A Genre That Doesn’t Exist Yet?

Arsic

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
The last few days I've been playing a fair amount of Metroidvanias. In particular I'm just floored by how amazing Metroid Prime Remaster is.

Which lead me to think, do people consider this a metroidvania? The first person perspective and shooting may lead people to think it's a FPS first which it really isn't.

This lead to me thinking about how much I recently enjoyed Callisto Protocol, and am currently also finally doing dead space remake on PC. This made me think how close survival horror games are to Mvanias especially resident evil. The back tracking to unlock is generally to new keys you get though and not a new power.

Herein leads me to think "woah… what if you had a survival horror metroidvania!?"

A sci fi TPS style where you are essentially getting upgrades and finding secrets but the usual pants pooping of horror happens. DSR is the first horror game since EW1 I have actually been getting spooked or feel the suspense hanging in the air.

This doesn't exist. I haven't been able to find a true horror metroidvania. People list dumb shit like Carrion or Hollow Knight when I look online and make my eyes roll so hard you'd think they may explode off to the side and out the socket.

—-

What other genre or mash togethers don't exist that you think are a no brainer recipe for success?
 
Survival horror and metroidvania?
Evil Within 2 is the closest i've played like that, semi open world with backtracking and you unlock previously closed homes/batiments to explore, you got skill points too and new abilities...
 
Aldynes said:
Survival horror and metroidvania?
Evil Within 2 is the closest i've played like that, semi open world with backtracking and you unlock previously closed homes/batiments to explore, you got skill points too and new abilities...
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Yeah still isn't it. I'm thinking more akin to Metroid. Hidden secrets you can only get to once you have a specific weapon or ability, capability to go multiple routes right out the jump, etc.

Survival horror games are quite similar but not quite the level of exploration you get from a MV.
 
What about System Shock? That one has exploration, unlocking new areas, backtracking and all that plus having to manage your resources.
 
Arsic said:
Yeah still isn't it. I'm thinking more akin to Metroid. Hidden secrets you can only get to once you have a specific weapon or ability, capability to go multiple routes right out the jump, etc.

Survival horror games are quite similar but not quite the level of exploration you get from a MV.
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I feel like Metroidvania and Survival Horror (which technically isn't even really a genre) are hard to combine specifically due to that ability unlocking element.

you'd probably become too powerful, which in return would make the survival aspects too dumbed down.
or it would be too much survival focused, with very unimpressive new abilities, which would make exploration annoying.
 
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TintoConCasera said:
What about System Shock? That one has exploration, unlocking new areas, backtracking and all that plus having to manage your resources.
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Still waiting for a sale on PS5. Never goes on sale. :/ So I can't comment. Demo didn't show enough and didn't feel scary at all?

kevboard said:
I feel like Metroidvania and Survival Horror (which technically isn't even really a genre) are hard to combine specifically due to that ability unlocking element.

you'd probably become too powerful, which in return would make the survival aspects too dumbed down.
or it would be too much survival focused, with very unimpressive new abilities, which would make exploration annoying.
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Survival horror isn't a genre? Wut m8?

By the end of most resident evil games you're a force of destruction with all the weapons and ammo plus upgrades you have. That's what the harder difficulties exist for to limit ammo and create more aggressive/damaging enemies. Often leading to avoid some fights to conserve ammo.

I think a good developer can overcome these potential traps for player agency and power scaling easily.
 
Arsic said:
Still waiting for a sale on PS5. Never goes on sale. :/ So I can't comment. Demo didn't show enough and didn't feel scary at all?
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Scary is subjective (I don't think it is either) but it shares some elements with survival horrors, like puzzles and resource management.

You should give the remake a go some time. Hope it gets on sale soon.
 
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Arsic said:
Still waiting for a sale on PS5. Never goes on sale. :/ So I can't comment. Demo didn't show enough and didn't feel scary at all?
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The remake isn't that scary, but the second System Shock is truly unsettling, thanks in large part to its retro visuals and some of the best audio design ever in a horror game.
 
Small-scale, open-world immersive sim with a True Detective S1-style murder mystery or overarching "Satanic cult" plot.

Imagine LA Noire in a small town where every NPC is a potential suspect and every interior is enterable and fully modeled with potential clues.

You can attempt to solve the mystery the standard way or use unethical/orthodox tactics like breaking into homes to find evidence, intimidating witnesses, paying off informants, etc. All while leveling up and increasing your skills to pass certain skill checks ala Fallout: NV.

In addition, time is passing in game as you play, making the entire investigation potentially change, even without your intervention. And of course, the things you do have an impact on the world as well.

The level of interactivity and responsiveness to your actions would essentially mandate that the game world be quite small--like a town of 50 NPCs or something--but I think it could be super compelling if done right.
 
Gonzito said:
A transgender simulator? no wait Dragon Age Veilguard came out
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Carrion:

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I can't think of many genres that didn't have at least one random game made for them, so I will list 2 genres that I want revived:

A full-fledged Fighting Game RPG with dungeon crawling (Tobal No. 1 and 2)
First person beat-em-up (Zeno Clash, Breakdown)
 
Yeah having more tool and ability based upgrades added to a game like elder ring or resident evil would be great. We need a good horror Zelda mashup!

As far as new genres, I suspect when AI chatbots and other AI features are more fully evolved and integrated we will see some new genres. For example there's a potential for a game genre where the narrative, world, and even gameplay systems are created on the fly in unique interactive ways between the player and the AI that controls the game. I'm not a d&d player but I think something along lines of a dungeon master type roll for AI. I give it 10 years.
 
Arsic said:
Survival horror isn't a genre? Wut m8?
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well, it's not a game genre no. describe me the game mechanics of a horror game... you can't, because Horror is not a genre, it's a theme.

Resident Evil is an action adventure with survival elements. that's its proper genre


Arsic said:
By the end of most resident evil games you're a force of destruction with all the weapons and ammo plus upgrades you have.
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in the RE games that have Survival elements, the best you usually get in your first playthrough is a shotgun with limited ammo, and some special weapon with VERY limited ammo. you aren't running around with a rocket or grenade launcher out in your first playthrough...

you can't give the player an attack based ability with limited ammo in a metroidvania, so abilities would need to either all be movement based or VERY weak... to the point where they are at most as viable as using the knife in RE1.

and btw. RE4 isn't a survival game anymore, neither are 5 and 6, so those don't really count here. in those you can get really powerful, but those have no real survival elements anymore as ammo for your standard weapons isn't limited, neither is healing or saving items. all of them get dropped as needed by killed enemies.
 
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Arsic said:
I feel like GTA6 could just offer this as a separate "realism" mode difficulty or something.
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I think the AI would have to behave so differently it wouldn't be that easy. Really doing it justice would be a massive undertaking, basically an entirely different game with the same assets. Not to mention the traffic law angle.
 
While it's gameplay design only partially fits the ticket, in returnal you get a grappling hook which increases your ability to move during combat situations an access previously unreachable areas and it doesn't take away from the sci fi horror vibe of the game. It wouldn't be too hard to just have weapon upgrades in a game like resident evil that allow you to blow through barriers to previously blocked areas (some kind of bomb to destroy partially broken looking walls or a flamethrower that burns away Vine covered areas). All of these are very metroidvania style upgrades that would fit fine with the horror genre.
 
kevboard said:
well, it's not a game genre no. describe me the game mechanics of a horror game... you can't, because Horror is not a genre, it's a theme.

Resident Evil is an action adventure with survival elements. that's its proper genre




in the RE games that have Survival elements, the best you usually get in your first playthrough is a shotgun with limited ammo, and some special weapon with VERY limited ammo. you aren't running around with a rocket or grenade launcher out in your first playthrough...

you can't give the player an attack based ability with limited ammo in a metroidvania, so abilities would need to either all be movement based or VERY weak... to the point where they are at most as viable as using the knife in RE1.

and btw. RE4 isn't a survival game anymore, neither are 5 and 6, so those don't really count here. in those you can get really powerful, but those have no real survival elements anymore as ammo for your standard weapons isn't limited, neither is healing or saving items. all of them get dropped as needed by killed enemies.
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So much to unpack here, but I'll just focus on the survival horror isn't a genre of games.

Would you place Minecraft, a survival game, in the same league as Dead Space? No.

Would you place a walking simulator horror game like Still Wakes The Deep into the same bucket as Evil Within? No.

Survival horror can generally be third or first person and refers to games such as RE1,RE2, Dead Space, Evil Within, RE7, Callisto Protocol and many more.

It's also what these games are listed under when you search for their genre as well.

You can redefine however you see fit but then you're on the same mind path as people who think there are fucking more than 2 genders. I'd rather live in reality with the rest of us normal people lol.
 
I'd be extremely interested in F1 game(s) recreating historical seasons or rules (like the V10 engines era). Sure we had classic F1 cars (and tracks) in various titles, but it was always quite random and you never had more than 2-3 old F1 cars in one game that actually competed against one another in real life. The idea is probably too niche as a lot of F1 fans are only interested in following the current season.
 
Connificent said:
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Walking Simulator is already a genre. Walk a lot. Shoot sometimes isn't particularly interesting.

Arsic Arsic Survival Horror Metroidvania? I've always dreamed of a game where it was Metroid Prime meets Doom 3 meets Alien Resurrection/Isolation but haven't seen one ever happen. Would love it though. It's one of my dream games.
 
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