5 Horror Movie Franchises That Could Become "Lone Enemy" Survival Horror Games

I apologize for the long hiatus after my last blog entry, but here I am again so let's resume our gaming conversations.

The "lone enemy concept" is the name I give to the concept in horror games that implies having one all powerful main enemy that hunts for you in a place that is tricky to navigate through. This is something that isn't that new as we had lone enemies before like Scissorman from the Clocktower series or even Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. The lone enemy scenario may be old, but it is a game play concept that has been given new life by games like Alien Isolation and The Evil Within.

Now some months after the release of those games, it becomes really interesting to think about what other horror series can make use of this concept and become great survival horror games by featuring a lone or specific enemy that will make mince meat out of you once it finds out where you are.

Friday the 13th:

If there is an horror franchise that can make use of the lone enemy concept is this one. With Jason Vorhees as the main all powerful enemy and Camp Lake as the setting, it is very possible to make a very interesting survival horror game. The camp counselor theme is also something that gives the player a certain level of freedom as the player could be able to create a custom counselor and interact with others or choose from a group of counselors to use, each with their own abilities just like in the NES game, giving it a sort of open world feeling.

It is not hard to imagine how awesome a game like that would look on PC and current-gen consoles, with Camp lake having all sorts of awesome lighting effects, many places to go through and lots of ways to make a survival strategy. The encounters with Jason would be swift, but deadly and they would require a lot of quick thinking (No, not QTE events) in order to survive and shake Jason off or try to protect your fellow camp counselors and kids. In summary, Friday the 13th is a great opportunity for this game play aspect to be used and although there seems to be a new Friday the 13th game in the works, there is no clear indication that they will be using this kind of concept.

Demonic Toys:

Demonic Toys is an American horror film series, first released in 1992 that follows the story of how a group of people end up in a haunted toy warehouse where a demon (who lives in the toys) is looking for a way to regain a physical form. A game based on this movie would most probably be a classic survival horror experience and while it doesn't specifically classify as having only one strong enemy (there are lots of toys), the demon been the only hostile entity is enough for it to be on this list.

A game about Demonic Toys would definitely rely on its atmosphere in order to be scary, so it would most probably have a 5 Nights At Freddy's look to it, with old discarded and worn down toys coming alive and hunting you through the warehouse as you slowly figure out what is really happening and how to stop it. The demon itself would make small appearances at some parts (in which you could easily die if you are not careful) and try to take your soul with or without the help of his toy minions. As for the overall mood of the game itself, this would be one of those where the clueless characters roam around the place looking for a way to solve the big mystery and live to tell the tale. It is sort of like the feeling we got when we got our hands on the first Resident Evil and didn't had a clue of what to do.

Alucarda

Alucarda is a Mexican horror film that was released in 1978. It's plot was about  a pair of orphan girls on a Catholic convent who make the mistake of  following the ill advise of a strange and dubvious group of gypsies, which leads to the awakening of a demonic force in the convent. This causes all sorts of macabre paranormal activity in the convent and the possession of the girls by the devil himself. While traducing a film like this to a game would imply that it would just be your "run of the mill" survival horror, it could be a lot more if you take into account that the hostile enemy here is the devil himself and the entire convent is his playground. In essence, it would follow the Clocktower formula although it would be a little more hardcore.

Players in this game would be using a simple orphan (unrelated to the movie protagonists) and would had to survive the night as the supernatural get a hold of the orphanage and gruesome things start to happen. Imagining a game about Alucarda kind of reminds me of the first Clocktower game (SNES) in which you had to use the character of a young girl in a similar environment, only that in Alucarda you are not trying to escape from a mad woman and a guy with giant scissors, but from all of the stuff that is been caused by the demonic forces that were unleashed. In this game you would have to know when to hide, when to attack and where to use cunning and logic to defend yourself from the demonic presence that the girls let loose. Different endings are to be expected as well  as complex interactions with adults and other orphans, so this game would be a little deeper than you may be thinking right now.

Nightmare on Elm Street:

It sounds kind of cliche to mention this horror franchise on par with Friday the 13th, but if you take a deeper look into it you will find that it could work. This one could totally make use of the now popular procedural game design, meaning that part of the game world can be randomly generated. Why procedural design? Well, because since the story in this franchise goes around the topic of dreams and nightmares, it would be a cool thing to have those nightmares be partially auto-generated, so each time Freddy attacks it won't feel the same. This could also be mixed up with how you develop the mental state of your character as you progress through the game (through interactions with other characters and overall progress), just so the hostilities don't become too predictable.

A game like this could be a sort of mixed bag of genres. For example it could borrow a lot from adventure games with problem solving as the main character and his/her friends go around looking for a way to defeat Freddy while sleeping as less as possible. Avoiding sleep means that your character will get tired and will go to sleep sometimes without a clear indication, which is an awesome thing considering that nightmares would be auto generated. On the other hand, the nightmares would be the survival horror part of the game where you would have to survive all of Freddy's insane traps and illusions and as the game progresses and these would be part random and part generated by how you develop your character's mind (the things you do, how you interact with the world while awake). Direct confrontations with Freddy would increase as you progress through the game until you have no other choice than to fight him and if you are not ready by then (figuring out how to defeat Freddy once and for all), well you must then prepare for a bad ending.

The Howling (or other old school werewolf movies)

This is almost self explanatory in its own sense. One vicious savage like beast, thirsty for blood while running around some Victorian era town and you have the recipe of an intense horror game that would have the potential of keeping any gamer at the edge of their seat the entire time (even when just exploring around). Been pitted against a werewolf in this kind of place means that you would have to do what ever it takes to survive like making traps, finding (or making your own) weapons made of silver and looking for a way to survive while the full moon sits there with all its foreboding of your impending doom.

On a game like this, the big bad wolf would be able to follow you almost everywhere and that means that you would have to be very careful in the way of locking doors, making barricades and all that kind of stuff that can keep the enemy at bay and give you some time to explore the various places that the town has to offer. As you get farther into the game you would be able to actually fight back and little by little gain the upper hand until the creature is dead or day light comes. To spice things up, maybe some of the townsfolk could be against you, trying to sabotage your efforts and make you easy pray for the werewolf while you try to solve the mystery of what is wrong with the town and what you have to do with it.

So what do you think? If you have any ideas of other movies that can be turned into this kind of survival horror game, I'd love to read them. 

Alien Isolation: Can it become a fundamental part of the survival horror revival?

We have already had some buzz, seen some game play and even know about the featured 15 hours of game play on the anticipated Aliens game that goes deeper into survival horror than any of its previous titles that range from platformer/shooters to beat them ups and action oriented first person shooters. Many gamers see this title with a lot of optimism, but some if us still have the same question. Can Sega impress us so much with this game that it will make the gaming community forget about Colonial Marines and at the same time turn their heads back to the survival horror genre? The hypothetical answer to that question is yes, because the Alien franchise itself is based on horror, which seems very straight forward in what they are promising with this game, but the only way to pass this test with flying colors is to basically make it an experience worth of the "survival horror" title while giving some fan-service at the same time which is easier said than done. Today, we are going to look into some aspects that could make Alien: Isolation be one of the games that will revive the survival horror genre on this generation, so let's begin:

Now this brings a lot of memories from the movies.

Diverse and complex level design

One of the things that make a horror game to excel is its level design. Up until now, what we have seen about Isolation looks gorgeous with a very detailed and dark sci-fi environment that ranges from eerie to claustrophobic. It is all looking real good, but it won't be of much help if the navigation through this nightmarish world is composed of smoke and mirrors with bland simple corridors and rooms (which kind of works for some environments, but not the one featured on this game). This is a space station we are talking about, so we need it to be complex as it was built by complex scientific minds. A good example of this would be the map design featured in games like Metroid Prime. It is obvious that we don't need it to be as complicated as Metroid, but Sega could take some tips off the good design practices made in those games.

A computer, a magazine and a log book...Can they be read?

Good use of game lore and plot devices

Once again the setting of the game dictates what it is needed. As a promised "survival horror" title, the game needs to have some lore in it. Be it in the way of logs, video footage or even holograms or dying characters (if they want to get a little morbid), these kinds of things have been adding up to the survival horror experience since the days of the first Resident Evil with the "Itchy... Tasty..." diary that everyone read back in the day. The trick with lore and plot devices is to avoid making them in a generic way. For a moment there, we must feel and imagine what was happening to the people involved, like the "Itchy...Tasty..." Resident Evil example that was previously mentioned. With that one we actually visualized was was happening with the person that wrote that diary as he was little by little turning into a zombie without even noticing, that kind of impact is what they should aim for.

This cutting mechanic seems to be becoming popular.

An imaginative use of puzzles

It is obvious that given the setting of the game, we won't see any esoteric or surreal puzzles involving switches on paintings or moving statues, but the sci-fi environment featured in this game serves as a good place for some technological/machinery or even normal appliance puzzles. It is expected to see a lot of buttons and levers in this game, but it would be best if they don't just consist of pressing the interact button a couple times or collecting x number of key cards. If the setting of the game is to be a futuristic technological place, then all sorts of devices could be used for various purposes, be it on a residential area, storage room, entertainment center or anything that the space station can offer. This will spice up the players exploration through the place and make them think for a while, looking for a way to solve the problem in order to keep advancing.

For instance, let's say that a Xenomorph trashed some big pipes that are now blocking your way. You then remember that there was a service robot in some previously visited area that could easily move those pipes away and you also remember that the password needed in order to activate it was cleverly put in an ambigous way in one of the documents (game lore) you read. Then you go figure out the password, activate the robot and use it to clear your way, there you go puzzle solved!

I know some people that will end up like hot dogs on a barbecue afternoon, instead of just solving the problem.

Extra hazards throughout the game that don't involve Xenomorphs

This is classic stuff from sci-fi movies, but it has also been present in various survival horror games like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Fatal Frame just to name a few. These are accidents or situations that can easily kill you and on a space station all sorts of things could serve for that purpose. When we think of hazards in the case of this game, we think about things like fire, been thrown in to the vacuum of space, lack of oxygen, security systems gone wrong, etc. The ideal way to go about this game play aspect is to avoid going the lazy way with mood killing "quick time events" and let the player save themselves instead of relying on some button combination. Of course it has to be a fair deal, but at the same time it must be challenging enough to demand some quick thinking.

Do I see a low gravity environment there? Can't imagine a Xenomorph just floating by.

Don't divide the game in stages

Dividing a survival horror game in pseudo-stages is something that can be associated with lazy game design in the same way than the "bland corridors and rooms" thing. The best thing to do is to keep the exploration mood going throughout all the game without suddenly pausing the game just to say that the player got to the end of an area. Doing so just ruins the mood and gives an artificial sense of safety that just takes away the "survival" in survival horror. Let the players decide where to go at any given time, let them backtrack, sidetrack and explore at their leisure as they little by little succeed in unlocking new parts in the game. There is this certain feeling of accomplishment when you revisit a place while looking for something and you catch a glimpse of the remnants of your previous visit (dead enemies, opened pathways, solved puzzles, etc).

Will she survive? That's up to us...

Wrapping it up

A wave of next-gen survival horror games is getting near and Alien: Isolation can be a very important part of it. Sega just needs to learn from theirs and other developer's mistakes and capitalize on the horror that comes as a given in the Alien franchise. Many of the things discussed on this article are things that have been missing from survival horror games for too long and need to come back in order to bring the genre back into full strength while making it evolve at the same, spelling success not only with the old hardcore survival horror crowd, but also with the newer generations. Alien: Isolation already shows that it has what it takes, but that can only be truly seen when we actually play it and not just on videos and pictures. Let's just hope that we have a masterpiece in our hands people, the genre needs it.

Bonus Stage

Here is some video footage of the game, taken by IGN on the days of the E3 event.

Alien: Isolation Game play - E3 2014 (IGN)

5 games that could turn Sega into the best third party around.

Sega, a former industry leader and one of my favorite game development companies. It is a tragic tale, the one of Sega's fall from grace and how they went from been a world class enterprise to a simple third party company. The really perplexing thing is that even as a third party company, Sega still carries some of the power it had in the past and that power comes in form of games that on the most part are not been used. 

Don't get me wrong, the Sonic games are good, Bayonetta 2 looks great (and it's a must buy for any Wii U owner) and Alien: Isolation has the makings to be an awesome survival horror game, but deep inside we all know that there are some games that really define what Sega is as a game developer and would probably catapult them into gaming stardom again. Here are 5 of those games that would be part of a Sega's newly found awesome-factor if they were released:

1) A fully "AAA" Phantasy Star classic JRPG game.

The saga of Phantasy Star (online) games, born since the first Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast has been going on for more than 10 years and they are all good games with a nice mix of action, exploration and looting, but it also has been more than 20 years since a full blown JRPG Phantasy Star experience has been released. We all know there have been some games attempting to tell a full new story in the series, but it is also very noticeable that they are still using the same style of the online games. Just imagine for a moment a new Phantasy Star game with the JRPG quality of Xenoblade Chronicles. Be it on Wii U or any other console, a game like that could pretty much become a genre leader just on name alone since deep inside, the franchise is still in pristine condition with the online games been clearly seen as spin offs.

2) Shinning Force IV or a bundle of the Shinning Force 3 series.

Shinning Force is another game that hasn't really gotten any love in its original form (which is a very dynamic tactics rpg). One thing Sega could do with the franchise, now that re-hashes and remakes are in style is to bundle the Shinning Force 3 scenarios on one game and sell them as digital on different platforms, they could even sell them separately if they wanted, just clean up the graphics a bit and there you go. Normally I am not a fan of re-hashes, but the Shinning Force 3 saga (which spawned 3 games) had only the first one coming to America because it was one of the last games made at the end of the Sega Saturn lifespan on our shores. They even have the translation work done for them by fans so it would be an even easier task to do.

The other way to deal with this franchise in its original form is to finally make a Shinning Force IV. It really doesn't matter if the game is released on handhelds only as it would compete with games like Fire Emblem, along with other tactic rpg games out in the handheld market and it has a great chance of winning if the game is well advertised.

3) Shenmue Chapters (or something like that).

First of all let's have a healthy dose of realism. A new complete game about a project as ambitious as Shenmue is simply not possible with Sega's current financial prowess, but it doesn't have to become a dead franchise either. One thing that would be cool is to make it a chapter based game. Let's say that when we first get the game, we have a all of the city to explore at our leisure with some storyline content as well as side-quests, mini games and stuff. 

Then, when we have completed a "chapter" the game would basically let us do whatever we want with all the side-quests and character development (practicing your moves), earning money at a job, etc, but leave the storyline at a "to be continued" state (for example let's say that the guy helping Ryo Hazuki (some kind of informant) dissapears for a while looking for information on the whereabouts of Lan-Di) and when he returns (a new chapter is released), giving Ryo new information with new stuff to do so the story continues.

It can even have PVP fighting if for example Ryo gets an apprentice (which would be fully customizable) and you can train him/her and fight with other apprentices online while new chapters are been developed. See? anything is possible with this game. Also throw in some micro-transactions like sets of clothing, pets, stuff for Ryo's room and the typical goodies (without the game becoming a pay to win) and you have a Shenmue game that kept the original formula, but evolved without losing its charm.

4) Revival of forgotten franchises from the Sega Saturn days.

The Sega Saturn was plagued by many things like the war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, the fact that is was very difficult to develop games for the console and bad business decisions, but it never suffered any lack of games. Sure, most of the popular games were on other platforms, but the Saturn had a very strong library of its own and some of those games could come back from their slumber and still be as good as they were all thanks to the digital age. Besides, not many people got to actually play them, so showing them now would make them to be seen almost as new (unless you were a Saturn fan back in the day).

Many of those Saturn games could be brought up as re-mastered editions and sold as digital only on various networks. Games like Astal for example which is a beautiful platformer that has graphics that resemble many of the good indie platforming games of our times, Burning Rangers which was a short, but intense game with a style that can be used for leaderboards (time attack) and even be awesome with an online cooperative coop and Fighting Vipers which was a very good fighting game that could be revived as a free to play deal (sort of like Namco did with Soul Calibur). Other possible Saturn games that could use some revival are Mr.Bones, Mystaria, Die Hard Arcade, Legend of the Oasis, Dark Savior, Bug, Clockwork Knight and so on.

5) Skies of Arcadia 2

Of all the games mentioned on this article Skies of Arcadia is the most recent (coming from the Dreamcast days to the remake that they later released on Game Cube). This JRPG gem is one of those games that instantly became a respected name in the genre coming from the ground up and without any previous glory to back it up. It combined a great storyline with an interesting turn based fighting that consisted of fighting on the ground and epic airship battles even taking on a giant flying whale in Moby Dick fashion.

The game deserves a sequel in all its right and would be something big to see on next-gen consoles with its colorful visuals, extensive and cleverly designed dungeons/places, fun storyline and challenging battles. The really cool thing is that with the acquisition of Atlus by Sega, a Skies of Arcadia 2 game has never been more possible, so let's just cross our fingers and see what happens.  

To wrap this up

Sega is a company with so much hidden potential that you would be amazed of what they could come up with if they had the will to do it. Nowadays, between Pachinko machines and arcade spin offs, the Sega of old focus on games seems kind of lost, but in this industry anything can happen and who knows if on a near future we find ourselves once again chanting the the classic ♫SEGA♫ a little more often.