The golden age of survival horror : myth or reality ? (Part 1)

Before we begin, it’s important to note that it’s always difficult to speak of the history of a genre, whatever the medium, with any certainty. On the one hand, there are the facts, and on the other, explanations based on a personal interpretation of its evolution or the will of certain studios. This is the case here, so not everything is to be taken at face value. Enjoy your reading.

Lately, Resident Evil and Silent Hill aficionados have been swimming in happiness. One is still going strong, with a sequel due in 2026 and even a mobile game project, while the other has made a comeback and has no intention of stopping there. Strangely enough, people have been mentioning the return of the “golden age of survival horror”. A statement that immediately caught my attention, especially as it was far from the first time I’d seen it. Is it not simply, to caricature, a phrase used by an embittered old man stuck in the past?

So, yes, survival horror has undergone massive transformations throughout its existence. When it comes to game design, there’s no denying that today’s survival horror has little in common with the genre of the 90s, even if some influences remain. Or despite the attempts of a handful of developers to revive the past through their productions. Is this why some gamers have begun to use the term “golden age”? Perhaps, but it’s not this conservative vision that interests us here, but rather what it implies.

What exactly does this name imply? That we’re a long way from the days when we were treated to cult franchises like Silent Hill or Resident Evil? That the genre is less successful? That the general public and studios are gradually turning away from horror games, especially those with big budgets? To shed light on these questions is to take a step back in time. It’s a look back at survival horror’s past, and an attempt at retrospection. To put it another way, it means taking stock of its evolution from the early 90s to the mid-to-late 2000s, and taking a close look at how it has changed.

So that’s what we’re going to do, embark on a journey through the past, to the era when video games began to embrace thrills and spills.

What’s survival horror ?

Before getting to the heart of the matter, I feel it’s essential to go back over the very definition of “survival horror”. Yes, if we’re talking about the history of the genre, we’d better be sure to define the terms properly. The problem is, there’s no precise description of what survival horror is. In fact, these two words were originally coined to highlight Resident Evil 1 in 1996, and in particular its scary nature. It was purely and simply a marketing ploy on Capcom’s part – and a very effective one, as we can see, since the two words are still used today.

Over time, the term “survival horror” has stuck, and it’s been taken for a genre in its own right, with its own codes. Which it certainly is. The trouble is, it’s evolved, it’s metamorphosed, and today nobody can agree on a clear, unchanging definition. In practice, everyone has their own way of seeing things, which often leads to debate on the subject. And don’t forget the problem of games with horror potential that are not survival horror.

We’re going to look back at the period from 2010 to 2025, so I won’t go into too much detail, but it’s important to remember that horror in video games doesn’t necessarily rhyme with survival horror. Here again, not everyone finds common ground depending on the game concerned. For example, Onimusha 1, released in 2001, drew on the camera and puzzles of Resident Evil 1 for part of its experience. As a result, there’s an occasional sense of heaviness as you wander through certain locations. So much so that it could be perceived as an action horror game. It’s not a survival horror, of course, but it’s clear that the line can sometimes be blurred.

That’s not the only example we can mention. What about Doom in 1993? We’re not dealing with a pure horror game, but even today, it’s still considered to have horrific elements that can prove oppressive. If you find that the graphics and presentation completely overshadow the game’s horror potential, don’t forget that it only took a mod for Doom II called “MyHouse.wad” to make it clear that it’s entirely possible to do horror with the franchise’s old engine. But does the first Doom fit into the survival horror category? The answer is no, although we already had the idea that you could do horror without it being survival horror.

The truth is, there are plenty of examples, especially in these days of genre blending. What is survival horror? Are all horror games survival horror? When was it born? These are just some of the questions that can arise when discussing its history. So, for the sake of this article, I’m going to give my own definition of survival horror, and how I see it. From there, we can begin our analysis and talk in greater depth about the starting point of this famous “golden age”.

In my eyes, survival horror is a game that plunges us into a dark universe whose main aim is to make us feel anguish, or at least a form of constant pressure. The player has few means of defense at his disposal, but he can also be devoid of them: he is weak. If he has any, it will be in limited quantities, so he’ll have to be careful with his resource management throughout the entire adventure. If they don’t, or if they run out of ammunition or healing items, they’ll have to opt for escape, which can involve hide-and-seek, chase and other familiar horror mechanics.

This is how I see survival horror. I’m sure not everyone will agree with this definition, but it’s the one I’ll be sticking to for this paper. It’s true that I’m not mentioning any specific narrative or themes that might be addressed in this type of game. Quite simply, I don’t think the mention of subjects such as grief, depression or mental illness is specific to the genre. Neither is showing spurts of blood on screen or guts flying all over the place. In my opinion, that’s not what makes a game survival horror, or what makes it unique. It’s the interactive aspect, the uniqueness of the medium. If that’s clear to everyone, we can begin our little escapade through time.

Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, the wind of a new genre

Even before we enter the early 90s, it’s worth remembering that the term “horror game” didn’t appear overnight. Titles like Sweet Home or Zombi could already be seen as horror, as they provoked an unpleasant sense of urgency. This is due in particular to Sweet Home’s use of permanent death, while Zombi limits the player’s resources while forcing him into situations where he must search despite the constant presence of zombies. It’s a frightening experience, and as a result, we’re already immersed in a stressful, horror-like experience. And this, despite graphic limitations that prevented real immersion in a horrific universe. Then, technology evolved, bringing us to 90 and the start of a new era.

Here we are at our first stop, in 1992, with the creation of a game that would change everything… with a delay. Alone in the Dark, by Frédérick Raynal. A true monument, not only for the influence it had on survival horror, but on video games themselves. As the medium slowly began its transition from 2D to 3D, Raynal gave us a title that would pave the way for a whole new genre. That said, the game didn’t fly under the radar at the time, and even though it was a minor success, it hadn’t yet caught on with the public. Not least because the PC gamer base was smaller, and the second and third opuses, released in 1993 and 1995 respectively, had a little more trouble convincing people. In other words, Alone in the Dark was not yet seen as the first step towards what was to become survival horror.

Nevertheless, the impact of this game, both technically and artistically, had already begun to make its mark, particularly on the Japanese developers. The use of imposed and dynamic angles of view, the change of point of view according to our movements, the still images with this animated 3D character in real time evolving in the scenery – all these elements contributed to the game’s renown, going so far as to serve as inspiration for creators such as Yoshinori Kitase for Final Fantasy VII. Keep in mind that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Despite this, in 1992 and following the game’s release, we’re not going to see a big wave of new horror games. For that, we’ll have to wait for Resident Evil.

Indeed, in 1996, the situation changed with the arrival on the market of Resident Evil, Shinji Mikami’s macabre child. It was Mikami who took the Alone in the Dark model and turned it into a true survival horror standard, at least until the mid-2000s. This innovative concept, coupled with a release on the PlayStation, whose dominance of the market is no longer in question, was to prove a resounding success. Particularly among the youngest thrill-seekers. In doing so, Capcom paved the way for a host of horrific titles whose names continue to resonate today. Even if, as we all know, it was Alone in the Dark that brought about this revolutionary game design. And this is something Mikami did explain several years later: “It was then that I played Alone in the Dark, which consisted of fixed settings. It was very interesting, because it was more expressive. The next step was to adapt Resident Evil to this model.

Resident Evil had another advantage at its disposal, and that was PlayStation technology. Returning to Alone in the Dark, the platform on which it was released didn’t allow it to fashion creatures as detailed as those in Shinji Mikami’s franchise. We’re sometimes faced with pixelated monsters, and it’s hard to really understand what we’re dealing with. It’s your imagination at work, trying to make sense of what you’re seeing. This is by no means a flaw in Alone in the Dark, and in fact reinforces the feeling that we’re up against unnameable, incomprehensible entities. In other words, we don’t understand what we’re looking at, so we don’t know how to get rid of it. That’s the Lovecraftian spirit.

For its part, Resident Evil has the capabilities of the PS1, and will therefore create easily identifiable zombies. There’s no doubt about the threat before us, we don’t need to imagine it. In a way, this may have reinforced the fear of some gamers in 1996. Not to mention the game’s more practical gameplay aspects. So yes, today we have the sensation of controlling ocean liners, but at the time, it was more accessible than Alone in the Dark, which was still flirting with Point & Click and the beginnings of 3D. In short, one can be difficult to get to grips with, while the other is more affordable. Be that as it may, the success and technological leap of the PlayStation 1 greatly helped to democratize survival horror and bring it to a wider audience. Not as large as the one we know at the time of writing, but the fire was starting to burn.

After 1996, one cult horror game followed another, and the genre’s popularity continued to grow. And it wasn’t long before another big name appeared on the scene: Silent Hill. A new stop, since it’s important to point out that in 1999, Keiichiro Toyama and his Team Silent shook up the survival horror scene with this singular title. For example, the use of a camera that follows the character from behind, with occasional still shots, helped to rethink the camera’s point of view in a horror game. It may seem slight, but it showed that we didn’t necessarily need to use defined angles to create fear through the camera. What we’ll be looking at more closely here, however, is the place of location in the plot.

Yes, usually, that is, before 1999, our playground is an enemy in its own right. It imprisons us in its scenery, reserving nasty surprises for us in every dark corner of its labyrinth. Alone in the Dark was the first with its Decerto mansion, and Resident Evil followed with the Spencer mansion. There’s even Clock Tower in 1995, with a mansion you can’t escape from despite your best efforts. Generally speaking, in the 90s, the location in a horror game is a threat that you have to get to know, as if it were conscious. It’s not for nothing that these names have remained in the community’s memory. They’re just as striking as the threats that inhabit them.

Does this mean Silent Hill will break the rule? Not really, bearing in mind that there are a number of indoor passages. That said, it will add its own personal touch: fog. Without the fog, walking in the middle of the city would be child’s play, since you’d have plenty of space to see the threats coming. Getting your bearings wouldn’t be a problem either. But fog changes everything. It blocks our vision, hides enemies in its white embrace and disorients us. The scenery gradually fades away, and we find ourselves plunged into a kind of parallel dimension that seems to play with our minds. This was one of the great features of Silent Hill at the time of its release: it shattered the concept of location in a horror game as we know it. The outside is no longer a refuge, it’s a danger we’re trying to escape.

This is far from being Silent Hill’s only specificity, and it even marks a point of entry into another form of videogame horror. Psychological horror. Previously, horror in video games was perhaps less subtle in terms of storytelling, without being bad. Silent Hill countered this by offering a poignant story, dealing with subjects that until then had been rather discreet. Its sequel in 2001 confirmed the place of psychological horror in the survival horror genre, and others continued the idea of making horror while bringing themes such as depression and grief to the fore. As I said earlier, these themes are not unique to the genre, but Silent Hill did democratize their use within it.

That said, Silent Hill is not the only title to experiment with the codes of this novel genre. As we saw with Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil, the camera plays a key role in survival horror. It is the vector of the fear we feel, even more so when it is fixed, as we are subjected to a treacherous, trapping mise-en-scène. So, the famous videogame camera takes on a whole new meaning within this genre, and it could almost be said that it’s the reason it’s attracted so much attention. At least, in part. So, of course, other studios have lent themselves to the exercise of videogame horror, having fun with both the camera and the frame of the story.

The rise of new licenses

If Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the names that often come up when talking about the beginnings of survival horror, we can’t forget the other franchises that followed and paved the way for this genre with equally fascinating ideas. The camera, the playing field, the narrative, the player’s place in the experience – these new titles played with the codes of horror to try and frighten us, each in their own way. This was the rise of survival horror from the early 2000s onwards.

What’s interesting is that almost every one of them contributed something new to this young genre. For example, 2003’s Siren rethought the place of the player and the camera. There are two different points of view, ours and that of the enemies. We can see through their eyes, thanks to the power of Vision, to get an idea of their position. However, we don’t always know exactly where they are, as they are sometimes placed in places that are difficult to recognize, where everything looks the same. Once again, the choice of scenery is crucial. This makes progress through the levels all the more oppressive. We’re given a tool that’s supposed to reassure us, but ultimately turns against us. It’s a way for the developers to play with our eyes and what we already know about the genre. An ingenious way of confusing even veterans.

For its part, Tecmo’s Fatal Frame license adopts a two-point-of-view style, but one that differs from its fellow Siren. The first opus, released in 2001, offers a third-person view, and a first-person view when you draw your weapon. So, if we’re attacked, we’re forced to “dive” into the heart of the horror and face the threat through our character’s eyes. We’re forced to get closer to the danger in subjective view, at the risk of dying. This adds extra pressure for the player, accustomed to having a camera that pulls him or her away from the action at hand. The formula will continue to be sublimated by the Japanese studio, always finding new ways to stay one step ahead of the familiar.

Fatal Frame is a fascinating example of a studio’s willingness to explore uncharted territory, to break out of its comfort zone and contribute to a growing genre. At the time, Tecmo specialized in arcade games, so this sudden interest in survival horror was unexpected. Although the arcade feel of the first opus is still evident in the gameplay, it will disappear with the release of Fatal Frame 2. Probably for the sake of immersion. So, yes, this desire to experiment with another genre may come as no surprise – it was the case for Capcom too – but it’s still interesting to see studios with nothing to do with horror trying their hand at it.

In the 2000s, it was also a time for experimenting with a rather unusual marriage: horror and multiplayer. The Resident Evil franchise, always keen to explore new possibilities, did so with Outbreak in 2003 on PS2. This was the first in the series to feature online play, although it was only available to Americans and Japanese. This changed with its sequel in 2005. Another well-known example is the Obscure franchise, launched in 2004. Despite its kitschy teen-horror look, the first opus proved very convincing in its multiplayer, and I have fond memories of it myself. And the tradition of online gaming coupled with horror continues to this day with titles such as Phasmophobia, Remnant Records and Lethal Company, but we’ll leave that aside for now.

So far, we’ve only seen games where it’s always possible to defend yourself. They were legion during this period, but there were exceptions. In 1995, Clock Tower was one of the first to adopt the opposite stance, stripping the player of all means of defense apart from escape. However, as it didn’t leave Japan for many years, few people were able to enjoy this singular experience. That said, in retrospect, it is innovative in that sense. As for Haunting Ground, released a little later in 2005, it turns survival into a stressful game of hide-and-seek. This easily replaces a classic gunfight or hand-to-hand confrontation.

I’m not going to go through all the games released at that time, although I could also mention Kuon, Michigan: Report from Hell or Parasite Eve. I’d just like to point out that, from the end of the 90s onwards, the number of games specializing in horror multiplied, demonstrating a growing interest in the genre. That said, we mustn’t forget that the rise of survival horror has been influenced by other works that don’t necessarily have anything to do with horror or video games. Like many other genres, it’s a “vampire genre” that has drawn on a wide variety of titles to evolve. I’m thinking first of all of cinema, and the impact of the work of directors like George A. Romero, John Carpenter (with The Thing, which even had a video game adaptation) and David Lynch. I can’t forget literature, especially Lovecraft. I’m also interested in the folklore of countries like Japan. In short, if survival horror takes so many different forms, it’s also because its influences are so many.

Returning to the 90s and 2000s, it’s clear that studios enjoyed experimenting with survival horror. Fortunately, this never came to an end, and it’s really intriguing to look back at this era, if only to take stock of all the game design ideas that were being born here and there. We tend to summarize these years as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with perhaps Alone in the Dark, but these were far from the only franchises to innovate. Then came the mid-2000s, which marked the beginning of a great change for survival horror.

Was the mid-2000s a turning point for survival horror?

Indeed, as with all genres, technologies evolve, and new ideas ferment in the minds of developers. For survival horror, this has translated in two different ways. Firstly, there was a shift towards action/horror games, driven by titles such as F.E.A.R, Dead Space and Resident Evil 4. The latter is surely the example that comes to mind most often. In fact, it’s quite logical, given that the license was already well-established, and that this fourth installment made an unexpected U-turn. Gone were the fixed angles, the location as a character in its own right, and hello Leon, who makes life hard for the infected. I’m not saying it was a bad change, but I’d still like to emphasize the drastic transformation that was underway.

Silent Hill continued to exist through new games, sometimes of questionable quality, before coming to a halt with Downpour and then Book of Memories in 2012. What’s important to note is that by the end of the 2000s, almost all survival horror franchises were dying out one by one, with the exception of Resident Evil, which continued to flirt with a form of over-the-top action. Alone in the Dark, Clock Tower, Fatal Frame, Siren, Dino Crisis, Parasite Eve – they’ll all give way to a new era. This is one of the reasons why the mid-2000s-early 2010s can be seen as a major transition for the genre.

However, this change is not necessarily wanted by the new studios and small creators who will emerge. They simply want to make survival horror, without wanting to metamorphose it. Perhaps this was the case for some, but as stated at the start of this article, it’s an interpretation of a story, based on its evolution over time. What we also saw was that there was never any question of wiping the slate clean. The influences are there, but again, most of the games we know and love draw their inspiration from various works. This doesn’t necessarily mean video games, since cinema has also played its part.

The mid-2000s also saw a transition from survival horror, with the advent of first-person horror games in which the player has little or no means of defense at his or her disposal. It would be reductive to say that this type of survival horror would dominate the next decade or so, but it was undeniably prominent. Just look at the influence of Frictional Games with Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. That’s exactly what we’re going to focus on. Not about this Swedish studio in particular, but rather about its independent status. Because it wasn’t the only one to appear on the horror scene, far from it.

The emergence of independents

I’m sure you’re aware of the long history of independent video games. In fact, it doesn’t even date back to the 80s. For good reason, American Joyce Weisbecker is considered to have been the first independent developer in the history of the medium: it was in 1976, when she was 17 and working on games for the RCA Studio II console. That’s nothing new. There weren’t many independents, however, and in the 90s, it could be more complicated than today to create your own game without the help of a big publisher. Hence the potential for self-publishing and community support.

Subsequently, and more precisely in the mid-2000s, more and more independents tried their hand at video games, and this inevitably led to a new era of horror games. With smaller budgets, of course, but plenty of ideas and the desire to give your fellow man a thrill. This new wind, driven by the independents, is above all due to the hyper-industrialization of the sector, coupled with a desire to integrate themselves into this flourishing milieu with the help of new technologies at their disposal. What’s more, this time around, there are more PC gamers than ever before.

I’m sure you’re familiar with some of the independent titles that appeared in the 2000s and 2010s. Frictional Games, for example, entered the market with Penumbra in 2007, and followed up with Amnesia a few years later. The latter is a fascinating example of how videogame horror can be seen in a different light. I’d even go so far as to say that it popularized the use of the first-person view in survival horror and, above all, the defenseless protagonist who must hide from the threat without confronting it. A bit like the very first Clock Tower.

In fact, Frictional Games’ vision of survival horror was less linear and more organic. The player’s place within the experience was rethought, as was the positioning and handling of the camera. Unconsciously or not, a number of independent titles that emerged in the following years used a game design similar to that of Frictional Games. The comparison between Amnesia and Outlast has often been made, and rightly so. And when Bloober Team appeared on the scene, it was felt to have stepped into this new breach opened by the Swedish studio. Generally speaking, video games have always had this tendency to impregnate each other. I’m aware that this is nothing new, whatever the genre. But Frictional Games seems to have had a greater influence on the future of its genre.

The icing on the cake is Youtube’s popularity, which will enable Youtubers to showcase these independents. I myself got to know Amnesia: The Dark Descent thanks to PewDiePie, but he’s not the only one to have put them in the spotlight. These days, it seems obvious that platforms like Twitch or YouTube help to publicize a game, especially if it can’t afford a big communication campaign. Well, this was also true in the late 2000s, and may explain – in part – the success of certain independent games. For example, Slender: The Eight Pages, SCP-087-b and SCP Containment Breach were phenomenal on the platform.

I could make a long list of all the survival horror titles that have surfaced from the 2010s onwards, both well-known and obscure, but that’s not the point of this first part, which covers the period from 1992 to 2010. I’m deliberately splitting this topic in two, not necessarily because it would be too dense, but to emphasize the notion that the genre underwent something of a “revival” towards the end of the 2000s. Of course, I’m not saying that the genre died out and then suddenly reappeared, but rather that it continued and sublimated its metamorphosis, and that this is a good place to start talking about it.

At this stage of the paper, you might wonder what this has to do with the basic subject, namely the so-called golden age of survival horror, and whether it ever really existed. Well, if you’re not curious, or if you’re simply away from social networks and small PC productions, you can quickly imagine that the genre has “stalled”. That its former glow is now but a faint beam in the distance, and that its “golden age” is behind us. But doesn’t this apply more to the big productions? Big-budget titles from studios that are well known to the general public? That’s another story.

In the 90s in particular, survival horror became established and widespread thanks to games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. They helped democratize the genre. This was not the case with Alone in the Dark, despite the fact that Frédérick Raynal was technically responsible for the birth of the genre. As a result, major studios are responsible for the explosion of horror in video games. The problem is that in the 2010s, these same studios have moved away from this type of production. Capcom is something of an exception, although we had to wait until 2017 to see a rebirth of fear in the Resident Evil franchise.

To put it another way, since the mid-2000s, it’s been the independents who have taken over the survival horror reins. Of course, there have been a few more massive productions in the meantime, such as The Evil Within and the last remnants of Silent Hill in 2012, but that’s as far as they’ve gone. And that hasn’t gone unnoticed, which is why some people have been thinking about the “disappearance” of the genre. If, several years ago, we could admit that the major studios had abandoned horror games, this is no longer the case today. Resident Evil is still with us, with new opuses and successful remakes, and Silent Hill is enjoying a fine renaissance with its remake of 2 and new productions in the pipeline. Fatal Frame has also lent itself to the game, with its remaster of the 4 in 2023, finally giving us the opportunity to discover it, its original version never having left Japan.

A golden age at the dawn of the 2010s?

With all this information in our possession, it’s tempting to draw a conclusion here and now on the question of the golden age of survival horror. In fact, I’m sure many of you have already come up with the answer. I must say, it’s not very difficult to imagine. However, it would be wrong of me to stop at the beginning of the 2010s when dealing with this very specific subject. Of course, we’ve seen the genre’s beginnings, its evolution, its first transformations, its reception and the impact it may have had on other developers. Nevertheless, we’re leaving out a whole section of the genre’s history.

If, today, we still see people crying out for the return of the “golden age of survival horror”, it’s because a comparison is being made. On the one hand, the camp of the 90s and 2000s, and on the other, 2010 to the present day. So we can’t stop there and give an answer. First of all, we need to look back over 15 years of survival horror, and I can tell you that we’re dealing with a mountain of games. As I’ve already explained, the emergence of independents has caused the survival horror counter to explode, and they’re far from all alike.

It’s also important to return to the role of Frictional Games in greater depth, as I consider it to have had a major impact on the way the genre was subsequently built up. Hence my decision not to expand on the subject above. As you’ve probably gathered by now, and as the title of this article makes clear, I intend to save the modern period of survival horror for a second part dedicated to it. Even if not everyone agrees that there’s a clear divide between the years 2000 and 2010-2020, I feel that understanding the subject will be clearer by separating them into two separate papers.

So, I’ll see you in Part 2, where we’ll start with 2010’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent, before moving on to a host of other titles, including Outlast, Signalis, Darkwood, Fear & Hunger, Subnautica, Until Dawn, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Dead Space, P.T., Alien Isolation and the list goes on. You may have noticed that I’ve mentioned a few names that aren’t seen as survival horror, but that’s precisely what interests me. As time goes on, the line between what’s part of the genre and what can’t be included in it becomes increasingly blurred. As a result, the very definition of “survival horror” will be called into question many times over, and that’s what I want to talk about too.

So the journey through the history of survival horror is not over, and I can’t wait to get back on that ghost train with you to unravel the uninterrupted rise of a genre that grabbed me in its wake and never let go.

I’d like to thank Nicolas Deneschau for answering my questions, which helped me enormously in writing this article.

Sources :

• Nicolas Deneschau, Les Dossiers Alone in the Dark: Enquête sur les origines du survival horror, Third Editions, 2024
• Jean Zeid, Emilie Rouge, Il était une fois le jeu vidéo, Les Arenes Eds, 2024
• Bruno Provezza, Mehdi El Kanafi, Nicolas Courcier, Resident Evil : Des zombies et des hommes, Third Editions, 2015
• Tex. Horror in Games | History of Survival Horror; 2021 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxNoSvr7hJU&ab_channel=Tex
• Ars Technica. How Horror Works in Amnesia: Rebirth, Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent | Ars Technica; 2021 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjgWsw6o8q8&ab_channel=ArsTechnica