Summary
- Most movies based on horror games fail to capture what makes the games scary - the key component of resource management.
- Resource management is a crucial mechanic in horror games, emphasizing the hopelessness of the situation and forcing players to make careful decisions.
- Showing resource management on-screen is possible and would add tension and realism to horror game adaptations, creating more immersive experiences for the audience.
There’s always a certain level of excitement among gamers when they learn that one of their favorite games is about to get a successful adaptation to the big screen. That excitement is only doubled when the chosen game is of the horror genre as, in the past, some have believed that games being adapted to movies were always going to best fit in either the horror genre or the family-friendly genre. Only one of those beliefs tends to be true, thanks to the fact that most movies based on horror games ignore a major component of what makes the games so scary and thrilling.
There have been plenty of games adapted into the horror genre over the years with some of the most notable movies being the absolutely massive Resident Evil films, the two live-action Silent Hill movies, Alone In The Dark, and even the hit first-person shooter game Doom. All of these movies were met with mixed success and acclaim for a variety of different reasons, but there is still a very simple thing missing that ties into problems with each and every film.
Horror Games Utilize Resource Management
While it is most common in the survival horror genre of games, most horror games have some sort of resource management mechanic in place to accentuate the hopelessness of a situation. Resident Evil is most often credited with revolutionizing the survival horror genre and making resource management one of the most important mechanics in the genre. Players aren’t necessarily asked to kill each enemy, but instead, plan their moves according to the threats they’ve discovered in order to conserve what little healing items and ammunition they have access to. If a player doesn’t take enough care with their resource management in some games, they’re doomed to restart the entire game when they find they can’t defeat a powerful and horrific boss with a meager stock of ammo and herbs.
Resource management is even more important if the horror game in question requires you to retrace your steps through a relatively small and close-quarters location. You’ll need to decide what you can carry around with you in order to progress or gather other key items. With limited inventory availability that is always likely to be taken up by a weapon, some ammo, and at least one healing item, your options already become quite limited for what you can travel with. This is, of course, a major aspect of the fun of these games and something that draws many people to the genre in the first place. Having to think carefully in order to survive a horrific situation is realistic, and so is having a limited number of things a person is capable of carrying on their person.
Resource management can be brutally punishing for a novice player in their first playthrough of a game. It’s not uncommon to have a whole host of seemingly random objects in some kind of storage container just waiting to be used in a rather tricky puzzle. The issue is that you have to figure out where all of those objects go, and while you will eventually find a use for each of them, some items can be gathered rather early on in games only to be used toward the final segment of the experience.
Resource Management Can Be Depicted On-Screen
Some people might think that showing any kind of resource management on-screen would be an impossible task, but others disagree. The problem is that many of the horror games turned movies decide to place their focus on a mixture of action and horror rather than mind-bending thrills and mystery aspects. It’s absolutely possible to depict a character solving a tough puzzle on-screen, even if that puzzle is incredibly obtuse. The entire concept could create even more tense situations in the movies in question.
Using Resident Evil as an example, if a character were to recognize a key or a strangely ornate object in one room of some sort of testing facility, only to then have that room swarmed by enemies, the character would surely be forced to flee. Carrying on with their adventure, they’d eventually come to a door that required that specific key or that ornate object, realizing they’d have to go back to that now-swarmed room. The character would have to take stock of what little ammunition they had, what options they had for additional protection or healing, and finally, figure out how they were going to get through that room to claim the object and get back without losing their life. It may sound like a rather simple situation, but something like that is rather rare in these movies.
Resource Management Forces Characters To Make Hard Decisions
If that same character from the hypothetical (an example could be Chris Redfield or Wesker) was forced with the decision to go back to fight a horde or find some unclear way to carry forward, that choice could be made all the more difficult with some sort of timer. If the location is set to explode or be demolished, the character would need to get out of there in a hurry or meet their end regardless, meaning they would have to weigh the weight of a risky approach against something more reserved, and how the choice would come back to haunt them later. This would add a layer of drama in a number of ways, especially if a character acted hastily, leading the audience to determine the potential ramifications long before they occur.
If one were to put an ordinary girl in the same situation, things could potentially be much worse. Depending on costume design, it’s possible this character has no pockets and no bags, meaning resource management becomes even more important. Questions about whether a weapon or a light source would be more valuable seemingly have an impossible answer. It’s possible that the character could get by just fine with a simple flashlight, but it’s just as likely that the flashlight ends up giving away their position. Smaller moments within these movies for characters to take stock of their options and make a calculated choice will go a long way in bringing the gaming experience to the big screen while also demonstrating that the characters trapped in horrific situations aren’t only surviving by pure dumb luck.