Design and Atmosphere
When we talk about design and atmosphere, we’re talking about boss designs, sound design, cinematography, and imagery. These are essentially the meat of any horror game and determine what makes it so spooky to players. Both games take a pretty different approach in all of these sub-categories, and ultimately it’s gonna come down to personal preference and what you think scares you the most.
Resident Evil 7 goes for the disgusting, puke-inducing route. Everywhere you look, there’s rot. Marguerite loves feeding her family with bugs, the Bakers look like they haven’t showered in weeks, and everything about this family is just straight up gross. Marguerite, in particular, surrounds herself with bugs, and she ends up being a giant bug herself when you eventually fight her. She has a hive on her lady parts, and there’s just something so incredibly unsettling about the way she grins her toothy grin at the player. The Bakers as a whole are presented as insane psychopaths, and everything about them feels primal and visceral.
The sound design in Resident Evil 7 is also excellent. As you move through the Baker residence, it feels like the house itself is alive as well. Every groan and creak is deliberately slow and drawn out, and every tiny sound you hear is enough to make you jump. The game practically squelches with filth and rot, and let’s just say the Baker residence is not a place you’d ever want to go for dinner or a visit because of how physically sick it’ll make you.
In comparison, The Evil Within 2 feels more surgical. The first half of the game pits you against a psychopath who thinks of himself as an artist, much like the murderers we see on NBC’s Hannibal series. Except this psychopath has mind powers too. Every victim is trapped in a cube of time replay, where you get to see their cause of death over and over again. Even as the game plays its mind tricks on you, everything feels thought out and methodical. The Evil Within 2 makes great use of lighting and cinematography to direct your gaze towards certain objects during scripted events, and once it has your attention, you feel that something has shifted behind you, and you’ll be too afraid to even turn around to see what’s there.
The Evil Within 2 never gets close to PT levels of disturbing (which is a fantastic mix of realistic horror and the supernatural, in my opinion), but it thrives on the concept of creating fear within the player’s head. Though a lot of this awesome spookiness falls away pretty quickly after reaching the game’s midpoint, it’s still an enjoyable and eerie romp through some really well-directed psychological horror sequences.
Winner: Resident Evil 7. This is a really close one, and it’s also very subjective. On paper, it feels like The Evil Within 2 should win easily because there’s nothing scarier than being faced with some sort of unknown evil you can’t see, right? And yet, the game’s presentation just isn’t quite as strong as Resident Evil 7’s. At some point, The Evil Within becomes way too obsessed with doling out shocking imagery of ripped apart victims and its impact is lessened as a result. Resident Evil 7 is a lot more careful in how it presents its threats, making it feel like a better designed horror game overall.
