Looking for survival horror recommendations

[Wunderbar]

Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth starts off as a walking sim and later devolves into a janky shooter, but it's still worth being mentioned here.

Is that the game where at some point you have to run away from crazed villagers in like an industrial area? You have to like close fences behind you and solve mini-puzzles while the villagers are giving chase?

there are two chases in the game, the first one is where you run from the angry mob while bolting doors behind you, and the other one is set in an industrial area (gold refinery).

Yeah, that hotel chase was rad.

 

[fork]

There are none, this genre is dead. It split into action titles and walking simulators.

Replay the classics and play those PS2 titles you mentioned.
Kuon if you haven't played it.
RE1, 2, 3, Zero, Remake.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I can see your point OP, even if I feel you're a little harsh in places. I recently checked through Mobygames list of survival horror games and its shocking how bad the genre gets after the PS2 era. If it isn't a Five Nights at Freddy's ripoff its a Slenderman-style game. Its why I tend to ration the games off myself. I assume you've played the original 3 Alone in the Darks? I haven't played them myself, but Ecstatica and Doctor Hauzer seem pretty cool takes on the genre.

 

[Kainan]

I played Condemned long time ago but iirc there is less guns and ammo than even in Silent Hill so its not fair to group it with Dead Space and RE.

 

[Machocruz]

Was surprised how good Darkwood was. It's an example of actual evolution. Too many games were beholden to the very narrow definition that the early Survial Horror games provided, and where they expanded, they expanded improperly (e.g. more emphasis on combat), or expanded in one direction while forsaking others (e.g. avoiding all enemies). Darkwood is not only rock solid on the basics of resource scarcity, avoidance/picking your battles, solving 'puzzles', storytelling, and atmosphere, it added a bit more, like the time factor, having to maintain your shelter(s), etc. Not saying these were new ideas, just using it as an example of a game that hit all the right notes.

Personally, in light of games like Project Zomboid, Cataclysm DDA, the old RE/SH way of "survival" is quaint, although still entertaining. But if you don't have to account for factors like fatigue, sleep, shelter, hunger, infection, injury, etc., your so-called survival horror game is well behind the curve, a dinosaur.

 

[JDR13]

The OP is his own worst enemy with his narrow view of what constitutes survival horror.

There's nothing worse than someone who asks for suggestions and then tries to shit on everything that's suggested.

 

[Arthandas]

There's nothing worse than someone who asks for suggestions and then tries to shit on everything that's suggested.

There is, people who post in a topic without reading or understanding it.
The only thing I'm shitting on are walking simulators, please quote me shitting on any other suggestions.
I like most of them, especially Kuon, and I'm eagerly awaiting RE8 and Ghostwire.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth starts off as a walking sim and later devolves into a janky shooter, but it's still worth being mentioned here.

Is that the game where at some point you have to run away from crazed villagers in like an industrial area? You have to like close fences behind you and solve mini-puzzles while the villagers are giving chase?

there are two chases in the game, the first one is where you run from the angry mob while bolting doors behind you, and the other one is set in an industrial area (gold refinery).

Yeah, that hotel chase was rad.

The hotel chase is pretty much a 1:1 implementation of the chase scene from Shadow over Innsmouth. No wonder it works so well given it was written by HPL himself. The problem with the game (aside of the bugs, IIRC the game actually cannot be finished without a mod, because in the vanilla version you always get killed by falling stones while escaping the Deep Ones´s colony at the very end) is that the shooter part that follows after the you find a crowbar (or some such melee weapon) at the end of the last "stealth & helpless running away" part is much too long. I personally didn’t have a problem with shooting itself (as I don’t agree with the "its not Lovecraft if you can fight" camp) and being able to fight back after constant running away and hiding felt great for a while, the problem was that the combat mechanics and AI simply weren’t good enough to support the play time that the devs decided to dedicate to it.

 

[SoupNazi]

Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth starts off as a walking sim and later devolves into a janky shooter, but it's still worth being mentioned here.

Is that the game where at some point you have to run away from crazed villagers in like an industrial area? You have to like close fences behind you and solve mini-puzzles while the villagers are giving chase?

there are two chases in the game, the first one is where you run from the angry mob while bolting doors behind you, and the other one is set in an industrial area (gold refinery).

Yeah, that hotel chase was rad.

The hotel chase is pretty much a 1:1 implementation of the chase scene from Shadow over Innsmouth. No wonder it works so well given it was written by HPL himself. The problem with the game (aside of the bugs, IIRC the game actually cannot be finished without a mod, because in the vanilla version you always get killed by falling stones while escaping the Deep Ones´s colony at the very end) is that the shooter part that follows after the you find a crowbar (or some such melee weapon) at the end of the last "stealth & helpless running away" part is much too long. I personally didn’t have a problem with shooting itself (as I don’t agree with the "its not Lovecraft if you can fight" camp) and being able to fight back after constant running away and hiding felt great for a while, the problem was that the combat mechanics and AI simply weren’t good enough to support the play time that the devs decided to dedicate to it.

Which one is the one where you start off coming to town as a detective or some sort of thing? And I think you lose your gun straight at the start, as well as your badge? And the town is weird but more or less cooperating until that chase I think. Feel like I might want to try and replay it, my memory if it is super hazy and it probably won't live up to my nostalgia but I'd like to give it a try, or maybe watch a let's play.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth starts off as a walking sim and later devolves into a janky shooter, but it's still worth being mentioned here.

Is that the game where at some point you have to run away from crazed villagers in like an industrial area? You have to like close fences behind you and solve mini-puzzles while the villagers are giving chase?

there are two chases in the game, the first one is where you run from the angry mob while bolting doors behind you, and the other one is set in an industrial area (gold refinery).

Yeah, that hotel chase was rad.

The hotel chase is pretty much a 1:1 implementation of the chase scene from Shadow over Innsmouth. No wonder it works so well given it was written by HPL himself. The problem with the game (aside of the bugs, IIRC the game actually cannot be finished without a mod, because in the vanilla version you always get killed by falling stones while escaping the Deep Ones´s colony at the very end) is that the shooter part that follows after the you find a crowbar (or some such melee weapon) at the end of the last "stealth & helpless running away" part is much too long. I personally didn’t have a problem with shooting itself (as I don’t agree with the "its not Lovecraft if you can fight" camp) and being able to fight back after constant running away and hiding felt great for a while, the problem was that the combat mechanics and AI simply weren’t good enough to support the play time that the devs decided to dedicate to it.

Which one is the one where you start off coming to town as a detective or some sort of thing? And I think you lose your gun straight at the start, as well as your badge? And the town is weird but more or less cooperating until that chase I think. Feel like I might want to try and replay it, my memory if it is super hazy and it probably won't live up to my nostalgia but I'd like to give it a try, or maybe watch a let's play.

Its called Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Basically you start as a cop and the prologue has you sneaking into some cult hideout, where you see aliens, go crazy, get fired from the police and become a private detective. Then you get hired to look for someone in the nearby town of Innsmouth, when you get there people are really weird, but mostly cooperative. You go to a hotel to spend the night and everything goes to shit right after that...

 

[SoupNazi]

lol im i thought shadow over innsmouth was also a game

Thanks!

 

[karoliner]

Condemned (the first one only), Darkwood, Hunting Ground, Cry of Fear. And avoid Rule of Rose yes it has an interesting story but the gameplay is atrocius.

 

[Baron Dupek]

And avoid Rule of Rose yes it has an interesting story but the gameplay is atrocius.

With that price it can scare people more than modern horrors

 

[Arthandas]

With that price it can scare people more than modern horrors

They recently made a poll asking what should they do in 2021, and RoR port was one of the options, here's hoping for a Steam release.

 

[Baron Dupek]

With that price it can scare people more than modern horrors

They recently made a poll asking what should they do in 2021, and RoR port was one of the options, here's hoping for a Steam release.

Source?
Hope they don't need to do Playstation version first, modern Sony would nuke it instantly.

Back to the topic - Devil Inside and maybe From Dusk Till Dawn from the same developer.
Also Terminal Reality games, like Blair Witch trilogy and Nocturne.
The Thing.

 

[Arthandas]

Source?

https://www.siliconera.com/onion-games-survey-asks-do-you-want-chulip-and-rule-of-rose-ports/
The poll is already closed though.

 

[v01]

I'd like to play something new

Please read the following sentences and then click the spoiler underneath the one that meets your fancy to reveal the game you will play next.

You have expensive taste. Here lies beauty...elegance....madness.

Spoiler

You have acclimated to high levels of dread. Is there light at the end of this tunnel?

Spoiler

You live for the chase. Or will you become fast food!?

Spoiler

You think you can't be fooled.

Spoiler

 

[Arryosha]

I remember Parasite Eve being good, but that was a long time ago. Similar to the Silent Hill games. Not as scary but good story, iirc.

 

[Zlaja]

RE1 Remake is literally a pinnacle of survival horror genre.

It's very good but not in the same league as Silent Hill 2 for example.

Game mechanics wise it's the other way around. SH2 is just way to easy and lacks any meaningful resource management. Story & atmosphere is a different ball game, of course.

 

[Theodora]

dying light?

dying light is much better than the sum of its parts, yeah. still haven't played the following myself but tl;dr is the original game is more than just ubisoft zombies Arthandas . was hellraid any good?

Daedalos did you get round to checking out song of horror at all?

Personally, in light of games like Project Zomboid, Cataclysm DDA, the old RE/SH way of "survival" is quaint, although still entertaining. But if you don't have to account for factors like fatigue, sleep, shelter, hunger, infection, injury, etc., your so-called survival horror game is well behind the curve, a dinosaur.

PZ's systems are very comfy, ja. I can't wait for that game to get its more urban zones.

 

[fork]

Dying Light is utter shit.

 

[Daedalos]

Theodora I haven't yet baby, but I will! Been busi lately

 

[Deflowerer]

Play those PS2 classics first.

Also, check out a game called Hellnight on PS1. It's technically more like the modern "walking sim" type horror games, but the story goes some pretty interesting places and the atmosphere is very unique.

 

[Arthandas]

Also, check out a game called Hellnight on PS1.

Thanks, I never heard of it.

 

[JDR13]

dying light is much better than the sum of its parts, yeah. still haven't played the following myself but tl;dr is the original game is more than just ubisoft zombies

I agree. Dying Light was a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting much because I didn't like Dead Island, but the atmosphere in Dying Light is top notch. I wouldn't call it survival-horror though.