Resident Evil 8: 10 Things It MUST Learn From RE2 Remake

5. Blending Gore And Suspense

Even though it's been an icon of the survival horror genre, Resident Evil has - strangely enough - struggled with actually being scary. The original titles had atmospheric, Gothic mansions filled with zombies, but they also had monsters that were mostly just eyes, and giant snakes, and NPCs telling the player they were nearly a "Jill Sandwich" after tense set-pieces.

To make up for that, the series piled on the gore. Silent Hill might have boasted the atmosphere, but Resi had the most grotesque designs, and enough blood to fill the elevators of the Overlook Hotel. That's not a terrible decision on paper, but it meant that the bulk of the franchise's scares relied more on shock tactics as opposed to proper tension.

The seventh game, while better than the others, also succumbed to this. The opening hours were incredibly atmospheric and superbly paced, relying on the fear of the unknown. By the end, though, you were once again fighting bloated eye-monsters that weren't scary as much as they were repulsive.

Resi 2, however, has its cake and eats it too. From a gore perspective, the injury detail is some of the most gruesome gaming has ever seen. Entrails become outrails, limbs go flying, and flesh is flayed from the bone. But the game balances this with good, old-fashioned horror as well: a noise that you can't place, a flash of lightning illuminating an otherwise invisible enemy, the tension of opening up a new door.

Resi 7 almost had it, but the latest remake sustains the precarious balance for its entire runtime.