Survival Horror: Hot And Not
By Areala,
July 14, 2009 in Current Generation Video Gaming!
Love it or loathe it, Survival Horror is here to stay. I'm curious to know peoples' views on this genre, what your favorite entries were, and which games or companies dropped the ball in your opinions.
triverse
Play Robo Warrior and fairly early on your without any energy refills and few bombs and your facing a stretch of area that will require at least 100+ bombs to get through and you can't find an enemy to shoot (that is the most plentiful way to get bombs). That is survival horror right there. Did I mention that your energy is constantly going down because your a cyborg?
Of course my introduction to mainstream Survival Horror came with Resident Evil but I had roots in this genre that go back a little farther. I played Friday the 13th on NES (while not exactly SH in it's essence, it is quite similar and has scary moments) and I tried out Silent Debuggers on TG-16 too (again, not exactly SH but still scary). And who didn't try out Alone in the Dark? I played it for the first time on 3DO and loved it (long before I got a Playstation).
The nots? Hmmm, can't think of any at the moment, I am sure there will be plenty of help in this area soon with other posts.
I used to LOVE Alone in the Dark! That cramped setting in the cabin with monsters jumping through the windows, nowhere to go. That was awesome! And how dark it was in there. The whole feel was cool.
Of course Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Silent Hill scared me way more than RE simply because of the ambience. Having that radio with the static.. ugh! That's creepy stuff. I always tried to play with the brightness down on my TV set until I would get too scared to move on.
Anyone remember Dino Crisis? I remember I liked how the graphics looked, but it was just RE with Dinosaurs.
Would anybody consider Haunted House on Atari 2600 a survival horror game?
I don't played many horror games, but recently I played "The Suffering" for PS2 and it was pretty cool
Some would argue that Haunted House was the original survival horror title.
Dino Crisis was, in my opinion, far more than just "Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park". The characters in Dino Crisis were quite well-defined, the dinosaurs required completely different strategies than zombies, and the voice acting was leaps and bounds better.
You know that feeling of stress you get when your talking to someone you owe alot of money to?
I get the same feeling when I play games like Resident Evil. I don't think that's healthy nor do I
feel comfortable but I played through Illbleed on Dreamcast when it was released. It had a different
kind of play system.
8bitforever
I can remember one I played on Saturn called D. It was creepy because you walked around this house and talked to nothing but ghosts.
If you're choosing RE then you haven't tried anything else. They dropped the ball after part 2. Parts 0, 3, and Veronica felt like adventures, 4 was a weak shooter, and I haven't bothered with 5. Silent Hill is a nice choice, so was the Suffering even though that felt like more of a TPS instead. Right now I say the best one I've played is the Fatal Frame series. Clock Tower was ok too.
white-zombie
Resident Evil 4 was fantastic!I would literally lose hours at a time playing it, and it's been ages since that had happened to me with a game.
Resident Evil 2 had jumpy moments, and was quite involving.
NOTHING, however, has scared my like Silent Hill, before or since!
Doom, whilst not a Survival Horror game, still had a sense of urgency that unsettled me.
Nreive
Is RE4 a Survival Horror?? RE1 and 2 were without doubt the best in the series, though.
The original Alone in the Dark was good as well.
I have heard good things about Sweet Home over the years, but can't say I've ever managed to see it.
There is a post with an interesting take on SH here - http://www.destructoid.com/how-survival-horror-evolved-itself-into-extinction-114022.phtml - one may not agree with the author but there are some good points there. (and no, it's not self-promotion and it's not my blog. )
Found this online recently, it is a fanmake of Silent Hill in the style of Myst, all in your browser.
http://www.moregames24.com/2009/07/silent-hill-fr.html
Hidinger
feel comfortable...
Yeah, I have to admit, the first time you are playing through Resident Evil and the dogs jump through the windows in the hallway...you jump.
I pretty much gave up on the whole "Survival Horror" thing when I was playing one of the Resident Evils and got all the way to the end to realize I needed an item that I left in a box at the very beginning of the game (because I have limited pocket space and the boxes are not connected). I then had to run back for like 28 minutes to pick it up and then run all the way back.
I like playing Fatal Frame games alone and at night.
CharmedonWB
The notion that the survival horror genre is dead is completely ridiculous. Like every genre, survival horror games have evolved. If a genre does not evolve with the times, then it effectively dies. Mario 64 may or may not be considered a platformer. Platformer purists might not, but in reality it is--although it might not be in the traditional sense. The point is that once technology advanced into having 3D characters and environments, it was only natural that the once 2D platformer would evolve as well. If it were not for Mario 64, the genre may have died by now (speculation of course). Purists never like change, but change is inevitable. Why do you think there are so many sub-genres for every genre. Genres eventually change making way for sub-genres. Resident Evil 4 may have put more emphasis on exact aiming, combat and reflexes but at its core it is a survival horror game. Sterling seems like a purist and as such he is already biased against anything that does not meet the standard definition of an SH game.
Darydrus
Location: New Braunfels
Can i say Maniac Mansion as it was a survival game of types and a bit horror like
Otherwise i'll go with Resident evil 2 as my favorite and the new Alone in the Dark as the worst.
Here's some after shot's of our heroin Eriko after a tough day on the set of Illbleed. I mean really, what do you do?
Ah yes, the infamous birthday suit mode...
I just got this game recently, though I played through it a long, long time ago. Quirky as all heck, but I love it to death.
Fatal Frame...THAT is an incredible game experience (the whole trilogy). I wish I could say Fatal Frame IV is just as good as the previous three, but as I neither have a Wii nor live in Japan, the chance that I'll ever get to play it seems remote at best now. I didn't think I'd ever get my hands on a copy of Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (without paying over $60+), and for the longest time I was kicking myself over the fact that I had the opportunity to buy it when it first came out but didn't want to spend the $40 it cost at that time, but one day I strolled into my local game store and they had a copy of it on their shelves. Rather like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, it was one of those titles I just assumed I would never see in my lifetime until I lucked into it.
ObsCure is another title that I absolutely adore that nobody has ever heard of, which is a shame because it's really enjoyable for a co-operative survival horror experience (much more playable, in my opinion, than the two Resident Evil: Outbreak titles). ObsCure: The Aftermath was not as good as the original, but still wasn't a bad effort. Lacklustre sales have no doubt killed any chance of a third title in the series, but the second game does sort of wrap up the whole story arc for many of the characters involved, so maybe that's for the best.