Both Shifted to First-Person View
Sure, Resident Evil 7 and PT/Silent Hills certainly aren’t the first horror games to feature a first-person view, but it’s important to acknowledge that they are both big franchises that have made the shift to first-person after releasing a ton of games that were played out in third-person. While we might never know how Silent Hills was supposed to turn out, PT surprised a lot of players with its reveal because the first-person view was not a feature you would normally associate with the Silent Hill series, with the exception of The Room.
Similarly, when Resident Evil 7 showed off its teaser trailer at Sony’s conference during E3 last week, it was difficult to predict that this would be the new Resident Evil game because of its use of the first-person camera. However, even if the camera style has changed in a pretty big way, both PT and the Resident Evil 7 demo have proven that the first-person view can be used to their benefit. While playing through the Beginning Hour myself, the first-person view allowed me to study every little, rotting detail of the dilapidated house, heightening the sense of fear and tension.
Both Resident Evil 7 and PT also did a great job with the use of the flashlight. When turning the camera to look at something, your view turns towards the intended direction first, but the flashlight takes just a split-second to catch up with you. As a result, you’re left staring into darkness for just a moment before the flashlight reveals what lies ahead of you. It doesn’t sound like much, but that moment of darkness is surprisingly effective at scaring the player into imagining the worst.
They Contain Insane Secrets
Just like PT, the Resident Evil 7 demo is full of secrets and easter eggs. Granted, unlocking all of the Resident Evil 7 demo’s endings is a lot less obtuse than figuring out how to beat PT, but still, both games have done a great job of hiding secrets, and making the player think. At one point in PT, players are forced to look for a few pieces of scrapped paper in order to progress. While the first few are pretty easy to find with a bit of thorough searching, the last one forces you to do the unimaginable. Players have to go to their pause menu, and then click in the analog stick to zoom in on a logo before they’re rewarded with the final scrap of paper.
Resident Evil 7’s secrets are a little bit more interesting than that. Instead of making it ridiculously difficult to even beat the demo, Beginning Hour’s challenge is in trying to unlock the different endings. For instance, in order to unlock the different variations of the ‘phone call’ ending, the player has to perform a number of actions in the correct sequence, and also pick up certain key items that can be easily missed.
It’s also worth noting that even today, there still isn’t a 100% reliable way of beating PT. As for Resident Evil 7, players are still having difficulty figuring out exactly what to do with that damn dummy finger. Both games have a lot of secrets, and they’re both keeping them pretty close to the chest.
They Scare You With Psychological Horror
The Silent Hill series has always thrived on frightening the player with psychological horror, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see PT do the same thing. On the other hand, the Resident Evil games have always been more action-oriented, and the scary bits were usually just jump scares. With Resident Evil 7, it looks like Capcom is making a tonal shift as well, and they might be bringing the series in a more psychologically terrifying direction.
In the Resident Evil 7 demo, you find a note with the ominous message: “I will dash them against the stones.” Later on, after you’ve completed the VHS segment, you find the note mysteriously sitting in front of you, but this time, the message has been altered with blood. It says: “I will dash YOU against the stones.” Creepy stuff. As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, if you venture to the second floor of the house, there are three mannequins in the corner that will turn to face you if you pan the camera away from them. And, when you collect the backdoor key and proceed to the exit, a mysterious fourth mannequin will block you on the way to the backdoor.
Resident Evil’s brand of horror has never been this subtle, and it looks like the seventh entry might be taking a page out of Silent Hill’s book.
They Take Place in One Confined Space
Resident Evil 7’s house might be a little larger than PT’s looping corridor, but it doesn’t negate the fact that both games place you in a singular confined space. In PT, there’s simply no escape from the terrifying corridor. In Resident Evil 7, you’re forced to explore a cramped, dilapidated house for a possible way out.
The entirety of both games take place in a confined space, and this is pretty effective for creating the feeling that you’re trapped with no escape. Of course, it should be acknowledged that both PT and Beginning Hour are simply teasers for their respective games, but it’s a smart idea to trap the player in a singular area, as this is a great method for heightening the sense of isolation.
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