When we play a Survival-Horror game we want to feel scared. Not only for ourselves, but for the character we are playing as.
But what actually makes us scared for Survival-Horror characters? Why do we want them to live through the horrors that they are faced with? And what happens if we aren't scared for them?
Chris, from Chris's Survival Horror Quest, takes a look at why gamers feel genuinely scared for their survival horror protagonists...
Way back in the May 2004 issue of Game Developer magazine, Richard Rouse III comments that his goal when designing The Suffering was to produce an “action horror” title, rather than a “survival horror” title. To Rouse, the difference between the two types of game design boils down to the use of fixed cameras, the focus on collecting objects (like keys), the control scheme, and the frailty of the protagonist. In The Suffering, Rouse wanted to build a game that was closer to Half-Life than to Resident Evil, but his goal was also to balance heavy action with legitimate horror.
I found Rouse’s description of how his game differed from “survival horror” quite interesting, particularly his point about avoiding a frail protagonist. Looking back over the multitude of horror titles that have been released in the last ten years, it seems clear that two different schools of thought exist about how horror protagonists should be designed.
On one end of the spectrum we have the weak and frail-looking characters Rouse wanted to avoid. The Silent Hill series, for example, has consistently employed “average joe” characters as their protagonists, personalities who are not trained in combat and do not have nerves of steel. The Fatal Frame series uses a similar approach, casting a young college student as the lead.
On the other end of the spectrum we have games like Resident Evil, Extermination, The Thing, and Carrier. In these titles, the lead characters are highly trained mercenaries, super-soldiers with extensive combat experience.
This discrepancy in character design has significant influence over the rest of the game. As horror cinema and literature has taught us, it is important that the player feel that they are constantly in danger, and that the possibility of death looms around every corner. Using a frail-looking character thus enables designers to achieve scares with less effort, as we have little trouble believing that the ghosts in Fatal Frame would make short work of a college student like Miku.
Even if the character looks weak and vulnerable, several developers have taken explicit steps to further hamper their character’s fighting prowess. In Silent Hill, Harry is a lousy shot, and it takes him several seconds to aim. In Eternal Darkness, the protagonist’s fighting and magic abilities are offset by the insanity effects that plague the player throughout the game.
The goal of these choices is to render the player more vulnerable and thus increase the amount of tension generated by the game.
The macho-ness of the character design is also reflected in the weapon design. While we have no problem accepting Resident Evil’s Chris when he wields a rocket launcher, the machine gun in Silent Hill 3 feels out of place in Heather’s hands; she seems much more comfortable with a simple lead pipe. The weapon in Fatal Frame is another good example: much of the horror of that game is derived from the idea that Miku has no defense against her ghostly assailants except an antique camera.
Horror is scary because we identify with characters who are in dangerous situations. We feel scared for them, whether they are within our direct control or not. Shallow and generic characters produce games that are not frightening, because we just don't care about them.
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But I'm even more scared for Albert Wesker. What if that virus inside him eventually screws him up?
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Personally I always feel more scared for the average-joes. Games like Silent Hill and Fatal Frame have me shittin' myself scared because you know that these people could easily die in real life. They have no weapons experience, no training, no special abilities. It also helps the scare-factor when they only have weapons like Golf Clubs, Baseball Bats, Cameras, Handbags, etc.
It's damn scary trying to fend off monsters twice the size of your character with only a Wooden Plank to defend yourself with.
I enjoy Resident Evil, but it's hard to feel scared for the characters when they have all the weapons in the world and are fully trained in combat. The only times I'm really packing myself is when they're running low on ammo (which hadn't been something that happens often in recent RE games).
BUT..
There are female characters who can take out a platoon of rifle wielding zombies should the need arise.