I Miss Old School Camera Angles In Horror Games

"Ah. Overhead view. Just like old times. Now you're talking. Overhead view. That's more like it."

"The pivot in recent decades that's seen every big-budget action game, horror or not, need to be third- or first-person started, I suspect, after Resident Evil 4 made such a huge splash in 2005. iIt was certainly not the first game to use such a perspective, but it marked a huge, and hugely successful, departure for RE as a series-so successful that it may have made more fixed camera angles start to feel dated and obsolete."

"The way the camera pulls back from Harry and twists over the alleyway adds to the unnerving sense that you're entering some kind of strange reality; there's a sense of control that's taken away from you as the player. Moments like this aren't possible when the camera is tethered to a character's back like it is in modern games; it certainly wouldn't feel as seamless and dreamlike if a modern third-person action game just yanked the camera control away from the player."

Metal Gear Solid 4 includes an explicit nod to overhead camera views, evoking nostalgia for fixed and independent camera angles from earlier eras. Fixed camera angles were common in older action games and particularly effective in early 3D horror titles, creating unsettling, cinematic moments. The shift toward third- and first-person perspectives accelerated after Resident Evil 4 in 2005, which popularized an over-the-shoulder approach and made many fixed-camera techniques feel dated. Fixed cameras can remove player control and produce dreamlike, uncanny sequences, exemplified by camera movements that reframe environments in Silent Hill.

Read at Kotaku