FEATURE: THE FUTURE OF SURVIVAL HORROR AS A GENRE Posted by PlayDevil.com Staff on May 15, 2009 21:57 (May 15, 2009 21:57) |
Written by: Ian
The future of survival horror as a genre
Survival horror games, you could argue, are enjoying somewhat of a revival. With the recent releases of "Resident Evil 5", "Silent Hill Homecoming", "Dead Space" and "Siren Blood Curse".
However, you could also argue the other way, as those are the only four notable games in the genre this generation. However, you could just as easily argue the other way. Tellingly, Dead Space is the only new IP amongst them, and Silent Hill and Resident Evil are rapidly approaching double figures in terms of sequels pumped out.
Furthermore, Resident Evil in particular has moved further and further away from its slow paced roots with pre-rendered backgrounds. RE5, whilst an excellent game in its own right, rarely leaves you short on ammo, and features a lead character more pumped up than Arnie in his prime.
Sure, the action isn’t as hectic as a Killzone or Gears of War, but you could just argue that the game just wasn’t scary any more, just gross.
 I can remember playing the original RE games, and then the GameCube remakes 5 or 6 years ago. The original games have terrible graphics and rudimentary gameplay compared to games today, but hell, they actually scared the shit out of me.
The first time one of the rabid dogs jumped out at me in the halls of the mansion in RE1, I wet myself. They were fast, the event was unexpected, and Jill was a feminine character who carried a pathetically weak pistol who also had less than a full clip. It didn’t matter that the dog was made of about five polygons, it made me jump out my seat.
Playing the GC remake a few years ago, with the awesome graphical upgrade, even though I was expecting it, the sheer shock and the massive graphical upgrade still made me jump.
Additionally, the fact that you still had very limited ammo made the choice between fight or flight far more pressing. These dogs were fast though, and could pin you to the ground, tearing away at your throat, so the choice to run always made you sweat just as much, as you’d never know if the snarling, bloody dogs would catch up to you and eat your face off just as you were about to open a door.
 Silent Hill, with the latest instalment, has clearly lost its way. It’s neither as gruesome nor visceral as RE4 & 5, and the fact that whole towns are surrounded in fog, whilst a good way of disguising crap graphics on the PS1, no longer cuts it on the 360 and PS3.
Homecoming featured some relatively disgusting and well designed monsters, but despite the fact that ammo is incredibly limited, forcing you to focus mostly on melee combat, and that it is generally fairly slow paced, I went through the entire game without ever getting scared, shocked or jumping even once.
Use of sound was also pretty poor- as discussed in my review, RE5 sounds disgusting, which is perfect for the game. Thus SH merely turned into a run of the mill 3rd person action game with a couple of interesting puzzles and monsters.
I won’t even mention the abysmal mess that was the most recent Alone in the Dark, even if it is supposedly a better experience on PS3 with the ‘Inferno’ release. Hopefully these two games can be saved with new releases that reboot the franchises back with scores that better represent their more illustrious pasts.
On the other hand, as discussed, RE5 has gone down a completely different path since the revolutionary fourth game, and could be argued is even more action focused in the latest instalment. Whilst violent, disgusting, eerie, disturbing and atmospheric are all words that can still be applied to the franchise, scary is one that is no longer applicable.
Dead Space, however, which uses a near identical control and inventory system, does manage to be scary at the same time. However, this is mostly due to excellent use of audio, as many of the set pieces just aren’t as scary as some past games, and equally, one could argue that the game relies far too heavily on the Doom mechanic of monsters hiding in cupboards for no real apparent reason.
 Siren is probably the scariest of the games discussed. This is for several reasons. It has fantastic sound and visuals that are at least on a par with RE5 in terms of visuals and Dead Space in terms of sound. Secondly, you are rarely armed at all, and even play as children; you therefore have to flee, so stealth is key.
You can also use your second sight to see into zombies’ minds. This distorts your own vision though, and at the same time, you often at the last second realise that the monsters are rapidly approaching you from behind.
However, Sony had no great faith in it, and it was originally only released as an unwieldy 10GB download, although it does now have a Bluray release.
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Jul 11, 2009 10:57:25 (Jul 11, 2009 10:57)
