The Devolution

of Resident

Evil:

A Survival Horror Game Abandons Its Roots

by Susan CarmichaelTURN ON SOUND RE3: The Last Escape by Masami Ueda & Saori Maeda

While the Silent Hill series has devolved

in its progression from the “survival horror” game

genre, the Resident Evil series has abandoned the

genre all together in favor of "action horror."

Project Purpose

Storylines of individual games in each series ♦ Gameplay characteristicsCharacters & monsters ♦ Sound & environment ♦ Scare tactics

Game Aspects

This presentation will only address Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 in the Resident Evil series and Silent Hill 2 and

Silent Hill 3 in the Silent Hill series.

The classic Resident Evil story begins in Raccoon City, a location overrun by zombies. Members of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team enter to help find members of their disappeared Bravo team and to continue the investigation. Their exploration of a seemingly abandoned mansion turns into a fight for survival against the Umbrella Corporation's experiments.

Six years after the original zombie infestation in Raccoon City, the U.S. government officially shut down the Umbrella

Corporation and recruits Leon S. Kennedy, a former Raccoon City cop, to rescue the President's kidnapped daughter, Ashley

Graham, from a remote village in Spain. In Resident Evil 4 Leon does battle against the Los Illuminados cult and their parasite-

infected villagers.

STORYLINE

RE4: Krauser by Misae Senbongi and Shusaku Uchiyama

Silent Hill 2, the hallmark game of the series, documents James Sunderland's journey through Silent Hill to find out the truth about his wife Mary's death. The town and its inhabitants are manifestations of James' mind, and in the end James faces the truth.

Silent Hill 3 takes place 17 years after Harry Mason's nightmare in the original Silent Hill game, and his adopted daughter Heather meets Claudia Wolf in the mall. After fighting her way back home, Heather finds

her father dead and heads to Silent Hill to kill Claudia. Heather faces Claudia in a church and ingests a capsule of red liquid. She then vomits the bloody fetus of a god worshiped by the town's cult. Claudia

thwarts Heather's attempt to kill the god and ingests the fetus herself, giving birth. Heather kills the resurrected god and survives.

Resident Evil 4 abandons the previous games' focus on zombies in favor of parasitic attackers. An action fight against a global spread of deadly viruses replaces the immediate and personal struggle for survival. The Silent Hill series might not encompass many of the same characters and stories or offer a continuous timeline, but each game is a psychological fight for one's survival against dark secrets.

The survival horror perspective is third-person, intensifying the

sensations of vulnerability, isolation, and shock (McRoy par. 5). Resident Evil 4 was the first in the series to have an over-the-shoulder view of the fully three-dimensional world instead of the typical third-person

perspective.

GAMEPLAY

Resident Evil 1

Screenshot

Resident Evil 4 Screenshot

Survivor horror throws players into scenarios that induce fear; limited ammunition and health exacerbates these situations. Items in Resident Evil 4 are more plentiful, and the game introduces “the merchant," allowing the player to carry more items at once, thus ditching the survival aspect. Limited supplies encouraged the player to run from enemies and conserve supplies. This aspect weakened in the Resident Evil series but not in the Silent Hill series.

“Got sumthin' that might interest ya‘,

stranger.”

Leon S. Kennedy

Jill Valentine & Chris RedfieldS.T.A.R.S.

Ashley Graham

CHARACTERS

In Resident Evil, surviving the zombie infestation requires endurance and

cunning from the characters; however, physical ability dominates in Resident

Evil 4.

Resident Evil

Resident Evil 4

Silent Hill games have always focused on the

characters' ordinariness. Heather Mason from Silent Hill

3 offers an androgynous

appearance and narrative centrality,

successfully combining the imperiled and

masculine femininity of the survival horror genre (Kirkland 3).

Heather

Mason

James Sunderla

nd

Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 2

SH3: Heads No. 2 by Akira Yamaoka

Zombie

Resident Evil 4 Enemies

Zombies are frightening. They

will eat you if given the chance, but

they move slowly enough to either avoid or destroy

with relative ease dependent on

their numbers and cramped spaces. In Resident Evil 4, smart and agile

opponents are the norm. Resident

Evil

Pyramid Head – The

Executioner

Nurse - The Anxieties surrounding

his wife's terminal

illness & The Sexual

Deprivation that came

with it

Maria - The Mary he always

wanted

In contrast, the enemies in Silent Hill 2 are manifestations of the James Sunderland's real fears, for surviving your own nightmares is

real survival horror.

SOUND

Low-key lighting not only plays up shadows, but it perpetuates a

progressively disturbing tone of gloom (McRoy par. 8). While the

Silent Hill series remains a dimly lit town, Resident Evil 4 lights up the

scenery with the wide open spaces and rural town environments.

ENVIRONMENT

The Resident Evil series no longer incorporates creepy music to such

a high degree. In contrast, the Silent Hill games continue to offer

sinister soundtracks for an expressionistic audio experience

(Kirkland 2).

SH3 - Fairytale Monster by Akira Yamaoka

Japanese survival horror relies heavily on ghost, rituals, and the unseen. Western survival horror is more visceral and action-oriented. As the Western design becomes the dominant paradigm, action and gore will continue to supersede psychological dread (Alexander).

SCARE TACTICS

conclusion

Gamers want the sense of being truly alone in the dark with just their thoughts and fear. Hopefully, the Resident Evil series will reach that point again and return to the roots that defined the genre.

RESIDENT EVIL 4 PARODY

Works CitedAlexander, Leigh. “Does Survival Horror Really Still Exist?” Kotaku. n.p. n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2010.

Capcom Production Studio 4. “Resident Evil.” PlayStation. Capcom. 30 Mar. 1996. Video Game.

Capcom Production Studio 4. “Resident Evil 4.” PlayStation 2. Capcom. 25 Oct. 2005. Video Game.

Kirkland, Ewan. “Restless Dreams in Silent Hill: Approaches to Videogame Analysis.” Journal of Media Practice 6:3 (2005): 167-178. EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Jan. 2010.

Konami and Team Silent. “Silent Hill 2.” PlayStation 2. Konami. 24 Sept. 2001. Video Game.

Konami and Team Silent. “Silent Hill 3.” PlayStation 2. Konami. 6 Aug. 2003. Video Game.

McRoy, Jay. “‘The Horror is Alive’: Immersion, Spectatorship, and the Cinematics of Fear in the Survival Horror Genre.” Reconstruction. n.p. 6:1 (2006): n. pag. Web. 14 Jan. 2010.

“Resident Evil 4 Cutscene 2-2.” YouTube. 1 Nov. 2008. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_lRWLV3QZo.

“Resident Evil 4 Parody.” YouTube. 22 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCSpMAgkZxM .

“Silent Hill 3 Cutscenes 08, Hellish Elevator Decent.” YouTube. 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGb_wGYAS9c.

“Ten Years of Resident Evil: The Official Soundtrack.” Sunthing Else. 27 Mar. 2007. Audio. 19 Jan. 2010. Yamaoka, Akira. “Silent Hill, Vol. 3.” Sony/Columbia. 28 July 2003. Audio. 19 Jan. 2010.

PicturesSlide 1 http://www.file-extensions.org/imgs/app-picture/5260/resident-evil.jpgSlide 2 http://media.photobucket.com/image/Resident%20Evil%205/jimato/wallpaper_resident_evil_5_01_1600.jpgSlide 3 http://api.ning.com/files/OjFOux2Sv-GOFp5jzVyUyVrD75idw-rAC8rn7aDsyIg_/silent_hill1.jpgSlide 4 http://www.pwned.com/gamecovers/playstation/2588c3f3d10c4c7043be71999e08d1c7-Resident_Evil.jpg

http://www.gamekicker.com/files/RE4CoverPs2.jpg Slide 5 http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1100333368-00.jpg

http://www.tothegame.com/res/game/1470/boxshot_uk_large.jpg Slide 6 http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9990/cartoon1.png

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/Data/2009_7_24/Silent-Hill-demoed-at-Comic-Con-09/SilentHill_01_675.jpgSlide 7 http://www.gameandplayer.net/images/inset/inset1_09_0311_residentevil.jpg

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/614/614449/resident-evil-4-20050516000049172_640w.jpg Slide 8 http://residentevil.wikia.com/File:Residentevil4_conceptart_WVepg.jpg

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2005/20050114h.jpg Slide 9 http://img.neoseeker.com/v_concept_art.php?caid=55

http://residentevil.wikia.com/File:Chrs_and_Jill.jpg http://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?p=64443202

Slide 10 http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/James_Sunderlandhttp://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/Heather_Mason

Slide 11 http://residentevil.wikia.com/File:Zombie_Deadly_Silence.jpghttp://residentevil.wikia.com/Villagers http://projectumbrella.net/articles/Resident-Evil-4

Slide 12 http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/File:PyramidHeadPic.pnghttp://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/silent/images/1/1e/Demon_Nurse.jpghttp://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sh2_art_35.jpg

Slide 13 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ir_residentevil4_gc http://www.kombo.com/article.php?artid=13862

Slide 15 http://www.blogcdn.com/xbox.joystiq.com/media/2007/06/soaloneinthedarkgun.jpg