Survival Horror: Scary or Frustrating?

[DaHeckIzDat]

Since its Halloween, I decided to try out a game I've been wanting to play for years: Fatal Frame. Sorry to say, but it didn't make a better impression than any of the other survival horror games I've played. I know a lot of people think that the scarcity of ammo and healing items, plus how easy it is to get killed make types of games scary, but to me that just makes them frustrating. Maybe I just suck (in fact, I'm 99% sure that's what it is), but I always get a couple hours into the game, and then end up fighting a boss with no ammo, very little health, and no way to get more of either. Since I've already saved, I'm pretty much stuck like that until I manage to beat the boss without taking a single hit. I get frustrated, and I quit.

What about you? Are horror games scary, or are they frustrating?

[shootingstar]

I absolutely agree with you. I have always wondered what the critic sees in Resident Evil. I love the B-movie style presentation of the game and want to love it, but just can't. The controls are incredibly frustrating to deal with, making me walk into zombies and have difficulty getting through doors during intense situations. In a game where you need to avoid combat at times, it's very hard to actually avoid enemies. Having limited saves is a major issue too. I don't feel any tension from that, all I can think about is how I'm going to have to start over major stretches of gameplay when I die, which when the Hunters were first introduced that happened quite a bit.

I didn't have too many problems with limited healing items and ammo, but it was rather annoying having to run to the item box when I run out of space. Maybe dropping items would help, but most if not all of the time you want to keep every item you find.

Silent Hill on the other hand, I loved it, and that's because it's far less limiting. You have unlimited carrying capacity, far more ammo and healing items available, and unlimited saves. The controls are a little messy, but much better than Resident Evil. I felt like I was in control of my character. The best part, though is the amazing atmosphere. I genuinely felt scared during the game, which is extremely rare for me. And I think one of the reasons for this is because Silent Hill gives you a lot of leeway in terms of saves, items, and controls, which might not be 100% realistic but it's much more fun. Instead of worrying about things like control, items, or health, I can just get immersed in the game's amazing atmosphere.

[DaHeckIzDat]

That's one of the things I actually liked about Fatal Frame, there's no tank controls. When you want your character to turn, she turns. None of this "rotate on the spot and then walk forward" nonsense from Resident Evil and Silent Hill. As for Silent Hill, I played it and beat it, and while I liked the atmosphere I wasn't ever really scared. The whole experience struck me as being more "weird" than "scary."

[Shapur]

I absolutely agree with you. I have always wondered what the critic sees in Resident Evil. I love the B-movie style presentation of the game and want to love it, but just can't. The controls are incredibly frustrating to deal with, making me walk into zombies and have difficulty getting through doors during intense situations. In a game where you need to avoid combat at times, it's very hard to actually avoid enemies. Having limited saves is a major issue too. I don't feel any tension from that, all I can think about is how I'm going to have to start over major stretches of gameplay when I die, which when the Hunters were first introduced that happened quite a bit.

I didn't have too many problems with limited healing items and ammo, but it was rather annoying having to run to the item box when I run out of space. Maybe dropping items would help, but most if not all of the time you want to keep every item you find.

I'm not dismissing your points, but I think if you give it a bit more effort you both will find Resident Evil actually works pretty good, especially if you like the cheesy story/presentation. The controls are a big adjustment but you'll have to trust me you do eventually get used to them. They lack precision for certain but the game really doesn't require you to dodge a whole lot or maneuver terribly well. Avoiding enemies isn't THAT necessary and can usually be accomplished by choosing the proper path or just straight up running.

I agree that being able to drop items was something that should have been included and ferrying items back and forth from item boxes is lame.

The limited saving, and ammunition were harrowing for me because I'm a video game cheapskate. I hoard items thinking I might just need them in the future but the truth is there are plenty of both. There are like 30 something save ribbons in a game that's only a couple hours long. Just save every half hour or so and you'll have more than enough.

[Rookie1]

I really like RE1 & RE2. I stopped playing them after RE3. What bugged me about the games was doing so much back tracking and having to search everything little area to complete a puzzle. Some puzzles took me forever (at the time) because I had no way to figure them out other than to wait for a game magazine to post a walk-through or have a friend figure it out. Some of the puzzles were so tedious and boring that I just called it a day with the franchise.