Dr.Henry_Killinger said:
Survival Horror is actual horror. Action Horror is just the pretense of horror, since there is no reason to be afraid as you are equiped with the tools to combat it. It might shock the player but even that is only when they percieve a threat. That being said, a lot of what we think is Action Horror is actually surivival. If an enemy is dangerous enough to pose a significant threat even if you can combat it, its a fight to survive. |
Yes and no. There are a few instances of horror in games where there's literally no chance of the player character dying or where the player doesn't have control like during a cutscene. Horror is something which unsettles, and while fighting for survival is one of the ways to do that, it is not the only way.
Conversely, lethal force does not make horror, either.
I do agree that as a general rule Action horror could be renamed to "kill ugly creatures," but just because developers are woefully underimaginative doesn't mean that action horror itself is an invalid genre.
I think the difference in my mind is that survival horror has alternatives to fighting, and the player is directed into those paths to avoid powerful enemies or resource starvation. Survival horror takes a design which is fundamentally action-horror, balances combat to punish the player, and adds options to do something other than fight. It's survival because you're admitting you have to coexist with the monster rather than be a hero and slay it.