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Survival Horror

Survival Horror is a genre of video games characterized by the player avatar having to survive through a harmful environment that attempts to induce a scene of fear into the player. Players of survival horror games will have to make their way through the game whilst only having access to limited resources, such as food, ammunition and medical supplier as well as potentially a limited amount health, stamina or visibility. The horror elements will be used to make the players panic, throwing them off and make mistakes that will waste the little resources that they have.

The first recorded incident of the term "survival horror" was in 1996 for the marketing of Capcom's classical Resident Evil. Whilst there were Horror games long before then, such as Haunted House (the first horror game) in 1972 on the Magnavox Odyssey or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (video game) in 1983 on the Atari 2600, the aspects that would define the sub-genre of Survival Horror were all introduced through Resident Evil. Many other games since then have used Survival Horror as the main focus point of the gameplay, such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent in 2010 and Alien: Isolation in 2014.

Game Design

As the name suggests Survival Horrors game has two parts to it. The survival aspect which contains the limitation of recourse and management side of the gameplay. The horror elements that dictate the design of the environment and obstacles. For a game to be distinctly a survival horror game it must have these. However, there is no specific formula that needs to be followed for a survival horror game except for the basics.

Horror

The horror portion contains already established horror elements for movies and television with tropes such as The Uncanny, The Final Girl and The Indestructible monster. These can be comfortably translated into video games with many of these being identifiable withing the right games. The horror is used to create a fearful sensation within the player of the game in the same way they do in films with horror elements. The thrill of said horrifying experience coupled with the anxiety of losing resources from the survival mechanics as the game progresses is the are the goals of the designers when making the horror. Body Horror is a common aspect of the design in survival horror. Enemies that are designed to be violation of the natural human body, with contorted limbs and other body features, are used to give an unnatural and disturbing feeling in the players, enforcing the horror on them.

Survival

There are many different gameplay mechanics that fall under the survival genre. All survival horror games have slight variations however there are a few which seen be in them most often. An inventory system was used in the original Resident Evil and has been a staple in the genre ever since. The system works by limiting the number of useful items that the players avatar can carry at once. Creating a balancing act of having to take only what is needed and dropping what isn't. With one of the many obstacles usually being a monster or multiple monsters, game designers usefully put in a form of combat mechanics as a way of fending them off. This in turn is woven in with the survival mechanics as combat will be a drain on the resources of the player. Game designers sometimes limit the amount of movement that the player can accomplish to make combat the only viable means of survival.

Early Survival Horror

Horror has been a genre used in video games since it was fists accessible. In 1972, when Magnavox created the Magnavox Odyssey, one of the games that came that came with the very first home console was Haunted House, a game about ghost hunting. The game introduced the concept of a monster working against the player, a staple of modern horror games. Unlike most other modern day games, the monster was played by a second person. Compared to modern day horror games Haunted House would not be considered particularly horrifying. However, it would pave the way for future games to show the potential of horror video games.

in 1982 another game called Haunted House was released on the Atari 2600. A game where that player has to traverse a maze like estate to escape to safety. The horror elements come from the ghost of Mr. Graves who will be chancing after you, if he catches you to many times then its game over. This had never been seen before in games prier to it and can be seen as the one of the first steps towards survival horror. It introduced the element of avoiding conflict rather than facing it that many survival horror games would utilize in the future installments.

Survival Horror as a sub-genre would not be defined until 1996 with Resident Evil or as it was known in Japan Biohazard. Creating what would be the prime example of what a survival horror game is and introduced the core elements that would later be used to define the sub genre. With its tight, claustrophobic interior and its focus of puzzles over combat it placed the player in a situation where they would need to think about their approach to a problem. The gruesome monsters, limited inventory system and encouragement to be cautious would become standard form inf future games of the genre.