The Lost Art

Hello internet, my name is Ben and I'd like to talk about a topic that is very dear to me. That is ladies and gentlemen the survival horror genre in video games. 

Right, to start off here is my definition of a survival horror, just so you don't get the wrong idea.  A survival horror is a horror game where you have some kind of tool against the enemy, it provides you with something that gives you a chance to fight back or repel the attackers, it doesn't just drop you into a level with no means of confrontation. For example The Evil Within gives you guns and other weapons, Five Nights at Freddie's gave you a light and a door switch however Slender the Arrival is a game where you collect items while avoiding an enemy, this is different to me as Slender is just a horror game, survival is limited since you only need to run away.

Now back to the matter at hand, recently other than the odd few games that have been done really well, there has been a rapid decline in the quality of Survival Horror, since the first Slender man game there have been many, many awful games released in an attempt to be the next 'Slender' however I don't want the next Slender.

 

I want a game where your legitimately scared of whats around the corner, where your huddled in a corner hoping that there's no enemies on there way, what I don't want is a few cheap jump-scares, yeah they make you jump but the key to a great horror game is atmosphere. Though jump-scares are popular and they do work with some games you need a good atmosphere to really pull them off. 

Just think of it this way, I want a game that will force me to turn and fight the enemy, head on with no other way around it. Not running away screaming like a sissy girl. A few titles have come out recently that have really attempted to do this and most of them have succeeded.

But first, lets talk about the classics. Two very great horror games that defined the survival horror genre on the PlayStation, I am talking about Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Even when I was a young kid I played these games and they frightened the hell out of me and at the same time they are what changed the way I see horror games today. Unfortunately both franchises have seen better days but I still have some hope that the developers will realize what they are doing wrong. Back to Silent Hill, this game was probably one of the most horrifyingly atmospheric games, the view obscuring fog and the radio that would burst out static within the proximity of enemies would always keep the player on their toe's. 

So I'm hoping that in the near future that developers will realise what a survival horror actually is, not some crappy jump-scare filled piece of garbage. I want a game that will literally make me nervous about turning a corner, a game that will have me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. 

Is that so hard to ask for? Apparently so