As a game genre, survival horror can be characterized as fictional storieswhere a main character has to deal with enemies that try to catch and defeat him. In turn, a player should rather find a shelter or try to trick them instead of starting a fight.
Sometimes, the plot is focused on a hostile and creepy environment. In most cases, this is a place you have to leave at any cost and solve numerous missions to do so. In some titles of that kind, fights can become a part of the process, however this is a different experience than any typical action title. Every survival combat makes the player feel that he has no control over the situation and has limited stamina, movement, vision, or defense. In a word, survival horror gives players small chances to survive, while this is his main aim. The mechanics of these games can become another element of obstruction. Also, the player receives various tasks whether finding the objects or the way out. To continue the game, players are often required to solve various puzzles. Most classic horror games feature typical elements like pop-ups and dark places.
The first game of this genre is Resident Evil, produced by a Japanese studio in 1996. From this moment, a lot of similar titles began to appear. With time, developers started to add features from other genres, including shooters and actions. Due to this fact, some players and game experts started to ask themselves whether recent games have broken up with the initial canon and got into something else that can be characterized as action horror. The main element of every survival is player’s condition which is far from invulnerable. Most games of this genre focus on a lack of armory, complicated puzzles, and poor inventory instead of violence. The other key theme that is present on most games of this kind is isolation. In most cases, the narrative is mysterious and can be revealed step by step through the usage of various mediums like letters, papers, audios or dialogues. As the action horrors feature the main heroes who have fight with powerful enemies in creepy places, survival horrors do not focus on combats or anything like that. Instead of fighting the enemies like in the action games, the players have to run away or hide from them and accomplish different tasks to move on. It is not typical for a survival to adapt the elements of other games, including RPGs, shooters and other adventures. They are defined by particular mechanics, style, visuals, themes, psychologism and inner logic.
