Choice Is Yours Vol. 197: Resident Evil Vs. Silent Hill
Resident Evil [Capcom] (1996-Present) // 9 Games
Vs.
Silent Hill [Konami] (1999-Present) // 8 Games
Dem franchise boys are at it again. The biggest names in survival horror, battling each other in body and mind. I was feeling sort of… well, not sad today, but weird because Resident Evil 6 came out and I realized I don’t really have any strong desire to buy it. Considering the RE series was one of my favorites as a youth, I can’t help but experience some ennui. So I’ve been memory lane-ing all morning about the heady days of survival horror, and decided I would turn to you – the readers – the figure out whether the Umbrella Corporation could stand up to the ravages of your own guilty conscious. Could the STARS take on the silent Nurses? Nemesis versus Pyramid Head?
Thinking about their beginnings, it is pretty cool how humongous both of these series’ have gotten (despite the fact that the success may or may not have doomed them, quality wise). For what it’s worth, my favorite games in each series is Resident Evil 1 (Remake Edition) and Silent Hill 2. I like RE4 a lot, but the direction it has inadvertently taken the series in has retrospectively damaged my enjoyment of that game a little bit. Look no further than RE6 appearing to be a CoD-like for facepalming evidence. The experience of playing RE1 is the most vivid, but I have the most gameplay/visual respect for the excellent polish it was given for GameCube re-release (side conversation: is GameCube the only Nintendo system in which a 3rd party franchise [RE] was more important to its success than Mario/Zelda/etc?).
Silent Hill, on the other hand, took the slow tension filled exploration sections of RE1 and cranked them up to the next level. Full of bold gameplay decisions, the SH series peaked with the highly disturbing second installment following the troubled James Sunderland. It’s smart, mature, and scary as fucking hell. The Choice is Yours…
- Whole Milk
October 2nd, 2012 at 1:44 pm
I’m a Silent Hill man myself. Resident evil was more about the “gotcha” scares and Silent Hill had that, but was much more about story and game play… messing with you psychologically. It made you choose to turn that corner to see what that gurgling sound was.
October 2nd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Our RE6 review is currently being written dude, and it ain’t pretty.
Despite that, my vote still goes to Resident Evil: 1 and 2 set the bar and 4 still continues to amaze me. I’m almost certain it’s a perfect game.
October 2nd, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Silent HIll. Two Words: Silent Hill.
October 2nd, 2012 at 4:34 pm
RE all the way. Can’t front Silent Hill was an amazing game and franchise, the RE series though its taken on certain humorous aspects (IE the new 3d movie I mean wtf) it still scares the fuck out of me time and time again.
And although the RE remake was critical to the Gamecube’s success early on, more important franchise games came out for it over time I think.
October 3rd, 2012 at 12:08 am
Resident Evil.
The 3DS game Revelations was pretty sweet too.