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Taking the "Survival" out of Survival Horror. *(SPOILERS)*
Esther-Chan
Member Posts: 288
I've always been a survival horror fan. My favorite type of movie is horror and I always love a good scare so.. just recently I decided to try a good survival horror game. After Googling for a bit, two games kept popping up. Silent Hill 2 and Dead Space.
Now, I've heard good things about both for a long time, but I never played them until now. The comments on Dead space were pretty convincing. One of the more interesting comments about the game was how you were a lowly engineer with basic repair equipment forced to defend yourself against overwhelming odds. Since I'm on the subject of Dead Space, let's cover that one first. A lone engineer, battling his way to save a derelict planet cracker ship using only engineering tools to defend himself from an alien that forces humans into grotesque abominations. Sounds like a perfect example of a Survival Horror, right? Boy, could I be more wrong...?
Let's list some of the things that really bothered me about this game:
- First, you've got more armor than the Space Marine from Doom. When you first start up Dead space, you look AND feel like Iron Man! What the heck is up with that?
- Second. Engineering weapons? You call a combat rifle an engineering weapon? Or a force gun? The Ripper, ok, that's just a glorified buzz saw. In truth the "Plasma Cutter"; the first weapon in the game, is the only true "Makeshift" weapon of the entire game and it's arguably the most powerful!
- Thirdly. Stores. What. The. Heck. This is a survival horror game. Why are there stores that let me buy ammo and weapons? What kind of mining ship is this?
- Fourth. Ammo drops. Doesn't matter what the difficulty is. All enemies have scripted ammo drops based on the weapons you have. Oh, and they're' very generous with ammo so feel free to blast away with whatever you got.
- Fifth. You never feel alone. Oh heck, you got two annoying "partners" screamin' in your ears the entire game. "Issac, do this." "Issac, save us from the asteroids", "Issac, I know I'm a space marine and you're just an engineer, but I need to stay here and stare at this monitor while you go fight that giant kraken."
- Lastly, and my most hated of all. You're a super-powered engineer that can Move things with his mind. So if overpowered weapons isn't enough, just pick up a oddly placed container of explosives and toss them at your enemy, or freeze them in a stasis field making them easy pickings for anything, including a simply punch to the face..
What makes Survival horror games scary is their ability to make you feel helpless, alone and afraid. Dead space doesn't do any of this.
Now let's talk about Silent Hill 2. Regarded as the best of the series, Silent Hill 2 makes some huge improvements over it's predecessor. Silent Hill attacks you with a psychological horror while giving you plenty of visual stimulation to rattle even the steadiest of rock-hard nerves.
When I first started up Silent Hill 2 I was actually happy they let me choose both a difficulty of the riddles and the enemies. This is an interesting feature lacking in today's Horror games. Silent Hill 1 made me unable to sleep for 3 days after the school scene. Wanting to repeat that, I said "Let's go all the way" And cranked that difficulty up! Bring on the scare! ...or not.
- First let's start off with the <insert deity> AWFUL Voice acting! Say this in James Sunderland's Voice. "HI. Have you seen Mary? She's my wife.. You know.. I totally miss her, but she's like.... dead.. and I got this letter" Why is everyone's voice so monotone? And WHY does NOBODY seem to care the town is over run by monsters?! For god's sake, Eddie sits in the freakin' Bowling alley eating pizza. Even James feels like an idiot at this point, saying "You're just sitting here eating pizza when this town is over run by monsters?" But it says it in a monotone way that just makes you go "Huh"? Really kills the mood.
- Secondly. This is a survival game. Why are there First Aid kits and health drinks on every corner of every street? And what's' with the scattered hand gun ammo? Was everyone in Silent Hill a gun totting maniac?
- Thirdly. Could the enemies be anymore predictable? Your first combative encounter with Pyramid head is so easy that you don't even need to attack. Pyramid head moves so slow; constantly stopping to have "Convulsions" and his swing from his great knife is so ridiculously slow you could literally beat him to death with the nailboard you find at the start of the game. But why bother? Run to the opposite end of the room and just wait and he'll eventually meander away into a pool of water.
- The Hospital. A recurring place in almost all Silent Hill games was one of the scariest places of all. Except, I didn't know whether to be scared or turned on. The nurses are supposed to reflect James' sexual deprivation that he suffered when his wife got sick, I know, but they aren't challenging or scary and they just sit there and have seizures before they attack, making them easy target for melee weapons. Not to mention they wear skimpy outfits with white stockings. Trade your Nailboard in for a vibrator, because am I playing Silent Hill or Leisure Suit Larry?
- A side-kick. Oh great, because we couldn't make the game any less scary, now we got to give you this eye-candy to protect through a majority of the game. Oh boy. Did I mention she wants to flirt with you? So in the middle of fighting enemies you're constantly wondering if she's going to get down and dirty with you or help you fight. Oh wait, she doesn't help you fight, even though those stiletto heels are probably more menacing weapons than every item in the entire game.
Anyway, that's all I gotta say. If you read it this far, I hope you can see my frustration. The survival horror genre is just so underwhelming lately. I hope to see some content feel the void, because I'm disappointed in what I find so far.
EDIT:: Changed text color to make it easier on the eyes.
Comments
@Esther-Chan
May I humbly suggest taking a look at this movie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHPwAvrc_U&feature=related
I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did
As far as movies are concerned, The Descent is worth checking out..
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
What would you consider to be the best of the genre? I'm just curious because all of the die hard Survival Horror fans I know regard Silent Hill 2 as the pinnacle of Survival Horror and everything gone hill after it.
I'm not a die hard for the genre but I enjoy it from time to time. So I wouldn't personally know what is the best out there.
I recently played Condemned: Criminal Origins. While its not straight up survival horror it has great suspense and scared the shit out of me on more than one occasion.
Also a budget title named deadly premonition just released on multi-platform for 19.99 that i hear is pretty scary.
If you havent played those games you might want to rent or download demos if available.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Silent Hill 1 really made me feel scared. Even though the voice acting in all the silent hill games is terribad, Silent Hill 1 makes up for it with sheer fear factor. The school where you fight deformed children with knives still gives me nightmares.. Not to mention the constant sound of someone banging on a piano, and when you finally enter the music room, it's oddly empty. Really gives you a sense of dread whenever you enter any room. Silent HIll 2 doesn't do that. Almost all rooms and areas are predictable. You know there's going to be an enemy on the other end of that room, but it doesn't matter because you never feel in danger because you have more than enough first aid kits to revive all the dead people in Silent Hill
EDIT:
"I recently played Condemned: Criminal Origins. While its not straight up survival horror it has great suspense and scared the shit out of me on more than one occasion.
Also a budget title named deadly premonition just released on multi-platform for 19.99 that i hear is pretty scary.
If you havent played those games you might want to rent or download demos if available."
Actually I have played Condemned. That was a pretty scary game, but the game play felt bad. I'm not a fan of first person games. If it was a third person game I would be more interested.
Also, another game that was scary, but sadly first person was Penumbra. That was a good game. Too bad the gameplay made me shy away from giving it any real chance.
It's not survival horror unless there is limited ammo, overwhelming odds, and you aren't superhuman.
So I agree with the OP that those two games are not survival horror, they're more in the vein of original DOOM where instead of survival it's annihilate the alien/demon/robot/zombie beings until nothing remains. Which is indeed a fun type of game but it is not survival horror.
Wow, that looks and feels awesome, should be a nice addition to the survival horror genre.
Would Condemned be considered survival horror then? You have a damn melee weapon 90% of the game and the guns you do have only have enough ammo to use for about a minute heh.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Would Condemned be considered survival horror then? You have a damn melee weapon 90% of the game and the guns you do have only have enough ammo to use for about a minute heh.
Definitely, but as I said in a later post, the first person aspect of it really didn't do it for me. I guess I'm a old school third person fan. I like to see the character's fear when he is faced with an enemy or attacked. It kind sets the mood. Being in first person makes me feel like I'm playing Halo with my friend Josh who insists on using only melee weapons.
Amnesia is already on my wish list yes looks awesome.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Would Condemned be considered survival horror then? You have a damn melee weapon 90% of the game and the guns you do have only have enough ammo to use for about a minute heh.
Definitely, but as I said in a later post, the first person aspect of it really didn't do it for me. I guess I'm a old school third person fan. I like to see the character's fear when he is faced with an enemy or attacked. It kind sets the mood. Being in first person makes me feel like I'm playing Halo with my friend Josh who insists on using only melee weapons.
Ahh... I didn't catch the edit. I don't normally mind Fpv.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Amnesia is already on my wish list yes looks awesome.
Yeah, a game with physics based game-play looks pretty interesting. Just wish it wasn't in first person...
Id have to disagree with you on deadspace. Play that game on its hardest difficulty then tell me it ain't a survival shooter because frankly you will have more things to kill then your ammo will allow.
I am playing the game on the hardest difficulty. With a combination of armor, upgrades and stores, there just isn't anything you can't handle..
www.destructoid.com/ten-golden-rules-of-survival-horror-81351.phtml
But anyways, yeah OP I agree with WTF is up with all this ammo and super powers and watnot. I started playing RE5 and it just seems more like an Action/Horror I'm shooting a ton of stuff and there is ammo around every corner it seems. I miss running around for hours trying to find some ammo while dodging zombies and god knows what else. Oh man one of the worst times Ive had in a SH game was Resident Evil Zero. I forgot to torch the zombies and I had a shitload of super zombies everywhere and no ammo, I really screwed my self doing that. lol I to remember getting hella scared playing Silent Hill 1 and RE 1.
I tried to play the Penumbra series but they don't want to work on my computer. I'm still looking for a workaround. I don't mind FPV games and I love how your character interacts with the environment.
I just recently stumbled upon this tabletop zombie horror survival game called All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I can't believe I didn't know about this game sooner. I want to play it so bad but I haven't really met any roleplayers out in Colorado. All my RP friends live back in Ohio.
That made me laugh. Lol. Good find!
I also love the early Silent Hill games., but Dead Space is pure Survival Horror.
You can die almost instantly...CHECK
Limited ammo and healing...CHECK
Suspense and scares...CHECK
Slowish Combat...CHECK
You're alone against nasty odds...CHECK
So, is it hard to survive? Hell yes. Is it Horror? Hell Yes. That makes it a survival horror game.
By the way, try not playing on easy next time=) If you blast away without conserving ammo and health packs on hard or above, you're screwed. If you thought hard was easy, I bow down to your uber nerd gaming skillz=)
I admit I haven't beaten Dead Space yet. I'm at Chapter 4 or 5. I haven't encountered my first boss, but so far, nothing in the game has been very challenging. As for scares? That's purely opinionated. Nothing has scared me. The only time I jumped was when the Japanese hentai scene took place and started raping Issac across the floor. That was pretty cool.
Mostly, all the scares are some random enemy running across your path really fast and jumping in a vent, while you hear the sounds of thumping as it moves through the vents. Not scary at all, really.
Actually I agree with the OP on deadspace but haven't tried silenthill yet usually silenhill games make me rage for some unkown reason xD
But yes deadspace for me was a good shooter but no horror aliens were too predictable from were they come out I never saw any inteligent a.i in it.
The only hard boss is the one that keeps on regenerating [Spoilers] but you don't even have to fight it you just need to make it in pieces to be able to have some time to run away before he regenerates and comes back to strike again.
Condemned had a great a.i enemies could go hide or run away to go from another path to maybe backstab you to sneak attack you when you least would thought it would happen. I remember one scene of that game I saw an enemy runing down the stairs I tried follow him but couldn't reach the stair because there were rocks everywere so I went near edge to have a better visibility for downstairs and guess what? yeah the fucking bitch was waiting under the stairs and when I looked he jumped on me! that gave me a fucking fright lol
OP if you want a decent survival horror that is more on the story but it can be hard I played it on normal is clive barker's jericho, in a rating from the games I played atm it gets 1st place storywise.
Wow this game looks really nice... ^_^ Must try this game !
Dont know what RE game you were playing cause there all fairly shoot focused with plenty of ammo around, with the exception of maybe 0.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
Penumbra is definately top of the survival horror genre. Frictional games just rocks, Amnesia is going to be a hit. Huge plus is that they have have native linux clients. These guys are my hero's.
Archlinux ftw