The Rollercoaster of Fear: An Analysis Between Space and Time in the Resident Evil Saga

Abstract

Resident Evil represents an iconic saga in the video game medium. It marked the official birth of survival horror by establishing some formal aspects of the genre, as for the design of claustrophobic spaces and unsettling atmospheres. This essay will examine the main chapters of the Resident Evil saga, observing the different strategies employed to evoke fear into the player through the years. After an introduction based on the etymology of survival horror and the contextualisation of fear in digital games, the essay will advance a textual analysis focused on the relation between the spatial design and the potential temporality to explore the environments, which represent two standardised frameworks in the interdisciplinary field of game studies. Thus, the essay will underline three interconnected eras: the era of segmentation in the nineties; the era of connection between the zero and ten years; and the era of restriction in the last five years.