My friend says true surival horror is dead, I got a question.

What games coming out are true survival horror? What actually is survival horror defined as? Do you always need to be low on supplies? My friend starts first by saying you can't have co-op and be survival horror. Is that true?

Now for my little rant lol...

I personally think having to rely on another person with you, can still be tense. I don't know about anyone else but after being in a situation like some of these characters were. There is no way they would knownly go into a place infested with say zombies again, without being armed to the teeth with an army of trained people.

as far as that goes then you need to try Haunting Ground.

a great game which is one of the few that is truly surivival horror.

no weapons you can't fight your way past the enemy you have to avoid or evade.

a true 'survival' horror game.

The term "survival horror" meant something once upon a time, where players would grip their controller so hard it would make their palms sweat. But is there anything on the market now, or within the last 5 years that is true survival horror? No, because that time has passed. Every developer is sticking with series staples such as finding keys, reading letters and solving puzzles to pass the time. Sometimes you wish there was something more, instead of finding that key to open the door for progression. Survival horror is now in the hands of small time developers and indie groups, no large scale studio is going to churn out anything that is remotely true to the title. So I suggest playing previous games, those which were released during the 90s. PC jewel case horror titles, then move onto the 2000s and combine console horror also. Small titles that didn't sell well. If you want suggestions, message me, although I hope this information has given you insight of the current state of survival horror. Survival horror is dead.

First off, you can read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_horror

It may sound funny, but genres really CAN die. Point-And-Click Adventure is a prime example of a mid-90s staple which eventually went the way of the Dodo Bird.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-and-click_adventure_game#Point-and-click_adventure

The era of Survival Horror, as it was defined in the mid-1990s, is extinct; Developers who had delivered in years-past were forced by trend to incorporate more action elements, and less in the way of ambience or sideways creativity in order to deliver the thrills. Games like the original "Alone in the Dark", "7th Guest", and other contemporaries started a format which CAPCOM perfected with it's PSOne & PS2 "Resident Evil" series, or "Silent Hill" from that same period.

Both those franchises have switched to more action-oriented styles, for better or worse. I try to see the good in what's going on now, but I'm old-school at heart.

"Haunting Ground" is an excellent example of Survival Horror, because you have no real way of fighting the evils you encounter, so you need to figure out how to avoid them. Not being able to directly fight back, or to have combat which is (for lack of a better word), "clunky", to the point of not being able to spam attacks with machine-like accuracy, and breakable weapons or other reductive qualities to weaponry or general supply is a key element of the genre, it's one of the chief instigators of tension... The other half coming from a well-constructed landscape, with creative audio-visual things going on...

"Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" is almost completely unique for one key reason. It's not the monsters, or the story, or any of the usual trappings; It's because the game reproduces what it's like to hallucinate PERFECTLY. Things will happen in that game which are mind-blowingly subtle at times, like a face looming out of the wood grain of the wall but when you turn for further inspection, it's as if it never existed, to the nerve-shattering tricks the game will play with the hardware itself... Survival Horror is about the feeling of fear, more than it is about a gorey, smoking-gun romp.

Although, those bits are fun too.

Survival Horror is the 'Clock Tower" games, "Siren", "Echo Night: Beyond", "Rule of Rose", "Fatal Frame" ... "Lifeline" ...

"Haunting Ground" is going to be slightly expensive and/or hard to find. As good as it is, I think it's a bit high-line to try for your dips into the genre. Istead, try buying a GameCube, and get "Resident Evil (Remake)", and "Eternal Darkness", both of which are excellent games, and a good introduction to the genre.

as far as that goes then you need to try Haunting Ground.

a great game which is one of the few that is truly surivival horror.

no weapons you can't fight your way past the enemy you have to avoid or evade.

a true 'survival' horror game.

iowastate

In addition to Haunting Ground there are other PS2 games:

Clock Tower 3, and Fatal Frame 3.

also I highly recommend Rule of the Rose - is that survivial horror or psychologial horror.

as close to a scary game as you will find.

Glass Rose almost makes the cIassification more like a horror adventure game - but was never available in North America.

this one was released in Japan and Europe only

- it is about a young newspapaper reporter who is warped back to the 1920s where he has to solve a string of murders before the fate over comes him. it is available for PS2 and PC and not easy to find - rather like Kuon or Rule of the Rose - was never really easy to find but was worth it when you did get a copy

Everybody keep on forgetting Fear Effect 1&2 and you guys call yourselves a survival horror gamers:(

Well in truth no it never dies.it defined by those who wish to label it based upon the times and each indvidual.me personally survival horror. is about being in a situations that is not normal.such has having monsters,ghost strange things happening that isn`t the norm.and you have to based on what you have try not to die agains`t those things.i grew up on horror films so i have a unique view on this.as far as i`m concened re 6 is still survival horror.the fact it has strange monster trying to killl me would scare me death.The biggest problem we know it`s not real so how can you get scared of it.people said re 1 was scary.but for me it wasn`t at all. but i played that game when i was 20. but if i played it when i was 8 yeah it would have scared me sure. I hope this helps you a little.

Agreed.the survival horror games are fewer these days.but I don't think it's going to die.It migtht become more like a 'cult' genre with a of dedicated fans.Even point n click games are available like the upcoming sherlock holmes.

As for the games the ps2 has the best collection IMO.haunting ground,fatal frame series,clock tower,rule of rose etc.but the pc has some good ones too,like

the call of cthulu where u play as a detective just released from an asylum.That is a very core point of these games.the protagonist has some 'defects' while the antagonist(s) are "supersized".

I have played haunting ground,fatal frame 1,2,call of cthulu and silent hill etc.And I say all of them frustrated me at many times .that's when I realized

these games are for those who like alittle masochism!! where you are a'victim of circumstances' as opposed to FPS games where you try to be the 'master of circumstances'.One can say survival horror puts u in the opposite state of mind that FPSs tries to.Eventhough I say these games were etched in my memory long after I'm through with them.my favorite is the fatal frame series.I played it in the dark: almost alone, a few hours for 1 week.after a weeek I play them for an hour and then watch some comedy to releive the stress!! It's the ghosts that appear suddenly and regularly that took my breath away.these sudden shocks test your heart and after regular pouncing my heart can't take it anymore.

Your friend is right..somewhat.co-ops takes the helplessness and lonliness to a good extent.so they'll be more like FPSs like left for dead

FPS - sadism

SH - masochism

FPS --- in control

SH --- not in contol

FPS ----- show off

SH ------ escapist

I'm a fan of both genre's and RTS.I dont want them to die.

if you think SH are frustrating try some of those RTS games. MAN.

the first Alone in the Dark back in the 90s - that was a good SH game but it was hard.

the games we played in the early days had a reputation for being harder than what we get now.

I think the main reasons are we not only didn't really get a game guide but walkthroughs were unheard of back then.

you could not look up the solution if you were unable to figure it out you simply kept trying until you finally got it.

or gave up with a lot of people finally did with many games.

To be honest, I think that COD culture killed Survival Horror. Don't start hating me, I like some COD myself. Thing is, all the younger gamers would not prefer sweating and freaking out while playing a game. All gamers nowadays want are checkpoints every fifty steps and 600 rounds of ammunition. And survival horror cannot compete with that. Ten years ago, when survival horror was in its golden age gamers had more patience and drive, survival horror games were rewarding. Right now everyone is praising RE5 while for me it is just another checkpoint based TPS with plentiful ammo and no reward whatsoever.

Just think for a second. If RE3: Nemesis was a third person shooter back in 1999 would it be rated 8.5ish? No. Because at that time people cared about survival horror.

<\ rant >

COD and MOH games are not comparable - if you want to run and shoot in a linear game you have your shooters like the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty where each game is so similar to all the others and everything is choreographed.

it is true that there are more Horror/shooter/survival games now than true Horror Surival - but that is because people like to hit things rather than evade and want the immediate satisfaction of killing the bad guy rather than the eventual greater satisifaction of winning out the hard battle of winning via the tough route of hiding and evasion.

What games coming out are true survival horror? What actually is survival horror defined as? Do you always need to be low on supplies? My friend starts first by saying you can't have co-op and be survival horror. Is that true?

Now for my little rant lol...

I personally think having to rely on another person with you, can still be tense. I don't know about anyone else but after being in a situation like some of these characters were. There is no way they would knownly go into a place infested with say zombies again, without being armed to the teeth with an army of trained people.

Ariost

The most recent game that I'm aware of that may be able to be classified as a survival horror is an indie game called Slender: The Eight Pages, formerly just known as Slender. Rule of Rose for PS2 may've been one as well, but I've not played it. I've played many survival horror games from Resident Evil to Clock Tower series to the Alone in the Dark series. I would define survival horror as: "a subgenre of adventure meant to scare players by using characters that are trapped in remote situations facing perilous, often seemingly insurmountable adversities (i.e. monsters, traps, serial killer) and must use what's in their scarce environment to survive (i.e. weapons, ammo, hiding places)."

A game could be co-op and survival horror, but it would it's difficult to pull-off. The only two games I knowed that tried this and somewhat failed was RE: Outbreak and another PS2 title called Obscure, maybe Obscure 2 for the PS2 (can't remember if only one or both were co-op).

For the most part, traditional survival horror is dead, Silent Hill series may be one of the last, although it's been falling apart since SH4: The Room. I'm not too sure about indie games, but if there is a good one I'd love to play it.

There are two groups that I would blame for the the weaking of Suruval Horror.

The first and the less damaging of the two is those that like action.

The second group and the one that cause the most damage, is thos that believe that fear, dread, hopelessness is a must.

and I did forget a real gem from back in the Dream cast days - Typing of the Dead

it was an odd ball of a game but a lot of fun and it was really different which is rare in a video game.

for a change it could not be compared to anything else.

One thing most of you fail to point out. That we became "hardened" or "used" to a lot of this stuff. The good old games that use to scare the crap out of me no longer do so (same with movies). The only thing I get now is the shock (like Slender Man showing up in the bath house, or the zombie in the tub RE1). The only good game Iv played from a "big" studio was Condemned 1&2 bit on the creepy/disturbing side and its resident evil lack of ammo made it the only console game close to Survival Horror.

On another note in this department the last game that really gave me a good chill down my spine (only once and your not going to like the name of the game) was CoD:MW2 when you emerge out of a bunker, I think, to see the Russians dropping in full force. That however is scary for another reason.

Clive Barker's Undying is another good one that mostly got ignored when it came out but I did play it and that was a very good game.

also Alan Wake is a great deal of fun and currently just old enough so the price has dropped

don't ignore Dead Island - it is a gem.

To some extent, yes. However The Evil Within at least looks to bring some life into the genre on the big scale once again.

There are also a ton of literal Survival Horror titles available, they're just lesser known.

things get confused when people try to include games like Fear which is action adventure.

it has been hard to try and keep this board limited to horror games

things get confused when people try to include games like Fear which is action adventure.

 

it has been hard to try and keep this board limited to horror games

iowastate

THat because what is a surival horror is not as limited as you say it is. I do not think of horror games as being surival horror. There is a different between a games that is about suriving a horror movie and a game about scaring the player. In fact I blame trying to make the game more scary as one of the cause for the weaking of surival horror games.