To many, horror is a questioned genre that is also considered to be one of the most perplexing, even with introductory slasher films, like Friday the 13th, where cliche, idiotic hormone-driven teenagers are put into an isolated remote area that lessens their chance of survival with the barren atmosphere. This also creates a clear advantage for the killer. Psychological horror, one of the most notable being The Shining, introduces a scenario that relies on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten and disturb the audience. These films often use elements and characters with unstable, unreliable, or disturbed psychological states to enhance the suspense, drama, action, and paranoia of the setting.

The diverse examples within the horror genre could fill up a multitude of lists, and this is one of the reasons why it is and will always be my favorite genre. The inevitable plot twists are always significant with their character development that makes you wonder who exactly is to be trusted, making the plot rise in immense ambition when we get specific angles of a scene that builds our anticipation of what will happen next. The audience is given new concepts that will not only question the background behind the elements that are inhumane but sometimes, their own sanity.

I have now become able to play popular horror games that initially made me sigh in disbelief, after realizing that there are distinctive aspects and elements that work in all horror games, whether it’s a first person, third person, or fixed perspective that all entice the player’s game-play experience to be more dreadful.

While this is a list of reasons as to why many people are so intrigued or fascinated by this genre, it’s more so focused on one that started a popular video game franchise that established its foundation into what survival horror is meant to be: that game is Resident Evil. Well, now we must discuss the sequel. 

Resident Evil is a survival horror game developed and published by Capcom that was originally released in 1998 for the PlayStation. The player would be introduced and be able to gain possession of either two playable characters in their own respected campaigns: Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Redfield. Regardless of which play-through, they both must escape Raccoon City after its citizens are transformed into zombies by a biological weapon.

Due to the success of Resident Evil, Capcom announced 17 years later, in 2015, that development will proceed on a remake for Resident Evil, called Resident Evil 2. However, it went incognito for 3 years until it was revealed at E3 2018, revealing a game-play trailer and announcing it would release on January 25, 2019. Resident Evil 2 received initial praise for its atmospheric, new setting, graphics, and audio; however, it also did garner criticism for its awkward controls, voice acting, inventory system, and graphics. Like its predecessor, the gameplay focuses on exploration, puzzles, and combat.

As of today, I have been able to play through quite a vast portion of the overall game as one of the protagonists, Leon S. Kennedy. This without a doubt, has given me an unforgettable experience. The remake, upon the first impression, gave this sense of an atmosphere that emphasized the role of possessing the protagonist in a sudden supernatural situation where you are completely overwhelmed with the idea of being alone in a dreaded hell.

From the hostility that you encounter of mass numbers of zombies roaming around the apocalyptic Raccoon City, the confined claustrophobic hell that is in the police station, or the ambient tone of pure silence of the sewers that bring off a surge of anxiety, the elements of the game continue throughout without any sudden hesitation that gives the player a chance to relax and find a sort of haven to make them believe they are safe.

It’s this type of environment that the characters of the story are thrown into that produces the unsettling nature that we, the fans, quite remembered back in 1998, but with a much more profound modern take on the original that perfects it. With this new gruesome and horrific take that might persuade its audience that Capcom is a worthy video game company that does our childhood memories justice by giving back that fond memory of experiencing survival horror, comes a fantastic new videogame for all fans of the horror game genre.