E3 HORROR ASCENDANT?

After a protracted period of drought, mainstream markets seem to be looking towards horror again in the wake of such successes as IT, The Ritual and Hereditary, with numerous cinema and television projects in the works that will result in something of a glut for aficianados of disturbia not terribly far down the line.

Whilst horror has always been more prominent and consistent in video game markets, it too is experiencing something of a renaissance recently, with an extremely strong showing at the recent E3 show, in which some of the most talked about and significant games on display were either direct horror titles or are highly redolent thereof.

The likes of Devil May Cry 5, for example, is an enormous event for fans of lighter, action horror-stylings: with the recent success of the new God of War, not to mention the evolution of action horror titles through From Software's Souls/Borne games, the ground has never been more fertile for a resurrection of this much beloved franchise. The only bugbear I foresee is in its ability to stand out: whilst Dante and his demon-slaying antics had very strong showings in previous console generations, it has been a while since he's taken to the stage, not to mention the fact that the previously mentioned Souls/Borne titles currently dominate his particular sub-genre. The trick with this particular resurrection is going to be in creating something that is sufficiently familiar to fans of the franchise, yet novel and inventive enough to stand up against the grimmer, more intense immersions of Darksouls and Bloodborne.

For my money, I sincerely hope that the creators emphasise the comic book nature of Dante's escapades without trying to take the whole affair too seriously: introducing too much in the way of legitimate disturbia and darkness will have the effect of diluting what makes Devil May Cry stand out, particularly against the likes of Bloodborne, whose peculiarly Lovecraftian morbidity is profound enough for a thousand game franchises.

Alongside Devil May Cry, we have a surprise instlament of another much beloved franchise, one arguably much closer to classic horror fan's hearts: The Walking Dead.

Regardless of what you may think about the TV show or original comic (ambiguous on both, for my part), the game series based on them is surprisingly strong, a rare-as-hen's teeth example of a franchise adaptation that not only works, but has produced some of the more notable Survival Horror titles in recent years.

Payday's new instlament to the franchise promises a great deal: storytelling derived from the original comic, multiplayer and survivalist gameplay elements, immersive storytelling etc etc.

Given that horror video gaming has been saturated with “zombie apocalypse” titles since the days of the original Resident Evil (way, WAY back in the original PS1 era), that The Walking Dead has made any traction at all, let alone enough to warrant multiple sequels, is notable in itself. That the games have been of consistently acceptable-to-superb quality is nothing short of a minor miracle.

That said, they have never been so outstanding as to cause anything but minor ripples of excitement, primarily amongst those who are already fans of the comics, TV show or “zombie apocalypses” in general, and, given the level of competition the title has from the starting gate, it has certainly found itself fading into the background...

The Last of Us 2. Sweet George A. Romero, to fully understand the ineffable excitement around this title, we need to look back, at the dying days of the PS3, when many developers were moving on to the next generation of consoles:

The original Last of Us came out of nowhere as a sublime swan song for the ailing system, an independent title made good, with all of the trappings and stylings thereof, but with profound mainstream success:

As a game, not exactly ground-breaking; a well rendered, competent bit of Survival Horror, incorporating all of the stealth and survivalist elements that the genre had accrued up to that point.

What made the game so especial, so beloved, is its superlative script, its incredible direction, style, setting and characters, all of which conspire to tell a fairly familiar story in a new and engaging way.

To say that the game has become iconic would be to fall somewhat short of the mark. As such, excitement around the up and coming sequel is as pervasive and fricative as cynicism concerning whether or not the developers can capture anything even close to the original's ethos and raw emotion, especially given that it was such an unexpected title to occur so late in the PS3's life cycle, which was, of course, part and parcel of its success.

High hopes, incredible potential, but also a fair degree of caution concerning this one.

Dying Light 2 was another surprise announcement; a sequel to the original survivalist game in which the player finds themselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse (sensing a theme, yet?) and must scrabble to insulate themselves against the on-coming hordes of undead by finding and shoring up shelter, ensuring they have enough food and fuel and weaponry to sustain, repairing damage to their sanctuary, planting crops etc.

The sequel promises refinements of these elements, alongside an elaboration of the scripted events that might occur, more of an emphasis on surprise and random factors, as well as far more in the way of character and story elements.

One that certainly has a dedicated following, but which may, yet again, find itself overshadowed by far more prominent and popular titles.

Doom: Eternal. Following on from the unambiguous success of Bethesda's resurrection of the Doom franchise in 2016, it's currently difficult to tell what this new incarnation will consist of, other than it clearly features some of the classic monster designs from the original game series (anyone else notice that Arch Vile clambering over the rubble?).

Doom has always been a fairly safe bet for consistent quality; a franchise that deserves the very best treatment development can provide, and which has generally lived up to that legacy. From the far darker, more story-driven stylings of Doom 3 to the latest iteration's ironic, multi-coloured, action-focused ethos, the franchise seems to have a knack for reinventing itself for each new generation with incredible degrees of success.

Whilst the last game was certainly less earnest in its horror elements, favouring instead a science fiction, comic-book quality, the scenario of alien worlds riven with portals to Hell provides plenty of potential for disturbia and horror set pieces.

For my money, I'd like to see a return to Doom 3's grimmer, more narrative style but incorporating the latest Doom's fluid and frenetic control systems, its pacier rhythm and punchier game play.

Who knows where the franchise will take us, given how consistently amd brilliantly inventive it has been up 'til now?

Easily, easily one of the most exciting announcements of the whole convention; one that fans have been clamouring for since the high definition remake of the original way, way back in the days of Nintendo's Gamecube, Capcom's reinvention of the classic Resident Evil 2 swept through the convention and the internet like a mutating pandemic.

It's impossible for a gamer of my generation, who grew up with the likes of the original Resident Evil titles, to over-emphasise just how exhilarating it was to not only witness the announcement, but also footage of the new game, revealing some sneaky insights into its tweaks and refinements:

Resident Evil 2, despite being archaic in video game terms, is commonly cited as the best in the franchise: occurring at the high watermark era of Survival Horror, it still stands as one of the most successful and beloved examples of the sub-genre, expanding and elaborating upon the horror of the original game, infusing the George A. Romero, Living Dead elements with Cronenbergian body horror, H.R. Giger-esque science fiction and some of the most flat out terrifying settings in the entire franchise. As such, expectations for the remake are incredibly high, the excitement of it arguably drowning out almost every other announcement (with one or two notable exceptions).

Given the sheer quality of the original's remake (which can currently be purchased on the PS4 store), expectations for this one are overwhelming. From what little we've seen, it looks as though its ambition is likely to outstrip that title, the game clearly borrowing from the more recent Resident Evil 7 to diminish the slightly hokey stylings of the original game and invest it with far more in the way of genuine dread and intensity.

On a personal note, this is a game I've been hotly anticipating ever since the original's remake, given that it stands as one of the finest horror remakes in any franchise or medium. If Capcom can work the same peculiar species of magic with this sequel, it could potentially be one of the finest horror video games ever made.

Whilst there were numerous other announcements worthy of note (not least of which being the highly contentious Fallout 76, an entirely on-line venture which will move the Fallout franchise closer to MMO territory, as well as an extremely brief glimpse at the next Elderscrolls instalment), hardly anything was met with the same degree of uproar as the enormously anticipated Death Stranding, a mysterious project that has been teased and partially glimpsed since the cessation of Silent Hills and developer Hideo Kojima's consequent separation with Konami in order to develop a video game studio of his own.

Working in collaboration with the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Norman Reedus, Mads Mikelson and numerous others, the game has been in production for some time, with nothing but the most fascinating, atmospheric and brilliantly surreal of trailers to suggest what it might consist of. All we've managed to glean up until recently is that it conists of a horrific, post-apocalyptic setting in which reality itself seems to be in flux, the characters, the settings, everything it consists of, shifting and rearranging before the player's eyes, resulting in a genuinely distressing, surreal experience not unlike a David Lynch film or visions that might occur on certain narcotics.

For the first time, 2018's E3 provided some insight into how the game is actually going to play, which doesn't seem to be a million miles away from the aforementioned Last of Us: a Survival Horror title in which the emphasis is on stealth and caution rather than combat, the player maintained at a constant knife-edge of tension by hazards and enemies that are largely invisible or which flicker in and out of visibility and from place to place.

This game...given that it was born from the ashes of the much mourned Silent Hills, given that it involves luminaries of video gaming and cinema both, given that it has been advertised as something truly beyond what we presume of video games as a medium, it has to be better than merely good, better than merely excellent; in order to warrant its self-mythologising, this game has to be epoch making.

Which it already is, in terms of its imagery, its implied themes and subjects.

But...it needs to complement those factors with game play that is just as new and novel, that isn't merely just another derivative of Survival Horror with a bit of surreal veneer plastered over it.

Given Kojima and del Toro's credentials, I have high hopes that this will be the case, but also terrible fears that it won't; that factors within the market might impact with incredible negativity on Death Stranding, as they have so many promising titles and potentially zeitgeist defining works.

The game's insane beauty, its powerfully distressing visual elements, makes me want it to succeed so powerfully, for this game to be everything that the material released thus far promises.

I only hope that it can be.

E3 2018...an unambiguous lycanthropic howling at the moon, a rallying cry for fans of horror, in so many of its shades and forms.

Let us hope that the delivery of those titles can equal even an inch of their promise.