The Death of Survival Horror

Survival Horror used to be the big gaming genre. Back when first person shooters were in their infancy Horror games drew huge sales and often scared us to death. If you ask people about their top 10 games of their gaming lives I would say a Survival Horror game would be amongst them. Look back at the charts for the last few years and I would bet a Horror title has not made it into the top 5.

So what happened to the once mighty genre?

Back in 1996 the biggest and probably best remembered of the Survival Horror genre hit our shelves. Resident Evil was born and with it came tension, atmosphere and fear. It was such a good game that when Nintendo re-released it with better graphics on the GameCube it went straight to number 1 in the charts (this is taking into account the fact that the GameCube was not a hugely owned console as well).
Resident Evil as a franchise is still with us today and it spawned a large number of other franchises off its success. I think it can be held accountable for Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, Dead Space, Alan Wake, Condemned, F.E.A.R and Project Zero.

Even though some of the list above are great games, take away Silent Hill as it was released around the time when Resident Evil was in its prime, the games listed have never done amazingly well in the charts (Dead Space 2 did well but the original only succeeded due to word of mouth).
Looking at the way the gaming market has gone since the 90s it is easy to blame the genres decline on the changing market. But I think this is a scapegoat for what has been poor design.
Dead Space made a game very similar to the original Resident Evil with tight spaces, eerie sound, great atmosphere and fear of what would be around the next corner. It is one of my favourite games from the past few years. But you then look at Resident Evil. After the critical acclaim that went towards Resident Evil 4 the subsequent games have been awful. To me they went from Survival Horror to Action Horror. It is far to easy now to think that dark rooms and close confined areas equal scary and then throw in a load of weapons to add the survival. But it has no depth. You really do not feel in danger and you certainly do not care about the characters at all. Everytime a Resi game comes out the journalists always ask 'Is this a return to form?' and then after release we know that it isn't. You then hear how the industry has moved on and creating a Horror game will never appeal like it once did. Now to me I can see this is rubbish.

First lets take the Free-to-play game Slender on the PC. The basic concept is that your in the woods at night (Scary) and you have to collect notes from areas spread around. As a whole it does not sound that scary but then you throw in Slender Man. Slender man is not always in sight. To be fair the game lets you move a fair amount before he first appears. but what makes it scary is when you catch him out the corner of your eye. Slender man is there to stop you completing your task. You have no weapons and all you can do is run. But as he is not always in sight you do not know where he is. Sometimes you will turn a corner and he will be far in the distance, then suddenly he will be feet away. It is terrifying and exhilarating. It is also beautifully simple.

Things are looking up for the genre as 'The Last Of Us' has been a sensation on the PS3 and was at number 1 for weeks. This game is brutal, well written, has deep characters and suspense. There is also 'The Evil Within' which has been designed by the guy who did Resident Evil and then Resident Evil 4 and he is well thought of for the games he has created in this genre so hopefully this will stand up well. But for me the game that look strongest of the future releases for reinvigorating the genre is a game called 'Outlast'. this is set for a PC and PS4 release and looks fantastic. Again it has a pretty simple premise.
Your character breaks into what looks like a mental asylum after all contact goes down. You are not some military operative but a journo with nothing more than a camcorder. No weapons or survival skills. You end up captured and trying to escape. It is confined, you spot things out the corner of your eyes and if you get in trouble all you can do is run....

What this shows is that trying to appeal to the Call of Duty audience is the wrong way to go. There is a market out there for these games and its about story and atmosphere that really make a game (It is what every game should focus on) and unless Resident Evil takes notice of the success of these games and maybe scraps all they have done before to create a new series they will eventually disappear. Silent Hill has almost run out of ideas and it would be a shame for these once great franchises to die.
So take note. You can go back to what once made you great. You can create great surrounding, tension and fear... but first drop the guns and run.

MR