For fans of the survival horror franchise, there are several of great video game titles to enjoy today. Take for example, the Resident Evil 2 Remake, a video game that not only appealed to veteran fans of the franchise but newcomers as well.
With that said, there are still a ton of other franchises that haven’t been touched in years and we’re hoping that if we can’t get a new installment then perhaps we can get a few remakes for current platforms. Take a look at our current picks and let us know what survival horror franchise you would like to see featured in today’s generation platforms.
#5 Silent Hill
The Silent Hill series is insanely creepy and one that was tough to go through simply because the original development crew behind the franchise knew exactly how to keep players on edge. Team Silent is the folks that crafted up the first four main installments to the Silent Hill franchise and since then we haven’t really seen a standout installment. Overall, Silent Hill games take place within a town called Silent Hill which is home to a cult along with quite a few unusual supernatural oddities.
For the most part, Team Silent enjoyed crafting a survival horror game that didn’t rely on the jump scares and gore. Instead what you’ll find with the Silent Hill franchise is a game series based around the atmosphere. So as we venture into the town and witness these creepy creatures and hellish textures, there’s that constant dread of not knowing what you’ll come across next. Furthermore, the soundtrack is another incredible work of art for this game series as the development team knew just when to keep areas quiet, intense or simply somber. There’s even moments of the games which will have noise triggers that don’t correlate to anything.
When Team Silent disbanded, Konami offered western developers to take a crack at the franchise and each release never really did the series justice. At the moment, the franchise has been dormant in terms of video game title releases. There was some hope in a return to the franchise with Hideo Kojima taking on the franchise helm, but that never came to fruition.
#4 Dino Crisis
Dino Crisis is a survival horror title developed by Capcom. Yes, that’s right, the same developers who are known for the much-beloved survival horror franchise, Resident Evil, had another survival horror series that just didn’t get the same amount of love. Regardless, this is another iconic franchise that’s gone away and hasn’t seen the light of day for years. Let’s be honest here, there’s a generation of gamers out there who probably don’t even know about this IP.
First released back in 1999, Dino Crisis takes on very much the same kind of story as Resident Evil. For instance, players are part of an organization that goes into a mission set within a remote island. Of course, you’re not the only thing that’s trapped on this island. Instead of zombies, players are facing against dinosaurs and while on text it may sound a bit cheesy or subpar to Resident Evil, it’s honestly another fantastic survival horror title that could keep you tensed throughout the campaign.
Who can really say why Capcom gave up on this franchise, as every series tends to have that one black sheep video game release. For Dino Crisis it was Dino Crisis 3 which launched in 2003 as an Xbox exclusive. There just wasn’t any love for the game and it lost some of the charm from the original two video game titles.
Despite the long absence of this franchise, there are fans constantly sending requests to Capcom in hopes they will bring the series back out in some shape or form. We’ve even seen several rumors and speculation pieces that maybe Capcom was actually preparing a return to Dino Crisis but each one turned out to be false. However, because Capcom has gotten a lot of praise over their remakes with the Resident Evil franchise perhaps we’re closer to seeing the development studio look back at this series once again.
#3 Clock Tower
Clock Tower is another old survival horror title that could appeal to a wide range of gamers but chances are there’s still another generation like with Dino Crisis that may not know anything about this game. Originally released back during the Super Famicom and PlayStation era, Clock Tower was a point-and-click style adventure game with survival horror elements. There was more of a focus on finding clues, reading text, solving puzzles, and exploring your surroundings. There really wasn’t a way to fight back against an enemy as developers, Human Entertainment, wanted players to be in a panic and likely feel more vulnerable. Rather than facing against the foe, players had to flee and find a hiding spot.
Within the game, players were mostly dealing with a man who wields a giant pair of scissors, thus known as Scissorman. Essentially, the first two installments were generally well-received but from there the installments took a downward spiral. The game director, Hifumi Kono stepped away and that may have resulted in why the franchise took a hit in quality along with gameplay. Likewise, Human Entertainment went out of business and that allowed Sunsoft to swoop in and obtain the IP. Working with Capcom, Sunsoft and Capcom delivered a new installment known as Clock Tower 3 which was a drastically different take in terms of gameplay and didn’t find much success.
There are two main spiritual successors considered when it comes to the Clock Tower series. The first is a game called Haunting Grounds which took the same style gameplay as Clock Tower 3 and ended up releasing as just a mid-tier kind of survival horror game. It wasn’t a huge hit but it wasn’t a commercial failure either. For the second title that acted as a spiritual successor, the original director we made mention of earlier, Hifumi Kono, took to Kickstarter to successfully fund a game known as NightCry.
NightCry was developed and crafted to play like the series though it wasn’t a hit as well. There were actually complaints to how the game looked dated and played like a previous era release, but then again this title was something aimed for fans who enjoyed the original Clock Tower games. Perhaps this series just needs a bit more breathing room before it’s able to capture veterans along with newcomers to the franchise. Regardless, for those who enjoyed the classics, it’s hard to pass up Clock Tower and maybe after some further tweaking, Hifumi Kono could come back with another spiritual successor that will perform better than NightCry, unless we actually see a Clock Tower 4 announcement.
#2 Siren
Silent Hill made this list earlier and it’s worth pointing out that when Team Silent was disbanded, some of the original crew made its way over to Sony. They created a team known as Project Siren where they delivered yet another survival horror franchise called Siren. The game was generally well-received and it certainly had elements from Silent Hill along with the Clock Tower franchise. Overall, the series only has three main installments and it focused on a Japanese cult performing a ritual that was disrupted resulting in the area being ripped from the universe and put into a different dimension. Players take the role of innocent survivors that were transferred along with this cult.
As you probably guessed, the game revolves around the survivors trying to escape the cult and its members but similar to Clock Tower the gameplay is generally focused around players not battling against enemies but avoiding them. There is even a supernatural element for players that allowed them to see where these cult members are located allowing players the ability to freely roam and maneuver around these crazies without having to actually deal with a hostile.
This team managed to make two more additional installments with the third being a reimagining of the very first Siren game. However, it doesn’t look like we are going to see the series return anytime soon as the game development team has since been rebranded. Instead of the survival horror genre, the team transitioned over to Sony’s Gravity Rush franchise and that very well could mean that a new Siren is not actually warranted enough attention to pull the team back into developing this IP.
#1 Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve came out during a time where Japanese horror films were all the rage. In fact, the game itself is an adaptation of a novel. There were other adaptations to this story as well, but when it came to the video game series, we saw a total of three video game releases. The first installment follows a New York police officer named Aya Brea who finds herself fighting off a supernatural being called Eve. Time is not on Aya’s side as she has just under a week to stop Eve from ending the human race by means of spontaneous combustion.
While traditionally survival horror games offer either no combat or real-time combat, Parasite Eve is a bit of an RPG with gamers able to deal with attacks and defend through a timer setting called Active Time Bar. Likewise, outside of combat players are able to roam around the in-game world map in small sections. The sequel, Parasite Eve II came out just a year later which followed after the events of the first game. While both ranked positively fans had a long wait before the third installment would release. After Parasite Eve II released in 1998, The 3rd Birthday wouldn’t come out into the market until 2011 and it was exclusively on the PlayStation Portable. This third installment was a spin-off and it dropped some of the aspects that Parasite Eve was known for. Gamers were instead given more of a third-person shooter experience. Despite the game releasing with an overall positive reception between both critics and fans alike, we haven’t received a fourth installment.
Bonus
Fatal Frame
The Fatal Frame may have a slightly newer game compared to some of the other IPs on this franchise. Getting its start back in 2001, the last installment to hit the market for the series was in 2014, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black water. Each installment mainly focused around supernatural ghosts that can only be seen through a special camera lenses known as Camera Obscura. Going through the game involves not only using the camera to find these ghosts but using it to capture the ghosts ridding the area from being haunted. This was also a massive survival horror game franchise in Japan that even warranted a film adaptation for the title back in 2014 which was well received, but that’s about last we’ve heard from the franchise. There’s no telling if we will ever get a new installment or not but with the likes of the Nintendo Switch, Fatal Frame could be a perfect fit on the system.
