With the recent announcement of The Evil Within, Kris looks at the survival horror genre and how it can evolve by building off of the design decisions from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
That sense of danger is at the heart of any good survival horror game.
With everything that it did so well, there are other things that I wish SH: SM would have done better. One of the common factors of a great horror game is that sense of suspense and danger. In SH: SM, those moments came at specific times and where telegraphed well in advance. The result was a diminished sense of fear that you knew you could turn off at specific moments when the game told you it was safe. I think a better approach would be the mix that Amnesia used, where the danger is not known and could come around the corner at any time. The trick is in balancing the sense of helplessness with control. A game with an impossible obstacle is not fun. You need to maintain a level of accessibility and possibility for the player to triumph.
The stories that are used to hold all of the gameplay mechanics together also need to evolve. The idea behind a good scary story is that it is relatable. It has to be something that hits home so that the feelings are real. SH: SM starts off well with this. What father would not be scared of losing their child? Connecting that relatability and a supernatural premise is the challenge. Still, I think that it’s doable even when engaging with ghostly enemies. And on the topic of enemies, maybe we need to move away from the bigger is better motif. The strength of a solid villain or enemy in the story is not always in the most over the top appearance. Sometimes subtly in the presentation can do the most for portraying of a characters real value. This is even more important in horror games where the enemies can represent the main theme of the plot.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories did something I thought was going to be near impossible at the time. It took motion controls and incorporated them in a solid horror game with a mature theme and an engaging story. They broke down all the negativity in my mind and showed me just how much this gimmick can achieve if given the correct care. The challenge in this genre is deciding how this can be taken forward.
It does seem like ‘Zwei’ will be putting in his full effort in his new project. The amount of innovation will be driven by whatever development feels will assist in game sales. Finding that balance between moments of complete helplessness and ultimate triumph, all while seeming grounded and believable, is what makes these games hard to developer and why I love this genre. I am waiting with bated breath for the next one.
