What defines a survival horror?

[Hunter of Shadows]

I've been seeing a lot of people completely mislabel some horror games as 'survival horror', when they're not, they're action shooters, yes they have horror elements and can be scary, but if you're playing say like...F.E.A.R which I did see get defined as a survival horror(I couldn't believe it) you play as a dude who goes around blasting with his guns in gun fu style left and right and is such an action hero it's hard to see the game as survival horror.

Especially when the horror elements of FEAR are so...mediocre and unoriginal, so really what I want here is for you people to tell me what you feel defines what survival horror is, I want to understand why people would classify one game as survival horror and one as not.

[BlueFury]

Survival horror is a subgenre of action-adventure video games inspired by horror fiction. These games make the player vulnerable by providing them with less ammunition and fewer heavy weapons than other action games. Although combat can be a part of the gameplay, the player is in various ways made to feel less powerful than in typical action games, because of limited ammunition, health, speed, or other limitations. The player is also challenged to find items that unlock the path to new areas, and solve puzzles at certain locations. Games make use of strong horror themes, and the player is often challenged to navigate dark maze-like environments, and react to unexpected attacks from enemies.

It's like an RPG with a less exploring jk

if you look at it like this
every RPG can be a survival horror game
fallout 3, some monsters could scare the F*** out of you
minecraft, i jumped more in minecraft then in every other game

and ofc, the scariest imo, Condemned: Criminal origins

i hope that i helped you

[Hunter of Shadows]

Survival horror is a subgenre of action-adventure video games inspired by horror fiction. These games make the player vulnerable by providing them with less ammunition and fewer heavy weapons than other action games. Although combat can be a part of the gameplay, the player is in various ways made to feel less powerful than in typical action games, because of limited ammunition, health, speed, or other limitations. The player is also challenged to find items that unlock the path to new areas, and solve puzzles at certain locations. Games make use of strong horror themes, and the player is often challenged to navigate dark maze-like environments, and react to unexpected attacks from enemies.

It's like an RPG with a less exploring jk

if you look at it like this
every RPG can be a survival horror game
fallout 3, some monsters could scare the F*** out of you
minecraft, i jumped more in minecraft then in every other game

and ofc, the scariest imo, Condemned: Criminal origins

i hope that i helped you

That's probably a better definition then most I've seen, from I've seen most people's definition of survival horror is the goddamn lighting is dark and gloomy

[Statyk]

Condemned? (I made an oro mouthpiece a few weeks ago for Halloween! =D I have pictures on my Deviantart. If you want to check it out, go on my profile and there's a link =3) I honestly DON'T see that as a horror game. Just apocalyptic in a sense. Only thing horror about it to me was the bear in Bloodshot >>

Survival Horror to me is a horror game... Where you SURVIVE. FEAR is a TERRIBLE horror game in my opinion, I'm sorry. It's so bad... XD Maybe if it was made under a better company, it'd be better, but it's so choppy, predictable, and annoying (30000min of fighting the same people, then 1 minute of alma. repeat. >> LAZY)

A S.H. is a horror game specifically to strike fear into the player by the feeling of death or getting caught. My examples of SURVIVAL HORROR (not just simply "horror". These two are surprisingly different, and I wish people would understand that) that I know of are Penumbra, Amnesia, Fatal Frame, and Dead Space on Hardcore mode. 10 times playing DS2, and Hardcore scared the hell out of me. lol These are my favorites too, so I guess I'm a big Survival Horror guy. Just found that out.

Horror is simply HORROR, where it can be scary, but it doesn't mean you have to fight for survival. This goes for FEAR, Condemned, Dead Space, Doom, Silent Hill, screen-horrors (where you click on things in your screen to progress), etc.


In short... "Horror" and "Survival Horror" are two similar, but definitely different genres.

[BlueFury]

Oh forgot one, Bioshock <3
One of the best examples for survival horror

[Gunslingerjh]

The first 3 resident evil games are very good examples of survival horror!

[Hunter of Shadows]

Oh forgot one, Bioshock <3
One of the best examples for survival horror

Bioshock is too easy for that

System Shock 2 would be considered survival horror cause you know...it can actually be hard to survive

The first 3 resident evil games are very good examples of survival horror!

How, you're an action man with a gun, the only 'survival' part of it is make sure you shoot everything to death, that and zombies are so often overused...

[Tanshaydar]

There is another genre called Survival Action, which is usually confused wit Survival Horror.
I wonder being scary is enough to make a game considered to be a horror game...

[BlueFury]

Oh forgot one, Bioshock <3
One of the best examples for survival horror

Bioshock is too easy for that

System Shock 2 would be considered survival horror cause you know...it can actually be hard to survive

too easy? sorry but i think this game is a true survival horror on the hardest difficulty

[Unearthlybrutal]

My point of view: If game has any shooting in it, there is no horror at all. I think that it's funny to play shooting games and kill people in these games, but there's no horror. Some of people think that it's scary when the bogeyman runs towards to you, but what happens then...
...when it's shooting game, you probably shoot the monster. Is that scary? I think it's not.