Needless to say, these locations are designed to evoke a deeply bleak feeling of loneliness in the player.
Instead of being the result of some sudden cataclysm, it is often shown to be the slow result of years of “mundane” disuse or neglect.
Unlike the recent apocalypses in classic “Resident Evil”, the dystopian decay and desolation of many settings in the classic “Silent Hill” games is shown to have happened a long time ago. Note the muted grey/brown colour palette used in all four games. Here are screenshots from all four classic “Silent Hill” games. The most obvious visual difference from classic “Resident Evil” is probably the much more faded and muted colour palette used in these games: Although this is most prominent in both “ Silent Hill 2” (2001) and “ Silent Hill 3” (2003), these games use dystopian settings in order to create atmosphere and evoke a bleak mood. On the other hand, the classic “Silent Hill” games (1999-2004) use dystopian locations in a much more subtle way in order to disturb the player. Still, in classic “Resident Evil” games, dystopian locations have usually become dystopian recently – and these games get a lot of drama out of this contrast. The contrast between obscene wealth and cruel squalor really helps to add extra drama and horror to this part of the game. Why? Because, slightly later in the game, you get to visit the opulent mansion of the man who oversees the prison.
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It’s a really interesting way of messing with the player.Įven in “ Resident Evil: Code Veronica X” (2001), which begins in a dystopian corporate prison, the game still mostly uses this grimly utilitarian setting for dramatic contrast. Likewise, although the zombie outbreak in the game has only – technically – happened a few days before the events of the game, the sheer old-ness of some of the game’s settings makes it seem like it happened longer ago. All of the locations in this game, especially in the remake, seem creepy because of these contrasts. Not only does it contrast opulent locations with gruesome zombies, but it also contrasts old and mildly futuristic settings too. In the very first “Resident Evil” game from 1996 – and the amazing 2002 remake of it – the game uses visual contrast in a slightly different way.
Not only that, the contrast between the details and the destruction also help to hammer home the feeling that something terrible has just happened. All of this tells the player a lot about the backstory of the game before they even find their first in-game document. There is usually a lot of visual detail – like shop signs and abandoned cars – to give the player a hint about what the city looked like before the zombie apocalypse, and the presence of things like actively burning fires further hints that all of this chaos and destruction is relatively recent. These are screenshots of the beginning areas in the second and third “Resident Evil” games.