of it and quite frankly I don't want to play it. Not because the gameplay is bad or graphics are terrible. I dread the helplessness and isolation that game instills the player. I wouldn't even call it survival horror, just plain Horror. There are extremely limited ways to fight back which don't even exists in the sequel. In a way, it is the ultimate stealth game, but you have to run most of the time. You have to break your instincts as a gamer that you can just kill everything or you can always fight back.

That said, I don't ever want RE to be like that. It's not what RE is about. RE always has fight or flight, but has always leaned heavily towards fight.
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Offline Razorkid

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2011, 08:50:27 PM »
Yeah, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is like that. It's from the same developer and is a game that just terrorizes you the whole way.  I mean you are keyed up! And of course, there is no combat (the best element to make any game 10X scarier).
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Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2011, 03:59:33 PM »
The next page of the feature is up, the history of the RE series on Nintendo consoles, written by me:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25731
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Offline Tansunn

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2011, 05:58:41 PM »
What are these "multiplayer modes in Resident Evil 4" you speak of? 

And why do the screenshot thumbnails, except for the first one and the last two, bring up pictures of kittens when clicked?

Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2011, 07:48:05 PM »
Are the pictures of kittens from Nintendogs + Cats? If so, yeah, the HTML coding I used had those pictures. Regarding the RE 4 multiplayer mode, I meant to say the "Mercenary Modes", though I could have sworn there was a Mercenary mode that had some form of multiplayer. I;ll fix those as soon as the page itself goes back to normal.
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Offline Halbred

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2011, 08:56:20 PM »
There will be multiplayer in the 3DS version of Mercenaries. Boy, do I WISH RE4 Mercs had multiplayer.
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Offline Tenser

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2011, 11:11:51 PM »
Great read Pedro.
 
Sweet Home is an excellent game. I've completed it three times myself and it really shows the roots of Resident Evil. One of the notes near the balcony even loosely translates to the mansion as a house of residing evil.
 
Anyone who enjoys difficult, exploration base, old-school RPGs should check it out.

Offline pandaradox

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Re: Welcome to the Survival Horror
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2011, 11:47:54 AM »
I don't think the RE games have ever been scary. Startling yes, disturbing yes, cool yes, but never scary. The last time I saw something scary on TV was back when I was 5 and saw bits Aliens. I don't doubt it would be scary for people with much weaker mental constitution....

...That said, I don't ever want RE to be like that. It's not what RE is about. RE always has fight or flight, but has always leaned heavily towards fight.


Interesting way to look at it.  It's not necessarily weaker mental constitution.  I grew up watching horror films and thrillers of the sort.  My father would wait for tense moments and randomly yell to scare us (note: he's a good father, just a joker too).  So naturally, I became calloused to the genre.  The great thing about video games is that they ask you to forfeit yourself in light of the game's protagonist.  One of the biggest appeals of a game is to become someone else and not just passively experience that.  You get to be Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine.  Your responses are now theirs and you are in charge of their lives. 

If anything, this is asking a stronger mental constitution...

RE wants you to fight, that's how it's designed.  While it tries to intimidate and scare you, it gives you the ability to fight back, which is unique given that horror films bank on the feeling of helplessness as characters run and as the audience can only watch.  Jason would be a lot less scary if you were put in control of the characters and given multiple retries and weapons to fight back with.  That sense of empowerment is important for the series.  It's Survival. It's your imagination that changes the game.  Weaker minds would have trouble getting into it.  Accepting the reality of the game.  That is what makes RE fans come back.  They choose that world.