Normally, no one really talked about horror-themed media. Most people still kept their distance from that genre.
For someone like Hubert, whose tastes were extremely niche, it meant having even fewer people to talk to — which is why he had virtually no friends.
He knew his interest wasn't particularly likable or popular, but he didn't care. He was already used to immersing himself in his own little world.
He loved horror culture so much that even if the work itself was bad — with low-quality scares — he still enjoyed it. Sometimes, he even thought low-budget, poorly made horror media deserved encouragement too.
Because if not enough people supported it, then there'd be even fewer horror works available to enjoy.
That was how he thought. And it was thanks to people like him that niche genres like horror could survive.
He picked up the controller and clicked into the main menu.
Honestly, most of the horror content he'd seen before was pretty low in quality.
Because of its niche nature, no one was ever willing to invest real money into big-budget horror.
...
...
But Resident Evil's opening CG cutscene was actually stunning.
Hubert's eyes lit up. This was a rare high-quality horror production. Although, at first glance, there didn't seem to be anything particularly scary about it.
The opening CG mainly introduced a company called Umbrella — a tech conglomerate involved in medicine, biotechnology, electronics, and other fields.
In the video, the company was portrayed as benevolent and visionary. They had increased human life expectancy, dramatically reduced disease impact, and even cured formerly incurable illnesses. A truly powerful and positive force.
But the CG felt a bit too much like a corporate ad — the kind of thing that immediately came across as fake.
Hubert furrowed his brows. He didn't understand why a horror game would begin with such a strange intro.
Still, because the visuals were so well made, he patiently kept watching.
The ad continued playing on-screen, but gradually, the sound began to distort, and the camera started pulling back from the screen.
It turned out that this ad was being played on a television — a television sitting in a completely dark room, its glow the only light source. And if one looked closely, there were faint signs of something… splattered across the screen.
Just then, besides the sound of the ad continuing to play, Hubert clearly heard something — a faint chewing or munching sound.
In that moment, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
It's here. It's happening.
This was a masterclass in building horror atmosphere. Just based on that intro CG alone, he was already ready to give the game high marks.
Eventually, the cutscene ended with an inhuman, guttural scream — and the game's title screen appeared.
At the beginning, three options were displayed. They were phrased a bit poetically, but it was easy to tell they represented difficulty levels.
By now, difficulty settings were common in video games, giving players of all skill levels a good experience.
Hubert usually played games on medium difficulty.
But if it was a horror game — his favorite genre — he didn't hesitate for a second: he selected the hardest mode.
Next came character selection. There were two options: one male, one female. It looked like each might have a different storyline, which meant the game could potentially be played twice for different experiences.
As a horror fan, he wasn't about to miss a single piece of content.
Still, the female character looked pretty attractive, and that instinctively made him pick her. He could choose the guy on his second playthrough.
Once all the selections were made, a new cutscene played.
And this was when the main story finally unfolded.
In the fictional city of Raccoon City, the S.T.A.R.S. special forces unit's Bravo Team was dispatched to investigate a strange series of deaths. But shortly after entering the area, they vanished without a trace. Alpha Team was then sent in to investigate what had happened.
Heading out into the unknown to investigate murders in the dead of night — this kind of setup was definitely cliché in movies and detective shows.
Hubert thought the same, but then again — it was a game. As long as the atmosphere was good, he wasn't going to nitpick.
Besides, the production quality was already top-notch. You couldn't ask for much more.
Still, no matter how you looked at it, this wasn't a typical horror story. Most horror works focused on ghosts or the supernatural. This felt... different. New.
Shortly after Alpha Team arrived, one of the members was suddenly attacked — by several feral dogs, their skin rotted and their eyes rabid. They quickly swarmed a second teammate.
Panicking, the second team member fired and killed one of the dogs. Hubert leaned forward. The pacing, the camera angles — it was tight, professional. If this were a horror movie, it would already be top-tier.
Gamestar Electronic Entertainment really did have money to burn.
He was impressed.
In the game, the team fled and took shelter in a lavish mansion — and at that moment, the actual gameplay finally began. Hubert could now control the character himself.
From that point on, Hubert's eyes never left the screen.
The whole experience was incredible.
Not because it was nonstop terror, but because the flow of the game was so smooth. There was always something happening — puzzles to solve, sudden encounters with grotesque creatures. As the game reached its halfway point, the central mystery finally began to unfold.
That seemingly unrelated corporate ad in the beginning? It was foreshadowing all along.
Umbrella Corporation was the true villain — the ones who created these terrifying creatures.
Their new biotech experiment, the T-virus, had leaked. The outbreak spread throughout the surrounding area. Infected humans and animals went berserk, attacking anything that moved. And those who were bitten quickly became infected themselves.
Now, the entire mansion area had been overrun by these monstrosities.
The more he played, the more exhilarated Hubert felt.
The plot was tight, the pacing was intense, and he couldn't put the controller down. He marathoned the entire game, beating it in just over ten hours.
He had never imagined that a horror game could be this... satisfying.