Survival horror

Various examples of survival horror games

Survival horror is a sub-genre of action-adventure video games that emphasizes scaring the player, resource management, puzzle solving, and offering different ways of giving the player less control over their actions. Games in the genre usually make use of horror tropes common to film and television. The term was originally coined in the 1996 game, Resident Evil, though several games retroactively fit into the genre and were instrumental in building the genre; these include games like Haunted House, Alone in the Dark, 3D Monster Maze, Splatterhouse, and Sweet Home.

A survival horror storyline usually consists of mystery, intrigue, and is usually focused on the mind of the protagonist. Games can sometimes feature that monsters that reflect the main character's personality or the setting in some way.

Abridged Timeline

The following is a crash course history of the survival horror genre, highlighting key and major titles in the history of the genre.

Magnavox's Haunted House

The game was included with the console, the Magnavox's Odyssey in 1972. Being closer to a pen and paper RPG than a true video-game, the screen was covered by an overlay which served as the only "graphics", the player's avatar being the glowing square behind the on-screen area. It's the first attempt at making a Horror-themed video game.

Hunt the Wumpus

The game takes place in caves connected by tunnels. In one of the twenty caves there is a "Wumpus", which the player is attempting to kill. It has been cited as an early example of a survival horror game, however some peoples claim that the game lacks elements needed for a "horror" game, as the player hunts (with only 5 arrows) rather than is hunted by the Wumpus, and nothing in the game is explicitly intended to frighten the player, making it more of an early adventure or puzzle game.

Nostromo

A survival horror game developed by Akira Takiguchi for the PET 2001. It was ported to the PC-6001 by Masakuni Mitsuhashi, and published by ASCII in 1981, exclusively for Japan. Inspired by the 1980 stealth game Manibiki Shoujo and the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, the gameplay of Nostromo involved a player attempting to escape a spaceship while avoiding the sight of an invisible alien, which only becomes visible when appearing in front of the player. The gameplay also involved limited resources, where the player needs to collect certain items in order to escape the ship, and if certain required items are not available in the warehouse, the player is unable to escape and eventually has no choice but be killed getting caught by the alien.

Haunted House

Gameplay is typical of future survival horror titles, as it emphasizes puzzle-solving and evasive action, rather than violence. The game uses monsters commonly featured in horror fiction, such as bats and ghosts, each of which has unique behaviors. Gameplay also incorporates item collection and inventory management, along with areas that are inaccessible until the appropriate item is found. Because it has several features that have been seen in later survival horror games, some reviewers have retroactively classified this game as the first in the genre.

3D Monster Maze

It's a first-person maze game, without any weapons; the player cannot fight the main enemy, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, so he must escape by finding the exit before the monster finds him. The game states its distance and awareness of the player, further raising the tension.

The Screamer

The Screamer is set in a post-apocalyptic environment, the player venture into the B.I.A.S., an underground complex where dangerous creatures have gone rampant. The gameplay is a mixture of first-person dungeon crawler (when exploring) and side-scrolling (when in combat).

Zombi

Zombi is a first-person action adventure, borrowing heavily from the 1978's film Dawn of the Dead. In Zombi you control a team of four travelers who must try to find a weapons with which to attack the zombies.

Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead

The game was a horror action RPG revolving around a female SWAT member Lila rescuing survivors in an isolated monster-infested town and bringing them to safety in a church. It has open environments like Dragon Quest and real-time side-view battles like Zelda II, though War of the Dead departed from other RPGs with its dark and creepy atmosphere expressed through the storytelling, graphics, and music. The player character has limited ammunition, though the player character can punch or use a knife if out of ammunition. The game also has a limited item inventory and crates to store items, and introduced a day-night cycle; the player can sleep to recover health, and a record is kept of how many days the player has survived.

Project Firestart

Your character is sent to the research ship Prometheus, in orbit around Titan, where he discovers the entire crew brutally murdered and the ship infested with large, hostile creatures. The game uses limited ammunition, has a vulnerable main character, and use storytelling through logs.

Sweet Home

The game often considered the first true survival horror title, due to having the most influence on Resident Evil. Sweet Home's gameplay focused on solving a variety of puzzles using items stored in a limited inventory,  while battling or escaping from horrifying creatures, which could lead to permanent death for any of the characters, thus creating tension and an emphasis on survival. It was also the first attempt at creating a scary and frightening storyline within a game, mainly told through scattered diary entries left behind fifty years before the events of the game. Its horrific imagery prevented its release in the Western world.

Alone in the Dark

The game featured a lone protagonist against hordes of monsters, and made use of traditional adventure game challenges such as puzzle-solving and finding hidden keys to new areas. Graphically, Alone in the Dark uses static pre-rendered camera views that were cinematic in nature. Although players had the ability to fight monsters as in action games, players also had the option to evade or block them.  Many monsters could not be killed, and thus could only be dealt with using problem-solving abilities. The game also used the mechanism of notes and books as expository devices. Many of these elements were used in later survival horror games, and thus the game is credited with making the survival horror genre possible.

Ečstatica

The game opens in northern Europe in the year 928 A.D.. an anonymous traveller comes upon the town of Tirich hoping to find water. However, the town appears to be invaded by demons and monsters. Just like Alone in the Dark, the game mixes exploration, combat and puzzle solving in a dark fantasy/horror setting.

Clock Tower

You play as Jennifer who must explore the Barrows Mansion to find a way to escape while evading the Scissorman, the main enemy in the game. Like in 3D Monster Maze the player has no choice but to run from his enemies.

Resident Evil

The term "survival horror" was first used by Capcom to market this 1996 release. It borrows heavily from Sweet Home, such as its mansion setting, puzzles, "opening door" load screen, death animations, multiple endings depending on which characters survive, dual character paths, individual character skills, limited item management, story told through diary entries and frescos, emphasis on atmosphere, and horrific imagery.  Resident Evil also adopted several features seen in Alone in the Dark, notably its cinematic fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backdrops. The control scheme in Resident Evil also became a staple of the genre, and future titles imitated its challenge of rationing very limited resources and items. Many games have tried to replicate the successful formula seen in Resident Evil, and every subsequent survival horror game has arguably taken a stance in relation to it.

Silent Hill

Released in 1999, Silent Hill drew heavily from Resident Evil while using realtime 3D environments in contrast to Resident Evil's pre-rendered graphics. Silent Hill in particular was praised for moving away from B-movie horror elements to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films, due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror. The game also featured stealth elements, making use of the fog to dodge enemies or turning off the flashlight to avoid detection. The original Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest games of all time.

Fatal Frame

The player explores a mansion and takes photographs of ghosts in order to defeat them. The Fatal Frame series has since gained a reputation as one of the most distinctive in the genre, with the first game in the series credited as one of the best-written survival horror games ever made.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

The game is a is a psychological Survival-Horror game, it uses a unique feature called "sanity effects". Eternal Darkness was one of the first attempt at breaking the 4th wall in a horror game.

Resident Evil 4

In 2005, this title attempted to redefine the genre by emphasizing reflexes and precision aiming, broadening the gameplay with elements from the wider action genre. However, this led some reviewers to suggest that the Resident Evil series had abandoned the survival horror genre by demolishing the genre conventions that it had established. Nevertheless, Its ambitions paid off, earning the title several Game of the Year awards for 2005, and influencing at least the entire next decade to come in the genre.

F.E.A.R.

Praised for both its atmospheric tension and fast action, F.E.A.R. successfully combined Japanese style horror with cinematic action of Hong Kong flicks. The game was also praised for it's AI, which contribute to the tension when in combat.

Other notable games influential to the genre released in the past decade include Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Penumbra: Black Plague, Slender: The Eight Pages, Deadly Premonition, The Last of Us, and The Evil Within.