Who is the King of Horror Games? Resident Evil and Silent Hill Reign Supreme

When it comes to influential and top-selling horror video game franchises that define the genre, two juggernaut series stand tall above the rest – Resident Evil and Silent Hill. While many developers have advanced horror gaming, these twin kings set the tone with their landmark gameplay innovations, rich universe of characters and stories, pop culture impacts, and pushing the artistic envelope of what the horror genre can achieve.

The Reign of Resident Evil: 25+ Years of Defining Horror Gaming

Japan in 1996 saw the release of a horror game that didn‘t just scare players – it spawned a franchise that popularized survival horror and contains some of the best-selling games ever made. That revolutionary title was Resident Evil from Capcom, created by Shinji Mikami, and it ushered in standards for the genre still followed today like:

• Tank controls that feel intentionally cumbersome, raising tension
• Fixed camera angles that restrict view and vision
• Sparse resources like limited ammo and healing items
• The constant threat of terrifying enemy encounters

But Resident Evil isn‘t just a laundry list of horror mechanics. It crafted a memorable world with compelling lore across recurring protagonists and antagonists that players grew connected to. As the engineer behind Resident Evil‘s design, Shinji Mikami is considered the "godfather of horror games" for good reason.

In analyzing Mikamni‘s approach to horror, franchises before Resident Evil framed monsters and enemies more like cannon fodder or obstacles. But Mikami realized that less can be more with engaging enemies, saying "the protagonist has to be weak compared to the enemies, so that the enemies can threaten the life of the protagonist". This philosophy of disempowerment now defines survival horror.

And over nearly 30 games released as of 2023, Resident Evil remains a dominant and driving force in horror gaming thanks to memorable moments across core titles like:

• Resident Evil (1996) – The original survival horror experience selling over 2.75 million copies on PlayStaion alone.
• Resident Evil 2 (1998) – Improving on the formula and introducing enduring faces like Leon Kennedy.
• Resident Evil 4 (2005) – An evolution for the series and 3rd person shooting gaming with over 10 million sales worldwide.
• Resident Evil 7 (2017) – Bringing RE into first-person immersion combined with signature style.

Not just contained to games, Resident Evil has made an infectious impact across media. At nearly $1.3 billion in box office totals, the film series based on the games remains the highest-grossing movie adaption of a video game franchise ever. And that pop culture presence, combined with CAPCOM‘s commitment to keeping Resident Evil scary and relevant with offerings like 2022‘s Resident Evil Village shows its reign is far from over.

The Lasting Horror of Silent Hill – Survival Giving Way to Complete Dread

While the frequent jump scares and combat loop of Resident Evil represent tension-building aspects of horror, the king sitting beside it on the genre‘s throne focuses more on psychological devastation – Silent Hill. Rather than arming players and allowing small victories over grotesque enemies, Silent Hill‘s approach to horror sinks its talons into the player‘s brain, scratches at fragile psyches, and never truly lets go.

But Silent Hill doesn‘t unleash unknowable eldritch madness without purpose or connection to narrative and characters. The original trilogy of games masterfully bind environments, music, and symbolism to protagonists and their personal stories, with expert pacing of clues along the way. There‘s logic to the descent into each nightmare.

Central to Silent Hill‘s unsettling power are the lived-in environments reflecting characters‘ memories and darkest emotions. The world transforms them into sources of fear like:

• Flesh walls pulsating with tortured faces in Silent Hill‘s hellishOtherworld transitions
• Endless repetition of familiar places like hallways and hospitals subtly corrupted
• Familiar sounds like industrial ambience, slamming metal, and air raid sirens signifying doom

Silent Hill wants the player to squirm through implications and minor details as much as overt scares. And based on critical reception, it works wonderfully. With mainline numerical entries garnering overwhelming positive reviews, the franchise keeps the fear fresh while anchoring innovations around believable characters and the town reshaping itself to prey on them.

While not as commercially explosive as Resident Evil, Silent Hill as a brand has moved over 9 million game sales globally since its 1999 PlaySation debut. And its ripple effect on gaming and developers can‘t be overstated. Titles like indie breakouts Layers of Fear to Amenesia: The Dark Descent owe their focus on evoking fear versus combat to Silent Hill‘s precedent.

The true sign the Silent Hill franchise remains a horror tour de force is its resiliency decades later. Between a new mainline sequel in development and viral response to the Silent Hills playable teaser P.T., the series consistently finds ways to terrify old fans while capturing a new generation.

Stats and Quotes Solidifying Survival Horror‘s Gods

The cases for Resident Evil‘s Mikami raising survival horror‘s profile through blockbuster releases and Silent Hill prioritizing emotion and psychology over combat as pioneering are clear. But the numbers and developer testaments further cement them as twin kings:

Resident Evil vs. Silent Hill – Sales Comparison

Quotes on the Series‘ Influence

"What retail wants is hits, but trying to outdo everyone else leads to sequels…By watching Capcom‘s Resident Evil, we learned a lot about serious, scary games." – Team Silent member commenting on influence during Silent Hill 2 development

"We went with a first-person view to make the horror feel more visceral." – Resident Evil 7 producer commenting on Mikami‘s cinematic style inspiring shift

While rising horror experiences like The Callisto Protocol pay homage to signature elements Resident Evil established and indie stand-outs like Visage channel Silent Hill‘s psychological tension, the crown is too deeply cemented at this point to pass on. As RE reaches towards 40 million copies sold for recent village-centric sequel, that truth becomes self-evident.

And with PSVR titles like Resident Evil Village‘s Shadows of Rose expansion and rumblings around what Silent Hill 2‘s remake in Unreal 5 will mean for hammering our psyche‘s vulnerabilities, their stranglehold on horror gaming looks to corrode our nerve even in virtual reality moving forward!