"Should it have been fixed camera angles?" Fuck yeah it should have. Now I know fixed cameras and tank controls aren't fit for the newer generation of gamers but a lot of people seem to fail to realize how much team silent were influenced by cinema while making their games and how much it contributed to the dark and gritty atmosphere of those. SH2 wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for Jacob's Ladder or Blue Velvet. There's a clever use of camera angles in these old survival horror games which added another layer of fear that unfortunately isn't there anymore in newer horror games.

man I will never understand why the concept of "UP on the D-Pad makes your character walk forward" is such a filter for people (or maybe I do understand and would say that the implications are frightening...) like I get that it's no longer a common control scheme but it shouldn't even be considered problematic, yet it gets made out by the masses as if its inclusion in a title is game-breaking rocket surgery torturefest

“If you guys discussed relevant game releases like Metaphor: ReFantazio or Nine Sols I'd be less negative I think.”

You are literally in a silent hill soundtrack thread lmao

Album Rating: 5.0

As someone who’s speedrun Resident Evil 1 remake, it’s not that I can’t adapt to tank controls, it’s just that they’re inherently bad. Fixed perspective looks good for sure, and it’s one of the reasons RE1 remake is such an enduring masterpiece, but a lot of SH2r looks phenomenal. We still get some fixed perspective shots in cinematics and other animations like crawling and shimmying, looking through holes in walls, etc., and I know that’s not the same thing but the graphics and presentation are so good that I didn’t find myself missing those perspective shots. Some of them are preserved in neat ways too, like that hole leading to the prison that you see as a painting in the historical society.

Technically I believe only the first RE were pure fixed cameras. SH has always been a mix between fixed/over the shoulder cameras. In most cases the player was also able to switch from one to the other as well. I wish they kept that option in the remake, instead of the constant overly too close camera that sometimes makes it impossible to know what the f is going on.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

@gyro,



yeah, clearly we see this from completely different angles. water ending is definitely the best ending (and canonically correct).



@intothefire



from what i've been able to gather over the years, the rumour that sh4 wasn't meant to be a new ip is false, i think the dev team wanted to try something a little bit different.



for all the people wanting to check out sh4 though, do it. on a good day it's my favourite sh. i know people moan about revisiting the levels again, but i thought that aspect was very well handled; the first time you visit a section of the game there's this eerie foreboding, and the setup is perfect for when you visit the second time and they throw everything at you. it's also easily the scariest and most oppression game in the entire series, which is probably why i love it so much. plus it leans heavily into the j-horror theme, which gives it this really alien vibe, more akin to forbidden siren and project zero

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

"Should it have been fixed camera angles?" Fuck yeah it should have. Now I know fixed cameras and tank controls aren't fit for the newer generation of gamers but a lot of people seem to fail to realize how much team silent were influenced by cinema while making their games and how much it contributed to the dark and gritty atmosphere of those. SH2 wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for Jacob's Ladder or Blue Velvet. There's a clever use of camera angles in these old survival horror games which added another layer of fear that unfortunately isn't there anymore in newer horror games."



this is actually spot on. the fixed/ductch camera angles are as integral to the classic 4 games as everything else that makes them so good. man, i miss early-to-mid noughties horror games, i've played pretty much all of them and absolutely adore them, primarily because of their cinematic formula. tank controls, fixed camera, and the unique flavour of the PS2 era graphics make them so engaging. the peak of j-horror for sure, i loved all the movies and games coming out of that era, but even the western dev games like cold fear and obscure were fantastic too.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

it's a hard one really. for my money, any game that has tank controls ages like a fine wine. there are some clunky-ass games from the ps1/2 era that are nigh unplayable because they step out of the tank control formula. but at the same time, tank controls and fixed camera angles are a core element of these kinds of games. RE remake on gamecube was exceptional and still looks incredible today because of its design choices.



i play next to no new games these days because there's a homogeny in the way they play and feel. that's why i have a big problem with them remaking classics, because all they end up doing is meat grinding the essence out of the original and making it play and feel like everything else out today. i admit, i'm an old-school boomer gamer that actually likes playing games for their distinction and unique challenges, but since the industry has exploded, mainstream developers cater to the normie masses and produce mind-numbingly dull games that all have awful side missions, crappy sandbox level design, and a combat system that tries really hard give the allusion of depth, but really it's just simple button mashing.



games peaked 10 years ago, personally. this new generation has been egregious to say the least, and i lament buying a ps5 just to play a handful of remakes. stray, where you play as a cat, is the only real original title i've thoroughly enjoyed.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Also, minor nit-pick with both the re and SH remakes, I miss interacting with the environment and being able to get internal dialogue. One of the genius aspects of SH3 was readng heathers sassy personality from the stuff she was interacting with

Album Rating: 5.0

@DrGonzo1937

Have you tried some indie horror games from recent years? So, so many great and creative ones that I believe you would like. Titles like Signalis, Darkwood, Hollowbody, Crow Country, Iron Lung, Nightmare of Decay, Murder House... They come out on a monthly basis. I'm a huge horror fan and I've started giving these games more and more attention since there are so many gems in the obscurity, it's hard for me not to praise them any chance I get. Triple A horror nowadays only occasionally strikes gold but indie stuff is where it's at.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

i'll check these out. thanks for the reqs

Album Rating: 4.5

darkwood is a fantastic game

Album Rating: 5.0

No prob, hopefully you'll like some of them. They cater to us who love retro horror so they're easy to enjoy IMO.



@Mort

Absolutely agree, it's in my top 5 favorite horror games, top tier stuff. Once you get past its learning curve it's pure enjoyment all the way to the end.

Album Rating: 5.0

Thought Stray was a very boring walking sim, personally. Didn’t really understand the appeal beyond the cutesy cat aesthetic.



Indie horror can be very good for sure, and Darkwood, Signalis, and Murder House (as well as multiple other Puppet Combo games) come to mind. The FNAF games are genuinely great as well… most of them, at least. As far as AAA horror titles, I honestly think the remakes have been far and away the best horror content. Like Callisto Protocol and most recent big horror games don’t do much for me besides RE4r (which, again, remake), and Alan Wake 2, which I thought was fantastic and can’t wait for the new dlc this Tuesday

Album Rating: 5.0

Games peaked 10 years ago is a wild statement. The gaming climate was pretty dry about a decade ago compared to what we have now. That definitely reads like a statement coming from a casual gamer, which you basically said you are so I mean, it tracks. Witcher 3 is arguably a best in genre game; same with Hitman World of Assassination, you’re unlikely to find a better stealth sandbox game; Baldur’s Gate 3, another genre defining video game; disco elysium, one of the most well written choice based point and click games ever; Lies of P which is the best soulslike to come from the genre besides all of Fromsoft’s body of work the last 10 years; Doom Eternal, which is arguably the best fps ever made; Talos Principle 1 and 2, two of the best puzzlers ever made and arguably better than Portal 1 and 2; DMC5; then you have indie masterpieces left right and centre: Sonic Mania, Cuphead, Crusader King’s 3 (god-tier strategy game), Hollow Knight and The Messenger which are two of the best metroidvanias of all time, Dredge, Hi-Fi Rush, Sifu, Gravity Circuit, Outer Wilds, Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 & 2 (amazing throwback to old school Castlevanias). The list goes on and on and on.

Album Rating: 4.5

disco elysium the goat for writing quality. played citizen sleeper and its shortcomings were so obvious because ive been spoilt by elysium. i can remember every character from disco and almost none of them from sleeper, they were so generic and poorly written

Album Rating: 5.0

" it's also easily the scariest and most oppression game in the entire series,"



I still fully defend SH1 as the scariest. It was on another fuckin' level at the time. That school was insane. To me, SH4's biggest detractor is having Eileen with you for the second half of the game with narrative consequences to how you treat her.



"Also, minor nit-pick with both the re and SH remakes, I miss interacting with the environment and being able to get internal dialogue. One of the genius aspects of SH3 was readng heathers sassy personality from the stuff she was interacting with"



100% agree. SH3 will always be my favorite and a big part of it is we really get to see how Heather perceives what is happening around her.



"Lies of P which is the best soulslike to come from the genre besides all of Fromsoft’s body of work the last 10 years"



I still can't believe how good that game was. Fucking incredible experience. It ain't Elden Ring, imo one of the absolute greatest games ever, but it's not trying to be either.





The past ten years have given me some of my favorite games in history, and MOST of them are indie. Stardew Valley. Darkest Dungeon. Risk of Rain 2. The Binding of Issac: Rebirth. Rimworld. Chained Echoes.



I fear for a world in which one man isn't the only line of defense between us and PC Gaming apocalypse (Gabe Newell), but I expect we'll always have great indies moving forward.

Album Rating: 5.0

"That’s a ridiculous reason to call it soulless imo. It distinguishes itself from those games with weapon sway and janky melee attacks"



The things that other games have? It's not that those functions are bad, they're just kind of standard fare now in a way that doesn't stand out from what are considered the benchmark for horror. I don't think we realize how old some of the horror ideas are that we still use in games. Dead Space is 16 years old and while I think its a good game, I don't want or like that games elements in a silent hill game. I got pretty bad DS vibes while in the prison with how those mannequins kept jumping at me from the walls.



These mechanics don't make the game bad, i still think the game is enjoyable, it's just underwhelming more than anything I think. It ties into the camera angles (they're not fixed btw) from the original game. It's how you use these things that makes the game what it is. The combat doesn't fit the game and makes it stand out from the ways people used to build games before. How it plays isn't really the issue because of course it plays better than an older game?

Its just not praiseworthy. It's also not as refined as something like resident evil because the reticle bloom doesn't happen when you move meaning you can get pot shots as you move even though i feel like I whiff some of the shotgun shots as the monsters run to me. Maybe that was just me but it did feel cheap at the time.

Album Rating: 5.0

Signalis artistically is def the closest we've gotten to SH2

Album Rating: 5.0

Hot take: Signalis is a 5/10 game. Started out amazing and then halfway through it just becomes a goddamn borefest. Every mechanic just shat the bed besides the movement system.



The OST is fantastic, though.