We're Not Remaking Horror Games, We're Chasing Nightmares
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- čas přidán 8. 05. 2023
- Most scary stories are, of course, meant to be told. They are more scary that way. But how you tell them is important. | Support me on Nebula and watch all of my exclusive videos: go.nebula.tv/jacob-geller
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Additional Editing by Isaac Holland
Blake Hester's review of Resident Evil 4 Remake on Game Informer: www.gameinformer.com/review/r...
Media: The Last of Us (game and show), Resident Evil 4 (original and remake), Dead Space (original and remake), Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 8, Dead Space 2, DOOM (film and game), Max Payne 3, Gears of War, Fortnite, Breaking Bad
Music Used (Chronologically): Serenade for Strings in C Major Op. 48 (The Evil Within 2), Secure Place (Resident Evil 2), Shooting Range (Resident Evil 4 Remake), Theme of Ada (Resident Evil 4), Rules of Nature (Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance), Tierras de Azafrán (Blasphemous), Serenity (Resident Evil 4), Ending Credits (Resident Evil 4), The Last of Us- You and Me (The Last of Us), Fleeting- Affection (The Last of Us), The Choice (The Last of Us), The Last of Us- Goodnight (The Last of Us), White Palace (Hollow Knight), Lacrimosa (Dead Space 2), Nicole’s Theme (Dead Space Remake), Canonical Aside (Dead Space 2), Wesker’s Theme (Resident Evil 4)
Thumbnail and Graphic Design by / hotcyder
Description Credit: “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” by Alvin Chase - Hry
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Yo, I get to own 40% of Nebula by clicking on that link?
Jacob, I'd like to know more about how watching on nebula versus youtube helps you. I already signed up for nebula, and I watch some of your nebula-exclusive content on there, but I'm more interested in knowing whether a view there helps your bottom line as much as a view here does, since there's an algorithm here and all that. I hope you'll respond and let me (and others wondering the same) know.
@@chancephillips5411 lmao nice catch!
@@drewbabe Hi! Great question. Although individual views are slightly more valuable on Nebula (and there are other advantages- no ads, picture quality is better), they're not worth so much more that it's *way* better for you to watch one place vs another. If you really wanted to minmax your viewer contribution, I'd say watch it on Nebula and then drop a quick like on CZcams, but that's just if you want to go above and beyond. The subscription is what matters most to my bottom line!
oh yes the subscription based services hive mind is here to make us whole again
backtracks from nebula specifically to say that "a return to a nostalgic fright, only to find that the terror itself has been growing and twisting for all the years you've been absent" is a line that hits like a truck
I too have come from Nebula to mention this word truck. So good.
nebula doesn't have comments or anything?
@@lobsterpaw apparently doesn't have exclusives either
@@ehrenloudermilk1053 what are you talking about? He mentions an exclusive in this video
@@ehrenloudermilk1053 Nebula has its weaknesses, but it definitely has exclusive content from Jacob.
Nothing Jacob has ever said has hit me as hard as “It was 2013 I was a teenager”
Jesus help me
I am a teenager and I feel called out lol
But how could I not, when games can be so HARD CORE TO THE MEGA
In 2013 I was starting college fking god im so old
@@lizziebrasileira I was a senior in high school when RE4 originally came out
to be clear, I was also starting college lol. 18 is a teenager
@@liesalllies I was 24 😂
"Its significance is so widespread that its innovations feel rote in retrospect."
Absolutely nailed the feeling I get when experiencing a lot of the "classics" in any medium. You need sooo much extratextual knowledge to truly understand or appreciate something that was unprecedented and influential, because those qualities mean you have probably experienced many of its derivatives by now and it just seems ordinary.
this is so well said!
In terms of films, I think of Thing 1951, Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mad Max 1, Batman the Animated Series & Batman 89, Blade 1, 28 Days Later a bit, probably Night of the Living Dead although I haven't watched that yet. In terms of video games, maybe Driver 2 (had walking in a driving game before GTA), Star Fox 1 & 2, Spyro trilogy (some of the first to render large levels on the scale they did with fast movement for consoles). Mario 64's controls, although Jumping Flash had already done 3D platforming all the way back in 95 on Playstation. Goldeneye controls are hitting people hard again now that the port is out. In terms of books & general scifi, War of the Worlds for sure.
I think this is one reason as to why Majora's Mask has aged better than Ocarina of Time for me. OoT has been upstaged by Twilight Princess for me, since it does pretty much everything *it* does, but fixes all the annoyances.
Meanwhile Majora's Mask is an experience I've never actually seen replicated to this day, so it feels unique still.
yup, had this experience watching texas chainsaw massacre for the first time not too long ago. most of the movie up to the last 15mins or so felt, while entertaining, extremely predictable. and then i was like "well yeah duh it would be that way wouldn't it"
Reminds me of the story i heard about an eighth grader (Year 9 for those across the pond) who walked out of a performance of Hamlet complaining that it was a bunch of clichés D:
Identifying that choice in the Dead Space remake of “choosing your own personal taste of horror” is so good. When I played that part, I immediately knew what they were doing and I said “ah fuck you guys” lmao. I’m deathly afraid of the dark and jump scares so I chose the option without air. Little did I realize blindness is not the only aspect of a jumpscare - *deafness* is also a perfect medium to produce jumpscares. Ultimately, Dead Space gave you a choice that was never really a choice at all. Either way, you’re going to shit your pants. And I absolutely love the remake for making design choices like that.
I beat myself up for not playing dead space yet but I think that's such a fun part of great games, to almost have a conversation with the developers
yup yup, love it to bits for its "illusion of choice", from playing Dead Space I've grown ears capable of echolocation and lost the sight in my eyes in return.
If you just told me you were going to cut off my hands I would be pretty upset but if you told me to choose which hand I lose that’s 10 times worse
@@T9K66 left hand easily. Sure I would have to learn being right handed but Im sure most guys would agree.
its an amazing game i havent beaten it but its an AMAZING remake
"When an enemy chucks an axe at him, or charges him with a pitchfork, or even swings at him with a chainsaw (RULES OF NATURE)"
I love how.. discrete that gag was. Came and went at the same speed in like, barely a second's worth of time, and didn't get acknowledged afterwards.
plus im pretty sure you can suplex the chainsaw dude, which makes this gag even more accurate
laughed so hard
It was just enough to make me laugh out loud in the bus and short enough that I stopped right after, successfully making me look crazy in public
Perfect
I'm gonna bite the bullet and ask for the joke to be explained to me because I didn't catch it
@@opera_ghost8504 It's a reference to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In it, the protagonist caught this huge blade from a giant robot with his bare hands while the background music screamed "RULES OF NATURE".
What I feel is often the least appreciated monster in Dead Space is the ship itself. Resident Evil 4 can changes as many boss fights, revamp all of its enemies moves, but where Dead Space Remake succeeds is revamping the biggest oppressive force at its disposal. They didn't just give you more to do in the maps, they fought hard to make the environment itself feel like a real entity, an entity that is acting completely independent of you. Video Games often feel like nothing exist outside of the players range of influence, those loop de loops in the highway are made just fur the blue blur himself, but this ship is an external force, one that existed without you, one that cares not for your safety, and filled with creatures that are also outside of your sphere of influence.
Which fits the cosmic horror theme that DS is so damn well based on.
That's why I was so happy (and horrified) when Dead Space 2 lets you re-visit the Ishimura, talk with any longtime fan of the trilogy and everyone will unanimously tell you they had vietnam flashbacks the minute they realized they were making their way back into that hellhole.
@@Roler42 One of my favorite stories in this regard was talking about this with my friend - who actually played through DS2 first, because he couldn't handle 1 at the time it originally released. He played through 2, and got the heebie jeebies during the Ishimura section, noting it as one of the scariest things he's experienced in gaming - until he recently finished Dead Space 1. When he played through 2 again, he experienced a whole new kind of terror, as things originally alien to him suddenly had much greater - and more horrifying - context.
Dead Space 1 was the creepiest of them all. The constant, brooding sense of dread was exacerbated by the brutal submarine style metal corridors and knowledge of *something* is in there with you.
I remember actually saying out loud "please don't make me go back there" when the Ishimura reappears in 2. I never got that feeling from the rest of the game.
@@diekrahe. This is what the devs of DS did so well in 1, 2, and the remaster. They manipulated the player's emotions. The false senses of security, the supposedly dead necromorphs lying in wait, and wandering the maze of the ship all instill a constant paranoia that the player actively wishes to escape and avoid.
Backtracking in a game like DS feels worse than going into a new area. And not only did the revisit in DS2 activate that dread, but the remaster ran with it. They made the game not only as fan service, but identified the old wounds in its fans and applied pressure by making us choose our suffering and reliving areas knowing we can't trust anything to be the way we remember it. Thus amplifying the paranoia to a new degree. Constantly trying to decide if there was an extra vent or containment sequence or necromorph playing dead. Is this the suit station where I get jumped? Or is it the next? Did they do the same thing with a work bench somewhere else? Is this save point actually safe or did they change it?
It's almost a 4th wall breaking experience that somehow makes the game scarier because we know our tormentors and we know they've made it worse. We just don't know how much worse.
"Strategic Dismemberment" will always be a raw phrase.
As raw as the ones dismembered
Smart butchering
Judicious Uncoupling!
Tactical Disassembly
Your honour, my client was simply engaging in strategic dismemberment! Anyone would've done what he did in that situation!
While I was playing these two games, a thought kept popping into my head: the most powerful horror aspect of these remakes is the way that they gaslight you. "Was that there before? Wait, wasn't there something here?" Stuff of nightmares.
Yep. The Resident Evil remake on Gamecube did that explicitly in a lot of areas. The dog hallway is the first instance I remember of it doing that.
That's gaslamping? You mean gaslamping.
@@TheEvilCheesecake lmao I'm gonna steal that
I'm playing silent hill 2 for the first time while being kinda new to the horror genre and my god this is an extremely common phrase I say
@@TheEvilCheesecake Derived from the title of the 1938 play _Gas Lamp_
I'm just glad we live in a world where we get lots of horror games.
Same. RE4 and Dead Space were incredible. :D
Life is scarier then any horror game
Ok
Play fear and hunger it'll fuck up your life
We live in a world where half of the horror games coming out already came out before.
wtf, the idea that the Dead Space Remake uses its nostalgia as ruse, a subtle smoke-screen to twist the players memory ever so slightly of the original or to surprise them, is fucking wild and an AMAZING route the developers went with. Now, even if its not on the same basis of Isaac situation, we can feel on the same way Isaac feels, where something is wrong, or something feels out of place in ones memory. GG on the observation and dialogue/writing my guy, I got CHILLS with that last sentence you had for the Dead Space Remake.
oh i’m so glad jacob is back to talk horror. just finished binging several of his videos, the existential dread is welcome.
is the judge dread welcome too?
@@rawallon i am unsure of how to go about answering this question.
I'm glad that the Genre is making a comeback, so that we can finally tell the difference bettwen "Horror" and "Jumpscare Simulators".
The one thing that changes RE4 a lot is something that you won't be able to notice unless you speak spanish. The ganado in the original are clearly voiced by mexican actors and there is a comedy there that is missing from the remake
Are the remake ones voiced by Spanish actors? Does the option to use classic audio change their voices to the older ones?
Allí está!
Og ganado voices where more memorable and cooler. Castilian spanish is too corny
@@WellingtonCordeiro as far as I can tell they are voiced by spanish actors now. And there is no legacy audio option that I'm aware of
@@danielrojas-db9nq well they wanted to be accurate with representation this time. id say kudos to them.
I’m glad for the Last of Us show because it can act like a gateway between non gamers and gamers. My girlfriend watched the show with me and instantly wanted to pick up the game, and it made my heart really warm to see something like that happen.
nothing was stopping her before, a show isn't gonna do that
@@marcusclark1339 I mean, it did, so I don’t know what you mean.
Lmao the game isn't a very big gateway just hold forward and shoot
Since no one else seems to understand the sentiment of your comment, I just wanted to say I think that's awesome! I know people that don't play video games at all that watched the show and now want to play the game. To me, that shows the impact of the show, that the story was so well interpreted that it made people want more from the source material.
@@jinxedangel2 Thank you, and that’s exactly what I mean. I’m glad those people in your life also chose to pursue the game after watching! It’s a great thing to see.
I enjoy that these remakes can stand on their own and aren't necessarily just high quality re-skins of the original products. This is how remakes should be.
I feel like Nintendo attempted that with LoZ:MM3D, but... fell flat. They tried to make a game that was renowned for difficulty more accessible, but in doing do they lost the spark that made the original so amazing.
@@kreiskhaos8516 atleast oot 3d was really good
@@kreiskhaos8516 MM3D is not a remake. Its just simply a port to the 3ds with quality of life changes and the 3d feature.
@@hehehehe-tq6on they lower quality tho
@@thatitalianlameguy2235Wtf.. its a goddam 3ds. You expect it to run the game on 1080P?
I know it’s not the most satisfactory answer, but I really think what the Last of Us show adds is accessibility. While it may present the story in a lesser form, it’s presenting the story to a much wider audience than it could as just a video game. Anecdotally, my father was really into video games in the 80s and 90s. He’s tried to play some more recent games (mainly uncharted) and has struggled greatly. Because these games do require a certain skill and knowledge. If you haven’t played games in the 2000s, than jumping in to the Last of Us is an incredibly daunting task. I do think you’re absolutely right that the mechanics of the game aid in the storytelling.
Disagree. Someone could literally search The Last of Us all cutscenes on CZcams and get the same experience. The show added nothing
i'm horrified that Jacob was a teenager in 2013. Truly, the real survival horror is getting old
What’s even crazier to me is how this just further proves that the same game has been able to captivate several different generations. I have some more horrifying news for you and I apologize in advance lol. But I’m the same age as the original resident evil 4 and have loved it for years, and somehow that love for this game is the only thing I have in common with my 45 year old dad. Isn’t that wild?
People turning 30 this year were teenagers in 2013. It doesn't mean that much
I was 8 in 2013 and an adult this year. Sorry
No it's being a teenager in a minority group in 2013
@@MrPiccoloku True that
I think the game signalis is an even stronger warping of previous horror games despite being a separate IP, in that it feels like the entire genre of survival horror has been warping and shifting while you were away
Especially with the amount of times it directly references previous material! It creates this feeling of familiarity and nostalgia without any comfort. Really adds to the overall vibe of the game as a series of memories caving into eachother
It's a sci-fi Silent Hill with the aesthetic of some forgotten anime you'd catch on Adult Swim in the early days.
Great game.
I will play that immediately after I'm done with silent hill 2!
Now THAT is a good horror game.
I literally started signalis today and it is phenomenal so far. The enemies hit like a Mac truck on survival difficulty.
You know it’s going to be a killer horror game essay when Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op.48 from The Evil Within 2 kicks in
I will immediately play the evil within series after I'm done immediately playing signalis after silent hill 2!
@@mr.b89 you better!!! haha, it's one of my favorite game series. definitely have an open mind with the first game, and don't be afraid to turn off the black bars in the settings, it doesn't add much to the experience imo and just kinda gives uncomfortable tunnel vision (not the good kind)
the cut at 7:45 where classic re4 leon turns away and you cut it to re4 remake footage of the same scene is great!
thank you for noticing haha
@@JacobGeller It looks so clean! I can't believe more people aren't talking about it
great write-up as always! but Jacob... which part of these games do you "think about a lot" ?! are you ok? blink twice if you need help!!!
He made a video nearly fully about RE4, he's still the same Jacob Geller.
Quickly Jacob! Draw another parallel from Disney to Nazi-germany and fascism if you are okay!
Walt Disney was a well known admirer of Adolf Hitler and a notorious freemason, do you know about his club 33? You think its just a funny joke I guess lol
@@AntiJewluminatiDwarf who invited you here
@@pokkiheart Me it was me I did it it was me, Barry
As someone who is bad at playing video games through, the Last of Us show catered to someone like me. Someone who highly respects video games as a storytelling medium, but just can’t really enjoy the experience for themselves. I’ve watched people play the game multiple times through and I really don’t get tired of watching the story over and over again. I had the same enjoyment watching the show and while lines and scenes were pulled directly from the game, the performances belonged to those actors.
I can totally understand why it wouldn’t do much for someone who played the game through especially if most of the enjoyment was through the direct participation of the game. I’m kind of the opposite. I love the storytelling ability, the ability to change the story as you’re playing it without knowing until the end, etc. I just *hate* grinding. If I keep dying again and again, at some point I will put it down because I’m not getting what I want from it-which is mainly the story.
I think the main reason why this started another phenomena is because there’s obvious care and heart going into adapting a well loved story into a new medium. This brings in people who would’ve never experienced the story because of the reasons above. Even better, it may bring people to realize what an incredible medium video games can be.
As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy playing horror games -- my anxiety is just not okay with most of them. I really appreciated the Last of Us providing me an opportunity to experience the story that I've heard about for so many years.
That's a reason I haven't finished the RE 2 remake. That games makes me feel claustrophobic and I can only play it for about 30 minutes before I have to take a break.
I dont like horror games like dead space either, but I didnt find last of us very scary. Maybe give it a shot. You can always put the difficulty on easy.
@@stevenewsom3269 yea, it's a worthy shot since RE series, notably RE4 and Deadspace pushed the action adventure survival horror genre
i have avoided horror games for my entire life and i know that i absolutely wont play dead space precisely because being spooked is very not fun for me
that being said i actually beat re4make on standard and i didnt feel too stressed out
it was tense at times, sure, but it wasnt really stringy about making literally every shot count and whatnot, actually guiding you towards "i am a bad enough dude to save the president's daughter" rather than "i am a fish out of water struggling to survive"
from what i've seen i know i won't be playing re2make but 4 might be worth looking into
Grow a spine and face your fears.
It's just a videogame☺️
we're not baking chocolate chip cookies
we're chasing snack time
Having now watched The Last of Us TV show in its entirety, I think what the show really adds to the conversation is the same distance that can be viewed as a drawback. Much of the problem with the climax of The Last of Us as a game is that Joel is doing an abhorrent and selfish thing, but since we are playing as Joel we are primed to rationalize and excuse it the same way he does. In playing through the lie Joel tells himself, that he is a fundamentally good person doing what he must to survive, we can excuse the brutality of his violence as simple instinct where the TV show can pull back and emphasize the cruelty and pointlessness of much of what he does.
Similarly, in jumping around in time and space and showing us other characters' stories, the TV show can invite the viewer to more directly compare and contrast Joel against other characters facing similar problems. Kathleen, Henry and David are all alike in that they are able to justify great evil in the service of those they love, and by spending time with them separate from the context of Joel we are able to appreciate how similar their positions are to his final-episode dilemma. It also emphasizes that there is a world outside of Joel and Ellie, one that can be saved by her sacrifice, whereas in the game we have only experienced their deeply personal perspectives.
In the inherently solipsistic medium of the video game, where we recognize that only the player is real and everything else is false, the choice of one person over the world goes down smoother because we only care about our own character's happiness. But when all characters are equally fictional, we can better appreciate their selfishness and recognize the evil of their choices. If The Last of Us TV show got a second season, the fandom would probably have much less of a problem with Joel dying because the show made far less excuses for him.
I know the topic of “the best” gets thrown out to the point of being devoid of meaning but I can honestly say that these videos are the most masterfully crafted video essays I have ever seen, and every single time I watch a new one I feel a wave of inspiration to work towards my own writing. Keep up the fantastic work and thank you for the endless streams of content recommendations. I wouldn’t have made it through the pandemic without Disco Elysium, the original re4, House of Leaves, etc
Check out Tim Roger’s Action Button reviews. I’d recommend starting with his TLOU review.
ive binged every jacob video in the last 4 years, and ive had had many moments of realization thanks to almost all of them, and he continues to make amazing video after amazing video
Real talk. I don't think there's ever been one of Jacob's video essays where I didn't come away having learned something or gaining a new appreciation for something familiar.
I think the key to enjoying The Last of Us tv show is sharing the experience with a non-gamer. I'm watching it with my partner who doesn't play video games at all and I get to enjoy the nostalgia and easter eggs in the show where my partner gets to be amazed by that fact that this story came from a game and is now more open to exploring the medium as a whole.
Guess what, it came from a nongame, a cinematic game, so she'll never understand you. Holding forward on the stick over slow scripted sequences is barely gameplay
@@thatitalianlameguy2235 what is your deal? you said the same thing on another comment talking about a non-gamer getting interested in games because Last of Us. Do you hate the game that much?
@@botanbutton i hate it's consequences on the gaming landscape but by itself it's just ok. If it wasn't there with uncharted, Sony's exclusives wouldn't have been gutted out of interesting free flowing gameplay
Paradoxically, I feel like I would enjoy the show more if I gave it a shot than the game precisely because I am into games. The whole conundrum regarding TLoU's 'filminess' is why I personally never was on-board with its lavish praise, given that there are so many creatively artistic games that use the language of games to express ideas in an unique and thought-provoking manners, that a game that is instead concerned with falling back on tried-and-true methods already explored in the film language starts to feel inadequate in my eyes. On the other hand, with the TV show, there isn't that disconnect because... well it's a TV show. It is using the language of cinema by default so of course it makes sense it's being praised for the filmy things it will inevitably exhibit.
So in this sense, instead of feeling annoyed about the capitalisation on nostalgia like I feel with other big remakes, I moreso wonder how much artistic value the initial game really holds if it can be so faithfully adapted to a non-interactive medium and not lose that much of its artistic identity in the process.
Not trying to say there's no value in more 'filmy' games or that you shouldn't enjoy them, but I've always had my own issue with this trend of making big releases more and more like films and the show's existence kinda serves to highlight them more for me.
Man, you always make me emotional. The way you write and speak is pure storytelling, but that kind of narrative you got from someone who is really passionate about what is talking about. I've been really passionate as well about video games as a kid/teenager and it certainly faded a lot over the years, for obvious grown up reasons... But what i want to say is: The way you create your content not only makes me shiver the hell out, but reconnects me with some really precious part of me, that is some of the most component of my adult being. Jacob, you make really great work! I almost cried watching this one... not because of fear and horror, but because of love, thank you.
Jacob's writing and delivery is straight up orgasmic at times, even when he's talking about the most viscerally gruesome stuff.
And yeah, we all enjoy watching Leon roundhouse kick ganados in RE4 no matter in which of its many versions.
I'm honestly shocked they haven't made a VR deadspace yet. Seems like the perfect horror game for VR to me
They did do a Wii game that is the closest to VR they’ve come. But remember, it’s EA that holds control.
Leave it to Jacob Geller to soundly deconstruct why “old good, new bad” is reductive criticism while also reconstructing why the original material holds more weight inherently than any remakes/recreations can achieve
As someone who can't play video games for the absurd and insurmountable reason that I just can't make the controls work, I appreciate that your videos give me access to some of the stories and experiences of this medium. I've often speculated that the fabled "Next Great Novel" is more likely to be a film or an HBO series than a book; your work makes me wonder if it might just as likely be a game instead.
More than anything right now, I want a video on Pizza Tower. I don't care how silly, obscure, and random a game it is, I simply want Jacob's thoughts on it. Let it be a half hour video, or a 5 minute one. Anything talking about Pizza Tower would be a gift for me.
"Pizza Tower _is_ about pizza... but it's not _about_ pizza."
I’m really hoping that the successes of these prompt developers to make more original horror games! The scene recently has been… interesting…
u gotta play callsito. signalis and tormented souls. those are some new good original horror games
@@mvrtinxz650 I'd personally say Signalis is the only good horror game you mentioned. Tormented Souls is just fine and Callisto, while no longer broken so it is playable I wouldn't say is worth its price especially coincidental it's flaws. I didn't hate it as much as others but I don't recommend it.
@@graphite7898 sure. but Callisto isnt full price anymore so i think it is worth it but the giy mentioned original games. not remakes.
@@mvrtinxz650 I just checked and Callisto is still very much 60 bucks, which is full priced. Though true he did say original not necessarily great or anything.
@@graphite7898 where did u check? gamestop , best buy and amazon just to name a few, all have it for 20 to 30 bucks? so did u even check? 😒
**GIF of man writing and the writing is on fire**
holy shit, this is probably one of your most well written scripts. just fucking gorgeous, both in a beat for beat way but also as a whole.
Loved the gore system in the new dead island, it being first person and mostly melee based let it showcase itself really well. Probably the best out of all gore stuff i've seen in games so far.
I love the way wrists dangle if you hit their hand just right.
Shame about the rest of the game.
@@Caidezes what's wrong with the rest of the game?
Yeah I was surprised how much I liked it!! Talked about it a lil on a recent episode of MinnMax
@@JacobGeller I was already excited to play Dead Island 2 but you talking about it on MinnMax made me want to play it more.
I am so glad that you put that needle drop at 5:28 The first parry I did in the game was Dr. Salvador and I did let out a little whispered shout of those lyrics when I parried.
I think horror games follow the standard aging of games even closer. The idea that gaming isn't getting worse, better, or whatever, but your perspective and outlook are making you see it that way. The psychological aspect allows the game to play off your experience and current point of view in a stronger way then just a narrative or RPG could. The Ishimura explored when you were a kid was exciting, scary, yet exhilarating. While the same Ishimura you explored as an adult is beautiful, the despair is understandable, the loss of the characters is relatable. To touch on Remake's themselves. They allow the game to look and feel how you remember it, rather than how it actually was. They play on nostalgia, as you mentioned, to manipulate their new telling of the old story. Yet it is US who are truly changing the way we feel about the game, as much as the game itself is changing. Lastly, when you touched on the "dreamlike" quality of Re4 (2005). I would argue that this is the line that most horror, that plays its cards right, will somewhat feel like. When I view Beksinski's artwork I don't feel disgusted, I feel retrospective, calm, and thoughtful. (Maybe this says more about my psyche than anything.) But this is the same reason I love Re4 and Dead Space; relatable enough experience, pain, and sense of loss, but shown in a way that uniquely relates to our post-modern and ephemeral outlook on the modern world.
good post imo.
You played Dead Space as a kid? Huh
@@TheBfutgreg I suppose kid is relative. Would've been more like a teen.
I legit have a dust covered nebula account that gets brought down off the shelf and detailed like new every time Geller blessed us with new content
Something very interesting I think i felt in older horror games as opposed to current games. The dreamlike quality you mentioned when talking about the save room theme. Even the the newer psychological horrors like Layers of fear I dont get it. Or maybe i like silent hill too much.
The technical jankiness really helped a lot of games hit that note for me. Same with the way early video game dialogue would sometimes sound off because they hadn’t figured out how to handle voice acting quite yet, or even when they do, there’s that tiny pause between lines as it loads that makes everything even more off. Silent hill 1 is scary on its own but if it was remade with voice acting and voice lines loading smoothly it would lose a ton of the dream vibe for me.
Come to think of it I rarely get that vibe from ANYTHING that’s reallly well polished.
That's cuz Layers of Fear is primarily a compilation of gimmicks
@@haphazardlark1502 good point. I think the game play and camera angles also added to it being disorienting. All kinda worked together.
@@Joel-ik3sz Agreed. Evil within was in a person's mind I think and still didn't have the same feel.
@@haphazardlark1502 Ohh, so it's like the appeal of lo-fi but in horror games?
The best way I can describe Dead Space vs its remake to someone is to say that in the original, the game makes you hate Kendra for stabbing you in the back and then she's tossed aside as you prepare to fight the Hive Mind. In the remake, despite everything, you want to save her, you hold out your hand to help her up, to get off this damn hell world... and then the game reduces her to a paste in front of you...
I've literally been rewatching the videos on this channel all day while doing boring work stuff and now there is a new one, yay!
To individuals that have played both TLOU and watched it, i felt they were great companion pieces that each contribute to better understanding the other. Meant to be part of a whole, rather than one or the other...but thats just me.
i only stumbled across you a few days ago and i've watched nearly 20 of your videos in 48 hours. this one is one i didn't even realize was uploaded and RE4, being a game very close to my heart, was enough to bring me in. i can't access the RE4make and i cope with it poorly; this video reminded me of every single reason i liked RE4, of everything that's burned into my memory; your emotions about "serenity" in particular echo mine scarily closely. the eerie, yet subtly comforting atmosphere of the track emphasized a surreal "other"ness that went hitherto unnoticed among the campy voice acting and murdering of zombies. every time i entered a save room from that moment on, i was compelled to sit for a few minutes just to give leon *and* myself a chance to rest. it's both immersive and dissociating, drawing you further into the game while at the same time distancing you from the insanity.
Mmm, distance from insanity is a great phrase 😀
Something that made my experience watching TLOU's adaptation special in a way that wouldn't have been possible if the series wasn't as faithful as it was to the source material was that i could watch it with my parents, who naturally aren't that invested in video games and that kind of media
Watching the game's plot points being recreated in live action was cool but seeing reactions to these same events from someone that not only where completely ignorant to the story, but also where so alienated by video games as a medium made the experience really special to me, it gave something else to look for aside from the story itself, and weirdly enough, it made the act of waiting to see if certain plot points would change or not a more interesting task, because when stuff was added or change, the experience was essentially, new, but with the things that were kept the same i could have the pleasure of knowing exactly what would happen with the raw reactions from my parents making me company, and it was honestly, a really great feel and to me, it made the whole project completely worthy of its own existence
Almost the first thought I had when you started about Resi 4 remake was the save room music. That video of yours about Horror Games sounding beautiful was in fact the first vid I watched of you and which got me hooked. I love that video so much, it's in one of my own playlists and I listen to it from time to time. I should have commented there but oh well, doing it now. That vid and also of course *this* one are amazing. Thank you, hope you are well, and always looking forward to the next tone 😊
As always Jacob coming out from the top rope to hit ‘‘em with the chair. video very well put interpretation of these remakes. You are one of the first CZcams video essay makers that have actually taken a something useful out of these remakes. Thanks for the new video glorious mustache man!
your part on the last of us show was lovely and put into word the type of feeling i tend to have towards adaptions of things ive already experienced in their original form.
Just finished binge watching all your vids over the last 3 days, delighted to see your just brought this out.
Truly, thank you.
I always appreciate the added subtitles
I can hear fine, it just helps digest all the game/literary wisdom
I'm always so excited to watch Jacob helmet videos but have put so many of them in my waitlist because they still games I wanna experience first hand :(
Baby wake up, Jacob Geller just uploaded
Wow, using Tchaikovsky's concert for strings, from "Evil Within 2" is a powerful entry, damn!
Thank you for this!! I’ve been hoping we would hear from you soon
Jacob, you have to be the best video-essayist on CZcams. You were probably the first one I watched that got me into the genre, but my memory is not good enough for me to claim that with certainty. I love playing games you cover despite my aversion to spoilers because, like movies, I like being told ahead of time that content will be worth thinking about. Chewing. Ruminating.
Every single moment in my life has led up to me watching Jacob talk about RE4R as if he was a food critic.
Thank you for posting the video's Nebula link. I don't visit the site often, so it's nice to get an easy redirect from here.
Man I’d love to talk about games with you, you read so well into creative writing it’s crazy. Always get happy when I see you uploaded something, makes me want to start producing essay content. Don’t take much longer next time!
Damn, we're going rapid-fire with these videos🙏
Hey Jacob! Listening to you talk about The Last of Us, I had to pause the video and recommend to you the game/miniseries Detention. Both have flown under the radar here in the US, but I think they both make interesting case studies for games-as-art and live action adaptations. They're also both short--the video game can be played in one sitting, and the Netflix miniseries can be binged over a long weekend--so they're not major commitments. And, for the record, they're both horror stories in a way that I think you'll find interesting.
Excellent music choices for this one! Loved hearing some old favorites come back, very fitting for the theme.
Was in the middle of rewatching an old vid of yours when I saw this in the sidebar. Hooray for horror!
Having finished all the games/show mentioned over the last few months this is exactly the video I needed. Beautiful break down as always Jacob
Jacob, I've been a big fan of your videos for a while, and this video's commentary about RE4 nails on the head a point that I, as a nearly-lifelony Blade Runner fan, have been trying to make about the (frankly excellent) Blade Runner 2049 ever since it came out - that the space in which Blade Runner was released is impossible to replicate. Thank you for all you do.
2049 wasn't the original, and they knew it. I was so glad to see that they paid homage to the original in so many ways without trying to steal the spotlight from the original.
cant wait to dive into the video. when is the essay disecting Signalis coming? feels right up your alley
I just found your channel and there’s already a new video??? hell yeah
Fr, it makes me so happy when I see a Jacob Gellar video😌 Nebula is SO MUCH BETTER for seeing things from creators. Idk about how it works (like who CAN post there or how money flows there vs CZcams) but watching people's original ideas without having to fight against the CZcams Borg is soothing
Such is the life of a new idea, until it becomes famous then Google or Microsoft buys it and the cycle continues
This feels like a quintessential Jacob Geller video, amazing as always!
Man, 21:48 .that transition from hollow knight to lacrimosa while the clip transitions from the old dead space gameplay to the new shiny remake. I’m telling you. Every time I watch a video I be looking at that song list you be going crazy og
How the actual hell do you get out such quality content so quickly? You're fantastic, man. Eagerly awaiting that bell a-ringin'.
That rules of nature edit 👌👌👌👌
Epic tbh
4:35 Few things made me as happy in 2023 as this piece of music.
Great video as always Jacob! Do you think you might consider doing a review or video on the Silent Hill 2 remake when it comes out?
Stoppin by from the nebula, that extra two hours gush following after this was great for a slow workday haha
the tv show medium makes actions taken by a character that you would not have taken less jarring- cant have ludonarrative dissonance if you're just watching to begin with
As long as the action is in character, to begin with
Man this sums up my feelings on RE4 and especially The Last of Us perfectly. I really appreciate how Jacob communicates the feeling of actually playing The Last of Us as a game, and how that desperation plays into the story, rather than painting it as meaningless time between cutscenes as many seem to. Great video.
I know everyone talks about TLoU as "cutscenes with some random gameplay," but for me, the cutscenes were secondary. I can't tell you hardly any story beats from the game, but I can relive in gory detail the moment of getting surrounded by clickers with no bottles left.
That's a really interesting perspective I never considered! I am personally (a fake fan) only a fan of TLOU's narrative, so to me the TV show satisfied my curiosity more than the game did, and added to it with new episodes and scenes. (I was one of those teens who'd watch people play the Walking Dead telltale games while hiding behind a pillow, frightened & curious...!!)
I can understand why someone who's a fan of the actual gameplay/mechanics would miss those tense moments! But I definitely also think replicating the experience of playing a game would be... An Impossible task for a TV series XD On the other hand, I think *that* is the point of retelling the last of us in a different medium! So that it could break down one medium's limitations -- at the sacrifice of the Horrors and Intensities of the original medium.
Will never forget my first experience with TLOU. I was 18. I got it at a midnight launch, spent the day turning my bedroom into a cozy shrine, blacked out the windows with cardboard, had a little table with snacks and drinks and a jar full of weed. Set the difficulty to hard.
Besides bathroom breaks I didn't leave that room til the credits rolled.
Never realised how nasty the things in dead space look. Would you recommend?
YES.
Id recommend all of it even the gimmicky motion control one but not dead space 3 its not a good game even if the story was decent.
Careful, it might become your favorite horror game
Hello cool beard man
Yeah. What he said.
he described the emotion of what i felt too, when we first encountered the merchant. the music made you feel like he was outwardly almost, just coming along to profit where ever he can like a spirit or demon
my mind made the most stock sound effect of a water droplet when you said that you said 1000s of words about serenity years ago because i remember when that video came out and how excited i was to watch it
Oh man your "why do horror games sound so beautiful?" video is my favorite of yours and I'm so glad part of this is like a spiritual sequel to it and references it 😄
Hoping the new Amnesia game gives enough to think about to justify a video at least in part on the newer games. The Bunker looks great and Rebirth was super underrated. I know you covered Amnesia A Machine for Pigs already but Rebirth has a lot thematically going on by itself to riff off of and I’m sure the Bunker will do the same.
10:46 I get that bliss and emersion from the desert planet music in Ratchet & Clank.
@19:12 This just reminds me of how much more effective Fury Road's "you have two shots left" in the Bullet Farmer scene is in communicating the tension of limited resources; everyone is relying on those few sniper bullets and every missed shot has a visible effect on their composure.
not a huge horror guy but the idea that Dead Space is essentially a sequal disguised as a remake is incredible, especially for somewhat of a cult classic.
Especially because of how untrustworthy EA continues to be.
I always loved being scared. Ever since I was a little kid watching stupid ghost movies and videos.
But nothing hits the same anymore…
Even VR games don’t scare me…
My growing urge to see signalis talked about and how its commentary on what something loses when it’s new again in relation to also it being the best original horror game release in a sea of remakes grows ever further
You mention what was lost in the recreated cutscenes in HBO's TLoU, but not what you gain. I would say a performance by two terrific artists, Pascal and Ramsey. Their performances are thrilling, and worth savoring on their own merits. Especially as their performances and now unfiltered through CGI, a whole lot that's new is worthwhile. Asked not to play the games, they make the characters fully their own so that even with the same scene, we're getting entire new webs of nuance. It's a different medium with different concerns, yes. But it's also a whole host of different artists than made the original, and that makes the shift between mediums as interesting to me as a painter and a sculptor working from the same model or a performance of a play on stage, and the movie adapted from it.. All of this mut be acknowledged, I feel.
Summary was generated by Summatim, let us know if there are any inaccuracies! 🤖
0:01: Introduction
0:41: Dead Space Remake
2:32: Remaking Horror Games
3:24: Resident Evil 4 Remake
7:57: New Elements in Resident Evil 4 Remake
9:56: Loss of Serenity
11:32: Conclusion
12:43: Resident Evil 4's influence
13:16: The Last of Us impact
16:42: The Last of Us TV show
14:55: The Last of Us TV show's similarity to the game
14:55: The Last of Us TV show's lack of choice
21:47: Dead Space remake
22:49: Darkness in Dead Space
23:28: Increased agency in Dead Space
24:49: New corridors in Dead Space remake
24:55: New geometry and complexity
25:40: Obsessive replication and subversion
27:01: Expanded role of Elizabeth Cross
28:19: Sound and animation
28:33: Binding horror to its existence as a remake
30:03: Nebula streaming service
I have become so desensitized to everything lately that I’ve been chasing the fear I used to experience.
Just watched on Nebula, great points and well done as always. I hope some of the people that worked on these projects take the time to watch this essay.
This was super interesting, I never thought about how many possible approaches there is to remaking something, and how dramatically they can change the end result, so many things to think about, what to change what to keep the same, Jacob your video essays are the best on youtube, they I always wake up my brain and make me think.
great video! you managed to voice a lot of my feelings about the TLoU tv adaptation.
among the many remakes we are getting, I feel that the HBO series is the only piece of media that actually lessens its predecessor in retrospect. one of the most impactful and unique part of the game, the “prestige drama” of it all, now feels diluted, which is such a particular tragic feeling.
Ugh I want to watch this so bad but currently on chapter 11 on dead space and then playing re4(I just got a ps5 so a little late to the 2023 horror remakes). What a perfect combo of my favorite creator and the current games I’m playing though. I’ll be back to watch this in a few weeks!
I genuinely don’t know how I haven’t seen any of your videos until very recently your content is so damn good
I love the Serenity track from the original Resident Evil 4... it was so comforting to hear it and see the blue flames. I'll have to watch that other video where you talk more about it.