Summary
Resident EvilandSilent Hillare often compared with similar metrics nowadays even though they are actually fairly different franchises. The line between what is considered survival horror as opposed to psychological horror is decidedly muddied, and yet it’s what helped distinguishResident EvilfromSilent Hillwhen they were both fledgling franchises employing tank controls and fixed camera angles on the earliest PlayStation systems. These franchises have also evolved a lot since those initial installments, withResident Evilstretching its genre legs a fair bit more thanSilent Hill.
NeitherResident EvilnorSilent Hillhave had a perfect legacy, and that’s an inevitability any franchise will encounter when it’s as long-running as they are. Some games are far more agreeable with a few of them maintaining a legendary status in the horror genre at large, for example, while others represent what fans consider to be the bottom of the genre’s barrel.Silent Hillhas fallen victim to more entries being highly criticized thanResident Evilhas, and while swapping developers certainly has a role to play in that, so doesResident Evilbrieflyabandoning horror for action.
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Silent Hill is Currently Locked into Psychological or Survival Horror
For as long asSilent Hillhas been around, it’s been aptly billed as a psychological-horror franchise with some games leaning more into survival-horror gameplay. Either way,Silent Hillis intrinsically horror-oriented. Even when characters such as Harry Mason or Murphy Pendleton wail on bizarre psyche monsters, the atmosphere inSilent Hillgames is always meant to perturb and unnerve.
Team Silent’sSilent Hillgameswere definitely successful at accomplishing that with subtle environmental frights as well as mortifying sound and enemy designs; however, there’s only so long a franchise can hang onto its primary genre themes before they end up needing to be reevaluated or reinforced.Silent Hillcleverly developed an anthology series that could introduce new characters and that extended its shelf life favorably, but even that eventually led to regurgitated ideas and a lesser quality in games put out once the seminal developer behind its beloved installments was no longer working on them.
That’s not to say that future games liketheSilent Hill 2remake,Townfall,Ascension, andfcan’t be good, and in fact the series has more potential now than it ever has. Regardless, it is still restrained to horror and unless it can continue to carve refreshing narratives out of its eponymous tourist town,Silent Hillmight end up circling the same tropes and motifs that made its original trilogy popular.
Resident Evil Can Flip Fluidly Between Survival Horror and Action
Meanwhile,Resident Evilgradually transitioned away from survival horror into action. This transition was made palatable thanks tothe exceedingly popularResident Evil 4andResident Evil 5, and whileResident Evil 6decided to be a much longer game with multiple character campaigns, it was still popular at the time for its co-op action gameplay.
It wouldn’t be until a little later that fans would comprehend how far the franchise had come from its survival-horror roots, andResident Evil 7came at the perfect time to help rehabilitate the series and redirect it onto a course that fans could rally behind again. But at the time, action was working well asa new genre path forResident Evil, and with the games’ remakes already reaching the fourth installment they are likely to make that choice once more of whether to pursue action over horror.
Some fans will prefer horror or action to their own discretion, though it is guaranteed that being action-oriented for a while helped to giveResident Evilenough diversity in its content to not grow stale as a franchise, which is probably why it’s been able to be as present as it is. IfSilent Hill’s new endeavors are able to get creative and innovate a little within their own genres, then perhaps both franchises will be able to flourish.
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