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Survival Horror: Surviving No Longer

December 09, 2008 in Blog comments 11

Jim Sterling of destructoid.com types about how the evolution of survival horror games has run them into the ground. This isn't the only speculation of recent times about the genre, with What happened to survival horror? and Survival Horror - Does it even exist anymore?. This blog is just one more look into how the genre is dying off.

Read on to see how the generations have been adding to the dragging down of the survival horror genre.

Resident Evil, Silent Hill and a selection of pretenders were incredibly popular in the last two generations, but in the age of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the traditional survival horror is all but dead. What happened to the horror? Did publishers just get tired of it, or did pressure from gamers and prevailing trends cause it to self-evaporate, to adapt with the times to such a degree that it effectively committed suicide?

As for right now though, it seems that survival horror has evolved itself out of existence, so determined to live on by moving with the times that it has ironically killed itself off. A shame indeed, but with games that look as fantastic as Resident Evil 5, perhaps it's a death we need not mourn too greatly.
Dark Arcanine via destructoid.com »
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  • 0
    chautemoc Dec 9, 08
    Pfffft. Horror films have been around forever. Theres a lot of crap but always some gems. Horror games will never dieeeee.
    • 0
      Miss Razz Dec 9, 08
      Survival horror games, on the other hand, are almost as good as dead.
  • 0
    Miss Razz Dec 9, 08
    The article brings up a good point. Developers have literally evolved the Survival Horror genre out of existence.
    Deliberately "broken" controls, slowly building storylines, being outmatched by almost every enemy ... all add to a scary survival-horror experience ... but that's not what a mass audience wants nowadays.
    For example - The average gamer would find the "broken" controls of the older Silent Hills frustrating, and would likely give up on the games. ut it is hard to think of a way to replace "broken" controls with something as equally effective.

    Developers have improved survival-horrors one big problem: The gameplay. But in doing so, they seem to have exchanged it for "true" scares, creepy plot, atmosphere, and all-round eeriness. Those things come first in a survival-horror game, always.
    • 0
      Storm* Dec 9, 08
      Broken controller days are long over because...the controllers for this gen are just too damn expensive.

      But yeah, all that's really left are Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, hopefully Parasite Eve: Third Birthday for PSP, and Dead Space (superb game, imo). Resident Evil has become more like say...Dead Rising, just a matter of shooting zombies, more of an action game than survival horror. And now they bring in Co-Op...ugh.
      • 1
        Seeker X Dec 9, 08
        Well besides SIREN and Fatal Frame, I don't really see other horror games emphasizing the adventure aspect of the horror games, everything else is like Action Horror anyways. I hate to say this, but it's up to the Japanese to actually make a horror game that doesn't involve having to shoot your way through waves of enemies as 95% of the game.
  • 0
    Lucssj Dec 9, 08
    It doesnt matter to me. If a game is fun then i play it, if its not then i dont. Its that simple.
  • 0
    BANDITO ATTACK Dec 9, 08
    this article can be summed with "GET OFF MY LAWN you damn kids"
  • 0
    EOM Bassist Dec 9, 08
    I don't think there's been enough opportunity to make any horror games for next gen consoles yet. You notice mostly these days that horror is included in some action/FPS games, like Half Life 2 (Ravenholm levels) and CoD5 zombie survival mode. What we need is a good horror game like Resident Evil to bring back the genre, and do it well.
  • 2
    iLLmatic Dec 9, 08
    Dead Space and Siren are very good survival horror games. Resident Evil is a mere shadow of it's former self. Any fans see what I did there?
    • 1
      Seeker X Dec 9, 08
      Nice Kenneth reference there.

      ...oops...
  • 0
    Final Blade Dec 10, 08
    I really didn't see survival horror to be that popular anyway. Sure it had fans but imo, a good portion of them cared little for the "Survival horror" and more for the name itself. I'll admit, I didn't like RE and SH cause of the whole Survival horror thing. In fact I don't care about it. It leaving does little for me. I just played games I found fun(and cause I know RE and SH for me is a fun game). And tbh, RE5 looks pretty fun and good to me. So I'll probably pick it up. But most people can't be bothered with the stuff Gothic Girl listed and in the end, developers and companies doesn't care about anyone or anything except sales and money. So where ever the money flows, that's the direction most devs will flock.

    However with that said horror in itself isn't dead like Chaut stated.

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