|
Monday, July 21, 2008
Expectations: Sheva Alomar
 There's been a veritable dry spell in survival horror games as of late, and I've definitely been suffering. Dementium: The Ward for the Nintendo DS was a huge disappointment, and Silent Hill: Origins left me with only a cynical apprehension for September's Homecoming. This year's E3 provided a smattering of goodies for gamers to ooh and aah over, and we were fortunate enough to get a preview of some sorely-needed survival horror titles. Probably the most notorious is Capcom's Resident Evil 5. I enjoyed RE4, although I'm more of a Creep Around And Get Scared Oh Shit What Was That? kind of gal, as opposed to Mow Down Hundreds Of Zombies And Jump Through Windows action-star wannabe, so it wasn't entirely my cup of tea. It was a wonderful game regardless of my personal preferences, so Capcom is clearly sticking close to that formula for its sequel. Also part of the formula is the good old survival horror hallmark, the secondary character, this time in the form of a woman named Sheva Alomar.  I'm as shocked as anybody that not only is one of the main characters a person of color, but a woman of color, to boot. Sheva comes to protagonist Chris Redfield's aid as a member of the West African BSAA, or Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. In another shocking twist, she's not a squealing, floundering idiot a la RE4's Ashley, but a competent, well-trained agent who does her share of the combat. Be still, my heart! I have talked before about the differences between your average male and female survival horror protagonists, and while Leon and Ashley fit my observations quite snugly, Sheva appears to defy most of them. All I can do is speculate, of course, but look how badass she is with that gun! A woman? In a survival horror game? Who's got everything under control? Is well-equipped for the job and knows what she's doing? Now that's some shock and awe, and I'm very pleased.  I'm hoping Sheva is a step up from the ridiculous Ada Wong, whose exoticized Femme Fatale nature stands in entirely for personality. Every one of her scenes in RE4 had me rolling my eyes. Trussed up in an unwieldly Chinese dress, four-inch heels, and a fucking garter for a gun holster, she's just as easy to take seriously as squealy Ashley. Ada is simple pinup material, a Hot Asian Chick flourishing a gun, and with any luck Sheva will make me forget all about her.Now, this game won't even be out until March 2009, so perhaps it's a bit early to celebrate too much. However, in the world of female video game characters, it's quite nice to have something positive on the horizon. Sheva's existence does not cancel out the ugly racism depicted in the RE5 trailer, and I am quite interested in seeing what the overall story and gameplay offer when I actually get the chance to play it. The Resident Evil series has been around for a good twelve years now, and it's an obvious fact that its cast of playable characters is totally whitewashed. As diverse as the US's population is, every Umbrella-opposing RE protagonist has been sparkling white. It's unfortunate that it took a change of scenery to an African country for any people of color to share the spotlight -- and even then, it's Chris who's prominently featured in the trailers, screenshots, and previews, while Sheva takes up the support role. However, it looks like a step in the right direction, no matter how small, and I'll be sure to report back to you as soon as I get my hands on this game in early 2009. (Go check out some more kickass pictures of Sheva at Gaygamer.net's E3 '08: Hands On With Resident Evil 5.) Labels: BomberGirl, Getting it Right, Race Issues, Resident Evil, Survival Horror
Monday, May 5, 2008
The Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale, Part 4
(Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the scale!) How it works: For the next few weeks, I'll be serving up two rankings every Monday. Since this is a scale, we'll be going from number 10 -- the absolutely least effective Survival Horror heroine out there -- all the way to number 1 -- the greatest of the great. 4. Aya Brea  Appears In: Parasite Eve (PS1, 1998), Parasite Eve II (PS1, 2000)Horror Effectiveness: Cool Under Fire Rationale: So poor Aya's pretty much suffered through the Worst Christmas Ever. What's a girl to do when her mediocre date at Carnegie Hall is rudely interrupted by the spontaneous combustion of every member in the audience? Yank a handgun from her evening gown and kick some ass, of course! Aya, a detective for the 17th Precinct of the NYPD, spends her six days of Christmas hell battling horribly deformed animals, navigating around wriggling burn victims, and chasing an Opera Singer Slash Mitochrondria Mutant Who Also Artificially Inseminates Herself With Super Sperm, all without breaking a sweat. Parasite Eve's kickass battle system succeeds where Koudelka fails: combining the best of RPG experienced-based leveling, hybrid turn-based / real time battles, and weapon customization with some serious Survival Horror atmosphere. When your game features one of the most disturbing cutscenes in PS1 history -- the mutating rat, anyone? -- you know you've got a winner. Our half Caucasian, half Japanese heroine ends up playing One-Woman Army for the NYPD due to some special mitochondria that protects her from the immolating fun of antagonist Eve. Along the way, she's given a helping hand by her partner, Daniel Dollis, and a scientist named Kunihiko Maeda, both of whom ultimately must leave the fighting up to her. No worries, however -- Aya's not only tough enough to give Eve her due, she also single-handedly delivers a nuke and contends with the birth of the Ultimate Being, all with enough time to catch another opera when everything's said and done. The Bottom Line: If you were stepping over the twitching bodies of the crispy dead with her, you'd best listen and put on some comfy shoes when she says the next stop is the Chrysler Building. 3. Jill Valentine  Appears In: The Resident Evil seriesHorror Effectiveness: Undead-Erasing Expert Rationale: Allow me to introduce the Queen of Zombie-Stomping, the Empress of Unlocking, the Czarina of Bomb Disposal, a woman who really needs no introduction, Survival Horror's most famous heroine, Jill Valentine. Ms. Valentine first avoided becoming a Jill Sandwich in 1996's Resident Evil, and her adventures continue today in the headshot-happy rail shooter, Umbrella Chronicles. She's also starred in three Horrifying For A Totally Different Reason feature length films, and is the most recognizable character besides the window-crashing zombie dogs of the RE series. Go, Jill! Ah, so many good times to remember. Splattering zombie craniums in the Umbrella mansion. Fleeing from Nemesis in a miniskirt and tube top. Totally out-cooling Chris Redfield's scenario by finding the bazooka and then going to town on some Hunters, Rambo-style. The list goes on and on. Many Survival Horror fans my age cut their teeth on the first Resident Evil. Despite the crippled difficulty level of Jill's scenario and her shared screen time with Chris, our Lady Zombie Killer Extraordinaire remains more recognizable -- and more popular -- than her male counterpart to this day. Specially trained in the US Delta Force, a natural crack-shot and lock-picking master, she's one hundred percent badass even with a goofy sweatshirt tied around her waist. The Bottom Line: If you were staring down a scary-ass Crimson Head with her, you'd best just step back and let her trusty bazooka do the talking. We're at the end of the line, folks! Stop by next Monday for the very last installment of our spooky scale, and meet my top two picks for the most effective heroines in all of Survival Horror! Labels: BomberGirl, Scale, Survival Horror
Monday, April 28, 2008
The Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale, Part 3
(Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the scale!) How it works: For the next few weeks, I'll be serving up two rankings every Monday. Since this is a scale, we'll be going from number 10 -- the absolutely least effective Survival Horror heroine out there -- all the way to number 1 -- the greatest of the great. 6. Rebecca Chambers  Appears In: The Resident Evil seriesHorror Effectiveness: Tolerably Adequate Rationale: Poor Rebecca. She didn't ask to appear in her own game. And yet we have Resident Evil 0, a completely unneeded prequel that occurs simultaneously with the original RE (instead of, you know, providing us with any juicy information about the beginnings of Umbrella, if we still even care at this point). Ms. Chambers is a medic for STARS's inept Bravo team, and finds herself trapped on a train filled with hungry hungry zombies with only a convicted murderer named Billy Coen to help her out. I would describe Rebecca's effectiveness in a Horror Situation with a simple "Ehh." Perhaps the only phenomenally stupid thing she does is conveniently forget to call for backup when the train is ravaged by hideous necrifying slugs, and instead opts to wander around on her own armed with a weeny little pistol and, uh, no medicine. Did I mention that she's a medic? Thank goodness for Billy Coen, the first muscley strongman on our scale that's required to rescue a heroine from carnivorous beasties every five minutes, not to mention the fact that Rebecca is, health-wise, the weakest protagonist of all the RE games . . . but, she is a medic, so for the sake of plot, I can dig it. So Rebecca is just . . . okay. She's middling. She sits quite nicely at the center of our scale, since, despite briefly filling a Damsel In Distress role for Billy, she's at least active in her plot, and presumably trained to survive in said Horror Situation. She briefly appears in the original RE as well, and is actually one of the few supporting characters who survives . . . unless you decide not to save her. Then you find her headless body later in the game. Poor girl. The Bottom Line: If you were fighting off squishy parasitic slugs in a train car with her, just chew an Herb mixture and heft your gun. You'll probably be fine. 5. Koudelka Iasant  Appears In: Koudelka (PS1, 2000), Shadow Hearts (PS2, 2001)Horror Effectiveness: Cool and Collected Rationale: So Koudelka the game is an interesting mix of Survival Horror and RPG -- and by interesting mix I mean a gorgeous, engaging game plagued by an unspeakably terrible and half-assed battle system. But the heroine of our story, Koudelka, the sardonic gypsy woman with psychic powers, outshines a nightmarish gameplay experience with pure sarcastic badassery. This is the part of the scale where things start looking up, folks, and I'm happy to usher in our first shining star. Koudelka first travels to the Nemeton Monastery on the bidding of a mysterious voice in her head. On her way, she rescues the clueless Edward Plunkett from a monster, gaining a travel companion. She saves Edward's skin yet again when the two stay in the care of a seemingly friendly old couple who are also, you know, poisoning their guests' food. When she finds Bishop James O'Flaherty curled up in terror of a deadly plant monster in the monastery garden, her adventuring party is complete, and I found myself understandably shocked and awed that, in a two-man one-woman party, the lady is our fearless leader. There's a lot to love about Koudelka. She actively explores the skin-crawling monastery with purpose instead of wandering around aimlessly. She keeps her cool in situations that have Edward and James whimpering, and even when she does show fear, she's . . . just allowed a spirit to communicate through her. I'll give you a sample of what the the spectral remnants of Nemeton Monastery have to say: "Kill them. They cut off my fingers. They crushed my legs. They smashed my head, cut out my guts. They took everything from me. They locked me up and chopped up my body."Spooky! Also, it pleases me every time James tries to bully Koudelka for not being Christian, she's quick to return with a cutting remark. Sardonic gypsy woman with psychic powers doesn't need your patriarchy! My only complaint about Koudelka is her presentation in the brilliant RPG follow-up Shadow Hearts. But I'll let you experience that for yourself. The Bottom Line: If you were being menaced by the vengeful spirits of a blood-soaked monastery with her, just keep your cool and collect all the weapons you can before they break. She'll take care of the rest. We're getting closer to the coveted top slots of our feature! Join me next Monday for Part 4 of the Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale! Labels: BomberGirl, Scale, Survival Horror
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale, Part 2
(Check out Part 1 of the scale! Do it now!) How it works: For the next few weeks, I'll be serving up two rankings every Monday. Since this is a scale, we'll be going from number 10 -- the absolutely least effective Survival Horror heroine out there -- all the way to number 1 -- the greatest of the great. 8. Alyssa Hamilton  Appears In: Clock Tower 3 (PS2, 2003)Horror Effectiveness: Hysterically Inept Rationale: It was difficult picking among the various and sundry Clock Tower protagonists, but in the end I felt that Ms. Hamilton was a little more deserving. Alyssa's stupidity may perhaps be best defined by her very first action of the game: while away at boarding school, she receives a letter from her mother warning her to stay away from the family mansion. Apparently, her mother's aim was to send her away until after her fifteenth birthday to keep her out of harm. Now that Mom's missing and it's mere days before Alyssa's fifteenth birthday, our plucky heroine decides it's time . . . to return to the family mansion. By herself. Days before her fifteenth birthday. Way to score those intelligence points, champ. From there, Alyssa's time-traveling, ghost-pacifying, and Magical Girl archery exploits more than showcase what she's truly made of. A cornerstone of Clock Tower gameplay is squealingly running away from big dudes who want to kill you, and Alyssa does mostly this, and if she's so much as lightly breathed upon by one of her adversaries she undergoes Panic Mode. In this state of mind, our brave protagonist goes into utter hysterics, flailing about this way and that with blurry vision, stumbling all over the place on rubbery legs, and crashing into shit. It's a wonder she stays alive at all. But stay alive she does. I have to give her credit here for being able to fight back. Her pursuers are about thirty times as incompetent as she is. You'd think charging around and hauling huge weapons of bloody annihilation would give them the edge, but, time and time again, this skinny little teenager bests them in what could be best described as wacky pranks. For example, there's a puddle on the ground. Alyssa flips a switch. A bumbling serial killer steps in said puddle and gets a nasty little shock. Congratulations, you're in a Looney Tunes short! And while I'm glad that Alyssa can more or less hold her own in boss fights, the Magical Girl archery aspect of it leaves much to be desired. The Bottom Line: If you were carousing through the bombed streets of London with her, you'd be better off wrestling the disgruntled ghosts with your bare hands. 7. Miku Hinasaki  Appears In: Fatal Frame (PS2, 2001), Fatal Frame III (PS2, 2005)Horror Effectiveness: Understandably Petrified Rationale: Due to the cookie-cutter nature of Fatal Frame protagonists, it's safe to say that Miku represents her fellow spectral photographers as a whole. The Fatal Frame series has been a favorite of mine for years now, and I still think that the first game ranks as one of the most terrifying gaming experiences of all time. Fatal Frame's success rests in its skin-crawling atmosphere, part of which owes a lot to protagonist Miku's scared-stiff countenance throughout. She's understandably petrified, navigating the bloody halls of the Himuro Mansion with nothing but a spectral camera to defend her, whimpering and trembling through every cutscene, and all the while as the player you know that, even though you're low on film and there's three ghosts chasing you and they have gouged-out eyes and they're screaming, "My eeeyeees, my eeeeyyeeees," you can't. Run. Away. The fuckers will chase you all over the mansion. Ooh, goosebumps! That's the core of it, though. I like Miku. She has a lot going for her that many female horror protagonists don't: she went to the mansion intentionally to rescue her missing brother instead of just tripping upon it or getting kidnapped; despite being scared out of her wits she has the capability and the willpower to fight back; and she never crumbles in shuffling panic when things get out of hand. Miku rounds off the "Incompetent to Not-as-Skilled" end of our scale quite nicely. Though she does fight back, she finds the Camera Obscura completely by accident, rendering her completely helpless if otherwise. And though she takes up much of her time in the game whimpering and quaking in her schoolgirl skirt, it feels realistic rather than comical and degrading (see also: Panic Mode). The Bottom Line: If you were exploring the gory underbelly of a haunted old mansion with her, you'd best stick close and ask for doubles of the cool pictures she takes. That's all for now! Please check back next Monday for part 3 of the Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale! Labels: BomberGirl, Scale, Survival Horror
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale, Part 1
As I'm sure you all know, we here at Girl in the Machine frickin' love Survival Horror games. They've twisted our minds and given us goosebumps since the golden days of our youth, and in the end we just can't get enough. There's been a recent drought of Survival Horror on the consoles lately, and as we try to cope we've put together a handy dandy scale of our favorite (and most hated) ladies of horror. It's the Horror Heroine Effectiveness Scale, ranking the capability of female protagonists so you don't have to! How it works: For the next few weeks, I'll be serving up two rankings every Monday. Since this is a scale, we'll be going from number 10 -- the absolutely least effective SH heroine out there -- all the way to number 1 -- the greatest of the great. I hope you all enjoy this little feature, and don't forget to check out our first scale, the Scale of RPG Heroines! Let's begin! 10. Fiona Belli  Appears In: Haunting Ground (PS2, 2005)Horror Effectiveness: Flailingly Useless Rationale: I wish I could say I picked up Haunting Ground by mistake. Perhaps I was distracted by something shiny, or just aching for a horror fix, or maybe my eye was gushing blood and I desperately needed to slap something over it. In any case, not only is Haunting Ground a frustrating trainwreck of a game, its heroine, Fiona, just can't keep herself from pissing me off every five minutes. HG began as an iteration of the Clock Tower series, so its gameplay mechanics are pretty much the same: a big scary guy chases you, and you run like the motherfucking dickens. It doesn't help Fiona's case that she's trussed up in a shirt closely related to a sausage casing, or that the game developers lovingly animated her disproportionate pair of mams to go sproi-oi-oing every time she takes a step. I'm being perfectly serious here, by the way -- the boob physics are so over-the-top that she could be walking on a trampoline. No wonder it's so difficult for her to get away. In every cutscene, Fiona whimpers and trips over her own feet and backs herself into every possible corner she can find, completely ignoring the ample radius of empty space surrounding her attacker. The smartest character in the game is her German Shepherd companion, Hewie, who could probably qualify for MENSA compared to Fiona's squealy panic and overwhelming idiocy. The Bottom Line: If you were trapped in an abandoned castle with her, you'd be better off getting help from a blobby patch of green mold stuck to the wall. 9. Jennifer  Appears In: Rule of Rose (PS2, 2006)Horror Effectiveness: Pitifully Incompetent Rationale: Rule of Rose is a horrible, awful, terrible game, but it has a lot of style and the plot is deliciously insane. As far as its protagonist goes, I think this picture of Jennifer pretty much sums it up. Our heroine spends basically all of the game hunched over in numbed horror, knees knocking, her eyebrows drawn up as if they're being tugged by fishing line. The lightest of blows nearly cripples her, causing her to stagger back in a recoil that takes, oh, about five minutes. Ah, but Jennifer fights back! Yes, armed with her deadly dessert fork, she throws an arm over her eyes and stabs blindly at the air, hoping against hope that she'll maybe nick something just a little bit. Don't worry, though -- she soon upgrades to a fruit knife! Okay, so eventually she gets her trembling hands on a magnum, but, as far as aim goes, you'd be better off trying to throw a basketball through a horseshoe, not to mention the gun can only hold one bullet at a time. And our poor unlucky heroine just can't get a break, what with fainting like a delicate Victorian noblewoman every other cutscene. Like Fiona, she's accompanied by an intelligent canine pal (this time a Labrador Retriever named Brown), and I have a sneaking suspicion that the dog is probably better off on his own. The Bottom Line: If you were trapped with her on a flying zeppelin full of little demon girls, you'd be better off ditching her for the dog and saving all of the biscuits for yourself. That's it for today! Stop on by next Monday for Part 2 of the Horror Heroine Effectniveness Scale! Labels: BomberGirl, Scale, Survival Horror
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Retro Rail Shootin’ with Resident Evil
Playing a girl isn’t just like playing easy mode!  My dad recently picked up a copy of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for himself, and I’ve been giving it a try during my stay at home this Christmas. It reminds me of all the days I would spend in the arcades during middle school playing games like House of the Dead (dating myself much?). I must say, I’m pretty impressed with it so far. It’s got easy, normal, and hard difficulty levels, and since it’s on a console you’ve got the chance to upgrade weapons on your save file. The game itself is broken down into “chapters” for the original Resident Evil, Zero Two, and Three. There’s also a final chapter with new material never portrayed anywhere else in the series. Because it revisits the old episodes, the game is great for people like my dad who have only played the newer Resident Evil 4. It gives a good review of each one without having to dig out the old consoles and relearn a new system or suffer through terrible dialogue. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the game is that you get to choose the character you play as in most chapters. Whether you choose your favorite Resident Evil guy or gal, you get the same gameplay experience! I replayed several chapters just to be sure that it really was the same. I’d initially thought that the women had stronger “counterattacks.” For example, Rebecca Chambers tosses a grenade at the zombies, and Billy Coen gives ‘em a roundhouse kick to the face. When I first used Rebecca’s, I noticed that the zombies stayed down afterwards. I had thought that the zombies Billy kicked got back up again, but it turns out that they do, in fact, stay down.  If I could change one thing about the game, I’d include female zombies. The ones they’ve got are definitely horrifying; however, this game makes it look like Umbrella was a very sexist organization. This can’t be true because you see all kinds of female zombies in cut scenes panning across Raccoon City! I just can’t understand why they’re not included in the game. My only supposition on the matter is that the producers may have thought it would be “too disturbing” to blast the head off of a female zombie. Personally, I think the whole game is a bit intense, but hey. Never mind the carnage. So if you feel like revisiting those good ol’ arcade days in the comfort of your own home, check out Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. It’s definitely worthy a rent, and perfectionists like me will enjoy replaying each level searching for all the secrets. Labels: Calabar, Resident Evil, Survival Horror
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monster Mashup
 Boo!There's nothing like getting into the spirit of the season with some heart-exploding frights in a Clive Barker game. Monster design is a huge part of a Survival Horror game's terror parameter, and when you're wandering through the pus-strewn landscape of Al-Khali and alluva sudden this thing starts coming after you -- well, don't feel bad about squealing just a little bit. Survival Horror is, obviously, my favorite genre, and this is mostly due to the state of mind in which it puts you. I'm happiest when I've found a game that proves to be a truly engrossing experience, and, when it comes to excellent monster design, I find that I'm squealing more out of delight than out of fear. The uglier and more brutal, the better in my book. But, as with seemingly everything in this world, I have noticed some unfortunate disparities in my wonderfully gory encounters. When you think of a truly scary monster, what's the first thing that pops in your head? Perhaps it's a putrid, rotting zombie, or a hellspawn demon spattered with blood and roped with muscle. Imagine the ugly, twisting leers on their faces as they lumber toward you! Maybe something a bit like this?  Rotting flesh . . . check. Ugly leer . . . check. Clearly a dude . . . double check.Oh, yes. That's almost a requirement, is it? Just as with the differences between male and female protagonists in this genre, it doesn't take much to see those within the baddies as well. Male stereotypically means tougher, stronger, and thus far scarier, while female must be lighter, weaker, and totally hot. Right? Right, Eve? I mean, come on. Even in the Clive Barker picture I linked above, Decaying Nazi Chick still has a slim hourglass figure. The hammer-wielding maniac from Clock Tower 3 is practically 'roid raging while the only female boss of the game, Scissorwoman, flights about pretty as a butterfly. The Resident Evil games are swarming with a disproportionately male coterie of walking dead. Is there already some fear there, perhaps? Frightening monsters hold some measure of power over those that they scare, especially if they're distorted, unrecognizable, difficult to understand. As I found with the depiction of women in power in video games, female monsters are so often kept much more recognizably human than male, and even sometimes keep their sex appeal of all things (succubi or sexy nurses anyone?), which leaves this measure of power in the hands of those who would control them (men). Instead of frightening us with their bodies -- as all good monsters should -- many are simply alluring, or even comical in their femaleness. Wouldn't it be amazing to see a truly disgusting, scary-as-hell monster that was actually female in some way? Nothing about a woman's body is resistant to grotesque amounts of muscle or fetid, dead flesh.  Another popular way of presenting female monsters is the good ol' Creepy Little Girl staple, which is still problematic. From the knockoff of the Ringu girl in FEAR or the Little Sisters of Bioshock, Creepy Little Girls are good and eerie but still weak and remote. They don't exude nearly the same kind of threat as, say, the Creatures of Darkness. As amazing as Bioshock is, pairing the Little Sisters up with the hulking Big Daddies is a more than direct example of the differences between the sexes in these games.Fortunately, there are some games that deviate from this norm. Many of Fatal Frame's skin-crawlingly eerie ghosts are female, and they aren't afraid to tread into the grotesque with spooks such as the disturbing Long-Armed Woman or the Blind Demon that wanders about wailing, "My eyes! My eeeeyes!" with her eye sockets spewing blood. Just as pleasing to me are the eccentric, ambiguous designs of the Silent Hill creatures, who, particularly in Silent Hill 2, often stagger around on what would normally be considered very attractive legs . . . if they weren't attached to Saran-wrapped burn victims that disgorge corrosive black acid from their gaping wounds.  I understand that in many games it's a matter of context, but I would really love to see more female monsters get the Scary As Hell Treatment and fewer appear as Ew But Somehow Still Sexy or Graagh What A(nother) Creepy Little Girl. All body types are fair game as far as some delightful terror is concerned, and it would definitely be a great way for women to feel even more like we're actually a part of this world rather than standing on the outside looking in.Labels: BomberGirl, Stereotypes, Survival Horror
Monday, October 15, 2007
Live in Purity and then Die
 In the Playstation 2's chilling 2001 release, Fatal Frame, an ancient custom called the Strangling Ritual ensures that the gate to hell beneath the Himuro Mansion remains shut. When the ritual goes wrong, however, the consequences bring hell itself to life. To ensure success, the Strangling Ritual requires what come as no surprise for such a religious and superstitious practice: the passive, virginal bodies of young women.The central figure of the Strangling Ritual is the Rope Shrine Maiden. Chosen at age seven from a group of other young girls, the maiden is sequestered away from all human life for ten years. Even her attendants wear masks to hide their faces. When the day of the ritual comes, the maiden knows nothing but her own suffering, and, after purifying herself in the Moon Well, willingly submits to her own sacrifice. Her wrists, ankles, and neck are tied to wheels, and, as they are turned, her limbs and head are strangled from her body. The bloody ropes are used to bind the door to hell. It isn't difficult to see the "virginity on a pedestal" themes in this ritual. First of all, the word "maiden" itself denotes an unmarried woman, implying virginity. Secondly, it is imperative for the success of the ritual that the maiden maintains her purity through her own isolation from anyone who could possibly corrupt her. The maiden is chosen as a child, and her imprisonment preserves this childlike purity by suppressing education, information, and relationships. It's important to point out that the people overseeing this ritual are all men, particularly the Master of the Himuro family. The young girls do not choose to compete to be the next maiden; the maiden has no say in whether or not she wants to fulfill her duty. While the ritual requires the maiden's willingness and dedication to her duty, neither of these are necessarily genuine. They are coerced, brainwashed into a young woman who has spent more than half of her life in captivity, isolation, and suffering, making her a passive pawn rather than an active player. To underscore this passivity, it is not even the maiden's body -- secluded and abused -- that closes the gates of hell, but the grisly ropes that tore it apart.  The most notable shrine maiden, Kirie, is the one that defied this ritual long before the main plot of Fatal Frame takes place. When Kirie's ten years of confinement end and she is briefly freed, she meets a beautiful visitor to the Himuro Mansion and the two meet frequently in the garden to talk. When the Master discovers that she has formed this attachment to the living world, he becomes so furious that he has the unnamed visitor put to death. When Kirie is sacrificed, her heart is full of regret, tainting the ritual and cursing the mansion.Kirie's curiosity and love for the stranger figuratively deflower her, rendering her completely useless for the ritual. The current Master -- a male relative of hers in great power, possibly her father or grandfather -- is enraged at the idea that she finds favor in something other than her intended purpose. The unnamed lover, who deigned to show sympathy for a woman, particularly a woman whose body does not belong to her, dies for his transgression. It's a fantastic situation that, disturbingly, mirrors real life in more than one way. An important trait of Kirie's character comes into play during Fatal Frame's multiple endings. Both Normal and Nightmare Mode endings involve Kirie's ghost assenting to her "duty" and tying herself to the ropes on the Hell Gate, closing it and freeing the souls trapped in the mansion. Ultimately, it is best for her to shun herself to protect the greater good, and while this can be seen as a noble example of self-sacrifice, it also coincides with the inevitability of female submission to male will. However, the Xbox release of Fatal Frame has its own special ending. In it, Kirie's ghost is joined by that of her lover's, and, instead of Kirie tying herself to the gate, the two join together to seal the gate and free the lost souls. Admittedly, it's a cheesier, "they all lived happily ever after" sort of way out, but it also avoids the implication that it was Kirie's disobedience and not the cruelty of the Strangling Ritual itself that brought ruin to the Himuro family. Fatal Frame is, in my opinion, one of the most terrifying experiences on the Playstation 2, beating its two sequels by a landslide when it comes to scares. Its estrogen-enriched cast is one of its many perks, and a storyline that details young women overcoming the cruelty brought upon them by old, superstitious tradition is a more than relevant parallel to the experiences of women today. Labels: BomberGirl, Fatal Frame, Sexuality, Survival Horror
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Faith, Creation, Resurrection
 Beyond the blood and the rust and the Saran-wrapped burn victims of Silent Hill, the eerie dogma of the Order permeates everything. A cult as twisted and complex as the town itself, the Order's faith is directly involved with the existence of the series's signature monsters and terrifying Otherworld. While its tenets are heavily rooted in the Christianity of Silent Hill's original settlers, many of its key players -- including its deity -- are female. From the Holy Woman sect to the canonized Jennifer Carroll, the Order is awash in sacred femininity.As many religions have done in the past, the faith of the Order originated from a blend: specifically, that of the aboriginal Native Americans and the Christian settlers that invaded them and set up camp in a place that would eventually become Silent Hill. The members of the Order were always a minority, however, as they eventually faced terrible persecution under the Christians. It's unclear why the Order's god is female (perhaps the natives worshipped a goddess?), but it isn't farfetched to suspect that this was one of the many factors involved in the Christians mockingly naming her Samael, a title typically thought to be the true name of Satan. Along with the persecutions came martyrdom, ironically bringing the Order even closer to its Christian roots. There is a statue in Rosewater Park that's dedicated to the slaughtered Jennifer Carroll, who in her death was elevated to Saint Jennifer, a true servant of their god. From Jennifer's canonization stems the Order's Holy Woman sect, in which Dahlia of the original Silent Hill is a priest. The Order's god as a woman has always fascinated me. In many ways, she acts just like her derivative Abrahamic god, and could have very easily been male. The caveat, I suppose, is her resurrection, a "second coming," if you will: she must be physically born into the world. While reproduction is central to this process, it is interesting that there is no man involved in the process; a ritual impregnates a girl with god, and, in the series, this has been instigated twice by other women (Dahlia and Claudia). Women are saints, and their god is a woman -- is this a matriarchal organization? Surprisingly enough, no. There are both female and male priests, and no clear hierarchy that orders them. Interestingly enough, there does appear to be a bit of a divide in the sects: Dahlia is the only specified member of the Holy Woman sect, and the only specified members of the Valtiel sect are men.  Valtiel: an angel, an attendant of god. The Valtiel sect was founded in his honor by Jimmy Stone, and, instead of focusing on the Holy Woman's ritual for resurrecting god, the followers of Valtiel seek the fulfillment of the 21 Sacraments, kicking off the plot for Silent Hill 4. Even a male "host" is used in this process. It is important to note, however, that Valtiel is a vassal of god, not her replacement, and the end goal of the 21 Sacraments is indeed her revival. I'm not certain if the gender divide was done purposely, but it does open some fascinating doors.So, if the Order celebrates womanhood so much and in such an unusual environment, and if all the (genuinely faithful) cult members want is the second coming of their god so Paradise can be delivered, how did everything get so horribly fucked up? Let's consider the effects of Silent Hill itself. So many horrible, hateful things happened there, and the mind easily shapes the world around you. The many paintings and teachings about the Order's god differ greatly from how they actually appear -- Valtiel the red angel is actually a scrabbly butcher who chokes nurses; God herself looks like a corpse. Based on the grisly hatred used in the ritual to nurture god in Silent Hill 3, we can only assume that the world will be just as fucked up if the god does come back and gets her way. It's the effect of the town, cursed since the Christian settlers first arrived and attacked its original inhabitants. It's vital to remember that The Order has real power in the world of Silent Hill. Its tenets actually exist, from the incarnations of god to the angels (Valtiel) to the saints (Jennifer Carroll) to even god herself (albeit in a twisted, mutated sort of way). So, perhaps at one point, god really did look kind and nurturing and Valtiel was a sprightly little angel helping her along the way. In the end, god is weakened and warped by human thought, like so many things in Silent Hill. The hatred and cruelty provoked by Claudia (and Dahlia) twists her. The persecution by the Christians, and even that of the Native Americans themselves changed everything. Though the Christians dubbed God as Samael, Dahlia refers to her as such in a powerful example of the evil becoming truth, not just in mind or in theory but in actual living, breathing reality. Silent Hill is defined by the Order, and probably would have stayed a nice little lake town if not for the fear and acrimony that drove them to mutate their own god. It presents a very new take on women's roles in religion, and how everyone -- both male and female -- weaken and suffer while trapped in their own enmity. (Thanks to Zone of the Gamers for the amazing pics.) Labels: BomberGirl, Getting it Right, Motherhood, Silent Hill, Survival Horror
Friday, October 5, 2007
First Friday Drinking Game
 It's October folks, and you know what that means: time to break out the leaf blowers, stab a few pumpkins, and warm the hearts of young and old with some zombie-blastin' goodness. Welcome to the latest installment of First Friday Drinking Day! Today we'll be setting our sights on the charming games of the Resident Evil series. As much fun as it is to mow down insane flesh-eating skinbags, there are plenty of drink-worthy moments in store. Pour the shots, pull up a chair, and follow these easy-to-remember rules: 1 drink for every zombie dog you encounter 2 drinks if zombie dog bursts through a window 1 drink whenever you're cornered in a tight hallway 1 drink for shooting a zombie in the head when you "totally meant to" 2 drinks for shooting Ashley in the head by accident 2 drinks before facing the chainsaw guy in RE4 (you'll need the liquid courage) 1 drink for every grating voice actor 2 drinks for: Jill Sandwich! (Why God? Why?) 1 drink every time the shitty controls of REs past lead you into the loving arms of a zombie 3 drinks for every Crimson Head you allow to manifest (shame on you) 1 drink every time Nemesis's tentacle makes you feel really dirty 1 drink whenever you applaud the realism of limited space and curse it bitterly at the same time 1 drink every time you think it would be faster to just dig the lock out of a door with a spoon than hunt down all the items required to open it And finally: Finish your drink when you come to the sad realization that playing Jill over Chris is like selecting easy mode Warning: Excessive drinking during game play may result in even more impaired controls, inappropriate giggling and excessive head-munching from zombies. Play with caution! Think I forgot something? Suggest a rule in the comments section! What drinking games do YOU want to play every month? If there is any genre or specific game you want featured in FFDG, drop me a line at PlasmaRit at gmail dot com. Plasma out to tear some zombies up, yo. Labels: First Friday Drinking Game, PlasmaRit, Resident Evil, Survival Horror
Monday, October 1, 2007
The Journey to Paradise
 (I'll be celebrating the entire month of October with Survival Horror themed posts! Today I'm kicking things off with a character spotlight on Silent Hill 3's astounding antagoniste, Claudia Wolf!) (Silent Hill 3 plot spoilers follow!) To be honest, Claudia Wolf forever changed my view of female villains. After finding myself surrounded by an endless parade of whip-snapping dominatrices and smoldering temptresses, I was resigned years ago to a general dislike for the baddies of womankind. If every villain was just going to be shallow, written for men, and busting out of her bustier, then why shouldn't I shun them all? Oh, how wrong I was. As soon as Claudia's eyebrowless visage appeared on my TV, I knew that I was in for something big. As a priest of the mysterious Silent Hill cult, the Order, Claudia is a devout believer in this crazy religion without coming off flat. She possesses neither the flowing robes nor the enthralling charisma of a stereotypical cult leader, and nor does she come off as apathetic and unfeeling as a common sociopath. In her conversations with fellow priest Vincent -- who funds the cult for the power instead of the faith -- she appears to be a bit of an underdog, alone in her struggles to hasten the rebirth of the Order's god. As well, the discovery that Claudia grew up alongside Alessa (and thought of her as a sister, to boot), paints an unusual shade of sympathy into the woman who has Harry Mason eviscerated. While I love a villain I can absolutely hate, I still find myself intrigued by Claudia's almost anti-villainhood. Being raised in a doomsday cult is no picnic, I'm sure, and, when that cult's solution to a world entrenched in suffering means the apocalypse, it's not difficult to see where her motivation comes from. Throughout the game, Claudia is unwavering in her faith, stating over and over that what the world needs is God. Granted, in order to bring about Paradise she undergoes some pretty unspeakable acts of cruelty and violence, but it's clear that she genuinely wants to end all hardships. It's a warped form of altruism, and she even cites that she does not expect to be accepted into Paradise when all is said and done. Faith and a lifetime of apocalyptic dogma aren't Claudia's only motivating factors, however. At one point in the game, creepy-ass Vincent reveals that Claudia was physically abused by her father, Leonard: In short, Claudia renewed my faith in the awesomeness of female villains back in 2003. It just goes to show that a single shining example within a limitless sea of darkness can do wonders for the battered psyche. Now if only other games -- particularly those of the mainstream -- would just take the hint. Readers, who are some of your favorite female baddies? (Thanks to Gamespot for the pic.) Labels: BomberGirl, Character Spotlight, Getting it Right, Silent Hill, Survival Horror
Monday, August 6, 2007
I have a crush.
 Let me just make this clear: I love Heather Mason. But then, what girl gamer couldn't? As Silent Hill 3's primary character, it's already refreshing to see someone of the female persuasion in the SH universe that isn't (a) spooky, (b) crazy, or (c) dead (although Cybil Bennett does come damn close to achieving such an ideal). On a larger scope, her overall capability and more or less realistic behavior in the face of danger also earns her a gold star from me. And isn't that precisely what makes her so likable? Her personality is extremely well-written, granting her a range of emotions not often seen in video game characters. She's a smartass, she's tough, she's humorous, she gets pissed off, and she even (gasp!) expresses genuine fear. And even though she's been thrown into an extraordinary situation, she still acts like a realistic teenager, and at her age (seventeen) I was easily able to identify with her. One of my favorite things about Heather is her love for her father. She shows it without it being sappy or overdone. One of my favorite cutscenes is at the very beginning of the game when she gets ready to leave the mall. She calls Harry on a pay phone and ends the conversation by saying, "I love you, too, Dad." Because of the grisly events that take place during SH3, there's very little opportunity to show this side of Heather. Even when things seem completely out of control, though, Heather stands firm. I also love this scene when she comes to Harry's defense during her first meeting with the crazy-ass Vincent (another favorite character of mine): As I've said before, Heather is the sole female lead of the Silent Hill series. I have so much respect for the game developers for not making her offensively girly because of this fact. Again, she's more like an actual person than a caricature of a girl: she's tomboyish, wears a thick padded vest and a denim miniskirt, dyes her hair blond but doesn't wear makeup, and official sources describe her as "a normal girl who loves shopping." It's a perfect balance of character traits that round her off without making her boring or offensive. Throughout her story, we come to root for Heather. She's not perfect; she has flaws, from her short temper to the freckles on her face. She stands as my most favorite video game character of all time (just take a look at my icon!). And here at Girl in the Machine, game developers hand us so much to be negative about, and it feels wonderful to celebrate the positive aspects of women in games. So, here's some homework for our readers! Leave a comment and tell us about your favorite female video game character. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Labels: BomberGirl, Character Spotlight, Getting it Right, Silent Hill, Survival Horror
Monday, July 30, 2007
Trembling in your schoolgirl uniform.
 In the amazing and amazingly creepy Fatal Frame, protagonist Miku wanders the halls of the haunted Himuro mansion, searching for her brother. Armed with only a camera and a weak flashlight, she tiptoes down a hallway strung with dangling ropes. A flicker of light in the darkness ahead: the grainy visage of a ghost appears, and Miku raises her camera to her eyes, whimpering with fear.God knows in that kind of situation, my knees would be knocking, too. But how about a little experiment? Close your eyes, kick back, and suspend your disbelief for a second. Imagine the same scene, but replace petite little Miku with an image of beefy Torque from The Suffering. . . . okay, so maybe that example is a little extreme. But it does make you think, doesn't it? A Survival Horror game's protagonist is a crucial element to the gamer's experience. The protagonist acts as an extension of the player herself, submersed in a world of fantasy and fear. A wide variety of Survival Horror games offers many different and unique experiences, but there is a trend in the games' protagonists that I haven't helped noticing. Sex. Specifically, the different "effects" that game producers attempt to achieve based on their protagonists' sex. With a few very wonderful exceptions, I've found that things typically go like this. A Surivival Horror game that features a female protagonist tends to be slower-paced with more thriller-esque elements and environmental scares. The main character is typically young (teens to early twenties), poorly equipped for the task at hand, and very clearly exhibits her (rather realistic) fear in cutscenes and in her actions. All these factors intertwine to paint a portrait of helplessness and impart a sense of discomfort and vulnerability in the player. Take Miku from our first example. Our intrepid hero must have rushed off to rescue her brother so quickly that she forgot to change out of her school uniform and didn't pack anything besides that dinky little flashlight. I can't fault her for excessively whimpering through every single cutscene because, frankly, who wouldn't? And while her main weapon, the Camera Obscura, proves formidable in context, it doesn't exactly ring the same bell as Leon's magnum Handcannon in Resident Evil 4. In a similar vein, we have Jennifer from Rule of Rose. She faces down Horrible Imps and other nightmares while dressed perfectly for a tea party, is stuck with a perpetually terrified expression on her face, and combat proves . . . interesting. Armed with a dessert fork as her first weapon, she hides her face with one arm and blindly jabs random targets before her with all the accuracy of a kid with a clubfoot playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The list goes on and on.  Male protagonists are a different story. You never see schoolboys or guys in short-shorts wandering timorously through haunted houses. Survival Horror games proffering male protagonists tend to feature more graphic violence, fast-paced gameplay, and incorporate elements of shooters. The character himself is probably older (late-twenties and up), buffer, and packing heat. He is usually a hardened stoic, utterly professional, and herein the vulnerability is absent, replaced with gun-blazing machismo.Let's take another look at Torque. First of all, his name is Torque. Just roll that around on your tongue for a minute; I'll wait. Torque is a brawny, stubbly prisoner on death row, armed to the teeth with firearms, an eternal scowl, and blood-stained white wifebeater. He doesn't even blink an eye at the hideous creatures that invade Abbott State Penitentiary, blowing them away with merciless shotgun blasts and a rock-hard demeanor. The player derives horror from the grotesque creature design, frenetic cutscenes, and shocking AI animation, but not once does Torque's cold personality allow for an element of vulnerability to creep in. Alongside Torque are countless others. We have the rugged professionalism of Alone in the Dark's Edward Carnby and cool-and-collected Leon Scott Kennedy from the aforementioned Resident Evil 4. Even Silent Hill's male protags Harry, James, and Henry fall into step with their collective age and limited emotional display, among other factors. Thankfully, as always, there are exceptions. Alex Roivas of the celebrated Eternal Darkness exudes far more woman than girl, battling ambulatory skeletons and other nasties with swords, shotguns, and a fresh, sharp wit. Silent Hill 3's Heather Mason does her father proud by avoiding excessive vulnerability and when she does take a moment to break down, it's heartbreaking without being exploitative or weak. The Resident Evil series's sorely-missed female lead Jill Valentine also kicks tons of zombie ass.  While I appreciate the variety that all of these factors offer, plus the opportunity to feel frightened because of a character's vulnerability or empowered by his badassery, the consistent disparity between sexes proves disturbing. The concept of vulnerability is not strictly limited to the female sex, and by doing so in these games again and again suggests an inherent weakness that afflicts only women. Miku's petrified whimpering is neither weak nor unrealistic, but I would love to see game producers put dudes in her position for once.(Thanks to IGN.com for the piccies.) Labels: BomberGirl, Stereotypes, Survival Horror
Friday, July 6, 2007
First Friday Drinking Game
 It's the first Friday of the month, and you probably just got done paying the bills or working a tough week. It's your first real day to kick back and relax this month. What better way to spend your Friday than rounding up some friends for a couple drinks? I present to you: the First Friday Drinking Game! Whether you're nursing the vodka or planning on guzzling a whole lot of soda in one night, get the shot glasses out and fire up your favorite console, because it's FFDG: Survival Horror edition! The rules are simple: just take a drink for every redundant, annoying and/or sexist thing you find. Here are a few suggestions: 1 drink for every monster who looks suspiciously like a vagina 1 drink for every phallic monster 2 drinks if phallic monster impregnates someone 1 drink for every sexy female counterpart to an ugly male monster 1 drink for every character you have to drag with you 2 drinks if said character is slow 3 drinks if they're injured 1 drink for every character who intentionally goes to explore a haunted house/castle/cathedral/etc. in a short skirt (no drinks if setting is stumbled upon) 1 drink for every creepy child 2 drinks if child is a ghost 1 drink for every chase scenario 2 drinks if main character is injured/slowed down in any way during chase scenario 1 drink whenever main character seems unusually calm 1 drink for every "boo!" moment 2 drinks if said moment makes y ou jump 2 drinks for every random nude scene 3 drinks for every lingering camera ogle during random nude scene 1 drink for every main character with amnesia And of course: Finish your drink for every sexualized murder Warning: Excessive drinking during game play may result in impaired judgement, drunken nonchalance during tense situations that can include inappropriate laughter and/or multiple game overs. Play with caution! Think I forgot something? Suggest a rule in the comments section! What drinking games do YOU want to play every month? If there is any genre or specific game you want featured in FFDG, drop me a line at PlasmaRit at gmail dot com. Plasma out! Labels: First Friday Drinking Game, PlasmaRit, Survival Horror
Monday, June 18, 2007
What Little Girls are Made Of
Minor spoilers follow! You've been warned.  Rule of Rose is a Survival Horror game with admittedly unfortunate gameplay and a truly engrossing story. Its gritty plot invites gamers to step into the eerie Rose Garden Orphanage and meet the unusual girls of the Aristocrat Club. The (refreshingly female-dominated) cast deviates from the Survival Horror "creepy little girl" staple by providing beautifully nuanced interactions that video game characters rarely see. The attention to detail paid to this social interaction among the girls emblemizes the psychological competition that society conditions, and has always conditioned, into young girls everywhere. From truly bizarre rituals to their complex relationships with one another, the Aristocrats act as an extended metaphor for the social development of young girls. The Aristocrat Club is divided into classes and ranks. The highest class includes the leader, the Princess of the Red Rose, as well as the Duchess (Diana), Countess (Meg), and Baroness (Eleanor). The lower class includes Miserable (Amanda) and then Beggar, when protagonist Jennifer arrives. Such a structure already invites competition among the ranks: the hierarchy is fluid, and, depending on the social status of each girl, ranks can be and are exchanged. In her article, "Little Girls in Women's Bodies," Erika Summers-Effler defines social position as "the status (inclusion vs. exclusion) and power (order-taker vs. order-giver) outcomes of social interaction." The Artistocrats' relationships with one another hinge entirely on the exchange of power. Throughout the game, the upper-class girls constantly double-cross one another at the expense of Jennifer and Amanda. For example, in the chapter "The Goat Sisters," Diana rips up a love letter left to her by Meg and complains to Eleanor how pathetic it is that Meg follows her around like a lost puppy. Diana then frames Jennifer for the destruction of the letter and comforts a sobbing and vengeful Meg. This same scenario -- Jennifer taking the fall for the other girls' tricks -- occurs over and over, making it obvious that the Aristocrats are all aware of their own culpability while reveling in the elevation of their own social status (inclusion) through the suppression of Jennifer's (exclusion). Furthering this point, the Artistocrats employ various humiliation rituals which they inflict on the lower class girls. When Jennifer first arrives at the orphanage, the Artistocrats submit their power over her by dousing her with water and locking her in a crate: Amanda was, presumably, subjected to these rituals regularly until Jennifer boosts her status by occupying the rank lower than hers. Amanda then gains solidarity with the upper-class Aristocrats through administration of a ritual -- namely, by menacing Jennifer with a live rat tied to a pole. Jennifer herself falls for the lure of inclusion after being promoted. The Aristocrats goad her into imposing the same ritual on Amanda, even though her own experience with the rat was so bad that she passed out. These instances, while understandably exorbitant, echo the real-life pressures encountered by young girls who discover that peer acceptance makes for a far easier social experience than ridicule and exclusion, even at sometimes high costs. While Amanda, overweight and far less conventionally pretty than the others, is the weakest of the club, Diana is the strongest. Consistently referred to by the in-game text as "strong-willed," Diana is slender, beautiful, and appears to lead the other Aristocrats as the high-ranking Duchess.  Interestingly enough, Diana also appears to have begun developing breasts, which none of the other young girls possess (excepting nineteen-year-old Jennifer). Summers-Effler writes that, to early-maturing girls, breasts are an exceptionally public sign of their changes, set them aside from their peers, and harbor an unavoidable context: "As these girls develop women's bodies, they begin to be seen as sex objects." A strange scene between her and headmaster Mr. Hoffman, one out of only two male characters in the game, suggests past sexual abuse. Diana, so strong-willed among her peers, suffers a severe reversal in the order-giver vs. order-taker dynamic within her supposed sexual history with Hoffman. Therefore, she overcompensates for this imbalance by exerting her will over her fellow Aristocrats. Similar details about the other girls, though not quite as disturbing, provide for the same overcompensation in their behavior as well. Overall, the Aristocrats of the Red Crayon are a fascinating and vivid cast of characters not often seen in video games. The sheer level of detail devoted to their individual personalities, actions, and backgrounds imbibes a deep understanding of the social struggles of young girls. By filtering these struggles through a Survival Horror lens, Rule of Rose chillingly satirizes the cultural tendency to condition competition among adolescent girls. (Thanks to IGN for the pictures.) Labels: BomberGirl, Getting it Right, Rule of Rose, Survival Horror
Monday, June 4, 2007
Hookers on Parade
Possible Silent Hill 4 spoilers! You've been warned. So, I'm here today to talk about one of many long-time conventions of Survival Horror games: the alternate costume. Specifically, let's dive into those of the amazing Silent Hill series. The first Silent Hill game to implement alternate costumes was Silent Hill 3 with Heather Mason's formidable slew of T-shirts, whose codes you could gather throughout subsequent play-throughs of the game as well as from different gaming magazines. Among them is my favorite, this kick-ass design from the now-defunct GMR magazine:  Silent Hill 4, the oft-referred "black sheep" of the series, features alternate costumes as well, although in a, erm, slightly different manner:   Why don't we talk about the difference here? First of all, it's important to note that the SH4 costumes are only available for these two characters, Cynthia and Eileen respectively, and, as opposed to the twenty-eight choices you have in SH3, these are the only options you have: dominatrix for Cynthia and sexy nurse for Eileen. Now, I have no problem with the sexy sexy nature of these costumes. In theory, it adds a touch of humor to the game that pervades the entire series (Exhibit A). However, in SH3 you were only able to dress up Heather, the single playable character, as opposed to, oh, gussying up creepy villainess Claudia in a rubber unitard and fishnet stockings. In SH4, protagonist Harry receives no alternate costumes at all, and the option to slap one of these on our lovable Walter Sullivan is absent as well. So, our first problem is that only the female characters receive this extra treatment. And their meager options are what can only be deemed "stripper outfits." It transforms SH4 from a tense, psychological experience to a rendered polygon jiggle-fest in ways that not even Heather's Pretty Magical Girl outfit ever managed. The game's Survival Horror tag obviously warrants buckets of blood and violence. Here's where things for our pals Cynthia and Eileen get even more problematic. Their sexy new costumes provide for scenes where they look exactly like Dead Hookers on Parade. The sexualization of the poses, highlighted by the stripper duds, puts a titillating gloss on what should only be seen as alarming and horrifying. It's also important to note the striking difference between Walter's attacks on Cynthia and Eileen and those of their male counterparts. While all are similarly graphic, Cynthia and Eileen's are far less disfiguring (if at all), allowing them to, of course, stay nice and pretty (as they're blinking through all that blood). Compare Richard Braintree's huge bulging forehead veins to Eileen's ketchup-stained face. It looks like she'd be A-OK with a sheaf of napkins and a mirror. The breakdown is, in all Survival Horror games, as with many horror films, every character is fair game for predators, but the "girls" must ALWAYS be sexy, even in their death throes. The treatment of these characters exudes a desperate attempt for male control over the female body. While I have no problem with characters in a Survival Horror game getting attacked or killed while just happening to be female, the tendency to twist the violence against them in a way that's never done to male characters is nothing less than misogynistic, particularly when it's given a sexual spin. Add a couple of hooker outfits to the mix and things get even more fun. Right. Have fun, ladies. (Thanks to Zone of the Gamers for the SH screens.) Labels: BomberGirl, Sexuality, Silent Hill, Survival Horror, Violence
|
About
◊ Girl in the Machine◊ BomberGirl ◊ Calabar ◊ PlasmaRit
Latest Entries
◊
Farewell from these three.
◊ First Friday Drinking Game ◊ Diversity and Mass Effect ◊ Linkfest: Fat Princess Edition ◊ Expectations: Sheva Alomar ◊ Women Worshipers ◊ Mrrow? ◊ Chipping the Glass Ceiling ◊ First Friday Drinking Game ◊ How can Dissidia avoid a sausage fest?
Tags
◊ Action Adventure◊ Adventure ◊ Body Language ◊ BomberGirl ◊ Calabar ◊ Castlevania ◊ Character Spotlight ◊ Civilization ◊ Elder Scrolls ◊ Fatal Frame ◊ Final Fantasy ◊ Fighter ◊ First Friday Drinking Game ◊ FPS ◊ Getting it Right ◊ Guitar Hero ◊ Half-Life ◊ Harvest Moon ◊ Indie ◊ The Industry ◊ In the News ◊ Legend of Zelda ◊ LGBT ◊ Linkfest ◊ Mario Bros. ◊ Mass Effect ◊ Metal Gear ◊ Metroid ◊ MMORPG ◊ Motherhood ◊ PlasmaRit ◊ Platforming ◊ Primal ◊ Prince of Persia ◊ Race Issues ◊ RPG ◊ RTS ◊ Rule of Rose ◊ Scale ◊ Sexuality ◊ Shadow Hearts ◊ Shin Megami Tensei ◊ Silent Hill ◊ The Sims ◊ Star Fox ◊ Stealth ◊ Stereotypes ◊ Street Fighter ◊ Super Smash Bros. ◊ Survival Horror ◊ Tomb Raider ◊ Turok ◊ Video Game Movies ◊ Violence ◊ World of Warcraft
Archives
◊ June 2007◊ July 2007 ◊ August 2007 ◊ September 2007 ◊ October 2007 ◊ November 2007 ◊ December 2007 ◊ January 2008 ◊ February 2008 ◊ March 2008 ◊ April 2008 ◊ May 2008 ◊ June 2008 ◊ July 2008 ◊ August 2008
Links
◊ BlogHer◊ Cerise Magazine ◊ The F-Word Blog ◊ Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog ◊ Game Girl Advance ◊ GayGamer.net ◊ Iris Gaming Network ◊ Killer Betties ◊ New Game Plus ◊ Penny Arcade ◊ Racialicious ◊ Shrub.com Blog ◊ Under the Table Gaming ◊ Women Gamers ◊ Zone of the Gamers Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox at a 1028 by 768 resolution.
|
