Survival-Horror Genre Going Extinct? 166
Destructoid is running an opinion piece looking at the state of the survival-horror genre in games, suggesting that the way it has developed over the past several years has been detrimental to its own future. "During the nineties, horror games were all the rage, with Resident Evil and Silent Hill using the negative aspects of other games to an advantage. While fixed camera angles, dodgy controls and clunky combat were seen as problematic in most games, the traditional survival horror took them as a positive boon. A seemingly less demanding public ate up these games with a big spoon, overlooking glaring faults in favor of videogames that could be genuinely terrifying." The Guardian's Games Blog has posted a response downplaying the decline of the genre, looking forward to Ubisoft's upcoming I Am Alive and wondering if independent game developers will pick up where major publishers have left off.
Actually. (Score:1, Informative)
wondering if independent game developers will pick up where major publishers have left off.
Two [wikipedia.org] different roles [wikipedia.org].
Left4Dead?! (Score:5, Informative)
Umm...What about Left4Dead? I fail to see how the genre can be 'dying' if it includes a wildly popular new release? I mean, I guess you could argue that Left4Dead isn't similar enough to to qualify as a member of the genre -- but it seems like a perfectly valid (and, frankly, awesome) way to evolve the genre. Oh, two more words:
Dead Space.
Maybe you've just got a really, really narrow definition of what qualifies as 'survival horror'?
Silent Hill wasn't fixed perspective like RE was (Score:4, Informative)
Silent hill wasn't fixed, pre-rendered perspective like resident evil was. That's one of the reasons why I never got into RE, but I loved Silent Hill. SH was also so much creepier and suspenseful than RE.
Another thing, isn't Left 4 Dead somewhat of a survival horror game as well? It's one of the top games right now yet there's no mention of it.
Have they looked at Left 4 Dead? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Left4Dead?! (Score:1, Informative)
In l4d you're really not much better off than any of the many thousands of zombies you have to kill, to say nothing of the special zombies that are stronger than you.
This is then balanced by the fact that theres 4 of you, and you're hopefully smarter than the zombies so you dont put yourself in a fair fight against them.
its a stretch to call it survival horror but it does fit, as it is far easier to die than to survive and there are plenty of OH SHIT A STALKER SOMEONE GET HIM OFF ME moments. Forcing it to coop is a great idea since not only does it let you balance it based on the premise of needing teamwork, but you enable a level of combined fear when you and your friends are all one hit away from dying and trying to bait each other and other coop-only situations.
Re:Same problem as movies. (Score:1, Informative)
System Shock 2
Re:It's Evolving (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Make up your minds (Score:5, Informative)