Gaming’s biggest horror series are more vital than ever

游戏界最大的恐怖系列正焕发前所未有的活力

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are both thriving with new spins on survival horror. 《生化危机》和《寂静岭》这两个系列正凭借对生存恐怖游戏的全新诠释而蓬勃发展。

For the third year in a row, I’ve been scared out of my wits by a new Silent Hill game. First it was the modern remake of Silent Hill 2, then the Japan-set spinoff Silent Hill F. Now I find myself slowly crawling through a quaint Scottish town in Silent Hill: Townfall, trying my best not to get brutally murdered by demonic creatures chasing me through the streets. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a franchise that once seemed like it was on life support. And when you combine it with a strong run from Resident Evil across games and film, you have gaming’s two biggest horror franchises both at the height of their powers. 连续第三年，我被一款新的《寂静岭》游戏吓得魂飞魄散。先是现代重制版的《寂静岭2》，接着是以日本为背景的衍生作《寂静岭 F》。现在，我发现自己正小心翼翼地爬过《寂静岭：城镇陨落》（Silent Hill: Townfall）中那个古朴的苏格兰小镇，竭尽全力不被街上追逐我的恶魔生物残忍杀害。对于一个曾经看似奄奄一息的系列来说，这真是一个了不起的转折。当你将其与《生化危机》在游戏和电影领域的强劲表现结合起来看时，你会发现游戏界最大的两个恐怖系列正同时处于它们的巅峰状态。

For Resident Evil, it’s been a steady buildup, but it really started with Resident Evil 7 nearly a decade ago. It jolted the series back to life with a first-person perspective that made its scares feel more visceral. Since then, Capcom has settled on an effective strategy of alternating between bottom-up remakes of classics like Resident Evil 4, and new spins on the formula, like the vampire-tinged Village. This has allowed the studio to be more experimental with the mainline titles; this year’s Requiem, for instance, was a bold attempt to merge two types of Resident Evil games together, mixing straight-up action with first-person terror. 对于《生化危机》而言，这是一个稳步积累的过程，但真正的转折点始于近十年前的《生化危机7》。它通过第一人称视角让恐怖感变得更加直观，从而使该系列重获新生。从那时起，卡普空（Capcom）确定了一种有效的策略：在《生化危机4》这类经典作品的彻底重制，与《村庄》（Village）这种带有吸血鬼色彩的新式玩法之间交替进行。这使得工作室能够在正统续作中进行更多实验；例如今年的《安魂曲》（Requiem），就是一次大胆的尝试，将两种类型的《生化危机》游戏结合在一起，融合了纯粹的动作元素与第一人称的恐怖体验。

Resident Evil has always had an uneven track record when it comes to adaptations, like the largely forgettable live-action Netflix series. But that may be changing. Last week a reboot of the film series premiered, called simply Resident Evil, helmed by Weapons director Zach Cregger. It explored the zombie franchise from a new viewpoint: Instead of following iconic characters like Leon or Claire, it was centered on a hapless delivery driver who served as a stand-in for a player who is terrible at survival horror games. Like the Exit 8 movie, Resident Evil explores its source material through the lens of the player. The result was equal parts hilarious and horrifying — there were scenes where gore dripped from ceilings, and a particularly terrifying long-limbed baby — and it also had the best box office opening in franchise history. 《生化危机》在改编作品方面的表现一直参差不齐，比如那部几乎被人遗忘的Netflix真人剧集。但这种情况可能正在改变。上周，一部名为《生化危机》的电影系列重启之作首映，由《野蛮人》（Weapons）导演扎克·克雷格（Zach Cregger）执导。它从一个新的视角探索了这个僵尸系列：它没有跟随里昂或克莱尔等标志性角色，而是聚焦于一名倒霉的送货司机，他代表了那些不擅长生存恐怖游戏的玩家。就像《8号出口》（Exit 8）电影一样，《生化危机》通过玩家的视角来探索其原始素材。结果既滑稽又恐怖——片中有血浆从天花板滴落的场景，还有一个特别可怕的长肢婴儿——它也创下了该系列历史上最好的票房开局。

Silent Hill has followed a similar trajectory, albeit on a smaller scale. After lying largely dormant following the 2015 cancellation of Silent Hills, a reboot led by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, Konami signaled a return for the franchise with a series of announcements in 2022. Not everything has been a winner — a film came out earlier this year with little fanfare, and the less said about the bizarre interactive TV series Ascension the better — but when it comes to games Silent Hill has been on a roll. The Silent Hill 2 remake set the stage, introducing arguably the most beloved title in the series to a new audience, while Silent Hill F offered a freshly horrifying experience through its setting and more RPG-focused gameplay. 《寂静岭》也遵循了类似的轨迹，尽管规模较小。在2015年由小岛秀夫和吉尔莫·德尔·托罗主导的重启作《寂静岭》（Silent Hills）被取消后，该系列沉寂了很长一段时间。直到2022年，科乐美（Konami）通过一系列公告宣告了该系列的回归。虽然并非所有作品都大获成功——今年早些时候上映的一部电影反响平平，而关于那部古怪的互动剧集《飞升》（Ascension）更是少提为妙——但在游戏方面，《寂静岭》一直表现出色。《寂静岭2》重制版奠定了基础，将该系列中最受喜爱的作品介绍给了新一代玩家，而《寂静岭 F》则通过其独特的背景设定和更偏向RPG的游戏玩法，提供了全新的恐怖体验。

Townfall likewise expands the idea of what a Silent Hill game can be. It launches this week on the PS5 and PC, and is developed by Screen Burn, an indie studio known for games like Observation. You play as a man named Simon who arrives at a small Scottish town where it’s immediately evident something is wrong; it seems completely deserted and is shrouded in the classic Silent Hill fog. Oh yeah, and screeching creatures ripped out of Hellraiser stalk the streets. From there you have to figure out what actually happened, and try your best not to die at the hands of a mutated monstrosity. 《城镇陨落》同样拓展了《寂静岭》游戏的定义。该作于本周在PS5和PC平台推出，由曾开发《观测号》（Observation）的独立工作室Screen Burn制作。你扮演一名叫西蒙的男子，来到一个苏格兰小镇，很快就能察觉到这里有些不对劲；小镇似乎空无一人，并笼罩在《寂静岭》经典的迷雾中。哦对了，还有那些仿佛从《猛鬼追魂》（Hellraiser）里跑出来的尖叫生物在街上游荡。从那一刻起，你必须弄清楚到底发生了什么，并竭尽全力不让自己死在变异怪物的爪下。

What’s most notable about Townfall is how it plays. It has much in common with “walking simulator” games like Firewatch and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, where the experience is about exploring a space and uncovering a story organically. Here that means poking around in abandoned homes and medical centers, reading through files and listening to phone messages that reveal the extent of the town’s horrific history. The game then layers on more traditional horror elements. 《城镇陨落》最引人注目的是它的玩法。它与《看火人》（Firewatch）和《人人都去精疲力竭》（Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture）等“步行模拟器”游戏有很多共同点，即通过探索空间来自然地揭开故事。在这里，这意味着在废弃的房屋和医疗中心里四处搜寻，阅读文件并聆听电话留言，从而揭示这座小镇恐怖历史的真相。随后，游戏又叠加了更多传统的恐怖元素。

There’s some light combat, but mostly there’s a big focus on stealth: to get where you need to go you’ll often have to sneak past unpredictable monsters, who hunt mindlessly while screeching and writhing in pain. This plays out a little like Alien: Isolation; you have a handheld device that tells you where enemies are, and you can hide in closets and sheds in hopes they don’t spot you. It’s incredibly scary, and still feels intrinsically like a Silent Hill game, despite the shifts in gameplay and setting. 游戏中包含少量战斗，但重点主要在于潜行：为了到达目的地，你经常需要潜行避开那些不可预测的怪物，它们在痛苦地尖叫和扭动的同时进行着无意识的狩猎。这玩起来有点像《异形：隔离》（Alien: Isolation）；你有一个手持设备可以显示敌人的位置，你可以躲在壁橱和棚屋里，祈祷它们不会发现你。尽管玩法和背景发生了变化，但它依然极其恐怖，且本质上依然是一款《寂静岭》游戏。

The triumphant return of Resident Evil and Silent Hill is coming at a particularly exciting time for horror, with breakout successes at the box office and a promising wave of streaming series. The genre is having a moment — and despite being around for decades, both series are hitting a fresh stride at just the right time. 《生化危机》和《寂静岭》的凯旋回归正值恐怖题材最令人兴奋的时期，票房上的巨大成功和流媒体剧集的热潮都预示着前景广阔。这个类型正迎来属于它的高光时刻——尽管已经存在了几十年，但这两个系列都在最恰当的时机迈出了全新的步伐。