People always harp on about the glory days of horror games. “They don’t make ‘em like they used to!”, “Horror games on the PS1 were better!”, “Won’t someone please think of Silent Hill!” folks cry, desperate to recapture that terror that fuelled so many nightmares.
While 2020 certainly didn’t need any more horrific moments to carry us through the year, sometimes it’s just nice being scared by something that’s not reality. That’s why we turned to a pantheon of horror games, to maybe remind us that things could always be worse.
Beyond excellent narrative-driven horror and tense multiplayer sessions, one game must be crowned as the best of the Survival Horror genre of 2020. Before we delve into the game that soiled our pants best, let’s first sing the praises of those honourable mentions that did their due diligence in thoroughly creeping us out:
Phasmophobia
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope
And the winner is… Resident Evil 3!
Resident Evil 3 managed to take arguably the most underrated game in the franchise and not only give it a new coat of paint but actually make it relevant. While maybe not as expansive as last year’s remake of Resident Evil 2, it offers a focused scope on a much more personal story of survival in a more dire, horrific situation. It’s terrifying when it wants to be and an absolute power fantasy when it earns that rare moment, allowing you to actually fight back against nightmare fuel experiments running amok. Finally slaughtering Nemesis is still one of the best, most satisfying moments of 2020.
Special mention must be made to the cast of characters that really drive the narrative along. Carlos Oliveira brings a much needed light-hearted swagger energy into the main Resident Evil canon and Jill Valentine… well, she’s just the best.
Watching her overcome the odds and progress from struggling survivor to champion victorious is compelling from start to finish. If we’ve got an award for the best one-liner of the year. it’s also going to Resident Evil 3 for Jill’s fantastic, “Bitch can’t even swim” quote.
Play it and you’ll understand.
Last Updated: December 2, 2020
Ruan Fourie
December 2, 2020 at 10:52
I’m falling behind. Love the genre and haven’t played any of these games.
Iskape
December 2, 2020 at 13:46
Well, that’s quite a surprise. If I had known better, I would think TLOU2 would have won. To be honest though, I haven’t heard the media speak about TLOU2 as much as they spoke about the prequel.
Mandalorian Jim
December 2, 2020 at 20:01
TLOU2 is probably going to win Critz game of the year… sigh! https://media2.giphy.com/media/27qQkqJ0F8oT9qMC3T/giphy.gif
Mandalorian Jim
December 2, 2020 at 23:27
Even though Ghost of Tshushima deserves it more. Now that was a damn fine game.
The D
December 3, 2020 at 07:19
I think you’ll be surprised at what we settled on for GOTY actually.
Mandalorian Jim
December 3, 2020 at 13:28
Don’t tease me… I’m just waiting for the meteorite to end 2020 for all of us :p
Pryiot
December 2, 2020 at 20:00
Resident Evil having storytelling that’s funny. Even the movies have it better…..