Many developers are introducing co-op survival horror games, like L4D or Killing Floor. These are NOT survival horror, no matter what the developers say. They’re a new genre, in my opinion. I call it a co-op action horror. Examples would be Killing Floor, Left 4 Dead, and Resident Evil 5. A survival horror, to me, is psychological creepiness. The player is meant to feel helpless, alone, and tense. Devs seem to take the following approaches to survival horror, that if done right, make a great game. Unfortunately, they are usually done poorly.
1) Undead. The undead usually are able to scare people because of their fear of death. The undead have been scaring people since Dracula. And honestly, it gets boring fast. In games like Doom or Dead Space, the undead will rise all the time. It will scare me once or twice. After that it’s just annoying because I have to spend more ammo. Which brings me to my next point.
2) Ammo saving. Many survival horror games force the player to use ammo wisely by keeping it scarce. Many game developers think this causes a feeling of tension and helplessness. All it really does for me is annoys me, because I have to hit the enemies over the head til they die. Or reload to a previous save, and make sure I get a headshot. The worst case of this I’ve seen was Resident Evil 5. It called itself a survival horror, but the only survival bit about the game was that it included zombies and limited ammo. So I had to either run through the game knifing zombies and hoping for ammo, OR invite a friend who had beat the game and had extra ammo. Which I’m sure many others did.
3) Gore. Some developers seem to love gore, and think it scares people. This is a misconception. It does not scare, only disgusts. Which causes dread, just because the player does not want to look at it. But even that feeling wears down after time, when the player adjusts to the images. The devs must keep the monsters, and atmosphere constantly changing so the player doesn’t get too comfortable with the area, or bored.
4) Atmosphere. People have an irrational fear of the dark. For me, when I’m in a dark room, I feel paranoid that something could be right near me and about to attack me. Notice the word COULD. Developers love that word. It is a major aspect of gameplay design, keeping the player constantly anxious and tense about what COULD happen at any moment. A good atmosphere must maintain this ‘could’ by balance the number of suprises with the ambience.
5) Pop Ups. If a game manages to suprise the player, it has the potential to be a great game. The problem is some developers put in so many suprises that the player constantly suspects something about to happen. I found that in Dead Space, it almost worked like a cycle. Go foward a bit. Zombies pop ot of nowhere. Shoot zombies. Go foward some more. Rinse and repeat.
6) Monster types. Like I said in the gore section, the game must keep adding new types of monsters or threats. However, having too many types of monsters will simply annoy the player. Imagine if a game had 20+ types of monsters, and each had their own weakness. Sure that would work fine in an RPG, but when the player needs to pause the game and look in a manual to find a weakness it takes the player out of the action..
7) Flow. Like taking the flow of action out of an action shooter, taking the player out of the ‘could’ is a mistake. Changing the atmosphere is often welcome, even changing the speed can be a good idea. Changing the speed can help give the player some time to breath. If more time is given, it can even start to increase the creepiness level, while the player gets more anxious waiting for the ‘could’.
Okay, now I’ve talked about my rules of survival horror, I’d like to talk about my favorite example of a real survival horror. Penumbra Overture/Black Plague
Greatness – This is one of my favorite survival horrors. The ‘could’ never quite faded away. I remember at one moment, I entered a generator room after a few minutes of peace, and a giant worm came out of the floor and tried eating me. Another moment that was extremely unexpected was flipping a light switch and seeing ultraviolet ink writing of a madman all over the wall. It pulled off the ‘could’ extremely well, where I’d feel safe but still cautious about a monster showing up and eating me.
Suckiness – There were very few types of enemies in Penumbra, and all most of them did was make it more difficult to navigate around the already confusing non-linear map. They forced me to run past them, or hide behind a box until they walked away. It started off creepy, but once I realized it was easier to run past, it turned into an annoyance.
