Origins (1980s–1996) The origins of the survival horror game can be traced back to earlier horror fiction novels. Archetypes have been linked to the books of
H. P. Lovecraft, which include investigative narratives, or journeys through the depths. Comparisons have been made between Lovecraft's
Great Old Ones and the
boss encounters seen in many survival horror games. Themes of survival have also been traced to the
slasher film subgenre, where the protagonist endures a confrontation with the ultimate antagonist. and
Japanese cinema. The survival horror genre largely draws from both
Western (mainly
American) and
Asian (mainly
Japanese) traditions, Another early example is the 1982
Atari 2600 game
Haunted House. Gameplay is typical of future survival horror titles, as it emphasizes puzzle-solving and evasive action, rather than violence. The game uses creatures commonly featured in horror fiction, such as bats and ghosts, each of which has unique behaviors. Gameplay also incorporates item collection and inventory management, along with areas that are inaccessible until the appropriate item is found. Because it has several features that have been seen in later survival horror games, some reviewers have retroactively classified this game as the first in the genre. is a
first-person game without a weapon; the player cannot fight the enemy, a
Tyrannosaurus rex, so they must escape by finding the exit before the monster finds them. The game states its distance and awareness of the player, further raising tension.
Edge stated it was about "fear, panic, terror and facing an implacable, relentless foe who’s going to get you in the end" and considers it "the original survival horror game".
Retro Gamer stated, "Survival horror may have been a phrase first coined by
Resident Evil, but it could’ve easily applied to Malcolm Evans’ massive hit." 1982 saw the release of another early horror game,
Bandai's
Terror House, based on traditional Japanese horror, released as a
Bandai LCD Solarpower handheld game. It was a
solar-powered game with two
LCD panels on top of each other to enable impressive scene changes and early
pseudo-3D effects. The amount of ambient light the game received also had an effect on the gaming experience. Another early example of a horror game released that year was
Sega's
arcade game Monster Bash, which introduced classic horror-movie monsters, including the likes of
Dracula,
Frankenstein's monster, and
werewolves, helping to lay the foundations for future survival horror games. Its 1986 remake
Ghost House had gameplay specifically designed around the horror theme, featuring haunted house stages full of traps and secrets, and enemies that were fast, powerful, and intimidating, forcing players to learn the intricacies of the house and rely on their wits. The latter half of the 1980s saw the release of several other horror-themed games, including
Konami's
Castlevania in 1986, and Sega's
Kenseiden and
Namco's
Splatterhouse in 1988, though despite the macabre imagery of these games, their gameplay did not diverge much from other
action games at the time.
Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead, a 1987 title developed by Fun Factory and published by
Victor Music Industries for the
MSX2, PC-88 and
PC Engine platforms, and John Szczepaniak (of
Retro Gamer and
The Escapist). Designed by Katsuya Iwamoto, the game was a horror
action RPG revolving around a female
SWAT member Lila rescuing survivors in an isolated monster-infested town and bringing them to safety in a church. It has
open environments like
Dragon Quest and
real-time side-view battles like
Zelda II, though
War of the Dead departed from other RPGs with its dark and creepy atmosphere expressed through the storytelling, graphics, and music.It was created by
Tokuro Fujiwara, who would later go on to create
Resident Evil.
Sweet Homes gameplay focused on solving a variety of
puzzles using items stored in a limited inventory, while battling or escaping from horrifying creatures, which could lead to permanent death for any of the characters, thus creating tension and an emphasis on survival. Developed by
Capcom, the game would become the main inspiration behind their later release
Resident Evil. In 1989, Electronic Arts published
Project Firestart, developed by
Dynamix. Unlike most other early games in the genre, it featured a science fiction setting inspired by the film
Alien but had gameplay that closely resembled later survival horror games in many ways. Travis Fahs considers it the first to achieve "the kind of fully formed vision of survival horror as we know it today," citing its balance of action and adventure, limited ammunition, weak weaponry, vulnerable main character, feeling of isolation, storytelling through journals, graphic violence, and use of dynamically triggered music - all of which are characteristic elements of later games in the survival horror genre. Despite this, it is not likely a direct influence on later games in the genre and the similarities are largely an example of
parallel thinking. The game featured a lone protagonist against hordes of monsters, and made use of traditional
adventure game challenges such as puzzle-solving and finding hidden keys to new areas. Graphically,
Alone in the Dark uses static
prerendered camera views that were cinematic in nature. Although players had the ability to fight monsters as in
action games, players also had the option to evade or block them. The game also used the mechanism of notes and books as expository devices. In 1995,
WARP's horror adventure game
D featured a
first-person perspective,
CGI full-motion video, gameplay that consisted entirely of
puzzle-solving, and taboo content such as
cannibalism. The same year,
Human Entertainment's
Clock Tower was a survival horror game that employed
point-and-click graphic adventure gameplay and a deadly stalker known as
Scissorman that chases players throughout the game. The game introduced
stealth game elements, and was unique for its lack of combat, with the player only able to run away or outsmart Scissorman in order to survive. It features up to nine different possible endings. '' (1996) named and defined the survival horror genre. The term "survival horror" was first used by Capcom to market their 1996 release,
Resident Evil. It began as a remake of
Sweet Home, death animations,
multiple endings depending on which characters survive, The control scheme in
Resident Evil also became a staple of the genre, and future titles imitated its challenge of rationing very limited resources and items. The golden age of survival horror started by
Resident Evil reached its peak around the turn of the millennium with
Silent Hill, followed by a general decline a few years later.
Riverhillsoft's
Overblood, released in 1996, is considered the first survival horror game to make use of a fully
three-dimensional virtual environment. Also in 1998,
Blue Stinger was a fully 3D survival horror game for the
Dreamcast incorporating action elements from
beat 'em up and
shooter games.
series, pictured above, introduced a psychological horror style to the genre. The most renowned was Silent Hill 2'' (2001), for its strong narrative.
Konami's
Silent Hill, released in 1999, drew heavily from
Resident Evil while using real-time 3D environments in contrast to
Resident Evil's pre-rendered graphics.
Silent Hill in particular was praised for moving away from
B movie horror elements to the
psychological style seen in
art house or
Japanese horror films, The game also featured stealth elements, making use of the fog to dodge enemies or turning off the flashlight to avoid detection. The original
Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest games of all time, and the strong narrative from
Silent Hill 2 in 2001 has made the
Silent Hill series one of the most influential in the genre.
Fatal Frame from 2001 was a unique entry into the genre, as the player explores a mansion and takes photographs of ghosts in order to defeat them. The
Fatal Frame series has since gained a reputation as one of the most distinctive in the genre, with the first game in the series credited as one of the best-written survival horror games ever made. Western developers began to return to the survival horror formula. The 2004 title
Doom 3 is sometimes categorized as survival horror, although it is considered an Americanized take on the genre due to the player's ability to directly confront monsters with weaponry. Regardless, the genre's increased popularity led Western developers to incorporate horror elements into action games, rather than follow the Japanese survival style. In 2003,
Resident Evil Outbreak introduced a new gameplay element to the genre:
online multiplayer and
cooperative gameplay.
Sony employed
Silent Hill director
Keiichiro Toyama to develop
Siren. and added unprecedented challenge to the genre by making the player mostly defenseless, thus making it vital to learn the enemy's patrol routes and hide from them. However, reviewers eventually criticized the traditional Japanese survival horror formula for becoming stagnant. broadening the gameplay with elements from the wider action genre. Its ambitions paid off, earning the title several Game of the Year awards for 2005, and the top rank on
IGN's ''Readers' Picks Top 99 Games
list. However, this also led some reviewers to suggest that the Resident Evil'' series had abandoned the survival horror genre, by demolishing the genre conventions that it had established. These changes were part of an overall trend among
console games to shift towards visceral action gameplay. The original genre has persisted in one form or another. The 2005 release of
F.E.A.R. was praised for both its atmospheric tension and fast action, while
Dead Space from 2008 brought survival horror to a
science fiction setting. However, critics argue that these titles represent the continuing trend away from pure survival horror and towards general action. The release of
Left 4 Dead in 2008 helped popularize
cooperative multiplayer among survival horror games, although it is mostly a
first-person shooter at its core. Meanwhile, the
Fatal Frame series has remained true to the roots of the genre, Also in 2009,
Silent Hill made a transition to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint in
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. This Wii effort was, however, considered by most reviewers as a return to form for the series due to several developmental decisions taken by
Climax Studios. This included the decision to openly break the fourth wall by psychologically profiling the player, and the decision to remove any weapons from the game, forcing the player to run whenever they see an enemy. Examples of independent survival horror games are the
Penumbra series and
Amnesia: The Dark Descent by
Frictional Games,
Nightfall: Escape by Zeenoh,
Cry of Fear by Team Psykskallar and
Slender: The Eight Pages, all of which were praised for creating a horrific setting and atmosphere without the overuse of violence or gore. In 2010, the
cult game
Deadly Premonition by
Access Games was notable for introducing
open world nonlinear gameplay and a
comedy horror theme to the genre. ''
Five Nights at Freddy's'' effectively incorporated jump scares into the genre with the
first game in the series releasing in 2014. Further evolution of the genre was carried out via platforms such as
itch.io that allowed independent creators to distribute games more easily and therefore became hives of experimentation, an example of which is the emergence of games with PS1-style low-poly aesthetics, such as those developed by
Puppet Combo, that became a genre unto itself which eventually went on to be published on more mainstream storefronts such as Steam. Overall, game developers have continued to make and release survival horror games, and the genre continues to grow among
independent video game developers.
The Last of Us, released in 2013 by
Naughty Dog, incorporated many survival horror elements into a third-person action-adventure game. Set twenty years after a pandemic plague, the player must use scarce ammo and distraction tactics to evade or kill malformed humans infected by a brain parasite, as well as dangerous survivalists. This was followed by a
sequel in 2020.
Shinji Mikami, the creator of the
Resident Evil franchise, released his new survival horror game
The Evil Within, in 2014. Mikami stated that his goal was to bring survival horror back to its roots as he was disappointed by recent survival horror games for having too much action. That same year,
Alien: Isolation, developed by
Creative Assembly and based on the
Alien science fiction horror film series, was released. The game updated the concept of a single un-killable villain chasing the protagonist throughout most of the game, requiring the player to use stealth in order to survive. In 2015,
Until Dawn, developed by
Supermassive Games, was published by
Sony Computer Entertainment for the
PlayStation 4. The game is an
interactive drama in which the player controls multiple characters and features a
butterfly effect system in which the player's choices can change the story and may dictate who survives the night. All playable characters can survive or die, depending on the choices made. Players explore the environment from a
third-person perspective and find clues that may help solve the mystery. Multiplayer
asymmetrical survival horror games gained popularity as well.
Dead by Daylight, released in 2016, features one player taking on the role of a killer and four others play as survivors. The game is also notable for featuring multiple characters from other survival horror franchises, such as
Resident Evil and
Silent Hill. Other examples which use similar one versus four gameplay include
Friday the 13th: The Game,
VHS,
Evil Dead: The Game, and
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The
Resident Evil series abandoned its action-oriented direction beginning with 2017's
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. The game utilizes a
first-person perspective and encourages resource management and puzzle-solving, more akin to earlier entries in the franchise.
Renaissance (2019–present) Following the commercial success of
Resident Evil 2, a remake of the
1998 version that sold over 4 million copies in its first month and 15.8 million by April 2025, other video game companies were encouraged to create remakes of their survival horror franchises. These earlier titles were updated with modern graphics while retaining their survival horror aspects, as seen in the remakes of
Resident Evil 3,
Resident Evil 4,
Dead Space,
Alone in the Dark,
Silent Hill 2, and a second upcoming remake of
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. After these remakes were well received and financially successful, this new era of survival horror has been referred to by gaming journalists as a 'renaissance'. The renewed interest in classic survival horror also contributed to the launch of new games such as
Signalis,
Crow Country, or
Cronos: The New Dawn, all original survival horror titles released between October 2022 and September 2025. == See also ==