Resident Evil’s Rhetoric: The Communication of Corruption in Survival Horror Video Games by Charley Reed http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1555412015575363
Charley Reed investigates and dissects what really makes a horror video game incite a sense of dread and terror in his article Resident Evil’s Rhetoric: The Communication of Corruption in Survival Horror Video Games. Using different rhetoric theories and ideals, he delves into the different aspects and mechanisms of the game franchise that really add to the sense of dread and terror when a player invests themselves in the game. One characteristic that adds to a player’s sense of terror is how the aspects of play and story break our preconceived notions about behavior and life. Things are scarier to players when they don’t adhere to normal life, leaving the player out of control of the story and unable to expect what comes next. Another interesting point Reed pointed out is that in Resident Evil games, backstory and expositional information is normally found within non-digital objects. Players find information through books, paintings, pictures, or tape recordings found throughout the game. This grounds the game for the player making the aspect of finding information feel real. Finding information in a digital fashion like through computers in a digital outlet like an Xbox feels less real than finding physical information in a digital outlet.
