One dark winter evening, when the lanterns began to light up one after another on the snow-covered street, and people were in a hurry to hide from the frost in their cozy apartments, I stretched out more comfortably in an armchair with the goal of getting a little spiritually enriched and reading a novel by Peter Straub. The cute little cat curled up on my lap, the life-giving tea with the aroma of wild berries warmed me, frozen after an evening run. The black gloomy night and the picturesque style made my imagination seethe like a deep ocean during a furious storm..
Survival horror is an unusual genre. He is very strict with gamers, sometimes not forgiving mistakes and putting forward strict conditions for getting maximum pleasure from the gameplay. I will talk about the development of this genre and its many branches. I hope you will gain new knowledge and my efforts will not fall into oblivion. Ready? Let’s go!
A good illustration of the differences between survival horror and action horror.
The concept of survival horror is much broader than it seems to the average gamer. Its elements are present in many currently popular games, sometimes mixing diametrically opposed genres, while combining a common theme of fear, which fades into the background in gameplay, for example, in horror shooters S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Left4Dead, F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Singularity, Dead Island, Killing Floor, Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi; platformers Limbo And Deadlight; psychological action thriller Alan Wake; post-apocalyptic adventure Lone Survivor; quests Still Life, Walking Dead, Lucius; sandboxes DayZ, Infestation, 7 Days to Die; action adventure The Last of Us; arthouse The Path..
The cultural influence on the emergence of the horror genre in computer games was exerted by the work of famous authors – masters of the “creepy” style. These are the “dark” stories of Edgar Poe, the Cthulhu mythology of Howard Lovecraft, the “shocking” stories of Harlan Ellison and other writers. The theme of survival was explored in detail in American horror films of the 70s, which predominantly depicted a deadly confrontation between the protagonist and a maniac. Let’s not forget Japanese culture, theater, cinema and literature, which shaped the psychological offshoot of the horror genre in the East. The work of the writer and critic Taro Hirai, better known under the pseudonym Edogawa Rampo, greatly influenced the evolution of the genre. Thus, two countries had a decisive influence on the formation of horror themes in the world – Japan and America. It is between the creations of developers from these countries that we will move throughout the narrative, without forgetting, however, about domestic game makers.
Shadow Man is the first Japanese book I read from start to finish. I like Hirai Taro, it’s not for nothing that he took this pseudonym: Edogawa Rampo – Edgar Allan Poe
— Strugatsky brothers “Lame Fate”.
Game Haunted House 1981, released for the Atari 2600 console, is considered the founder of the survival horror genre. The player must get out of the house by collecting several items and avoiding enemies, of which there are three types in the game: bats, tarantulas and ghosts. The gameplay involved a lack of confrontation with enemies, each of which had unique behavior. In the second half of the 1980s, many games with horror themes were released, for example Castlevania, Kenseiden And Splatterhouse, but they all had similar gameplay elements to other games of the time. The latter, by the way, is distinguished by a large amount of bloodshed and terror, despite the Beat ‘Em Up genre with a slight emphasis on survival.
Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead, released in 1987, is another representative of early Japanese horror. Unlike any game of the early stage of development of the genre, War of the Dead not only combined elements of various genres, but also introduced something new: the game had an inventory and a save system, which is rare for games of that era. The most curious thing is that War of the Dead is ahead Resident Evil, becoming the first Japanese horror film on the theme of surviving a zombie apocalypse; Silent Hill, recreating an entire city available for exploration; Deadly Premonition, introducing the concept of changing in-game time.
So many innovative ideas for the distant 1987!
It’s worth remembering Sweet Home, RPG from Capcom studio based on the Japanese horror film of the same name. The game was one of the first to use elements of survival horror and is considered one of the ideological inspirers of Resident Evil. It was also the first attempt to create a scary atmosphere in a game through a "horror" story, "creepy" cutscenes, frightening ambient music and an effective soundtrack. Gameplay focuses on solving various puzzles using items stored in a limited inventory while fighting or fleeing terrifying monsters.
Four years later, Infogrames Entertainment SA, now rebranded as Atari, released the game, Alone in the Dark, which became the first in the survival horror genre. The player in the role of Edward Carnby explores a mansion with many monsters and secrets. The features of the game were three-dimensional character models, a twisted plot, a fixed camera that creates the feeling of cinematic shooting, the ability not only to fight monsters, but also to block their blows, notes and books were introduced into the game that explain the plot. Many of these elements were later used in games of this genre. To date, the series has five games, but not a single one has made such a breakthrough as the original.
The main source of inspiration for the authors of Alone in the Dark was the work of the cult horror writer, one of the founders of the fantasy genre, creator of the Cthulhu myths, poet and journalist Howard Philip Lovecraft, whose works significantly influenced the development of the survival horror genre. Under the impression of his work, such popular series as Penumbra And Amnesia, games Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth And Necronomicon: The Dawling of Darkness, The mystical quest also contains many references to his work Scratch, as well as the previously mentioned Splatterhouse series of games.
This is what the first 3D horrors looked like.
In 1994, the first full-fledged 3D horror film called Doctor Hauzer, 3DO exclusive, inspired by Alone in the Dark. The game has innovative graphics for that time with the beginnings of facial animation. The player can switch to a top-down, first-person or third-person view. Doctor Hauzer became the progenitor of many Japanese horror films and one of the ideological inspirers of Resident Evil.
Clock Tower – another popular Japanese series of games involving the confrontation between a defenseless victim and an armed maniac. Among the features of the game are procedurally generated levels and randomness, expressed in hidden objects, the death of various characters, and story scenes.
However, we have come to the peak point in the development of the genre – the appearance of its two most significant representatives. Before that, we should mention some good gaming creations that ended the last century. This is one of the early representatives of “dark” quests Dark Eye, inspired by the stories of the already mentioned Edgar Allan Poe; adventures of the brave KGB officer in Nocturne from Gathering of Developers, publisher of the immortals Max Payne and Mafia The City of Lost Heaven; confrontation with prehistoric creatures in the trilogy Dino Crisis and Japanese role-playing game Parasite Eve.
Regina cosplay from Dino Crisis.
https://noidverificationcasinos.co.uk/ />In 1990, Capcom hired twenty-five-year-old Shinji Mikami, now a respected game designer and founder of Tango Gameworks. Starting with video games based on Disney cartoons, the Japanese created Resident Evil, which was destined to become a cult classic and seminal in the survival horror genre. The plot of the first part of the game follows all the canons of the genre. Again a huge mysterious mansion. Soldiers of Special Forces S.T.A.R.S. investigate mysterious murders where victims appear to have been eaten. Strange dangerous creatures have infested the rooms of the mansion and are killing the surviving team members. It turns out that the sinister company Umbrella is conducting its evil research. And the remaining fighters in the squad are forced to enter into confrontation with infected people.
The game provides two controllable characters to choose from: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Of course, Jill looked preferable, having two more slots in her inventory than Chris. The game has a special hardcore treatment system by mixing herbs, and includes another integral element of the genre – riddles. I won’t go into too much detail about “Resident”, I’ll just say that the site contains a wonderful history of the Resident Evil series, everything is presented there in an accessible and interesting way. As for me, after the third part the series shifted towards action and began to interest me less. But it’s good, I don’t argue.
At the very end of the twentieth century, the cult horror film Silent Hill was released, which conducted real experiments with psychological effects on the player. Its development was accompanied by a conflict between the game developer Team Silent and its publisher, Konami. The publisher needed good profits and popularization of their project in the USA. The developers, who were in a creative crisis, wanted to create a breakthrough in the genre by putting pressure on the player’s emotions, skillfully borrowing the ideas of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.
The released Silent Hill offered the player a real test: a weak main character, a flashlight with a small radius of illumination, no HUD, the famous fog that kills visibility. Another feature of the series is the magnificent soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka. In the future, Akira will actively and very fruitfully collaborate with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who has become “the wonderful voice of the series”. The result of their collaboration is many songs included in the official soundtracks for many parts of Silent Hill (for example, the author of this post does not remember anything more beautiful than the well-known Room of Angel). The game is also known for its abundance of endings, including comic, alien. Silent Hill was warmly received by critics, calling it "a brazen Resident Evil clone with a different form of intimidation.".
The famous fog of Silent Hill.
A few months later I saw the light System Shock 2, cyberpunk first person shooter. It would seem, what does horror have to do with it?? However, Irrational Games, together with Looking Glass Studios, managed to create an intellectually (so to speak) forced atmosphere of hopelessness, characteristic of all cyberpunk. A ringing silence and frightening emptiness reign aboard the Von Braun, a superluminal spacecraft. The successful combination of a captivating story, suspenseful soundtrack and role-playing elements has created a cult following among fans. Well, S.H.O.D.A.N., I think all oldfags remember.
“Obviously, the most frightening thing is the game’s brilliant visual design and immersive atmosphere. A worthy rival to Resident Evil and Silent Hill".
— IGN review, August 1999.
Meanwhile, new game series were gaining popularity in Japan Forbidden Siren And Fatal Frame. Forbidden Siren is a hardcore series of games from the creators of Silent Hill, which tells the story of the transformation of the inhabitants of a peaceful Japanese village into Shibito – terrible monsters. Fatal Frame was another exploration of a huge mansion and the revelation of its dark secrets. In addition, the Land of the Rising Sun produced a sufficient number of horror films and continued to release already beloved series. Perhaps this is another topic for discussion. Hmm-ghm. Well, I’m not a fan of Japan, don’t get me wrong.
The Survival horror genre leaves complete freedom in creating gameplay. Little brother F.E.A.R. Condemned: Criminal Origins, for example, widely used hand-to-hand combat as one of the gameplay elements. The Penumbra trilogy and its close successor Amnesia: The Dark Descent preach a complete rejection of confrontation. The protagonists of Frictional Games are absolutely helpless and fearful.
Local fauna in Penumbra: Black Plague.
After all, monsters and jump scares or a creepy, overwhelming atmosphere don’t have to be scary. An unexpected plot twist can also be frightening. For example, in the live-action sequel to the film The Thing with the same name intensified the horror of the blood test process. What if it turns out that your friend, with whom you spent the entire game as friends, is infected and will soon turn into an evil “something”. And another game based on Lovecraft’s myths, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, was tense with the unknown and threw a bunch of unanswered questions at the player: why are the town’s residents so uncommunicative?? Why do they have such a specific appearance, etc.n.
Having mentioned so many famous writers, one cannot help but recall the science fiction writer Clive Barker, who personally wrote the script for Clive Barker’s Undying And Clive Barker’s Jericho. Despite the sales failure, Undying was highly acclaimed by critics and is considered the game that gave a powerful impetus to the development of horror.
“A cruel and scary game, with fountains of blood and otherworldly demons”.
– Game Revolution review, February 2001
One cannot help but recall the story of the prisoner Torque from The Suffering. The ability to transform the main character into a monster was loved by many players, some even consider this game the best in 2004, bypassing Half Life 2.
The Suffering can still scare people today.
In 2005, a typical American horror film starring stupid teenagers, transferred to a gaming framework, received recognition – Obscure. The same year saw the light Cold Fear – action-horror from the authors of Alone In The Dark :The New Nightmare. The game had standard intimidation techniques and a banal plot. Was received coolly by critics due to comparisons with Resident Evil 4 in favor of the latter.
At sunset in 2008, a beautiful and thoughtful horror film was released Cryptography: Sleep of the Mind from the Ukrainian studio Action Forms. The game was remembered for its visual effects, realistic physics, coupled with a complex, multi-level plot. Maybe someone will say that this is not a horror game, the idea is borrowed from The Thing, and the opponents are extremely stupid dummies, but every gamer who considers himself a connoisseur of good games should familiarize himself with the game. “Cryptosis” had a fascinating story about the unfortunate fate of Soviet polar explorers, modern technologies, which makes players remember it and feel nostalgic, even six years after its release, even in the absence of a sequel.
This beautiful sci-fi shooter very skillfully used horror elements in its gameplay Dead Space. Psychological horror Deadly Premonition allowed the player to freely explore a small town, communicate with characters, and fight otherworldly enemies. The game implements a dynamic change of day and night, weather conditions, and the main character’s need for food and sleep. I would like to mention the horror quest Which, in which the player is asked to find a way out of the house, simultaneously looking for the head or heart of a girl. The game takes five minutes to complete and is free to download. The Wii U exclusive, zombie survival game, was also quite good ZombiU.
Which may not be a AAA project, but you will still be impressed by the game after it’s finished.
2012 marked the release of two now popular horror series based on creepy stories from various forums. The Thin Man or Slender Man was first mentioned in 2009, and has gained a large fan base, becoming the subject of fan fiction and cosplay. The first game, The Eight Pages, was free, but the general hype demanded a full-fledged sequel, so less than a year later Slender received a commercial version called The Arrival. The concept of intimidation, as simple as three pennies, and creative minimalism exploded the genre and caused a wave of imitators, none of which, however, managed to surpass the original.
The second horror series is an example of excellent interaction between developers and a responsive community. SCP – Containment Breach from the moment of its appearance, it was no different from the host of low-quality indie horror films with a simple plot. The developers gradually released updates that fixed unpleasant bugs, and the community created interesting mods and came up with the mythology of the universe. Now SCP has already acquired its own Wikipedia and continues to actively develop.
“The game somehow manages to be scarier than recent big-budget horror games combined.”.
— Edge Online review, September 2012.
A separate subject for discussion is horror modifications. For the most part, these are endless clones of Slender, who have not brought anything new to the genre, like Curse of Blackwater, Daylight. Or low quality ones such as Groundkeeper, Pesadelo, Insane Hell Torium, Within Deep Sorrows and others. Of course, there are so many people, so many opinions, but the Swedish mod for the first halfa is free Cry of Fear; zombie survivalist No More Room in Hell; and "mannequin" of the year Nightmare House 2 – the best modifications for the author of this article. And the soundtrack for Cry of Fear – Brandon McKagan – Memories Death has been in my modest player for a couple of years now.
Sweden is famous for its talents. One of them – Andreas Rönnberg – made this mod
Last year, the game attracted the attention of indie horror fans Knock-knock-knock from Russian developers Ice-Pick Lodge, who received money for development on kickstarter. The game received mostly negative reviews from critics, but was positively reviewed by gamers. The game stood out for its pseudo-3D graphics and creepy suspense, creating an unpleasant effect.
In 2013, Bethesda announced The Evil Within. I was especially pleased by the fact that the game is being handled by old man Shinji Mikami, who, after the release of Resident Evil 4, became so interested in shooters that he even released his own shooter Vanquish. The game was very positively assessed by critics, and Mikami moved away from the “brick business”. Fortunately, not for long. The game turned out to be in the spirit of the old school of horror with creepy ambient, interesting locations, and competently building up intrigue. The main complaints were the abundance of ammo and lack of stealth, the linearity of the passage and its length, one ending, and there were also complaints about black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
The Evil Within, despite the radical differences in both mechanics and narrative style, could not avoid comparison with Alien: Isolation – the release of these games occurred with an interval of just over a week. Creative Assembly positioned Amanda Ripley’s story as "true survival horror". The atmosphere of the first film in the series was successfully recreated, but the Alien turned out to be not as smart a predator as it was presented in all sorts of trailers and previews.
In August of this year, the list of games with unique horror mechanics was supplemented by the game Five Nights at Freddy’s, released by independent developer Scott Cawthon. The player is invited to spend five nights as a security guard in a pizzeria, where animatronics roam at night – robots that entertain visitors to the establishment during the day. At night, the animals become more active and begin their wanderings along the corridors of the pizzeria. The player cannot leave his post, but can freely track their movements through cameras and can close doors in their faces. At the same time, it is important to monitor energy consumption; you will need to start the night over several times to study the movement patterns and habits of your opponents. For example, Chica always goes only from the right side, and Foxy attacks only if you don’t watch him for a long time (or vice versa – watch him too often). Using an unusual, albeit simple, approach to the survival horror genre, Five Nights at Freddy’s quickly acquired an army of fans, a port to mobile platforms and a sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, released in November. In the second part, the number of opponents and tactical actions aimed at combating them increased.
The ill-fated animatronics
Let’s take a look at the rest of the horror films of the past year: what could be remembered in 2014? First of all, these are Greenlight graduates: Dreadout – a critically acclaimed indie horror from Indonesian developers, using the ideas of Fatal Frame; monotonous Neverending Nightmares; evolving sandbox The Forest; failed Daylight; good complement to the story of the original Outlast: Whistleblower; child of Kickstarter, unique but too short Among The Sleep.
What are we waiting for?? Who creates the future of the genre? I’ll put my two cents in on the discussion of upcoming horror films. In the future, I place special hopes on: Killing Floor 2, as a pleasant source of memories from meat games with friends in the first part; Zombie sandbox survivor Dying Light; Silent Hills (The announcement of the ninth part took place under very interesting circumstances – it was enough to complete the horror P.T., turned out to be an interactive teaser for the game.); it seems like “some kind of scary thing” in “some kind of underwater setting” SOMA; mysterious adventure Fran Bow; remake of Haunted House from Dreampainters, also promoted Until Dawn in my favorite Hayden Panettiere as one of the victims of a psychopath.
Despite pessimistic statements such as “the genre is long dead”, “they don’t make creepy horror anymore” and the like, time shows the opposite. The industry thinks differently, and the number of games trying to scare the player is growing year after year. Yes, the overwhelming majority is low-quality trash. Yes, not all of them are capable of scaring. Yes, there are still Gloomy Titans of Loneliness left in the world, not afraid of evil, who know no fear, ready to express their weighty opinion on the first forum they come across. But the fact remains a fact. People are ready to be afraid. People want to be afraid. There are many ways to scare people. And I’m ready to take on the challenge. And you?
P.S. The history of the survival horror genre goes back over thirty years, but it is not half as interesting as the history of the development of horror literature. If you like this article, in continuation of the topic I will talk about the emergence, development and popularization of the genre of horror literature in the world. In the meantime, you can share your favorite writers in this genre in the comments.
P.S.S. Special respect to Andrey Artamokhin for promoting the genre on the site!)
P.S.S.S. Happy New Year everyone.