Horror as a genre in all types of creative media has always had a large following of people who love it for varying reasons, be it the aesthetic, the style of story-telling, or simply the thrill. Despite there being loads of great new horror games coming out these days, we must also not forget the pioneers of the genre who have revolutionized and brought the genre to the masses: Silent Hill, and Resident Evil.
Let’s take a look at compare what these franchises have over each other when it came to making a legendary horror game back when gaming as a whole was in its infancy.
10 Silent Hill: The Atmosphere
There is no denying that the atmosphere of the original Silent Hill was an incredible achievement by the developers, especially considering that the game was released in 1999. The washed-out graphics, eerie sound effects, the fog, the story, the monsters - all of this creates a constant and unyielding feeling of dread and fear. This also carried on to the sequels, making it a staple of the franchise.
When compared to the atmosphere of Resident Evil, which mainly relies on the mystery of the situation and an abundance of zombies. While zombies can be and are scary, the entire atmosphere of the franchise gives off a b-movie vibe rather than true fear.
9 Resident Evil: The Tension
There is a lot that the original Resident Evil games had going for it, one thing is the tension that the players felt. This was due to the way the games were set up, especially elements such as the tank controls, set camera angles, and unexpected jumpscares made it feel like danger was lurking around every corner. What’s important is that these were dangers could creep up behind you, or come in the form of multiple zombies in a tight hallway shambling towards you.
Of course, tension is a subjective term, and it can be argued that both games are tense per se. However, Resident Evil created more tension by intentionally placing some enemies out of view of the set camera angles, making players stay on their toes.
8 Silent Hill: The Setting
Even though the settings in Resident Evil games are relatively spooky, it being mainly a huge mansion, a police station or a village filled with zombies and unnecessarily complex and out of place puzzles, the settings of Silent Hill work better for a horror game. Of course, some may argue that a giant mansion is scary, however, the settings used in Silent Hill are designed to terrify you to your core.
The setting of a horror game can either make or break the immersion and in this case, the settings of Silent Hill work better, as the thought of being completely helpless in a fog-filled town or an abandoned hospital sends shivers down our spines.
7 Resident Evil: The Action
If you love horror games that are more fast-paced with their action, as well as scares, Resident Evil definitely has the upper hand. In it, the horror comes from ridiculous traps aimed at making Jill sandwiches, or zombie dogs chasing you down. Sure, it isn’t extremely methodical with building up its scares, but the threat of a sudden scare popping out of nowhere keeps your attention as well as adrenaline levels high throughout.
We can’t deny that some games in the Resident Evil franchise miss the mark in mixing equal parts of horror and action, but those that had the perfect balance made our hearts race like nothing else.
6 Silent Hill: The Characters
When it comes to characters that fit the horror genre, Silent Hill is stronger, as most of the characters feel human and flawed in their own ways, some more than others. The reason why this works is that it doesn’t feel like they are super-humans that can power through every situation without sacrificing their sanity, while the main cast of the Resident Evil franchise feels like generic action movie characters who pull through no matter what is thrown at them.
So whether you love them or hate them, the characters of Silent Hill simply fit into the horror game genre better, as they feel like things that happen to them affect them deeply and make them struggle.
5 Resident Evil: The Weapons
A big part of survival horror as a video game genre is the survival part, meaning games have to make you feel like you have to find tools that will improve your odds at survival. One of the most important tools in these games are weapons, and Resident Evil has an abundance of iconic and useful weapons that help the characters fight back zombies and make it out alive. What makes collecting these guns better is that they are usually hidden, be it hidden behind a puzzle, or split into parts that you have to hunt down.
Some may argue that having too many guns takes away from the horror side of things, but no matter how many guns you have, there are always moments in the Resident Evil series that completely catch you off guard and scare you.
4 Silent Hill: The Monsters
Zombies have been a staple of most if not all horror-based creative media, and Resident Evil was one of the reasons why it got so popularized in the late ’90s. However, one thing that Silent Hill undoubtedly did better was creeping out its players with inhuman and down-right disturbing creatures that manifested from the characters’ own fears. While the tyrant variants of Resident Evil are memorable, enemies such as Pyramid Head or the nurses from Silent Hill are iconic.
Creatures in horror games that make players afraid of the dark or go to sleep after playing are extremely hard to create, as they have to be deeply unsettling on a psychological level, and there is no denying that Silent Hill games nailed it.
3 Resident Evil: The Cheesiness
This may sound confusing to some, but the cheesiness of Resident Evil plays to its advantage. The way it does this is by lowering the tension of the players through cheesy dialogue between characters before instantly hitting them with a jumpscare that will make them jump and fear for their character’s life. The cheesiness applies to the enemies as well, the best examples being Nemesis and most of the bosses in Resident Evil 4.
Admittedly, this was most likely not a conscious decision, but rather a product of its time, since the 80s and 90s is the definition of cheesiness. However, whether it was intentional or not, it does seem to play an important role.
2 Silent Hill: The Sound Design
For some reason, there is a general rule that the quality of audio can either make or break the media that uses it, no matter the quality of the rest of the project. A game can have the simplest graphics in the world, but so long as it has audio that is well-made and fitting, it can make the experience a million times better. A perfect example of this is the Silent Hill series, where every piece of audio is designed specifically to make your skin crawl, as well as serve a function, such as the radio static that warns you of approaching enemies.
If you ever wanted to hear a song from a game soundtrack that injects you with pure fear, listen to the track called “Over” from the original Silent Hill.
1 Resident Evil: Resource Management
When talking about the survival horror genre, few may bring up resource management as an important element within the genre. Even though it may seem annoying to count your every shot and make sure that you have enough space in your inventory for both your gun and the ammo, it is a system that makes the Resident Evil games tense. Dodging zombies because you know you don’t have enough ammo due to constricted inventory space creates a unique type of fear.
Some people may find the limited inventory space tedious, however, it’s the knowledge that you have limited space for both guns and ammo that make you worry about missing your shots.
NEXT: 5 Reasons Why We’re Excited For The Resident Evil 3 Remake (& 5 Why We’re Nervous About It)
