By far my favourite genre of video games are survival horror! I am obsessed. I am addicted to that feeling when you have no health, one bullet and a character that refuses to even break into a light jog to escape certain death - I get it dude, jogging for me is more painful than been eaten alive by zombies too. But so often horror games, much like movies, seem to miss the mark and the scariest thing about them is that you just dropped £60 on a game that is not remotely scary and has a weird plot about finding your babies body parts (I'm looking at you Resident Evil Village). So why is it that when it comes to survival horror it feels like it is all or nothing? The games are either amazing or terrible and there is very little middle ground.
Enemies: Less is more
Well, the first reason is to do with enemy encounter frequency. Remember how god damn terrifying it was in Resident Evil 1 when you would walk through a door and see a zombie in the corner of the room spaced out and staring at a wall like the first time I did edibles? (I have only done edibles once, that was 3 months ago and I still haven't recovered). Now do you remember mowing down 1000 poor Spanish villagers in Resident Evil 4 and feeling nothing? (Before you come after me I love Resident Evil 4, I have fond memories of playing it on Gamecube whist listening to Blink 182 because I am old now apparently, I just don't think it is a survival horror game). With horror less is definitely more. I am not sure if you have played 'Alien: Isolation', but I believe that is one of the best survival horrors of all time and that is because you spend all your time wondering if the alien is around the next corner and 9 out of 10 times it isn't. But that 1 time it is...you will fill your pants faster than a 4 year old who just discovered Taco Bell. It is all about building tension. Let the player build up whats going to happen in their mind because trust me, nothing a game developer can think of is scarier than whats in my brain...I need therapy. I recently played PT again and that game is so terrifying because for the most part nothing is happening, yet every time you walk through that same door you are scared about what will be on the other side.
Now, if you are a game developer reading this, my message isn't 'just make a game where nothing happens and I will be terrified the entire time because I am paranoid and not mentally well.' My message is make the encounters matter, build slowly and break your own rules. Again going back to Alien: Isolation (SPOILERS FOR ALIEN:ISOLATION - SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE PLAYED IT BY NOW AND LETS FACE IT THE STORY ISN'T REALLY THAT IMPORTANT) the game does a good job of making one alien a menacing and unstoppable force. Then there is a chapter where you go into a nest and there is a butt load of them and it is horrifying! In space no one can hear you scream, but if you live in a block of flats like me, you get noise complaints. Another example is in Resident Evil 2 Remake (SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT EVIL 2 - SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE PLAYED IT BY NOW AND LETS FACE IT THE STORY ISN'T REALLY THAT IMPORTANT, ALSO THE ORIGINAL CAME OUT IN 1998 SO CHILL OUT BRO) you spend most of the game in the police station conserving bullets and dancing around zombies, and then there is a scene in the prison cells where all the doors open and a flood of those hungry little devils come pouring out...terrifying.
Surprise!!!
You know those moments in horror films where the music swells and you think there is going to be a jump scare and then there isn't? That should be the feeling you get whenever you enter a new room and then hit us with a scare when we least expect it. Here is a really weird example that is not even in a survival horror game but might be the moment I have jumped the most in a video game - Manbat in Arkham Knight. (SPOILERS FOR ARKHAM KNIGHT - SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF...YOU KNOW WHAT STOP BEING SO PRECIOUS ABOUT SPOILERS IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER!) There is a moment in Arkham knight when you are just free roaming around around the city minding your own bat business and BLAM a big bat creature pops out from the top of the building and scares the utility belt right off you! It is so scary because it breaks the rules of what is expected in the game and catches the player off guard. We have all played so called 'horror' games where we are mowing down enemy after enemy with machine guns in the same rinse and repeat encounters and feeling nothing. And then on the flip side we have all played Outlast and wet the bed repeatedly for weeks afterwards...it's not just me that did that, right?
Be Grounded In Something Real
Next is relatability. Being able to put yourself in the situation, in my opinion, is key to the immersion. I recently played Alan Wake 2 (DON'T WORRY NO SPOILERS) and there are 2 story lines happening simultaneously. One story is a character who is a normal person thrust into the world and the other is a character who understands more about what is happening, guess which one I related to more? That's right, the normal person! As a side note Alan Wake 2 is an INCREDIBLE game. I have played too many games where I am more confused than scared, because everyone seems to know what is going on except me. This is a mistake that I feel horror games fall into too often, weird does not equal scary. I cannot begin to count the amount of horror games where the final act goes so weird and bat shit insane that I am left wondering if the developers were so sleep deprived by that point that they lost their minds. Maybe I am alone on this, but if I have to fight one more giant monster with a million eyeballs I have to shoot for reasons I don't understand, then I'm going to chainsaw off my own head (yes that was a forced Shinji Mikami reference).
Bad Final Acts
This brings me nicely onto my next point, survival horror video games suffer from the same thing horror movies do - bad final acts. The reason for this is simple, once you have seen the monster, it is no longer an unknown presence. remember when we saw the alien in 'Signs' and it turned out to be the Green Goblin from Spider-man!? A good horror is like sex, it should be a build to a big, satisfying, climax and then end. That is easier done in a 2 hour movie, but in order to stick the landing with a 12 hour video game, it has got to be like tantric sex with Sting and then it all needs to end in a satisfying climax that was worth it for all the hours of edging. This is why, in my opinion, not many horror games stick the landing. (Again I am looking at you Resident Evil Village - if you know, you know). Great endings should be a result of many plot threads coming together and resulting in an adrenaline educing final act where you are really invested in the characters. Games that I end really well are Alan Wake 2, Until Dawn, Blair Witch, Dead Space and Silent Hill 2.
Manipulate My Emotions
Arguably the reason why I believe survival horror games either really work, or really don't, is because horror games are tied to emotions more so than other genres. An example of this is you may play a game such as Uncharted and think 'I enjoyed the climbing, but found the gun play clunky' or 'I don't like Nathan Drake as a character, but the gameplay is fun'. But with horror you are either scared, or you aren't. Great horror games need to appeal more to your emotions in order for you to feel at the mercy of the developer. This is why I found myself loving Alan Wake 2 so much. That game uses comedy to lull you into a false sense of security and bring your guard down, before hitting you with moments that rock you to your core. This is also done well in Resident Evil 7 through Lucas's twisted games and even with the heightened teen drama in Until Dawn and The Quarry. With a horror game I want a roller coaster because if you keep just trying to scare me over and over, I'm eventually going to become immune.
Riddle me this!
Puzzles are a part of survival horror can either love or be frustrated as hell by! There is something about having to think logically whilst scared out of your mind that just works! Remember Dino Crisis? I miss that game, when is it coming back? Anyway, I love puzzles and when they are done well they enhance the game no end! Of course it makes no sense that in the police station in Resi 2 you need to solve 3 puzzles to receive 3 amulets that you put into a statue in order to get to an office...but who cares, its exciting and when you have that big scary bastard chasing you it is thrilling! The essence of this has been captured in games such as Friday 13th, Dead by Daylight and all the other asymmetric multiplayer survival horror games, however I personally have struggled to spend more than a couple of hours with these games, probably because I don't feel invested in whats going on, or because I have no friends...or both.
Stakes!
Lets now talk about stakes! More importantly lets talk about ZombiU. Granted the Wii U was the greatest horror Nintendo had to survive, but in my opinion they had something special with ZombiU that I think people over looked. Was it a great game? Not really! Was it scary? Absolutely! And that all came down to one thing...stakes! If you don't know the system that ZombiU had was what I call the Ivan Drago system - 'If he dies, he dies'. What I mean by that, is if your character dies, you then play as another character who then has to hunt down the zombified version of your previous person and kill them in order to get your loot back. Now that is stakes! The panic that would overcome me when I was about to die was close to an extreme anxiety attack, knowing the time and effort it would take to get back to that point! Think about ink ribbons in Resident Evil! Annoying yes. But it made death mean something! don't give me checkpoints ever 5 seconds, punish me!
A Powerless Lead Character
Finally lets talk about power when it comes to the main character. I would be remiss not to bring up Outlast again here. I love it when you feel completely powerless and the world is out to get you...yeah I do need therapy. If you don't know, in Outlast there are no weapons, just a camera with a battery that lasts about 2 seconds! So you have to run, sneak and hide your way through the game with your heart pounding the entire time! Also Little Nightmares is a game that does that beautifully. You feel so small in such a big scary world! Hell, Eternal Darkness even made you think the console itself was out to kill you! This doesn't mean that the main character should always be completely powerless, but I always find that once you have grenade launchers and machine guns, the game becomes less intense. Here are, for me, the classic three weapons I love in a survival horror: a pistol that is hard to aim and does barely any damage, a melee weapon that the character is bad at using, and a shotgun that takes 3 years to reload! Give me one enemy in a confined space and 2 bullets any day over a 20 eyed, 30 foot monster that I am firing rockets at.
Final Thoughts
Now it may seem in this article that I am putting so many rules on what makes a survival horror that I am not allowing any room for innovation in the genre. Perhaps I want developers to keep making the same game over and over. Well that is only partly true. I believe that survival horror should have the essence of being powerless in a mean and scary world and should always keep you on your toes whilst lulling you into a false sense of security. I love survival horror so much and I find it so difficult when a new one comes out because I know I will either love or hate it and there is no in between. I am hoping that there are some more amazing horror games around the corner waiting for me, because genuinely I believe it is the best genre!
I want to play more survival horror, so if you guys have suggestions please put them in the comments below! I would be keen to play some more indie games because I will admit I have not played a lot of indie horror! Also why not comment your personal favourite survival horror game! I am keen to build up a community and encourage fun, healthy discussions!
Why not support me financially since I suck at supporting myself! Donate here
Want me to draw something for you? Get in touch on Instagram
Comments
Post a Comment