The Anatomy of the Roaming Monster 

“Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”

"These enemies should not be a gimmick, but instead a staple of survival horror." Very well said!

Surprise that you didn't mention how the Xenomorph loses its fear of fire or starts figuring out in what kind of places you hide most often.

The scariest thing in survival horror games is finding an abundance of ammo, nothing good is about to happen when the game starts throwing ammo at you

I don't think any roaming monster will be able to top Nemesis in the original RE3. Nemesis broke a damn loading screen to pursue you. Such a clever trick Capcom came up with with the "fake door" in the clocktower.

Games were you cannot defend yourself can be effective, but it needs to be as you said, reasonable, if it´s like in Outlast II where most of the time you run from ordinary, if a little crazy villagers as a grown man, you´d think you´d be able to wack them over the head with a rock or something... I feel like the Bunker Beast is like a little Brother to the Alien, I mean due to the developers being a small studio of course there is no chance of reaching the technological heights of Alien Isolation, but the experiences felt extremely similar to me though honestly I prefer the combination of a dark World War 1 Bunker with it´s dim lighting and the constant shelling a little more over the often brightly lit Sevastopol Station in combination with a prowling stalker enemy, mostly because the Bunker Beast will typically stay out of sight for longer then the Alien which involves a fair bit of cinematic encounters, which while still awesome also somewhat strip away the mystery for me, What I liked about the Bunker Beast is that not only is it a constantly looming threat in the game, the way it´s presented also goes out of it´s way to hide it as best, so when you are attacked you often only ever get to see a glimpse of a hand or a claw or because you might just see it´s silhouette beneath the flickering lights, the Alien is a lot more exposed due to the area it´s in and since it´s the Alien, which is part of a relatively well known media there is not too much mystery as to what it actually is, which diminishes the whole sequence a bit for me but that´s just my taste

My headcannon is that you're not being hunted by a single Xenomorph in the Sevastopol, but rather the ones that you cross paths with, and every encounter they have with you is being shared wth the rest of the colony so they know what they're up against

The courier from Skyrim is scarier than all of these losers

It seems to me that, when it comes to stalker enemies, there can be a very fine line between scary and annoying. If they don't show up enough, they won't pose a credible threat. But if they show up too often, they cease to be scary and start becoming annoying. I've seen very few games that, for me at least, managed to get that balance just right.

the issue i have with alien isolations ai is that technically the alien is constantly tethered too you meaning that although you make no noise moving from place to place it still follows you and with the ai wanting to fulfill an "menace gauge" the alien will constantly walk to where you are making it feel less like a roaming entity and more like a mom checking on their sick kid constantly

Resident evil Outbreak FIle 2 had it as well, Tyrant at the end of the road scenario, and axeman in flashback scenario, and in file 1 leechman in the Hive scenario, it was pretty cool

After playing Alien Isolation, I started to not find the Outlast enemies as spooky to hide from cause everything is a scripted encounter, whereas the slightest loud noise on Sevastopol will summon the alien, regardless of where you are. I remember using noise makers to let the alien take out a group of hostile survivors for me while I hid. Can’t really do that anywhere else.

mr x had me so scared that i would continuously procrastinate going to a certain area and cautiously plan out a way to my objective before setting out

Haunting Ground and the Clock Tower Franchise are fantastic examples of a Stalker Horror games. Great video, by the way!

Horror games always failed to scare me except one: Evil Within 2. And it was all cause of the Anima segments, specifically her town encounters. After her first encounter, she can appear randomly in the town. Fog will set in and her laugh gets closer as you wander the streets. You actually have to book it to another side of town to escape her as she chases you diwn the streets. I actually quit the game because I was so freaked out by that. I wish horror games did this more, where the monster could be anywhere in the town you're exploring but by bad luck you run into it after turning the wrong corner.

About the Amnesia Bunker part,it actually has a monster name, which is just "the stalker", and when it comes to shooting it,one round is usually enough, but it might get up again which makes him very unpredictable.

There were two separate times I got killed by the alien from the ceiling vents and had no idea why it keeps randomly happening to me. Until I went back to the same spot I got killed in and saw dripping saliva. I avoided those and haven’t died ever since.

i had no idea this was a small channel, this has the production quality of big channels and I love it. definitely gonna sub

I always put an enemy like this in my horror games. I call them "Pursuers." What I think really creates the tension is when you just don't know if you are safe. Like the first time you played Re2 remake and were not sure if MR X could go into certain rooms or not. It kept the tension high.

The Hunter necromorph from the Dead Space franchise falls into the category of the Roaming Monster. It will chase you room to room and can *not* be killed by any conventional means by the player. It's only stopped by first freezing it solid and, after a few missions, it returns. The only means to killing it off for good is to stun it near a jet engine and incinerating it to ash in lieu of cryogenically freezing it.

This is unpopular but you should look at the Night Shift Abductor/Butcher from Stay Out Of The House. While he isn't killable, he is able to be scared of if you shoot him a few times with a gun. He is essentially just like the Bunker Beast except the environment you are placed in is a tiny cramped house packed with traps made by him that will alert him or wound you if you step into them. He also not only reacts to light and sound but when actively chasing the player down, he takes SHORTCUTS, while the Xenomorph, Mr X and Bunker Beast chase the player directly, Butcher will sometimes run somewhere else in order to ambush you from the front.

Wow this channel is a hidden gem! I hope you do more videos like this! These are very entertaining and very well done. Just subbed

Im surprised you didnt mention any of the enemies from Monstrum! Monstrum’s catalogue actually hits on most of the enemy types covered in this video, with The Hunter being a lot like the alien, the Brute being like Nemesis and Mr. X, and The Fiend being like the Bunker Beast.

In my opinion the bunker beast is the best, because one thing I hate about the xenomorph is that it doesn't give you a chance to run away, if it sees you you're dead. Instead the bunker beast allows you to run and hide, making it less frustrating and more terrifying.

“6-8 hour playthrough” Are you shitting me? Alien Isolation took me over 20 hours.

For enimes like the alien and the bunker beast, being able to fight back somewhat makes it feel more accurate to call them adversaries then just plain old stalkers.

that headlight beast in the evil within dlc scared me to death, one of the best imo, but you are able to kill her just don't have the tools

Subbing. I love your detail and articulation around survival horror and Resident Evil 4 etc as well as this particular subject matter.

These types of enemies are such an untapped gold mine, they encapsulate the spirit of Survival Horror games perfectly: hiding, running and careful consideration of resources - whether to take the shot or run. I want to see more of these things, when done right they can elevate the experience much, much higher than it would be otherwise.

I think the old "call of cthulhu " game did this masterfully. You got guns early on but the game was still scary as hell

I was really hoping youd mention the alien's AI and how it will eventually ignore the flamethrower if you use it too much, or learn to seek your favorite hiding spots and such

Alien Isolation brought this enemy type into my vocabulary and yes, this type of enemy is so damn terrifying

I remember the regenerator on dead space 1 the original was so fucking terrifing

I know it's not a roaming monster, but the build up to the Verdugo fight in the original Resident Evil 4 and the remake is terrifying. The game switching to it's POV and then having to dodge it is stress inducing to me and then it just shows up when you call the elevator. No cutscene to let you know, it just pops out of the vents and starts the fight.

After experiencing what Frictional Games is taking forward for their future after experiencing The Bunker? I think they're the only available developers within the industry to ACTUALLY develop a future horror game, with a roaming monster having the same AI experience from Alien: Isolation *Yes...* I very much HONESTLY believe that they are the true successors to those who created Alien isolation.

Although there are some features of the game and aspects of the xenomorph's behavior that are very interesting and frightening, the abundance of resources at your hands to scare it off really knock down the intimidation factor. An interesting detail you neglected to mention was it's interaction with noise makers. In a given area or section of the map, the first time it hears a noise maker, it will walk over and examine it. Repeated attempts with the noise maker are met with a cold shoulder, like it knows you're messing with it. What makes the stalker from AtB more intimidating for me would be the resource management aspect. You have limited inventory and a generator that needs to be supplied. With limited randomly generated resource spawns, you are potentially limited by resources and time, forcing the player to keep moving, finding the optimal balance between speed and security, but moving nonetheless (whereas you can easily hide in a locker and wait for the xenomorph to go away with the scanner). The pressure is on you, and the stalker is waiting for you to mess up.

The xeno is one of the only roaming monsters to truely make me scream

What game is at 1:40?

What do you think of the Clock Tower games? Roaming Monsters are a big part of that series.

We need a terminator game where you have to hide from it and can’t kill it like in alien isolation

I feel like the monster being immortal shouldn't be a requirement in RE3, not only is Nemesis killable, you're rewarded for doing so with the tradeoff being that accomplishing that task is a hefty undertaking that will dwindle your resources significantly. I think this approach works wonders so long as you can't _permanently_ kill it outside of some final bossfight or what have you. I'm also confused cause I could've sworn that Nemesis' whole gimmick was that he could show up at any time so long as you stay in one area for long enough, but in this video you claimed that he only shows up during optional boss-fights. Did you just speed through that game and miss the entire point of that character or am I misunderstanding that game's mechanics? Either way I feel like that system in theory works wonders, because every regular combat encounter leaves you stressing over whether to use your munitions now or save them for the big guy, and once you do finally kill him, you're left in such dire straights with your resources that even the little guys become a serious threat again. That's not even considering that after you've killed this monster, they could show up at any point before you're prepared to fight it again, leaving you in the same panic as you would be in your first few encounters with them. I dunno, to me at least, making these kind of enemies invincible feels cheap to me, like I'm not being given a choice with how to handle them. I feel like having that choice makes these encounters more horrifying, because while you know they can die, you aren't always certain if you can kill them at any given moment. That uncertainty is unnerving, and with the reward for pulling it off being so tantalizing [if done correctly], it becomes really tempting to push your luck, which will inevitably come back around to make the game harder, and more tense regardless of whether or not you succeed. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I prefer my horror games to be mechanically interesting so that I can still enjoy them even once the fear wears off. That is _if_ the fear wears off. Personally games like Outlast bore the fuck of me, since the monsters don't scare me and the _core gameplay loop_ is built around hiding because your scared. That sorta thing just makes me feel like my time is being wasted. Genuinely having the option to fight _or_ hide makes those kinds of encounters more fun, because typically you'll have a solid reason to pick either one depending on how you've managed your resources, which makes both styles of gameplay feel more fun as they feed back into each other, creating an engaging gameplay loop where the power dynamics between the player and the game are constantly shifting. Anyway that's way too much text uh- *SUMMARY:* I feel like the invincibility comes off as a cheap trick that weakens the tension and prevents me from really being scared in most cases. Needing to decide whether or not you're in a good spot to even _try_ fighting the big fucker always feels more engaging, because regardless of what you pick, it will have a heavy impact on how you play the game up until your next encounter with them. To me at least, it feels more engaging mechanically, and often times more unnerving in terms of horror/tension as a result of that interactivity.

I prefer to call these guys "Pursuers", and they almost always end up one of the most memorable parts of any game they are in, horror or otherwise. The way their mere presence completely changes your approach is just so good! (Also, great use of the Lost In Vivo OST)

I would argue that the bunker beast is (at least in one way) superior to the alien. My reasoning behind this is: As terrifying as the alien is, it is essentially tethered to you, meaning that it will technically know where you are and follow you, regardless of how you play... This is terrifying in it's own right, but it also turns the xenomorph into something annoying rather than scary once you realise this. The bunker beast is, as you described it, like a lion waiting to pounce... It doesn't know where you are, but it knows that you WILL make a mistake, and when you do... Well, you know.

15:41 Jack/Margarette Baker, the Alien and OG re3 Nemesis were the only ones to ever kill me in any of these games. I would say Jack and Alien are my favorites cause they actually were challenging to get around. At least until i beat re7 for the billionth time

11:31 This is only partially correct. There is a moment in the game where a hole appears in the safe-room and the safe-music stops playing, signalling that the safe-room is no longer safe. However, this hole is purely cosmetic and only exists to screw with you, making you believe you are in danger. A Perfect example of a type of horror which i feel like is heavily underutilized: telling players they are in danger when they're really not. Games like Iron Lung basically consist fully of this.

I'm sad Bioshock infinite was originally planned to have one in the form of SongBird

I can think of a few games that would’ve been a lot better if they had pursuing enemies. Adam Smasher from Cyberpunk comes to mind, it’d be an unkillable enemy who you can only beat at the end of the game. In Subnautica they treated the warpers as if they were supposed to start hunting you down midway through the game, but that never happened.

I loved the emmi from Metroid dread. sure theres kind of a boss to defeat them, so the don’t really count. That being said i love the sounds they make and how you can tell when one is near and you have less then 5 seconds to hide. More or less the fact that they use the abilities you have makes them even more threatening.

Nemesis in the original RE3 WAS a roaming monster. He did have many scripted moments, but he could also appear randomly in many locations throughout the early-mid parts of the game. I guess you could technically defeat him but it was only temporary and wasted far too many resources in early playthroughs.

im gonna be honest, i think Mr. X kinda sucks. Since there aren't any stealth mechanics or ways to elude him, he's just a moving roadblock that forces you to take a detour sometimes. With The Beast, he can be eluded and subdued, meaning he's seen few enough times so that the times that he does come out, whether that be from you messing up, an unnaccounted for variable, or the game just deciding to do a little trolling, you're forced to utterly run for your life through cramped hallways, hoping you can avoid any tripwires or rat infested corpses on the way back to a hiding spot.

I also thought it was so clever how Mr. X reversed the survival horror "Better run and safe amo" tactic! Having played various Resident Evil games before starting with RE2 Remake i went about saving amo as much as possible, lurking around lickers and leaving zombies be as often as possible. Once Mr. X appereared i regretted that decision very fast, especially in the hallways with the lickers :D

The Xenomorph in Isolation had 2 x AI's, right? I remember reading about this, how they made it so realistic, and frightening. It has something to do with 2 x AI's. (sorry for all the comments, mate. interesting video mate, and I have been commenting as I go)

Just been playing REmake 2 again, but with the infinite weapons. As soon as X shows up, shoot him with a rocket, and he goes down. When he first shows up, was able to down him, and run straight passed Him. It's funny when you have infinite rocket launcher, as He simply becomes a none-issue. I remember when the game first came out, and I played with Headphones so I could track his movements better. I also walked a lot, as if you run, it alerts Him to you. There are some sections where he will Teleport right to you (like when you pick up level for the book shelf. he teleports right out side the room) I think He also teleports to the stars room corridor, when you go there, too. I think He also teleports to the library when you use the lever (well close to, anyway) I seen a whole thing on how he works, a couple of years ago, and this confirmed it. He definitely will teleport at scripted events like pick up's and use of items.

Usually I play horror games on easier difficulties cus I'm a pussy cat, at first they seem scary, but as I progress through the game, especially near the end I lose all fear of the monster as I waltz around the map & shoot the monster whenever it shows it's face, talking about the bunker beast & the xenomorph. oh & is it just me or does everyone save a lot of items in the games because I'd think I'd need them later on somewhere but I just end up completing the game with a boatload of unused hoarded loot.

14:53 the Working Joe pushed through the railing.

It all started with Nemesis... it's unfortunate that Capcom didn't do him justice in the Remake. Don't get me wrong...unlike the vast majority, I actually enjoy playing RE3R, regardless of the length and cut story content.

This video is great! It’s a reminder to me that I still need to play the new Amnesia game and the first example that came to mind for me was the Xenomorph. Alien Isolation is one of the best horror games ever. Also no offense, but you sound like it Pyrocynical were an Aussie lol

Alien Isolation was my first horror game that I was being followed throughout the experience. I still remember the first time I had the flamethrower and saw the Alien and was like “now you burn” only for it to run away and hide for a couple of minutes before revisiting me. I was shocked as I thought you could kill the Alien once you get the flamethrower. Still one of my favourite horrors to play but I do dislike that the AI for the Alien constantly knows where you are as it’s clear by how much it comes over to your location even when you don’t make noise, it’s just there to give the fear factor.

I still think it’s a shame you didn’t mention Jack Baker in this video cause he’s my personal favourite stalker enemy and one that’s manages to consistently make me laugh while also making me scared shitless. The way he’s programmed compared to Mr X is unpredictable since he doesn’t exactly follow a set path and instead wanders not to mention he gets really quiet at times so when I was playing RE7 to get trophies for the platinum he’d always manage to get the jump on me.

They're all masterfully done IMHO, but IMHO Mr. X easily has the most personality. He's full of memes for you, and he's GONNA DELIVER TO YA!

Stalkers are the scariest enemies for sure but I absolutely hate them in games because they make my experience feel overly rushed. I love being able to move cautiously through a game, where the only thing holding me back is my own fear. I think having a roaming enemy for a small portion is great to spice things up, but this is rarely the case. For example in RE2make I wish that Mr X died in the car explosion, the fact that he keeps coming back is tedious to me. Especially in the second playthrough as Claire.

Rezcoe sent me. I relate to the things you say in this. Saying things most gamers haven't gone into. Clarification on experience I've had playing some of the best video games.

Remember that Nemesis is (arguably) the poster boy of the roaming monsters, and yet RE3R featured only 1 true cat and mouse sequence with Nemesis (in those streets in the first act), with all other sequences being either generic boss fights or scripted running segments. Never forgive or forget the lost potential of RE3R.

Looks like the algorithm is gonna bestow it’s perks upon you, hopefully your channel blows up now!

Keep making videos! Just found you and can't wait to see more

You appear to have been graced by the algorithm, good sir This was a nice watch though, I enjoyed it quite a bit

The Ubermorph in Dead Space was the scariest creature for me....

does anyone know the game at 0:20? Also, great video :)!!

Something else about the alien, it learns from you, the more you hide the more it searches you fight back? It’ll wait till your out of ammo, it isn’t just stalking you, it’s learning from you

I found a mod for Skyrim a while back that adds a lore friendly enemy based off of Nemesis from RE3 He is um He is horrifying

Best stalker enemy? Tell you what try rain world you won't be disappointed

i never really had much trouble running from mr x as you said except for two occasions where he happened to walk through a door as i was distracted trying to sneak by lickers. got a yelp from me when he hit me with a haymaker and my next priority was running from HIM, which got me killed by the licker

Also what makes the xenomorph from alien isolation extra scary from a game design standpoint is it has two Ai brains. Brain one always knows where the player is. Brain 2 controls the actual xenomorph. During the game brain one will give hints on where the player is until it finds you. So no matter what you have to keep moving because eventually it will find you. I wish more horror used that approach.

the ai in alien isolation is too advanced man ive played through it like 4 times on the hardest difficulty its always an amazing experience it differs from the last and how you defend yourself against the xenomorph and the fact that the sensor always bugs out and you cant figure out exactly where it is sometimes makes it truly terrifying

The xenomorph in alien isolation was terrifying. Never screamed out loud playing a horror game until my first playthrough of this masterpiece.

Crow mauler from fear and hunger

I remember playing Doom 3 back in the day and thinking how cool would it be if the monsters had their own systems of vents to crawl through and ambush the player in a non scripted manner, it is cool that thought materialized with Alien Isolation and Amnesia the Bunker.

This roaming monster thing really killed my love for dying light 2. If there was one op killing machine in that game it would be fine. But you have a horde of hunting monsters every night what makes the game unplayable. Some devs really fuck up good games wit really bad updates.

The best enemies are ones you can’t beat. The feeling of gaining power if good in a horror but we need enemies like that to humble you so you know that whatever you do, somethings always gonna beat you.

A game with good roaming creatures is Haunted Ground, throughout the game you're being chased by multiple different people and the music they play when you're on the run is terrifying, you have very scarce amount of options of running away, including doggo that's with you, the only way to fully avoid them is hiding, even then, there's a chance they can find where you're hiding, especially when you hide there repeatedly

Well the save in the Police Station main hall doesn't deter him (for RE:2) - I saved right next to him and ran away. (And FYI I got to the next section - I was probably near the end somewhere in the sewers but just never finished the game for some reason).

Yeah I'm gonna disagree on the Alien Isolation Xenomorph being better than the Bunker beast. The Xenomorph can end up hanging around the room you're in for way too long to the point that staying in hiding becomes a really obnoxious game of waiting at which point I am too annoyed to be scared anymore and it being tethered to your position means this can happen stupidly often unless you play like you're trying not to wake up your parents at 3 AM at all times, which is not good especially for a game that's like ~20 hours. I had to beat Alien Isolation with a mod that gets rid of the tether just to make the game bearable for me. And I know you made this before the update where it was implemented, but the bunker beast can be made unpredictable using modifiers.

15:15 FUCK that got me.

this was such a good video essay :)

On higher difficulties and especially in the dark, the Beast will be roaming in a similar fashion as Mr. X. Majority of that time he will be out searching for you.

I always liked that regerating enemy in dead space games it was tense even tho you put an end to it eventually

Got my sub

On my first playthrough of RE3 Remake after the first encounter with Nemesis I ran to the nearest safe room and the guy actually GOT INSIDE WITH ME! I'll be honest I got scared but I thought that was a cool feature, but turns out it was just a bug :((

I know this game isnt a masterpiece of horror or something but i love nun masacre

The intro of this video is so real. Nothing get my heart racing like finding a room full of Green Herbs and First Aid Sprays lmao

Honorable mention has to go to Mr. Shakedown from Yakuza 0

mr x was so scary, so well made horror experience!

You keep calling X well dressed while he's literally wearing a flashers jacket

This is an absolutely incredible video, I wish I had more friends interested in this subject I could share this video to. Please make more if you can

It's like we took the persistence hunter aspect of a human and turned it into an invincible & strong monster.

I like the idea of needing a certain ammo type that you may or may not find to put down a pissed monster

Nothing will scare me more than the unkillable necromorph in dead space so terrifying to look at and when put in a room with standard necromorphs truly makes great and challenging encounters

BTW mate, do you recommend signalis? the whole "lesbian robot" thing has kind of put me off TBH. Sick of this stuff being shoe horned into games so the devs get good boy points. Is the game good enough to make you not care about the silly, self insert politics? Also, did you see that other, RE inspired one? (think it's called "you will die here tonight") it's like RE1 exploration and puzzles, with House of the Dead combat. Thinking about getting that, too.

I realize that the game could only be called 'survival horror' by someone mentally challenged, but for the record I was a little sad you didn't offer a mention of 'Evil Otto' from the game 'Berzerk' that came out in 1980. (Yes, I am old.) The game is very different. But the idea of a stalking enemy that is unkillable and dogs your steps for the entire run of the game? Otto is the OG. Damn smiley-faced bastard.

RE: Nemesis was such a good game (especially considering it was never supposed to be a mainline entry, and was an incredibly short game when compared to RE2) I find the Nemesis AI to be amazing. The way the Nemesis can read your intentions, and act accordingly. it knows your tricks, and it's not falling for them. I think I need to get a gamecube and see if I can get RE2 and 3 for it. They're probably the best versions of those games. I do have them on my PSN account , but no console to play them on. Would really love to play those games again. RE was my most favourite series of games for the longest time. I think only with the advent of Dark Souls, I found something new.