With the Resident Evil 2 One-Shot Demo absolutely scaring the pants off of the masses and announcing to the very heavens above that “Resident Evil is BACK, baby!”, we felt there was no better time to pay homage to the veritable Godfather of survival horror by listing off some of our favourite moments in the history of the genre! Any game, as long as it’s specifically classed as a horror, or horror-inspired game!
Javier
I talk about it a lot, every time someone brings up the VR or horror games i have to talk about Resident Evil 7. There still isn’t a VR game that’s compared to the suffocating feeling of this horribly scary game. One moment in particular was when you discover the children’s bedroom, you’re crawling through a passage and just see a little girl’s feet as she laughs, which then disappear, I was shook and had to stop playing.
I also need to dip back into Silent Hill 2, the whole game terrified the bejeezus out of me and gave me literal nightmares. Particularly the blood soaked walls and the subway. But if we’re talking about moments I remember going in a storage room and seeing a mannequin, leaving and hearing a noise, only to go back and see that it had been beheaded with blood everywhere! I’ve never looked at a lifeless person doll the same…. BECAUSE THEY’RE REAL PEOPLE!
Chris
Picking one moment from a horror franchise is incredibly hard, and more often than not I find myself not thinking of the big oogie-boogie jumpscares or that, but the quieter moments of these titles, when it’s just you and the game’s atmosphere. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Forbidden Siren… They all had a lot going on in the way they affected the player. But I’m going to have to go with my old nostalgic favourite, Resident Evil 3. It was really good on the atmospheric front – music only when it mattered, far off screams, groans and the blowing wind sometimes breaking the silence. You go through Raccoon City much more than in Resident Evil 2, and you get to appreciate just what’s happened to the city so much more because of it. Whilst you’ll occasionally bump into survivors or enemies, the whole experience is just… Desolate. You can really feel the danger and devastation, coming across scenes of destruction, abandoned massacres, and even places just left at a moment’s notice, all hinting at so much that happened before. I often think of the quiet journies through the claustrophobic laneways when I think of this game; the still-lit shops almost making things seem normal, right until you come across a broken window, or a zombie eating an unfortunate person.
Horror should be scary, and genuine fear relies on tension and imagination much more than startling jumpscares, and this game really knows how to get on your nerves. With the Resident Evil 2 remake fast approaching, I can only hope they continue the trend, and we see what a modern take on Resident Evil 3 could look like.
Mikey
This was a tough one! So many to choose from. I initially wanted to go with something from The Suffering on the Playsation 2 as I have fond memories of being terrified by parts of that game but my memory of it is a bit hazy now. I also want to give a massive shout out to Until Dawn, that game was right up my street. But in the end I have settled on the Silent Hills playable teaser ‘P.T’.
When I downloaded this for the first time after hearing good things I didn’t know what to expect. Given that it was nothing more than a demo my expectations weren’t exactly through the roof! Fast forward about an hour to me staring at a paused screen wondering if I actually have the courage to play this game without somebody else in the room.
Through gritted teeth and maybe the help of a few friends I managed to get to the end and got treated to the tease of that Silent Hills game which sadly will probably never see the light of day. But still P.T had come in for a brief appearance and in its short time managed to establish itself as one of if not the most terrifying game I have ever played through.
William
Right so I’m not big on horror games because I am a big ol’ scaredy cat. However, some have slipped though my Trumpesque wall and shown me a few sick moments of terror and joy. Out of this small list I’m going to pick a single panicked moment in Bioshock. Doctor. Fucking. Stienman. If you’ve played this undersea thriller before you’ll immediately know who I’m on about. The good Doctor is the first boss of the game and gives you your first proper glimpse of how the DNA altering wonder fluid, ADAM, effects a person’s sanity. That moment where you finally come face to face and are made to watch as Stienman butchers a poor individual strapped to his surgical table while screaming about how ugly everyone appears to be is truly harrowing and even now gives me goosebumps! Ugly… Ugly… UGLY!!!
Joe
For me, horror games have always been a genre I tend to neglect, for better or for worse… So when, in early June last year, Luke and Salman both peer pressured me to play through Silent Hill 2, I reluctantly stepped forwards into the legendary nightmare that so many before me had been shaken up by.
Admittedly, whilst it was unnerving, the game wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before… Until I noticed the subtext, and the hulking demon known as Pyramid Head stalking my every movement throughout the abandoned apartments of Silent Hill – Now those fleshy mannequins and abominations came to light, their true horror unveiled, and sat above all of them, alongside the Abstract Daddy, reigned Pyramid Head – This game goes out of it’s way to let you know that this hulking mass of flesh and iron is a complete monster – The very thing that scares the things that scare you in the dark, even going as far as to show the demon raping and molesting fellow mannequin monsters… It’s just… Chilling. Inhuman. Yet the very embodiment of James’ fractured humanity… Or, at least, what’s left of it.