http://plebegaming.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/better-controls-and-technology-hurt-the-survival-horror-genre/

Am I alone in thinking this? Resident Evil 4 was a great game in general, one of the best ever made, but it completely failed as a survival horror game. Since its release the genre's been almost completely replaced by horror shooters. The only good mainstream survival horror game that I can think of, at least as far as consoles go, being Zombi U.

Essentially, the more control you give players, the less scary a game is. Leon in RE4 was the perfect example of how not to do the genre. He was too damn strong, too damn fast, and too damn cool. He roundhouse kicks heads off, does over the top suplexes, and knife fights a mutating super soldier. Aside from lame jump scares, not once did I ever feel scared because I was busy curb stomping everything in the game with my badass American superhero.

No, I don't think so. Shoddy controls just made it easier for developers to invoke suspense. The controls got better but the developers didn't. That's why today's Horror games don't seem as good anymore.

But we already had quite decent survival horror games with great controls. They got their suspense by not giving the player options to fight back, which is a very good way to go since helplessness is a big theme in horror.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. What's killing the horror genre is publishers trying to make horror games too much like action games of another genre.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way RE4 controls. The problem is with the way the game gives the player way too much guns and ammo. I've played three different RE games (not counting the rail shooters on Wii), and the only one that made me leave ammo behind was RE4. When I play Code Veronica with my cousin, we had to restart halfway through the game because his dumbass wouldn't listen to me when I said not to shoot every stupid little zombie. We got to a snake/worm boss with nothing more than a knife and a few bullets on a pea shooter.

I couldn't beat RE2 on my own so many years ago, so I put in cheat codes for unlimited ammo and went through the whole game. This took out a lot of need for strategy and restraint. I could gun down anything, so what's to fear? Other than jump scares, I was a walking army. As fun as RE4 is, I was never for want of a bullet or shell (at least on Normal), and that's how the modern RE franchise is now. I hear Dead Space went the same route with the latest game.

If you want a polar opposite example, look at the much acclaimed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on Wii. There is NO combat in that game, so you really do feel weak, helpless and in dire straights at all times.

I'm going to elaborate on this point more after I get back from a ball game.

It did also moving aways from pre rendered backgrounds did..but there is this one anomaly called Resident Evil 4.

It's sad but mostly true.

My problem was that Parasite Eve 2 completely ruined tank controls for me. Adding a "press Square to target the nearest enemy in your line of sight" was very intuitive and nowhere near as fidgety as oldschool Resident Evil. Aya felt like she was wielding some really heavy weapons. Jill just felt clunky.

That, and PE2 made the bayonet a useful high-skill weapon.

The fixed camera also definitely added to the atmosphere. There is something uniquely cinematic to running down a corridor, the camera angle changing to be UNDER YOUR FEET, and you don't change the control at all. Because your character isn't actually changing direction.


For me, Survival Horror is always about having powerful weapons, but ammo restrictions force you to place shots carefully or evade enemies. That game design decision outweighs tank controls. That said, Dead Space has always felt to me like Doom 3: Limb Chopper Edition, even though it placed restrictions on ammunition. Meanwhile, Dark Souls felt like a good medieval S-H game. True S-H games have gameplay which force the player to plan ahead and ration resources, however those play out in the game.

Capcom, however, has never figured out how to do that outside Tank Controls.

I've always felt that there's just less suspense in general the better you can control, and to me helplessness isn't as fun as the thought of rationing encounters. If you can't fight back and are truly helpless you pretty much ignore the enemies and avoid them altogether, which is just as bad as running roughshod over them.

I can't see proper horror being built when players have such high levels of control and camera movement. For example Zombi U. The scariest parts of that game are when you have the least control, going through your inventory.

Funny because the original 2 Dead Space games didn't have tank controls and were fine as were games like Project Zero 4, Amnesia and ZombiU, what hurt horror titles was not the controls it was the lack of progression and adaptability by developers. Play through the nursery level in ZombiU or play Amnesia, horror isn't the controls that's the gameplay design horror is the atmosphere, setting and the type of adversary you're up against.

RE2 on N64 had analogue control and was still scary, most developers have made their games more shooter and action like to try and cover up that they're clueless on how to approach the genre now days and that's what it comes down to. What's frustrating is the likes of RE6, the large university campus could have made a great setting for a survival horror experience on it's own much like the mansion in the old games but sadly Capcom are now days clueless on the genre they've nearly gone full Dino Crisis 3 on RE.

no the reason why RE4 failed at horror is b/c its environments and lack of zombies there where a few parts where it was scary with the slow moving regenerators that made freaky breathing noises

if they remade RE and RE2 with RE4 controls im sure it would still be scary there are things you can do even with the freedom of RE4 controls to make it feel tense like music amount of enemies and slow rate of fire

the problem is that capcom is scared to take risk instead of remaking RE1 and 2 with RE4 controls theyd rather remake a remake with just 1080p graphics thinking that the higher rez characters and prerendered still backgrounds of a game that we played over 10 yrs ago multiple times by now would some how be more scary and innovative

If you had RE4 controls in the original RE setting the entire game would be trivial. Zombie are simply too slow to be threatening to anyone that doesn't trip over their own feet. Even the dreaded crimson heads would be trash. Being able to change the camera angles would eleminate any sense of suspense the game could create. Foreboding noises from an enemy you can't yet see instill far more dread than anything you can see from a distance, especially on the first playthrough. Being unsure is the source of suspense.

Also, nobody buys a remake for innovation lol. Capcom actually did an amazing job of mixing up the original REmake. They subverted the expectations of those who played the original while scaring the new audience. The new mechanics they added were great and fit within the tank controls and fixed camera of the original.

what about raising the amount of zombies? and slowing the main players movment down