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By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Survival horror games are probably one of the most original and fastest growing genres in all of gaming. Resident Evil, the game that started it all, introduced a whole new genre to millions of gamers across the world, all the while scaring the hell out of us. It was nothing less than extraordinary and, of course, terrifying. Nowadays, survival horror games are still scaring newcomers, but they're creating much less of an impact on veterans of the genre. After experiencing Resident Evil, I must say that no other survival horror game has made me jump out of my seat or make my hands sweaty from suspense. The following is a look into why this genre has become so sterile and how developers can once again make us want to keep the hall light on while we sleep. Last weekend I went to go see what is supposed to be the scariest movie of the decade. For people who are hype junkies, you know what I’m talking about: The Blair Witch Project. The Blair Witch Project is the scariest thing I have ever seen. Nothing can compare to its "aftertaste" (how you feel after you view it). The reason I bring this up is because movies are one reason why scary video games have become so mundane. People like me go out and see these scarier-than-Satan-himself movies and are numbed to the violence and horror. Then when they go home to play Resident Evil or Silent Hill, they wonder why it doesn't even make them flinch. So, what can developers do to scare us even more than movies like The Blair Witch Project? The answer is really very simple. One reason why The Blair Witch Project was so unbelievably scary was because of the characters' emotions. Yes, that’s the one thing that almost made me want to leave that theater 45 minutes into the movie. The crying, shouting, babbling, and blood-curdling screams were truly chilling and remained imprinted in my mind for a long time after the movie was over. The problem with video games as they are today is that there are hardly any emotions expressed by the characters. Resident Evil's Jill Valentine never screamed in fright, and there was never any nervous panting or heavy breathing from Chris Redfield. All these characters did was point a gun and shoot at the dangerous creature coming their way. All the player had to be scared about was when the next monster would pop out from some unexpected area and what the monster would look like. Another reason scary games can't stack up to scary movies is that all too often, games rely heavily on quick scary moments that are initially very frightening, but don't really have any long-term effects on you (except for worrying about the next quick scary moment). Any old Joe can make something go bang while you're walking down a hallway and make you jump in your seat, but it takes a much more skilled designer to create an underlying feeling of tension throughout the experience that makes you scared all the time no matter what's happening on the screen. This is why Resident Evil 1 was scarier than Resident Evil 2, and it's also why The Blair Witch Project is scarier than any video game I've ever played. In addition, every single survival horror game coming out on the market is horribly cliché. What could be any less scary than something you already saw in a previous game? Developers think if it worked once, it will work again, but they're wrong. In fact, it creates less of a scary atmosphere because you can pretty much anticipate the next scary event before it happens. The last thing a survival horror game should be is predictable. This was yet another reason why The Blair Witch Project was such a chilling movie- because it was very unpredictable and it caught its audience completely off-guard on numerous occasions. Rather than trying to directly compete with horror movies, survival horror games should try and learn from them. In this day and age it’s extremely hard to make a game as scary as a really horrifying movie. It’s better to try and mimic the things in movies that make them so scary and mix them in with the gaming elements, not try and make an actual video game movie (God knows how many times those things have bombed). Until then, I’ll stick with going to the movie theater to scare myself silly, and I'll stick with survival horror games to do what they let me do best- blow the heads off zombies, and not much else. You can e-mail Jimmy at jimmy@mastergamer.com
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