Survival horror has had its ups and downs over the years, which is why I’m thrilled to see the genre evolve over the years to the point where the current generations have no lack of amazing survival horror games on their library. The PS4 has countless examples of this, and it would be an excruciating task to list them all here, not to mention it could easily turn into a book.
Resident Evil, Outlast, and Evil Within are some of the best games in the survival horror genre, spanning several sequels across platforms, many of which are available on the PS4.
It would be an excruciating task to fit all of them in such a small list, not to mention that Resident Evil games alone would fill up a good chunk. So instead, I’m going to keep it short and sweet. Like always, I’m going to refrain from using more than one game per franchise.
Resident Evil 7
In my opinion, the best Resident Evil we’ve gotten on the current generation. Capcom decided to take risks and shake up the formula a bit for the franchise, taking creative liberties and clear inspirations from the short Silent Hills teaser P.T.
The change to the first-person perspective was a welcoming one, though not without a fair share of controversy from Resident Evil puritans when it was first announced. The atmosphere felt more real and claustrophobic by having the camera on your eyes instead of over the shoulder. It made you feel like you were really trapped inside the Baker manor.
Add to this the focus of being an actual survival horror with scarce ammo and health instead of an action flick with horror elements, and you have one of the best survival horror games of the decade as we’ve all felt like helpless victims of the Baker family.
Evil Within
It was hard for me to choose between Evil Within and its sequel, seeing how both of them have a close place in my terrified heart. But I figured that if I were to recommend only one to a friend, it would be the first one.
While the sequel improved on many gameplay elements from the first game and added some new, such as a semi open-world chapters, it’s still hard to think of Evil Within as anything but a classic. The combat is not the best, but it strangely adds to the horror, just like the clunky tank controls back in the day.
The horrific design of the bosses and creative ways you had to dispose of them was definitively a plus. While the sequel has these amazing and terrifying encounters too, it’s hard to ignore the first impression.
Just like any good survival horror game, the resources are scarce, and the enemies are ruthless, giving the player a choice between fight or flight in every encounter. The game also adds a unique way of leveling up some of your skills, such as reload speed and stamina, that is cohesive with the narrative and gameplay. This goes hand to hand with the crafting system that forces you to make quick decisions at a moment’s notice.
Outlast 2
Again, hard time choosing, and I decided to opt for the sequel in this case, not only for the gameplay improvements but also because the religious undertone offers an eerie vibe that adds to the atmosphere. There’s something more deeply disturbing about being trapped in a cult’s claws rather than the played out setting of an insane asylum.
Besides the obvious graphical advance, the atmosphere is denser, with more open areas to explore and get spooked in. Outlast 2 still has the tight corridors and claustrophobic environments that the first installment is known for, but it does them so well compared to the last one that it truly made me more scared as a result.
The pace in Outlast 2 is also handled beautifully, with sections where you’ll have to run or hide from enemies, along with several puzzles and incentives to explore around you. It is definitively a step forward in the right direction in the survival horror genre when a game tempts you to look in every nook and cranny but makes you scared to do so.
SOMA
Just like a lot of survival horror of the modern era, SOMA relies heavily on stealth elements, meaning that your survival will mostly depend on how good you are at avoiding enemies rather than fight them. Some can see this as a plus. Personally, I prefer to be able to fight back, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy games like these. After all, half of the games on this list rely on your ability to crawl under the bed and inside cabinets.
Again, the gameplay relies heavily on exploration and puzzle-solving, just like most of the best survival games out there. However, what sets SOMA apart from the rest is the psychological aspect of it, which is injected in even the tiniest details. SOMA is a jewel that deserves to be played by every horror fan.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The classic that inspired the Youtuber-screaming-at-jumpscares category of videos. Amnesia: The Dark Descent has become a staple not only of the sub-genre of survival horror but of horror itself.
The premise, as the name implies, is that you have amnesia. You’ve just woken up in a strange castle surrounded by terrifying creatures that will drain your sanity just by looking at them. It borrows a lot of elements from its spiritual predecessor, Penumbra, with excruciating success.
Amnesia became really popular back when it came out, which prompted a port to the PlayStation platform. While PC gamers had the pleasure of experiencing this game a long time ago, it is a blessing to know that the rest of us got to enjoy this gem even if it came a few years later on the PS4.
The Forest
You wake up in a stranded island after a plane crash, looking for clues to uncover the mysteries surrounding the island you’re in and struggling to stay alive, all while cannibal tribes are out to get you.
The Forest takes survival in the horror genre to the extreme as you have to create camps, keep warm, scavenge food, build shelters, and the like to stay alive as you would in real life. It is engaging, mysterious, and, most importantly, haunting.
The IA is a fascinating aspect of The Forest as it exhibits a new way to interact with the player. Enemies won’t just blindly charge at you without regard to their own safety. Instead, they’ll look at you from afar, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. They’ll run away if they realize that you have the advantage in a fight, they’ll call for their brethren to attack you in large numbers.
This seemingly small change in the way enemies behaves ads a deeper layer of horror to the game. You’re no longer fighting mindless zombies attacking you, but thinking members of a tribe that will act according to the circumstances.
Things like time of day, your input in the world, the numbers on their side, the tools you’re carrying are all elements taken into account by the enemy AI, making them feel like actual living beings out to get you. There’s no feeling like it when you’re walking around the forest, willing to set camp for the night and hear a noise behind you. You turn around, and there’s nobody there at first glance, but upon closer look, you realize that there’s a member of a tribe is eyeing you up from afar.
The Last Of Us
The Last of Us takes the cake at bringing the player to a ruthless world where you not only have to look out for the monsters but the humans as well.
The story is a narrative roller coaster of emotions ready to take you on a wild ride from the start of the game. This game has been praised over and over again, both by critics and fans alike, mostly because of the story. But what most people often forget about this great game is the survival aspect of it.
Playing as Joe taking care of Ellie puts you in an uncomfortable position since you no longer have to take care of only yourself, but of somebody else too. Thankfully, the developers back at Naughty Dog know how much gamers despise escort missions, so they gave Ellie a very sophisticated way of interacting with the world without intervening with your input and in a way that her misdemeanors wouldn’t cause a game over for you.
One good example off the top of my head is how, most times, enemies won’t see her when she’s hiding even if they are in front of her, yet the anxiety still strikes you whenever you see one of them slowly walk their way past her. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how game design is meant to be: engaging, not frustrating.
Stuff like resource management, amazingly implemented stealth mechanics, and a fairly easy, yet rewarding, crafting system, make this game into the survival horror that it is. In my humble opinion, it should get more credit.
Dying Light
What happens when you mix Dead Island with Mirror’s Edge and manage to actually make it scary? You get Dying Light. This first-person, open-world survival horror has everything I could’ve ever wanted from a horror game. You feel like a badass that can climb light poles and buildings while carrying a bunch of guns on you where each shot leads to a satisfying headshot, yet still, feel like a vulnerable puppy in the middle of a chaotic world.
The combat is reminiscent of games like Condemned: Criminal Origins, yet more refined and engaging. You can dodge and block attacks, as well as follow them up with a counter. While this game is definitively action-focused, it would be a great disservice to treat it as an action game, for once the night falls, it’s every man for himself.
Dying Light managed to do something incredible, and that was making the tired old zombie setting into an actually terrifying place where you wouldn’t want to be in real life. Since the zombie genre has been losing its horror appeal with the years, some games such as Dead Island and Dead Rising took a different route, focusing on making a fun game with guns blazing and zombie slaughtering as prime time entertainment.
Dying Light keeps the zombie genre in its roots so well that fans cannot wait to face the night one more time in the upcoming sequel.
Alien: Isolation
Normally, it’s understandable to be skeptical of this type of IPs. After all, games based on movies usually go as bad as you’d expect, especially if the game happens to release in the same time frame as the movie. But, every once in a while, corporate greed loses to creativity, and we get gems like Alien: Isolation.
It takes place fifteen years after the movie, and you play as Ripley’s daughter, who’s investigating her mother’s disappearance. Usually, puzzle-solving is an integral part of most survival horrors, but Alien: Isolation forces you to use your head in several different ways. System hacking, how to deal with the enemies, crafting, all part of the developer’s efforts make you think outside the box and find solutions to problems while an ever-looming threat follows you at every corner.
The one thing that sets Alien: Isolation apart, however, and the one that has everybody talking about it, is the dynamic AI of the alien chasing you. It has that Nemesis feel like back in the days of the original Resident Evil 3, where you didn’t know if you were about to face this hellish foe in the next corner. This game steps it up a notch.
For in games like Resident Evil 3, the encounters with the ever-chasing enemy are usually scripted for very specific moments of the game. Here, the AI is free to roam the map chasing you, meaning you’ll truly never know when you’ll encounter the alien. Then, it’s not a matter of if, but of when you’ll have to face him. Fighting, hiding, distracting are all equally promising strategies, but which one will you choose when your heart is pounding?
Bloodborne
At first glance, it’s easy just to label Bloodborne as an action RPG with horror elements, and it wouldn’t be wrong. That’s actually a pretty accurate description of the game, yet upon closer inspection, it’s amazing to see that Bloodborne checks a lot of the elements that make a survival horror.
While the combat is fast-paced and there’s a lot of focus in the RPG elements, Bloodborne also provides something that a lot of “survival horror” games out there promise but never deliver: it’s scary.
For every sight of a lamp is a sigh of relief, and every fog wall is an “oh, crap” moment. Bloodborne challenges players to the same extent that it puts them on their toes. Add to the mix the increasingly disturbing atmosphere as the night goes on, the horrifying design of the monsters, and the existential dread that only a Lovecraft-inspired game can provide, and you have the perfect recipe for an amazing survival horror game.
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