The State of Gaming: Survival Horror

                               

                                                       The State of Gaming: Survival Horror

It’s no secret, Resident Evil:Operation Raccoon City and Silent Hill Downpour have not been received well critically. Capcom’s Producer, Masachita Kawata,just went on record saying, "Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] ... the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell. A 'survival horror' Resident Evil doesn't seem like it'd be able to sell those kinds of numbers." The survival horror genre use to be bursting with incredible titles, but the almighty dollar rules all. What changed? Where is the genre going? Will it soon be known as strictly survival-action? In this article I’mgoing to take a look at the past, present and future of the survival horror genre.
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Oh Fatal Frame II....

The Past

I won’t lie to you, in the late90’s/2000 era if there was a survival horror game that hit the market I was allover it. I still remember the first time I rented a Resident Evil title. Resident Evil 2 was my first experience with the genre in 1998. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. At the time I wasn’t all over the Internet looking for reviews, There were no magazines I subscribed to, I just had my own personal instincts and the cover of the box to go off of. I had never gotten a natural scare off
of a video game until that point. I remember the hum of the PlayStation, the lights in my bedroom being off, and my palms were as damp as could be while gripping onto the controller tightly, navigating Leon Kennedy through the halls of the Raccoon City Police Department.

Never had a game set that type of atmosphere before, provoking real emotion from the player. I was nervous; I didn’t know what zombie or monster would be lurking around the next corner.After beating the game it became a drug. Resident Evil was the gateway and I was fully committed. I riffled through Resident Evil, Silent Hill, even the cult classic “D” not being able to get enough. Then it happened. I picked up a little title by the name of Fatal Frame and the rest is history. To this day when people ask me what my favorite genre I tell them survival horror, my favorite game of all time? Fatal Frame II.

And what zombie do they look afraid of?

The Present

More so than not there is one thing that seems to be linked to time, that is change. Over the past few years we have seen the survival horror genre begin to blend with the action genre.The genre now 
dubbed “Action Horror” has produced such games like Resident Evil 4 & 5, Dead Space, and The Fear Series to name a few. Once a genre predicated on scrounging around for ammo and relying on flight over fight now has you well equipped and ready to take on anything that Hell has to offer.The genre is dying, and if quotes like the ones that are coming out of Capcom are true…then get the pallbearers ready.

The Future

If there is one is looking just a meek. Silent Hill has tried to reinvent itself several times to no critical acclaim.However, one of the more interesting things I was able to pull up involved some developers looking into what could be done in the “3D” space. Yes, this would require that an already dwindling fan base of survival horror games also have 3D TV’s, but nonetheless it would provide quite the scare tactic. 

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