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Post by devilmaycare150 on Aug 26, 2003 21:47:35 GMT -5
Total Time to Complete: 6:38:24
(I didn't manage to complete it in time, but all I had to do was one more puzzle and the door would've been opened to the final confrontation)
"Scariest game ever." is a powerful title to hold. Nonetheless, Silent Hill held it, a surprise hit if I ever saw one. I didn't even get to beat it, but it was a deeply engrossing, and even more creepy game. It was the cult classic, the surprise hit of the Playstation console in a way. Hell, it made Greatest Hit's!
What was so great about the first game, and separated it from the now somewhat repetitive Resident Evil series was it's focus on story and characters rather than creeping you out; don't let that fool you though, it did have it's scary moments. Most of which were scarier than Resident Evil's now easily seen zombie attacks and what not. Anyway, people, or at least me, found Harry Mason to be a heck of a lot more engaging than Claire, Leon, and Jill, and at least the lines weren't as corny as in other survival series' ("I sure hope this isn't Chris' blood."). Multiple ending's, along with a character one truly cared about made for an excellently done experience, blending horror with a modern day atmosphere...and didn't involve virus's of any sort.
Silent Hill 2 was a fairly good sequel, not reaching to the epic tapestry of horror that the first weaved, but actually spending MORE development on character's; where most character's in SH didn't have a complete identity; I mean, personalities, the one's in SH2 were both tragic, and understandable. Not completley falling into the niche of good or bad guy. This was, as they say, it's saving grace; SH2 was more a side story than anything. It had nothing to do with it's predecessor, and therefore, not a "true" sequel. This left quite a number of fans of the first series dissatisfied...
That's where SH3 comes in..SH fans were esctatic at finding out this new game in the series would actually continue with the epic struggle between Harry and the forces of evil he was forced to fight in the first game, 17 years after the game. But then realized it would focus on a completely different person, unrelated to our reluctant protagonist, but Harry would still have a important part in the game.
Enter Heather, our heroine of the story, living in Portland I believe; enjoying a nice, happy life. But soon, her happiness is quickly ripped away from her, replaced with a nightmarish world filled with monsters that want nothing more but to tear Heather apart and feed off of her flesh..she soon meets an experienced detective, and together they continue their search to escape the hellish plane of existence they now see themselves in, a search that will lead them to where it all began..
The graphics; least to me, have greatly been enhanced, Heather looks especially nice, as does Douglas, and the other characters involved with them, there's great detail put to their character models most of the time, which usually makes the events that occur between them that much more enjoyable. Perhaps, the only flaw I found was with Claudia's hair. Don't as me why, but it just seemed peculiar to me; mainly the part th went over her shoulder and not down her back..like it was floating maybe..
But the game just seems to let the tension that runs it go after Heather actually reaches Silent Hill. Perhaps because the director's thought the player needed a breather, or had already gotten accustomed to the game, but in the survival horror genre, keeping the tension running is the backbone of the game. The second half seems..rushed..like it was dashed together, and the story board wasn't given a second glance after a certain point..the character's aren't developed, 'cept for Heather and a little for our antagonist of the day..
Good game, not good buy..
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 29, 2003 14:09:05 GMT -5
Resident Evil's story is great. I dunno wutchoo talkin bout. It's characters are also well developed. You really get into it once you play Res Evil for GameCube (scarier than Silent Hill 3 despite being years older).
Plus res Evil is more believable. The believable characters have their own flaws and are easy to relate to. And the evil deeds are truly evil. Like how Spencer captured and experimented on Lisa Trevor and her mother; then he walled up George Trevor alive (although George later escaped but died in the tunnel system under the Spencer mansion). And best part about res evil: no dumb detector thingy to tell when a monster's nearby. You dunno how many times I jumped when playing Res Evil (gamecube vers) when it was a mere shadow moving across the windowpane (shadows and lighting are used flawlessly in that game).
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Post by ObviousDelirium on Aug 29, 2003 14:22:34 GMT -5
Resident Evil's story is great. I dunno wutchoo talkin bout. It's characters are also well developed. You really get into it once you play Res Evil for GameCube (scarier than Silent Hill 3 despite being years older). Plus res Evil is more believable. The believable characters have their own flaws and are easy to relate to. And the evil deeds are truly evil. Like how Spencer captured and experimented on Lisa Trevor and her mother; then he walled up George Trevor alive (although George later escaped but died in the tunnel system under the Spencer mansion). And best part about res evil: no dumb detector thingy to tell when a monster's nearby. You dunno how many times I jumped when playing Res Evil (gamecube vers) when it was a mere shadow moving across the windowpane (shadows and lighting are used flawlessly in that game). Sorry,but no...RE is way behind Silent Hill in survival horror,the characters in the Silent Hill serie are more believable then RE characters,and DMC didn't say the story of RE was bad,it's just that RE get very repetitive,also,Capcom only tries to scare you with RE,which was never successful,while the creators of Silent Hill had in mind to concentrate on the story and characters,though it did have a lot of scary elements,those points made it become the scariest survival horror game,and it is scary,RE isn't scary at all.
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 29, 2003 16:01:52 GMT -5
Bah we're obviously not gonna change each other's opinions and I'm not up for a debate right now.
But bah here goes:
I've played both and Silent Hill is scar your mind scary (altho by the third game I didn't jump once or have a single nightmare) while Res Evil is quiet subtleness scary. With RE you FEEL like you're in, say, a survival horror movie.
As for believable cahracters... please. Heather is the only well developed character in the entire SERIES. Not only that but RE has more characters, and every single one (with a few exceptions) are very nicely developed. You obviously have not played the GameCube resident evil (in fact you seem like a Silent Hill or even a PS2 fanboy from the arguments you made) to see how deep the story and characters are. In fact sometimes at night when I'm jsut sitting in the patio I'm actually thinking of the Res EVil storyline. It's that engrossing.
Yes there are tons of RE's. But Capcom's just known for releasing tons of games (like Mega Man or Street Fighter). It's no big deal it's not like you have to BUY all the games. Besides, as long as the story keeps you gripped it doesnt matter how many there are (I am definitely looking foward to RE4).
Both have their own qualities, but to me RE is more realistic and hence more easy to get into. SH is scarier I admit but your wrong when you say that RE doesn't have any scary moments. You obviously havent played the elevator scene in RE2. Holy ****.
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 29, 2003 16:03:48 GMT -5
oh and one more thing. RE will scare you pretty much no matter what phobia you have. Be it darkness or insects or clusterphobia. With SH it's just a bunch of ugly ass monsters which are pretty (And disgusting at the same time) but so what? They're ugly big deal.
My friend played RE and he has arachnaphobia. When the big fat hairy tarantulas appeared he jumped and paused the game to take it all in. Yet of course he shot them down and I'll bet that felt good for him. Almost like he was conquering his fear.
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Post by DrDuctTape on Aug 29, 2003 16:45:20 GMT -5
*SPOILER(kinda anyway)*i peed my pants playing RE2 when the licker burst thru the window in the interrogation room*END SPOILER*
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Post by ObviousDelirium on Aug 29, 2003 17:01:31 GMT -5
oh and one more thing. RE will scare you pretty much no matter what phobia you have. Be it darkness or insects or clusterphobia. With SH it's just a bunch of ugly ass monsters which are pretty (And disgusting at the same time) but so what? They're ugly big deal. My friend played RE and he has arachnaphobia. When the big fat hairy tarantulas appeared he jumped and paused the game to take it all in. Yet of course he shot them down and I'll bet that felt good for him. Almost like he was conquering his fear. Actually,it's not the monsters that made it scary in Silent Hill. And the characters were well developped in Silent Hill,maybe not in the third but they were in the other,also,Silent Hill has fewer cheesy dialogues,and everyone I know agrees that Silent Hill is a lot scarier then RE,and that RE is far from being scary. And DuctTape,that was about the only time in RE2 that could make me jump,no other places did.
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Ricky-K
RPG Townie
You were afraid to live but now you are afraid to die...
Posts: 210
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Post by Ricky-K on Aug 30, 2003 8:32:14 GMT -5
Never once in playing any RE games was I ever ever scared. The whole "Mutant Zombie's are comming to kill us all argh!!!" died out with Evil Dead. In Silent Hill 3 I was throughly scared, I jumped so many times in it. Especially in the Maniquin Factory when you walk around the corner you hear a scream, which made me jump and then a thud of somthing hitting the floor, go back and you see a manniquin with its head on the floor and blood splattered and dripping all over the floor. That was freaky. Then other gruesume things: Coughing up a baby, swallowing a baby, dead bodies swinging in elevators, the mental cast and the efectiveness of silence. No thank you, RE is nothing compared to Silent Hill.
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Post by devilmaycare150 on Aug 30, 2003 13:08:05 GMT -5
I've played RE1 almost to the end, beat RE2 and Veronica, but Nemisis was the first I beat. And I have to say, the series is beginning to trying my patience, the dialouge IS chessy, and although the characters are more developed in the RE games, (except for SH2, which had the best characters, not because they were developed, which they weren't, but because they were all equally disturbed..'specially Eddie.. ) the story is getting..very old..very fast. And to tell you the truth, it seems to me, that SH deserves the title of ultimate survival horror game. Why? Because besides the monster thing, it is quite believable. In the RE games, I swear I probably never ran out of bullets, they were all over the place, I could kill zombies easily. In SH, fleeing is above everything. There's almost no bullets lying around, you have to conserve your supplies, monsters can usually take a heck of a lot more damage than Heather/James/Harry ever could. I will admit, I do care for Leon, Claire, and Jill more than Heather at times. But she fits the persona of a judgemental teen in a nightmarish plane of existence so well I have to applaud Konami (If that's who made it..hope I'm right) for their dedication to the project. True, the first time Nemisis burst through a window, or a licker or a zombie came out of nowhere, I was fairly frightened. But now I expect it, SH is physcological horror, the game most likely inspired by a Stephen King book, while the RE series to be getting more desperate than ever, and more than likely, probably made by the people who made Evil Dead..not like I ever saw that movie..
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 31, 2003 1:50:07 GMT -5
Never once in playing any RE games was I ever ever scared. The whole "Mutant Zombie's are comming to kill us all argh!!!" died out with Evil Dead. In Silent Hill 3 I was throughly scared, I jumped so many times in it. Especially in the Maniquin Factory when you walk around the corner you hear a scream, which made me jump and then a thud of somthing hitting the floor, go back and you see a manniquin with its head on the floor and blood splattered and dripping all over the floor. That was freaky. Then other gruesume things: Coughing up a baby, swallowing a baby, dead bodies swinging in elevators, the mental cast and the efectiveness of silence. No thank you, RE is nothing compared to Silent Hill. Your obviously either a bitter PS2 fanboy who hates RE just because it's GC-exclusive now or you're a silent hill fanboy. To me having blood everywhere is nothing more than cheap thrills. Anyone could do that. Seriously RE2-Code Veronica are not scary (except the one scene in RE2 with the licker) but in RE and RE for GameCube they are scary as fck. Much scarier than anything Silent Hill has ever brought to the table. In RE GC I'm constantly trying to anticipate what's around the corner. I jump whenever a shadow moves (was that a zombie or just a shadow?) When the shark appeared and ate poor Richard I almost fell off my chair (sharks are one of my worst fears, prolly cuz of all those movies). The first time a crimson head charged at me I panicked. And DMC, as for RE having too many bullets, you obviously wussed out and played easy mode (or you played RE2-Code veronica). RE for GC is widely considered the true test of skill for serious RE fans. Especially in normal/hard modes, where zombies are actually tough and bullets are scarce. You run a lot in RE. The bosses are truly terrifying and DO NOT rely on cheap movie thrills like blood dripping or dead bodies in elevators (puh-LEAZE) As for the RE series getting old, yes the story is wearing thin but hey I'm still eagerly awaiting resident evil four. And really the only reason I'm not scared is because I've conquered them. RE for GC was the first RE I played and it was fuggin scary. But now I'm used to it and I can enjoy the delicious plot.
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Post by OldSkoolRPGer on Aug 31, 2003 2:19:11 GMT -5
You use the term, "fanboy" quite loosely. If I'm not mistaken, you seem more of a fanboy of RE than anyone here is of SH. I liked RE and I liked SH, not really scary titles, but SH had that disturbing factor working for it. There's nothing like it when you load up a game and one of the first things you see is a warning for disturbing content.
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 31, 2003 2:32:19 GMT -5
Um, right. I'm a fanboy. I've played both games (most of both series) and have all three systems (altho I play my GC and PS2 much more than the Xbox) plus a GBA. If I'm a fanboy then everyone is. I just think RE is a better series that's all. That make me a fanboy? I called these guys fanboys because they really didn't back up what they were saying. Like Ricky saying "never once in RE was I ever scared". To that I find hard to believe. Either he was playing the game in broad daylight, with friends or was playing it while doing something else like working on an rm2k game.
As for the disturbing factor, yes SH has disturbing images... but anyone could do that. The dead bodies hanging, little girls getting murdered... but RE is just more engrossing than a slash and burn horror flick that is SH. It is not only more realistic (getting transported to another dimension full of undead creatures when you were a happy 17 teen year old girl in Portland? yeah, right. and learning how to fire guns like that? C'mon she's a girl who grew up in white suburbia not like she lived in the projects) but just plain more fun. And that peeping bastard machine ruins all the scare factor. It's only when you're being zapped with dead bodies (which got old quickly by the second game) that you're actually feeling freight. Oh, I wonder if a monster is ar- BEEP BEEP. Ah.
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Post by ObviousDelirium on Aug 31, 2003 10:22:24 GMT -5
Now you are exagerrating,I'm not a fan of SH,it's just that they are really more scary and better then RE,and the zombies are still very easy in normal difficulty in RE,why?Because zombies are slow,very slow,I can understand however that they improved that in the GC ones. Also,saying that someone is a fanboy and that he bashes RE because it's GC exclusive is really stupid,it really has nothing to do with it,who tells you he hates GC?Who tells you he's a fan of SH?You don't even know him. And I did play in the dark,survival horror games are better in the dark,and SH scared me a lot more then RE,in fact,I wasn't scared in RE except for the RE2 licker thing said above. And saying anyone could do something doesn't back an opinion either. ;D And do a game need to be realistic,if you say the thing about the other world,I can just say this: Can a virus that turn into zombies possible?Can a zombie really be standing,as they are decomposing in place?No,those are not possible. The phobia thing cannot really back something either,since you have this phobia and we don't,so we can't go:''Yeah,that was a scary part.''.
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Ricky-K
RPG Townie
You were afraid to live but now you are afraid to die...
Posts: 210
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Post by Ricky-K on Aug 31, 2003 11:19:01 GMT -5
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Post by FlyingHamsta on Aug 31, 2003 12:13:15 GMT -5
Now you are exagerrating,I'm not a fan of SH,it's just that they are really more scary and better then RE,and the zombies are still very easy in normal difficulty in RE,why?Because zombies are slow,very slow,I can understand however that they improved that in the GC ones. Also,saying that someone is a fanboy and that he bashes RE because it's GC exclusive is really stupid,it really has nothing to do with it,who tells you he hates GC?Who tells you he's a fan of SH?You don't even know him. And I did play in the dark,survival horror games are better in the dark,and SH scared me a lot more then RE,in fact,I wasn't scared in RE except for the RE2 licker thing said above. And saying anyone could do something doesn't back an opinion either. ;D And do a game need to be realistic,if you say the thing about the other world,I can just say this: Can a virus that turn into zombies possible?Can a zombie really be standing,as they are decomposing in place?No,those are not possible. The phobia thing cannot really back something either,since you have this phobia and we don't,so we can't go:''Yeah,that was a scary part.''. I didnt say they were fanboys just cause they supported SH. Did you even read their posts? It was obvious. "SILENT HILL RULZ IS SO MUCH SCARIER ITZ THE nuts" By the way, anyone COULD do that. Or think of that. Ugly ass monsteres, blood stains smeared on wall... seen it countless times in far scarier and far better horror flicks. If I want cheap thrills I'll go watch Scream thank you very much. I dont need a half assed Silent Hill 3 to do that for me. As for the virus thing, you have a pretty weak argument going there. No, obviously its not possible since it hasnt happened. But A) do you even know WHY the virus was created? they didnt jsut make it to kill ppl or try to bring ppl back to life. if you knew the backstory you'd realy think this all was possible B) how do you know its not possible? Just because it hasnt been done so yet? And in either case, it's still miles ahead of the teleportation thing that SH has going for it in terms of realism. And btw, Resident Evil 2-Code Veronica are mostly non-scary. But anyone whose played RE for GAmecube (i'll say it for the LAST time) knows that that game kicks silent hill 3's ass all over the place. Oh and Ricky, nice job finding bad ss of Res EVil. But oh well those SH screens are lame too (you think that's disturbing? Watch Battle Royale). Res Evil isnt cheap like SH. End of story.
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