Survival Horror

Just hide and pray.

Somehow, the world, or at least the city you are in, has had its inhabitants slaughtered and resurrected with a hunger for brains, or their murderers have minions trying to find you and any accomplices. Your goal: Don't die before help arrives or before you reach an exit. You will have close escapes from horrible creatures. Things will jump through windows at you. Sometimes, you will be forced to fight the horrible creatures or flee for your life. Other times you will hide in a shadowy corner praying the invincible monstrosity doesn't notice you as it lumbers past. Ultimately, you tend to be the only one who survives as anybody who could help you will die a horrible death-by-cutscene.

Not unlike Postmodernism, modern survival horror isn't really a clear-cut genre in itself; it exists more as a blurred subset of Horror and First- or Third-Person Shooter. Many games in the genre are closer to Adventure Games in gameplay, with much less focus on combat and more on puzzles (such examples may overlap with Explorer Horror). While at first the goal seems to be pure survival, or calling for help, the game tends to add a little something by requiring you to solve the source of the problem, whether it's an alien relic or your own personal issues. Only then do you have a chance - if there is a chance to be had.

Two science fiction television series which were examples of this subgenre, were Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate Universe. However, while the initial premise was there, both series were handicapped by the generally much more optimistic legacies of their respective franchises. They therefore suffered from Executive Meddling in order to try and make them more acceptable to each franchise' existing fanbase, although each show occasionally still had episodes where their adherence to this genre was visible.

Note that simply featuring large amounts of monsters, zombies and/or demons does not make it survival horror; even if the game has supernatural elements, manages to scare you or contains horror tropes, it may not be a survival horror game. Conversely, even though Portal has Chell fighting for her life against a scary adversary without a real gun, it is most definitely not a survival horror title.

Unlike shooter games, the typical protagonist of a Survival Horror game will be an Action Survivor or Non-Action Guy who is poor at combat, rather than a badass. There is generally no penalty for not killing non-boss enemies, and in some games ammo is in such short supply and enemies so difficult to take down that evasion, not confrontation, is the best tactic, similar to Stealth Based Games. In several notable examples of the genre, combat is even nearly or completely non-existent. The player instead spends the entire time evading an entire world of Demonic Spiders, or in a game of hide and seek with a single invincible enemy. If the default reaction to a monster appearing is not to riddle it full of bullets but to run away frantically looking for a closet to hide in before it kills you, it might just be a Survival Horror game.

As a rule of thumb, a game typically labelled Action Horror is not Survival Horror. This includes games such as Resident Evil 4, which, despite keeping the tense atmosphere of the previous games, has the player sitting on a pile of ammo and supplies by comparison, making it a different genre to its Ur-Example predecessors. In order to minimize confusion, try looking at the protagonist's despair; if the protagonist is oppressed and their major issues seem too petty for action games (extreme scarcity of ammunition & supplies, very tough enemies regardless of difficulty or relentless attacks by merely dangerous ones, enormous objectives, etc.), then you may be looking at survival horror.

The Ur-Example of the genre is Nostromo (1981). The Trope Maker is Sweet Home (1989). The Trope Namer and Trope Codifier is Resident Evil (1996).

Examples of Survival Horror games:
Metro 2033, Manhunt, Silent Hill, ZombiU, and Five Nights at Freddy's; overwhelmed protagonist(s), oppressive atmosphere and a need for careful management of resources (ammo, health, etc.).

Examples of non-Survival Horror games:
Halo, Doom, The House of the Dead, Half-Life 2, Resident Evil 4, Left 4 Dead and so on; despite grim prospects and scary content, just about any fight can be won at a gain and there is always enough ammo and supplies on hand to win most scenarios.

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Tropes to be heavily expected in the survival horror genre:

• Abandoned Area: Typical setting. No one will help you here.
• Abandoned Hospital: Typical setting. Just wait for the medical horror.
• Abandoned Warehouse: Typical setting. Maybe good for crafting items.
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Barricades that are easily overcome
• Action Survivor: The protagonists usually are just normal people forced to be badasses.
• Always Night: Increases your fear even more.
• Ammunition Conservation: If the player character has firearms, ammo tends to be very limited, so the player must wisely use them.
• And I Must Scream: What you live through is a Fate Worse than Death but still you have to survive for whatever reason.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Often the bad ending or a Nonstandard Gameover, you turn into the monster you were running from.
• Anyone Can Die: It would hardly be survival horror if important characters had too much Plot Armor, right?
• Apocalyptic Log: Those who died left nice stuff for you to read.
• Ax-Crazy: The antagonist is often crazy and prone to random killing. His unpredictability makes him even more dangerous.
• Bedlam House: Typical setting. Usually has some kind of dark secret.
• Berserk Board Barricade: Haphazardly nail random boards across the doorway.
• Body Horror: Dysformed and grotesque body structures. Human or not.
• Booby Trap: That trap that just waits for you to fall into.
• Buried Alive: Oxygen will be running out soon, so you need to act fast.
• Buried in a Pile of Corpses: Hiding in a pile of corpses. Sometimes the only thing that will bring closer to your goal.
• Celebrity Survivor: Often times the only person to survive the apocalypse is a celebrity.
• Claustrophobia: You find yourself in a very tight space. Panic ensues.
• Closed Circle: Stories usually take place in an isolated place with no help from outside.
• Controllable Helplessness: You can make inputs on your controller but you can't change the situation (at least not for the better).
• Corpse Land: Dead bodies all around you. Wanna be one of them?
• Cower Power: Hiding is the best thing you can do.
• Crapsack World: The setting is very nightmarish.
• Crazy-Prepared: There's always one character who saw it coming all along and gets his hand on the pump.
• Crazy Survivalist: Take your bandana and your machete and fight your way through.
• Creepy Basement: Typical setting. The creepier the better.
• Crowbar Combatant: Often the only weapon you get.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Very common in survival horror, maybe you can avoid it this time?
• Cycle of Hurting: You reach a dead end where you can only watch your death.
• Dangerous Key Fumble: You found the key, but can you use it in time?
• Darkness Equals Death: The probability to die significantly increases in the darkness.
• Death of a Child: Yes, even children can die; especially if you're playing as one.
• Death by Pragmatism: And sometimes it's the most sensible characters that won't see the credits roll.
• Despair Event Horizon: You lose all hope.
• Disaster Scavengers: People who search for resources in a place that was hit with a disaster.
• Distress Call: You try to call for help but somehow this always fails.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with a huge catastrophe and many deaths. Don't worry, it will get worse soon.
• The Dreaded: The antagonist is defined by the fear of other characters have about him.
• Drought Level of Doom: Supplies are scare, and the Player Character has to ration carefully to make it out alive.
• Early Game Hell: Very often the game starts out very hard and gets easier after you find more equipment.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Happy endings in survival horror are usually very tough to achieve, if at all.
• Eaten Alive: What you want to avoid in this genre (but often can't).
• Eldritch Abomination: Nothing's scarier than an enemy whose very existence and motives are beyond a human being's capability to understand.
• Emergency Weapon: The weapon you can resort to when you used up all of your precious ammo (usually a knife).
• Empty Room Psych: This room is empty. Just wait for the Jump Scare.
• Escape from the Crazy Place: The main premise of many survival horror stories - just escape from this place!
• Escape Sequence: If the protagonists are successful, they'll get one.
• The Everyman: The protagonists are usually just normal people without combat training.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Killers, zombies, monsters, mutants, bats, crows, random objects, everything!
• Fate Worse than Death: What you live though. Why even survive?
• Final Girl: In a perspective flip of the slasher genre, you might be one by the end.
• Find the Cure!: You get infected early in the game, now do something about it.
• Freak Out: Every protagonist in this genre suffers one.
• From Bad to Worse: Most stories already start very bad to take a sharp turn downhill.
• Game-Breaking Injury: If your Player Character suffers an injury, it will be shown on screen.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Too much isolation will turn you crazy.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Seeing what you shouldn't see will force you into insanity.
• Haunted House: Typical setting. The ghosts won't be friendly.
• Hell Hotel: Typical setting. You can pay the bill with your blood however.
• Hell Is That Noise: Scary ambient noises to freak you out.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: A bossfight that can only be lost, no matter what (but the game still continues somehow).
• Hope Spot: You think that you can regain hope now. Think again.
• Humanoid Abomination: An incomprehensible horror in (somewhat) human form.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Your antagonist is the hunter and you are the prey.
• Improbable Weapon User: You have to turn every random object into a weapon to survive.
• Improvised Armour: Great armor won't be available, so use what you get.
• Improvised Weapon: Huge weaponry won't be available, so use what you get.
• Injured Self-Drag: A character who is gravely injured will drag, crawl or limp for survival.
• Invincible Boogeymen: The main antagonist often is one. Much stronger than you, cannot be fought off, and always tracking you down.
• The Immune: The one character who won't be affected by the virus.
• Immune to Bullets: The monster chasing you wouldn't be that threatening if you could simply headshot it now, would it?
• Inescapable Horror: Sometimes it's only "survive", nobody said "escape".
• In Medias Res: Many works throw the audience into the story just like the characters are thrown in.
• Interface Screw: When your Sanity Meter is filled up, the game becomes impossible to control.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: Solving puzzles with keys and rare items.
• Item Crafting: Do-it-yourself equipment.
• Itsa Wonderful Failure: The game will reveal the horrifyings consequences of your failure if you die.
• Jump Scare: A scare that appears so fast you can't even react.
• Justified Save Point: Almost every game in the genre has one in one form or another.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: The protagonists have to steal in order to survive.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Probably the most important decision you'll ever face. How will you decide?
• The Load: Even worse than fighting for your own life is having to take someone with you who can't help you.
• Madness Mantra: All work and no play…
• Malevolent Architecture: Even the architecture hates you.
• The Many Deaths of You: There are usually so many ways to die that it's hardly possible to see them all.
• Marionette Motion: Many monsters in the genre move that way.
• Medical Horror: Needles, pins, evil doctors, blood, …
• Mind Rape: Psychic or mental torture lets you relive your most painful memories.
• Monster Closet: If there's a closet somewhere, you can bet some kind of monster will jump out.
• Multiple Endings: Very common in the genre. Very often with a Downer Ending or a Bittersweet Ending (where you survive but everybody else is dead) and usually only the Golden Ending is a happy one, if any.
• Nervous Wreck: Many characters are extremely fearful and easily terrified in this genre. Understandable.
• Neverending Terror: Again, nobody said "end", be happy if you survive.
• Nightmare Fuel: If you aren't having nightmares, the developers have failed. But they haven't…
• Nightmare Sequence: Imagine your worst nightmares playing on the big screen…
• Nintendo Hard: You gotta face challenge in order to survive.
• No-Gear Level: As if little gear wouldn't be bad enough, you got literally nothing on this level!
• Nothing Is Scarier: You're more afraid of what you don't see than what you do see.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The antagonist wants to kill everyone.
• Pacifist Run: Generally a sound fairly sound idea playing these types of games; if ammunition is constantly a problem, then don't use any and just avoid enemy encounters. If taken to the maxim, one may forego weapons entirely, which in examples with limited item carrying capacity leaves more space in your inventory for Puzzle Solving items, less backtracking and ultimately you finish faster.
• Paranoia Fuel: So much Primal Fear. And it all can happen to you… tonight!
• Personal Horror: The protagonists are very often fighting with personal traumas and past misdeeds.
• The Plague: A global disease that causes all the terror.
• Player Punch: Something happens that is so sad and depressing, it even gut-punches the audience.
• Playing Possum: Prentending to be dead might be a good idea if everything else fails.
• Pretend We're Dead: Pretend to be one of the monsters you fight.
• Primal Fear: Darkness, dangerous heights, blood, scary animals, psychopaths, sensory overload, humiliation, emptiness, enclosed spaces, the dead rising against us… These fears have always been with us and the game will remind you of that.
• Properly Paranoid: Just because you're paranoid, you can't be sure they aren't after you.
• Psychological Horror: Sometimes the human psyche can be the most terrifying thing in the world.
• "Psycho" Strings: Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock and still around to scare us.
• Pursued Protagonist: Something is always behind you. From start to finish.
• Resources Management Gameplay: A defining feature - resources like weapons, tools and healing items are very scarce and need to be used wisely.
• Room Full of Zombies: And they're very hungry for you.
• Rule of Scary: As long as it's scary, the audience won't care if it's rather unrealistic.
• Run or Die: Fighting is not a good option, just get out of there. Really.
• Safe Zone Hope Spot: The place rumored to be safe is not safe.
• Sanity Meter: Many games have a gauge to show how close the player is to a complete psychological breakdown, a panic attack, a trauma or all of this at once.
• Sanity Slippage: A character is gradually driven into insanity.
• Scare Chord: Scary tunes from the soundtrack.
• Scavenger World: Everything is super rare and in bad condition in this world.
• Sinister Scraping Sound: The sound of rusty metal scratching the wall is never pleasant.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: The only scientist who survives the lab mistake. Usually makes for a good protagonist.
• Sole Survivor: You either start as one or you reach the finish line as one. Or even both.
• Static Screw: A game's video or audio turns into static.
• Story Bread Crumbs: The story is told through small pieces you have to put together.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Death comes so fast you can't even react.
• Surreal Horror: Strange, bizarre and deranged images to mindrape the audience.
• Survival Mantra: Every character in this genre needs one. And even then things can go wrong.
• Survivor Guilt: Even if do you survive the story, you might still feel guilty.
• Tank Controls: Made popular by the genre, even though it also appeared in other genres.
• Technically-Living Zombie: Zombies are fast.
• Too Dumb to Live: If you are stupid enough to die.
• Thwarted Escape: An escape that isn't.
• Transformation Horror: Someone transforms into a zombie or a monster right before your eyes…
• Trauma Button: Push here to trigger another character's emotional trauma.
• Uncanny Atmosphere: You just know that there's something wrong with this area but don't quite know what it is (yet)
• Unexpectedly Abandoned: This town seems populated but only at first glance.
• The Virus: A virus that makes people die like flies. Can you find the cure?
• Was Once a Man: Many monsters that you encounter share this fate.
• With This Herring: The protagonists often start out as painfully ill-equipped.
• Wizard Needs Food Badly: Eating food to not starve. Not a given in other genres.
• Yet Another Stupid Death: And again you, the player, were Too Dumb to Live. This genre will be happy to fulfill your death wish.
• You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: No you can't. But still somehow you try.
• You Wake Up in a Room: And want to get out of it. Somebody who is stronger than you disagrees.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Very often the reason for all the mayhem
• Zombie Apocalypse Hero: Someone who specializes in killing zombies.
• Zombie Gait: Zombies are slow but still dangerous.
• Zombie Infectee: Very common in the genre. It won't take long until you turn into a monster, unless you find a cure.

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We also have advice if you want to Write a Survival Horror Game.

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Survival Horror Games:

• 123 Slaughter Me Street
• 1916 - Der Unbekannte Krieg
• 2Dark
• 3:00 AM at The Krusty Krab
• 3D Monster Maze
• 6 AM at The Chum Bucket
• 7 Days to Die
• Ad Infernum
• Ad Infinitum
• Arrogation: Unlight of Day
• Artifacts and Antiquity
• The Abyss: Incident at Europa
• Afraid of Monsters
• Afterfall: Insanity
• Agony
• Aka Manto
• Alan Wake
• Alan Wake II
• Aliens: Infestation (Has some elements of SH)
• Alien: Isolation
• Alien: Resurrection
• Alice (2022)
• Alisa
• All Flesh Must Be Eaten
• All Alone With Mannie
• Allison Road (Discontinued from production)
• Alone in the Dark Another (Trope Codifier) of 3D
  • Alone in the Dark (2024)
• Altered Beast (2005)
• Amnesia (series)
  • Amnesia: The Dark Descent
  • Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
  • Amnesia: The Bunker
  • Amnesia: Rebirth
• AMY
• Among the Sleep
• Antarctica 88
• Ao Oni
  • Nira Oni
• Apsulov: End of Gods
• Around the Clock at Bikini Bottom
• Arthur's Nightmare
• Baby's Nightmare Circus
• Babysitter Bloodbath
• Back in 1995
• Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning
• BARK (2022)
• Basingstoke
• The Beast Inside
• Bendy and the Ink Machine
  • Boris and the Dark Survival
  • Bendy and the Dark Revival
• Betrayer
• Bevel's Painting
• Beware
• Beware the Shadowcatcher
• Big Larry
• Binky Show
• BioShock
• The Blackpine Outbreak
• The Blair Witch Project
• Blame Him
• Blank Dream
• Blood Breed
• Bloody Hell Hotel
• Blue Stinger
• Bondee's Barnyard: Safety Violation
• Bonnie's Bakery
• Boofie's Bunker
• Boogeyman
  • Boogeyman 2
• Bram The Toymaker
• Bramble: The Mountain King
• Burger & Frights
• Cafe "Venus Flytrap"
• Calling
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
• Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game
• Camp Sunshine
• Canine
• Cannibal Abduction
• Captured
• Cardiophobia
• Carrier
• Case: Animatronics
• Castle Red
• Cat in the Box
• Changed
• The Chant
• Chaos Break - incidentally, it's a sequel to Chaos Heat, a game not in this genre
• Chicken Feet
• Choo-Choo Charles
• City Shrouded in Shadow
• Claire
• Clea (2019)
• Clock Tower
  • Clock Tower (1995)
  • Clock Tower 2
  • Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within
  • Clock Tower 3
• Closed Nightmare
• CLOWN (2020)
• Cold Call
• Cold Fear
• The Coma: Cutting Class
• Condemned: Criminal Origins
  • Condemned 2: Bloodshot
• Corpse Party (some entries in the series are this, while others are more visual novel in nature)
  • Corpse Party Blood Drive
  • Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient
  • Corpse Party (PC-98)
  • Corpse Party Zero (fangame)
  • Corpse Party: Cross Fear (fangame)
  • Corpse Party if... (fangame)
  • Corpse Party D2: Depths of Despair (fangame)
  • Corpse Party D2: Fatal Operation (fangame)
• The Council of Hanwell
• Countdown Vampires
• Courage's Curse
• Crimson Snow
• The Crooked Man
• Crying Is Not Enough
• Cry of Fear
  • Cry of Fear: the Hole
• Cryostasis
• Crypt
• Cthulhu Mythos RPG: The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea
• Cursed Mountain
• D
  • D2
  • Enemy Zero
• Dark Echo
• Darkwood
• The Dark Meadow
• Dave.EXE
• Dawn Of Fear
• Daylight
• Daymare 1998
• Days Gone
• Dead by Daylight
• Dead County
• Dead End Road
• The Dead Linger
• Dead Island
  • Dead Island: Riptide
  • Escape Dead Island
  • Dead Island 2
• Dead Rising
  • Dead Rising 2
  • Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
  • Dead Rising 3
• Dead Space
• Dead State
• Deadly Premonition
• Deadly Premonition 2
• Deadnaut
• Death Park
• Deep Fear
• Deep Sleep Trilogy
• Dementium: The Ward
• Depths of Fear: Knossos
• Desolate
• The Devil Inside
• Devil's Bargain Bin (Prototype Mansion and Garden Variety Body Horror)
• Devour
• Diacrisis
• Die2Nite
• Die Young
• Digimon Survive
• Dino Crisis
• DON'T LOOK AWAY
• Don't Starve: The Screecher ^note  A total conversion mod made by Klei
• Doomy In The Roomy
• Doraemon: Nobita's Resident Evil
• Dormitabis
• Dread of Laughter
• DreadOut
• Dying Light
  • Dying Light 2 Stay Human
• Echo Night
• Eldervale
• Emily Wants To Play
• Endless Nightmare
• Endoparasitic
• ENIGMA: An Illusion Named Family
• Erie
• Escape the Ayuwoki
• Escape From Bug Island
• Escape Handsome Men Obby
• Eternal Evil
• Evil Dead: The Game
• Evil Nun
• Evil Tonight
• The Evil Within
  • The Evil Within 2
• Expedition Zero
• Extermination (2001)
• FAITH: The Unholy Trinity
• Fatal Frame (series)
  • Fatal Frame
  • Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
  • Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
  • Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
  • Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
• Fear & Hunger
  • Fear & Hunger: Termina
• Fear the Dark Unknown
• Fear The Spotlight
• Fears to Fathom
• Fever Cabin
• Five Nights at Freddy's
  • Five Nights at Freddy's
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 2
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 3
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 4
  • Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
  • Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator
  • Ultimate Custom Night
• Five Nights at Candy's
  • Five Nights at Candy's 2
  • Five Nights at Candy's 3
• Five Nights at Treasure Island
• Five Nights at Tubbyland
• Five Nights at Vault 5
• Five Nights at Wario's
• Five Nights With Mr. Hugs (& Friends)
• Flesh Birds
• Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel
• The Forest
• Forewarned
• Fossilfuel
• Fragile
• Fredbear and Friends
• Friday the 13th: Rare NES example that tries to emulate the feel of a Slasher Movie.
• Frostbite: Deadly Climate
• Frosty Nights
• Funtime with Buffy
• Galerians
• Garten of Banban
• Ghost Hunter
• Ghost Manor
• Ghostship series
• Gloomwood
• Going into the Unknown
• Gone Golfing
• The Good Grimace Shake Horror Game
• Goosebumps: Night of Scares — a Lighter and Softer entry, but still fits the genre. Has a sequel titled Dead of Night in the same page.
• Granny (Combined with Room Escape Game)
• Grave
• Grey (Half-Life 2)
• Gylt
• Gynophobia
• Hanako
• The Hanged Man
• Happy Game
• Haunted House: (Action-Adventure with some horror elements, possibly the Ur-Example)
• Harvest
• Harvester (only in the last third of the game; beforehand it's an almost entirely enemy-free Adventure Game)
• Haunting Ground
• Hayarigami
  • Hayarigami 2
  • Hayarigami 3
  • Shin Hayarigami
• Heart of Evil
• Heaven Dust
• Hell Night
• HEPH
• HIDE
• Hollow
• Hollowbody
• Hollow Cocoon
• Home Body
• The Horror at MS Aurora
• House (2020)
• Hungry Lamu
• Hysteria Project
• I Am Alive (rare example of a game in this genre where the threat isn't supernatural)
• Ian's Eyes
• Identity V
• Ikenie no Yoru
• Illbleed
• Imabikiso
• Indigo Park
• INPUT6
• In Silence
• Insanity
• Insmouse No Yakata
• In Sound Mind
• Iron Helix
• ...Iru!
• It Is Coming
• The Joy of Creation: Reborn
• JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island: (A Defanged Horrors mixture of Survival Horror and an Edutainment Game.)
• Kâbus 22
• Karen Sees
• Kio's Adventure
• KOJOUJI
• Kraven Manor
• Kuon
• Lakeview Cabin Collection
• The Last of Us
  • The Last of Us Part II
• Last Year: The Nightmare
• Leenie Boog
• Little Nightmares
  • Little Nightmares II
• Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami
• Lone Survivor
• The Long Dark
• Lorn
• Lunch Lady
• Mad Father
• Madman (2022)
• Maid Of Sker
• Majotachi no Nemuri
• The Man from the Window
• Man of Medan
• Manhunt
• Martian Gothic Unification
• Mega
• Metal Gear Survive
• Metro 2033
  • Metro: Last Light
  • Metro Exodus
  • Metro Awakening
• Miasmata
• MicaApoptosis
• Michigan: Report From Hell
• The Mimic
• Misao
• Mogeko Castle
• Mouth Sweet
• Monstrum
• Mr. Hopp's Playhouse
  • Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 1
  • Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2
  • Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 3
• Murder House
• My Dear Sister
• My Friendly Neighborhood
• Mythos
• Nanashi no Game
• Narcosis
• Near Death
• Nether
• Neverending Nightmares
• Night at the Gates of Hell
• Night Blights
• Nightcry
• Night of the Living Robot
• Night Ripper
• Night Shift
• Nightmare House
• Nightmare of Decay
• Nighttime Visitor
• The Night Way Home
• Ninja Outbreak
• Nocturne (1999)
• No More Room In Hell
• Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi
• Nostromo (link; the Ur-Example)
• Nun Massacre
• Oakwood
• OBAKEIDORO
• The Obscura Experiment
• ObsCure
• Observo
• Obusite
• Of Love and Eternity
• One Leaves
• One Night
• Onryō (2020)
• Operator's Side (aka Lifeline)
• Outbreak
• An Outcry
• Outlast
  • Outlast II
  • The Outlast Trials
• Out Of Hell
• OverBlood
• Overgrown: Genesis
• Oxide Room 104
• Pacific Drive
• Pacify
• P.A.M.E.L.A.
• The Panspermia
• Paper Dolls
• Paranoiac
• Paranormal HK
• Parasite Eve
  • Parasite Eve 2
  • The 3rd Birthday
• Pathologic
  • Pathologic 2
• Pathways into Darkness
• Penumbra (Overture and Black Plague)
• Perception (2017)
• Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners
• The Persistence
• Pigsaw
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Pocket Mirror
• Poppy Playtime
• Post-Shift 2
• Post Trauma
• Power Drill Massacre
• Pulse
• The Price of Flesh
• Project Firestart (an extremely early example of the genre on the Commodore 64)
• Project Winter
• Project Zomboid
• Propagation
• Pumpkin Panic
• The Quarry
• Pylons
• Radiation Island
• RATUZ
• Raw Footage
• Realms of the Haunting
• Redfall
• Resident Evil (Trope Namer and Trope Codifier)
  • Resident Evil
    • Resident Evil (Remake)
  • Resident Evil 2
    • Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
    • Resident Evil 3 (Remake)
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica
  • Resident Evil 0
  • Resident Evil: Gun Survivor
  • Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
  • Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
  • Umbrella Corps
  • Resident Evil Gaiden
  • Resident Evil: Outbreak
  • Resident Evil: Revelations
  • Resident Evil: Revelations 2
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
  • Resident Evil Village
  • Resident Evil: During the Storm (a Fan Game prequel to the second and third games)
• The Ring: Terror's Realm
• Rise of Nightmares
• Robinson's Requiem
• Root Letter (One game route has this genre)
• Roots of Insanity
• Rule of Rose
• Sacrifice Girl
• Saiko No Sutoka
• Saw
  • Saw II: Flesh & Blood
• Scorn
• SCP games:
  • SCP-087
  • SCP – Containment Breach
    • Nine Tailed Fox Mod
    • SCP: Secret Laboratory
• Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
• Shadowgrounds
• Shivers (1995)
• Shivers Two: Harvest of Souls
• Shut Eye
• SIGNALIS
• Silence of the Sleep
• Silent Hill
  • Silent Hill
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Silent Hill 3
  • Silent Hill 4
  • Silent Hill: Origins
  • Silent Hill: Downpour
  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
  • Silent Hills / P.T.
• Silver Chains
• Silver Falls
  • Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars
  • Silver Falls: Undertakers
• Sinister Squidward
• Siren Games
  • Siren 1
  • Siren 2
  • Siren: Blood Curse
• Sirenhead: Southpoint
• The Skeleton
• Skinwalker Hunt
• Skyland 1976
• Sleep Tight (2021)
• Slender Man games:
  • Slender: The Eight Pages
  • Slender: The Arrival
• Slendytubbies
• Slide in the Woods
• Smile
• Solitude Underwater
• SOMA
• Song of Horror
• Sonic.exe
• Sorry, We're Closed
• Soul At Stake
• South of Real
• Specimen Zero
• Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
• Spirit Hunter series:
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
  • Spirit Hunter: NG
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
• SSTR
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
  • Lost Alpha
• State of Decay
• Stay Out of the House
• Still Wakes The Deep
• Strange Terror:
  • Strange Terror From Beyond The Stars!
  • Strange Terror From The Deep
• String Tyrant
• Suffer The Night
• Survival Crisis Z
• Survivor: The Living Dead
• Swamp Sim
• Sweet Home (1989) (Trope Maker)
• Syndrome
• System Shock series
• Tattletail
• Tauronos
• Taut
• Terra Primate
• The Hidden: Source
• ThanksKilling Day
• Their Eyes
• The Thing (2002)
• Them and Us
• Theresia: Dear Emile
• The Witch's House
• They Breathe
• They Hunger
• Those Nights at Rachel's
• Today Is My Birthday
• Total Chaos
• Tormented Souls
• Touch The Dead
• Trapt
• Trenches (2021)
• Triggore
• The Twins (2020)
• Uncanny Valley
• Underhell
• Undying
• Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn
• Unfortunate Spacemen
• UNLOVED in the "Classic Horror" mode.
• Until Dawn
• Unturned
• Urban Dead
• Vanish
• Vaccine
• The Vermander Curse
• Visage (2020)
• The X-Files: Resist or Serve
• Wails For Freedom
• Walk
• A Walk in the Woods
• A Way To Be Dead
• Welcome to the Game
  • Welcome to the Game II
• Werthit
• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
• White Noise Online
  • White Noise 2
• World of Horror
• Wick
• Wick (2020)
• Witchkin
• Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife
• Yomawari series:
  • Yomawari: Night Alone
  • Yomawari: Midnight Shadows
  • Yomawari: Lost in the Dark
• Your Toy
• Yuki Onna (2020)
• Yuppie Psycho
• Zardy's Maze
• Zombie Claus
• Zombie Revenge
• ZombiU
• Zoochosis

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Action Horror games with Survival Horror elements:

• Control starts out seeming like this. You're just a gal in a hostile environment filled with these weird hissing zombies, spooky janitors and vending machines filled with white bags just labeled "Chips". And all you have is a pistol. Then you start getting superpowers, the gun turns into a weapon of mass destruction, and suddenly, the House which shifts at its own whim starts to feel a little like home... though the Cosmic Horror is still invading it.
• Doom³ borrows strongly from survival horror: Environments are dark and gloomy. You can't use your flashlight and your gun at the same time. Ammo is relatively scarce, and enemy encounters are just scarce enough to constantly keep you on your toes. The BFG Edition mostly eliminates the survival horror elements and feels more like a standard FPS.
  • The Overthinked mod cranks up the survival horror aspects. The amount of ammo you can carry is reduced to a more realistic level, One Bullet Clips is averted, and enemies are smarter and tougher.
• Eternal Evil is basically "Resident Evil with vampires". The recurring zombie enemies are called "ghouls", for instance.
• Halo gains this once the Flood show up, but it really gets it in Halo 2, where the flood are tougher, and ammo is scarcer. Particularly on the level ‘High Charity’, where the only weapons available are covenant weapons which the flood have high resistance to.
• killer7 has unlimited ammo, but the awkward control scheme and the surreal invisible enemies create a tense tone not unlike survival horror.
• Remorse: The List, an FPS loaded with extra-powerful Elite Zombies and you're granted fairly limited ammunition or weapons.
• The later Resident Evil titles qualify as this, as Resident Evil 4 gives the player ludicrous amounts of supplies by comparison (in addition to martial arts moves which are empowering), Resident Evil 5 takes it further by granting the player an A.I. partner to help them.
  • In Resident Evil 6 multiple character campaigns are available, each with different horror sub-genres: Chris' campaign is basically a straight up 3rd person shooter, although ammo management is important; Jake's campaign seems to focus on set-piece encounters interspersed with short areas with few enemies and a lot of resources to be used for the next encounter; and Leon's campaign is probably the closest to Survival Horror, as it holds a greater emphasis on the horror aspects with limited resources and long stretches without enemies (though it's only until about the middle, and even then it's still more like Dead Space than the earlier Resident Evil games).
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Those Wacky Nazis have awakened legions of undead and created mutant abominations and it's up to the Allied protagonist to kill them all in-between classic World War II sabotage missions.
• Splatter House has you playing as a strong slasher villain inspired brawler who can easily pummel the enemies he encounters into submission, provided the player can anticipate their ambushes, as being caught off guard can be disastrous. Later into the series the focus switches to beating the monsters quickly enough to save Rick's family.

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Other Games with Survival Horror Elements

• Baroque is described as an attempt to create a Survival Horror Roguelike game. It did have survival horror elements, but other than that, it's not.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum is set in a Bedlam House and builds a tense atmosphere, and the hallucinatory Scarecrow segments could fit in most survival horror games. However, most of the time the horror is you, as no matter if those mooks are armed and can easily shoot Batman dead, he's still using his stealth tactics to take them out one by one, each one getting more terrified.
• Darkest Dungeon is a roguelike involving parties of competent (if dysfunctional) adventurers able to meet the creatures of the eponymous dungeon in combat, but the management of certain vital resources (food, limited healing, and especially light) and the general oppressive feel take cues from survival horror.
• Soulsborne games have a tinge of Survival Horror to them. You have limited healing supplies, become fatigued and useless if you overexert your character with excessive attacking, blocking, or dodging, and every death can have disastrous consequences. Most of the games are standard hack-and-slash, but only if you play carefully and stick to the safer routes; if you find yourself underleveled and underequipped, holding a vast cache of exp that is destroyed if you die twice in a row, you'll have to plan your escape carefully, run away from enemies that can eviscerate you in seconds, and manage your dwindling stock of remaining healing potions as you desperately attempt to carry the cargo to the save point... or just far enough that your next runner can grab the goods from the territory of whatever Boss in Mook's Clothing destroyed you. Most importantly, you're never given a full understanding of the plot, depending on story breadcrumbs and the general setting to vaguely guess why you and everything trying to kill you is even here in the first place.
  • Dark Souls: a game that takes acrophobia and claustrophobia to its extremes. You have to scale a ruined mountain kingdom made for literal giants, fighting off monsters that have been so weathered and rotted that they no longer care about falling off a cliff as long as they can push you off first. The bright splendor of the upper kingdoms is overshadowed by the rotting, disgusting undercities filled with shambling undead, piles of corpses, and monsters that don't fit any sanitized mythology. It only gets lonelier and scarier with every sequel.
  • Bloodborne, on the other hand is a gothic horror tale about hunting beasts that are stronger and angrier than you. Unlike it's sister-game, Bloodborne has been argued as being a Survival Horror game. The entire town is infested, and for the first few hours of the game you are definitely the prey. You can't level up until you witness a boss meant to describe how thoroughly out of your depth you are, and everything from illogically-large mobs with torches and pitchforks to giant rabid werewolves will tear you and your precious blood experience to shreds. The game becomes a near-pure hack-and-slash once you learn to stop screaming in terror and start shooting them dead, but as you progress, the monsters get bloodier and stranger, and the world around you stops making sense on purpose. Puzzles and maps grow convoluted as the game world descends into madness, and you'll spend some time trying to understand what it is you've stepped into while your enemies take advantage of your obliviousness. The final level involves a giant eye-abomination taking up a sniping position while driving everything it can see insane, meaning you cannot fight this creature directly and must juggle between killing any nearby guards and running between safe hiding spots where you can calm down from your own madness.
• Following the release of P.T. in 2014, a trend emerged of Environmental Narrative Games which attempted to emulate the oppressive, threatening atmosphere of survival horror, but without placing the player character in any actual danger. Examples include Devotion, Layers of Fear and Gray Dawn. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is an edge case, as a survival horror game which features so few enemies and puzzles that it might as well be an Environmental Narrative Game, and the creators of SOMA patched in a "Safe Mode" which prevented the enemies from attacking the player character, effectively removing all threat from the game.
• Eternal Darkness often gets listed with survival horror titles for the sake of convenience but really is not. Your problems are simultaneously on a larger and smaller scale than your personal survival, and it has an extremely heavy emphasis on melee combat and unleashing powerful spells (both of which are effectively unlimited).
• Fallout: New Vegas has elements of this with the optional hard core mode, which adds heavy survival element such as weight to ammo, hydration, sleep, etc. giving you more to worry about than most Survival Horror games. However, there isn't much horror in the game, except for DLCs such as Dead Money, which is packed with enough horror to qualify and takes away all your previous items and gives you next to nothing in return.
  • The Hell on Earth mod alters the game by turning it in a Silent Hill inspired Survival Horror, with an Ominous Fog, reduced ammunition loots, horrific monsters, a Dark World named "Otherworld", and an alternate background in which the apocalypse was a failed scientific experiment instead of a nuclear war, while the Legion of Caesar is turned into cultists from the Otherworld.
  • Fallout: Dust is another mod with a similar goal, taking place after a Time Skip where the Mojave has been almost completely destroyed due to a series of disasters unfolding after the events of the original game, such as a disastrous experiment with the Cloud from Dead Money wiping out most of New Vegas, the Tunnelers from Lonesome Road finding their way to the Mojave, and the few survivors still around being homicidal psychopaths. The mod was apparently created in response to the original game not being apocalyptic enough.
• Ghostwire: Tokyo is mostly an action game with a supernatural theme, but the side mission in the school has elements of survival horror:
  • One enemy only moves when you look away, e.g. to check a clue or leave the room. You can easily knock it down, but it gets up again when you look away.
  • Another enemy deals continuous damage when you look at it. Good luck doing anything other than sneaking past that one.
• Homeworld: Cataclysm, despite being a space-based Real-Time Strategy game, has the threat of facing a tough, horrific enemy that can subvert your ships against you while you have to deal with limited resources. The fact that the enemy in question is essentially a zombie-hivemind causing bio-mechanical mutations in your subverted ships only strengthens the connotation.
• Koudelka has many elements of a survival horror game, like Breakable Weapons, limited resources, and horrific enemies. But it also has RPG random battles, equipment, and level system.
• Live A Live has a multitude of chapters with differing themes. The Distant Future chapter starts off with slightly comedic interactions between the crew members of the Cogito Ergosum ship, but soon into it the antenna array malfunctions and everything takes a long nosedive into this genre. Your character is a well-designed support robot in terms of programming, but is fundamentally helpless in the real world, and of the two enemies in the chapter, the physical one will instakill you on contact and the other is the ship's Master Computer that is trying to kill the crew.
• Luigi's Mansion, in contrast to the other platormer games set in the universe of Super Mario Bros., is a slower-paced action-adventure game taking place in the dark, spooky, titular, haunted mansion. It's essentially a Lighter and Softer Mario-themed comic parody of the Survival Horror genre, right down to a spoof of the Resident Evil loading animation though it still manages to have a dark and unnerving atmosphere. The same goes for its sequels, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi's Mansion 3.
• Metroid Fusion borrows tropes from this genre, like its claustrophobic environment, very hard-hitting enemies, the strictly linear gameplay, the profusion of locked doors, and the relentless pursuit by an invincible enemy. Some of its bosses are also absolutely disturbing and/or surreal in appearance, like BOX or Nightmare. However, it's still an action game with a player character who can tear through the landscape while acrobatically avoiding most hazards she can't blow apart. The player has to get used to being more fragile than in other Metroid games, and having to manage more uncrackable nuts from longer than ever before, but the locked doors also mean there will be fewer instances of accidentally getting in over one's head.
• Metroid Dread leans in on survival horror tropes even further with its designated "E.M.M.I. Zones." In these sections Samus is constantly stalked and chased by indestructible robots that can One-Hit Kill her if they get their claws on her, similar to the Xenomorph from Alien Isolation. Her only hope of survival is to avoid a confrontation either by running or using Phantom Cloak to hide herself. Outside of these zones, however, the game is a fast-paced 2D action game where Samus is more than capable enough to defeat any foe coming her way.
• Minecraft is usually a sandbox game, but turns to Survival Horror during the night, when the hostile mobs spawn. Without a bed in which to skip to dawn, you will have to spend all night dodging archer skeletons, zombies, spiders, creepers, and Endermen. The latter are tall, elongated, black humanoid figures with purple eyes who can teleport, and if you look directly at them, they will attack you, and probably kill you, since they're some of the strongest monsters in the Overworld.
• The Stomping Land focuses more on Rule of Cool than horror elements, but attempting to forage for resources in the forest at night is still an adrenaline-pumping experience.
• Til Morning's Light is a Survival Horror game that leans more on the Action Adventure element, but the protagonist relies on every day tools to battle enemies and must rely on their wits solve puzzles and clues. The battles with enemies play out in rhythm based fashion.
• The Core Design Tomb Raider games have elements of this though how far they lean into it depends on the individual game. Traps and late-game enemies can drain Lara's health rapidly if not outright kill her, finding powerful weapons can take a while if the player isn't good at secret hunting^note III and The Last Revelation give away having certain powerful weapons in an easy to find spot, but only few levels away from when you can first grab them as a secret, ammunition for these weapons can be just as scarce and poison enemies pretty much take away an entire medkit if they hit Lara once. On top of that, certain sections of various games are outright designed with horror vibes, like Antarctica or Ireland.
• Total War: Attila is described as "Survival Strategy" by the developers. If you're playing the Western Romans, then this is particularly true - your goal is not to conquer the map, it's to survive the collapse of your empire, the coming of winter and the arrival of the Huns and Great Migrations.
• Tyke & Sons Lumber Co. literally shifts between management-style gameplay and survival horror, as the game is based on two different ones, Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. and Five Nights at Freddy's, that use these genres, respectively.
• World of Horror is a Rogue-lite RPG that features some elements of survival horror. In particular is the overall lack of restoratives (with some healing items and spells having negative side-effects to balance out their benefits), inventory management, light puzzle-solving, and fights with otherworldly creatures where the odds are stacked against you and clever thinking can be just as important as, if not moreso than, martial prowess in surviving.
• The XCOM games and their spinoffs carry Survival Horror elements into a strategy game, requiring you to keep soldiers alive (generally) and manage your faction's strategic resources (budget, ordnance, research, approval ratings, etc.) in order to fend off humanity's extermination or enslavement at the hands of an Alien Invasion.

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