Does Downpour revitalise the Survival Horror genre?

[Tillerman]

Dead Space, Alan Wake, Homecoming, Alone in the Dark and Siren Blood Curse sends their regards.

I thought most people didn't consider Dead Space and Alan Wake to be good horror games. Homecoming is a long time ago now, and also terrible. I haven't played any Alone in the Darks, and I haven't played Siren Blood Curse but I've heard great things. You forgot Amnesia, which some people actually consider a great horror game even if I do not.

But still, Amnesia is a 1st person game, there have been extremely few 3rd person horror games in the vein of Silent Hill, and I really wish people were still making them. There was Amy a little while ago, but unfortunately I heard it was pretty terrible...

[TransientJetlag]

Yeah I just started playing deadspace and I wouldn't call this a survival horror game. More of a horror themed FPS.

[clips]

Dead Space is an amazing sc-fi horror game (third person shooter btw)...with a mix of the thing, aliens and event horizon all in one....i consider it one of the best survival horror games dropped this gen...Siren Bloodcurse is another great game as well...Downpour isn't quite as good as those games, but it's still a solid, more traditional survial horror game and one of the better SH games in the series.

[Tillerman]

I consider Dead Space to be more along the lines of Resident Evil 4, an action horror with more emphasis on action than horror. It is a good game, though. But probably not good enough to revitalize the genre.

[Mephisto]

@Tillerman: I haven't played Blood Curse, too. Because of this title I wanted to start the series from the very beggining. Unfortunately all I got was mixed reviews everywhere (just like in this very forum). I still don't know if I should try the first one for the PS2 or not.

About the games, they were just what came to mind at the time. I'm sure I missed others. For example, I forgot to add Shattered Memories and Resident Evil 5 to the list, too.

@TransientJetlag: Just because you like to pretend such titles never happened doesn't mean they're not there. Some may rely more on action than horror, just like it's the case of RE5, but their main core is still survival horror/thriller.

[Kenji]

Siren: New Translation (er, "Blood Curse") is alright. It smooths out a lot of the wrinkles in Siren, of which it's basically a remake. However, maybe it smoothed it out a little too much...

The controls are flighty and the ability to move while sightjacking is straight-up disorienting. Siren's controls could be described as "sticky," but considering this is a stealth series, I'd rather have sticky-but-otherwise-precise controls than flighty ones that can telegraph my position to enemies.

There's also this television show conceit. It's clever, but I don't really see what purpose it serves, especially if you get the whole thing at once (like I did, in Asia-region Blu-Ray form). Clever for the sake of clever is actually pretty empty, and it's a sore replacement for the complex Link Navigator that crossed character timelines together.

The Link Navigator, if nothing else, seemed more interesting.

[DistantJ]

I couldn't get along with Siren when I played it, the controls and camera frustrated me. Pretty creepy though.

[Kenji]

I can understand gripes of the controls (the first game's overreliance on the Select menu, and how running makes you handle like a overloaded truck... so you'd best be damn stealthy), but what's wrong with the camera? It's literally right behind your back, all the time.

Except for those few times it runs too far forward and you get inside your own head.

[KiramidHead]

Except for those few times it runs too far forward and you get inside your own head.

That's the funniest thing about the game outside of the crappy dub.

[Kenji]

I think my favorite voiced character became Shirou Miyata. He's underacted, so he comes off like a cool, cold guy.

Yoriko, on the other hand...

[clips]

I loved everything about Bloodcurse...it's funny that the main gimmick for this series (sight-jacking) is what i really don't like about this game. I think the game could've been fine without it. At certain times you have to use it tho to progress forward. Controls were stiff, and i got confused with the storyline a bit towards the middle of the game, but i loved the games atmosphere and art-direction...the ending kinda disappointed me tho...

[Skele]

Yeah, i didn't care for the sightjacking in Bloodcurse, but other than that, the game was good. i basically gave up toward the end though, because i couldn't figure out how to get past this one tall monster in the underground mine/cave.

Also, Alan Wake was considered by most a really good game. it just didn't deliver on the open world promises the developers originally boasted about. Dead Space is a great survival horror game. Alone in the Dark was terrible. i'd gladly play Downpour over that anyday.

[warfare315]

Dead Space, Alan Wake, Homecoming, Alone in the Dark and Siren Blood Curse sends their regards.

I thought most people didn't consider Dead Space and Alan Wake to be good horror games. Homecoming is a long time ago now, and also terrible. I haven't played any Alone in the Darks, and I haven't played Siren Blood Curse but I've heard great things. You forgot Amnesia, which some people actually consider a great horror game even if I do not.

But still, Amnesia is a 1st person game, there have been extremely few 3rd person horror games in the vein of Silent Hill, and I really wish people were still making them. There was Amy a little while ago, but unfortunately I heard it was pretty terrible...

The way I see it, most of those games are Horror, but not "survival horror" to me, in the sense that... well, you're going to survive. You have the firepower to do it, you just have to do it. The struggle is less desperate than other, mainly older horror games. Dead Space is in the middle...

Thats the way I see it, at least. And in that sense I agree completely. You are not a character in Downpour who can F S up all day no problem. You're a vulnerable character who's scared, and just wants to survive. Not end some alien beings or save the world. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed Homecoming for what it was, and Dead Space is one of my favorite games. And I liked Dead Space 2 even better!