![]() ![]() Tormented Souls actually combines elements of both these approaches. Some games in the series even allow the puzzle difficulty to be set separately from the combat difficulty - the hardest difficulties throw up some brainteasers that would make Myst proud. While there are some simple “use item A in location B” puzzles, there are many more which unfold in the form of cryptic riddles that you need to decipher in order to even figure out what you’re supposed to do in the puzzle sequences. Probably the most significant difference in Silent Hill - particularly its first two installments on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 respectively - is how its puzzles are implemented. There was no limitation on what you could carry, but the total amount of resources in the game was still limited, so you’d need to manage ammunition and healing items carefully. In several installments, there was a quasi open-world component that served as a means of transitioning between the main “dungeons” (for want of a better word) as well as providing the opportunity to discover secrets. ![]() Silent Hill games, meanwhile, tended to progress in a more linear fashion over a slightly larger scale and have a stronger emphasis on narrative moments. You’d have to set yourself an “objective” of sorts, ensure you carry the appropriate items with you - along with enough equipment to defend yourself if necessary - and attempt to make progress a bit at a time, with special “safe rooms” acting as checkpoints where you could manage your inventory, save your game and generally take a bit of a break. In many respects the whole game would be one big “puzzle”, demanding that you find keys in order to access new areas of the map, unlock shortcuts back to areas you had previously visited (usually by finding “the other side” of doors that were “locked from the other side”) and gradually progress until you had visited every room and looted every item.Ī defining characteristic of the early Resident Evil titles was inventory management: you could only carry so many items at once, and as such you often needed to plan your journeys across the map accordingly. Resident Evil games prior to 4 - the turning point of the series from classic survival horror to “action horror” - had pretty straightforward puzzles that, for the most part, consisted of finding the appropriate items to use in the correct places. In the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube era, often regarded as something of a “golden age” for the genre, survival horror games went in a few different directions, and can mostly be looked at as taking a distinctly “Resident Evil” or “Silent Hill” approach. Resources such as ammunition and health items are relatively scarce, and as such you’ll want to try and put off using them for as long as possible - particularly when it comes to the more powerful weaponry you acquire over the course of the game.Īll of this is true for Tormented Souls. Instead, when confronted with an enemy you’ll often have to make important decisions about whether or not you really need to defeat them, or if it is safer and more efficient to simply find a way around them. Unlike in most classic adventures, there’s combat - but it’s typically not a focus of the experience. The geographical area over which the action unfolds is typically relatively small - though there are exceptions - and there’s a strong emphasis on exploration, particularly with a mind to unlocking alternative routes between locations. There’s a story for you to uncover, items to find and puzzles to solve. In fact, some argue that for several installments, Resident Evil wasn’t really “survival horror” at all, but rather “action horror” - though in its last couple of episodes, it has gone a bit more back towards the classical definition of the genre.Ĭlassic-style survival horror is, in many ways, an evolution of the point-and-click adventure genre. ![]() Survival horror is a genre of gaming that has evolved and changed quite a bit over the years - just look at the trajectory Resident Evil has taken over time.
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