question about a horror game

[desperado]

i fell in love with the song "your not here" (or something along that line accruse being tired) from ddr extreme for the ps2. this song is a tribute or something to silent hill. are these games evil or ok? from what i have read and seen of resident evil it seems like a decent horror story but i have never played silent hill or heard much of it just love this song. is it worth renting? or does anyone info on resident evil? i have been wanting to try a horror game for a while but have been wary of them. so i need your oppinion, think its worth renting (either of them)

[Bobtheduck]

"are these games evil"

You'll likely get a lot of answers for this question...

Resident Evil, Known as Biohazard in Japan, is very gory and it's about cheap scares and biological warfare. THe main objection to these games would be the violence.

Silent Hill is not nearly as violent as resident evil, but that's not what bothers people about it to begin with. It is about a cult that tries to physically manifest a demon (in the biblical sense of teh word, and not the Japanese Mythological sense) and they tap into Purgatory. The Silent Hill games are very connected to Catholicism, and the cult is sort of like the "anti-catholic" religion. Everything the cult does is supposed to be a direct opposition to Catholicism. Now, the cult is generally shown to be evil in the game, as is the demon, but their very existances in the game may put people off.

It would seem that the people who made this game know quite a bit about Catholicism, and were quite put off by it. However, the cult and the demon are never shown in a positive light, so I pretty much ignore the psuedo-bible speak and the religious elements. One thing that may bug people is that the dark side town of Silent Hill is essentially purgatory. People are brough there to be punished for their sins. Harry is brought partly because, if I remember correctly, [spoiler] he had accidentally killed someone, and partly because he had taken the baby from the cult that they were going to use in their ritual...[/spoiler] James had been brought there (in SH2) more directly as a punishment for something he did wrong (oh, and SH2 has the least to do with the cult, but there are other things about it that may turn you off to it.) Heather, well I wont' bother saying why she's there. I have no clue why Henry is there yet, but for all practical purposes, Silent Hill is purgatory.

Those are the most likely things to turn you off to them... WIth the exception of the corpses that decorate some dark world scenes and a little blood, these games aren't really that violent. In SH2, there is some sexual stuff (it would take a lot of time to explain why it is like that) that may also turn you off, but I think SH2 has the best story of the 4 games (even though I'm not done with SH4) so I'd almost recommend starting there... If you decide to play it. I mean, don't condemn people that like it if you decide not to play it, but make it yours and God's decision FOR YOU whether you're gonna play it or not. They are definately not cheery games, with the exception of the funny alternate endings in the first 3 games which I heard they removed in the last game... I'm upset... Anyhow... Yeah, that's about it...

As a side note, Akira Yamaoka is the best game composer ever... I think he's better than Nobuo even. Yes, I know, many gamers may consider that "blasphemy" but it's just true... I really need to get extreme... I have been waiting for some SH songs to be DDRized, and "You're Not Here" is a great song... I hope the DDR treatment did it justice... I'm gonna scream if it is, for instance, that weird clapping techno thing... I just wish they'd do the theme song for SH2 or maybe Room 312... Well, it's not bloody likely they'd be able to do room 312 in DDR, but it's a great song nonetheless...

[desperado]

heck no its not like that. only thing is i think its cut to fit in the ddr time frame but its a masterpeice. and besides its got a good cj cinema for heater. and thanks i think i might try silent hill. is 2 for the ps1 or 2? because i havent seen it to rent but i have seen 3 and 4. the reason i asked is i heard its good and it looked good but i heard something about in 3 there is some <spoiler> girl babling about a birth of a god and heather pukes up a worm and the one girl eats it?????? yeah that left me a little like huh (i have been trying to do reasearch) but i know things can be d eaper then they appear so thats why im asking and after that i think i will try it. </spoiler> but yeah i heard there are three silent hill songs in ddr extreme. i heard your rain (rage mix) is one but im not sure and i KNOW your not here is a silent hill one. and im seriously woundering what the third one is. maybe you could look at http://www.gamefaqs.com 's ps2 section and look through the songlist and tell me? but yeah if you would send me a messege or tell me like this what in the heck thats about (i have read a partial script on gamefaqs. and im woundering about it so please illuminate me a little about 3 because that is what i have read up on)

[Azier the Swordsman]

BOB: Concerning that spoiler, maybe it's because I haven't played the game in a while, but I honestly don't remember SH1 hinting that Harry had [Spoiler]killed someone.[/SPOILER]

[Bobtheduck]

Actually, that was revealed in SH3... In one of the many papers you read, I think it's one of douglas'

Oh, and as for the "birth of a god" thing, that's the demon that I mentioned... I call it a demon, the cult calls it a god... Yeah... And that scene is about the last scene in SH3...

[spoiler]This thing was growing inside Heather/Cheryl/Alyssa, and she gets rid of it (this physically manifested demon) but Claudia, wanting to see it reach full growth, takes it upon herself to finish by eating the demonic fetus to finish the birth, which kills her and starts the final battle... Yeah, that scene was pretty gross, but what's gross about it isn't what you see as much as it is what is suggested... I mean, you don't see her eat it, you dont' see it kill her, but you don't need to (when I say you don't see her eat it, I mean you see her back and you see her make motions, but you don't really see it go in her mouth, mostly because that wouldn't be possible on a PS2...)[/spoiler] That is the ultimate goal of the cult, and they think that this demon will bring paradise, but as is made clear through the games, it just brings decay and ruin... At least, that's my take on it...

[desperado]

hmmmm makes more sense then. i may try to rent it

[bakura_fan]

well.....if you want a good horor story....why not try Castlevania: Lament of Innocnece? I love it. It's graphics are wonderful, the background music is great, the blood is there *but not to a disguisting exstent....but that's open to opinion*. With all the secrets you get after beating the game once....you'll get lots of opportunity's to play in a different way....Basically...you shouldn't be getting bored anytime soon when playing it. I've only beaten it once regular....then with another version....and I now have 3 more versions left to go.....*sigh* so much to do, so little time to do it in.

[Fsiphskilm]

BOB! I'm very surprized by what you

[desperado]

hmmm ok though the two resident evil pics wouldnt load

[Fsiphskilm]

Here ya go... That's wierd t

[Sam*ron]

Those are very interesting creepy looking...things...

What are they for, computer or a game system?

[Bobtheduck]

I'm not even gonna talk to you about this Volt... Really... Ok, so I lied... I am... Everything I said was true. I wasn't saying one was better, even. Silent Hill isn't NEARLY as violent as resident Evil... You don't rip monsters apart or blow their brains out or anything... You don't lose limbs and get disembowelled and all of that, which does happen on the resident evil games

The RE games are about the "boo" factor whereas the Silent Hill games are psychologically disturbing... The latter of those two, since you had to go and insult it when I didn't even BEGIN to insult RE, is considered a bit higher on the intelectual scale... In other words, to be frank :Boo = low brow, Psychology = High brow... yeah. Dont' even go there. I'm not saying SH didn't have a lot of Boo moments, but RE doesn't have any decent intelectual moments. So, yeah... Don't even go there.

Oh, and so you know, the monsters on SH2 were much better than the lickers, than the dogs, than nemisis... Nemesis doesn't compare to Pyramid Head. Not in the least. Especially since PH is, when all is said and done, the enemy inside. Yeah, don't even start Volt.

As for the closers, they were cool. I didnt' think they were scary, but they were just... cool. However, the pendulums were freaking scary... Even the pendulums were scarier than Nemesis, and they are just minor monsters... The pendulums were the only really scary monsters on SH3. On SH2, however, those mannequins... They freaked me out.

SH2 is not "blood soaked" at all. It also happens to be my favorite in the series... A story that none of the RE games can compare to... "oh no, a virus has escaped... It's turning everyone into zombies..." And what's with this new RE game... It's still all external... Nothing internal. So, by no means does RE have anything on SH. They cannot adequately be compared.

Let the record show, I never said RE was a bad game in that post (even though I said it in this one, essentially). I said what people would object to. I DIDN'T FREAKING INSULT RE I did not at all... Not... I said Cheap scares... That's what they are... The popping mannequin in SH3 was cheap scares too, but I never said it didn't have cheap scares... I said taht was the primary focus in RE... You can't say it isn't... It's about the biological warfare (the plot) and cheap scares (the device.) SH is about purgatory and the cult(the plot) and about psychology (the device) with some cheap scares (a device, though not the primary one) and comedy (another device, though minor) thrown in. Yeah... Don't accuse me of something I didn't do. Don't twist my words. Don't

post false garbage

about me. Thank you.

As for the reincarnation [spoiler] It wasn't a general truth as in everyoen reincarnates, it was a specific thing that only applied to Heather... Yeah... There's a big difference... In a sense, that's even biblically correct, but I dont' have teh time or energy to go into it[/spoiler]

[Fsiphskilm]

well dang...

[Bobtheduck]

All I said was that the ONLY objection people would have to RE, as there is nothing spiritual in it, was the violence... People would object to SH because of the spiritual stuff... So, in a way, it's quite the opposite of what you thought. It's almost that people would have more to object to in SH than in RE... I wasn't even trying to get desperado to play SH, just laying out what was in it. Yeah, I didn't think to mention the dark world effects because I never really thought of that as violence. I thought of that as environment. I mean, the blood doesn't exactly come from anywhere, it's just there. Also, I must admit, SH4, despite not having as much along the lines of bloody walls and corpses and such, is much more violent than the previous games because it is about a murderer, which wasn't really the case in the previous games (I dont' want to explain SH2 I know what some SH fans will say to that, that's not what I meant...) That's all a moot point I was just saying that "the only thing to object to in RE is the violence, you may have more of a problem with SH" That's it. So, really, I was essentially saying that RE was more tolerable and easier to give to a wider Christian audience than SH.

Oh, and I didn't mean Jesus. I meant Elijah... There are several places in the bible that John the Babtist was referred to as Elijah, that for the messiah to come, Elijah had to come back, and that was John. So it isn't reincarnation in the strictest sense, but it is almost sorta in a way. As for the specifics, we won't ever know until it's over, because I don't think it's something we need to focus on one way or the other. That's all I meant there... When Alessa died, she was dead... Heather wasn't completely a reincarnation of her, because she chose differently than Alessa, and she was the only one in the game who "came back" as it were. So, that is different than just accepting reincarnation as a whole, in my view, because it was just her... Sorta like if we believed we never die physically, well some people (like Elijah, again) did escape death. Now believing that being a Christian means we escape physical death (which is a belief, actualy) is not the same as it happening in a very few cases (2 if I recall correctly) I think the same thing is the case with this... It was just her, not a general thing...

Oh, and I have yet to see large forums discuss the meaning of symbols and psychology and artistry of resident evil... generally the discussions are "man, that boss was hard" and "oh that part scared me" So, yeah... Disturbing may not inherently mean intelectual, but SH2 at least is intelectual. The RE games are all very surface. They dont' make an attempt at getting too deep. That's not why they were made. SH2 is probably the single most intelligent game I've played. Ever. And that has much more worth than any scare. I think to explain it best, RE is like a cottonwood tree whereas SH2 is like an oak or something... I can't think of a tree that has deep roots...

Cottonwoods can be annoying because their roots spread so far, but they don't go deep... RE may have twists and turns, but the story is still reduced to Evil corporation trying to make bio-warfare and infect a bunch of people with zombie makers... All the twists and turns are pretty outward, nothing inward. Nothing on the scale of SH2.

SH2 was likely an anomoly... I don't expect to see anything that deep again in the series. But SH2 needs to be acknowledged for that. If you deny how intelligent and artistic that game is, you are seriously deluding yourself. It may not scare you, it may not be in your style, but it was well put together and incredibly intelligent. And, in a way in which stuff like MGS2 failed, entirely coherent on the simple level, but left open to interpretation as well... RE is a much simpler story than Sh... That's not bad, you just can't compare them... People tried so hard to say SH ripped off RE, but the truth was they used RE as a springboard to make something entirely unlike RE... It's not RE's place to be about the psyche of the characters... It's not RE's job to be about psychoanalisis and working out your guilt. RE is about escaping a threat... The threat in SH isn't really a physical threat, but it is, at the core, your own mind is the biggest threat. RE is about an external battle. SH, even SH3, is about an internal battle.

Yeah... I'm done... really, I will not be on this subject anymore. I think Desperado has all the info... No more need for me...

[Fsiphskilm]

awsome and agreed.

[BigZam]

well.....if you want a good horor story....why not try Castlevania: Lament of Innocnece? I love it. It's graphics are wonderful, the background music is great, the blood is there *but not to a disguisting exstent....but that's open to opinion*. With all the secrets you get after beating the game once....you'll get lots of opportunity's to play in a different way....Basically...you shouldn't be getting bored anytime soon when playing it. I've only beaten it once regular....then with another version....and I now have 3 more versions left to go.....*sigh* so much to do, so little time to do it in.

Your right about Castlevania. The gameplay is awesome, the blood is not so bad, but that game bothered me because of the demonic origin of the story, like Dracula and the undead. The line that bothered me the most was "just because they're dark powers doesn't mean they're evil". I felt convicted to return the game, but that's just me.

[Azier the Swordsman]

I'm working on SH4 now... I'm somewhat dissapointed because of the sheer amount they changed with this title, (I much prefer the Adventure aspect of the series over the Action style in SH4) but it's still too early for me to judge it, as long as they deliver a good plot worthy enough of being called a Silent Hill game, I'll be happy.

Those ghosts are ANNOYING!