Cliches in Horror Gaming

There are certain horror gimmicks that just work.  Whether it’s starting a story off on a dark and stormy night or getting an unexpected phone call in the middle of said dark and stormy night.  Levelup.com’s Alexis Patino explores some of horror-gaming’s most over-used cliches and gimmicks and RoH contributor ShadowOne333 translates.  And of course we couldn’t get through one article without offering our own two cents.  So enjoy!

The Undead Dead

Do you remember the first time you killed a zombie in Resident Evil?  Suddenly you found yourself with a person on its knees, emitting odd sounds with an ambiance that made you feel something eerie was happening right before your eyes.  You were almost capable of smelling the rotten flesh and you ask yourself – What the hell is this  abnormally pale bald person doing with the lump on the floor?

When you close in, the guy turns around, ever so slowly to show you its frightening and disfigured face.  Soon, you realize that everything’s wrong and this thing tries to attack you.  Juggling the controls you managed to shoot it and watch it fall.  After a few seconds, you recovered and it was over.

And then you inspect the lump on the floor.  You step in closer, …closer.  You thought you could recognize body parts.  Then the zombie grabs your leg and attacks!  Quickly you hit the buttons and end up crushing the animated corpse.

This moment was very well-handled in the first Resident Evil [RoH comment: come on, who could forget that scene?  Probably the equivalent of THRILLHOU…hehe] and Silent Hill games in which you could finish off an enemy with a stomp or just avoid the body and run out of its range, never go up against it again.  There were those who remained lying down for so long they made you regain confidence and think that they wouldn’t attack again.

Aah!  Now that your enemy is headless you thought that you would finally have some calm.  But the paranoia only remained latent for the rest of the game session…

The question is, now that we’ve seen it so much, we automatically finish off and “RE-kill” anything that’s left.  Yet some of us still seem to fall for the same old trick.

The Silent Hall

There was a certain hallway in Resident Evil where there was nothing but mere furniture – some showcases and windows.  You could push the furniture to get supplies.  Throughout the game, on several occasions, you had to cross through the very same hallway.  And then there comes a point to where it’s standard procedure.  Avoiding enemies when you have low ammo you go through the hall to reach the right side of the mansion, but just when you tried to cross it…

So you probably slammed the pause button and threw your controller to the floor to control the tachycardia.  Most likely, since then you fell in love with Resident Evil.  However after several halls with windows in them within the mansion, you could not expect any less of another good scare like the one with the Cerberus.  Crows anyone?

The End…Or Is it?

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the most remarkable titles for this topic.  Just to name a few.  This cliche might be the consequence of the several endings available in several horror games, but it’s a good thing–it adds replay value to the game itself.  But the downside to this is that whenever we put the game in the console, we know we’ll be getting an ending that might not be the real ending.

Then we curse and blame the developers for leaving the game with an “open” ending, since we have to complete the game again or wait for a sequel.  One of the most notable examples for this is Silent Hill 2.  Just which of all the possible endings is the canon ending?

Amnesia

This is a great element to implement the beginning of the story and a way for the player to bond with the main character and share in their sensation of uncertainty.  It would be somewhat awkward to control a character that is very aware of its situation and being the gamer who controls said character doesn’t have a clue what’s going on, how to move the character, use items or where to go.  It would be incoherent or would decrease the bond with tutorials that tend to interrupt with the narrative of the game.

This is one of the cliches (sadly) that is becoming tired and repetitive.  It’s almost common to see a character deprived of their memories.  It forces them to slowly remember who they really are.

In SAW, you wake up in a trap without any previous memory of what happened.  In Parasite Eve, Aya can’t remember her childhood.  In Amnesia: The Dark Descent…well that one’s pretty much self explanatory right there, and there are many instances in Silent Hill where one can’t seem to remember what’s going on.

Endless Pursuit

Some developers seem to think that adding a temporary “invincible” enemy chasing you is a good idea.  The first pursuer to jump into mind is Nemesis from Resident Evil 3.  Other enemies could be the Berserker from Gears of War, Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2.

Of course it’s not all bad.  These situations indeed cause paranoia and create an atmosphere of constant fear, but the time comes when its really annoying trying to deal with a being you can’t harm, and on top of that, stops your advance in the game.  Generally, we fall into a rehearsal sequence to discover that we can’t destroy that enemy and later, find tricks to avoid it.

You can click on over to the original post to show your appreciation for the article.  Thanks to RoH contributor ShadowOne333 for the translation!

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