Infinitap Games

Elaborating on what I wrote here on the forums, I recorded a dev video talking about why horror may never truly make a comeback in the AAA space. This of course is just my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong.

I had fun playing Resident Evil 6. I definitely understand some of the criticisms I read of it (repetitive sections, too many QTEs, etc.), but I don't see how some reviewers scored it as low as they did (45/100 from Gamespot, 30/100 from Destructoid for example). The story was entertaining in Resident Evil's typical B movie sort of way. It had lots of distinct and well designed environments. The action sequences were exciting. And I appreciated that it offered local co-op when most games don't anymore. It's definitely not survival horror, but after RE5 I didn't go into it expecting any different. What are your favorite Resident Evil games, Matt? I haven't played all of them (especially the spin-offs), but the ones that come to mind are RE4, RE5, RE remake for the GameCube, and Revelations for 3DS.

I wonder how game budgets are going to evolve going forward. We seem to be in an interesting place now where they can be both much higher and much lower than before. On the high end, AAA games with realistic graphics, motion capture, etc. can have huge teams working for years, and these are the ones that have to sell millions of units. But at the same time, factors like digital distribution and cheap and accessible engines mean very small teams (or even individuals) can make compelling and successful games, even if they aren't quite as glitzy as the AAA titles. My optimistic take is that as tools and processing power improve, independent developers will be able to get closer to AAA-quality graphics, sound, and scope. At the same time, AAA budgets should stop growing so much, or maybe even fall. Epic said last year that photo-realistic graphics would happen within 10 years. I think we're already to a point where improving graphics to photo-realism wouldn't have much effect on gameplay, so at that point the same improvements in tools and processing power should allow AAA budgets to fall.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... -Ten-Years

My thoughts here are, however, considering the standard paradigm of games played on a flat screen with a controller or keyboard/mouse. Alternative paradigms like VR and/or motion control could follow a very different path.

Hmm... Favorite Resident Evil game? That is a tough one. I think Resident Evil is a series where the classic games don't age well, and I didn't play most of them when they came out. Here's what I've played:
Resident Evil (GameCube Remake)
Resident Evil 4 (PS2)
Resident Evil 5 (X360)
Resident Evil 6 (X360)
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (PS3)

While I recognized that they did some super smart things, playing Resident Evil Remake for GameCube in 2013 is a strange experience because the controls are SOOOOO terrible although somewhat less terrible than the original since they offer the "c" mode control scheme. Had I played it when it came out, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

I am interested in trying some of the other Resident Evil games, but basically 0-3 (yes there is a 0), Code Veronica, and basically everything before 4 has the "tank" style controls, where controlling your character is as difficult as moving around Octodad, so for a challenging game, it is pretty frustrating.

Resident Evil 4 was great, but it already was in the action horror direction rather than survival horror. I enjoyed the co-op in RE5, and RE6 just seemed rough around the edges. They tried to do too much (too many characters, a strange non-linear storytelling approach, etc), so the actual gameplay just wasn't that fun, and my wife and I got terribly lost on the snow level. I don't think RE6 is horrible, but it definitely wasn't nearly as good as 5.

For co-op action horror-ish games, I think Gears of War 1 beats RE5 and RE6, but Gears 2 and 3 while better games, moved even further from the horror genre.

Honestly I feel like horror games are not going to have resurgence within the AAA market as it currently stands, that said I don't think it really needs to.

I mean sure I'd be lying if I said that I wish there were better true AAA horror games. With a large amount of development hours and a huge budget, I'm sure that if a company really tried they could probably make something that would look great and be an effective horror experience. Trust me I'd much rather something like horror to take over all the "cinematic AAA movie-esque" experiences we've had to endure for a while now hahaha

But honestly looking at it for me personally, I feel like horror doesn't really need to be AAA. At least not currently at any rate.
When you think about all the good true horror experiences we've had over the past few years, they've mainly come from the ever growing indie scene. First big one obviously being Amnesia but from there you have things like Outlast, Lone Survivor, SCP: Containment Breach, Penumbra etc etc. More and more there are creative ideas that are coming from the indie scene, I mean sure you have all the copycats and clones but you have some great stuff as well.

The only thing that I don't particularly care for in this current horror generation is all the emphasis on jump scares, but aside from that it's pretty great (I mean hey Neverending Nightmares has all atmosphere with barely any jumpscares which makes me very happy hahaha). Some developers can really work within their limitations to deliver something that is probably more terrifying than a huge AAA game. With the indie scene being rather huge now, it gives some developers the chance to really shine and deliver a terrifying experience to a decently large audience (Obviously there's the problem of dilution with so many titles being released everyday but that's a different issue all together hahaa).

Obviously without horror being all AAA, will we ever see something as amazing as Silent Hill 2? Probably not but there's still a possibility. As long as the talent and hard work is there then there's the potential to make something great out of not all that much. Honestly I doubt that The Evil Within or Alien: Isolation will reinvigorate the AAA horror scene as I feel like they'll either be executed poorly or have too many elements from other genres that make it a watered down experience overall.

Obviously without horror being all AAA, will we ever see something as amazing as Silent Hill 2?

Neverending Nightmares? hahaha

I think you are pretty much spot on. Just like there aren't really blockbuster horror movies, I don't think there will be the equivalent in the game space. That's okay as long as there ARE horror games!

Personally, I think if there WERE a bunch of really amazing AAA horror games, there would probably be less of a demand for indie horror games, so it is probably good for me if Evil Within and Alien: Isolation are stinkers. hahahah

I think even if the games turn out good, it won't be enough to change the minds of EXTREMELY risk adverse publishers. They have the power of the Alien license and the heritage of Shinji Mikami behind them, so the really stand the best chance of being successful in AAA horror.

I really don't like the tank-style RE controls either. RE2 for the N64 has an analog control option, so I'd definitely recommend that one ahead of the Playstation original. There are definitely some great scares in that game.

Huh, I wasn't aware that any of the Resident Evils actually had reasonable controls. Maybe I'll have to give it a try! In reading the wikipedia page, it sounds like they did an awesome job with the N64 port. I would have thought the 4kb texture cache would have made a straight port a little challenging, but it seems like they went all out redoing the tech to take advantage of the N64's strengths. Maybe it'll be a good thing to play on my Nvidia Shield, which sure makes a great emulator.