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= Survival Horror =

The Survival Horror genre is but one of the vast categories that make up the Action genre within the Video Game classification system. The term was first coined in 1996 with Capcom's, Resident Evil. A game centered around traversing maze like environments to complete objectives and survive the enemies inside. Games that shared the prerequisite traits to be considered as in the survival horror sub-genre beforehand used to fall into different categories entirely, such as stealth or just traditional action. With earlier examples being seen from as early as 1982 with the game Nostromo, originally developed by Akira Takiguchi while at Tokyo University.

The main premise of the horror survival genre is to be able to survive through ordeals such as enemies, events and puzzles to be able to complete the game in often a grueling and timely manner. Survival horror aims to both frighten players with often graphic imagery such as body horror or extreme violence and to limit resources found within the game to overall, make the player feel less in-control and powerful than traditional action games. Sometimes requiring the use of stealth game genre type tactics to avoid certain situations and unnecessary attention whilst mazes and unlock-able areas keep players disoriented, cautious and scared as they progress through the game.

Game Design & Mechanics
The underpinning gameplay found in typical survival horror games covers three key points. These gameplay design choices and mechanics insure that the player is kept in the same suspenseful and alert mentality while playing the game.

Depressing and Oppressive Environments
The main key element of a survival horror game is the atmosphere created around the player. This of which, is often done with the use of intricately designed levels and environments that ensure that the player is left feeling either lost, disorientated or overwhelmed. A key underpin of the design should allow for suspense to be built, so commonly used levels in the past have often been small enclosed spaces in a maze like layout. It also may be preferable to some players to skip confrontation entirely during certain situations, meaning that allocations for stealthier approaches have to be factored in the games design too. However, too many changes to this may entail a Stealth Horror classification instead. Often, areas of the map or certain prerequisites must be met before a player can continue. Meaning that sometimes players may be asked to comb over areas previously explored.

Thematically, Horror is the key thematic device throughout. With depictions of body horror, gruesome violence and disturbing imagery, survival horror aims to create eerie atmospheres and frightening encounters.

Lack of Resources
Survival horror’s second key defining factor is the lack of resources readily available to a player for use at any given time. Adaptations such as the Resident Evil games require the use of items to further the player through the game, with use of weapons, ammo and health. Within the genre itself and compared to its action counterpart, Survival horror tries to keep this as sparse as possible to create agency and necessity. This is often another complex and delicate system within the game and players spend time sorting their equipment and working towards more valuable items.

Overwhelmed and Underpowered
If the survival horror game would have a form of combat, the player generally is always at some form of disadvantage against opposing enemies or forces. More often than not in the genre, failure is punished by an a violent death and a swift game over screen. The player needs to be afraid of a consequence for the genre to obtain the appropriate amount of immersion and enjoyment. As the feeling of helplessness and frailty will often change the way the player will approach situations, compared to other horror genre alternatives. Because of this, many games such as Dead Space, Resident Evil & Alone in the Dark, all have room or end ‘Boss’ type characters the player would have to overcome. Adding to the already overwhelming and stressful situation.

1980 - 2004
The first survival horror game was Nostromo, Created by Akira Takiguchi while studying at Tokyo University. Later, Masakuni Mitsuhashi helped port it to the PC-6001, which then was later published by ASCII in 1981. It was heavily influenced by the movie, Alien.

In 1982, Malcolm Evans 3D Monster Maze was released for the Sinclair ZX-81. At the time, it was considered a puzzle type game as the protagonist had to traverse a maze while being hunted by a T-Rex. Due to that reason, its is now considered one of the originators of the genre.

Sweet Home, for the Nintendo Entertainment System It was created by Tokuro Fujiwara in 1989 and was one of the main inspirations to the Resident Evil franchise.

Resident Evil began as a remake of Sweet Home, however after its release in 1996, it was used as the template for a long string of survival horror games and the success of the genre. Capcom’s Resident Evil was the first game that coined the term ‘Survival Horror’, birthing the term and making the genre widely popular to a wide-stream audience.

Silent Hill was released by Konami in 1999 and was heavily influenced by the Resident Evil franchise. Games released between 1996 and 2004 are widely considered the "Golden Age of Survival Horror" as both Silent Hill and Resident Evil are considered to both be games that defined a generation.

2005 +
After the release of Resident Evil 4 in 2005, Survival Horror adapted play to be more inclusive of the 1st person shooter point of view. Games such as F.E.A.R (2005) and Left 4 Dead (2008) both provided the traditional survival horror experience, while also being rooted into the FPS genre. This was also same for the widely popular Metro Series, created by 4A Games in 2010.

Most recently, The Evil Within was released in 2014 by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil franchise. He aspired to bring Survival Horror back to its roots.

Alien Isolation, developed by Creative Assembly brought Survival Horror to VR in 2017 and is still regarded as one of the best experiences to have with the new technology.

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