I remember the first time I was truly terrified by a video game. It was around 3 years ago,
I got the Resident Evil remake for the Gamecube. My friend still gives me crap for calling
her and asking her to come over so I wouldn't be alone. Needless to say I loved it, but for
years I have had a secret obsession with horror movies. There is something so satisfying
about being scared shitless. I would compare it to playing chicken with a freight train, when
the scaring gets good. Heavy pulse, covering ears, sweating, those are the moments I live
for. But Horror is hard to pull off in all mediums, especially games it seems. The struggle is
literally power. The most distinctive and prominent mechanic of all horror games is a
feeling of powerlessness. In a medium where power is pretty much everything, its a
terrifying feeling to have that sense of power taken away from you.

Having played through Resident Evil 4 at least 20 times, I can tell you the most terrifying
part was the first encounter with a Regenerator. You aren't given a weapon to defeat them
until AFTER you first run into about 3, all in cramped small places. Even after acquiring the
weapon (which is a thermal sniper scope) there is a pressure to get the shots right on very
specific parts of its body. The slow shamble, wheezing, and this pressure to get it right all
add up to the most terrifying experiences in the game. And that all stems from a sense of
helplessness. What makes the rest of the game not that scary is the ability to go fucking
commando and shoot the hell out of everything (which isn't a bad thing mind you, just not
that scary).

Silent Hill is a series that takes this "zen horror" seriously and not only makes you feel
helpless, but adds in a twisted introversive story with terrifying enemy design. The key to
one of the greatest in the series, Silent Hill 3, is in fact the helplessness. You are a teenage
girl, not a government agent trained in 14 styles of kick boxing. You can barely handle a
gun and have to spend most of the game beating things with a pipe. Silent Hill 2 took the
same approach with average everyday guy, but added in a twisted story of subconscious.
Which makes we wonder if the evil in Silent Hill exists in the people that go there, not in the
town itself. Which scares me the most. There is no "boss", there is no human face to put on
the haunted town. There is no solid explanation. There is no limit to the horrors this place
can produce. Its inhuman, and that is SCARY. I can only hope the new Silent Hill developers
understand this.

The primary criticism of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil games is the lack of control of the
camera. Born from a technical limitation in the original Alone in the Dark, it was a fluke that
helped limit the players control on the environment. But I enjoy it and think it adds wonders
to a game that would then only turn into an action game like Resident Evil 4 (which I
remind you, I love). First person allows for even more freedom on the genre in my eyes
(no pun intended), because You are now seeing directly through the eyes of the character.
Things can sneak up behind you (which is the old cheap spring loaded cat scare, but its still
a fun jump when its done well), and a feeling of mental degradation can truly take place;
Condemned was good.

With horror being such a distinctive genre, and a genre so hard to pull off, (Come on
F.E.A.R.! You can try harder than that!) it takes a genius director to understand horror and
not just allow it to become a steroid pumped manly man shooting fest.

(happy? :P)