The Honest Opinion - Survival Horror vs Action Horror
It's been a little while since I did one of these Honest Opinion's, mostly because nothing was really jumping out at me as far as a 2-sided discussion in the gaming community. But, while I was writing each of my reviews for HorrorTober, I caught on to this one in particular because I was making the comparison myself, the comparison between two very different styles of horror games.
Horror games have always been a personal favorite of mine. I grew up (literally grew up from the age of 5) off horror movies, and once I fell in love with gaming it was really only a matter of time. But horror games have gone through a bit of a change since I started playing them, and more recently they're starting to change back. So in this article, I'm going to discuss briefly each of these styles on it's own, and then I'll dive more into comparing them before discussing which style, if either, comes out on top.
Survival
Survival horror games tend to put more attention on the gamer. They want to put you in the game. Despite the fact that you're just a person sitting on a couch/chair/bed holding a controller, they want you to feel the terror that the character you're playing as feels. So what do you find? Dark, creepy areas with not a lot of background noise, and either an almost complete lack of weapons, or a plethora of ones that require you to be close enough to your enemies that you'll have chaperones telling you to make room for Jesus on the dance floor. With minimal ways to defend yourself, and with the requirement of getting in close for the kill, it doesn't give you the buffer of feeling safe while attacking from afar. Your weapons tend to be more melee style instead of guns, and if guns are present then ammo is going to be pretty scarce. Like I said, they want you to feel like you're in the game, not just playing it, and they want you to feel as helpless as the main character is supposed to.
Action
Action horror games are completely different. They tend to share some similar settings, but they give your character the background to handle it more than well enough. These games will practically shove weapons and ammo down your throat to combat whatever evil entity you're up against. While there can be some scary elements in this style, they work a lot less effectively, as the pace of these games is much quicker and since you have weapons at the ready, you never end up feeling totally helpless. At worst you just feel bogged down and exhausted, wanting to just get through whatever it is you're in.
What's The Difference and a Few Examples
The difference boils down to only one of these styles actually being scary, and that's the actual survival horror games. The key element in these ones is survival. Your health almost always runs low, you almost always run out of ammo, so that's all you're trying to do is make it through. These are the games that you might speed run a few of the rooms. Instead of killing everything in front of you, you might try and find the perfect zig-zag path through your enemies to get to the next door, or to charge into the room, grab whatever item you need, and run back out. You spend more time conserving ammo than using it. The more actionized ones feel more like a trip to the movies. There might be a bigger focus on the story itself, but in the end you can practically shit out bullets and still have plenty leftover.
The biggest and easiest example of these two styles is the Resident Evil series, and the series encapsulates elements of both. The earlier games (RE1, RE2, RE3, Code Veronica, RE0) focus more on the survival style of gameplay. Despite having only firepower as a weapon choice and no melee options, these still find their niche in the survival horror homestead. You might have the guns, but do you have the ammo? Generally in these games, you don't. Even playing on the lowest difficulty, while you find more ammo, it's usually only barely enough to get you by. The later games in the main series (RE4, RE5, RE6) tip a little bit more towards the action side of the scale. It's a bit easier to find ammo and health items in these ones, but at the same time it maintains some of it's survival roots, albeit at a bare-bones level.
Some further examples of games in the survival styles are : The Silent Hill series, Alan Wake, Clock Tower, and the Fatal Frame series.
Some that are more in the Action style are : Dead Space, F.E.A.R, Alone in the Dark, and the popular Left 4 Dead.
Where is it all now?
Nowadays, with the current PS4/XB1 generation of consoles coming out, horror games are going back to it's roots. The prime pillar example of this is my recently reviewed The Evil Within. The director of the game, Shinji Mikami, even openly stated that his main intent with the game was to bring horror games back to it's survival roots, as he felt recent horror games had focused too much on action elements.
And he isn't the only one who felt this way. For a while, video games were being geared more towards western players (aka us people here in the USA). Japanese games featured more limited controls, as easily seen in those early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles. So the style of gameplay started shifting due to fan displeasure of the slow, cumbersome, and limited controls of these games. So game companies started adapting the gameplay to the more western style, and in doing so started losing their grip on the key survival elements. This led to games in key horror series being rolled past and essentially forgotten and looked down upon. Reisdent Evil : Code Veronica and Silent Hill 4 : The Room were the last in each of these big series before changing the style for Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill : Homecoming.
Presently though, the components in the newer consoles can do a lot more "behind the scenes" type stuff. Not only can they pump out incredible graphics, but there is a lot going on inside of the game itself that couldn't be done before unless it was on PC. And these differences stood out when you looked at games that saw release on PS4 and PS3. Take, for example, a game like Shadow of Mordor. Not a horror game, but it fits for my example. In the game, there are a number of orc captains that you can assassinate. In the PS3 version, it stops there. You assassinate the captains and they're all gone. In the PS4 version, however, the engine keeps running and the different troops of orcs can promote from within and bring on new captains. It seems like such a small detail, but in a gaming aspect it's rather big.
So, to focus on horror games, you have things like Alien : Isolation, where the Alien stalks you all throughout the game, and in each encounter it learns your tactics, and plans for them the next time around; Until Dawn where there's an almost infinite number of possible outcomes that can be effected by the tiniest little thing such as whether or not you flicked on a light when you entered a certain room. Even indie titles are seeing a resurgence of actual survival horror. An upcoming indie title called Hello, Neighbour which challenges you to break into your neighbor's house and make it into the basement, all the while trying to get around the house's advanced AI security system that studies, learns, and plans against your techniques.
At the time of writing this, there aren't a lot of actual survival horror games in the new generation, but the potential is most definitely there. Me, personally, I'm waiting on the arrival of Resident Evil 7 : Biohazard. For the game that was a huge influence on the genre, it would be perfect to see it go back to where it started. But we'll have to wait a little while to see just how that one plays out.
Which to choose? Survival or Action?
In this argument, there is no clear winner, because it all comes down to preference. What do you the gamer prefer. Do you want to be on the edge of your seat trying to fight through a mansion with a rusty steel pipe at your side, or do you want to gun down dozens of scary looking beasties? Ever gamer differs in opinion on this matter, but it is your own opinion that really matters. What do YOU like? If you're not sure, test the waters. Play through a Silent Hill game, and then play through Dead Space, and see how you feel about both of them. You might find yourself on one side of the fence, or you might be right in the middle, enjoying elements of both types.
I myself am one of the ones in the middle. I enjoy the stressful intensity of the survival style games, but I don't like feeling completely helpless. The best example I can think of is Resident Evil 4. It has a perfect blend of both. There's a ton of enemies, and a good amount of ammo around, but there's not so much that you're sitting on hundreds of used bullets. I honestly like the games when you can tell something big is about to happen. You go along finding maybe a box or two of ammo in each room/area, and then all of a sudden you come across a literal stash of ammo; four boxes of ammo, a few health packs, and some grenades for good measure. It's enough to make your mind go "Oh shit, what's through the next door?"
Horror games have always been a personal favorite of mine. I grew up (literally grew up from the age of 5) off horror movies, and once I fell in love with gaming it was really only a matter of time. But horror games have gone through a bit of a change since I started playing them, and more recently they're starting to change back. So in this article, I'm going to discuss briefly each of these styles on it's own, and then I'll dive more into comparing them before discussing which style, if either, comes out on top.
Survival
Survival horror games tend to put more attention on the gamer. They want to put you in the game. Despite the fact that you're just a person sitting on a couch/chair/bed holding a controller, they want you to feel the terror that the character you're playing as feels. So what do you find? Dark, creepy areas with not a lot of background noise, and either an almost complete lack of weapons, or a plethora of ones that require you to be close enough to your enemies that you'll have chaperones telling you to make room for Jesus on the dance floor. With minimal ways to defend yourself, and with the requirement of getting in close for the kill, it doesn't give you the buffer of feeling safe while attacking from afar. Your weapons tend to be more melee style instead of guns, and if guns are present then ammo is going to be pretty scarce. Like I said, they want you to feel like you're in the game, not just playing it, and they want you to feel as helpless as the main character is supposed to.
Action
Action horror games are completely different. They tend to share some similar settings, but they give your character the background to handle it more than well enough. These games will practically shove weapons and ammo down your throat to combat whatever evil entity you're up against. While there can be some scary elements in this style, they work a lot less effectively, as the pace of these games is much quicker and since you have weapons at the ready, you never end up feeling totally helpless. At worst you just feel bogged down and exhausted, wanting to just get through whatever it is you're in.
What's The Difference and a Few Examples
The difference boils down to only one of these styles actually being scary, and that's the actual survival horror games. The key element in these ones is survival. Your health almost always runs low, you almost always run out of ammo, so that's all you're trying to do is make it through. These are the games that you might speed run a few of the rooms. Instead of killing everything in front of you, you might try and find the perfect zig-zag path through your enemies to get to the next door, or to charge into the room, grab whatever item you need, and run back out. You spend more time conserving ammo than using it. The more actionized ones feel more like a trip to the movies. There might be a bigger focus on the story itself, but in the end you can practically shit out bullets and still have plenty leftover.
The biggest and easiest example of these two styles is the Resident Evil series, and the series encapsulates elements of both. The earlier games (RE1, RE2, RE3, Code Veronica, RE0) focus more on the survival style of gameplay. Despite having only firepower as a weapon choice and no melee options, these still find their niche in the survival horror homestead. You might have the guns, but do you have the ammo? Generally in these games, you don't. Even playing on the lowest difficulty, while you find more ammo, it's usually only barely enough to get you by. The later games in the main series (RE4, RE5, RE6) tip a little bit more towards the action side of the scale. It's a bit easier to find ammo and health items in these ones, but at the same time it maintains some of it's survival roots, albeit at a bare-bones level.
Some further examples of games in the survival styles are : The Silent Hill series, Alan Wake, Clock Tower, and the Fatal Frame series.
Some that are more in the Action style are : Dead Space, F.E.A.R, Alone in the Dark, and the popular Left 4 Dead.
Where is it all now?
Nowadays, with the current PS4/XB1 generation of consoles coming out, horror games are going back to it's roots. The prime pillar example of this is my recently reviewed The Evil Within. The director of the game, Shinji Mikami, even openly stated that his main intent with the game was to bring horror games back to it's survival roots, as he felt recent horror games had focused too much on action elements.
And he isn't the only one who felt this way. For a while, video games were being geared more towards western players (aka us people here in the USA). Japanese games featured more limited controls, as easily seen in those early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles. So the style of gameplay started shifting due to fan displeasure of the slow, cumbersome, and limited controls of these games. So game companies started adapting the gameplay to the more western style, and in doing so started losing their grip on the key survival elements. This led to games in key horror series being rolled past and essentially forgotten and looked down upon. Reisdent Evil : Code Veronica and Silent Hill 4 : The Room were the last in each of these big series before changing the style for Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill : Homecoming.
Presently though, the components in the newer consoles can do a lot more "behind the scenes" type stuff. Not only can they pump out incredible graphics, but there is a lot going on inside of the game itself that couldn't be done before unless it was on PC. And these differences stood out when you looked at games that saw release on PS4 and PS3. Take, for example, a game like Shadow of Mordor. Not a horror game, but it fits for my example. In the game, there are a number of orc captains that you can assassinate. In the PS3 version, it stops there. You assassinate the captains and they're all gone. In the PS4 version, however, the engine keeps running and the different troops of orcs can promote from within and bring on new captains. It seems like such a small detail, but in a gaming aspect it's rather big.
So, to focus on horror games, you have things like Alien : Isolation, where the Alien stalks you all throughout the game, and in each encounter it learns your tactics, and plans for them the next time around; Until Dawn where there's an almost infinite number of possible outcomes that can be effected by the tiniest little thing such as whether or not you flicked on a light when you entered a certain room. Even indie titles are seeing a resurgence of actual survival horror. An upcoming indie title called Hello, Neighbour which challenges you to break into your neighbor's house and make it into the basement, all the while trying to get around the house's advanced AI security system that studies, learns, and plans against your techniques.
At the time of writing this, there aren't a lot of actual survival horror games in the new generation, but the potential is most definitely there. Me, personally, I'm waiting on the arrival of Resident Evil 7 : Biohazard. For the game that was a huge influence on the genre, it would be perfect to see it go back to where it started. But we'll have to wait a little while to see just how that one plays out.
Which to choose? Survival or Action?
In this argument, there is no clear winner, because it all comes down to preference. What do you the gamer prefer. Do you want to be on the edge of your seat trying to fight through a mansion with a rusty steel pipe at your side, or do you want to gun down dozens of scary looking beasties? Ever gamer differs in opinion on this matter, but it is your own opinion that really matters. What do YOU like? If you're not sure, test the waters. Play through a Silent Hill game, and then play through Dead Space, and see how you feel about both of them. You might find yourself on one side of the fence, or you might be right in the middle, enjoying elements of both types.
I myself am one of the ones in the middle. I enjoy the stressful intensity of the survival style games, but I don't like feeling completely helpless. The best example I can think of is Resident Evil 4. It has a perfect blend of both. There's a ton of enemies, and a good amount of ammo around, but there's not so much that you're sitting on hundreds of used bullets. I honestly like the games when you can tell something big is about to happen. You go along finding maybe a box or two of ammo in each room/area, and then all of a sudden you come across a literal stash of ammo; four boxes of ammo, a few health packs, and some grenades for good measure. It's enough to make your mind go "Oh shit, what's through the next door?"
