Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Survival Horror Games

   Resident Evil was the first. The one that started my fascination with survival horror games; I love being terrified to open a door on a video game because something freaky as hell is going to pop out. This started my love of horror games even though I really suck at them. I really do; and don't play 2 player with me because I WILL shoot you in the back, and it will be on accident, but your character will still be dead, and a few seconds later, mine will be dead as well. I do better in single player modes, where I can't accidentally shoot my ally. And this is a good thing, because my family won't play that shit with me even if I wanted them too.
   Which is funny, because that first Resident Evil? That was my sister's game. She bought that shit and brought it home when we were wet-nosed little tykes getting on our mother's last damn nerve. And now? She won't play that shit. She is scared. Bock-bock-bock chicken. But she loves to watch me play, she just stresses too much if she is in control, and she won't move and her character will literally just stand there because she is too worried about what is behind the door. The creepy music starts playing and you know something is fixing to happen, and she is covering her eyes with her hands and telling me to tell her when it's over. She won't play them, but she comes over to my apartment to watch me play, which is nice for me because I'm bock-bock-bock chicken too, but I can be braver if I have someone with me.
This game is scary.
   But the big thing is, if you play these games, you might have realized that they are not scary anymore. Resident Evil is basically a shooter now, with hordes of zombies sure, but the fear factor is gone and in it's place is the need to kill as many mutated T-virus infectees as possible, and that's not really scary. Not to me. And I think I am right because my daughter, she can watch the new Resident Evil games, and while you might be thinking, "You let her watch that crap?" the answer is "Yes." Because my daughter has a unique ability not shared by many -- if she doesn't like seeing something, she leaves the room. If it freaks her out, she walks away and goes to her room to watch Animal Planet or Disney or play Mario on her Wii. She's a smart girl. Which means that Resident Evil: the new games don't scare her because she doesn't leave. But let me start playing Fatal Frame: she is gone. Uh-uh, no way, she isn't watching that if you paid her. That's how I really know that survival horror games just aren't horrifying anymore.
    So this is my gripe. I love the old games, and I was thrilled when Fatal Frame was available for download off of the Playstation Network, but where are the new scary games? How are we going to raise a new generation of survival horror-gamers if all we have is weak-ass, non-scary shooters pretending to be horror? I know that this is just my own opinion, but I still think it's a valid complaint. I know that I have heard this same gripe out of other people's mouths, so I know that I am not alone. Bring back survival horror!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment