The survival horror ambiguous storyline theory

In the last couple years we've got a lot of good survival horror games. Titles like Outlast 1 and 2, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation, RE7 and many others. Most of them gave us good hours of enjoyment, but some people (myself included) expected this to be the big revival of the survival horror genre and in the end of this nice line of releases, we ended up feeling like it was good, maybe great, but not epic or unforgettable. I was kind of at a loss, trying to find a reason about why this wave of survival horror goodness didn't felt perfect until a survival horror themed conversation happened with one of my friends.

On our little chat, we were talking about some famous survival horror games like the old Resident Evil games and we were wondering what happened. Lots of nostalgic moments and memories came from that, but there was this part of the whole argument that really got me thinking.

The first time we got here, is still one of the most epic gaming moments for many of us.

My friend stated that the best thing that the old Resident Evil games had was the atmosphere of not knowing anything about it. Now let's make a thought exercise and follow the Resident Evil example:

You arrive at a mansion, trying to rescue a military squad that was missing in action, then you get inside to this nice looking place only to find that is crawling with all kinds of creatures that shouldn't even exist. The first time everybody played this we felt the intrigue, violently building up from the moment we found the first zombie and see that low resolution video of it munching on a dead soldier's body. Now this is what was going through my mind at that point:

Old Mansion + Lots of doors + Zombies... I think that I'm going to spend a lot of time figuring this out, but I will do it because it intrigues me and I want to know more.

The feeling was special to say the least. At the time it felt huge (like taking a cross-country trip without knowing where you will end up) and it took a lot of exploration, discovering new places, reading documents, solving puzzles, surviving and watching cutscenes in order to finally get to that underground laboratory for the first time and go like "What? A lab in this place?". That was the moment when the game's story was at its peak and that precise point was what made it all so worthwhile.

Some consider this one the best in the series, I personally see it tied with Code Veronica.

Resident Evil 2 gave us another dose of that feeling, but on a bigger scale. Now the whole city was infected and I was playing as a rookie cop/rebellious biker girl that had no clue of what was going on. By then we all knew that the creatures existed and we knew that they were man made, but at the same time we had lots of questions like how the virus got to the city and what kinds of creatures it could had spawned there. Our answer came as we began exploring the police station and progressed from there, finding creatures such as the lickers and the giant croc that wanted to have us as as a tasty snack.

From there on, we kept discovering things and the more we knew, the more we wanted to know. At that time, we had already mastered the now criticized tank controls, weird aiming mechanics and cheesy voice acting because we had to know where it would all lead up to. It was like starting to read a good book at 8:00 pm only to be hooked by it and keep going through the night even though you know that you have to work/go to school on the next day. It was that powerful.

I could go on and on about every Resident Evil game, but let's get to the point. The charm of these early manifestations of the survival horror genre (something that was also used by other games like Silent Hill) was that a great deal of the main problem in the storyline was hidden to us, even when we knew who our enemies were. It was this feeling of mystery and hopelessness mixed with stress and been lost in a place you don't know anything about, the thing that made the old school survival horror experience to be so special and that is the aspect that was missing from the cool, but not epic  horror games that we got at the beginning of this generation. They had the atmosphere and game mechanics right, but they lacked the WTH is going on factor because even when they tried to hide it (like they did on The Evil Within) we had this sort a of faint foresight about what was going on that didn't let us use our imaginations at full power.

Another one of my favorites, underrated Saturn game that followed the formula you will soon read about.

So this the point when all our thoughts were gathered and we came up with the survival horror ambiguous storyline theory. This theory states, that for a game to be a true heir of the survival horror roots it needs to have a story that leave us lost and wondering up until it peaks, a continuous affair with no divisions like chapters or places you can't go back to and having the sense of discovering things by our own rather than holding our hands and/or structuring the game into established objectives. Anything less of this makes the game to be an action game with horror elements and anything more than this is to be considered experimental (like some horror indie games).

This was the reason why the newest games are not clicking with some of us us in the same way that the old ones did. They gave us unnecessary foresight on what was happening, were structured in chapters and objectives leaving little to no space for backtracking and while they were fun, they weren't the survival horror revolution we were hoping for. If we were to compare these games with a cake, we can say that instead of been a chocolate cake, it was a vanilla one coated with chocolate frosting, which tasted good, but was not as satisfying.

I found this as an adult and the tension and scare factor it brought was amazing considering this is a SNES game.

Now that you know about it, what do you think? Is our little theory right on the spot or are we missing something? Let's talk about this on the comments below and btw, thanks for reading.

After Playing or Seen PT... What Can be Expected of Silent Hills?

If you have been keeping up with the newest blog entries, you know that 3 days after the Survival Horror Awakens, but Still No Silent Hill article, Sony and Kojima had this brilliant idea of using a viral technique to tell us that there is going to be a new Silent Hill game which is now called Silent Hills. That piece of news has generated a lot of hype between both the long time fans and curious gamers who haven't seen much about this horror franchise, which is very cool thing considering the lack of love that the series had been suffering since Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Now knowing that PT was a sort of a viral teaser for the new Silent Hill game, we got to see first hand how powerful the fox engine is. The setting of the PT game is on a small segment of a house and it looks astonishingly real also supported by a really good assortment of sound effects that were successful in giving the creeps to everybody who experienced it. Overall, the teaser was excellent, but all the questions are now directed at the final product. How will Silent Hills be?

Any fan of the franchise itches at the thought of exploring the entire city.

Will it be an exclusive?

The possibilities of this title becoming a PS4 definitive exclusive are very slim, even though it was first showcased on PS4. The reasons why a definite exclusivity deal seems unlikely is that the franchise is trying to get back on its feet again and in order to do so it needs to be available to as many gamers as possible. On the other hand we have stuff like the game's profile on IGN where it shows that Sony is one of the publishers along with Konami. So if this publisher thing is true, it means that some sort of exclusivity is on the way even if it is only for a limited time. Sony recently said that they were not interested in "buying" exclusives, but if they are indeed one of the publishers we may be seen something like the thing Nintendo did with Bayonetta 2. Now been things as they are right now, the safest bet on this aspect of the game is to think of it as a timed exclusive.

The power of the fox engine at work.

Graphics vs Content

A great deal of speculation has been going off regarding how this game will be, but nobody has a clear idea. There have been a lot of fan theories that try to predict how the story of the game will go, but have you ever asked yourself how will the game be displayed to you? The Fox engine did a hell of a job, grafically showcasing the interiors of a section of the house, but will it hold up to an entire town? Will this force developers to divide the game in chunks in order to maintain the visual quality? To have at least some kind of answer to these questions be aware that the final product will most likely be different than the teaser. If we take it from a business perspective we can tell that if they feature Norman Reedus in the game, it wouldn't be for him to stay hidden under a first person point of view for 90% of the game as that would be kind of a dumb thing to do if they want him to be part of the marketing efforts for the game.

So this points to the game been in a third person perspective with some first person parts that will play like PT and will serve to give the player some insights about the story of the game. Hopefully the beautiful graphic style presented in PT will not be affected.

My experience of the game was so unique, I didn't even saw this guy.

The "s" in Hills

It is a fact that people that played the PT game are still looking for a definite and logical way to finish it. Up until now there are still a lot of discussions about how to beat the teaser and it seems like everybody is having a different experience. This, coupled with the "s" in "Hills", give the impression that the "everybody has his own experience" thing will also be true on the final product. Maybe this time we wont be taking a personality test before the game starts, but have other things that will lead us to all sorts of variations that will make each experience to be unique. This can be done by changing the game through the player's decisions and/or making it a free roaming experience by featuring multiple paths and mixing those paths with various choices for puzzle solving and character interactions that serve as forks in the road (explicit and implicit) up to a point that they may even change the main objective of the game somehow. All this of course will lead to the classic multiple ending feature that many Silent Hill games have had in the past.

This Silent Hill 2 scene is still an ongoing topic within fans.

Philosophy and Psychology

Almost all of the Silent Hill games have deep psychological and philosophical roots. There is a lot of stuff to analyze and fans have been making theories ever since the first game was released and this is especially true with the second game in the series which seems to be the richest on this sort of thing. Now with Silent Hills we may have a lot of new material to twist our minds into. Evidence of this comes in the discussions that have started on the net, with fans already making all sorts of theories based on the PT game. Some fans have tried to predict the setting and time in which the game will be set on, the appearance of classic antagonists like Pyramid Head and they have also been talking about their ideas about how the story will be. The curious thing about it is that the fan theory mill is getting bigger and bigger and we don't even have the game yet. If you want to read some of these theories check out this Reddit thread and see for yourself.

Been grabbed by surprise and finding this thing face to face, its no wonder there were so many screaming videos.

Wrapping it up

Silent Hills doesn't look like a reboot to the series, but some sort of side story focused on bringing an unique experience to everybody. The powers of the cursed town called Silent Hill can move to pretty much everywhere as evidenced on Silent Hill 4, so we can have an terrifying and macabre experience in any place near it as long as the main character has some sort of relation to its messed up history. It all looks good up to this point and expectations are high, so let's just wait and see what Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro have in store for us.

Survival Horror Reawakens and Still No New Silent Hill.

For the delight of fans of this genre, the survival horror hiatus is no more. With games like Outlast, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation and upcoming ones like The Order 1886 and Resident Evil Remake Remastered, it seems like we are going to see a lot of horror coming to this generation. Most of the big hitters are going to have an appearance including a new Fatal Frame game for the Wii U (if it makes it to our shores), but up until now there is one that has been missing in action and hasn't shown any concrete signs of it making a come back. It was the Resident Evil direct competition back in the day and a very good survival horror game, Silent Hill.

The HD version of Silent Hill 2 had some classic cutscenes removed because they were seen as "inappropriate".

The reasons why this game franchise hasn't made an appearance on this generation can only be a matter of speculation right now and even though we are not completely in the dark about it, details about the future of the franchise have been a little thin. One of them is that Hideo Kojima has set his eyes on the franchise since 2012 because he thought and commented about how good it would look on the Fox Engine. These comments were only based on Kojima's experience watching the latest Silent Hill movie at the time, so it only lifts a small speck of hope at best. Even in the best case scenario, if Kojima decided to work on the franchise it would be something that would be releasing at 2016 or something because he has been too busy finishing and promoting Metal Gear Solid V. It is most likely that even if he has any real interest on Silent Hill, the ideas must still be on paper and not even funded yet.

Robbie the rabbit is a staple of the series and he became really popular after Silent Hill 3.

Another piece of information is related to Climax, which are the developers that made Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The studio CEO said in 2013 that they are working on 3 new titles, 2 for the PS4 and one for the Xbox One and even boasted about how they were the most "next-gen" experienced studio to ever work with that type of technology. The thing is that rumors state that they are working on a Prince of Persia type of game and a new horror IP. This leaves a 1 out of 3 possibility of having a new Silent Hill game coming from them and if we take into account that one of the rumored games in development is a NEW horror IP, the possibilities get even smaller. Besides, their take on the Silent Hill series was more of a strange reboot in which you did not fought any enemies at all and that wasn't so hot with fans of the franchise.

Did you know that Silent Hill 4 was not going to be a Silent Hill game at all?

Some of the oldest Silent Hill fans say that the best thing to do with the franchise is to go ahead and reunite the original Team Silent. We have to admit that at the time when they were still together, they were the survival horror "dream team" with a group entirely composed of horror-oriented developers and artists. Now back to the reality, we have to accept that reuniting this once powerful team is too difficult right now as many of their former members are scattered all around and even if some of them are still working for Konami, important members of the team like Keishiro Toyama (Silent Hill director), Akira Yamaoka (Sound director for the series) and Takayoshi Sato (creator of the first 2 Silent Hill games) are too difficult to reach because they are either working for another company or on personal projects, so making a Team Silent reunion has become something a little too complicated to do right now.

Silent Hill Downpour was an good game, it's only real fault was having bad battle controls.

Wrapping it up

A new Silent Hill game is not an impossible thing as the fans want it and it has been 4 years since we last played a real one and no, the HD Collection and Book of Memories doesn't count. Up until now all we have are rumors and wishful thinking, but a new entry on the franchise can happen as long as this horror trend keeps up. The best thing we can do is to vote with out wallets and support the genre so that the higher ups at Konami see that they can give the franchise another chance and decide to give it a go and make a new full scale Silent Hill project. Once again as I have said before, it is up to us.

Update (8/13/2014): Its funny how 3 days after this blog entry, we get the surprise of Silent Hills through the P.T teaser demo. I'm like super hyped about it as the demo itself was pretty neat.

Sources:
GamesRadar: Hideo Kojima Expresses Interest in Silent Hill (2012).
VideoGamer: Silent Hill Shattered Memories Dev working on 2 ps4 games and 1 Xbox One game (2013).
GiantBomb: Team Silent

  

5 unexplained video game mysteries that still baffle gamers.

Video game plot holes and mysteries are something that has always captivated the minds of gamers. They are basically the backbone of a gamer's curiosity and a great part of what keeps a game alive. As years go by, these curious details are turned into lore and lore is what keeps gamers talking about a game story even when it is no longer a new thing. The beauty about this aspect of gaming is that it is not perfect and from that imperfection, games get some sort of intangible form of replay value. So now that we are into the video game mystery mood, let's see 5 of those unexplained gaming enigmas that still have us scratching our heads.

Perhaps this is the past and present of the Shinra Corporation.

1) Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X... Connected? 

Final Fantasy is one of the most famous JRPG game sagas of all time and still one of the most acclaimed since the very first game which saved Square Soft from ruin  (way before the Square Enix thing) when they were at the brink of bankruptcy. The saga has spawned 14 original titles and countless sequels, side stories and related games. The mystery with this franchise is based on a small reference made on one dialogue that opened the debate about if Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are indeed connected in some way.

The dialogue happens in Final Fantasy X-2. It tells us about "Shinra of the Gullwings" who is an Al-Bhed boy who happens to be a genius and plans to use whatever is left of the Vegnagun to create a new machine that can siphon energy from the planet. it all seems like the dreams of a child, but the project gets funded which entertains the possibility that this "Shinra" could be one early predecessor of president Shinra of Final Fantasy VII, implying that the world of Final Fantasy X and X2 is part of a cleverly made prequel. Based on some expressions made by some Square Enix developers and writers, little Shinra would have tried to make the mechanism on Spyra, but failed. Then many generations into the future, when space travel had finally become possible, another Shinra from a later generation would embark on a space journey in which he/she discovers planet Gaia (Final Fantasy VII) and while living there, restarts the project and this time finds success, creating the very first mako reactor.  This theory is a very long shot, but it is entertaining to read and discuss.

You can check out the quote from the Square Enix staff HERE.

The family guy who is a fan of the magnum gun (among others).

2) Whatever happened with Barry Burton? (Resident Evil)

The Resident Evil games were one of the first ones that gave gamers a horror cinematic experience with its high end graphics (for the time) tense atmosphere and fascinating story. Nowadays, Resident Evil is not so much about horror as it is about action, but its characters have passed the test of time and are recognized by even the newest of Resident Evil fans.  The mystery with this one is that nobody knows the whereabouts of one of the fan favorites that used to be a key character in the first Resident Evil game and that character is Barry Burton.

In the first Resident Evil game, Barry Burton was part of the bravo team, who enters the mansion searching for answers. There he is forced to work with Wesker because he threatened to harm his family.  After a long way of lies and deception, Barry almost follows Wesker's plan to fruition, but is saved before that can happen so he manages to escape the mansion along with the others.  After that, it is only known that Barry holds an investigation in Maine and helps Jill get some information about the Umbrella Corporation, but other than that Barry is missing in action.

Capcom could be holding Barry off for a later Resident Evil game. Maybe things got so rough that he went to a secluded place with his family, who knows? Barry swore he would bring Umbrella down so maybe he was the whistleblower that prompted the government to take action. His current status is "still alive" and the B.O.W experiments have not ceased so the mystery goes on.

"Wake up and smell the ashes" - G-Man

3) Who is the G-man? (Half Life)

Half Life is one of the gems of the first person game genre. Featuring a superb storyline, high quality visuals (for the time) and a good amount of action in a big world to explore. The franchise gave gamers a lot of freedom without sacrificing story elements with earned the franchise a great deal of praise. The mystery on this game series is focused on one mysterious character who is simply called "The G-man". This shady guy has made multiple appearances in the games, even having a full dialogue sequence in the opening of Half Life 2 as well as parts where he seems to be just observing what happens to the protagonist Gordon Freeman, sometimes even stopping time just to give a message and then vanishing afterwards.

Some people say that he could pretty much be a future old version of Dr. Freeman who goes back in time to help his past self, while others say that he is just part of the beings from the other dimension that were connected to our dimension in the Black Mesa experiments. On Half Life 2: Episode Two, the G-man makes a reference that implies that he is not working alone by implying that the things he does are part of the decisions taken by a group instead of just been himself. The only thing that is certain is that the G-man seems to have a special interest in Dr. Freeman and that we will see more of him in Half Life 3... If there ever is one (we can dream, right?).

A teenage girl with some issues yes, but... Killing innocent people?

4) Is Heather really killing normal people? (Silent Hill 3)

Silent Hill is often considered the strongest rival of the Resident Evil franchise. It took everything that was considered wrong in gaming (bad camera angles, tricky controls, grainy graphics) and made it serve as features in a solid psychological horror environment. The whole franchise is a big mystery that often involves psychology, occultism and even philosophical thinking. This time the mystery has to do with the sanity of Heather Mason who is the protagonist on Silent Hill 3.

This theory comes from a dialogue cut scene within the game where Heather talks with Vincent. She is clearly distressed and tells Vincent about the creatures that she had been fighting with and Vincent suddenly makes a burlesque expression and comes with the phrase "Monsters? They look like monsters to you?". This sole phrase gave birth to the theory that questions if Heather was really killing the demons she saw or if it was all an illusion and she had been killing normal ordinary people that she saw as demons. 

The "Monsters?" part happens after 2:25.

Vincent goes back on his remark by saying it was all a joke, but still some fans of the franchise see it as if he went back on his comment because of the shocked reaction that Heather had. Evidence that supports the "Heather killed humans" theory suggests that the cult that was responsible for what was happening in Silent Hill is reported to have used hallucinogenic drugs on their members to make them "see the gods and angels" which could have been administered to Heather in one way or another. Also the dark powers in Silent Hill have a habit of making people see and feel things which as bad it could have been by its own, could be even worse with the use of these drugs and after all, Heather starts the game in a shopping mall which should be *ahem* full of people. Was she just a scared teenager fighting for her life or a murderer? You be the judge.

The evolution of the "Blue Bomber".

1) The transition between Mega Man and Mega Man X

Saving the most complex for last, comes Mega Man. Otherwise known as Rock Man or "the blue bomber", this blue robot has been the subject of many great and successful games going from the original Mega Man series to the Mega Man ZX games on the Nintendo DS. Right now there isn't much activity around Mega Man except for his appearance on a comic book and as a playable character in the next Super Smash Brothers game, but it is still considered a fan favorite and a classic. If you are skeptic about the "fan favorite and classic" part of the character's reputation see this crowd reaction.

The great Mystery around the Mega Man series comes in the transition between the original Mega Man and the Mega Man X series. The thing is that there is no explanation that can tell us if Mega Man X is in fact an enhanced version of the original Mega Man or if they are two different robots. One of the theories suggests that Dr. Light put the original Mega Man in stasis, made the enhancements and left him there in case a hero was needed in the future, as his technology was far too advanced for humans to understand at the time. Other theory suggests that the original Mega Man failed in the end and was destroyed so Dr. Light dedicated his last years into developing a new version of Mega Man that could not be defeated so easily.

There are many points of view in this mystery, some of them including disturbing events like Zero waking up and killing everyone (Dr. Light, Roll, Mega Man), but been unable to find X who was hidden and sleeping inside a capsule underground. This is based on mere 2-4 seconds of a video sequence in one of the Mega Man X games where it presents Zero in a place that looks like a lab that has been trashed and has several blood stains on the floor. As you can see, this is one mystery that has a lot of possible explanations, but not one of them can be called "the definitive truth"...yet.

Mystery is what keeps our curiosity alive and makes life to be fun.

Wrapping it up

There you have it folks. 5 weird video game mysteries are still causing debate in this day and age and will be there puzzling our minds until some official statement is made (which is very unlikely). From horrific possibilities, to lost characters and massive plot holes, these mysteries found in games are a very interesting and thought provoking thing to talk about and with the few ones that you just read about, we are just scratching the surface.

If you know about any other unsolved game mysteries please share them on the comments section as this kind of conversation is always fascinating.