Fear the Unknown

In this installment, I would like to talk about one of my favorite genres with regards to single-player gaming; Survival Horror. The good ones make you cringe when you hear things, and frighten you when zombies burst through a door. The truly great ones make you fear turning the game on for the fear of learning more about the game world.

"Why start with survival horror?" I can hear you asking. Simply put, survival horror games show that while a story may have some plot holes (or outright chasms- Extermination, I'm looking at You!), the telling of the story can be the thing.

Take, for example, what I call the original Resident Evil games (1, 2, and 3). You have, typically, a group of police officers thrown into a situation where zombies have begun to run amok and it is up to them to find out why and, at the same time, keep from becoming some brain-muncher's next meal. All the while played with pre-rendered 2D backgrounds and fixed camera angles. The others in the series (Code Veronica, RE4, the upcoming RE5, the Gun Survivor series, etc) may have the same thematic elements, but they have all changed the original formula; such as dynamic camera angles, real-time 3D backgrounds, completely revamped control schemes, etc. But that is besides the point. What I'm getting at is that RE 1-3 all seemed to have the same basic escape plan ("Of course the sewers make the best getaway system... Ever!"). However, in the telling of the story, the presentation, and the execution, the games are great. After the third run through any one of them they stop being frightening, but that's ok, they are still fun (pointing a shotgun up and shooting when a zombie gets close enough is always cool).

On the other side of things, where a survival horror game combines both an amazing story and top-notch storytelling, you get games like the first and second Silent Hill games. I swear, the first one still scares the shit out of me. It has one of those stories that becomes more frightening the more you uncover. The deeper into it you get, the more that icy grip of fear latches around your heart and your stomach. With a unskilled protagonist, a creepy enemy detection system, and a very low-powered flashlight, the game only cranks up the fear once you start reading into the backstory.

There are so many good examples of this genre out there. Some skirting under the radar, particularly in the US. Games like the Fatal Frame series, the first four Alone in the Dark games, The Thing, System Shock 1 & 2. And there are going to be even more coming out- Dead Space, RE5, Left 4 Dead (Granted, this will be multiplayer, but it looks cool nonetheless).

And, as sort of a final note. Survival Horror games seem to have defied the idea that a game requires a multiplayer mode to make it big. On that note; the games of the Resident Evil series that seemed to do the worst were the online ones. I guess we'll have to see how well Left 4 Dead holds up.

P.S. I haven't included Dead Rising because, technically, it isn't survival horror... It's zombie massacre fun time.