Where has the survival horror genre gone and why?

[nakamura]

I didn't bother with Siren because I heard the difficulty was so borked. Pity.

[Adam]

Should look into some of the PC games already mentioned in here; Amnesia is fantastic. Be proud of yourself if you can finish that, as it's one moody game. Slender gets alot of mentions too but I haven't tried that personally. Didn't know it was free until now actually http://slendergame.com/

[sj33]

I didn't bother with Siren because I heard the difficulty was so borked. Pity.

Siren is fantastic, especially the original games (the PS3 remake is good too, though). To say the games are 'difficult' would be an understatement, though.

[Family Fry]

I 100% completed the timeline in Forbidden Siren and it's still to this day an achievement I am proud of.
Also one of the most frustrating games I've ever played in my life, really enjoyed the story though so I wanted to see it through to the end.

We still have Until Dawn to look forward to on PS3, for a bit of slasher action. Atmosphere looks good.

[importaku]

Im kind of torn as on one hand it kind of looks good, however it also looks a hell of a lot like alan wake which i played to death. Hopefully enough difference to make it feel like im not playing another alan wake game.

[Sketcz]

The original Siren was awful. Utterly broken mechanically.

Siren 2 was far better balanced - for my money the best game on PS2. Certainly my favourite. Excellent use of light and darkness with regards to enemy AI. Like a proto Riddick. Some amazing moments where you break lights in order to sneak through an area.

I can't really think of any decent non-Japanese games that are actually survival horror.

Pathologic is a Russian FPS survival horror. It's not a true FPS, despite the inclusion of guns and the POV, since the emphasis is on limited resources and desperate survival. Your true enemy: disease. It's a bit old, but I highly recommend it.

[Goemon]

ZombiU is the first game I've played in a long time where I've felt the tension/fear because of the need to survive. Unfortunately the game got some mixed feedback and some people didn't get the survival aspect. I read lines like 'constantly running out of bullets' and think you just didn't get the game at all.

For this reason maybe in today's gaming climate the constant need to make things 'easy to understand' is making the survival horror a dying breed

[sj33]

The original Siren was awful. Utterly broken mechanically.

I think that was what I liked about it, as strange as that sounds. It wasn't just the fact that I knew I couldn't just whip out a shotgun and blow the enemy away - I also knew that running away wouldn't be much cop either. It forced me to really think about things, take my time and plan things properly.

But for what it's worth, some decent mechanics would have been appreciated too.

[Sketcz]

I'm assuming you played the incredibly awesome sequel? The localisation was exclusive to PAL territories, and coming on a dual layered disc meant that Americans could not import it to play using the swap trick. Pity. Such an amazing game. Almost cleared it 100%.

[Adam Stone]

ZombiU is the first game I've played in a long time where I've felt the tension/fear because of the need to survive. Unfortunately the game got some mixed feedback and some people didn't get the survival aspect. I read lines like 'constantly running out of bullets' and think you just didn't get the game at all.

For this reason maybe in today's gaming climate the constant need to make things 'easy to understand' is making the survival horror a dying breed

Sadly this is so true.

ZombiU is absolutely a true survival horror. The other night i experienced the most fear ive ever felt in a game during the nursery section - the tension got so much, in fact, i literally had tears in my eyes. How sad is that!!! I am constantly on edge when playing it - it is a horrifyingly delightful experience.

But it's true. ZombiU is one of the best examples of survival horror games in recent times and it got punished for it. Such a shame

[nakamura]

Zombie U sounds utterly awesome. Pity people can't see it for what it is.

[Sketcz]

In fairness, I do recall back in the original Resident Evil days people criticising that because you couldn't kill every zombie you came across, and it encouraged you to run from enemies.

The bottom line, really, is that the masses / mainstream are idiots and need to be pandered to. The mere fact we're able to eloquently discuss our pastime puts us a cut above the rest.

[Paddy]

In fairness, I do recall back in the original Resident Evil days people criticising that because you couldn't kill every zombie you came across, and it encouraged you to run from enemies.

The bottom line, really, is that the masses / mainstream are idiots and need to be pandered to. The mere fact we're able to eloquently discuss our pastime puts us a cut above the rest.

Well said, well said...

The horror genre of old still exists. It has just evolved into first-person titles such as Zombie U/Amnesia/Slender (at least from Western gaming's POV) with Japan still throwing out some pretty decent classical horror titles.

And remember, for every Resident Evil 6 there's a Resident Evil Revelations. Capcom still know how to make a good horror game. Perhaps sales of RE6 will make them take the series back into classic horror game territory. Still, the

->Open Spoiler<-

rasplanje in the lower floors of the aircraft carrier in RE6

were quite freaky I thought.

[nakamura]

Yeah Resident Evil took me a long time to complete, really hard. Gamecube version was hard too. Very satisfying and a real fear of death.

[rmoxon]

To be fair.. the fact that you could complete all the older Resident Evil games in a few hours by just running past all the enemies probably isn't good design (Wouldn't surprise me if Capcom only added the rocket launcher unlock after they realised you could basically cheat at the first game). For some reason they were still fun though.