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Survival Horror
Survival Horror is a sub-genre of video game that gained popularity in the late 90s after the release of the game Alone In The Dark, this was the first such game that used fix camera angles for every room along with creepy graphics, the game was also the first of its kind to implement survival mechanics which had players traversing through a level with limited uses for things like Item storage/space as well as saves. Alone in the Dark also had a very strong focus on puzzle solving which also became a staple of the survival horror genre. However while Alone in the Dark can lay claim to being the first survival horror game, it wasn't until 1996 with the release of Capcom's Resident Evil that the term survival horror would become mainstream and reach the ears of many gamer's around the world.

Evolution of Survival Horror Games
following the immense success of the 1996 release of Resident Evil game a wave of Survival Horror games that would follow. Alot of these games would utilize alot of the core principles and game mechanics that alot of people associate survival horror with. Resident Evil truly defined the survival horror genre, spawning my sequels, movies and comics as well as serving as a template for almost every survival horror game to come including Silent Hill, F.E.A.R and Dead Space. All of these games shared similar things in common such as always giving the player a sense of power, while at the same time immersing them in a captivating story and still making the player feel vulnerable despite possessing powers of their own.

As time and trends shifted seemingly to a more action orientated direction, so to did the horror genre, with many of the games released during this time having a large focus on action and quick time vents than any actual survival or horror. this had a profound effect on some of the original fans of survival horror who felt the games in the genre lost focus on what made survival horror what it is. Games like Resident Evil 6 and Aliens Colonial Marines were two such games that fell into this category of backlash from the survival horror community.

While the triple A horror games of 2010's flopped, the rise of the indie horror game began, a wave of popular indie horror games began surfacing during the 2010s giving fans there long awaited taste of TRUE survival horror, such games include Amnesia The Dark Descent, Slender The Eight Pages, Five Nights At Freddies and Outlast. each of these games shared one big thing in common they were made by fans of the horror genre that wanted to add something new and in doing so it created a long tend of indie horror game development that seemingly beat out alot of the triple A horror games in terms of popularity.

What made these games special was how innovative they were as well as how they tackled the approach to the survival horror genre. Previous games in the genre gave you a gun or some form of weapon to defend yourself, however these games from the outset leave you defenseless with so such means of defense except to run from what is trying to kill you while making it obvious to the player that there is no way to stop what is pursuing them. This simple mechanic went along way to make players feel weak and helpless against the unholy forces that were set upon them, players felt they had no other option but to run, duck and hide from forces that they simply could not beat.

The Horror genre will continue to change and evolve but it looks likely that the indie development scene will really be at the forefront of the horror genre for years to come.

The Future Of Survival Horror
Horror and Survival Horror seem to be making a return as the 2010s have continued with games like Resident Evil 7. Dying Light and Visage being big successes among triple A horror tiles it would seem that the influence and contribution of indie developers played a key role in the continued success of the Horror Genre with many of the said games adopting features found in these Indie Horror Titles Things such as 1st person camera perspective, puzzle solving and limited item usage/management combined with a thrilling story and realistic graphics that a triple A game could produce made the Horror Games of the late 2010s big successes.