In the spring of 1996, a new game from Capcom was released. The first thing that caught the eye of all horror players was the unusual atmosphere of the game. Being in a mansion, in the company of six people, listening to forcing music, the player began to suspect that the game would be unusual for passing. After the first appearance of zombies, the player begins to understand the genre of the new game – survival horror.
The feeling of complete loneliness throughout the game haunts the player. And that’s not the only chilling quality of this game; a mansion with mysteries, a sense of insecurity, fear of the unknown – all this is just part of the psychological tricks of the cunning developers of Resident Evil.
Shinji Mikami, the director of the first part, did not expect such a reaction from the players himself. After such success, the creators of the original game began to analyze the feedback from players around the world, trying to take into account all the factors that had such a strong effect on people.
Horror genre players were pleasantly surprised by the graphics of the game. Despite the weak storyline, a bunch of paradoxes, terrible voice acting, it was the beautiful atmosphere of the game that users liked. The mystery of Spencer’s mansion is solved as you progress, and the player comes to a terrible truth – the experiments to develop the sinister “G” virus are to blame for everything.
The main line of the game is this. The Umbrella company tried to create ideal soldiers using genetic engineering, but the created T-virus affected not only the physical characteristics of the soldiers – strength, stamina, vitality, aggression. He also reanimated the dead cells of a living organism. This was not what Umbrella planned, but the experiments continued until the virus was leaked. The Alpha team from the S.T.A.R.S Special Squad set off to search for the Bravo Team from the same squad, due to the mysterious disappearance of the latter in the Arclay Mountains, in the north of the city of Rakoon. After attacking the team with infected dogs, the Alpha team is forced to take refuge in the same Spencer mansion. What follows is a real nightmare…
Every person is afraid of something, although one can argue and say that there are mentally healthy people who can’t be scared by anything – they have nerves of steel! This is not true, because fear, being a derivative of the survival instinct, is a normal response to threats to human life. A person empathizes with the hero, associates himself with him, puts himself in his place. The player becomes afraid for the fate of the player.
The monotony of the game is very depressing. The same music constantly sounds, you constantly need to solve puzzles, kill zombies again and again, run away in time of danger. Scenes of blood and violence are very difficult for children, and they are the ones who play such games. The worst thing, most likely, is the intimacy of fear. “Resident Evil” took a lot from “Alone in the Dark”, and the last game was scary precisely in the intimacy in the perceived horror. The perspective of the camera played a significant role.
After such a success, of course, Capcom took up the development of a sequel, but in vain…. It would be better to wait and think over the plot of the next game well and only then release it. Shinji Mikami himself said that he should not have released new parts so often, but it was worth waiting for a new generation of players who were not fed up with the first part. Everyone knows this phenomenon: the first perception is always the brightest. The first part of any film, being very well received by the public, has a less rated second part. This is due to addiction, satiety. It is necessary to reconsider the understanding of what remains unchanged in the fears of people.
Therefore, the following recommendations are offered.
How to make a game truly scary?
The element of surprise is the traditional way to scare the player. But now that the players have become “calous”, it’s time to come up with new tricks. Unlimited number of attempts is another overkill. It is better to let the player play until the first death of the hero, so that the players associate themselves with the latter more, they are afraid to simply waste ammo and resources. Give the antagonists the opportunity to open doors, move things, break them. Make it impossible for players to kill zombies with body shots. Leave corpses for the duration of the game so that the player is afraid to pass by them once again.
Play depressing music when zombies appear, but also deceive players by playing disturbing music when new locations are opened. Isolate the player from other characters. You should not give the player a large arsenal of ammunition – this gives an excessive sense of security, it is better to limit the choice of weapons to a regular pistol and a light machine gun; even so, finding new rounds should be limited to searching for dead military, which should be scattered throughout the location, and, of course, no one guarantees that they will not come to life.
Following these tips, you can make a good survival game, but it’s very cruel.
