Fright Week: Favorite Scares in Gaming

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

 Resident Evil 2

I didn’t play Resident Evil when it first came out. I know, that’s some form of sacrilege, but I can explain. Firstly, I didn’t have a Playstation system, which directly affected the amount of Playstation games I could play. Secondly, the original box art most definitely had a giant spider attacking a soldier, and I was having none of that shit.

Skip ahead a year and suddenly I am flush with Hannuka gifts and a brand new Playstation. My older brother and I head to Blockbuster to rent a game, a sentence that most of my readers will not fully understand. After debating another run at Crash Bandicoot, my brother and I settled on a creepy-looking title called Resident Evil 2.

Believe it or not, this was appealing to most people

At first, I was pretty unimpressed. A terrible voice actor read the title of the game during the start screen, which was a novel way to introduce the concept of terrible voice acting for sure. Then a grainy slide-show explains the events of the first game, which turned out to be unnecessary since none of that exposition helped me in the second. Finally, though, the action began.

We all remember that opening CG sequence. The dessicated hand on the brick wall. The soft, wet noises of the diner chef munching on a waitress. That hair flip.

But it wasn’t until after the harrowing arrival at the Police Station that the horror truly began. My brother was playing while I watched from the couch (we had a sibling throwdown to decide who would get first. Sure, he had me by thiry pounds, but I’m going to say I let him win). We met an injured officer who told the hero, Leon Kennedy, that the other cops had disappeared or become monsters themselves. Leon sets out to figure out a way to help, and maybe grab a few weeds from the planters while he’s at it.

As we rounded a corner near the weapons’ locker, I caught movement in the window. Just a flash of red and pink. Graphics weren’t much back then, so I only had a few polygons to go off. My guess was a zombie, or maybe a survivor running naked through the undead-packed streets. Either way, it barely registered. Then we entered the next hall. Every other room in the game had a score running in the background; just a little music to highten the tension. This hall was dead silent, save a steady drip.

“Like the drip, drip, drip of blood.” Gary Oldman being creepy

A lone body slumped against the wall: a former police officer with ghastly wounds to his torso. As we turned around the corner, the source of the sound appeared. A puddle of blood sat on the linoleum floor, shimmering in the florescent light. Just as we started to contemplate what could have left this mess, Leon looked up.

I was raised on horror movies. Chucky and Freddy and Jason were my babysitters growing up. But this, watching a skinless brainy abomination prepare to tongue-fuck my heart out, it was too much. While there were other pants-filling moments in that game, none stay in my memory like my first encounter with The Licker.