Happy October everyone! In Celebration of the month of spooks and scares, I’ve dedicated this article to my favorite horror franchise of all time, Resident Evil. Featuring all sorts of terrifying monsters like Zombies, Parasite-controlled Villagers, Immortal Hillbillies, it’s become one of videogame giant CAPCOM’s most famous franchises, right next to Mega Man and Street Fighter. Since Resident Evil 8: Village was announced, I cannot wait to share this wonderfully spooky series with you all.
Resident Evil was first released in 1996, and is widely credited for defining the survival-horror genre (more on that later) and bringing Zombies back into relevance. Its sequel, aptly titled Resident Evil 2, further expanded the game’s story and introduced the world to Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, who would become so popular that they would become the faces of the franchise and still make appearances in spin-offs and sequels to this day(In fact, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has a side story featuring Claire’s brother, Chris Redfield). Resident evil 4 is thought of as one of the greatest games in the franchise, if not of all time (it’s THAT good). R.E. 4 had a slightly more action-oriented pace and gave an over-the shoulder camera that really helped to bring the horror closer - while switching out zombies for disgusting parasites that controlled villagers and made them monsters. Resident Evil 5 and 6 were just ok. Kinda disappointing, honestly. Then Resident Evil 7: Biohazard came around and HOO BOY. First person view! Opening your inventory wouldn’t stop time so Monsters can and will attack you while you frantically try to put together a bandage! The bakers, a family of immortal hillbillies, are not only incredibly good at finding (and killing) you, they are also INCAPABLE OF DEATH or DETERRENCE. The terror is cranked up to 11, and the feeling of helplessness is only made worse by the fact that monsters can literally cut off your limbs and watch you squirm. Also it’s VR compatible, so you can get the pants scared off of you even easier. I’m getting a little off-track here. I said earlier that Resident Evil defined the Survival-horror genre, but I didn’t exactly explain what survival-horror actually means. Putting it simply, it’s very stressful. When wandering around ghost towns or through the alleys of a zombie-infested city, you will inevitably encounter monsters. Since these monsters can usually only hurt you up close, the best way to deal with them is to gun them down from afar. However, boxes of ammunition are very limited and Zombies don’t always stay dead. It’s possible to run out of ammo too, meaning the only thing you can do is run by and pray that one doesn't grab you and take a bite. If you do get hurt, then I hope you found a plant, because the games use herbs as the main source of healing. For some reason people don’t like to keep gardens on their desks, so if you do manage to find an herb somewhere, you could be tempted to use it right away. Or maybe you could save it for later, if you don’t die. It’s the constant give-and-take that keeps players on their toes, because if they want to survive, they’ll need to be accurate, resourceful, and very, very lucky. It makes every monster that much more imposing, as every beast makes you question whether you should try to run or stay and fight. The inventory is like a suitcase, too. You can’t bring all of your clothes with you, so you only take the essentials. In Resident Evil, things behave the same way. You could grab that giant knife off the wall, but it takes up the same amount of space as your herbs. Should you really grab that tape, or should you save some space for the wooden boards to cover the windows and keep out the zombies? Everything comes down to resource management. That doesn’t mean the games aren’t terrifying on their own. Even the zombies from the very first game back in 1996 can get me to jump if I’m not paying attention. The use of atmosphere, the dark, dramatic lighting, the painted groans of the undead as they slowly walk towards you, it’s convincingly terrifying. I cannot stress enough how good these games are, and how much I love them in all of their terrifying glory. Hi! Before we start, I think proper introductions are in order. My name is Teddy, and I like playing video games. Every now and then, I come across something that makes me stop and say “Hey, I can write about that!” I also believe that Mega Man 4 is the best one ( and I am not afraid to fight for it).
So my current topic today (maybe this Month, this might be a monthly thing) is a cute little psychological horror/thriller game called Alan Wake. I chose it because it is filled to the brim with foreshadowing( and also just shadows in general, because it’s a horror game), and also because it is über moody. Quick disclaimer: I’m going to spoil the first chapter of the story to talk about how good it is, and I cannot recommend it enough because it's actually a very fun game (I had no idea I spent three hours playing the game until I had to stop for lunch) The Story revolves around our main character, the famous author Alan Wake, trying to figure out what the heck is going on while simultaneously not dying to a horde of shadow monsters. Our story starts off with Alan, who has been suffering from writer’s block for two years(at this point, just get a movie adaptation, Alan! Make some money with what you have!). His wife, Alice takes him to the quiet town of Bright Falls to get him out of his funk. As with most horror games, things go horribly wrong, and Alice suddenly disappears! Now comes the fun part. Alan wakes(hilarious, I know) inside of his car, as if it was all a dream, and notices two things that are wrong: 1) his wife is still missing and 2) his car is hanging off of the edge of a cliff. Alan decides to deal with problem number 2 first. After narrowly escaping from his car, Alan stumbles across a page to a book called “departure,” written by none other than Alan himself. Except Alan never wrote a book called “departure.” Confused, Alan reads the page which depicts the main character being attacked “in the woods by an axe-wielding madman.” Interestingly enough, Alan stumbles across a lumber yard, where he’s attacked by an axe-wielding creature (this game makes the most genius puns) who looks strikingly similar to a man Alan met at the town diner. This confuses Alan, because how can a non-existent book allude to the future? One of the next pages you find describes a garage where a t.v. lights up and the main character sees a recording of himself talking nonsense. Much later, while hunting through a garage and running from shadow monsters, a T.V. suddenly lights up, showing footage of Alan pacing around talking nonsensically. This is just one of many bizarre occurances, and raises multiple questions. Why are we being told the future by a book that, for all intents and purposes, should not exist? Why is Alan talking nonsense? Where did Alice go? Why do the shadow monsters look like townsfolk despite not being human? Alan wake also forges an intense mood. At the time of writing, there is road work being done outside my home. I remember coming up to a quiet, open meadow filled with trees and rocks; it was very clear that I was going to be ambushed. So I quietly approached a tree, fog obscuring my sight, no sound aside from grass crunching as Alan walked over it, when one of the workers outside my house started up his jackhammer and started his work on the road. My heart stopped for a second and I fell out of my chair. That was when I knew I was immersed. The game had built such an intense atmosphere that a jackhammer nearly gave me a heart attack. This was the first time something like that happened, and I can’t wait for it to happen again(it probably will). I think atmosphere is what makes Alan Wake stand out. It builds so much intensity I think there are a lot of things people can learn from video games. How to make a gripping story, how to build atmosphere, how to build a father character out of the god of war (Kratos is the best dad). Thank you for joining me, and I hope that you decide to have a look at Alan Wake. |
Teddy StadanlickMy name is Teddy, and I like playing video games. Every now and then, I come across something that makes me stop and say “Hey, I can write about that!” I also believe that Mega Man 4 is the best one (and I am not afraid to fight for it). Archives
February 2023
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