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Earlier this week I tried to bestow upon developers a gem of knowledge, and now all I can do is sit back and hope they accepted my gift. Since I’m an extremely charitable person I have another gift for developers working on games within my favorite genre, Survival Horror. If you’ve read any of my past articles you’re probably familiar with my undying love of this genre as well as the fact that there’s a very good chance I’m full of crap. I may not know much, but I blame that on the fact that I’ve focused my attention on a particular genre that’s currently undergoing massive changes. But that’s not all, as I consider this article a spiritual successor to the first article I ever wrote for the BBPS eloquently entitled Survival Horror: The Good, The Bad, and the Very Ugly. In it I discussed the current goings on in the genre, and I briefly touched on where I thought the genre was headed. Now I hope to further that discussion as well as provide some rules I think all survival horror games should follow. Since I have a lot to say about this genre I'm splitting this into two parts: the second will be my 'Rules of Play' and you can expect it within the next couple of days, but until then check out the first half after the jump.
If you hadn’t noticed already, the classic ‘find the key, open the door, dodge the monster, find the other key’ horror game is a thing of the past. It has been replaced by a new breed of horror game I like to call Action Horror. This all started, or at least became popular with the arrival of Resident Evil 4. RE4 proved a horror title could be met with both critical acclaim as well as colossal sales. It’s both sad and invigorating to see the genre changing, sad because I grew up playing the original Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Clock Tower, and Fatal Frame. It’s invigorating because I truly love where the genre is headed, mixing high-paced action with terrifying environments and cheap scares. Dead Space, Resident Evil 5, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Left 4 Dead have all gone this route and for the most part it’s been a success.
The main reason why I think survival horror is being replaced by a more action-oriented style of gameplay is because, surprisingly, not all people like being scared. While the idea is foreign to me I can understand it. I love being on the edge of my seat, low on ammo and health items, not knowing what’s on the other side of the door I know that I have to go through. It’s exhilarating, and in my opinion that’s a feeling only horror games can produce. Unfortunately, not everyone shares my strange desire to be scared, and developers know this. The audience is changing, the industry is changing, and the survival horror genre needs to keep up.
As I write this I’m listening to Akira Yamaoka’s ‘Breeze in Monochrome Night’, which is a part of the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack. I love the music from the Silent Hill series; I think it’s one of the series’ greatest strengths. No other game has music as unique and atmospheric as the Silent Hill series (in my opinion). I get lost in Yamaoka’s music every time I’m working on a horror game of my own (I’m a student studying game design), because it just gets me in the mood, it inspires me. I can honestly say that no other game has an atmosphere as strong as the Silent Hill series; the desolate town shrouded in thick fog covered in raining ash. It’s funny that one of the primary reasons why the developers added the fog was to make the game easier to process on the limited technology of the game consoles back then. It’s easier for a game engine to render more detailed objects when you can only see a few feet in front of you.
Now the foggy town is the staple of one of the most beloved of survival horror franchises… until ‘The Room’ came out. That was massive disappointment, and the Silent Hill series has been falling behind ever since. Even the reboot that was Homecoming failed to do it right, but was it a failure because they tried to change too many things, or was it because the game was given to American developers? Silent Hill is a very Japanese series that draws heavily from eastern styles and influences. Giving Homecoming to a western developer is like giving Final Fantasy to Bungie. It’s just not right. As long as Yamaoka continues to create the music for the series, I’m in.
But I digress, so let’s return to the discussion of the genre’s attempts to keep up with the evolving gaming industry. First, classic horror games will soon be a thing of the past. Sure there will be the occasional game that tries to return to the genre’s roots, but for the most part the next generation of horror games will take from what BioShock, Dead Space, and Resident Evil have done. Left 4 Dead is a good example of this evolution in the genre, Valve made an amazing coop shooter set during a zombie apocalypse. You would think that would’ve been done before, because it’s so simple. The formula is perfect, and the game was (and still continues to be) successful. Resident Evil 5 jumped on the coop zombie bandwagon with the introduction of Sheva to the mix, and with the exception of some remarkably terrible AI that too was a success.
Dead Space and BioShock took another path while staying true to their roots. While the latter may not be widely considered as a survival horror game, it definitely did enough to meet the requirements: an unfamiliar, claustrophobic environment, scary genetically engineered enemies, limited ammo, classic quests like find the key open the door, or find the ingredients and mix them to continue to the next room. While BioShock took the more story-driven, it’s the player’s choice approach; Dead Space took a more typical approach that included a plethora of cheap scares and one of the coolest combat systems I’ve ever seen in a game. I can honestly say that I jumped a lot during that game, and I stick with my opinion in my last article that every single game should have Strategic Dismemberment. I’m serious. Every. Single. Game.
In the near future I can see more and more horror games going for either a coop experience or a more action-oriented approach, but I think that most will move away from the traditional horror game. For some this is a good thing, as it will make the genre more accessible for a wider audience of gamers (which usually means increased sales, which means more games, etc.), for those nostalgic for the survival horror games of the past we still have our remakes. As long as the industry and its audience continue to expand every genre will have to follow suit. Ever since Resident Evil first coined the term ‘Survival Horror’ back in 1996, the genre has been a persistent source of unique and innovative games. This is a trend I don’t see stopping anytime soon as long as there continues to be an audience, like myself, that enjoys being scared shitless.
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