Ranking All Games Published By Bethesda Softworks From Worst To Best

Resident Evil godfather Shinji Mikami decided to direct a horror game for a third (and last) time, with this wild and creepy action/horror title.

Refreshingly, while Mikami takes the best elements of his RE4’s gameplay (slick third-person movement, light RPG upgrades), it plays more like his spin on Silent Hill then a RE retread. Its surrealistic waking nightmare tone is chilling, with the scares vicious and unpredictable, and the gamer will constantly be questioning the narrative in gripping ways.

Unlike the best Silent Hill games though, where the payoff is an interesting metaphor for the protagonist's psychological plight, instead you control a cliched cop with not much to him besides a cut-and-paste dark past. Also, the plot never explains itself in a satisfying manner and has left plenty of gamers confused (with it only properly explained in follow-up DLC).

Regardless, it's a pill worth swallowing, as the narrative is really just an excuse for Mikami to throw everything but the horror kitchen sink at us: we're ripped from a claustrophobic asylum stalked by maniacs to haunted mansions, and battle everything from a lumbering Voorhees-style boogeyman to horrendous creepy spider women.

The atmosphere is nail-biting, the gameplay challenging (but enjoyable), and the strategic upgrades are addictive.

It's an exciting evolution of the RE4 formula into a weird and unforgettable game that really deserved more attention then it got. If this really truly is Mikami's last hurrah with directing horror... then it's a hell of a note to go out on.