Survival Horror Fever! - Survival Horror 101

With the release of Silent Hill: Downpour 'Anne's Story' and the The Evil Within tie-in comics coming up and the addition of news of upcoming releases of some high profile horror video games; I thought it would be good to do a post on horror video games, more specifically 'survival horror' and the upcoming game 'The Evil Within' that has sparked a bit resurgence of survival horror games in the mainstream gaming world. 

 

So to get all you non-savvy gamers up to date, here is Survival Horror 101.

 

'Survival horror' is the most prominent sub-genre of the overall genre of horror video games.

The 1996 Playstation 1 game 'Resident Evil' created by Shinji Mikami, is credited as the 'first survival horror' game which created many of the game play and game design features that then would go on to be the staples of any survival horror video game.

In its most basic explanation, survival horror put the player in the role of a character who find them in an environment in which that must face all manner of horrors and terrors with a limited supply of items, e.g. the player may find a gun but only find a small of ammunition, they may also rarely find health kits to heal the character. Also you often had limited inventory space, so you can to be wise about what items you wanted to pickup.

 

This lack of items forces player to think carefully about how they want to use their supplies, this also creates unnerving tensions in the game for players as survival horror games love to punish careless players who think they can blast through an area.

Inventive puzzles are another staple feature of survival horror games, usually making up the bulk of the gameplay. The puzzle were rarely easy, often requiring a lot of backtracking and a lot of thinking.
Puzzle were notoriously difficult and convoluted, with the answer sometimes going completely against standard logic.

Atmosphere is key to a survival horror game, usually mixing in bizarre imagery and symbolism, eerie sound design that can create fear and dread in players, creative lighting and well designed areas that push player to feel uncomfortable about going into the next room or around the next corridor.
Traditional survival horror games would use fixed camera angles and draw distances along with limited location to save your game to create panic and fear in the player.
But survival horror also like to reward players who like to explore the crafted environments, leading to games with detailed and explorable areas that allows players in investigate find items and hidden secrets.

Another feature of survival horror was that gun-play and weapons was usually downplayed. This meant that although could defeat enemies, it wasn't all ways the best option as you get end up wasting precious bullets that you may need later. So you could run away or past an enemies to conserve on ammo and health.

One of the big draws-ins of survival horror (at least for me) is the intriguing and suspenseful narratives; survival horror games tend more story heavy than most games, with it usually being the focus of the game. Also, despite the well written narratives, occasionally you get some great unintentionally hilarious and extremely quotable dialogue, such as Eddie's "Lets Party!" quote from Silent Hill 2 and this little exchange in the video below.

Eventually survival horror games hit their peak around 2004. Many mainstream gamers began to get
players became tired and impatient with the out-dated features of survival horror games, such limited resources, cumbersome controls and fixed camera angles. Survival horror started to phase out and become 'Action Horror', forcing survival horror into the indie gaming circle.

For more the decline and revival of survival horror, be sure to see my post on the upcoming survival horror game "The Evil Within".

Thoseof you out there interested in playing some survival horror games here is some of my picks:

The 'Silent Hill' series: especially Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill: Downpour.
Both games are personal favourites and both deal with very adult themes and tackle psychological horror in very creative ways.
The Silent Hill series arguably has the best and most thought provoking narratives in the survival horror genres, with fans still debating today over the various themes and symbolism featured in the games.

Alan Wake:
While you could argue its more thriller than horror, 'Alan Wake' is one of the best example of modern survival horror games. Mixing action with the the core features of survival horror (limited supplies, creeping atmosphere) and an interesting storyline and ending that left many casual gamer scratching their heads.

Dead Space: mainly 1 and 2
A game I affectionately call 'Event Horizon: The Video Game' due some similarity to the film.
Its another recent game that shows that survival horror can still stand in mainstream gaming.
Playing as space engineer Isaac Clarke, you have to escape a mining space craft infested hideous undead creatures that can only be defeated via dismemberment. Throw in interesting story line and an eerie foreboding atmosphere, and you have a classic horror game.

Deadly Premonition:
Despite being released in 2010, this game feature outrageously outdated controls, incredibly bad graphics and gamplay features you would expect to find in 90's survival horror game. But despite this, its a brilliant Twin Peaks inspired game. With quotable bad B-movie dialogue, memorable cast of characters and story that requires to really requires you suspend your disbelief. Its an entreating game that doesn't take itself seriously.

The 'Resident Evil' series: Games 1-4 (or 1996-2004) and Resident Evil Revelations.
The 'original' survival horror series, its worth playing Resident Evil 1 to see how survival horror started. The series is also the the main reason why zombies are so popular in gaming today.