Resident Evil "7"

Yeah, as far as Silent Hill goes, I prefer each entry is like its own standalone story. And I don't appreciate the liberal usage of Pyramid Head either. It just diminishes him really. But one thing Downpour really was the littles nods and Easter Eggs. There's
a Library in the game that is has little things that refrences the old religion from the first game and stuff like that. it was subtle but effective.

Admittedly, they pulled it off well with SH3 for being a true sequel. But I think they got lucky with that. There's no way they could do it with 2 and Aleesa's story is DONE with 3.

The laughing Ghost. >

Oh Outlast is insane. I was really surprised how long that game managed to scare me. There are SO MANY moments in that game that are unforgettable.

Yeah, I like my Horror games. But I'm too big on the Action ones. Part of the appeal is to be scared but its kind of hard when i'm showered in bullets are very combat capable. I still enjoy them though: Dead Space 2 and The Suffering come to mind. Even RE6
I'm starting to really like more and more and I already said my piece of 4 and 5 lol.

That said, I never found RE games scary. Even the older ones. I totally can see why but it never clicked with me on that level. I think Zombies don't with me. Ghosts totally. Freaking hate Ghosts.

Monsters--it depends on who has designed them. Masashiro Ito(SH2 and 3) had some AMAZING monster designs. His work for SH2 still gets to me this day with such strange levels of empathy and disgust.

 

Same here mate. Pyramid head is just iconic and (if I remember correctly) tied to James and his story. Now I can appreciate them wanting to use him because he was so well received, but overkill isn't an understatement. He had no place in the first movie,
same with the miners. To the untrained eye, horror is horror and certain aspects and characters deliver it well, but to those of us that follow the actual story, its a pain to see that sort of unappreciated thought going into a game when some things just don't
belong in there because they are key to a character that isn't part of the story. If that makes sense?

Ugh the laughing ghost... LOL. I wont ever forget that! I do have to admit, they should of made the ghosts visible on the camera only. With a creek or some eerie sounds to make you want to use it.

See I am like you there too buddy, I like my action but I like to feel desperate too. I like turning on a game and running across some sort of bad guy that can kill me with the snap of his fingers, yet I have no resource to dispose of them. That sort of
moment where you are in a game and you just know your are going to die so you run around looking for a room to hide in while you gather your thoughts.

Yeah ghosts are way scarier than zombies. Word of advice, DONT watch a movie called Insidious 1 or 2. That kept me awake and alert. After watching that movie, I was totally questioning every sound in the house when I was in bed trying to sleep. The tap dripped,
the fridge ventilated, the wind made the door creek. It wasn't a good nights sleep I must say lol

That guy Masashiro (I hadn't heard of him until you posted it) must be a mastermind. That certain scene in SH2 when you are watching from the closet... yuk lol.

 

It makes perfect sense. And the sad thing is they could make a really good Silent Hill movie by adapting the idea, not the games themselves. Oh, and DO NOT watch the second movie. The first one is at least decent but the second movie is so cringe.

I think if they made it so you can only see the Ghosts through the camera it might to similar to Outlast in the sense that everything needs to be looking through the lens. Fatal Frame is a much more traditional Survival-Horror title than Outlast.

I hear yeah. And sometimes with the more Action-orientated ones, the pacing is way of and instead of having fun it is just exhausting. That's my biggest issue with RE5 compared to 4 was the pacing. The last part of the game when you are in the bunker and
the enemies started using guns really killed it imo.

Funny enough, I actually don't care for Horror movies. The closest would be Jacob's Ladder, Event Horizon, and The Blair Witch Project.

I think part of the reason in the series decline is because he hasn't been involved since SH3. Some of the monster designs just flatout suck or copy his earlier works.

fun fact: that scene itself was probably inspired from a similar scene from the movie Blue Velvet.

 

Ah so skip the movie. Noted. Don't know why I never got round to watching it but by the sounds of it, its a good thing I did lol. Glad you understood what I meant mate, I re-read what I put and it was one of those things that was hard to explain so I
am glad you picked up on it Agree 100% on them building from the idea and not using the games as a base formula.

Oh I know the exact scene you are thinking of. It did kill the aura of the game and some parts were just over the top. As for movies, I haven't heard of the other two but I did watch Blair Witch when it was first released. That freaked me out because it
was quite unique at the time. I remember the rumors people made up to make you think it was a real story

Another movie I haven't heard of (Blue Velvet) but will look into renting it for the reference

You got me in a SH mood lol.

 

No problems man. It can be real difficult explaining how we feel. Happens all the time.

Yeah, avoid the second movie like the plague. ITS SO BAD

If you really like Silent Hill, you should totally watch Jacob's Ladder then. It's not only a great movie but is a major influence on the Silent Hill series.

I haven't actually watched Blue Velvet myself but i know of the scene. but considering it was directed by David lynch, it wouldn't surprise me of the influence.

Yeah, I have that habit. I know a lot about Silent Hill. >

 

I've been on the fence about downloading Outlast on PS4 just havent gotten around to it yet.

Speaking of Resident Evil and Silent Hill though, what do you think about The Evil Within so far? I think it looks amazingggg.

Seems to be very Silent Hill influenced for sure.

 

Pyramid, I will give that movie a watch thanks for understanding. I do sometimes think I come off wrong or misunderstand-able so cheers bud. Silent hill will be an anniversary soon? I saw in another thread that RE is 20 in 2016 and I remember silent hill
being brought out at the same time (roughly) so lets hope they remake it or trilogy pack it and not have the bugs we had with SH HD collection...I still have bad feelings about the removal of the damn fog. lol.

Moshed I haven't played Evil Within, infact as you probably guessed im not very 'in the loop' with games I don't follow. Is this an Xbox title? upcoming?

 

Idk, the first Silent Hill game out in 1999 and I'm too lazy to do the math lol.

Ah, the HD Collection. I actually sold it not that long ago. I still have hte PS2 versions and if i ever wanted it again, I'd jsut pick it up for PS3 since it was patched on there. i on't know who t blame for that. Konami isn't exactly competent(they gave
the Developers unfinished source codes of the games) but Hijinx Studios never bothered to track down physical copies of the games and reverse-engineer them(which is what Bluepoint Games did for the MGS Collection.) The lack of the fog is because of an unfinished
filter. I saw an old SH2 video a while ago and they were talking about the fog effects and showed what happens when they turned of the fog effect and it looked exactly like the HD Collection! lol

The Evil Withing is an upcoming multiplatform Horror game being developed by Shinji Mikami(Creator of Resident Evil) and it looks real good.

 

I hope going back to their roots entails a few of the following things:

Stop having enemies drop ammo!
part of the issue that reduces any horror or even suspense element is the removal of the "limited ammo" concept. Apparently now zombies, BOW's, etc. all inexplicably carry spare shotgun shells on them. All this does is keep your gun loaded and create
the need for more monsters which has spiraled out of control into a zombie slaughter fest. Zombie genocide is not horror.
Limited ammo brings back the important aspect of the old games: fight or flight... now it is only "fight." Also, enough with the myriad of stuntman tactics that require little skill and become convenient alternatives to shooting.



Limited saves need to make a comeback: What was one of the most suspenseful things in resident evil? Limited
EVERYTHING, even saves. Survival didn't just mean stay alive; it meant stay alive and manage what little resources you have (i.e. ammo, health, herbs, even saves) efficiently to make this possible as you may enter parts of the game that become increasingly
difficult because you fired too many bullets or got hit too many times by a licker. Maybe you entered a new part of the game not knowing what to expect, had to make a decision on the fly, died, and have to backtrack 20 minutes (this happened to me several
times in Nemesis.... from encounters with the Nemesis). Getting to go back 30 seconds to a checkpoint every time you die desensitizes this element of the game; fear of dying, which was very REAL in the old RE games. In RE6, when I got low on health,
I just died because I would restart the checkpoint at full health even if I was not at full health when I reached it.... if anything it makes dying CONVENIENT!

Tone down the cinematics and QTE's:
Do I even need to explain why people didn't like QTE'S? I am not sure why Capcom kept pushing them harder and harder each title. In addition to that, what added to the suspense of the game was that not everything had to have some big shrieking musical
noise or suspenseful musical or cinematic introduction to prime you that something "was about to happen." Something would just... happen. You walk into a room, and there in front of you is a Tyrant. You don't get 30 seconds of a movie clip to figure out
what to do, you just have to react right then and there, and since there was no cinematic introduction, add the element of surprise to how you react and that may impact how well or if you survive the encounter.

Something doesn't need to be happening
every second:
What do I mean by this? Some of the biggest suspense from the old games was that not every room was a big zombie trap. In fact, a lot of the time, nothing happened. You start to feel safe and secure running around rooms trying to find the special
key to unlock the room you need to access and then BAM! A licker is in the room you just entered, completely throwing you off
because if anything you have been primed to expect nothing to happen.

Puzzles, Free Roam, and Choice:
Obviously having to preoccupy yourself with solving puzzles, unlocking doors, finding secret passages, etc. was a big part of the old games and a big part of the challenge. You didn't just run room to room in a predetermined path and shoot everything;
you have a whole house or compound or hallway of rooms to check out and figure out what to do next. Because of this, you had to retrace your footsteps a lot and sometimes have a surprise zombie respawn. Additionally, the cinematics and QTE's sort of killed
the choice of reaction element present in previous titles by forcing you into a specific action while hitting certain buttons to not die during said cinematic. The first time Jill encounters the Nemesis, you may not know he is not able to be killed and the
only thing you can do is run, and you may die finding that out (I did). If it were done in modern day, the whole thing would be scripted with you being forced into a sequence of watching your character run away while you mash "X."

Remove global inventory, bring back chests:
Limited inventory becomes more salient when you have to choose what to bring and what to stash in a chest that can only be accessed at certain rooms in the game.... and you didn't just have to worry about what weapons to carry. That made you really
have to plan ahead for what you may need, and forced you to sometimes work with what you foolishly chose to bring along.

Here is a classic scenario from the old format of Resident Evil games:

You have been running around a creepy mansion listening to eerie ambient piano music for 20 minutes trying to find a piece of a puzzle to advance forward in the game. It has been uneventful confrontation-wise but you are cognitively engaged in trying to
solve this challenge of unlocking a door you need to pass. You finally find a key card and start making your way back to the obstacle that has barred your progress. Entering into a hallway, you suddenly start hearing ominous footsteps. The camera is oriented
to show the door you entered through, yourself, and about 6 feet of the hallway, so you cannot see what is ahead of you or where. You slowly move forward, and the camera changes, showing a licker a few feet away from you! It hears you, and leaps at you.
You panic, and draw your weapon but in a fluster fire a few shots at the ceiling even though your attacker is on the ground. You re-orient yourself and shoot a few times, but have taken a few hits. Your pistol is empty and you need to reload, but if you
do, you'll die. Your health is in the red and so you quickly turn around and make a break for the door trying to reach it while limping, just making it out of the room in the knick of time.

You reload your pistol and look at your inventory.... you have one green herb unmixed. You wanted to wait to find a red herb but you have to take it now or die when you re-enter the room. You take it, receiving only a mild health boost into the yellow.
You only have your pistol and a few more shots since you stashed your shotgun to make room to grab story-essential items. Your ink cartridge is also in a chest but you know if you can just make it back through the hallway that is being blocked by a licker
that you can get to a save room and not lose the last 20 minutes of progress. You re-enter and fire the last remaining shots, barely killing the licker but having only 1-2 bullets left. You took a few hits and are back in the red health-wise. Only a little
bit further and you will get to a safe-room, when suddenly you hear slow-moving footsteps and groaning. Zombies! You don't have enough ammo to shoot them. The only option is to run past them and try to get around them before they react. You take off, moving
slowly due to injury, and get grabbed a mere few feet from the door. You try to shake him off but it's too late. The "You are Dead" screen shows up.

-------

You can't recreate that kind of suspense in the current format of Resident Evil. I really hope if anything they intend to modernize this structure for a "return to roots" title because it
is doable.

 

I honestly like all the RE games, even RE5 and RE6.

I want them to do a remake of the first one and the second one!

 

I just said this in another thread but sorry for the late response. I had 2-step issues over the weekend and thanks to mothers day, I had to go visit the in-laws :-o lol

Pyramid mate I cannot tell you how annoyed I was with the HD collection. I was constantly frozen whenever going to the apartment in SH2 on the harder difficulty. The game was seriously broken and for something as prestigious as SH2...you just don't do that
as a developer. I remember hearing that they fixed it for the PS3 but man, don't commit to deliver an experience that doesn't build on the original, is all I can say. The fog removal was crazy. I liked to not see my enemies until last minute but to say I could
see them from 100 foot away, it dampened the mood lol. After posting this I'm going straight to wiki to read on the evil within! Thanks guys!!

Malnificent, stopping enemies from dropping ammo. I agree with that. It's a form of spoon feeding in this genre and although it helps make things a little easier, it sure as hell isn't suppose to in a survival horror. If they 'have' to put that in there,
then at least make it less frequent.

Free roam in my opinion is a must! Games (no matter how big they are) seem to becoming quite linear lately. Yes Final Fantasy 13, I am looking straight at you. Part of what made games last longer was not knowing were to go without looking for clues. I cant
remember what game it was, I want to say Silent Hill 3, but there was a door you had to unlock and no reference to the code on the door was anywhere to be seen. You had to go explore. Yes the code was on a nearby shelf were you had to rearrange some books,
but that was part of what made the game so fun and added to the length. Exploration. You can have a small world or city and still make it last much much longer than your average shoot-your-way through game.

Lets hope they remake RE2 as hinted so we can get back to the roots a little.

Love Chronology, I would not say no to some remakes either. It would be a good way for them to test if the old formula would still be well received by todays audience. RE1 was remade / ported a lot and I got sick of seeing it being hashed out, but right
about now, I would not grumble in the slightest lol

 

I don't think linearity is the problem so much as how it's used.

 

Well that is true. See I don't mind it so much when its 'back and forth' linear. With new rooms unlocking or openings being made ect... its just the 'start to finish' linear games I really dislike most the time :/

 

Well, if it takes you out the experience and you realize how linear it is then, then i say the game failed at keeping you immersed(cough FFXIII cough).

It's not the best explanation but i liken it to how FFX did it right to how XIII did it soh so wrong.

 

Yea, even the old resident evil games were partially linear in that they had different "phases" in the games, for instance:

RE2: Police station, sewers, umbrella lab

RE:CV - prison complex, Antarctic, rinse/repeat for other character

You couldn't really "go back" to other areas once you entered a new "phase" unless the game took you back there during story progression, but when you were in new areas you generally had free roam of the area that you were in (and had to have because often
some tasks required you to move to and from areas multiple times and sometimes re-explore to find things you may have missed). In RE4,5, and 6 you just followed pre-determined paths and grandiose boss fights the entire time. RE 1-3+CV: well-implemented....
RE4,5,6: poorly implemented "pure linear" gameplay. Again, 4 and 5 were not all that bad but definitely felt like a different game series for reasons like that.