Gaming Target - Horror Games On-Target in 2004

Written by Chris Reiter on February 23, 2004

Horror Games On-Target in 2004: Blood drops forming puddles, and scar tissue shredding. Pants turning yellow, because you keep on we

We hate it, but we love it. We ignore it, but we welcome it. We try to hide from it, but we stand up to it. This is the embodiment of fear. It's an element in all of us that we can't deny is real. It's something that's a part of all humans, or at least most of them. Which is why a certain increase of excitement fills the air every year for gamers when game companies present the very essence of fear itself inside a wide variety of inventive and terrifying adventures. Drilling us further into believing the unbelievable, these new horror innovations attempt to do their very worst to all of our senses. Another year has just begun, and it's time for another batch of the most gruesome, villainous creatures to pop out of nowhere on our television sets and make our hearts remember what it's like to hop at warp speeds. If you're not stuck in a frantic panic yet, read on to find out just what exactly is on the horizon for 2004's Horror Games On-Target list.
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╖ Title: The Suffering (PS2, Xbox) ╖
╖ Publisher: Midway ╖
╖ Developer: Surreal Software ╖
╖ Release: March 8, 2004 ╖

Torque is as much an anti-hero as any anti-hero. The only thing is, no one knows if he really is a hero or not. Torque's story is known to the prison keepers and prison inmates alike. He's been accused of murdering his wife and child. Now he's been sent to rot in prison. Only, the prison is now rotting before him. In Midway's upcoming blend of action and suspense, you'll become the character Torque to venture through a demon-infesting jail house to discover who Torque really is. Not even Torque has any memory of whether his sentence was justifiable or not. With that thought in mind, Torque will be something of a different character whose actions shape his quest. Oftentimes Torque will reach a certain point in his exploration where he'll be able to pair up with other prisoners or aid a guard in trouble from the creepy creatures that have all of a sudden appeared in this infernal place. Making conscious decisions will result in achieving three different endings. Other times, Torque will have to rely on himself in fending off foes using a variety of weapons -- from a shotgun to an automatic. The most interesting aspect about the game, however, is that Torque will transform into a demon creature himself at time. The Suffering will feature a sanity meter of sorts (like the one found in Nintendo's Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem) that juices up and lets all of Torque's rage out to become an ultimate power, stronger than any of the denizens that will attempt to prohibit Torque and others from living. With only a month until The Suffering lands on store shelves, this different take in the horror genre could very well end up becoming an interesting alternative.
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╖ Title: LifeLine (PS2) ╖
╖ Publisher: Konami ╖
╖ Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment America ╖
╖ Release: March 2, 2004 ╖

Survival is hard when we're weak, afraid, and at times unequipped. It's reasons like these that two heads are better than one. But what if one of those heads didn't want to cooperate? What IF the only way to survive inside an alien-infested hotel was to reassure that other person that the only way to live through the coming nightmare was to work as a team? For Konami's March release of LifeLine, things are certainly looking that way. LifeLine will pit players into the role of Rio, a beautiful young lady who finds herself in turmoil when the outer space hotel she's on board of is overrun with an invading alien species. The problem with this is, you actually aren't Rio herself. You're the voice Rio will hear on the other end of a communication link you have connected with her. Trapped in the control room of the hotel, you can't physically be there with Rio. But by plugging in a USB headset into the PlayStation 2, players will be able to guide directions to Rio on how to slaughter the aliens who have no mercy for the human kind. That's right. LifeLine will be a fully controllable game using your voice, and your voice alone. The first of its kind, in fact. Sharing this bond with Rio, you'll need to tell her what to do, from how to solve puzzles, where to go to search for other human survivors, and finally to how to fight alien scum in a system that will allow for players to choose to attack different body parts. Unique to the horror genre, LifeLine is something that's looking to totally revolutionize gaming as we know it.
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╖ Title: Forbidden Siren (PS2) ╖
╖ Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America ╖
╖ Developer: SCEI ╖
╖ Release: TBA 2004 ╖

Zombies are dumb. We know this. Or do we? Somehow in a mysterious village, the people that are there are about to witness the rebirth of the previous citizens that lived here...only this time, they're full-grown zombies. Unlike your typical, dumb zombie, the zombies in Forbidden Siren are intelligent. At least they know how to fire a rifle from some far ways away. More like a stealth game, Forbidden Siren will take players through a three-day course of this town as ten playable characters. What's so remarkable about Forbidden Siren is not the fact that neither the village's zombies nor the living cannot die, but that players will get to "sightjack" into seeing what a zombie or the other people in town visualize. Manipulating your ability to do this will allow for guessing recognizable and obscure positions pointed out by others eyes from afar. For, alerting a zombie to your presence in this game with a budgeted limit to ammo for weaponry, and the fact that you can die (so I lied...except that it's only with continuos harm to your body that a player will in fact perish) would be a mistake. If all of this is any indication of surreal consternation, Forbidden Siren seems like it very well could pose for one of the more intriguing new entries this year in being the first to mix a stealth element with an otherwise horror body of gameplay.
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╖ Title: Resident Evil Outbreak (PS2) ╖
╖ Publisher: Capcom ╖
╖ Developer: Capcom Production Studio 1 ╖
╖ Release: March 30, 2004 ╖
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Raccoon City has been festering with zombies for some time now. The people there (the ones alive, anyway) have always relied on the S.T.A.R.S. task force to get the job done. Not anymore, though, as you and three other players will get the chance to pick amongst a group of people, different in their own trials and errors, to survive the trembling sensation of Resident Evil online for the first time. Choosing between various residents of the city all with different job placements, such as a cop, who's failed every test to become an elite member of S.T.A.R.S. to a fireman or a waitress. Up to eight unique characters' types will be available to pick from, and from there either online or off, those other distinct people will be there to assist you in surviving both battle and puzzle scenarios of Raccoon City. Where people other than yourself who log into the game online can manipulate those said choices of characters so that four people at a time will work together on a Broadband-only connection and communicate with each other to find keys hidden throughout the city in order to unlock doors to new areas, offline the computer will replace living human cooperative members...and even the dead. That's right, the dead! Induce enough pain from zombies after a while and you or other people on your team will transfigure from a human form to that of a zombie. Other features of note that are to be included are that now you'll be able to do more than just shoot at the living dead; now it's possible to grapple or even kick a zombie right in the gut. Zombies are even capable to follow players straight through a doorway, or stick around until you come out from inside the locker or underneath the bed they know you'll have the ability to hide in. Online and off, Resident Evil Outbreak is not only going to be the first Resident Evil to go online, but the first horror game to go online. And come next month, it's looking to be one of the best reasons to be a horror lover this year.
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╖ Title: Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2, Xbox) ╖
╖ Publisher: Konami ╖
╖ Developer: Konami TYO ╖
╖ Release: July 27, 2004 ╖
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One known method of horror is the idea of being trapped. Without the slightest idea if you'll ever be a free person again, whether you're stuck inside a concealed crate with limited air supply or at the bottom of a well, it's a scary thought to think about. For Harry Townsend's character, the protagonist of Konami's Silent Hill 4: The Room sequel, he's caged within his apartment room and is restricted from ever leaving. After about a week, however, a strange portal appears right in front of his toilet. Should he step into it? Should he not? Having no clue what waits for him on the other side and having no means of getting back to the normal life he once lived, Harry chooses an "alternate" life. Through Silent Hill 4, players will take control of Harry Townsend (in no relation to Harry Mason from the first Silent Hill...in fact, Silent Hill 4 will opt not to be related to any of the previous entries at all). Presented in a system irregularly from the usual Silent Hill opus, Silent Hill 4 will have Harry entering the town into one portal and returning to his apartment later on, while switching from a first-person view inside the apartment and back to third-person within the town's limits. Noticeably also diverse from the norm is that Silent Hill 4 will be much more action-oriented, as monsters are to stick to him like glue from their flying, hair-covered baby headed torso, and pouring in from the wall means of attack. Combat in that sense will be reworked a little, with players now being able to select their weapon from an accessible menu system while playing the game. Summer time's going to get a lot chillier than we know it, as what's appearing to be another classic in Konami's flagship horror series, Silent Hill 4: The Room, creeps nearer and nearer to its final release date.
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╖ Title: Ghosthunter (PS2) ╖
╖ Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America ╖
╖ Developer: Cambridge Studios ╖
╖ Release: TBA 2004 ╖
╖ Systems: PlayStation 2 ╖
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Some rookies just were never meant to be anything other than that. For instance, Lazarus Jones here is a newbie to the Detroit police force. While investigating an emptied schoolhouse, Lazarus does the one thing he shouldn't by pulling down the very lever that is about to free captured spirits of evil nature from their imprisonment. One ghost, however, manages to mold her spirit into his body, to now empower Lazarus with a second set of eyes derived from her ghostly abilities. Teaming with Kate Heller, the "good girl" kind of spirit, Lazarus must now recapture every spirit before they're to wreak hell upon the world in all their scornful ways. Even as horrible as zombies and other creature types you can put a hole through with a gun, ghosts are the one thing that goes bump in the night that can't physically be touched. That is until now. Where Tecmo took its horror trade in snapping pictures to defeat evil spirits in the Fatal Frame saga, Sony's going to do one better: they're intertwining the defeat of awful ghoulies with one of the few and only ways movies have taught us how -- the Ghostbusters routine. Rather than sliding a trap underneath these specters, though, Lazarus is given a particular gun and other hi-tech ghost busting equipment -- including a specialized grenade that can anchor a ghost into reality, thereby allowing Lazarus to take it down. With Kate's help too, players will find themselves becoming Kate to access different abilities such as possessing a massive deformity to use it to gain entry to other parts of a level. Thus far, Ghosthunter has an interesting and innovative action-oriented idea going for it, which hopefully won't change as the game's scheduled release is going to happen sometime this year.
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╖ Title: Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) ╖
╖ Publisher: Capcom ╖
╖ Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4 ╖
╖ Release: November 2004 ╖
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Forget the Resident Evil 4 you knew. In fact, forget Resident Evil all together. This "Evil" will be more along the lines of an Exterior Evil. Taking its toll six years after the zombie-infesting Raccoon City incident in Resident Evil 2, the rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy returns to duty...assigned to protect the President's daughter. Before Leon has a chance to begin his job, however, it's with a sudden instance that she's kidnaped and hauled away to some village located in South America. To Leon's surprise, it's when he arrives there that the villagers aren't exactly normal people, but rather under an unexplainable hypnosis -- and now only want to maim Leon to his death. Previously, Capcom had been heading in a direction you might expect from a Resident Evil game. That's all dead now with Resident Evil 4 of all games to be a zombie-free one. In addition to bigger bosses that can toss Leon around like a toy doll, replacing the zombies here will be the trancelike people of this village who won't only mount up to larger numbers when compared to the percentage of enemies you could fight on the screen at once more so than in any other Resident Evil game, but the people in Resident Evil 4 will be smarter too. Firing Leon's pistol at an enemy won't be enough, as every one of them can think for themselves. They won't stick around for you to shoot at them multiple times when in smaller numbers, since aiming your weapon at a villager either in a third or first-person perspective now can have him running away, to Leon chasing him, and to only end up being tricked into an ambush where five other armed adversaries await. Akin much to Sony's upcoming Forbidden Siren, the villagers in Resident Evil 4 will be equipped with weapons, ranging from sickles, to pitchforks and axes, and even a chainsaw. Villagers' weapons can be hurled at Leon from a distance too -- in which case Leon can shoot at them right back. Leon's answer to all this change in the game will be an action button now that will allow for him to escape through windows, hide behind bushes, shove tables in front of doors to bar its entry of blood-hungry mobs, topple ladders with enemies ascending on it upward, and like in Resident Evil Outbreak, kick villagers right in the belly. Whether Capcom's sudden transformation in Resident Evil 4 will be proven to aspire to new heights or mutate for the worse remains to be seen. Hopefully though, only great things will come for Capcom's next in line for Resident Evil.
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In Closing
Now you know about what's going to be scary, how you're going to get scared, and who's going to be the ones that are scaring you. But are you going to step up to the challenge? With a broad bunch of big name hits on the way -- all of which seem to provide their own semblance of interesting aspects toward shocking the living crap out of your Johnson's, this year especially looks to be one of the very best the horror genre has to offer. It doesn't matter whether you're a man or a mouse. There's no law that prohibits rodents from playing video games. So stay tuned for more views on these titles and others as they come together, and say cheese mousy boy -- 2004's going to be a scream!