Poll: Is the Resident Evil series still trying to be scary with Resident Evil 5

[Xyzgon]

It seems like Resident Evil has definitely dropped the fear aspect of it's games. From what i've seen in Resident Evil 5 your mostly outside or in an open place, it's almost always well lit, and you always have a companion. It seems like it's leaning more towards action this time.

What do you think?

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Well you see, there's two types of scary in survival horror, there is the overwhelming intensity and little amount of options to handle the situation, or the "fatal frame/silent hill" kind.

I'll compare this to another capcom game, Dead Rising, lots of zombies, and your stuff isn't always reliable, so when you are surrounded, you tend to go apeshit.

In RE4 there are times where you have to barricade yourself in a house with just a few shotgun shells and your P.O.S. handgun, while trying to knock down ladders, make sure the doors are barricaded, ALONE - it may not be the "I'm alone in the dark" scary, but it's still scary.

 

[Jumplion]

Of course the Resident Evil series is still trying to be scary, but in new ways.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't RE4 also outside horror? I still don't know why I havn't gotten the wii edition yet.

But I think RE5 could still be terrifing in that "Open everywhere but no where to hide" sort of way, but I'll try to reserve my opinion until i play the game.

PS. Woohoo! I'm going gonzo!

 

[Rshady]

I would say so, It is definitely less like the 'dark and quiet' scary, that is found in games like silent hill et al. But being bombarded by 50 or so 'zombies' whilst trapped in a small house is pretty bloody terrifying if you ask me.

 

[LordCraigus]

I haven't played RE4 but from what I've seen of that and RE5 it's definitely a different kind of scary now. All the RE games of note up to number 4 were about slow pace, claustrophobic camera angles, tight corridors, ammo conservation, very restrictive save options and just generally creepy settings (large mansions, police stations etc.). I should really try RE4, from what ElArab said sounds like it might be a game for me.

 

[The Wooster]

The problem resident evil is having at the moment. Is that a badass doesn't feel scared. Now that we can actually control are characters quickly and efficiently and shoot with some degree of accuracy we find those old zombies just aren't as scary.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

George Romero said it best when he saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead. "It was more of a video game. I'm not terrified of things running at me; it's like Space Invaders. There was nothing going on underneath."

Horror isn't about stuff jumping out at you. It's about the quiet right beforehand. It's seeing the shambling hordes that will never stop coming for you.

Know what the scariest thing I've ever seen in a game was? Ocean View Hotel level in Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. Know how many enemies there are in that level? None.

It's all about atmosphere and setting. This just looks like a shooter.

- J

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

George Romero said it best when he saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead. "It was more of a video game. I'm not terrified of things running at me; it's like Space Invaders. There was nothing going on underneath."

Horror isn't about stuff jumping out at you. It's about the quiet right beforehand. It's seeing the shambling hordes that will never stop coming for you.

Know what the scariest thing I've ever seen in a game was? Ocean View Hotel level in Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. Know how many enemies there are in that level? None.

It's all about atmosphere and setting. This just looks like a shooter.

- J

You say it very well, Also horror can be described in two ways. Mindfuck, And clusterfuck. One doesn't have to actually fight you but it plays your emotions and such. Clusterfuck is just clusterfuck.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Res 1 -3, and Silent Hill etc, were about fear. Res 4, and also Res 5, since it is the same but just better, are about terror.

Fear is a feeling on the inside, typically gained from foreboding atmosphere and the certain knowledge that something is going to happen. It's strong, but increasingly difficult to achieve for us jaded horror fans.

Terror, on the other hand, is close to panic. 'There's a thousand fucking zombies running at me with axes, and I have one clip of handgun bullets!!!!'. It's terrifying (and terrific). I like the direction Res has taken now, it couldn't keep doing the usual stuff.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Although I still think RE5 is trying to be scary I'm with Tiredinnuendo on this, because I also remember that Ocean View Hotel level, when you play it (the first time!) it's fucking freaky, even if you aren't actually "scared' you are really REALLY tense and you are making sure to check every corner before proceding. Also there is an "enemy" in the game, it's a poltergeist and it fucks with you a lot so it's not like you are fearless either, you still have to make sure you don't get yourself killed by a flying lamp or a floor collapsing under you...

With "new" RE, I think the better example is the "mercenaries" minigame, it's much more terrifying (but if you are trying to unlock the handcannon then it's just frustrating) since you start out with just one set of weapons (and then Krauser doesn't really count because he's a damn juggernaut, hell even wesker is quite the fighter) - yet the levels themselves are so freaky too because of certain types of enemies it has - you are sitting there dealing with "run o' the mill meat shield" guys and then all of a sudden some thing running around with Wolverine like claws is after you and you can only kill it by shooting something on it's back, so no more "mr. untouchable" for you, you've got to deal with this strategically, but if you don't want the "horror" feeling or are just plain sick of it, then kill as many as you can and try to rack up points before the time runs out!

I haven't played RE4 but from what I've seen of that and RE5 it's definitely a different kind of scary now. All the RE games of note up to number 4 were about slow pace, claustrophobic camera angles, tight corridors, ammo conservation, very restrictive save options and just generally creepy settings (large mansions, police stations etc.). I should really try RE4, from what ElArab said sounds like it might be a game for me.

The only problem is that even though the early half of the game has a lot of tense moments, when you start to become good at the game you will feel confident in doing the most stupid things, you have no fear. At first you did but the game starts to get pretty action oriented in order to actually give you a challenge, I would say that RE4 was an "experiment" - to see if the new style still had that "scary" to it, and it did, but didn't have it the whole time. Without spoiling any of the good parts for ya, the game still has it's freaky parts after the second half, no doubt - it's just that sometimes it has levels that you think would have been in Gears of War or something.

Still, even RE4 had a "good mix" and I'm sure RE5 will have a better one.

Ya know what we SHOULD be argueing about?

If having an AI buddy to rely on or even Co-op will ruin the atmosphere - everyone was excited when it was announced but I thought having a backup person with a shotgun really makes you less freaked out. When you are all alone and you are trying to fend off zombies with your knife and the "A" button then it feels better.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

Hell no!!!

Co-op? How is despair goin to fill your soul or how are the zombies goin to scare the shit out of you if your friend is yelling at the top of his lung to kill the things?

 

[DGenius]

I don't know. Resident Evil hasn't been scary for me since the original. It had a shock factor to it because nobody ever really did it in a cinematic manner. Now some few years later and umpteen remakes it's like you know what to expect now, so in turn it's not scary. It's been pretty much the same thing in all the games. A virus gets out, you're there to stop it/find out who is behind it, you get infected, plot twist, you find the cure, fight one big boss that seems impervious to all your weapons and someone from somewhere is drops the proverbial B.F.G. (Big F****** Gun for the uninformed) that kills with one hit, then a 2 minute drill to the exit, and thats the end of the game.

 

[Jamash]

Nothing is more scary than the Undead Face of Racism.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Hell no!!!

Co-op? How is despair goin to fill your soul or how are the zombies goin to scare the shit out of you if your friend is yelling at the top of his lung to kill the things?

Is this directed to me or the TC? Either way I agree with you, and I think the only way they can keep co-op in the game is if they do co-op the way they did it with "splinter cell" (the "last gen" games of the series).

-------------------

Oh and one more thing, remember those one things from RE4? The Regenerators?

If that thing reaching from across the room and then chomping on your face wasn't enough to make your heart beat at least 2 BPM faster than usual (once you've realized that you've gotta rotate the stick like a madman and then somehow kill the damn thing), then you've got balls of steel...well, that's an exaggeration's because only Duke has balls of steel.

I don't know. Resident Evil hasn't been scary for me since the original. It had a shock factor to it because nobody ever really did it in a cinematic manner. Now some few years later and umpteen remakes it's like you know what to expect now, so in turn it's not scary. It's been pretty much the same thing in all the games. A virus gets out, you're there to stop it/find out who is behind it, you get infected, plot twist, you find the cure, fight one big boss that seems impervious to all your weapons and someone from somewhere is drops the proverbial B.F.G. (Big F****** Gun for the uninformed) that kills with one hit, then a 2 minute drill to the exit, and thats the end of the game.

Well I would say "don't fix what isn't broke" but then again, if you see everything coming, then it's beyond repair.

I highly doubt the game will take a different turn, if the previous 4 haven't, but I guess with what it has done, it'll do it well, and with the "experiment" game did well they'll learn from mistakes. (that is the theory anyway)

 

[Jumplion]

I think RE5 can pull off the fear/terror/whatever you want to call it with a Co-op buddy. It would be like "Damn, do I have enough ammo? Does my partner have enough ammo? Hang on, gotta heal you, DONT DIE ON ME! Help me over here!"

Plus, i don't think you'd have the partner all the time. I'm sure there would be times where you would split up, plus didn't RE4 have some buddies every now and again to help you?

 

[Iron Mal]

In my opinion, they've completly lost the horror aspects of these games. Giving your character an attach'e case full of guns, ammo and healing equipment fails to make this scary for the same reason I found FEAR (or the ten levels of it that I played before I felt our old friend boredom kick in) to be nowhere near as frightening as I'd heard, you're not vulnerable or defensless and you're not alone.

About the AI partner, having horrible things happen to them as a way of inspiring fear and terror in the player is an ineffective and cliche technique that relies on two things:
1. You character potentially falling fowl of what happened to them (can't see that happening with the armory in a suit-case types Resi has now adopted) and
2. You have to care or sympathise for the charater who has the accident (unlikly given Resi's terrible writing, and I also heard that this partner character was purely thrown in to avoid calls of racism which won't help matters).

In short, after a while your partner will turn out to be more annoying than anything else and you'll probably be secretly happy when they die or something happens to them (like anyone who let Maria die repeatedly in Silent Hill 2, myself included).

Being in an open space also reduces the horror aspect significantly, zombies (I don't care if these guys are a carry over of the parasites from 4...they're still goddamn zombies) are only dangerous when they are close to you, so giving you all the room in the world to run and pick them off with a sniper rifle (they did it in 4, I doubt they'll drop it here) removes the threat from them since you've effectively made them helpless.

 

[Wolfwind]

Yeah, I don't really think RE's going for scary anymore. It's more like a thrill than a scare. I mean, you see the trailers from E3 and you're on the back of trucks with zombies chasing you an dirt bikes and shit (which I was unaware zombies were smart enough to ride, and if they can do that, why don't they just use guns?), and then you include the aspect of co-op, which I have to agree will eliminate pretty much any aspect of fear from this game. To be honest, this is actually one of the very few games where I would have preferred the exclusion of co-op.

But that's just me, since my view of fear is games like.... well... F.E.A.R. Or Condemned as well. It's atmosphere. In condemned, you're basically using any piece of garbage you find laying around to defend yourself, guns are hard to come by, and enemies get right in your face. That's good atmosphere. In F.E.A.R, you never knew when Alma was going to make an appearance, and what she'd do. It's true that you're a gun-toting paranormal agent with super human reflexes, but there are moments when she's just screwing with you and moments where she will kill your ass if she touches you. That's scary.

Zombies.... ehhh.... not so much anymore. But then again, I myself never found any of the RE games scary. Probably has something to do with it being in 3rd person view as well.

 

[scoHish]

I think they're trying to make you feel more overwelmed than scared now. It used to be that you would turn a corner in the dark and a zombie would come stumbling out at you. Now its more running away from 20 or so zombies (or whatever they are now). So no, I think their trying to shock you more than scare you these days, but I don't really see anything wrong with that.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I think RE5 can pull off the fear/terror/whatever you want to call it with a Co-op buddy. It would be like "Damn, do I have enough ammo? Does my partner have enough ammo? Hang on, gotta heal you, DONT DIE ON ME! Help me over here!"

Plus, i don't think you'd have the partner all the time. I'm sure there would be times where you would split up, plus didn't RE4 have some buddies every now and again to help you?

In theory yes, but the reason I liked RE4's "escort mission" was because Ashley didn't bother you! She hardly slowed you down, she never trailed off, and whenever I pulled my weapon she got right behind me! When a boss fight was arising, she's nowhere in sight!

She didn't help you but she hardly hurt you, and most of the time you are chasing after her instead of just "dealing with her shitty AI" because her only job is to STAY BACK!

Now with this AI friend and hordes of zombies everywhere (hey, what can I call these things? Plagas? Plague? RAGE? New Zombies? Crazy People?) I do not want to constantly watch my friend's back, unless she does what ashley does and we are always advancing with our backs together, I don't want that burden on my shoulders.

It could "add to the atmosphere" but when the game goes from "survival action horror" to "one big escort mission" then it sucks - and the only co-op zombie game I want is L4D, because it's focused on Co-Op, as opposed to RE5 where it was thrown in because people said it's racist.

 

[K.I.N.G]

I don't think they really were trying to be that scary in RE5.