User:Natalia Dobosz/sandbox

= The Survival Horror Genre = Survival Horror is a subgenre of action video games and stems from survival and horror genres. Horror games are usually set in sci-fi or fantastical settings and are defined by dangerous and often hostile characters or environments that mean harm to the player and their character. This is often done by psychologically affecting the player through physically or emotionally harming the character. Players often engage in hide and seek types of activities in hopes of avoiding danger to reach a goal, often escaping a location or discovering the truth of a mystery.

Survival games are set in desolate, run down locations, and sometimes in locked off schools or hospitals. They focus on resource management and the players start with nothing sustainable which forces them to go out and explore in order to get the necessary materials to survive. The goal of all survivor games is to survive for as long as possible or until a goal is reached such as surviving the gunfire period in This War of Mine. Many games make certain death an inevitability and the longer the player survives the more points they score like in Heiankyo Alien.

The first game to adapt survival and horror elements was Resident Evil, created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara in 1996 and developed and published by the video game company Capcom. Resident Evil coined the term survival horror into its own genre, however, titles such as Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark are the ones to first utilise the aspects of survival horror as Resident Evil's main inspirations but were simply referred to as horror games.

Gameplay and Mechanics
Survival horror games are a mixture of survival mechanics with horror elements, as horror games rely solely on making the player feel afraid and uncertain, the horror genre is not explicitly described as its own thing but rather an application to others.

In survival games, players must gather and manage their resources, explore to gather materials essential for crafting, more often than not, survival kits like food and weapons. This is usually the requirement within a danger zone or with an evil person or creature constantly trying to find ways to hurt the player character. Horror comes in to this by introducing systems such as jump scares, forbidden rooms with eerily secrets, terrifying monsters and spooky atmospheres in haunting environments. The combination of the two creates games of puzzle solving, strong above human average enemies and compelling story telling.

The player is no more an elite soldier or master of sword fighting and often a regular citizen with no stand-out skills or magic, placed in an unforgiving environment where everything is after them, and much stronger than them. Survival horror forces the players to avoid danger, run from the big spooky man like in Resident Evil. Often players will be faced with restricted or awkward controls to add to their stress and fear, and to add another layer of management under pressure.

Enemies in the survival horror genre are split into 2 groups, the first are the grunts and local zombies that take some getting used to but are fairly manageable and players learn to kill them very fast. The second group are the bosses, archenemies and walking biohazards that mostly appear invulnerable and have only one true weakness, making avoiding confrontation the desirable method of play.

Player Experience
The first Resident Evil game was critically received, collecting an average of 80% positive feedback from journalists, reviewers, and players alike. People praised it for being entertaining for the spectators as much as it was for the players. Resident Evil introduced players to a terrifying soundtrack that combined with its camera angle gameplay made for a unique and frightening experience no one has ever seen before.

Another example would be Minecraft and the first night that players spend defenceless, running and hiding away from zombies and creepers. Minecraft is iconic in the world of sandbox games and creative freedom; however, it has a fantastic survival mode that forces players to forage for everything by themselves. Nothing is given and everything is earned which is what, at the time, made it the most compelling survival experience in the open world games market, praised by endless top scoring reviews and fan creations such as fanarts and mods.

Some of the earlier games of the genre like Alone in the Dark did not have the same luck with critical reviews like Resident Evil or Minecraft. It was criticised for presenting the audiences with the same scenario of an amnesia inflicted man fighting mosters while uncovering a secret with a charming lady to his side. Its overuse of foul language that came off as obnoxious and a failed attempt at realism which only drowned the game further into the lower rankings by critics.

History
The first proper look at survival horror games was in 1996 through Resident Evil, more commonly known as Biohazard in Japan. Resident Evil is the first game to truly mix horror and survival into one game. Prior to Resident Evil, the Japanese experienced Heiankyo Alien in 1979, an arcade game focused on trapping and burying alive monster invaders in dug out pits, trying to survive for as long as possible to get high scores. The game had no end, it ended when the player character died, stopping the point count and displaying a score message. Heiankyo Alien is said to be the influence of many different games like Pac-Man and Bomberman but was also the first survival experience in games. Heiankyo Alien wasn't advertised as a horror game, however, this would be the first time people in Japan experienced a game that would evoke high stress or suspense, crowning it as the scariest game ever, during its release.