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Post by numbuheightbitstar on Jan 21, 2007 4:42:04 GMT
This is a rant about the Survival Horror genre, which began with Alone in the Dark (which did NOT involve zombies), was made popular with Resident Evil, and has been around ever since.
Now, I loved Alone in the Dark and I loved the first couple of Resident Evil games, but you know what?
I'M SICK OF ZOMBIES! Why does near every Survival Horror game out there use zombies?
I got to play the X-Files game on the PS2 recently, and I thought well, its X-Files it might be good... but what does it do? Throws Zombies at me. Game doesn't even deny it--right upfront, Mulder makes a joke that he and Scully need to "get out of here before this becomes the Thriller video." I didn't even care about the plot. It had zombies in it, that's bad enough.
What is so great about zombies anyway? They hold their arms out, amble towards you, and moan a lot! Where's the terror in that? Why not use, ya know, poltergeists--something intangible? Or some of those Grays everyone is always claiming to be abducted by--something tangible but probably beyond our knowledge? I'm sure you could make a better game out of either of those than you can out of a walking corpse that moans a lot.
That's my rant, thanks for letting me get it off my chest.
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Post by NumbuhInfinity on Jan 21, 2007 5:11:21 GMT
Didn't you post this before?
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Post by numbuheightbitstar on Jan 21, 2007 5:26:39 GMT
Not to the best of my recollection.
I think you saw me rant about this in a post at the DBZOA. That's the only place I can think where I brought this up.
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Post by NumbuhInfinity on Jan 21, 2007 5:34:44 GMT
Not to the best of my recollection. I think you saw me rant about this in a post at the DBZOA. That's the only place I can think where I brought this up. Ah, I thought so. I coulda sworn it was here, too, though. |
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Post by Numbuh 0xFF on Jan 21, 2007 5:50:57 GMT
@james
I have but one thing to say to you: Braaaainssss...
;D
Actually, Zombies are there because
a) They are cliches. The risk-averse gaming industry loves those.
b) Dead (pun intended!) easy to model.
c) You don't have to bother with fancy AI routines.
Greys do appear in the UFO series of games (which, come to think of it, is probably older than the survival genre) and Poltergeists...ah...well...lack the ooomph factor. Personally, I think more games should involve killing vampires but that's just because I want to get my grubby little hands on a stake gun. ;D
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Post by thesuki on Jan 21, 2007 7:08:59 GMT
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Post by numbuheightbitstar on Jan 21, 2007 8:05:13 GMT
*Slaps forehead* I forgot all about that topic!
Sorry!
Oh well...
@ Numbuh 0xFF
By the "UFO" series, are you referring to "UFO: Enemy Unknown" (aka X-Com UFO Defense and its sequel, X-Com Terror From the Deep)? Those would count, except that they're not horror... they're strategy. The point is to outthink the suckers, not be scared of them.
(Granted, it did have its creepy moments....)
Oh and yeah, it thoroughly predated the Survival Horror genre (kinda-sorta... since really, all Sur. Hor. is, is adventure games with horror themes and bad camera angles that let you kill stuff).
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Post by Numbuh 0xFF on Jan 21, 2007 18:24:22 GMT
Back in the day we used to call them arcade-adventures. Ahh...the good days. Anyone remember Little Big Adventure? Now there was a funky game if I ever saw one.
Alone in the dark was awesome, too -- though my personal favorite is the third part. It had spunk -- turning yourself into a jaguar and wrapping your paw in silver? Hell yeah!
The Silent Hill series of games has you fighting all kinds of supernatural nasties...can't remember if there were any zombies, though.
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Post by thesuki on Jan 21, 2007 18:31:58 GMT
Zombies would be a lot more fun if they used them properly. By that, I mean the way the voo doo legends that introduced zombies did. The only way to kill the zombies is to kill the necromancer who raised them. And have the zombies be puppets doing the bidding of a master, not this flesh-eating nonsense.
Kagura in Inuyasha has been the closest thing to an actual necromancer I've ever seen in popular media. Dance of the Dead, indeed.
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Post by iguana on Jan 21, 2007 23:32:24 GMT
Back in the day we used to call them arcade-adventures. Ahh...the good days. Anyone remember Little Big Adventure? Now there was a funky game if I ever saw one. 'CAN YOU HELP ME TREAT MY INJURED DINO-FLY?' Oh the memories. |
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Post by numbuheightbitstar on Jan 22, 2007 2:20:53 GMT
I haven't played Little Big Adventure.
But here's an "Arcade-Adventure" you probably haven't heard of: Remembered Ecstatica?
Silent Hill was good at first, but shows that the gaming industry can ruin anything given enough time to make a sequel. Silent Hill II was like an episode of Doctor Who without the doctor.
EDIT: While I'm here, guess I might as well ask for game recommendations--particularly in the realm of PC games (trying to fill out my library).
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Post by Numbuh 0xFF on Jan 22, 2007 3:03:17 GMT
I like Doctor Who!
And, believe it or not, the name of the game was Ečstatica. Yep. With that odd 'č' thing. I have no idea what were they thinking when they put it it but that's a real letter -- it's used in extensively in slavic languages (my own included) and represends a hard 'ch' sound (like 'child'). But, yeah, it was a nice game. Real odd graphics -- there was a lot of experimenting with 3D back then, wasn't there.
What genre interests you? There's a really large number of games out there.
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Post by numbuheightbitstar on Jan 22, 2007 5:36:08 GMT
I enjoyed what little I've seen of Doctor Who. With the SH2 comparison I was primarily getting at the game's visual style reminded me of something you'd see on the BBC--and also that it seriously would've been better if the Doctor and a companion were in it.
I'm really not sure what genres interest me anymore. I've been on kind of a gaming purge recently--I try to play and finally complete some of whats in my collection but the only things I can seem to stay interested in anymore are twitch action games.
Though when I asked for recommendations I was primarily looking for RPGs and Adventure games (mostly RPGs).
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