# Is the "survival horror" genre extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-survival-horror-genre-extinct/492110 "2009-04-06T06:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-survival-horror-genre-extinct/492110/21 "2009-04-07T20:58:48Z")
On a hijack, did anyone else read the RE books? Some were good, some were meh. I did have a huge crush on Rebecca by the end, though. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-survival-horror-genre-extinct/492110/22 "2009-04-11T03:25:58Z")
Well I have been playing Dead Space…I’m not that far into it; the last time I played, I had just activated the train system by using the “stasis” gun on the big cable thing. My thoughts: good graphics, but textures and atmosphere copied from DOOM 3. I’m sick of futuristic-spaceship atmospheres in games, mostly because it’s a big cop-out; it’s really easy to invent lots of fake cables and panels and switches and ventilation shafts and pipes and shit and throw them in every single area and call it level design, but it is not creative level design. Give me the Resident Evil mansion any day. The enemies are startling when they jump out but after a while you can immediately tell when one is going to come, from the changes in lighting, sound effects, etc (exactly like DOOM 3.) This game is kind of fun but not that scary and very un-original. I still contend that Clock Tower is the scariest scary game of all time. Being chased around and not having any weapons or means of self-defense whatsoever, save from very occasionally being able to use the environment around you (like a fire extinguisher) to buy you a little extra time to escape, is scarier than wandering around a spaceship with a gun, blasting aliens or zombies or alien zombies. The first Silent Hill was also great, as was Resident Evil 1. A “survival horror” game is much scarier (and more challenging) when weapons, ammunition and resources are extremely limited. That was the case in those games, but not this one. Dead Space seems like another third-person shooter dressed up as a horror game. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-survival-horror-genre-extinct/492110/23 "2009-04-11T04:06:28Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > Tough luck, magnusblitz, Left 4 Dead is a perfect example of this transformation. You’re given very limited resources, a fixed goal, and are slowly whittled down as you move toward it. You typically get weaker as the game progresses not stronger. By scaling down the game world to something that can be handled in an hour and keeping the pressure on the player they can do things in that game that the games with the heavier adventure elements only wish they could. I had more of a response to it than I ever did from the survival horror games where all they can do is have something jump out at you every so often. The thing is, I don’t even get the sense L4D _tries_ to be scary (even if you think that other survival horror games try and fail, instead of succeeding). It’s an action shooter with zombie movie overtones, but that’s not enough to make it survival horror. It’s more like Doom (1/2 OR 3, in my opinion) than a survival horror game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-survival-horror-genre-extinct/492110.md?page=1)