Survival Horror Baz Nugent dissects the genre
That’s zombies and post-apocalyptic biker gangs, men covered in shotguns and turning supermarkets into fortresses, right? Or getting stuck in an abandoned hospital with a murderous being with a polygon for a head? Wrong. And your error cost you your life. That’s what survival horror is. The set dressing may vary, but the root of the setting is that you make one bad choice, and you’re a goner. The modern Survival Horror genre generally focuses on Horror over Survival. But Horror is a short term thing. The human response to fear is fight or flight; presented with the monstrous or horrific, we either run or attack. That’s why recent horror movies are a constant parade of shock, of jack-inthe-box monsters appearing out of nowhere. On the other hand, Survival Horror isn’t about killing the monster or winning against the villain. Often there is neither. It’s about getting there in the end, being the last one standing, escaping with as much of yourself alive as possible. The driving emotion is not fear but lassitude - weariness from an oppressive environment,
worn down by the hopelessness of the situation. The term “Survival Horror” was coined for Resident Evil. Yet, in a way, Resident Evil doesn’t fit within the genre that it named.
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Every act of survival is a major victory, not an excuse for a pithy comeback”
Cleanup in Isle Z
No-one really cares if Arnie is dropped into South America with only a plastic butter knife. We all know he will Jingle All Da Vayy into the Warlord’s compound with his butterknife on a makeshift spear, steal some machine guns and make awful kill jokes. Even the so called “everyman action hero” John McClaine is coming back to face off the Russian Government in A Good Day to Die Hard. Honestly, who cares about a Special Forces soldier on his own? They spend years training in exactly those sorts of circumstances, and more than likely they have all the equipment they need
Baz Nugent Baz Nugent is a semi-professional game writer as well as graphic designer, theatre technician and general scatterbrain. He’s been involved in organising many cons, having directed Gaelcon 2010 and Leprecon 29, and done graphic design work for many more. He is also a former NST of Camarilla Ireland, and a founding member of Ireland’s newest gaming convention, Hobocon.
on hand anyway. What’s interesting is the unprepared guy. The mook who can barely balance his bank account, works a dead end job and mostly uses kitchen bleach for cleaning