This includes games such as Resident Evil 4, which, despite keeping the tense atmosphere of the previous games, has the player sitting on a pile of ammo and supplies by comparison, making it a different genre to its Ur-Example predecessors. If the default reaction to a monster appearing is not to riddle it full of bullets but to run away frantically looking for a closet to hide in before it kills you, it might just be a Survival Horror game.Īs a rule of thumb, a game typically labelled Action Horror is not Survival Horror. The player instead spends the entire time evading an entire world of Demonic Spiders, or in a game of hide and seek with a single invincible enemy. In several notable examples of the genre, combat is even nearly or completely non-existent. There is generally no penalty for not killing non-boss enemies, and in some games ammo is in such short supply and enemies so difficult to take down that evasion, not confrontation, is the best tactic, similar to Stealth Based Games. Unlike shooter games, the typical protagonist of a Survival Horror game will be an Action Survivor or Non-Action Guy who is poor at combat, rather than a badass. Only then do you have a chance - if there is a chance to be had. While at first the goal seems to be pure survival, or calling for help, the game tends to add a little something by requiring you to solve the source of the problem, whether it's an alien relic or your own personal issues.

Many games in the genre are closer to Adventure Games in gameplay, with much less focus on combat and more on puzzles. Not unlike Postmodernism, modern Survival Horror isn't really a clear-cut genre in itself it exists more as a blurred subset of Horror and First- or Third-Person Shooter. Ultimately, you tend to be the only one who survives as anybody who could help you will die a horrible death-by-cutscene. Other times you will hide in a shadowy corner praying the invincible monstrosity doesn't notice you as it lumbers past. Sometimes, you will be forced to fight the horrible creatures or flee for your life. You will have close escapes from horrible creatures. Your goal: Don't die before help arrives or before you reach an exit.

Somehow, the world, or at least the city you are in, has had its inhabitants slaughtered and resurrected with a hunger for brains, or their murderers have minions trying to find you and any accomplices.

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