Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

The basis of a survival horror game that makes it good today is that as long as it has resemblances to horrific scenes from other horror movies. Such as demons from hell, dark spooky corridors, and people dying in a horrific way. A perfect example is the game Dead Space where you see people being shredded, monsters coming out to say boo and annoy you, and there is not one room where it is lively with anything green. Although they are part of what makes a survival horror, they are not what makes a game scary.

Games like Resident Evil 5, Dead Space, and Alone in The Dark are much rather like a friend who just comes up behind you and gives you a sharp touch while saying boo really loudly, and then he said he scared you. He didn't scare you but rather surprised you because you didn't expect it so you were caught off guard. Being scared is when you are left in a dark mansion all alone with little to no weapon with suspicions that there is something trying to kill you, but you don't know what it is. It presents some of the most basic elements of what makes the person experienced true fear and if you analyze it, you will see why. It is because it does the following things that accomplishes trying to make sure you have no sense of security.

1)You have little to no defenses.
When someone tells me that Dead Space was scary, they clearly forgotten the fact that you can evisceration all the monsters with any weapon you pick up. Being afraid or scared is a state where all levels of security or safety is thrown out of the window. It is the state where the fear of dying is very much present, because as human beings we are naturally are afraid of dying. Having no weapons gives the player the idea that you cannot get rid of the thing that will kill you. Even if you had a crowbar, you will realize that you would die if you went head on with a group of those monsters. Monster are not scary if you have a means of disposing them quickly, like a machine gun or a rocket laucher, thus eliminating the thought of death altogether.

2)Monsters can Kill you easily and are hard to get rid of.
As I mentioned before, if you can easily get rid of the monster, it becomes more of a obstacle in the way. However if said monsters requires that you nearly deplete half of your resources, then he becomes quite a problem. These are to represent the grim reaper, the very thing that is set out to kill you. It augments a persons fear knowing that death cannot be shoved aside until the next group of monsters. They are also to be able to kill you instantly or take out quite of bit of damage out of you. This is to make the player stay away from them as they can die instantly if they are not careful. Think of those failed experiments in Resident Evil 4 where they cannot be killed except by killing multiple insects on their body, that you can't see. They require alot of your ammo

3)The player needs to feel completely alone
One of the things that Resident Evil 5 fails as a survival horror is the addition of a co-op partner. One of the basic essential needs for a person is social interaction. Knowing that there are people you can have fun with or that you can depend on. However survival horror is to eliminate that so that the player realizes that there is no person to help them or to rely on. It unsatisfy the need for social interraction and put the player on edge, and keeps them in isolation, something that goes against a humans biological system. There could be people to talk to, but the game has to make them as a problem, like another factor to the danger surrounding them. The characters should be a possible threat to the player, increasing the sense of danger the player already had. A perfect example is Silent hill 2, considered one of the greatest survival horror games to date, has every characters unreliable to a degree or potentially dangerous. There is a fat guy who cant fight and eats alot, a whore who seems to be aloof and keeping secrets form you, and a little girl that is creepy.

4)Monsters should be in groups
When a person is overpowered and outnumbered, fear is created because the chances for them to come out of the situation without dying or being seriously injured are slim. People feel safe when they think they have a high or good chance of survival,, and a survival horror game job is to make those chances more slim then a paper.
.
5) The player objective is to SURVIVE
Surviving is not being able to mow down a whole group of villagers and still have enough resources to fuel a small group of commando. That feeds the players idea that they are sure to survive when you want to take that out completely. They need to have limited resources that depletes very fast if they are not careful.. Weapons are not to be used to kill every monster they see but be used to know when to use them to get to the next area and to kill only necessary. If I can kill every single enemy in every level and still have enough ammo to survive another round, there is something wrong. That is what Dead Space almost hit the nail on this on one part with a enemy where it could not be killed until later. Every weapon you had could only slow the creature down and it forced me to use my resources effectively to get to the next room where I abandon the monster for the time being.

6) Monsters and Locations need to be unpredictable.
If I walk down a corridor and know that dead creatures on the floor will jump up and hurt me, it is not scary. If i know no monsters will hurt me once I am under the influence of the powerful save room i will not be scared. Predictability is boring and mundane. Creatures that attack you while your trying to save and occasionally pop into a room like the planets were aligned is scary. The player can`t predict a monster move and doesn’t know when the big scary monster behind them will pop out and say `boo`. It adds tension and increases one anxiety. Resident Evil 4 is a perfect example where enemies cannot be predicted and the locations had no place where the zombies couldn`t reach you. If a place has multiple entries, there is a good number of times where the enemy will get you from behind. It adds to the tension and puts the player on edge.

7)Build atmosphere
It is important for a survival horror to not have the player encounter a single monster until later. The player should be at eased in it's environment, make it seem nice and a safe place, put them in a false sense of security. Silent Hill 2 had you walk around the town without encountering your first monster 20 minutes in. It allowed the player to get comfortable and then when the first monster comes around, it upsets the player and truly terrifies them as they see a potential threat to their safety.

These are what can make a person piss his pants red but unfortunately do we see survival horror games take this approach? Considering that it takes millions of dollars to make these games, they have to sell well to make profit. That means to appeal to the public, and the public doesn`t want to be scared out of their willies or to panic. They rather feel powerful and important and survival horror games at their core isn`t that. They are more about story. Silent hill 4 doesn`t receive the title of best horror game from me because of it combat but how it told the story. The monsters were a visual projection of the main characters sub conscious, and the story was about a character exploring the inner depths of his own mind to search for his dead wife.

A company must be able to survive in order to release games. Unless one can convinced the target audience to play gaes that are good, company will keep on releasing mediocre games because they know they will buy it. However survival horror games can do things that no horror movie can do, which is actually to scare the viewers. The player is the character they play, and already envelops themselves in the game. A game is a persons escape from reality and it becomes like a dream. A dream that turns your deepest fears into physical projection. Silent Hill 2 is a perfect example of survival horror, and people must play it to understand the fundamentals of survival horror.