User:Charlie - Game Studies 3/The Survival Horror Genre

= The Survival Horror Genre = The Survival Horror genre has been around since 1989 and has been used in many different game franchise' such as Project Firestart, Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The genre revolves around the player surviving horrific environments using gory scenes or psychologically induced horror such as ambient music and effects. Compared to other genres such as Action game s the Survival Horror genre will normally give you limited ammo and health to give the player a suspenseful experience throughout.

Founders of this genre such as Resident Evil in 1996 used this to its advantage as well as placing the player in tight corridors where they could be easily jumped by enemies. It also introduced mechanics such as finding keys and other items to progress which became an important feature in later entries in the series.

Key Features
The Survival Horror genre is made up of multiple different aspects. These being, Disempowerment, Isolation, Tension, Uncertainty and Lingering Fear.

Disempowerment is how the game removes certain features from the player to make them feel more vulnerable. This can be as simple as taking away large gameplay elements such as combat or more story based reasons like being injured meaning that the player is not able to move as fast as normal. Isolation is a key theme found within most horror games, this is done to create more tension for the player. If the game were to include interactions between many characters the player would feel much more safe than walking around an abandoned space station with nothing but an engineering tool to help them e.g. Dead Space from 2008. Tension is often used in Horror games to keep the player on the edge of their seat throughout the experience. Survival Horror especially uses this to give the player limited resources and micro manage using difficult inventory systems sometimes even in real-time meaning the game isn't paused. This isn't just giving the player limited ammo and resources however, as it is also down to the player when to use them adding further tension once resources have been collected. This is used heavily in the Resident Evil series, especially the latest entry Resident Evil 2 from 2019.

Uncertainty is used very often in Survival Horror games, specifically the Silent Hill series uses this to it's advantage to make the player confused by what they are seeing and hearing. This may be as simple as hearing a banging noise as you approach the top of some stairs or hearing a weird creature coming from some fog. It's all done to immerse the player in the world and make them truly feel vulnerable like a good Survival Horror game should. Lingering fear is also a key factor into the Survival Horror genre. The feeling of being watched is almost always present in these kind of games. Then even after closing the game that same sense of dread is carried into the real world, this is a sign of a successful use of Lingering Fear in Survival Horror.

Origins of Survival Horror
The beginning of the true Survival Horror genre can be placed back to 1996 with the release of Resident Evil but in actual fact games tried to do the horror genre justice many years prior in 1989 with the release of Project Firestart on the Commodore 64. The game was designed by Damon Slye and Jeff Tunnell. It took most of its inspiration from classic Horror film Alien. The game revolved around the character, special agent Jon Hawking, boarding the ship called 'SSF Prometheus' and activate its self destruct mechanism in a limited time to destroy the aliens on board. The key part that made the game the beginning of the Survival Horror genre is the fact that the player was disempowered meaning you had limited ammunition to take out your enemies. It also seems to have influenced a later entry in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil 4 from 2005. This is due to the fact that the player can both walk and shoot but is unable to do so at the same time. This partnered with the fact that the player has limited time to destroy the ship specifically shows the difference between a character who has been weakened but factors out of their control and one who is simply weak to begin with.

The Redefinition of Survival Horror
After the release of Project Firestart there were many other games that pursued the genre to try and push it forward such as Sweet Home from 1989 and Alone in the Dark from 1992. But nothing would reinvent the genre quite like Resident Evil in 1996. The game was originally penned to be a remake of the aforementioned game Sweet Home and went through multiple redesigns before its release on the PlayStation. The game revolutionised the Survival Horror genre with its use of 3D polygonal characters combined with pre-rendered backdrops to create a more immersive experience for the player than ever before. It revolves around the characters of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine as they try to escape a mansion that is infested with zombies and other creatures. The gameplay consisted of exploring the environment and picking up items to solve puzzles as well as ammo for weaponry like pistols. The game uses a fixed camera meaning the player is never able to see where the game doesn't want you to, which leads to some unsettling surprises along the way and creates tension from the moment the player kills their first zombie to reaching the final credits.

The Resident Evil franchise would go onto spawn many sequels and even stretch into other industries such as film and books. The games also underwent various changes through the years. Most prominently, Resident Evil 4's switch to a Third-Person perspective and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard's switch to a First-Person perspective. Even throughout all of these changes the series has kept its Survival Horror routes and has gone on to influence other survival horror titles such as the cult classic Condemned: Criminal Origins which released in 2005. This would then go on to inspire the creation of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in 2017.