Let's play a game, a game I'd like to call "Raccoon City is more fucked up than Silent Hill and here's how"
First off, Raccoon City doesn't toy around with psychological conflicts. It just throws you straight into the pits of hell itself. Zombies, fires, crashed cars, destroyed buildings surrounds you no matter where you go. You might have a weapon, a gun even. However, if you do have a weapon, you have very little ammo. The clothes you are wearing right now is what you're wearing in this scene. So A.) You're fucked no matter what because you can't carry that much and B.) One bite from a zombie, you're just dead. Leon and Claire at least had some stuff on themselves to protect them from zombie attacks. Don't even bother asking me what was going on with Jill in Resident Evil 3. I'll just say that her survival instincts from the Spencer Mannor led her to successfully leave the city.
But you? You're just stranded, in the city, that's about to be nuked off the map because it's just infested with zombies. So what do you do? Let's say, you believed those who said Umbrella was evil, you believed the media about Chief Brian Irons being a corrupted Chief of Police, and because of that news, you refuse to go to the police station. That alone, is probably the safest move to make. Once you got yourself to the police station as Claire or Leon, you just were in constant trouble in almost every room you went into. You never really saw any lickers out in the streets, did you? Okay then. Not to mention, claustrophobic rooms with zombies ready to eat you, doesn't sound so safe. And the fact that William Birkin, who was already infected with the virus is roaming around underground the damn station, that whole entire area alone would have given your chances of survival going from "I think I can do this" to "absolutely fucking no."
However, there's been one confimed monster that roams around the city, and it's name is Nemesis. You might say, "Well, he's only after S.T.A.R.S. members, he won't go after me." That's fine and dandy, but he's killed people who aren't S.T.A.R.S.. Granted, those people were in the way of Jill, but let's say, you're in Raccoon City probably around the same time she is escaping. You just happen to come across her, and she's got this giant ass mother fucker chasing her. And what do you know? He lays eyes on you. So, now he's after you, because he thinks you're an obstacle in the way of killing Jill. And good luck trying to get this fucker to leave you alone. He won't go away until you are dead or you somehow found enough ammo to fight back. And knowing how spread ammo boxes are in Raccoon City and depending on if you're the type that shoots everything on sight or is smart enough to spare some ammo and just run pass everything, you'll either be successful and lucky, or just dumb out of your luck. My bet is, almost more than half of you would be wasting your ammo on everything that moves, even if a random mouse were to just come out of a hole, you'd shoot it too... and most likely miss.
And what's funny about Raccoon City is that none of the police officers thought "Screw protocal, let's go for the fucking head." I've been told why police officers don't just go immediately for the head of those who fight back. But we're not dealing with crimminals, we're dealing with the undead. Not a single officer in Raccoon City thought to aim to the head. They're shooting at the chests of these undead freaks and wasting precious ammo. So, how reliable are the police in this city? Well, all except one are dead, so uhhh... Pretty un-fucking-reliable I'd say.
But some people will still say "Silent Hill screws you more than Raccoon City." I don't see how that is. I don't. Silent Hill is basically a live-action scene if I were to have a sit-down converation with Scarecrow from Batman. All my horrors and nightmares are alive and coming after me. Oh, you mean hordes of spiders and darkness? Okay, well, I think I could over come my fear of spiders and the dark if I actually tried to stop being a pussy about it and just deal with it. I've killed a handful of spiders on my own without any hand holding, so I think I'd be okay in killing more of them. And, well, if I find a light, I can easily get out of the dark. How exactly are my nightmares supposed to make me feel like I cannot survive when my nightmares aren't that scary and can be overcomed? Now, some other people might have scarier nightmares, but it depends on the person, depends on their mentality, depends on how they choose to overcome things. Is it easy? No, becuase I never said anything of overcoming fears is easy, but I can assume how I can overcome it. And, if you heard that there are people who survived Silent Hill, hey, more good luck on your shoulders.
I just feel that Raccoon City offers more hazards than Silent Hill. Psychological horror vs survival horror. Survival. That alone should be key in knowing how fucked you are because survival means you need to know your shit about everything in the situation you're in. Otherwise, yeah, you're screwed.
Raccoon City gets the vote.
