…if I had a Wii, of course. This video from Kotaku shows gameplay highlights from FEEL, the game adaptation of JU-ON for which Takahashi Shimizu is serving as a directorial consultant. I’ve got no place to say whether or not survival horror has gone stale these days as I’ll admit to rarely playing it, however, FEEL looks like the most organic symbiosis between gaming technology and fear simulation to date.
I can remember when I first saw the E3 videos for RESIDENT EVIL 4. Leon Kennedy was walking in a mansion when a humanoid apparition appeared before him, chasing him out of the room. While the first videos had their freaky moments, I still sighed. The concept of ghosts just doesn’t scream RESIDENT EVIL to me. My feelings were mirrored when this first was released. The enemies and bosses didn’t have the same feel as previous RE games. Hell, there technically aren’t even zombies in it(!), but I must admit; the game grew on me faster than I thought it would.
The RESIDENT EVIL franchise has always been synonymous with horror in the gaming world. Maybe nothing that has ever delivered pure terror, but horror all the same. This entry sticks with that formula, only with pacing that lends itself more in the direction of action over horror. That’s not to say the game lacks its share of the grotesque. The grunting and murmuring of the end-game Regenerator/Iron Maiden enemies still send chills down my spine whenever I give the game another play through.
You are Leon Kennedy, a protagonist from RESIDENT EVIL 2, sent on a mission to find the President’s daughter who may (or may not) be in a small village. After you break into a house and encounter a local who then immediately turns hostile (who knew?). After that unpleasant exchange you realize that something is afoot.
