Survival horror feels more rooted in time than most genres. It started with the methodical resident Evil on the original PlayStation and is characterized in part by limitations – a slow pace, dirty graphics and scarce resources to heighten the scares. A lot of these elements come from the early, difficult days of 3D gaming, right? resident Evilis the awkward controls that make zombie chases scarier, or silent Hills fog, which gave an iconic atmosphere while allowing the developers to circumvent the technical limitations of the time.
And a few decades later, developers are still finding ways to translate the key elements of those games – namely the mood and the scares – into modern horror without seeming dated.
The most obvious way to achieve this is to maintain the style and tone of classic survival horror while updating the gameplay to make it more accessible. The most recent example of this is Fear the spotlightthe first release from horror film studio Blumhouse's new gaming label. Similar Crowland And Signalsit's a game that looks like it was copied straight from 1998; The visuals are blocky, the textures are low-resolution. It gives the experience a dark atmosphere that is just the right touch for horror.
Fear the spotlight – developed by the two-person team at Cozy Game Pals – begins simply: two friends break into their high school to perform a séance in the library. But of course things go wrong and they find themselves drawn into a nightmare realm tied to both their own past and a dark secret the school has been hiding for decades. It's part coming-of-age story, part romance and part true crime. But it's all rendered in the crunchy style of PlayStation-era horror, giving it an uneasy edge.
The game also allows you to really focus on the story by streamlining the gameplay. There are a lot of puzzle solving; similar to before resident Evil Games will have you troubleshooting all sorts of complex mechanical problems and dealing with mysterious statues and castles. But there is almost no real combat. Instead, you're left with little choice but to run and hide when the terrifying monsters appear. Some of the game's scariest moments have you crouching under a desk, waiting for the creatures whose faces are deadly spotlights to pass by.
In some ways, removing combat makes the game even scarier since you have no way to fight back. These moments in Fear the spotlight reminded me a bit of putting it in a locker Alien: Isolationhoping the xenomorph couldn't see me. The blurry, dirty images only reinforce this feeling, as it's often difficult to get a clear view of what's in front of you.
On the other side of the spectrum is the recent remake of Silent Hill 2. Rather than create a brand new survival horror experience with modern sensibilities, it's an attempt to take one of the genre's most influential titles – a particularly idiosyncratic one at that – and reimagine it as a big-budget 2024 release. This has advantages and disadvantages. Like the remakes of the classic Resident Devilish games and the original Dead space, Silent Hill 2 looks and plays like a modern release. The images are clear and detailed, rather than blurry and confusing. And it controls like a well-rounded third-person action game. There's something immensely satisfying about swinging a bat, whether you're breaking windows or fending off a living mannequin.
There is a change in tone. The modern Silent Hill 2 is still scary. The level of realism makes the writhing enemies and narrow hotel hallways feel incredibly unsettling, and there's a level of immersion that can induce panic. But now it plays and feels like many other games, and it's, for lack of a better word, much cleaner than the original. It is no longer so strange and clear. It reminds me a little of the 2018 remake Shadow of the Colossus: a cover song that doesn't replace the original, but rather offers a different take on it that welcomes newcomers. (If only Konami would make the original Silent Hill 2 more accessible.)
The point is that these games show that there's still a lot of scope for interesting things with survival horror. And they do it in a way that both connects to the history of the genre without being suffocated by it. More importantly, they find new ways to scare.
Fear the spotlight And Silent Hill 2 Both are available now.