I’m sure you’re not surprised that yesterday, on day two of the 30 days of gaming challenge, I already missed my post. So tonight I’m posting two and three together.
Number 2: Your favorite character
This was a really tough call, but I’m going to go with Meryl Silverburgh from the Metal Gear Solid series.
I like Meryl mostly because her voice actor, Debi Mae West, is probably my favorite voice actor ever. She has the greatest sexy, raspy voice.
Voice aside, after Metal Gear Solid, Meryl really toughened up. She always wanted to be a soldier but it became more clear during MGS that maybe she wasn’t cut out for it. In MGS4, however, she showed the boys who was boss by commanding her own unit. Meryl is a girl that doesn’t always need saving. She’s tough, knows how to handle herself and has attitude, to boot.
Honorable mentions: Agent 47 (Hitman series), Alyx (Half Life 2)
Number 3: A game that is underrated
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Before the Xbox 360 shipped, Game Informer had a cover story about Condemned: Criminal Origins. I remember reading it and thinking that with it’s first-person camera and CSI-esque detective work, it could change survival horror and really pace it out.
When I played the game months after it launched, I was impressed. The tight camera, creepy environments, deadly enemies and clever A.I. helped push this game to the top of my survival horror list.
Sure it has bad door puzzles and the combat isn’t exactly what I’d call tight but it is one of the scariest games I’ve ever played.
There’s nothing like standing in the corner of an abandoned subway station, nearly dead after bashing an abusive bum’s teeth out with a wall sign. You listening to enemies slither in the shadows. You pick up the shotgun close by, check the chamber and notice only one shell remains. You creep forward, waiting for someone to jump out. The lights flicker and you hear two bums duking it out against each other in the distance. As you get closer to the corner, one 0f the bums claims victory and dashes toward you, rusty pipe in hand. You frantically blast your only shell and miss. Panicked, you run back to the sign you dropped earlier and snatch it. The bum swings and you try to block but get hit in the face with the pipe. Ouch. You swing and miss. The bum laughs and spins wildly smacking you in the side of the head again.
Fuck.
He charges again but this time you block and beat him in the head repeatedly with the sign until he’s on his knees. You throw the sign down, grab his face and snap his neck, cursing the whole time. One again, you’re barely holding on by a thread and you haven’t even made it into the bowels of the subway yet.
That, my friends, is survival horror.
