Thanks to Capcom‘s Resident Evil, players don’t need ghosts to give them the scares. In fact, a room full of zombies with limited ammo prove just enough to frighten even the toughest of horror fans. Thankfully, Resident Evil 7 shows that Resident Evil still has its survival horror charm despite transitioning console generations. Moreover, its gruesome cast of zombies, monsters, and bosses prove terrifying enough to serve as the foil of the series’ protagonists. In fact, some might say Resident Evil has the scariest monsters.
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However, fans of Konami‘s Silent Hill might beg to differ. Despite being a horror game, Silent Hill focuses on the psychological aspect of terror. As such, what it lacks in zombies, the games make up for terrifying creatures straight out of the protagonists’ nightmares. Some might say Resident Evil and Silent Hill reinvigorated the survival horror genre. However, which game had the scariest monsters?
10 Resident Evil: Viruses
Unlike other horror titles at the time, Resident Evil left a mark in the horror genre with its reliance on a virus as a catalyst to its story. After all, the idea that a virus can start a city-wide zombie outbreak can become extremely frightening. In the real world, what if a reported “simple virus” turned out to be a zombie-causing bioweapon?
The franchise introduces the Tyrant Virus (T-Virus) as the retrovirus responsible for generating the series staple Zombies and Tyrants. However, it’s the more extreme Golgotha Virus (G-Virus) that began the trend of viruses that produce extreme mutations to the infected. As such, newer titles in the franchise have expanded on the two viruses or introduced newer variants.
9 Silent Hill: Manifestation
Unlike Resident Evil‘s Zombies that focus on generating knee-jerk reactions of fright, Silent Hill‘s Monsters remain diverse throughout its titles. Moreover, unlike the viral origins of Zombies, Silent Hill‘s Monsters apparently “Manifest” from the psyches of the protagonists. In addition, Konami deliberately left any specific details as to how these Monsters come to life. Instead, what matters is that these Monsters manifest when someone in Silent Hill feels immense emotions like fear, stress, and worry.
Interestingly, it’s this bit of existential dread that adds immense appeal to Silent Hill‘s Monsters. Unlike Zombies that “had” to be killed, Silent Hill‘s Monsters may not even be “beatable.” After all, this caveat forces players to ask the question: can people truly kill the Monsters they create?
8 Resident Evil: A Spice Of Biopunk
Interestingly, Resident Evil also popularized the Biopunk literary subgenre. In this genre, developments in bioengineering and medicine caused societal upheavals involving megacorporations and corporate greed. As such, in the case of Resident Evil, the Raccoon City incident and the reveal of Umbrella Corporation as a bioweapons developer sparked global fear and the illegal trade of bioweapons.
To top it all off, a lot of games in the franchise showcase Umbrella execs or people in power tapping into the T-Virus to grant them inhuman power. As such, final bosses in the games often include mutated versions of their main antagonists. Imagine, what if a seemingly-ordinary CEO had a virus that transforms them into an inhuman monster immune to most weapons?
7 Silent Hill: A Dash Of Paranormal
Unlike Resident Evil‘s biopunk, Silent Hill goes to an uncanny valley for its core narrative. Moreover, players may have the choice of exploring the game completely from the point of view of the protagonists. However, hardcore fans may find it interesting that the town of Silent Hill itself has paranormal origins. In essence, Silent Hill in Maine houses the Order, a doomsday cult with a rather eccentric view of the world. Unfortunately, a tragic incident in Silent Hill triggered the Otherworld, an indescribable phenomenon that Manifests parts of a person’s psyche.
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It’s this supernatural or paranormal origin that sets Silent Hill apart from other games. Moreover, it’s this brand of psychological terror that forces people to ask: is it wrong to confront one’s own evils?
6 Resident Evil: Grotesque To A Fault
Thanks to Resident Evil, gamers reflexively know that enemies become more grotesque the deeper protagonists get in the game’s story. Unfortunately, this factor also meant spookier opponents that become much harder to kill in the long run. Thankfully, other games in the franchise give players access to cool finishers and weapons to counteract these “special” opponents. However, classic games that had a limited roster of monsters didn’t take it easy on the protagonists.
Aside from the classic games’ limited camera angles, the gory Tyrants and animal-based monsters punished players who move too slowly or spend too much time wandering in an area – something Resident Evil 3‘s Nemesis makes apparent. Moreover, it seems Capcom deliberately makes Resident Evil monsters look grotesque to prompt players to find ways of killing them immediately.
5 Silent Hill: By Design
Unlike Resident Evil‘s Zombies, Monsters in Silent Hill seem to be deliberately designed. Thanks to Team Silent’s members such as Masahiro Ito, the franchise’s Monsters remain grotesque and gory for a special purpose. In fact, fans who take the time to dissect the story may soon realize the “necessity” of such design details to Monsters.
For instance, the ever-popular Pyramid Head wasn’t supposed to represent a servant of the Order’s “angel,” Valtiel. In its original conception, Pyramid Head reflects a protagonist’s desire for punishment and guilt.
4 Resident Evil: Always Something Scarier
Interestingly, Zombies and its variants in Resident Evil games grow “scarier” over time. In most games, players start fighting Zombies that have a staple slow walk and bloodied appearance. Moreover, in special instances like in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, players start fighting Zombies that wield weapons or “act” like humans. And then, players soon encounter more grotesque Zombies – those with secondary forms, or even animal-based monsters.
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As such, players get acquainted early on that more threats reside deep into the game as they progress throughout the story. Moreover, the existence of Tyrants and Tyrant-like bosses implies increasing difficulty as protagonists get to unravel the mystery behind the game’s latest zombie outbreak.
3 Silent Hill: Uniquely Frightening
As mentioned, Silent Hill‘s Monsters represent something about the protagonist’s psyche that players soon unravel at the end of the story. As such, Monsters don’t necessarily “progress” into more frightening versions. Rather, a lot of Silent Hill Monsters remain frightening as they keep on reappearing throughout the game.
Moreover, in a lot of instances, players can’t “kill” the Monsters in the games. Additionally, players who know these Monsters remain as Manifestations of a troubled mind, how would they even be “killed”? It’s this realization that makes Silent Hill‘s Monsters uniquely horrifying.
2 Resident Evil: Fear Itself
At the end of the day, Resident Evil relies heavily on creating scary and iconic monsters out of fear. Capcom begins with the ironic idea of a panic-inducing Zombie only being killed with a calmly-put headshot. Afterward, they branch out to making the iconic Crow Zombie, the Cerberus Zombie, and more menacing variants of walkers. It’s terrifying when players need to remind themselves to stay calm and aim properly when monsters can chase them left and right.
As such, Resident Evil‘s monsters generate the most appeal through generating the most adrenaline through scares. Like rollercoasters and scary rides, Zombies can’t kill players – and the rush of escaping a virtual near-death experience remains both scary and exhilarating.
1 Silent Hill: Man Itself
While Resident Evil proved that mankind can create monsters they need to destroy, Silent Hill proves that mankind itself has monsters lurking inside of them. Of course, a lot of people might argue this logic takes Silent Hill too seriously as a concept. However, the game’s process of making the protagonists fight their own nightmares is a genius move that means any new entry in Silent Hill will remain fresh and new. After all, there’s a ton of ways for people to confront and avoid confronting their own monsters.
Moreover, unlike Resident Evil that will have to recycle its Zombie formula, Silent Hill can keep on introducing new Monsters depending on their protagonists and theme. After all, for as long as it’s in Silent Hill and mankind sins, fear is endless.
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