First officially coined by Capcom during the marketing release of Resident Evil, what defines survival horror is more or less resource management, scarcity in defense options, fear of the unknown and creepy settings.
Before Resident Evil, there was Sweet Home, which I already reviewed, and it remains the prime inspiration. However, before Sweet Home, there is an era starting in 1980's that remains the origins of Survival Horror, and yet, this era is quite obscure nowadays.
One example is Haunted House, released in 1982 for the Atari 2600. The player, represented by a pair of eyes, much uncover 3 pieces of an urn inside a haunted house while avoiding enemies like bats, tarantulas and a ghost.
What really worked here in how the player navigates through the rooms, which are very dark. Creeping through them and occassionally seeing the rooms flash with light was a nice touch for the early 80's.
Then there's 3D Monster Maze, developed by Malcolm Evans for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1981, where the concept is that a Tyrannosaurus Rex is chasing you through a maze, which only has one exit, and it is played from a first person perspective.
The fear of encountering an intimidating and undefeatable foe such as this is nerve wrecking, and it continues to be used in independent video games in particular today.
Or, instead of all of these names dropped, what about Project Firestart for the Commodore 64 released in 1989 and is inspired by the Alien movies? Some groups feel that this is where the genre really started.
As a side scrolling 2.5D action adventure, it also features logs and journeys of the personnel on the research ship Prometheus, which provide lore and background to the game, which was revolutionary for the late 80's, and is another feature still used today.
As we can see, there is a dispute as to where Survival Horror truly started. It reminds of the debate if Pong is truly the first video game. How would you see the beginning for both cases, and what was your first horror video game?
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