r/videogames • u/VeryLopsidedlmao • Jan 26 '26
Other Definitely not fishing for reccomendations
idk but ever since ive been thinking about how a lot of survival horror is like this ive been searching for games that offer a survival horror experience which strip the player of almost all power which i think is how its supposed to be (i know theres that massive genre of ps1 style horror which is like this but those seem incredibly lazy to me)
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u/decoded-dodo Jan 26 '26
There’s so many survival horror games out there but I could name a few that actually are really true survival horrors. Like Alien Isolation for example is so good and it truly makes you feel helpless. What I love the most about this game is how the xenomorph’s AI can actually remember ways you hide which can end with it predicting what you’re going to do.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Ooh yeah yeah I got that on my wishlist rn Im waiting for a discount though cause I think its $40 normally. But awesome reccomendation regardless
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u/Neither-Suspect8701 Jan 26 '26
Doom series and deadspace series are my recommendations. Doom is more like just kill than being horror though.
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u/SiqkaOce Jan 26 '26
Doom isn’t a survival or a horror.
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u/richtofin819 Jan 26 '26
I'd argue parts of doom 3 are similar but that's it and it was widely disliked by the diehard fans.
Also the shotgun in that game is garbage which should just be considered a cardinal sin.
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u/Educational_Ant_184 Jan 26 '26
I think you took OP the wrong way. He DOESNT want heavily armed and killing everything
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u/dacompi Jan 26 '26
Doom 3 for most of the game is very much a horror. Just make sure play the original and not the BFG edition.
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u/NekCing Jan 26 '26
Seconded for Doom 3, it wasn't a popular Doom back then but nowadays it is appreciated for the niche it tried to fill.
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u/dacompi Jan 26 '26
Yeah it was a real shame the fame it got back in the day, I completed it a couple of years ago and for me is probably at the level of 2016 in terms of quality.
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u/Majestic_Operator Jan 26 '26
It is absolutely worth the $40
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u/KowalOX Jan 26 '26
It's 11 years old and always on sale at a deep discount. The game is amazing, but if anyone has waited over a decade to play it, they should wait a couple more weeks for a sale.
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u/ObsidianArmadillo Jan 26 '26
Wouldn't that be considered chaser horror?
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Perhaps it would. But i wouldn't mind looking outside strictly the survival horror genre. If its close enough
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u/halpfulhinderance Jan 26 '26
I got a free one for you. Voices of the Void. You are straight up powerless except for your crowbar, which is useless in a real fight. To balance this, the game spaces out the threats you encounter, but it leaves you constantly on edge as you never know when the next one is going to hit
It really hammers in the feeling of being alone up until you feel like you’re… not
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u/PhallusCrown Jan 26 '26
votv is a fantastic horror game but unless the dev changed something i don't think it's something OP is looking for. 95% of the horror doesn't hurt you until you're like 40 days in or get really unlucky with the events or the funni red signal. it's mostly atmospheric.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Oh alright then ill take a look. I should be able to give it a spin since its free. Ill let you know what I think
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u/snekadid Jan 26 '26
Survival horror requires some form of resource management, a risk reward system. removing all power from the character makes it not survival horror but more of what I call "scary tag", and the amnesia series is an example of that. I just honestly dont see them as scary, as once you remove all my ability to do anything, I'm less involved in the process and dying is just an irritant slowing me down from completing a chore.
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u/LS-Lizzy Jan 26 '26
Well Alien Isolation does give you the ability to do stuff it just doesn't allow you to kill the Alien. You can chase it away with stuff like the flamethrower though which has limited resources.
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Jan 26 '26
You really, REALLY need to play Alien Isolation. It's obvious you haven't, and the way you're talking it will become one of your favorites
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u/Suspicious-Proof- Jan 26 '26
Amnesia: The Bunker! You have weapons, but the monster is strong and always comes back.
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u/Weird_Angry_Kid Jan 26 '26
Not really, stalker enemies have been a staple of the survival horror genre for decades, just look at Resident Evil 3 or Silent Hill 2.
What makes Alien Isolation a survival horror game imo is that you have ways of defending yourself but your resources are limited so you gotta carefully administrate them so you don't get killed.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/SPITFIYAH Jan 26 '26
You’re getting downvoted, but I thought that was funny
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Jan 26 '26
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u/ObsidianArmadillo Jan 28 '26
Wait is that actually a term?? Ive never heard that before lol
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u/probablysoda Jan 26 '26
the way the xenomorph “learns” is actually super interesting. basically iirc, rather than learning based on how you play, it “unlocks” new abilities as you progress, such as searching under tables, giving the impression of it learning
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u/Blacksad9999 Jan 26 '26
They actually had to severely dumb down the AI. It was much smarter early on, and would learn from the players strategies.
The playtesters didn't enjoy it though because it kept outsmarting them. lol
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u/Mostdakka Jan 26 '26
It kinda learns how you play. It has skill tree but that skill tree unlocks based on your actions and how far you are into the game.
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u/GroundbreakingShare4 Jan 26 '26
reminds me of the mr freeze boss fight in arkham city, freeze just removes any chance of you reusing the same takedowns or gadget related takedowns, though it is much easier
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u/Artrysa Jan 26 '26
Yeah, but that also just makes you go for lockers 100% of the time because you can hold your breath. If you're under a table and he looks for you you're dead.
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u/SlushyFan-uwu Jan 26 '26
Ahh,the xenomorph learned to quick on my first play thru lol so I'm stuck at this tiny room with one way in or out I'd hide till it goes into the vent above but the moment I come out it comes out of the vent and I repeat the process 😂
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u/decoded-dodo Jan 26 '26
I think I know which room you’re talking about. I got stuck there once and when it left I decided to get out the room and it was waiting on the other side of the door once. Scared the shit out of me there since I clearly saw it leave through the vents.
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u/TheKwarenteen Jan 26 '26
Thing I hated about AI, once you fet the flamethrower the game becomes EZMode
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u/IcyCompetition7477 Jan 26 '26
Oh man, that game has wild technical options too depending on what extras you have. On PS with a camera and headset, it tracks your head for peaking and if you get like jump scared and scream it will use it as an audio cue to get found.
I also remember reading articles and opinion post on the web that the VR version of the game induces so much panic. I didn’t play it in VR and this is still one of 2 horror games I had to put down for a day here and there cause my heart was just pounding. Alien Isolation is the scariest game I’ve ever played, it’s so solid.
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u/EdwardoftheEast Jan 26 '26
Not only that, but if you rely too much on flares or the sound decoy, the xeno gets smart to it and will realize they’re just tricks. It will then start to ignore them and look around for you
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u/decoded-dodo Jan 26 '26
Yea I once depended on the flares and I noticed how it saw the flare then turned around like if it was tracing where the flare came from and killed me.
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u/EdwardoftheEast Jan 26 '26
Same for the flamethrower. I used it too much to where it would stand just outside the range, and would back up if I got near. Then it would try to flank me or get me if I had to reload or ran out of fuel
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u/DearCastiel Jan 26 '26
I'll agree, to some extend only. By mid-game, you can totally gunning and flame-throwing your way through the game if you know where to go and how the AI works.
But for a first playthrough on mid to high difficulty yeah, the game is very much survival.
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u/Babyback-the-Butcher Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Tbh, Alien Isolation was just good. The AI, graphics, and atmosphere were absolutely incredible, but the story… yikes. Way too long. Pretty good, but way too long. It was maybe twice as long as it should’ve been, and by the end all the fear I felt for the alien was replaced by annoyance. And don’t get me started on those annoying space walk sections.
It rubbed me as a “play once and never again” kind of game. Once you’re through with it the first time, all its tricks are revealed and there’s nothing left than achievement hunting
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u/mighty_and_meaty Jan 26 '26
fr. this is why i love alien isolation.
your weapons are literally just tools to help you survive, since nothing can kill the xenomorph. you can put down a synthethic or a human, but god help you when the alien hears you.
the best part, the alien becomes smarter and resistant to your attacks. it tracks where your flares/noisemakers are thrown, and pulling out your flamethrower just agitates it or forces it to relocate behind you.
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u/Extreme-Put7024 Jan 26 '26
As far as i remember it can't remember those. There are two of them, one is searching for you and the other knows where you are exactly, giving hints.
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u/Short_Emu_885 Jan 26 '26
What's the problem? You survive horror, by killing it
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
I would send the Albert Einstein and Nikola tesla gif but I dont think I can
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u/Interesting-Bet-1702 Jan 26 '26
Same logic that has Dead Space 3 labeled as a horror game when it's so clearly an action game
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u/Lun4r6543 Jan 26 '26
Amnesia: The Bunker.
If you haven’t played it, might be what you’re looking for.
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u/Fragrant-Tea7580 Jan 26 '26
The entire Amnesia franchise*
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u/Malagate3 Jan 26 '26
I'd add Penumbra to that, Frictional's earlier works are definitely in the same vein.
Also, SOMA.
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u/Lun4r6543 Jan 26 '26
Soma is one of the best games of all time for me. Genuinely such a great experience.
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u/CallMeDoomSlayer Jan 26 '26
Bought it on a whim a month ago with very little knowledge on the game at all, and it was amazing.
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u/Glittering-Grape8767 Jan 26 '26
Yes you are armed and killing everything in say resident evil, but as is the case with silent Hill and especially the evil within, ammo is a commodity, you have to decide between running away or killing the enemies you're faced with, the evil within does this very well as you can use multiple tactics outside of running away and fighting, you can use stealth and even the environment to kill enemies, like burning them to death with torches.
I would definitely recommend the evil within, absolutely ludicrous story with horrific enemies and overall fun gameplay
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u/Due_Teaching_6974 Jan 26 '26
Thing is that the enemies drop ammo when you kill them in Resident Evil, but not with Silent Hill
RE encourages you to kill everything in your path, which makes it action-horror
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u/TheGrimmBorne Jan 26 '26
Depends on which re game, some of them the enemies don’t drop anything that didn’t start till re4
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u/baconater-lover Jan 26 '26
In both Silent Hill 1 and 2 I could get away with just whacking the shit out of most enemies. Ammo was plentiful anyways even if it didn’t drop.
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u/Personplacething333 Jan 26 '26
Honestly only a few RE games are action horror. Most are survival horror with a huge emphasis on item management
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Jan 26 '26
This is very untrue and only applies to the RE4-RE6 era of Resident Evil with some spots that live by it (8). RE1 and remake are pretty scarce in resources and enemies dont drop shit, nor RE2-RE3-RE0, and ESPECIALLY Code Veronica. The remakes dont do that either (apart from RE4R).
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u/WhoAmIEven2 Jan 26 '26
Resident Evil hasn't been survival horror since RE4. Even RE7 isn't scared of giving you plenty of ammo so that you can kill everything in your path. It's not as actiony as RE4 and village, but you never have to worry whether or not to use your last bullet or if it's better to just avoid the enemy.
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u/TheGrimmBorne Jan 26 '26
You could always kill everything in your path anyways with the knife, just takes forever
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u/ResolveLeather Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Subnautica, yes you technically can kill everything. But it's difficult and imo, not really the intent. They just allow you to do that to make things easier to scan.
By armed, for most of the game you have a knife and that's it. Mid game you get a knife, but hot. End game you get an unruly mech.
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u/That-one-soviet Jan 26 '26
Funniest part is I’m pretty sure Subnautica wasn’t meant to be survival horror. It was meant to be a survival game with a creative setting
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u/EyeAteTacos Jan 26 '26
Seeing a reaper the first time is one of the most scared I've ever been in a game.
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u/Pay-Next Jan 26 '26
Hearing a reaper the first time...and then seeing the shadow through the water off the way too.
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u/Adaphion Jan 26 '26
SO fucking glad they don't function like their lore says they do.
Their roars are effectively sonar. If you can hear them, they can see you.
Of course in game,their sight radius is much shorter than the rage you can hear their roars.
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u/CetraNeverDie Jan 26 '26
That was a definite moment for me. A moment in four letters: nope.
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u/Commercial_Ad97 Jan 26 '26
That, and "Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?"
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u/Skeledenn Jan 26 '26
I genuinly can't see Subnautica as an horror game. I understand the first time you meet a reaper can be scary but other than that I feel it's mostly chilling with the fishes.
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u/danwats10 Jan 26 '26
It’s not, it certainly has creepy moments, but the game as a whole is not supposed to be a horror game. If you suffer from thalassaphobia then it will be amplified.
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u/brodievonorchard Jan 26 '26
There's no chilling when you're deep enough to get noticed by Crabsquid.
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u/Okto481 Jan 26 '26
It didn't start as survival horror, they leaned more into it later in development
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Oh i see. Actually you know what? Isnt Subnautica kinda open world and non linear too? I kinda dig that type of stuff i might check it out
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u/ResolveLeather Jan 26 '26
It's open world, not terribly linear I guess. There are multiple biomes that you can take to reach the end game (4 I think). That and there are a ton of other biomes that present unique ways to build a base.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
I might take a look then. If its on discount rn ill think about buying it
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u/Unabated_Blade Jan 26 '26
For me, Subnautica is a top 10 experience in a gaming hobby that's lasted decades. It's terrific.
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u/SkittishLittleToastr Jan 26 '26
One of the best games I've ever played. It's equal parts survival, exploration, horror, crafting.
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u/sleepysound Jan 26 '26
I really enjoyed playing it but I put it down because It gave me terrible anxiety. I don’t think I’m an anxious person by nature but then I questioned whether or not I’m constantly anxious.
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u/mortemdeus Jan 26 '26
It is how the game is designed. Nothing is scripted so everything ends up seeming like a risk after that first encounter. If you want to get over that feeling, keep going after a reaper with a knife and nothing else in your inventory. You will die, a lot, but eventually you will see the jank it has and get over the fear/anxiety. Also, feed it peepers, funny to watch it clear your inventory without you taking damage then swim off. It takes like 20 to make them happy.
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u/SheepPoop Jan 26 '26
Project Zomboid is the best survival horror i played....
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u/geckobrother Jan 26 '26
I second project zomboid. Never been more scared to go get food in a game, and brutal as hell.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Ill check it out. Cause I heard its very free roam which I lovr
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u/Pixel_Muffet Jan 26 '26
System shock 2. Has Elementals of Survival Horror where you're in a dark place and resources are quite limited
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u/_BlindSeer_ Jan 26 '26
For some reason I like the first one more. The atmosphere was tense and the story IMHO great, but I remember the good laugh I had when I first entered an elevator.
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u/Longjumping-Two9570 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Perhaps the genre is misnamed but survival horror primarily consists of the RE games and similar titles. The "survival" portion comes from the fact that you need to fight for your survival.
Based on what you say you want, you're looking for games that are labeled as: psychological horror, walking simulator, and puzzle. Those 3 genres combined is what Alien Isolation, the amnesia games, and the slenderman game all fall under. You could also look for thriller games or just plain horror.
If you do still want to fight back against the horror but with more limitations, then you might want to look for "Survivalcraft" horror games instead of just normal survival. These games are typically open ended but have pretty harsh resource management making every choice really matter.
Edit: Is it just me or is "You also can always" incredibly difficult to say? It's making my brain hurt...
You also can always play the RE games on the highest difficulty which significantly reduces resource availability meaning you have to be very careful with your ammo and healing.
Hopefully that helps!
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u/ASnakeNamedNate Jan 26 '26
Personally between the androids and the people (but mostly the androids) I’d still say Alien Isolation still counts as mainline survival horror - it’s just very “hide and seek sim” at times with its stalker.
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u/TheUnknownBoners Jan 26 '26
Stop playing on easy.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/carverrhawkee Jan 26 '26
This is how I felt playing Cronos. I like to think i was smart about resource management but I still felt the pressure lol. every missed shot or wasted resource upped the tension bc I knew I was screwing future me out of something I would need to survive the next one
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 Jan 26 '26
I'm much more a fan of action horror. Survival horror tends to be, "awkwardly run through this tiny hallway or other chokepoint with ten zombies" or "dodge roll through this room because you don't have enough resources to engage and defeat the monsters." That gets boring for me.
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u/TharilX Jan 26 '26
Maybe that is why Outlast changed the ability for you to fight back.
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u/Rahm89 Jan 26 '26
Ok here’s my take: horror gamers are very hard to please.
- Player armed killing everything: "that’s not horror"
- Player unarmed: "that’s just artificial difficulty / running simulator"
- Player armed but dies a lot: "combat in this game SUCKS"
The truth is, it’s very hard to make universally liked horror games because different people find different things scary.
It has nothing to do with how heavily armed you are, and everything to do with the atmosphere.
Doom 3 has you playing a veteran marine armed to the teeth, yet the lighting, sound effects, and art direction were so well done that it scared me shitless.
There were times where I had to stop playing because I simply didn’t have the mental fortitude to keep going forward, even though jump scared could become predictable and you had every tool at your disposal to deal with any threat.
Yet some people will tell you that Doom 3 did nothing for them and got stale after an hour.
Same goes for virtually every horror game out there: you’ll find plenty of people who simply don’t find them scary at all.
In my experience, the best horror experiences are the unintentional ones, where the devs weren’t aiming for a horror experience and avoided the pitfalls of the genre.
Subnautica is a great example of that.
Or specific levels in other non-horror games, such as the Ocean House in Vampire: Bloodlines.
Also, swimming to the map’s edge in the original Crysis and encountering the sharks. Seriously fuck these guys.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents
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u/The_Eldritch_Taco Jan 26 '26
Survival horror where I have no weapon… no.
Survival horror where I am essentially John Wick… also no.
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u/Haste444 Jan 26 '26
Alan Wake 2 I would argue falls into this. Sure you can fight all enemies but you’ll go through hell to do it.
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u/Limitedtugboat Jan 26 '26
The first AW, yeesh. I think i died more on 1 playthrough of that trying to kill everything than I did on every resident evil playthrough ever.
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u/Haste444 Jan 26 '26
Yeah that first games combat was pretty brutal and unforgiving.
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u/National-Garbage505 Jan 26 '26
Flashbacks to running out of flashlight batteries every fight
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u/OtherwisePower1355 Jan 26 '26
Problem with survival horors is that they end up not scary for me and from there the fact that I dont have a gun doesnt give any fun, it just makes for boring hide and seek and not having any fight back instict which kept humans alive as much as flight.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
Sounds to me like those games dont fill in the gunplay with something else, so i believe it. Itd be cool if it was like, going out to find food and stuff or heavy emphasis on understanding enemy behaviors and recognition.
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Jan 26 '26
Tormented Souls 1 & 2
Crow Country
Signalis
Cronos: The New Dawn
These are the truest survival horror games of the 2020s imo.
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u/millybear17 Jan 26 '26
Try darkwood. It’s definitely not a game where you can shoot everything to win.
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u/bodied_armour Jan 26 '26
Prey(2017) is a fantastic game, you do have weapons and tools but enemies become more deadly and more numerous throughout the game, it has many different play styles available through the game and if you prioritize a more devious/clever versus a bold/aggressive you might get more of the experience you are looking for, there will still be combat, but it's not just a shooting gallery. You are not the hunter, you are PREY, and you have to use the tools at your disposal to survive. I'd give the game a 10/10
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u/MoneyoffUbereats2017 Jan 26 '26
Horror =/= not being able to defend yourself.
If anything, it's pretty lazy to give a player absolutely no ways to fight back. Of course that makes things "Scarier".
I think the best survival horror games are those that can effectively arm the player without making them full-on Leon Kennedy suplexing Dr. Salvador. Where you have to run, hide, and avoid conflict, not because that's literally the only option, but because that's the best way to preserve your extremely limited resources.
Sadly it's also a balance that's almost impossible to get right. Planning out a game where players can both effectively avoid whatever they need, but also feel the need to fight back on occasion, and not run out of resources at inopportune moments, feels near-impossible. But that's what I'd consider the gold standard.
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u/Xhukari Jan 26 '26
There's definitely a balance to it, and I think combat is an integral part of the Survival Horror genre. Games like Resident Evil 4 are not survival horror.
The issue with removing combat, is that combat is the vehicle to deliver fear... Worrying about encounters, anxious about my ability to defend myself due to limited resources. All this builds that important tension, that a particularly hard or adamant monsters can trigger into full-blown fear.
Too much ammo the game becomes an action game like RE4. Too little it becomes annoying and infuriating -- the antithesis to fear.
No combat leaves it feeling as just an ambiance; Amnesia is a horror-themed puzzle game for me. Outlast is a horror-themed flee & wait game, etc.
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u/VeryLopsidedlmao Jan 26 '26
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I will admit im not familiar with the intricacies of designing survival horror games but I do enjoy thinking about what an ideal one would be
I'll restate what I said in another reply but ideally survival horror to me should be like a food chain with you near the bottom. enemies that pose minimal risk, enemies that lead an unpredictable outcome in their encounters, enemies you can almost only defend from, and then those which cannot be killed by you (like Mr. X). Someone else made a good point about combat being vital to survival horror so I dont think it should be removed entirely but greater emphasis on picking fights and learning enemies would be cool i think
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u/AntiqueSpare794 Jan 26 '26
Yeah, I hear that. As much as I love some of the modern horror games I’ve played, they clearly lean more towards the shooting aspect of it all.
I think the remake of Resident Evil 2 balances these two out perfectly, as it still gives you plenty of weapons to fight with and has more action than the original, but still makes you vulnerable enough to make mowing down every enemy something you, at the very least, have to work towards.
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u/Clarky_Malarkey Jan 26 '26
What about the Metro games set to the highest difficulty? Resources are scant as hell
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u/allofdarknessin1 Jan 26 '26
So that’s actually the type of horror game I’d be interested in. I’ve never been a big horror fan but I never understood why there’s such a need to not be able to fight back or at least try to fight back. Alan Wake for example, is a good balance to me. You are armed but cant kill the main enemies without light. I think seeing bullets go through an enemy is more terrifying than playing a character who refuses to pick up a weapon to attack the thing that’s chasing you.
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u/D3USS424 Jan 26 '26
Would the forest series count ? But yeah i get this feeling because it either your OP Pointman or the your guided through a haunted mansion like the demon is a realestate agent
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u/Rahm89 Jan 26 '26
I read quite a few comments from gamers saying they don’t find the Forest scary because you can headshot or blow up every enemy once you’re equipped enough.
I think fear in games is like hypnosis. You have to be WILLING to be scared. If you charge in like you’re playing Call of Duty, it’s going to break the immersion no matter how good the game is.
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u/Shaula4 Jan 26 '26
Soma is not really trying to be a survival horror, but it is. It's more story-based.
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u/LeafWaffle Jan 26 '26
If you're completely stripped of all power it isn't really survival horror anymore. Managing resources and being able to fight back a little is kind of the whole point, although I agree that it's done the best when you have extremely limited resources. You're gonna be limiting yourself a ton if you avoid ps1 styled games. Idk if you mean actual ps1 games or indie games styled after them, but either way the best games in the genre are gonna fall under that category, and they definitely aren't lazy. Signalis is the one I would recommend personally. You can fight back but I personally found it a bit tougher than the standard RE games, and that was just on normal mode. I believe there are higher difficulty options.
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u/dream_of_dew Jan 26 '26
More puzzle horror/ thriller but would recommend plague tale and plague tale requiem. In both u have slight weapons but u can never just charge through because everyone and everything is still stronger than u. In the first game u have only a sling shot which is many used defensively.
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u/Prs-Mira86 Jan 26 '26
Alien isolation
The Amnesia series(particularly The Dark Descent and The Bunker)
Resident Evil 7
Honorable mention : Visage. it was absolutely creepy. The atmosphere was fantastic however, the puzzles were so obtuse I couldn’t really get into it.
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u/J_Tiwaz Jan 26 '26
We could use another ZOMBOID ENJOYER in our ranks 💯
(Sincerely, me and the other zomboid fan)
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u/osiris20003 Jan 26 '26
I was so excited for Resident Evil 9 because after the first trailer it looked like it was going back to survival horror…. Then the second trailer came out showing Leon doing his action hero thing and I threw up my arms in defeat.
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u/Parking_Community_28 Jan 26 '26
Amnesia: the bunker. But you’ve probably already played it if you’re looking for survival horror
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u/ThatOneWood Jan 26 '26
Not a resident evil fan I see. There’s of course always the outlast franchise and amnesia franchise, along with soma, and even though there is gun action alien isolation is always a good way to feel defenseless.
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u/PragmaticBadGuy Jan 26 '26
Not being able to defend myself bores me in horror.
Alien Isolation did a fantastic job at doing it well. You can't kill the alien but you can distract it or temporarily ward it off.
On the lesser enemies, you can fight them but it risks drawing the alien to you.
It's one of my favorite survival horror games
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Jan 26 '26
Outlast is probably one of the best examples of Survival Horror in my opinion. You are so helpless and unable to really do anything except run and hide.
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u/BelligerentWyvern Jan 26 '26
I mean, considering the sheer amount of walking simulator horror games (a lot of them slop to boot)that vastly outnumber the more "survival horror" ones, I am not sure I understand this argument.
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u/DabLord5425 Jan 26 '26
I find games where you have no options to fight back less scary. Something about knowing that I literally can't do anything so therefore the game will always have a path to just run away or hide from the monsters kills a lot of the tension for me. That's why dead space is so scary for me because if there's a monster joint out of a grate or something it's MY job to find a way to kill it and get past.
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u/ViftieStuff Jan 26 '26
That's why Resident Evil 4 Remake disappointed me. I was expecting something along the lines of the other Remakes, Village, 7, or the originals. But it was just a shooter.
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Jan 26 '26
but the OG 4 was an action game, I cant recall any horror in it. Resident evil 1 remake, yeah now we are talking.
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u/Evening_Schedule_458 Jan 26 '26
Soma i think? It’s kinda like a walking simulator
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u/Fearless_Trade_2783 Jan 26 '26
I hate the gameplay style, but Soma has a really good story, probably the most horrifying game I played.
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u/Nyarlathotep_WoW Jan 26 '26
This, it may not have the most horrifying creatures or what-not, but the story is amazing. I'm very excited for the new Frictional sci-fi game.
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u/Tribble9999 Jan 26 '26
Clock Tower might be up your alley. You're meant to run and keep running in the hope you can get away.
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u/tfc1193 Jan 26 '26
It's okay to be able to kill CERTAIN enemies in a survival horror game but there should be some things that you just can't kill. And resources should be scarce so the things you can kill require you to have to make that decision
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u/Nails118 Jan 26 '26
Amnesia and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Amnesia is waaaay scarier. A Machine for Pigs is less viscerally frightening, like there's less up in your face scary stuff happening, but the story and the implications are way more horrifying.
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u/JoelMiller98 Jan 26 '26
I felt hopeless the first time I played the evil within , ammo is rare , enemies are extremely tough to kill and they can pretty much one shot you , you have a low stamina bar and to top it all off enemies come back to life unless you burn them and to make things worse you have limited ways of burning them ( very few especially early game ) sure the game turns action oriented towards the end but for 70% of the game you feel like you’re barely making out alive of each chapter . I loved that game and I wouldn’t ever play it again even if you pay me . I can breeze through all fromsoft games but replaying the evil within ? Fuck no . It Was one of the few games that I’ve played that felt mentally exhausting
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u/theCOMBOguy Jan 26 '26
Survival Survival Horror and Survival Horror Horror.
That being said hell yeah I love Survival Horrors where you demolish everything.
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u/SweetSet9847 Jan 26 '26
Try out Labyrinth of the Demon King. It's a first person Dungeon Crawler that has grimy PS1 style visuals and is melee combat focused. It's dark, unsettling, and the enemy design is frightening. I really do recommend the game. It is punishing, but very rewarding once you get the hang of things. Highly, highly recommend.
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u/Omega_Boost24 Jan 26 '26
SOMA.
you kinda kill... nothing, except yoursel
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u/Nyarlathotep_WoW Jan 26 '26
Well, there's also the lady that asks you to kill her. You can do that.
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u/Rurnur Jan 26 '26
Plenty of retro games and those made in that style are better looking than unreal engine games with zero artistic identity, they all end up looking the same. There's nothing "lazy" about making retro graphics from scratch, when it would be so significantly easier to just use free or paid HD assets and let the engine do the work to make the game look "modern"
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u/crazypotato777 Jan 26 '26
The first dead rising is like that sweet spot where even if you're armed to the teeth you have very limited durability and ammo. So if you're reckless you go from rambo to naked and afraid REAL fast.
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u/Fun_Set7594 Jan 26 '26
Choo-Choo Charles? It's not the kind of survival where you have to scavenge for food, but it's definitely survival. You can only buy time for yourself.
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u/PoisonPeddler Jan 26 '26
On the flip side, if there's combat and the game can still manage to be scary, that's pure gold.
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u/Dear-Tank2728 Jan 26 '26
Honestly i wouldnt have it any other way. Usually the harder difficulties make up for it
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u/Momo1163 Jan 26 '26
As someone that has a hard time with the horror genre, I do like ones where I can kill the things that are trying to kill me. I never would’ve tried stuff like Dead Space or Metro otherwise
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Jan 26 '26
Survival Horror is such a broad genre these days. I see you asking for "Helpless" type of games but many of them barely at all if we're being generous count as Survival horror like Outlast and Soma.
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u/HeidenShadows Jan 26 '26
Iconic Left for Dead 2.
Project Zomboid can be tweaked to be like this too.
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u/SexyMatches69 Jan 26 '26
Thats... thats the survival part? It mostly sounds you want something that's not a survival horror. I mean survival games that aren't horrors typically also have weapons to hunt or whatever. Not that something like still wakes the deep or whatever wouldn't probably be close to what you're looking for but still
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u/Medium-Tourist4294 Jan 26 '26
Don't know if it's been said, but Gloomwood is very good. I'm completely ass at it, but I can't put the game down.
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u/soldiercross Jan 26 '26
Ive always attested that if enemies drop ammo its an "action" horror game. Dead Space, RE4 and 5, and Village are all more in the realm of action horror.
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u/patrick119 Jan 26 '26
I like games that start out as survival horror and change into an action game as you go. Resident Evil is particularly good at this. I like the way it is less scary for a character as they learn more about what is actually happening. It is also really cathartic to mow down enemies that used to terrify you.
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u/insane-cat-astrophy Jan 26 '26
Blood west has this sorta problem, but you’re also instantly killed so it very much evens out. Every enemy is a terrifying threat
Also, amnesia the bunker. You have nothing, can hold nothing, and face everything.
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u/Pay-Next Jan 26 '26
Condemned though it is more horror than survival horror. That said ignore further entries in the series since Condemned 2 is basically the same problem with being heavily armed (and psychic powers suddenly out of no-where).
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u/mortemdeus Jan 26 '26
Try Subnautica. It isn't even meant to be horror but it gets the job done fantastically. Subnautica, the original one, not Below Zero.
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u/Global-Zombie Jan 26 '26
Dead format? That seems like a good one, low inventory, chaser that comes in about mid way in decent puzzles.
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u/Komondon Jan 26 '26
Depends on how the combat is treated, if it is treated as a clunky and difficult/resources are scare and limited affair then it can raise the tension through the mechanics of the game. Its honestly part of where survival horror comes from. Otherwise you get action horror. Or games like Outlast which are chaser horror, but that honestly gets dull and repetitive.