When 3D Monster Maze got published into the market in 1982, its makers had never expected it to become the forefather of all the survival horror games and would ever initiate this game genre to all gamers. From Silent Hill in 1999 to Outlast in 2013, from The Evil Within in 2014 to Dark Deception in 2018, the rapidly developed game engines and computer configurations allowed the game designers to recompose their greatest fears from their deepest nightmares into real images in front of players. When the horrifying figures become more and more realistic, the players’ guts are tested into countless pieces.

Among all settings of horror games, one of them is especially unique. Derived from the horror tales from middle age, this specific type of monster was once the nightmare of most kids, if not all, when the parents were using these stories to avoid their children from running out in darkness.

These creatures wake up from loneliness of death, from underland after grave, turning alive with rotten flesh, reincarnating into not humans but undead beasts.

Yes, they are zombies.

Zombie Zombie, published in 1984 by Quicksilva, was the first recorded computer game using zombie as its main element. But the one that truly turned zombie into the current star of horror games was the first Resident Evil that was released by Capcom Company In 1996.

Resident Evil 1 followed the viewpoints of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of an elite task force known as S.T.A.R.S. They received the mission to investigate the outskirts of Raccoon City after the disappearance of their team members. They soon become trapped in a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters. The player, having selected to play as Chris or Jill at the start of the game, must explore the mansion to uncover its secrets. This is the beginning of the whole Resident Evil series.

The series has currently been developed to Resident Evil 7, with various remake versions, megagames and films published along the time. It has become one of the most famous title among all games in history.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is the latest published game regarding the series. The original version of Resident Evil 2 was published in 1998, two years after the release of Resident Evil 1. The remake version uses tank controls (players control movement relative to the position of the player character) and fixed camera angles comparing to the original one. Like Resident Evil 4, the remake version also featured the usage of “over-the-shoulder” third person shooter. The original Resident Evil 2 required players to collect and use a finite number of “ink ribbons” to save the game’s progress, and this characteristic is also re-applied to the hardcore mode of the remake game. If the player is not confident enough to finish the game with these limited saving spots, the player can choose the normal difficulty, where the player can save the progress as frequent as possible, as long as he or she has an access to the printer (the saving machine in the game).

The game has two character choices, Leon and Claire. It started two months after the events of the first Resident Evil in 1998, when most citizens of the Raccoon City, a US mountain community, have been transformed into zombies by the T-Virus (a biological weapon developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella). The rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy and a college student Claire Redfield meets each other and separated after they arrived in Racoon City. They decided to meet up again at the Raccoon police department. The story gradually led the player to explore through the whole police department, passing through underground facilities and sewer system, ending up challenging all sorts of infested creatures even in Umbrella Company’s underground laboratory. A big conspiracy is revealed to the players step-by-step during the process, letting everyone in front of the screen to hold their breath.

The Resident Evil 2 was the most classic one among the whole series, and that was why the game developers have considered to remake the version ever since 2002. It was not until in 2015 that the Capcom company finally released the news that the remake version was finally in progress.

When I used two nights, 16 hours, and eventually finished the first storyline of the game on Leon, I almost worn out. Every single jump-scare, the spots each of those zombie jumps out, were deliberately planned by the game makers to maximize the pressure these horrible creatures could add upon the players. The complicated routes on the maps require the players to not only fight against monsters but also find ways to walk back and forth in mysterious buildings and facilities. Hundreds of different puzzles were distributed across the environment, forcing players to explore every single detail of the place. When corpse climbs up from the ground when I walked by, that sense of threats upon my life was truly implemented into my mind through the vibration of the gamepad and screams of the sounder. Among all the zombie games I played, it was absolutely one of the best ones to bring players into the game.

It might have not been the last one of its series, but its presence indeed pushed the reputation of the company to its climax among all players around the world.