Survival horror genre has changed a lot during the years. You might not remember, but games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark have invented the survival horror genre. Since those games have invented the horror genre you have to ask yourself what has happed to those great games that we’ve seen ten years ago. I’m talking mostly about Resident Evil series. I’m a old Resident Evil fan and I loved all old Resident Evil games, and in my opinion Resident Evil 2 was the best Resident Evil game in entire franchise. Let’s face it, undead flesh eating zombies are scary and they are the fundamental of survival horror. There isn’t a scarier moment in horror games than a narrow hall filled with zombies from original Resident Evil. Narrow halls, zombies, low ammo and bad aiming was the thing that made all gamers jump from their seats. Now you have to ask yourself, why aren’t any of those elements in new Resident Evil games? Are fans bored with survival horror and zombies? I think not, but let’s face it, action games have always been more appealing to the wider audience, so why not ruin a great franchise and turn it into a action horror? Capcom did that and that way we got Resident Evil 4.

Don’t get me wrong, Resident Evil 4 was a great game, but it wasn’t survival horror that we all know and love. Infected peasants that attack you with shovels and chainsaws, that doesn’t sound too scary, don’t you think? In fact, only thing in entire game that made me run for my life and that really freaked me out was the guy with the chainsaw that was really hard to kill. I cannot classify peasants and cultists with maces and crossbows as survival horror enemies. After peasants and cultists we had to fight giant statue and mercenaries. Who would ever thought that in Resident Evil game you’ll have to fight a brute that tries to kill you with a minigun? Honestly, I was disappointed by all enemies in this game and in my opinion only first few chapters of the game are worth playing. Things are even worse with Resident Evil 5 so I won’t even mention it. Where are all the shambling brain-eating zombies that we all loved? They have apparently been wiped out in Raccoon City and now we’re left with Las Plagas and Majini. Overall, both Resident Evil 4 and 5 were okay as action games but please don’t classify them as survival horror. And another thing, if Resident Evil is third person action horror now why can’t you move and shoot? Why do you have to stand in a single spot while aiming? Why do you have to wait for that axe to hit between your eyes while you’re trying to take the enemies out? However there are still some survival elements left, so you still have to run from your enemies from time to time but they can always catch up with you, and you’ll always have just enough ammo to take them out. Fighting humans or infected and mutated humans that can throw axes and use weapons against you isn’t part of survival horror in my opinion and it won’t be, ever. I’m honestly hoping that Resident Evil series will rise from the dead, just like the zombies from original series, and that hopefully we’ll see a Resident Evil game with zobmbies that uses third person camera like the two latest games. There’s nothing better than a third person horror, narrow corridors and flash eating zombies that are shambling from another side of the room towards you while you’re using your last bullets to take them out. That’s survival horror and not brutes with miniguns and chainsaws.

As you can see, survival horror is dead and it will stay dead because we’ve killed it. I’m just hoping that we’ll get PC version of Silent Hill 8. Silent Hill, you’re my last hope.