Resident Evil 4 is a Masterpiece of Horror by Desperation

want to start this video by discussing the differences between how Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 4 scare their players I think Resident Evil 7 is probably the scariest game in the series I've played it like 10 times and there are still parts of that game that creeped me out Resident Evil 7 is a much quieter game than Resident Evil 4 5 or 6. it is a much simpler game it was horror on a small scale seven is at its scariest when you're just slowly creeping forward in a dark Corridor listening to these scratching creaking Ambiance knowing that you are being hunted that's somewhere nearby a monster is coming Resident Evil 7 created horror through Quiet Moments by taking horror back to its most basic elements A Haunted House a dark knight a strange sound whose Source you couldn't know a feeling of being hunted the grotesque in the Decay the perversion of the familiar those are the kinds of things that are at the foundations of horror before the release of this remake I hadn't played Resident Evil 4 in years maybe even a Whole Decade my memory of resin Evil 4 was that it was much more of an action game than a horror game I remember it being a really cool game a really fun game a really exciting game to play but I don't remember it being all that scary it doesn't have a lot of that quiet simple horror that made Seven so terrifying so when I played the Remake the thing that surprised me most is how freaking scary this game actually is I found it genuinely stressful upsetting and really scary maybe even as scary as seven is except it creates that Horror in a completely different way whereas in seven a small dark basement with like 10 goop monsters is a horrifying time and for a massive sprawling medieval castle with hundreds upon hundreds of zombies is a horrifying time I've settled on the terms dread and Desperation to Define these two different styles of horror Resident Evil 7 creates horror through dread meaning fear based on what is going to happen next a feeling that something is wrong something awful is coming for me something terrible is about to happen in seven when you're exploring the creepo baker Bayou Manor and it's so quiet and dark and you know somewhere in here you're gonna get attacked by a monster but you don't know where and you don't know when it's gonna happen but you know it's coming and you feel that tension and anxiety slowly building up inside that is dread that is horror created through dread and seven is masterful at doing that four creates horror through desperation meaning fear based on what is happening right now fear based on being confronted with a seemingly impossible overwhelming and terrifying situation I really like this definition of desperation the feeling that you have when you are in such a bad situation that you are willing to take risks in order to change it there is recklessness within desperation it forces you the player to take risks to do things you wouldn't do otherwise to waste ammo in four when you're trapped in a barn or a cabin or a dungeon some cramped space without enough room and there's nowhere to escape to and the game surrounds you with enemies like dozens of enemies or dropping from the ceiling and it feels like there is no end to them and you're also facing some really tough really dangerous enemy like the chainsaw gonados and you don't feel like you have enough ammo or supplies to handle this situation and it starts to feel impossible that's desperation that's horror created through desperation and just as seven is masterful at Horror by dread four is masterful at Horror by desperation before I dig into how Resident Evil 4 uses desperation I want to point out a couple spots where it actually does do Horror by dread really well there are a couple sections of this game which are quiet and dark and where the horror is based on the anticipation that some terrible thing is about to happen for example the section where you control Ashley Ashley has no weapons she can't fight back her section is much much quieter than the rest of the game you're creeping through this dark maze-like library and the whole time I was playing I was like okay something is going to jump out at me here something is going to chase me through here I don't know what it is but I know it's coming and of course that building dread is paid off when these suits of armor wake up and start clanking after you another example would be down in the depths of the castle when you're exploring this abandoned research lab when I was down there again I was like okay there is definitely some kind of terrible genetically engineered monster down here something so awful that even saws are sealed it away down in these depths and that is paid off when an actual freaking xenomorph from Aliens shows up son of a [ __ ] and it becomes horror through desperation because you are trapped in that space with it you have to hold it off and survive long enough for the elevator to reach you and Escape but Resident Evil 4's most terrifying use of dread has to be the regenerator I think everyone agrees this part is super duper scared once again you are in an abandoned research lab and it is so dark in here and so quiet and half the doors are sealed and you're finding evidence of terrible experiments and you're reading notes about some monster that can't be killed so awful that it even terrified the researchers who created it and you get a feeling that something really bad is coming there's a really terrible monster in here waiting to emerge and then the regenerator shambles in this seemingly unkillable inhuman monstrosity what the [ __ ] are you it's screeching sound design is horrifying it's flabby goob like animations where even though it looks human it doesn't move like a human at all are terrifying the whole thing is an excellently crafted Horror by dread experience but those examples are the exceptions that prove the rule Resident Evil 4 isn't usually quiet it's usually not horror based on getting chased by a single terrifying Monster not horror based on the anticipation of something terrible coming the first really good example of Resident Evil 4's Horror by desperation is when you first arrive in the village when you reach the Village proper you'll pull out your binoculars and you'll see a bunch of creeps shambling around inhalating this police officer on fire oh it's a pretty intimidating setup nowadays I suspect almost everyone knows that you can get through this part by just running in circles and playing keep away with these idiots until the church bell rings and they wander off and it's actually pretty goofy fun you never have to take a single shot there's no reason to ever get hit of course the Remake probably brought in a bunch of new players who are experiencing this for the first time and they won't know that and maybe the first time you ever played you tried to sneak by the villagers but inevitably you get caught then maybe you thought well I'll just kill the bomb these villagers aren't that dangerous they only take a couple shots to go down you've probably built up a decent supply of ammo by this point you're probably gonna be okay but after a couple minutes of blasting away at these villagers you start to realize holy crap they just keep coming and not just a few of them there are dozens of these guys and there is no end to them it doesn't matter how many you kill you make no progress your supply of ammo and healing items rapidly vanishes it starts to seem like you're not going to be able to handle this all of a sudden you get completely surrounded you start to panic maybe you make a run for it but you'll discover that there's nowhere to run to every path either goes in a circle or leads to a dead end you are locked in here there's no escape and more and more villagers keep coming they are everywhere and then just as it seems like things can't possibly get any more dire this happens foreign psychopath with a bang on his head and a freaking chainsaw just blasts through the gate unlike every other villager he doesn't go down after just a couple shots you can shoot him 20 times and he keeps coming his chainsaw is an instant kill attack all you can do is run away from him this is a perfect example of horror created through desperation this is a situation that keeps getting worse the developers want you to feel more and more desperate the longer it goes on and let's look at the core elements of this style of horror first is overwhelming odds too many enemies not enough supplies getting surrounded new enemies that keep appearing and they're coming from all directions having at least one really strong really intimidating enemy who can kill you easily who seems almost impossible to defeat but that's not enough almost every action game has moments like that what's also really important is the sense of being trapped you have nowhere to escape to you can't go back the way you came and you can't go forward and you can't hide that's another thing that separates Resident Evil 4 from a lot of other horror games and a lot of horror games when faced with a terrifying monster you can either run away or hide somewhere and then you'll basically be safe but you can't do that in Resident Evil 4. again and again this game puts you in situations where your only choice is to fight your way through even if it feels impossible but that's not quite enough to call this horror either again lots of action games have set pieces where they'll lock you in a certain area and make you fight your way through hordes of enemies the third and final element of Horror by desperation is that there needs to be something terrifying or grotesque in the design of the enemies or aesthetic which you can see here these villagers look dirty and sickly there's something off about them and of course this entire horrific series of events is transpiring beneath the burning corpse of this police officer that's a grotesque Design Within the environment so to summarize the three elements of Horror by desperation are overwhelming odds and entrapment in grotesque Visual and Audio Designs Leon's arrival in the village is a fantastic example of Horror by desperation because it clearly demonstrates each of those three elements I want to move away from Resident Evil 4 very briefly to discuss another game in the series let's look at Resident Evil 8. early on in Resident Evil 8 while exploring the village in that game you will start to get attacked by these Beast men so you'll kill a few but then they just keep coming no matter where you go they chase you down they surround you there's nowhere to escape to you'll start to panic you'll start to feel desperate eventually this absurdly huge Beast man with his comically oversized Hammer will bounce in and that feels a lot like the moment when the chainsaw ganado shows up in four corn ER all right it's one of the scariest moments in Resident Evil 8 and it's an almost shoppershot Recreation of the set piece back in Resident Evil 4. this introduction to the village and Forest so effective and so scary that the developers brought it back 16 years later almost entirely unchanged four really was just that well designed of a game now let's get back to Resident Evil 4. I want to look at a couple more examples of Horror by desperation in the game at one point you'll be searching for a key in a barn and when you find it this happens [Applause] [Music] sorry I didn't realize it was yours the double chainsaw ganado fight is another fantastic example of Horror by desperation remember the three elements we defined before first there are overwhelming odds you are fighting not one but two different chain Sagan Autos just one would be terrifying enough they are ridiculously resilient to damage they can kill you in one hit they have a ton of range they're really fast but now you have to fight two at once and in addition to that because the developers of this game are complete [ __ ] who hate you they also drop in a dozen regular enemies too while trying to dodge the chainsaw gonados you're also dodging the seemingly endless mob of villagers who keep streaming in this is what makes for really effective Horror by desperation you have to keep stacking the odds against the player not just one chainsaw gonado not just two of them but also Force the player to deal with all this other [ __ ] too it's stressful it's frustrating it's intense it feels unfair and it's terrifying the second element was in entrapment and you are trapped in this Barn there is nowhere to go there is no safe Zone there isn't anywhere you can run that the enemies can't reach you I want to compare this to an earlier section of the game there's this part where you're escorting Ashley through this Canyon that's filled with animes this isn't a very desperate or a very scary section of the game because the gate is not locked behind you anytime the enemies attack anytime it gets a little overwhelming anytime it gets too scary you can just turn around and go back the way you came and the enemies won't follow you if you aren't trapped if you can escape if you can easily reach a safe Zone then that is not Horror by desperation we can also look at the other two games I've already discussed in this video Resident Evil 7 and 8. in both 7 and 8 you can almost always just turn around and run back the way you came you can almost always go back to a safe room seven and eight don't usually trap you in an enclosed space in fact most of the other Resident Evil games don't often use entrapment in this way how much it's used in for is a relatively unique game design in the series I think another important element to this style of horror is that there can't be any tricks the player can take advantage of like there isn't any special button the player can press that will instantly kill these two chainsaw gonados there's no pattern to memorize in this boss fight it's not like Legend of Zelda where if you just learn the enemy's weak point or learn the pattern of their movements or learn the exact right item to use then the fight becomes a breeze in Resident Evil 4 you just have to be good enough your aim has to be good enough you can't waste ammo every shot has to count you have to manage your resources well enough you have to dodge and Parry well enough next I want to look at the cabin fight with Luis this is one of the most famous set pieces in action video game history it's hard to explain what made it feel so incredible back when Resident Evil 4 was first released I had never experienced anything like this before in a video game and I'm sure that's true for a lot of people I think what made it really memorable is that this cabin fight felt so unfair but at the same time it still felt doable it's the same thing that makes Dark Souls gameplay so addicting even though the odds are stacked against you and you're surrounded on all sides with enemies pouring in through every window and there's no end to them and your supplies are running out it still ultimately feels manageable and finally satisfied when you beat it all of your experience in the game has led you to this you know how to beat these enemies you know how to manage your resources effectively you wouldn't have made it this far if you didn't and there's an intensity and Desperation to this fight the more your supplies run out the more enemies who appear the longer it goes on the more desperate you feel I think this cabin fight is probably the greatest example of Horror by desperation in all of horror media it's simply perfect it doesn't get better than this at this point in the video I could go forward and point out every time Resident Evil 4 makes use of Horror by desperation but I think I've already made my point the only other really standout example in the game for me is this double garador fight in the castle which is so stressful and feels so unfair that I had to just put the controller down and go do something else the first time I ever encountered it it has all the elements of Horror by desperation overwhelming odds getting trapped terrifying visual designs that enemy design is one of the most horrific in the entire game the garador is genuinely hideous to look at which makes that section even more stressful the castle is completely filled with these sorts of set pieces the game is constantly trapping you in some enclosed area surrounding you with enemies not giving you quite enough supplies to handle it it can actually get a little lasting at times interestingly the island section of the game does not use very much entrapment in its design during that whole section of the game you can usually turn around and run back the way you came which makes it feel less desperate and so less scary by that point in the game you'll usually have enough supplies to deal with everything and you're so familiar with all the enemies that none of them feel very threatening while I still enjoyed it the last third of the game is definitely it's always scary but that's pretty typical for most horror games before I end the video I do want to talk about one other thing back in my analysis of Resident Evil 7. I discussed how that game manages the players feelings of being powerful and Powerless and how that allowed the gameplay to be more fun than most other horror games for much of Resident Evil 7 you will feel powerless like the monsters are stronger than you and there's little to nothing you can do to defeat them and that's core to how it scares the player but if you put in the work if you solve the puzzles if you outwit the monsters the game game will then allow you to have moments where you feel powerful that can keep the gameplay fun keep it from becoming frustrating and entice the player to keep moving forward through stressful situations the best example from Resident Evil 7 of this was the tanker level at the start of that level the game takes away all of your tools and weapons you have to explore the terrifying bowels of this dilapidated tanker and when you encounter a goop monster all you can do is run away or sneak by it but if you keep making progress eventually you'll find this machine gun and then you can just blast the goop monsters into goop pieces the game goes from stressful to fun from powerless to powerful Resident Evil 4 is also good at managing the Spectrum for example in the castle level there's this bit where the bad guys are firing cannons at you and you have to dodge and run away from them but then eventually you'll get your own Cannon all of a sudden you're the one who's powerful you're the one in charge oh God firing again it's a really fun about face that most horror games wouldn't do most horror games are allergic to ever letting the player feel powerful the same thing happens again later in the castle level there's a section where you're navigating the battlements in this piece of crap troll is chucking rocks at you foreign side note I love how pissed off Leon is for this entire game after the first 10 minutes he's already over it and then he just acts annoyed for the rest of the game it's really fun characterization anyway there's nothing you can do about this troll except run away but if you keep going if you get past all these obstacles if you defeat all the enemies in your way hey yo guess who just found themselves another Cannon okay ready thank you adios you son of a [ __ ] Resident Evil 4 manages this unsettler ways too like the weapon upgraded system affects your sense of power as well if you explore and collect money and treasures the game rewards you with more powerful weapons which makes enemy encounters easier and thus less scary but only for players who put in the work only for players who stick with it it's a horror game that rewards You by in some ways actually becoming less scary but the absolute best example of this is towards the end of the game when this attack helicopter shows up what was that traffic you have spent the whole game getting your ass kicked by mobs of these stupid pest-ridden gennados and then in the final section of the game as a reward for all the [ __ ] you've put up with the game allows you to feel the absolute bolus and satisfaction of watching them get mowed down dozens at a time by high-powered rockets and machine guns it is a delight on the one hand this is a ridiculous over-the-top action movie sort of moment but it's also a really smart game design in a game where you've probably felt powerless for hours and hours this is when it finally allows you to be the one with the power this is all a bit off topic though I just wanted to show the ways in which Resident Evil 4 is just as good at managing the player's sense of power as Resident Evil 7. and partly why it's such a fun game to play the main purpose of this video was to examine the ways in which Resident Evil 4 creates horror through desperation sometimes I see people say that Resident Evil 4 is just an action game or it's an action game with some horror elements and that that's something I used to believe too after playing this remake though I think Resident Evil 4 is just as much of a horror game as any other game in the series just as scary and tense and stressful as any other but it creates that horror differently as players I think we're much more familiar with Dread we're much more familiar with the dark basement and the quiet and the sense that something terrible is about to jump out at us Resident Evil 4's style of horror is a bit more unique it's proof that it's possible to be a ridiculous over-the-top action game and still be really scary at the same time this also leads me to believe that Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 could have been much better horror games if the developers had stuck with this same kind of game design five and six really are just action games with occasional horror elements they have just as much action as for but aren't able to create that sense of horror through desperation the way Ford did if there ever is a Resident Evil 5 remake I hope the developers will learn some lessons from this remake of four and how it managed to create horror through its action gameplay [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: FatBrett

Views: 63,930

Keywords: Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Remake, Resident Evil, Horror, Analysis, Lore, Story Explained, Desperation, Dread, Review, Masterpiece

Id: Fhhj4ScPr7s

Length: 24min 13sec (1453 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2023