Many will point to the narrow hallway where dogs burst
through windows as jump scare perfection, but as a
defining scene nothing beat disturbing the first zombie;
squelchy sounds of man eating man from a hunched
figure just out of sight, followed by an eerie cut-scene
as a pallid, gore-soaked face caught sight of you.CLASSIC MOMENT
T
he rise of the survival horror
genre in the late ’90s was
all a result of this: the battle
between a depleted squad of
special forces agents and a mansion
teeming with zombies and colossal
creepy crawlies. Resident Evil wasn’t
gaming’s first foray into horror, but
the advent of the CD as a mainstream
gaming format meant it was one of the
first to conjure up a realistic 3D world
filled with gruesome enemies and high
quality music and effects.
The stranded Special Tactics and
Rescue Service team found themselves
in a rather unique pickle. As monsters
shambled down hallways and room-
sized sentient plants attacked with
poison, players had to juggle priorities
since limited ammunition, item slots
and save points meant it was often
better to run than to stand and fight.
Barmy puzzles saw heroes Chris and
Jill ferrying crests and emblems all over
the mansion grounds to unlock doors,
while CCTV-like fixed camera angles
ramped up the tension by ensuring
that while we could hear the shuffling
of undead horrors round corners, we
couldn’t see them until (almost) too late.