[QUOTE="henry4th"][QUOTE="kenshinhimura16"] Its not that they are going downhill, its just that we are older, much more used to the techniques. Try watching an old scary movie and you will notice how the genre hasnt changed at all when compared to a new one (except for the fact that for some weird reason now chicks are the lead characters).
We grew, we got used to the techniques, and as you grow, horror changes into suspense, and whats left is for them to impress us, thus goryness comes into play. Most of the people is not used to it, so it shocks them (yeah right) and in most cases it works, thus, games that arent scary at all, get the title badge anyway.
In my opinion, the only thing that we get scared in this games is about dying, which is turned into suspense, since we know a bugger is going to jump at us sooner or later, so we are already expecting it. In the past, with Resident Evil, we were just introduced to this genre, and to make it better it was 3D which made it more real life like.
So now, developers try to go for our other senses, they try to scare us with dead bodies, and deformed enemies. They try to keep us on the edge of the seat with suspicious noises and similar techniques. Most games fail to actually employ them well, resulting in fiascos as Cold Fear or Resident Evil 4, the later one turning itself into an action game instead of a survival game as the past versions.
In the past years, I´ve seen only a handfull of this kind of game. Doom 3 on one side handled the atmosphere of being on the edge of the chair most of the time, Condemned 2 has a great sense of spookyness when in the interior levels, Siren New Translation demo shows that the genre can still be done, and works out great with current gen graphics. The best way to make them more scary is to limit the freedom we have in terms of movements (I dont mean making the gameplay worser). If you check the Siren demo, you will notice how it uses the old Resident Evil mechanics, which, though archaic, work fantastic in this genre. Another thing that made Resident Evil games spooky, or lets say kept you on guard was the lack of ammo. If you can kill enemies and miraculously find ammo, then you loose the sense of survivalism, you just know that you can shoot someone and get back even more bullets. That makes you be less worry about how you rationate the bullets. Who doesnt remember counting every single bullet left in the magazine and being worried about what was going to come next?
kenshinhimura16
To be honest, in films, I've never seen any American movies that's truly horrifying. they are shocking with gore, but not horrifying.
Maybe it's because I'm an Asian, I find Japanese horror films are truly teriffying. They don't completely rely on blood and gore, they rely on sound, atmosphere, and character emotions.
In the same way, American (to a large extent, Western) horror games are just like American films, not really horrifying. I'm looking at Siren on PS3 right now, hopefully it will be like a true horrifying Japanese film where it makes you fearful for days if not weeks.
I compeltely agree with you. Asian horror movies are much better. they resort to atmosphere rather than goryness, and it makes them more scary. I remember seing the Eye for the first time a couple of years ago, or the originals of the Ring and the one with Buffy lol and their asian originals (they were from Japan right) were much more scary than their american counterparts, were they focused to much on the "creatures" to name them in a way, rather than the idea that made the originals great flicks. The same happens with most games. Most rely of a distant scream or gory things poping out rather than creating a tense atmosphere, were you dont want to actually move afraid of whats to come
I agree with you fully. American made games seem to be more focused on the action, creatures, and the blood that comes from both of the previous mentioned attributes. Meanwhile, if you look at games that have come from areas outside of the states (Japan being my fav.) they put their focus more on the atmosphere and the ability to make you feel dread with each step you take rather than make you some unbelievable superhero battling zombies that you'd laugh at instead of scream at. One of the comments earlier said that RE1 was good because the limited ammo made you extremely nervous and, thus, you would have to resort to traps and knife battle. In my book THAT'S what survival horror is all about. You need to have atmosphere but you also need things to be realistic. A game that comes to mind would be RE4. You would find additional ammo from the villagers. Why would VILLAGERS who had aliens implanted in their head and who were attacking you with pitchforks and other close range weapons be carrying around boxes of magnum ammo? Its just stupid!
Although, I have checked out Siren and, like many of my fellow horror fans, am eagerly awaiting it. With some luck, and a lot of faith, we might get a true survival horror game at long last.
Log in to comment