To me, there are two types of horror games. Anyone who knows me will know that the ‘other’ type has one of my favourite games of all time, but I will not even mention its name, for fear (pun intended) of going off on a tangent. I will concentrate on ‘the first type’. A series of games that concentrated on jump scares, obtuse puzzles, limited ammo, cheesy dialogue , zombies, fixed camera angles and THAT fmv face that looked over it’s shoulder at you.Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan, 1996-present)

Whilst the plucky plumber was starting to go into the 3rd dimension, Capcom was busy creating a game for the Playstation that proved to be one of the defining titles in distancing the machine from its charcoal grey, kid friendly and cartridge wielding competitor.

First, a brief history lesson.

Sony and Nintendo weren’t always in competition for the pocket money and Television time of households and their offspring. During the SNES days, they were in talks to co-produce a CD-ROM based add-on. Things went sour after the two companies could not agree for various reasons, and Sony decided to go their own way. Ken Kutaragi, dubbed ‘the father of the Playstation’ formed Sony Computer Entertainment, and managed to entice developers such as EA and Namco. The Playstation’s use of discs as opposed to cartridges made the console more cutting edge, mature, trendy, and the third party support was strong. It could also be considered the first popular multi media entertainment device. Being able to play games as well as standard music CDs was seen as another big selling point, something which continued through the PS2 era especially, and beyond.

This, combined with impressive tech demos that showed off what it had under the hood, it was clear to see the transition from 16 to 32-bit was not going to be a two horse race. With a bit of a head start on the Sega Saturn and Nintendo still favouring cartridges, Sony found and captured a demographic that was not just kids, but adults looking for the evolution the industry had been yearning and looking for. 1993’s Amiga CD and later, The Atari Jaguar, despite their supposed technical muscle failed to have a consistent and genuine leap forward in games and had not captured the media and consumers attention.

The Playstation had an arcade theme to it in the beginning, with versions of Ridge Racer, Wipeout and Tekken being in the launch window. It was the first time that graphics and games with this level of realism had been seen on a home console, and with Sega releasing ‘stop gaps’ such as the 32X, their stage was set. It wasn’t until mature, meatier games such as Tomb Raider and Resident Evil dropped in 1996 that the Playstation really began to gain momentum, and with the latter, console Survival Horror genre was born.

Resident Evil came along and scared the bejesus out of me and audiences all over the world. The B movie characters, story and cut scenes (which at the time was a relatively new term) immersed players into a world of fear, suspense and a battle for survival. remember jumping when the zombie dog leapt through the window of that mansion? Pre-rendered backgrounds, moody lighting and fixed camera angles helped construct a realistic and atmospheric environment that tested audiences’ lateral thinking, aim and nerve. I consider one of the most iconic elements of resident evil to be the excruciatingly long ‘opening door’ transitions. Marketing would say it was building tension (which it did), but in reality, it was trying to disguise the Playstation’s technical limitations and loading times.

There have been numerous sequels, remakes and other media tie-ins, including a bunch of (dodgy) movies, but I don’t think there are many games at the time that encapsulated what an audience growing up and growing out of mascot platformers were looking for in interactive home entertainment like the first Resi.

Copied, but never bettered and constantly trying to capture the old magic, the Resident Evil series may be showcasing modern machines engine and graphical capabilities, but the old school cheap scares and cheesy B-Movie tropes have made way for globe trotting action centric set pieces for sequels 5 and 6.

And now we come to the 7th main installment. With series mastermind Shinju Mikami jumping ship and making 2011s (OK) Shadows of the Damned and 2014’s (decent) ‘the evil within’, Capcom have their tent pole IP and a recent history of action games throwing all sorts of ideas around- geographical as well as narrative, whilst missing what made RE great. The episodic ‘revelations’ games were decent enough entries, but designing (well, initially releasing) a resident evil game primarily for a handheld was, while admirable, personally not it’s ideal home. Sales of the HD version of the original and zero tell a contrasting story. The original sold over a million since coming to current gen, however the curious decision to remake the less popular ‘zero’ has been reflected in poor sales. Despite the series recent missteps, and with other horror series such as (ok, I WILL mention it) Silent Hill either being MIA or just plain weak (PT was the most exciting game in terms of the genre and buzz for a long time), the mere mention of another RE game might still hold hope… For now… Bring back the claustrophobia, the tension, a tight story and then it could be going in the right direction.

In recent years, the b- movie horror has been something of a renaissance, with movies like The Babadook, Cabin in the Woods and Don’t Breathe, along with enemies like the clickers from the last of us adding a level of strategy as well as fear to the tired infected apocalypse. A triple ‘A’ franchise such as Resident Evil (or silent hill) could work well by getting the core essence of the genre right again while still being a technical showcase.

Review by @eigotaku

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