Wikipedia defines survival horror as a game genre in which odds are stacked against the player so as to de-emphasize direct combat, and instead encourage the player to avoid enemies. This is generally done by limiting resources such as ammunition and healing items, and by making the player’s avatar relatively weak, as opposed to other action games like Halo or God of War. The setting in a survival horror game is generally dark and horrific, and challenges are often non-combat related, taking the form of puzzles, mazes, and inventory management.
From my perspective, survival horror titles are a dying breed. The old greats like Resident Evil 2 and Eternal Darkness may never be topped. Newer games like Dead Space and Resident Evil 5 are very good, but their status as survival horror titles is questionable. A quiz that I recently took identifies me as a “Survivor-Achiever”, apparently meaning that survival horror is my genre of choice. I’ll certainly admit that I absolutely love being startled/scared by games. But it happens so rarely.
Let’s take a quick look at the history of the survival horror genre. Leaving out oldies like the Atari 2600 game Haunted House, the genre sees its origins with the 1992 PC game Alone in the Dark, and with Silent Hill and the Resident Evil series that appeared in the late 90’s on the Playstation.
In the early 2000’s, we see Resident Evil: Code Veronica X and Fatal Frame, which are both clearly within the survival horror genre, and also Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, one of the first non-Playstation survival horror games.
The 2004 game Doom 3 has many survival horror elements, but most people agree that the game is first and foremost a first-person shooter.
In 2005, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was released. Although there is little question that it’s a survival horror game, I found it to be buggy and horribly frustrating. It also marked XBox’s attempt at an entry into the survival horror genre.
2005 also gave us Resident Evil 4, which to me really marked the death of classical the survival horror genre. Resident Evil had always been the flagship of survival horror games. While Resident Evil 4 was a fantastic game, it was clearly far more of a third-person action game than a survival horror game. Condemned: Criminal Origins and F.E.A.R. came out right around the same time. While both tried, neither was truly survival horror, due to a focus on combat in each.
Dead Space gave me new hope. While it can’t really be classified as survival horror, there were a few brilliant moments in the game that gave me a frightened feeling I haven’t really gotten from any game since Resident Evil 2. This is probably the best we’ll see in terms of survival horror for the forseeable future. I hope that games like this thrive in the future.
Lastly, Fatal Frame 4, which I have not played. Fatal Frame 4 was released for the Nintendo Wii in 2008, but only in Japan. That would be why I haven’t played it. It’s sad, really.
I’m not sure whether true survival horror as a genre is dead or not. I really do miss running from horrible creatures that you’re not supposed to kill. In most of the true survival horror games, you gain nothing from killing monsters. No cash, no loot, no experience points. Thus, running is generally a more attractive option. You’ll need that ammo when you’re backed into a corner.
