Survival horror in gaming has been
around for decades. And despite a few
zombiesized bumps in the road, fans keep
coming back for more. Here at the
International Gaming Expo, Gamescom in
Germany, two of the series biggest
titles, Resident Evil and Silent Hill,
are back with their new games, Silent
Hill F and Resident Evil Recreum. So,
I've been here all week asking the fans
and the people behind the games, how is
survival horror surviving, and why do
the fans love it so much?
I just enjoy the experience playing the
games yourself. Like it's something
different than just going into a movie
and watching a film. You're actually
responsible of the actions you take in
the game. And I like getting scared. I
>> really like the atmosphere. I like the
tension when it's going so uh hard and
screamers. The deep message behind the
games, the story line,
everything is very exciting and always a
challenge too.
>> My name is Moto Yamoto. I am a street
producer for Silent Hill.
>> My name is Al Yang and I'm the game
director for Silent Hill F. Nice to meet
everybody.
>> I wanted to know first uh what have the
challenges been when this is such a
well-known series in working on this
game um and also trying to make it feel
really modern. So for us I think one of
one of the biggest hurdles we had to
overcome was was reaching the point
where we managed to finalize our concept
which was finding the beauty and terror.
But once that came about once we once
that manifested we we thought uh it went
fairly smoothly. And the m major other
hurdle we had to overcome here is
because it's been a very long time since
a new Silent Hill title is that we had
to make sure we capture the essence and
most importantly the atmosphere of
classic Silent Hill titles, but at the
same time update and kind of modernize
some of the combat and some of the
gameplay for a new generation of players
that might have never played a Silent
Hill title before.
>> Where did the idea of setting it in
Japan come from? Because obviously the
other games are are mostly set in
America. So So where did that idea come
from? believe that for for many of the
old games, they had always taken place
in the same local of of the town and its
surroundings. We felt that it was
starting to wear down. So, we felt that
we needed to breathe new life into it.
And the way we did that was by
introducing new loces like for example
with uh Silent Hill the short message it
took place in Germany. And for San Hill
F, we decided to take that trip down to
Japan. Another key part about this is
Sun Hill has always been about kind of
that uneasy atmosphere. You're not quite
sure what's going on there. So actually
bring this to Japan actually help us out
culturally in the matter. I I always
like to talk about this in terms of the
school we have. Everybody from every
culture knows what a school is but if
you don't know you might not know what a
Japanese school might be like say in the
countryside and then to add to that it's
a 1960s show era Japan. So that there's
that extra layer of time where well I
know what a phone is but I might have
not used a rotary style phone before.
It's like oh this is obviously a car but
not in the way I'm quite familiar with.
So, it's two extra layers of
unfamiliarity that we can layer on top
for the players.
>> And, you know, some people have have
been looking at this and and comparing
it quite surprisingly for a Silent Hill
game to a game like Dark Souls because
you've obviously got dodging, you you've
got sort of the repairability of of your
tools like you were talking about, it
wears down with time. But, I mean, what
would you say to comparisons like that?
We can definitively say on this point
that uh Silent Hill F is not a Soulslike
game. It is a new gameplay experience
that interweavves both horror and action
elements. And I kind of want to add to
that. I think Soulslike is a term that
for this generation gets thrown around a
lot is because this is
>> it does. It really does. Yeah.
>> A lot of players kind of first brush
with this type of action game there is
souls likes for instance. And for us
it's like we see it's like oh you have
stamina management you have a dodge it's
automatically a souls like but honestly
when we looked at the combat we went
back to a lot of the classic Silent Hill
titles for instance Silent Hill 4 had
charge in it for instance Silent Hill 3
had stamina management with Heather you
wouldn't unlock the bar until later but
these are kind of like resources you
always had to control in traditional
horror games so for us as we're saying
it's like it's not a soulslike it's
really just action horror
>> what do you think makes a game a Silent
Hill game. Um, and in what ways would
you say F is that kind of game
>> is definitely its psychological horror
aspect and that is something that the
script writer for the game Ruk 07 has
masterfully woven into the game. So in
includes both both Hinako herself her
her psychological torments as well as
the relationships that she has with her
family and her friends. All of these
play into Hinako's psyche, which creates
a a very quintessentially Silent Hill
experience.
>> My name is Masatkum Mazawa. I'm the
producer of Resident Evil Reququum. Hi,
I'm Koshi Nakanishi and I'm the director
of Resident Evil Reququum.
>> Next year, Resident Evil the series has
its 30th anniversary. Um, how how have
you found keeping that series feeling
fresh with this game? Has it been a
challenge? And how how have you overcome
that? Yeah, it's been uh almost 30 years
as you say since the first game came
out. In all that time though, gaming
hardware has really developed and uh
evolved alongside the series. So I think
that even after all these years, the
latest hardware lets us bring such
highle visuals and presentation to
players that as long as we can keep
coming up with fresh ideas, I think we
can keep presenting uh really fun and
fresh games even after all this time.
Let's talk uh about the main character,
Grace, uh and why you decided to start
off th this story with her. Why was she
the focus point for this one?
>> I think if you've played the demo
already, you'll see that Grace is quite
a normal person. She's not a action
hero. She's actually quite terrified of
the situation that she's been thrown
into. And we chose her as this kind of
character because I think it lets
players relate to her cuz you're also
scared and you're going to feel scared
on her behalf and think she she looks
kind of defenseless. like will she
actually get through this experience?
And I think that that really gives you
an emotional connection with the
character that really puts you in her
shoes and that's how you really
experience horror is being scared on the
character's behalf.
>> Let's talk a bit about Raccoon City.
When the police department came up on
the trailer, everyone got really
excited. They, you know, know that
Raccoon City is very Resident Evil. Um,
how much will we be able to explore
Raccoon City? Will will we be able to
see those kind of areas that we know?
>> I'm sure it's a very long- awaited
experience for fans to finally return to
the iconic Raccoon City and exactly what
awaits there and which locations you can
visit. We're still remaining a bit tight
lipped about because we don't want to
experience, we don't want to spoil the
experience for fans. But rest assured, I
think that all those Resi players who
know all the lore back to front and they
want to catch up with this iconic
location, you won't be disappointed by
the experience of returning to Raccoon
City in this game. Another big thing uh
about Resident Evil games is that
replayability. Um I wondered what
elements as much as you can say we would
see in this game because I I think fans
really love that element of the series
that you can go back and and replay it
and with different characters and things
like that or different endings and so
on.
>> Um yeah, we know how much the fans love
to replay and reexperience the titles. I
think we've already got a great uh
feature built into the game for that
purpose which is the changeable camera
perspective. So there's two different
kinds of experience waiting for you. If
you play in first person perspective,
you feel that much closer to the horror
and it's very immersive and scary.
Whereas if you then we played the whole
game again on third person perspective,
for example, you'll be able to see uh
Grace as a character on screen. Um as
she said before, you can uh really
emotionally relate to her. And we've
made lots of tweaks so that when you're
playing in third person, she'll have
certain animations and reactions that
don't happen in first person perspective
to let you really relate to the
character. So, in a way, you're already
kind of getting two goes around for one
in the game.
>> Finally, um, some years ago that people
were worried that, you know, the series
and survival horror in general was
becoming more actionbased, it was maybe
losing its focus. Do do titles like
Recreum show that that is coming back,
the genre's stronger than ever?
>> Yeah, for sure. The recent trend in the
series with Resident Evil 4 remake and
Resident Evil Village, which are the two
most recent titles, has been somewhat
towards more of an action blend with
horror. And as you will know, if you've
played the demo here at Gamescom, it's
very much a horror first experience.
Like, it's it's terrifying. And this is
kind of our, you know, our message.
We're we're throwing down the gauntlet
to players to say that, you know, the
horror focus is firmly uh, you know,
it's back and it's still possible and
that you're definitely going to have
your wits scared out by this game. With
that said, for anyone who's like, I
that's too scary for me. That's not for
me. I think you can rest assured that we
are going to throw in the variety of
gameplay styles that people love from
the series. So, exploring, backtracking,
puzzle solving, you know, gunplay,
action, all the things you know and love
from Resident Evil are still in there
alongside the horror. So, don't think
that it's just going to be horror from
start to finish and be too exhausting to
play. Like, there's definitely something
in there for every kind of Resident Evil
fan.