What happened to the horror in survival horror?

As publishers try to make their survival horror games appeal to a wider audience, are they ruining what makes the genre great in the first place?

[JeffGrubb]

Money happened.

[Etseix]

I think it should say "What happened to the survival horror games?" you just can not take horror from survival horror D:

[GuyThatPlaysGames]

Horror is still out there. It's just that the companies have sold out and are making these "horror" games less horror-ish and more action oriented. It's just that the developer needs to do it right.

[Emmettcelticfan]

I got older

[Sadie2100]

I think Michael Bay has something to do with this. I'm not sure.

[LOGICWINS]

Possibly. After watching the last three Transformers films, the only thing I know for sure about Michael Bay is that he believes that his audience is just as perverted and explosion obsessed as he is.

I actually think Uncharted 2 has A LOT to do with it. Ever since then, game franchises have become more cinematic...thus unintentionally losing some of the charm they previously had, in this case, horror.

Mass Effect 2 and RE5 became too shooter heavy due to the general demand for action shooters. RE6 is now mimicking Uncharted 2 set pieces in order to grasp that cinematic flair.

[Bimkoblerutso]

It's true. Everything is trying to be Uncharted 2 now...Max Payne, Dead Space, Tomb Raider, Lost Planet, Splinter Cell, just to name a few.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Uncharted is one of my favorite franchises and many of these games will almost certainly be absolutely great, but from the look of things it's at the cost of their respective identities.

[LOGICWINS]

^^Don't know why your getting disagrees. Your absolutely right.

[mistajeff]

I absolutely agree about the Uncharted 2 effect. I personally believe Uncharted 2 is one of the greatest games ever made, but you can't ignore the impact it's had on these other franchises. I was extremely disappointed with Splinter Cell's E3 demo-- sure, objectively, the gameplay looked cool. But I want Splinter Cell to be a Splinter Cell game, and that's not what it looked like to me.

[glennco]

the uncharted effect was around way before uncharted. typical sony fanboys

they are called linear interactive movies. it is actually more like the CoD effect

[Megaton]

Blame him anyway, just to be safe. No one should object.

[user5467007]

Probably

But yeah lets blame him :)...I mean the guy would rather do another Transformer film then Bad Boys 3

WHERE IS BAD BOYS 3 MICHAEL...COME ON

[Hicken]

You know what. I want a Bad Boys 3. I hadn't really thought about it. But now that the idea has been implanted in my head....

[Acquiescence]

What happened to survival-horror? It's practically gone the way of the dodo this gen.

[Human Analog]

It is because game companies have to cater to casual gamers, and children.

[InTheLab]

Hell, what happened to the "survival" in survival horror?

[D3mons0ul]

That's the better question. Horror elements are subjective.

[BitbyDeath]

I was gonna say the exact same thing...

[Megaton]

Well it started with RE4, but then continued through the CoDification of the gaming landscape. Now everything has to have co-op, machine guns, and dudebro zingers.

[deletingthis34675334]

Companies developing these kind of games got greedy and sold out their brand to the easily amused crowd just for extra money.

[izumo_lee]

After Capcom decided to take the Resident Evil franchise in a different route, EA had the chance to seize the market with its Dead Space franchise. However judging by the reactions to Dead Space 3 they too have decided to change direction.

It is a shame that such a genre in gaming has become an afterthought by developers. Horror movies are still being made cause there is an audience out there that want a good scare now & than. This can be the same in the gaming scene, i just hope more developers seize this opportunity to rekindle the genre.

Shinji Mikami's new game looks promising, The Last of Us though technically not a horror game can provide some much needed suspense.

[barefootgamer]

Also, don't forget Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs! And although it's not technically survival horror, The Walking Dead is doing a good job of applying some tension and gory moments.

[izumo_lee]

Oh Amnesia i have not heard about this game, thanks i guess i will have to look into it. I want to give the Walking Dead games a go but they will have to be on my 'to play' list.

There was a time in the past generations especially on the PS1 & PS2 we got so many quality games in the genre. I remember Clock Tower scaring the bejesus out of me. It was Capcom that led the charge with the Resident Evil series to Dino Crisis, heck even the first DMC has its moments.

I guess the industry is following the leader & since Capcom has swayed away from the 'horror' aspect so will others. I believe if Shinji Mikami never left Capcom we would not be discussing this but now since everyone has basically left the genre is where it is now which is unfortunate.

It is nice to know there are still a few developers wanting to recapture the genre & i hope the Walking Dead games will be a start.

[mistajeff]

If your computer can run it, DEFINITELY get Amnesia Dark Descent. It's legitimately terrifying.

[user5467007]

It's so painfully to see how much of an opptunity EA had with Dead Space...they could of grabed the entire old RE fanbase but instead screwed it up just like Capcom have done to RE6.

Were they just oblivious to the backlash from RE5...

It's worse when they try and say it's still a horror game...what do you take us for EA.

[Megaton]

Yeah, Dead Space was a real shot at a new survival horror series. Now it just looks like a generic TPS, gone the way of Resident Evil in only 3 installments. Can't say I'm really surprised that happened, though. That's EA in a nutshell. Have something cool and unique? Hurry up and either cancel it or homogenize it as fast as possible!

[Plagasx]

COD happened.

It's all about making COD money now and appealing to that particular audience.

[mistajeff]

My advice to visceral? Listen to EVERYTHING Thomas Grip says. Amnesia is quite possibly the most terrifying piece of entertainment ever created, and I haven't even finished it-- because I'm literally too scared to keep playing.

[ShaunCameron]

Resident Evil 4 killed it when it introduced the over-the-shoulder viewpoint, precision-aiming and the melee combat system which effectively did away with survival-horror genre conventions in favor of more action. In other words, survival-horror was already on the way out before this generation even started. What you been getting all generation are straight-up action/3rd-person shooter games with survival-horror elements including Dead Space.