In 1996, Capcom unleashed the first Resident Evil known as Biohazard in Japan. Resident Evil, despite having poor voice acting, was frequently mentioned as one of the best and most impactful video games in the modern gaming scene. Its survival horror subgenre feature and its power to return zombies into the mainstream sparked an upturn in the interest of the public in zombie movies by the 2000s. It established a franchise that spawned video games, movies, comic books, novels, and other products to switch to survival-horror themes.
For those new to the term, survival horror is an action-adventure video game subgenre that focuses on surviving while facing terror. This is done with both horrifying visuals and a chilling ambiance. Although fighting is one main element, the game is always making sure that the player feels less in control. Survival horror limits the player’s ammo or weapons, health, speed, and perception for a more immersive experience.
What makes survival horror games unique is their ability to blanket the player with uneasiness and anxiety. It’s challenging to be a survival horror fanatic. You need to traverse shadowy passageways, face various monstrosities head-on, make real-time decisions and solve intricate puzzles to reach the end. By using difficult puzzles and scary moments, the best survival horror titles manage to maintain that feeling of uneasiness, fear, and dread. In other words, you need focus, patience, courage, critical thinking, a strong heart (for jump scares), and a quick reaction to thrive in survival horror games.
Moving forward, today we are going to take a quick overview of eight of the best survival games like Resident Evil. After all, without Resident Evil, the survival horror subgenre would cease to exist. Also, each of the titles in our list is unique in its way despite having the generic elements found in Resident Evil. Without further ado, it’s time to amass your courage and explore the eight games on our list.
Days Gone
Days Gone is a third-person action-adventure game featuring an open-world post-apocalyptic theme. The story started two years after a virus killed nearly all of civilization and converted millions of people into “Freakers,” irrational, fast-turning evolving zombie-like creatures. In the game, the player is responsible for taking control of Deacon St. John, a former outlaw-turned-drifter-bounty hunter. Days Gone features a nocturnal Freaker species known as a swarmer that hides out in its nest during the day. But at night it will frequently gather, swarm, and wander around in search of food and water.
To have two enemy groups battle each other, players can draw Swarmers in their direction. The game also features hostile human foes (referred to as Runners and Ragers) and infected wildlife (called Newts). These are the opportunistic predators who only strike Deacon once he enters their domain or is showing signs of weakness. Players can be overrun by hordes and must maintain their distance. Deacon can utilize various guns, melee armaments, traps, and explosives to fight Freakers.
Dead Space
Dead Space is a video game featuring a combination of science fiction, action, and horror genres. The game’s protagonist, Isaac Clarke, is controlled by players in a third-person perspective. Players go through level-based areas of the starship Ishimura, fulfilling story-driven tasks, and working out physics puzzles in the surroundings. Slaying creatures known as Necromorphs is also one of your tasks. Isaac has a finite amount of oxygen in the vacuum, but you can increase it by locating air tanks in the environment. There are puzzles particular to these regions because some of them are in Zero-G. Isaac and certain enemy kinds can bounce from one surface to another in these areas.
As you take Isaac’s role you should collect ammunition, health packs, and Nodes while exploring the Ishimura. Nodes are required to unlock unique doors and enhance Isaac’s armor and weaponry. You can also access the store to purchase supplies and ammunition at specific locations across the ship. To locate the next mission goal, Isaac can employ a navigation line. You can unleash a devastating melee attack to eliminate lesser enemies. The attack can also deflect larger ones while stomping to smash supply boxes and assault foes. Making the experience even more immersive are Isaac’s two skills. One of his skills is Kinesis which allows the protagonist to push or yank objects within the environment. The other one is Stasis which temporarily inhibits movement.
SOMA
Soma is a first-person shooter survival horror video game. There are numerous animals representing different parts of the game’s elements that players will encounter. Instead of the typical jump scares featured in most horror video games, Soma focuses more on the use of psychological horror themes. There are many clues scattered in the game, including notes and audio cassettes. These clues help in enhancing the atmosphere and advance the plot.
This game also allows the players to solve puzzles, use stealth and explore the map just like in most survival horror games. If by some chance the character fails to avoid monsters, they will perish. However, two years after the game’s initial launch, a “Safe Mode” was introduced, which can retain the monsters. But, the mode will also prevent the monsters from eliminating the player. SOMA is set in the deep ocean, offering a breath of fresh air for fans who are tired of space settings.
Outlast
In the video game Outlast, the player plays the role of Miles Upshur, an investigative reporter. He needs to find his way out in a deserted mental institution populated with patients in Leadville, Colorado. The game features a first-person perspective and stealth gameplay that players will surely enjoy. The player can run, jump, crouch, climb stairs and ladders, and leap over objects.
But unlike most thrilling games, the player cannot attack enemies and has no visual vitality bar on the screen. To stay alive, the player should use stealth techniques like hiding in lockers and rooms, walking past behind the foes, and crouching behind or vaulting over obstacles objects.
Alan Wake
Action-adventure game Alan Wake was created by Remedy Entertainment. The storyline follows best-selling thriller author Alan Wake as he attempts to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s disappearance. The incident happened while they were on vacation in the small fictitious village of Bright Falls, Washington. Oddly enough, the series of events from Wake’s most recent publication is happening in real life. The spooky part is that he does not have any memory of writing the book.
In the game, people, animals, and objects are being overtaken by a “darkness.” These adversaries, known as the “Taken,” are mutilating shadows that assault Wake while brandishing a variety of tools, such as mallets, knives, shovels, and chainsaws. Other than the Taken, the player also has to battle flocks of possessed birds and animated items. They differ in pace, size, and the extent of damage they can withstand. Some of them can also teleport short distances.
Prey
First-person shooter Prey features stealth, role-playing, and an open-world setting. The player acts as Morgan Yu, a person living on a space station inhabited by various hostile alien species called “Typhon”. The player can choose Morgan’s gender and other characteristics, as well as actions that have an impact on the game’s plot. You should also gather and use the station’s supplies and weapons to repel and destroy the Typhon to survive.
In the year 2032, players will wake up in Talos I, a space station circling the moon. You are the main participant in an experiment that is supposed to change humanity forever, but everything has gone wrong. Hostile aliens have taken control of the space station and you must take responsibility for it. To survive in the game, you must exploit all the resources available aboard the station. It’s your strategy, weaponry, and staggering skills against the foes. Everything is under your control; it’s up to you what will happen to the Talos I and all on board.
Metro 2033 Redux
Metro 2033 is a first-person survival horror shooting game published in 2010 by THQ and developed by 4A Games. The plot is based on the same-titled novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, in which nuclear war survivors seek safety in Moscow’s subway system. Players take control of Artyom, a guy whose home station must be protected from threats hiding within the Metro. You can use many weapons to slay the human and mutant foes in the game. To explore regions both beneath and on the surface that has been exposed to fallout radiation, you must also don a gas mask.
Traditional weaponry such as revolvers, assault rifles, and shotguns are available in the game, along with more imaginative ones like a pneumatic crossbow. In this game you have two opponents, mutant attackers usually are located outdoors biting the players while human enemies also hide inside with you. To avoid being seen by your foes, you can employ your best stealth skills. You may shoot your opponent with a silenced weapon or throw a knife from a distance.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead‘s survival is a co-op mode and is set in the period following the zombie outbreak. So, you must guide your survivors through the rooftops of a deserted city. Enter rural ghost villages, and pitch-black forests, as you try to escape a ravaged Ground Zero swarming with infected zombies. One to four players can participate in each “movie,” which consists of five sizable maps and emphasizes team-based tactics and goals.
In this game, the player can control any of the four survivors. If real players are not present, AI-controlled bots will take over the other survivors’ roles. They play out battles against the infected, living people who have contracted a virus similar to rabies that causes psychosis. The main objective is to make it to the next safe place alive, not to get rid of the sick. The “AI Director” monitors each player’s current condition and adds or removes things and infected in reaction. This is done to keep constant tension and produce a unique experience with each play-through, making this problem worse.
That ends our list of the best video games like Resident Evil. For more updates and news about other video game titles, be sure to stay tuned here on PlayPC!
