RESIDENT EVIL

Play L4D on the hardest setting. You get hit like 4 times by a regular zombie and you're down. Specials can eat you before you even know you're getting hit. Not quite as helpless as in RE, but I'd say pretty damn close. It's less "creeping" and more frentic, but I'd say the tension is just as high. Some people greatly prefer creeping and I can totally get that, but I feel like it's more a matter of style than substance.

Also, running out of good ammo is almost as bad as having none in RE is, so there are lots of times where you are just praying to find some ammo before something serious happens and you can't handle it.

I think the teamwork makes some of it way more crazy because you are frequently totally helpless and 100% relying on someone else to save you so human error and all the social terror that goes along with it packs quite a punch. (playing with AI teammates makes the game pretty meh, playing with rando strangers can sometimes be pretty good, other times terrible, but playing with all friends you know makes it amazing.)

I'm a big fan of RE1 through RE3.

I thought RE2 refined what RE1 wanted to deliver and made it a classic series. My order of preference is RE2, RE1, RE3. RE4 and (from what I saw from the playable demos of) RE5 have lost much of the horror element and charm that the first three had.

The original Alone in the Dark's were ground breaking as well though their graphics haven't aged as well and I don't think any cosmetic updates on any platform have been created.

I'll have to get the Left4Dead's as I hear they are the new black.

The more I play left4dead the more it bores the shit out of me. It's easily the worst Valve thing I have ever played. It's good until you realise its just all corner croutching.

From memory RE2 was the best - took what worked in one and expanded upon it, with a better story and stuff. RE3 was great too but a bit easy from memory. I've only played RE1 on the DS, great fun but it is a bit limited compared to 2. RE4 was very different, has some great stuff but far too long - I was just dying for it to end halfway through.

Creepiest game I have played was the other big horror game they made a movie out of - what the fuck was it called? It was on the PS1 and had fog everywhere, and your radio started screeching when monsters were around. You wandered a town that would regularly transform into a rusted landscape from another dimention. It was kind of Lovecraftian.

Silent Hill. Reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Mist.

Didn't finish that game, scared me too much.

kookoobah wrote:

Silent Hill. Reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Mist.

Didn't finish that game, scared me too much.

That's the one!
It actually had 4 different endings, depending on what you did during the game. After you completed it the intro cutscene subtly changed,slipping in a new scene or 2 that you wouldn't realise at first. Quite creepy.

SILENT HILL was brilliant...it's another where I had a (ahem) backup copy that I knew absolutely nothing about and I put it in one night and started playing. The business with the radio static, all the stuff in almost complete darkness...great atmosphere.

I actually thought the movie wasn't bad, but I know I'm like the only person in the world...it was as close to a Lucio Fulci movie as any Hollywood picture has ever gotten.

The biggest difference in RE and RE 2 was the scope of it. RE is very contained since it's mostly about the house (which is one of the best characters in video games ever), RE2 was sort of like the DAWN OF THE DEAD, apocalyptic thing where it turned into a much bigger story. For years I've said that 2 was the best, but now I really kind of think this remake of the first one is it.

I really don't have any interested in L4D...it's another FPS. Wow. So what if it's zombies. And I like the "creep" style of horror much better anyway.

The first ALONE IN THE DARK game was awesome...I remember seeing it Best Buy and I didn't realize it was a Lovecraft thing so I bought it on the spot. I haven't even seen it in years, I would imagine it didn't hold up very well.

Another great horror game while we're on the subject- ETERNAL DARKNESS. The random glitches are insane. Playing a Wii or Gamecube and getting the Blue Screen of Death is truly horrifying.

I just checked out the first part of a walkthrough of the remake and the original and I must say they improved a whole lot between the two.. lol

The reason I liked the original RE2 so much more than the original RE1 was that the graphics (worms eye view and birds eye view prerendered scenes were so much better than the first even on the same platform), the voice acting seemed to be improved, and the dialogue was much less campy.

They appear to have quashed much of the camp in the remake and the graphics are a new level of goodness better. The gamecube remake reminds me much of the RE: Veronica game for the Dreamcast, which I also thought was quite good.

Good times.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Another great horror game while we're on the subject- ETERNAL DARKNESS. The random glitches are insane. Playing a Wii or Gamecube and getting the Blue Screen of Death is truly horrifying.

I got that game when I already had a Wii. It didn't scare me so much, a combination of the dated graphics and the fact that by the time I was playing it, I already knew about the BSoD thing.

Michael Barnes wrote:

This got me thinking about other scary games...the only two that I think even come close to RE are SILENT HILL (the phone ringing in the hospital is one of the greatest horror moments ever) and the first THIEF. That level where you have to get into the haunted chapel and find that ringing bell is so freaking creepy.

The "Shalebridge Cradle" level in THIEF 3 was really the only time I was scared while playing a video game. RESIDENT EVIL 4 didn't scare me for example.

I liked the Silent Hill movie. It had some interesting ideas and variations, and terrific atmosphere. The religious extremists seemed a little too familiar, but otherwise it was a breath of fresh air in a genre that does too much recycling.

The thing about the original RE that struck a chord with me are the multiple endings. Depending on who you were and what you did altered the story lines slightly.

The best version was the Director's Cut. RE2 was awesome as well. I would rank RE4 next, the village assault is truly terrifying. I hated RE5. There was no mystery, no terror and worst of all boring.

Yeah, the Resident Evil games hold a special place in my heart.

Resident Evil on the Gamecube remains the scariest game I have ever played (Dead Space is the first one to give it a decent run for its money). I could NOT play Resident Evil by myself with the lights out. Impossible. I was doing great on my own until I backtracked and skinless dogs crashed through the windows of a previously secured room. The blood rushed to my head in less than 0.5 seconds and I threw the controller away, turned off the TV and didn't play again for months. Absolutely brilliant. The underground lab, the sharks (omg), everything was just perfect.

Resident Evil 4 (also for gamecube) was for the longest time (until GTAIV for me) the best video game I had ever played. I played over and over and over. Something like 5 playthroughs. Absolute perfection. The chainsaw guys with burlap sacks over their heads were terrifying.


Resident Evil 5 was disappointing but still enjoyable. Not scary at all.

OK, I just did the whole aqua ring bit with the giant shark. Getting closer to the end.

I've found that there's parts where I think the suspense is almost unbelievable...like, any time you open a door and you're outside. You almost get accustomed to a sense of safety in the house (!), that when you're out of it you feel totally naked. Why can't more video game designers look at this and see how fucking brilliant it is, how effective it all is?

I was playing it last night and a squirrel or something jumped on the roof of my house. It scared the PISS out of me.

RE4 has a different kind of atmosphere and tension...it's more of an intensity than a slow-burn. Yeah, that village assault is really harrowing. A lot of the scenarios in it are very nightmarish, almost absurd in a way. I can see somebody having a bad dream and it inspiring some of those segments. One of the assets it has over the first game is that there's a lot more strategy and tactics involved in progressing through areas, but it still has that survival/conservation element hanging over your head the whole time.

I'm disappointed to hear about 5...it looks like they just went the route of most HD games, that's too bad. The early screenshots had a BLACKHAWK DOWN kind of style that I thought might be intriguing.

BTW- UMBRELLA CHRONICLES is really worth playing. It's a blast. It's an on-rails shooter that goes through RE0, the first game, and RE3. Playing it, and getting into the mansion again, are what made me want to pick up RE again. I haven't played it co-op, but I bet it'd be a lot of fun. It has some shocker moments in it, but since it's more frantic it doesn't have that creeping suspense that we all love.

I tried playing RE4 on my PS2, but I could never get the fucking controller to do the instant 180 turn. I'm not sure how important that would have been towards getting through the game, but it annoyed me so much early on that I put the game away and haven't touched it since. Its bad enough I can't move and shoot like a good FPS, but not being able to even turn around effectively was unacceptable.

I really don't have any interested in L4D...it's another FPS. Wow. So what if it's zombies. And I like the "creep" style of horror much better anyway.

I'm not really sure if LFD is really trying to be a horror movie. I certainly didn't think it was scary. Tense, yes.

It's all about playing co-op against lots and lots and lots of enemies that are never in the same spot when you play a level over again. I thought it was quite a bit of fun, but no it's not in the same vein as the Resident Evil series despite the zombie theme.