First off… HAPPY HALLOWEEN, ONE AND ALL.
It’s All Hallow’s Eve and a night of fright, suspense, and terror… So if you’re itching for something to scare your wits and boggle your minds, then you should probably be sitting in a corner and play some solid video titles that belong to the tried and tested “Survival Horror” genre. If you’ve heard of it, then you’re familiar with titles and franchises such as Resident Evil (BioHazard in Japan), Silent Hill, and Dead Space. These games are filled with all kinds of creatures that want nothing better to do than to tear you limb-from-limb, or take you down a bottomless pit that sees you falling into a nightmare you may never wake up from.
So if you need some gaming for Halloween night, here’s five of the absolute Survival Horror games you must be playing in order to get truly scared and find every means to get out alive from.
RESIDENT EVIL 2
The sequel that dared to go the extra mile… And it paid off in spades to boot. Set two months after the game that saw zombies and other biological monsters infest a mansion in the mountains, Resident Evil 2 now sees the entire Raccoon City devastated due to the outbreak of the T-Virus, turning almost everyone and everything into the undead. Arriving separately and united to see the chaos first hand are Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, who get stuck as a result and are forced to seek refuge at the Police Station where they think it’s safe. Unfortunately, Leon and Claire now find themselves desperate to find a way out of the nightmare, while surviving death traps and more monstrous creatures that have ties to the company responsible for it all – The Umbrella Corporation.
SILENT HILL 2
A game that really intends to scare and terrify the player, especially since it’s rooted on Psychological Horror – Silent Hill 2 is everything that makes a sequel better – chalking up more intense monsters and creatures that are not easily dispatched in a town that is ridden with dark demonic energy that brings to life whatever evil that lies beneath the dark recesses of a person’s mind. Players take the role of James Sunderland, a man who goes to Silent Hill because he receives a letter from his wife Mary, who passed away some years ago. It is in this journey that James comes to face his inner demons, which manifest themselves and force him to choose how he survives as a person and with the people he meets in the town.
DEAD SPACE 2
In space, no one can hear you scream… And true enough, Dead Space 2 is that game that pits freakish dead humanoid creatures and schizophrenic like problems into the life of the game’s playable protagonist, Isaac Clarke. Set three years after the events of the first game, Isaac is institutionalized in a space station called the Sprawl… Which is later infested with the same Necromorph outbreak that plagued the ship he survived and got out of… the U.S.S Ishimura. Forced to combat the dead as well as face inner demons taking the form of his dead girlfriend, Isaac seeks to escape the Sprawl and survive… But soon learns he must also prevent the Necromorph threat from escaping and spreading to other regions of the universe.
THE LAST OF US
A game fairly recent and something that sees more of real-life drama play out amidst a post-apocalyptic scenario, The Last of Us is the story of two individuals – a grim middle-aged man named Joel and a young tomboyish teenager named Ellie, who have to travel across the now desolate United States to a secure facility that may help cure the mutated viral outbreak called “Cordyceps” that infects human beings and turns them into fungal monstrosities. The game requires both action and stealth to play, and is developed by Naughty Dog – the same makers of the critically acclaimed Uncharted series. Deep, engaging, and emotional to the core, this game will test you and change everything you know until the very end.
THE EVIL WITHIN
Fairly new and marking the return of Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami into the Survival Horror franchise, The Evil Within is a game that very much resembles what true Survival Horror games should be again in this day and age. Players take on the role of Detective Sebastian Castellanos, who is called to a case of mass murder at a mental institution. However, he is soon attacked by a man who has powers to twist reality and bring dark things to life, which makes the Detective’s journey a harsh and terrifying one to behold. As Seb starts down the path to rescue his partners and save those in immediate danger, the player also discovers what went down in his past life, as well as the true nature of the evil he faces.
So far those are the titles recommended to play on Survival Horror standards. Play them… IF YOU DARE.XD