The effect of the Next-Gen Consoles on Survival Horror

How is the next generation of Consoles effecting the Survival Horror Genre?

If only one console is credited for the rise of Survival Horror it is surely the Playstation. Resident Evil and Silent Hill both started off on the PS One, as well as games such as Clock Tower, Alone in the Dark and Parasite Eve.
When the Playstation 2 came out in 1999 these classic game series were brought to the newer console as well as new horror classics such as Project Zero and Siren. Obscure, Haunting Ground, Manhunt and The Suffering were also released for the console.

Nowadays however, Sony has more competition for it's games with the likes of the Xbox 360 and especially the Nintendo Wii now on the market. How exactly is the Survival Horror Genre changing with additions of these new consoles.


Increase in action orientated Horror
Offenders: Dead Space, F.E.A.R, Condemned, Resident Evil 4 & 5
Horror games are starting to get too action orientated these days with the male market in mind. The arrivals of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 mean that game developers are focusing more on the graphics rather than the plots and story lines E.g. Resistance, Kill Zone, Halo (Feel free to backlash).

Survival Horrors are following suit. If we look at the last couple of games that were released in this genre we'll find that weapons and combat have a huge part to play. Dead Space (left), F.E.A.R, and even Horror Classics such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill are following suit with action orientated additions such as RE 4 & 5 and SH:Homecoming.
Luckily, even though it's agreeably much harder than it's predecessors, Silent Hill: Homecoming didn't stray away from the good story lines the series is known for. It did however include more combat than the previous games and health items were very hard to come by making the game more focused on the combat aspect of Survival.

Condemned was the Xbox 360's first attempt at Survival Horror and like Silent Hill Homecoming, had a lot of combat involved but it actually had plenty of scary moments that sent shivers down your spine. Later, Condemned 2 was released for the 360 and the Playstation 3 whose version received better reviews.[2]
Unfortunately games like Dead Space and F.E.A.R think Horror is about making you jump and Resident Evil has jumped on this band wagon. Horror fans and even fans of the game don't like to call Resident Evil a Survival Horror any more.

When was the last time a game freaked you out because the environment put you on edge or because you were scared out of your mind that you had nothing to defeat monsters with? When was the last time you had to put a game away because it was affecting you so much?
It seems those days have gone...


Console Wars
Offenders: Alan Wake, Project Zero IV.
OK, so the Wii is the market leader but that doesn't mean you will sell more games on that console than on any other.

Tecmo made this mistake lately with Project Zero IV: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Leaving their Sony fan base behind, they sold the games rights to Nintendo who sold the game in the Japanese region. For reasons unexplained, Nintendo US and Nintendo Europe didn't feel it necessary to release the game in their regions.
The most likely reason is that the game isn't suited to their target market - family and children. Why Tecmo did this I will never know because the US and the UK (without the rest of Europe) have the two largest gaming markets in the world[3] (In fact, in the UK the Gaming Industry is outselling the music industry).[4]

Alan Wake is another Horror game that isn't to grace the Playstation 3. When it was first announced (I can't remember when because that was ages ago now) the game was to be on the 360 and the Playstation 3 but Microsoft managed to gain the rights to the game. This isn't much a loss on the West's part because the US and Europe are going to be able to play it - It's just a shame that Sony have missed out on what looks like an impressive game.


The Nintendo Wii
Offenders: The Grudge, Cursed Mountain, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

I don't have the strongest opinion of the Wii. Even though it's the main reason why the UK is the 2nd largest games market in the world, to me it defines everything that is wrong in the gaming industry.
We're living in the digital age but the graphics in the games that Nintendo bring out are going backwards and the imagination put into them are terrible. With games like the Imagine Series (Vet, Fashion Designer,Teacher), Dogz, Catz and Wii-Sports, the Wii is a novelty console at best.

Why developers are making Horror games for this console when they could be making them for the Xbox or the Playstation 3 confuses me. Sure, the games are cheaper and quicker to develop and I'm aware that Developers have a hard time developing games for the Sony console but surely they aren't going to sell very well.
There is currently one Survival Horror game for the Wii and two on the way...These are Cursed Mountain, The Grudge and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Recently, it was announced that the Japanese film Ju-On (or The Grudge as it's known here) is to be made into a game. The decision to release this on the Wii is because of the Wii-mote's ability to measure hand movement. The more you're made jump and the more you shake determines your score at the end of the game. The game is to be sold in the US and UK but will it sell if the Wii's market is little children? Look at the front cover (left) and tell me what you think?

Another unfortunate point is that the best Survival Horror games are produced in Japan where the Nintendo Wii isn't necessarily aimed at the family/tween market.

Cursed Mountain is another Survival Horror game that is exclusive for the Wii and again, the Wii-mote is the attraction here. I don't know much about the game but the graphics, even though quite good for the Wii, are still leave something to be desired. (See Screenshot, Right).

The Silent Hill series has even joined the club releasing a game for the Wii. Konami however, unlike Tecmo, have stayed faithful to it's fan base of ten years, releasing the game on the PS2 and the PSP. Good news, but it's the Wii that has the better version again because of it's Wii-mote.
In Shattered Memories, you can use your Wii-mote as a Phone (you'll come across numbers to dial and the voice will emit from the speaker in the Wii-mote), Radio (again, the static will come out of the speaker), Pen (You can write notes on your map) and Torch (you can move the Wii-mote like a torch).
Shattered Memories may be more focused on the Wii, but at least it's stopping itself from being action orientated. There's no combat at all and it's going to make you think - that picture in the screenshot (left) remind you of anyone?


Summary.
A good Survival Horror game should have a plot which can get you thinking about how best to proceed. Give the player a bucket load of weapons and ammo then people are just going to blast their way through and hope for the best. Forbidden Siren made you think of a strategy to complete a mission without being spotted - you didn't get a lot of ammo in this game and most weapons you had to kill a Shibito for anyway.

Silent Hill made you think more on the storyline rather than combat. Most monsters could be out run in this game so combat wasn't always necessary but the game is still fun to play. The atmosphere in these games were the main reason why Silent Hill is scary - the thought of people watching you (Think of when Heather receives the letters from a Hospital Patient you never see yourself or when James is mentioned by name on a note put as graffiti on a wall).

Project Zero is yet another game that didn't focus on combat an those games were so scary that you had to pause the game to relax yourself a little (I know I did anyway).

Unfortunately, all these games are not as popular nowadays. Forbidden Siren has always been underrated, Nintendo decided that Project Zero IV should be kept away from us and Silent Hill is getting trampled on by those who would rather have Resident Evil because of it's "good combat an brilliant graphics".
People are even complaining that Shattered Memories isn't going to have any combat. I think it's a good thing that they're trying to put the Horror back into Survival Horror.

If games like Dead Space and F.E.A.R continue being more popular than the classics and if Resident Evil doesn't return to it's old ways, then I fear for this genre - I really do.


References:
[1] http://survivalhorroronline.com/articles/history.htm
[2] http://www.metacritic.com/search/process?sort=relevance&termtype=all&ts=condemned+2&ty=0&button=search
[3] http://www.ripten.com/2009/02/02/uk-overtakes-japan-in-the-videogame-market
[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7709298.stm

Ones I'm Not Bothered About

Resident Evil 5

This is the game that seems to be getting the Survival Horror fans really excited. I am not excited at all about this game at all and I'm more excited about Silent Hill Homecoming.
This game is due for release in the UK and the US on 13th March '09, just two weeks after the European release of Silent Hill Homecoming. This means that the game has overshadowed the release of Homecoming in within the European market.

The game is set ten years after the first Resident Evil game and follows Chris Redfield who was the protagonist of the first game. It's set in a fictional country of Kijuju, Africa where Chris has been sent there to investigate an accident that happened as part of his service in the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).
A trailer shown at the E3 game's convention 2007 sparked an accusation of racism from Newsweek reporter, N'Gai Croal.
The trailer showed the White protagonist laying bullets into a group of Zombies, all of who were black, which I would expect seeing that it's in an African setting.
The following year a second trailer was made showing both black and white Zombies and an additional Female character of African descent. However, according to the games developers, these changes weren't made due to the controversy of the first trailer.

You can see an article about this here

I have also included the newest trailer which I found on youtube which shows more about the storyline and game play:

Resident Evil 4 didn't impress me at all despite all the raving reviews it received and it has put me off all Resident Evil games period. Apparently Resident Evil 5 plays exactly like Resident Evil 4 which really puts me off. However, the graphics in Resident Evil 5 are much better which is understandable seeing it's a next-gen game. The Zombies in particular look very scary compared to the Zombies that were in Resident Evil 4 but that isn't enough to persuade me to get it at release.

I may buy this in the very distant future when the price has gone down. I am not going to make the same mistake I made with Resident Evil 4.

For more details you can check out the Official Website which can be found HERE


Dead Space

This game was released in the US and the UK on Oct 14th '08 and I still haven't had any interest in buying it. It's another First Person Shooter set on the USG Ishimura "Planet Cracker" ship, whilst mining the planet of Aegis VII.
You play as Isaac Clarke, an engineer who is stranded after his ship becomes infested by the Corruption, a hostile, virus-like, alien DNA with the ability to infest the bodies of the dead, turning them into grotesque Monsters called Necromorphs.

It's not that I'm not intrigued by this game, I do want to try it because people say it's brilliant and scary. I just don't want to pay the full price tag for it. Now however, the price has gone down to around £28 but I'm still not going to run to the shops to get it. I don't like first person shooters very much and that is what this game is, this means that it's mostly an action game which intimidates me. I didn't like Resident Evil 4 for this reason and it's also one of the reasons I'm not interested in Resident Evil 5 (above).

Below is a trailer I found on the Official website:

If you go to the Survival Horror forum on the US Playstation website you'll see that almost every thread is on Dead Space. It's proven to be very popular and it's got me interested in it - only slightly though. I have downloaded and attempted to play the demo but it doesn't emphasise much on the story so you can't get an idea on whether the game would interest you or not. It forces you into battle straight away and that's not what I look for when buying a Survival Horror game.

More videos and images can be found on the Official Website which can be found HERE


Anybody else not interested in these games?

Should Dead Space be considered a Survival Horror instead of a straight forward FPS like Resistance?

Will Resident Evil 5 be better than Resident Evil 4?