The survival-horror genre has become a staple of video games, thanks to series like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, and Parasite Eve. As the genre has evolved, it has gone through changes and iterations. Some people feel that the genre has gotten too far away from its roots. Konami's Tom Hewlett, producer on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, is one of of those people. During E3 2009 he told G4tv.com:
"Looking at survival-horror games now, they really focus on action. You have a ton of weapons and the fun is really in shooting the gross monsters and killing them, but that's less scary."
He definitely has a point. Many recent survival-horror games go for the shock factor and attempt to overwhelm players with fast-paced action. Creating atmospheric fear through lighting, colors, and music seems to have taken a back seat to appeasing gamers that are used to shooting the crap out of everything on screen. While the focus on action helps today's survival-horror games appeal to a broader audience, I wish more developers would let artists and sound designers lead the way in creating "moods" that are truly frightening (and I'm talking frightening like Leahy's kitchen).
Click here for the HD version of the Silent Hill: Shattered Memories interview.
What do you think of the evolution of survival-horror games? Are they too action oriented these days? Do you prefer an action emphasis? Or would you rather have atmospheric fear with more subtlety?
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XxWAR_N_PEACExX
Dead space is the only game i played in a while that was successful in the scary/freaky department hehe. and it had a sweet story. cant wait for Dead Space 2 to come out.
Minuszero
@ YoureSoFunny
Your So Funny but your so funny because you said zombies... so do they looks like rotting corpses? i will answer for you.. NO! So don't call them zombies.. because they are not.
KDollaz
Yes.. you also forgot that the view in RE1 worked well because you could hear a real zombie but could not see it and switching to the next view/camera you could be in a bad situation makeing you think more. They could make a new game like the originals and make it look better because of higher resolution textures and more advanced hardware. Like the remake of RE for the gamecube. but they did not.. they decided to rape the franchise with 2 analog sticks with the release of the new garbage gameplay.
KDollaz
I think both features are necessary but should be strategically placed into a survival-horror. Lets look at the very first RE. I think what made this game so scary was the well placed surprises mixed with great sound fx,and settings! The player became more cautious about there actions because they were unaware of what would be around the corner. You had ammo so the action would be included, but it was limited. Although you may have wanted to kill everything in and everybody on the game we knew there wouldn't be enough ammo for the big battles which added to the intensity. RE went from one extreme to the other it would be extremely peaceful and then extremely active. With the help on music sound fx.
YoureSoFunny
I don't about you guys but I don't know about you guys but RS5 is really scary with all the day light and knowing where the zombies are coming from it's pretty intense horror.........LOL YEAH RIGHT COME ON HORROR GAMES COME BACK!!!
BiscuitEater
Wow, the whole idea about not being to kill the monsters is genius. That'd be so freaking scary. I hate running from things so this game is gonna be really freaky.
Minuszero
This guy knows what he is talking about! Franchises like Resident evil are now dead because they flucked them up like in resident evil 4&5,Survivor and Dead Aim, REUC but at least in S/DA/UC they are real zombies! Want a scary game?. Play the originals or get fatal frame or clock tower and good luck trying to get any fatal frame.
jbee02
Having action in horror games is okay FEAR proved that. You can be crap you're pants scary and still be scary in the same game, but just not at the same time. FEAR and FEAR2 segregated the action and horror from each other. You would have action sequences where you're fighting human, and then you would have scary sequences with dark atmospheric environment filled with ghost, monsters, and Alma. But you never had both action and horror at the same time.
panzerfist
Fear and Fear 2 IMO did it right by giving you the power taht they did, then letting you know it wouldn't helped you at all against alma. You always knew when the scary parts were going to happen, yet nothing could prepare you for the kind of screwed up things you ran into. Not to mention the action sequences were fantastic
Daniel299
The original Silent Hill was a truly scary game. I feel it was done right and didn't have overpowering weapons.
NortheastMonk
Yeah the genre does need help, but do they honestly think rereleasing a game every 18-30 year old played over a dozen times will help? No, its stupid.
milo1990
Surprisingly, I got more scares from the Ghostbusters game than I did with RE5. That's somewhat sad and disturbing. Both are really good games though. I think everyone will agree with me when I say that RE5 should definitely be scarier than Ghostbusters though. Looks like someone is forgetting their roots.
rlf1859
resident evil 5 wasn't the least bit scary.it felt more like syphon filter on steroids
crocodilius
I've recently played the original Silent Hill for the first time and it scares the sh~t out of me.
Thaticanyaks
Fatal Frame, Penumbra, Silent Hill (The first one) only games that stand out to me for being true to the genre. I look at it like this, your driving though a bad neighborhood, you hear gunshots and screams and your in a car that could break down any minute, that will reek havoc on your nerves compared to driving through the same neighborhood in an armored car with a police escort. Hell your looking for someone to mess with you then. The Res Evil series are crap, who the hell leaves grenade rounds in the grandfather clock?! You need to get some indie game companies to come along and show you how it's done.
Maxlikegames
ok....I know this might get alot of "no way!!!" statements up front.....but what about a "28 days later" game? Now just hold on before you flame me....if it was done right, and the intenseness, character development, and drama of the films could be transferd over to the game.....it would be a gem. But yeah, the survival-hororr genre has really gotin stale, Dead Space was really good, but something new needs to be introduced into the mix. I think the Condemed games did a great job of freshening up the genre, those games scared the crap outa me personally, but that's just my opinon, I prefer frist person games over thrid myself.
blasphemous
man, I think that some of you need to play the latest Siren, that game had some interesting gameplay and a really creepy atmosphere. Exclusive to the PS3 ;)
TH3WR417H
sorry of the dp, but my best mate still wont play the games just because he saw the dead space trailer, and played the demo for fear. hahaha.
TH3WR417H
Two games made me jump, dead space and the first fear. nothing will ever beat those two game on the omg wtf ahh! in game.
smellysack
Personally most mediums that are meant to be scary...aren't. They survive more off the loud noises making people jump or the level of blood and brutality in the killings. I want the good old eerie feeling you get from just the tone and story of the movies and games.
silenthillbilies
sounds like they are copying clock tower. "cant kill monsters just get away from them" ? clock tower with a silent hill title....cant wait
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