Is the Survival Horror genre dead?

The Game Room
1

I recently came across something I had no idea existed until yesterday: Resident Evil 3.5. That page gives an overview of essentially what was Resident Evil 4, very early in development. Well, that’s not quite accurate; it was basically an entirely different game that was scrapped - really, two different games: the “Fog Version” and the “Hookman version.”

Both of these prototype games, of which only small beta versions were ever created, were possible directions the Resident Evil series could have gone in. They were both much more similar to the “Survival Horror” roots of the genre, seemingly relying mostly on psychological horror, with some hallucinatory elements, and building tension through darkness and silence.

As Resident Evil fans know, this premise was abandoned and the game went in the other direction - third-person action shooter. Many of the horror elements were abandoned and while Resident Evil 4 managed to be very atmospheric in its own way, most of the tension of the originals was missing. You fought hordes of bad guys all coming at you at once, and ammunition was always in plentiful supply. You never really felt all that vulnerable. It was an excellent action game in its own right, but I would not really describe it as “Survival Horror.”

The next game, Resident Evil 5, was in my opinion outright trash totally unworthy of even being part of the series. It took the action elements of 4 to Painkiller/Serious Sam levels, turning into a mindless shooter, and all the environments looked very boring and unmemorable.

I have no idea if a 6 is on the way - I suspect it is, but I doubt it’ll be a return to the game’s roots. If anything, the way current trends are going, I predict it will place a huge emphasis on online multiplayer, be action-oriented, and very short on the survival horror elements.

Looking at the “Resident Evil 3.5” prototype games practically makes me want to cry when I think about how the series could have turned out had they chosen to go in that direction. Being a lifelong fan on this series ever since I was a young kid of 11 or 12, I have been forever in pursuit of the tension and atmosphere that the very first games provided. I would rank the games in this order:

Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 1
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Resident Evil 3
Resident Evil 4

I’m not even putting Resident Evil 5 on that list because it’s so bad.

My question is, is the Survival Horror genre gone for good? Do modern gamers lack the patience or the stomach for it? Try as I might to find a truly atmospheric SCARY game for the PS3, I’ve been unable to.

2

Man, you either whine about every game or your tastes in games are so ultra-specific.

Although, you are right with Resident Evil 5. That, based on the demo, was a horrible game.

3

So you admit I have a point. The series has lost the things that made it special to begin with, namely tension and atmosphere.

As for being too critical of games, I’m praising an entire game series except for one entry (the most recent one.) That’s an example of games that I think were done right, which makes it all the more frustrating when their sequels are done so wrong.

4

Weird. I found that one to have the most tension and be the scariest of the bunch, as well as just immensely superior from a gameplay perspective.

That said, Resident Evil 5 was terrible.

Anyway, I thought Dead Space, while more similar in vein to RE4, certainly resides within the survival horror genre. It’s it’s one of the scariest games I’ve played in the last 5 years.

5

Let me guess, you preferred the over-the-shoulder moving camera view to the fixed cameras of the earlier games? If I’m correct in this, you’re not alone, as it was the most common criticism of the earlier RE games as well as one of the most heralded and praised innovations of RE4. It may have offered better control over the player character and better aiming, but I think it totally killed the tension created by the fixed cam.

Code Veronica, originally for Dreamcast, had a good compromise: a semi-fixed camera that moved around 3D environments.

6

I didn’t get that far in the game. The control scheme is what lost it for me. Shitty controls should not be the reason encounters are scary/tougher.

Following sequels, done shittier, is an odd phenomenon. Do developers run out of ideas? Lose their focus? Stop caring about that product/storyline? Some of all of those?

7

Indeed, but that’s just one of myriad reasons why I enjoyed it more. I didn’t find that it killed the tension at all, instead it enhanced it by providing a more meaningful and believable means of interacting with the environment.

8

Depends, really, on how you define “survival horror” as arguably the RE games got farther and farther away from that genre as the series went on. RE4 and esp RE5 had hardly any survival in them as you were given loads of ammo and never really had to conserve. If you don’t mind overlooking the survival aspect of horror games than there are definitely still some around (Dead Space, which has a sequel coming out, is great but again you have loads of resources. Another one is Alan Wake. Alone in the Dark, though I heard the latest game wasn’t very good.)

If the survival aspect is important to you, though, then yea the genre is pretty much dying. There was one game for the PC that I heard about that was very atmospheric and very scary, and you had no weapons so you couldn’t fight off the monsters, you just had to run and hide. That sounds like it might be up your alley, I just can’t recall the name.

9

Having more ammo doesn’t mitigate the survival aspect–the game is still entirely about survival.

10

I believe you’re thinking of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, for the PC. I recently bought this on Steam and played for about an hour - seems like it would be a great atmospheric and scary game. The only reason I haven’t gone back to it is there is some kind of sound glitch that makes a nasty scraping noise any time my character moves. Really hard to get into the experience when it sounds like I’m wearing sandpaper on my feet.

As for Survival Horror, Dead Space is the best recent example I can think of. Other posters have alluded to the fact that most games these days load you down with ammunition and weapons, killing any possible tension or fear of death. This alone is enough to make an otherwise scary game into a boring shoot-em-up. Tension is what makes a survival horror game shine and I can only hope game developers will come up with non-ammo rationing ways to instill that tension into the game and, by extension, the player.

11

That’s where we disagree then - I think conservation of supplies was one of the main ways that tension was created in the first Survival Horror games, and taking it away just turns the game into a shoot-em-up action game. Not once in all the time I played RE4 did I feel like I was in any real danger, even when I played on the hard difficulty. You can get ammo so easily (dead villagers drop it - villagers armed with pitchforks!) and you can buy weapons and ammunition from merchants scattered all over the game in every conceivable area.

In RE1 you’d be in a safe room with two shotgun shells, a 15 round box of ammunition, one green herb and three Hunters lurking in the hallway outside and you had to figure out what you were going to do. Run past them? Waste that precious herb on the damage you’ll take from the Hunters instead of saving it for later? Try to kill them? Try to just shoot them so they fall down and then run past them? Run in one direction to confuse them, then run in another while they’re jumping to attack you? Take a different route through the mansion to try to find more supplies - exposing yourself to more risk in the process? This is what Survival Horror is all about and there was none of it at all in the later RE games.

12

Agreed - RE5 was utter dross. Nothing short of video gaming schlock. No fear factor. No surviving. Face-palm horror. Shovelware that pandered to the dominant lowbrow actioner gaming market at the expense of any integrity the series had. And although I champion the cause of local co-op in as many games as possible, it really had no place in RE5 outside of the Mercs mode. Tension cannot be maintained when someone’s got your back… not that RE5 had any of said ingredient to begin with.

The only game that comes close to a genuine survival-horror game this console generation is Dead Space… and that’s really only if you play it on ‘Impossible’ difficulty with starting accoutrements and don’t whore the more incongruously OP weapons the game throws at you as the story progresses. The fear factor is what you make it, in other words.

The irony is, many of the complaints directed at DS were that it was too scary - lol! So bank on the sequel being ‘actioned up’ and dumbed down for the masses, as is Electronics Afterbirth’s wont. Just look at the ‘Ramboification’ metamorphasis the Joe Anybody ‘engineer’ has undergone in the footage showed so far and the emphasis on the multiplayer (which is a blatant rip-off of the ‘Beast’ mode Gears 3 has introduced), and it’s patent as to which direction the series is careening in.

Like with the simplification of fighting games inkeeping with the less refined, superficial gaming market of today, fear in games too has been ‘simplified’ - ie. supplanted with gratuitous violence and gore. The understanding that elelments like the fundamental need of maintining atmosphere, the importance of subtle, deep ambient audio and that it’s what you DON’T SEE that puts the ‘scare’ in scary, seems to have been drowned out by the overwhelming Gen Wii and FPS chorus of “Gimmie gunz! Gimmie blood! Gimmie zombiezzzzzzz!!”. :rolleyes:

I suppose the logic is that gamers have so little imagination these days - demanding HD graphics and audio before a game can even be considered decent - that developers feel they’re better off ‘telling’ people what’s scary, rather than letting them determine it for themselves. The problem being, those with no inkling of what’s scary lecturing others on the subject is the very definition of the blind leading the blind. -_-

(*Is there a link to this ‘RE3.5’?)

13

Right in the first sentence of the OP. Looking at that concept makes it abundantly clear that the game developers already have the good ideas, but aren’t applying them.

14

Saying that adding more ammo turned it into a “shoot-em-up action game” is really doing the game a gigantic disservice.

Ammo acquisition is no doubt easier, though I found myself running out constantly my first time through. But what you’ve failed to take into consideration is the larger ammo account enabled a much greater enemy count, which only added to the fear and tension. In addition, the greater ammo count was matched by a larger weapon count, allowing for a much different kind of ammo conservation. In RE4 it wasn’t “should I shoot him or not,” but also, “with what weapon.”

Some of the greatest moments of tension I felt in any videogame came as I about to be gang-banged by a bunch of not-zombies, frantically brought up the inventory screen and had to strategically decide which weapon I should use, taking into account its power, range, accuracy, spread, and most importantly ammo count. Of course, the option to run still existed as well, and I found it to be as viable as ever.

But putting all of this aside, there is so much more to a survival horror game than the bullets to enemy ratio. Isolation, dread, atmosphere, tension, sound design, level design, are all elements that, when used correctly, are used in ways unique to the survival horror genre. And I believe RE4 to represent the pinnacle of this all.

15

You and I are never going to see eye to eye on this, from what you’ve said above - which is fine, since there’s not really any right or wrong answer to what is scary in a game. It varies from person to person. But personally I don’t get anything out of the mobs of enemies. It’s scarier to me when there’s a lot of silence, long periods of not fighting any enemies at all, to heighten the tension, and then a few very well-placed and well-timed “jump” sequences. For the same reason that I’ve never found movies with hordes of zombies to be scary; I’ve only ever been scared by films with only one or a very few antagonists, like Alien.

I do have to take issue with your mention of “sound design” as being one of the things that makes a game scary. This is indeed true. But RE4 had atrocious sound design: COJELO! COJELO! COJELO! MATALO! MATALO! MATALO! The same Spanish phrases, over and over and over again, from every enemy in the game, in the same voice. Also: the exact same swell of “scary” music every time more than three villagers started coming at you. That to me is not good sound design, sorry.

As to level design, I find the “room by room” approach of the earlier RE games far more tension building than the later RE4 level layouts. More claustrophobic; each new area looked more distinctive; and it also allowed for interesting re-arrangements of enemies and items for later playthroughs (the B Scenarios of RE2, with the unforgettable green-coated Mr. X.) I also liked the object puzzles and backtracking elements; I realize many hated them, which is why they were mostly done away with in RE4.

16

Seems that way.

And Resident Evil 4 still featured plenty of long, silent stretches. Mobs of zombies are but one example of how they’re presented in the game. I also believe those cheap “jump” scares are some of the worst ways in which to illicit frights. If I wanted that, I could just tell me roommates to yell “boo” whenever they see me. The scares in RE4, barring one, were all dynamic, existing as an extension of the environment and the enemies’ AI. But it’s cool that those jump scares appeal to you, they just seem cheap and do diddly squat for me.

Different strokes. The not-zombies really weren’t that vocal and the repeating phrases didn’t bother me in the slightest. When I think of RE4, I’m reminded of when I stepped into the sewers and heard *something * charge its at me through a series of splashes. Or I think of the moody, music-less village at night, punctuated by the turning wheel of a windmill, or the howls of a distant wolf.

Also, the “scary” music you cite is, in fact, not the same, and changes by area–did you not actually play the entire way through or something?

What I loved about RE4 was its brilliant mixture of indoor and outdoor environments. It allowed one to experience the claustrophobic of RE1, while bringing much more open environments to the table as well, allowing for a greater variety of enemy types that can take advantage of such, while giving the player a lot more freedom and choice in how they would like to play. The improved AI and more open environments also mitigates the need for “re-arrangements of enemies and items,” as they always behave in a different manner with each play through.

Anyway, we can sit here and discuss the merits of the Resident Evil franchise all day. Just not sure what we’re going to accomplish, aside from further elaborating on which we like or dislike each game.

17

I liked RE4 too. RE5 didn’t incorporate the things that either of us are talking about, which is why I think that the Resident Evil series may be dead.

18

Totally agreed. Although it was just one problem, co-op was perhaps the stupidest idea they had. At least make it optional. Sablicious nailed it above.

19

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth? Creepy and appropriately disgusting, IMO.

-Joe

20

Part of the issue is this: game companies are making games the way gamers want them instead of how the game company wants them. And I guess this is a logical thing to do. But for a genre that’s sort of supposed to be scary and hard, it’ll always result in some gamers thinking the games are too easy and not scary enough.

Think about it: game companies now have instant feedback via the internet, via discussion forums just like this one, about how their games are received. They listen to fans in a way that they didn’t before. And now since the majority of people playing games want a Resident Evil that’s easy to play, only sort-of scary, and geared towards multiplayer rather than single player, that’s what Capcom puts out.