What happened to Survival Horror?
- Thread starter Wes
- Start date
Have you tried Amnesia? Apparently it's really good.
LinksOcarina
Rookie
Resident Evil 4.
I mean games like Amnesia are great, but every survival horror game that comes out that is of quality of Fatal Frame, of Clock Tower, of the original Silent Hills, is rare.
Resident Evil 4 gave survival horror a more action slant onto it, one that pretty much changed the genre.
I would like to point out though that this is not a bad thing. It still exists in different forms, but the heydays are gone like Platformers, adventure games, light RPGs and Vehicular Combat games, to name a few examples.
I mean games like Amnesia are great, but every survival horror game that comes out that is of quality of Fatal Frame, of Clock Tower, of the original Silent Hills, is rare.
Resident Evil 4 gave survival horror a more action slant onto it, one that pretty much changed the genre.
I would like to point out though that this is not a bad thing. It still exists in different forms, but the heydays are gone like Platformers, adventure games, light RPGs and Vehicular Combat games, to name a few examples.
Bretimus_v2
So tired.
I wouldn't even classify RE4 as survival horror since Leon and his arsenal are pretty boss.
LinksOcarina
Rookie
Bretimus_v2 said:
I know, but its what kind of drove it away. When Resident Evil became more action-oriented.
Wes
Rookie
I wouldn't consider RE4 survival horror either, that's the game that ushered in a new style in horror that was more action oriented.
I'm a huge RE fan and I love the direction the series took off in, but they were never in the field of psychological horror like Silent Hill in the first place. Nonetheless it was all survival horror.
I'm a huge RE fan and I love the direction the series took off in, but they were never in the field of psychological horror like Silent Hill in the first place. Nonetheless it was all survival horror.
LinksOcarina
Rookie
Wes said:
Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 were pretty close in that field, but had a more action/puzzle approach vs pure psychological horror.
Bretimus_v2
So tired.
LinksOcarina said:
Agreed. I really liked 4 too.
Delorean88
Rookie
I honestly liked 5 but I guess because of how action-y it is I could see why people didn't like it. I personally think survival horror could still sell but developers just don't want to chance it. Maybe because games cost more to make and there are higher risks of making a game companies are afraid of being daring because of the major consequences. Survival horror games are tougher and the mass majority may rather buy another COD but look at Dead Space. I consider DS to be survival horror (my classification may be widely different from yours, for a side note I never played Silent Hill) and that series has been successful.
I agree survival horror is dying but who knows it could make a comeback, platformers are making a comeback thru XBLA and PSN. All the genre needs is a successful, outstanding game to reignite the fire.
I agree survival horror is dying but who knows it could make a comeback, platformers are making a comeback thru XBLA and PSN. All the genre needs is a successful, outstanding game to reignite the fire.
TheJx4
Rookie
Actually, let me rephrase my statement: Survival Horror doesn't sell for $60.
Give me a game like Dead Space or Amnesia for $15-$30 and we have a deal. It also just doesn't have that mass appeal of other genres. Then there's the content issues...
I've seen countless numbers of parents buying shooters for their kids, not horror games.
Give me a game like Dead Space or Amnesia for $15-$30 and we have a deal. It also just doesn't have that mass appeal of other genres. Then there's the content issues...
I've seen countless numbers of parents buying shooters for their kids, not horror games.
Delorean88
Rookie
TheJx4 said:
Well........... kids probably shouldn't play survival horror games........ I'm not expert but..... Then again shooters are rated "M" but kids play them. That being said shooting a bloodless body is less disturbing than a necromorph ripping apart your body while blood and organs squirt like old faithful
Pretty much this. Back in the 90's or so, it was not a big deal to make a game like Resident Evil, because there was very little money going into it, it was easy to make, and that was the standard. Basically, a game could be made for only a small niche genre and still be a major game.used44 said:
Nowadays, this is anything but the case. Games cost a shitload of money to make, they're much harder to make, the standards are ridiculously high, there's a whole lot more that can go wrong, they take a long time to make, etc. Games need to be as all encompassing as possible in order to get as many sales as possible, or else they lose a shitload of money. So you can't have a game that's only for a niche market like Survival Horror games are. The closest we get now is stuff like Dead Space, which has very little on the survival end, and only a bit more on the horror end.
WickedLiquid
Regular
RE 1-3 were a blast but I'll always love Silent Hill 1-3 more.
For me, I knew the survival horror cult following was over when SH4 The Room was released. There was just so much wrong with that game. It was intended to be a stand alone horror game but Konami tweaked some of the plot so there was a vauge connection to the series. Then they slapped Silent Hill 4 on the title and hoped fans would buy it.
Somewhere around this time Resident Evil released Outbreak which was another God awful game. Thre were also a few other disasters with RE slapped on like Survivour.
As hipster as it may sound, survival horror was selling out. The smartest decision Capcom could've made at this point was to totally recreate their franchise with RE4. Since then horror has been more action oriented while Silent Hill continues to disappoint.
The only SH game that's been anything close to their golden era is Shattered Memories. And even that game is far from perfect.
For me, I knew the survival horror cult following was over when SH4 The Room was released. There was just so much wrong with that game. It was intended to be a stand alone horror game but Konami tweaked some of the plot so there was a vauge connection to the series. Then they slapped Silent Hill 4 on the title and hoped fans would buy it.
Somewhere around this time Resident Evil released Outbreak which was another God awful game. Thre were also a few other disasters with RE slapped on like Survivour.
As hipster as it may sound, survival horror was selling out. The smartest decision Capcom could've made at this point was to totally recreate their franchise with RE4. Since then horror has been more action oriented while Silent Hill continues to disappoint.
The only SH game that's been anything close to their golden era is Shattered Memories. And even that game is far from perfect.
StickyGreenGamer
Rookie
WickedLiquid said:
A lot of good points here. Perhaps it isn't RE or SH that should be in the crosshair of the change though. Perhaps we should all look at Dino Crisis.
The first one had the tone and environment of survivor horror. The second did not, but was by far a more accessible game. Sometime last year I had a thread about ammo conservation and its impact on the current-gen shooters. I think that can be applied here as well.
Bullets are everywhere in horror games nowadays, and its easy to get around when you have rounds to throw down.
spartan317
Rookie
I always liked that in the original silent hill games you wasn't a Top Flite Security tech and could only shoot something if it attached itself to the proverbial broad side of the barn. It was also a nice touch that you very rarely had enough ammo for the weapons you came across. You had to decide which fights you ran from and which ones you ran past. I had a couple of games where I ended up stuck with a stick fighting a mob of nasties... Hell the 1st RE still scares me when played at high volume in a dark room alone.
