Survival Horror and Co-Op. (Why It Could Work and "The Forest.")

  If there is one thing that seems to becoming more and more common place in gaming, that's indie survival horror games. Games like Slender, Amnesia and Penumbra. Games which essentially try to demonstrate that no matter what Capcom does with it's Resident Evil series, gaming can still be a scary thing.

  Now I am definitely a fan of well done horror. I enjoy suspense, weird fiction, etc. I am not a fan of what many horror film makers and game developers believe is horror nowadays. Which is jump scares and gore. Which is why I am a fan of Marble Hornets (for example) and the Slender Man mythos. 

  This is probably why I am a fan of games like Slender and (especially) Amnesia. Games with objectives, where you are faced with near impossible odds, against an near unseen horrific foe. A foe that if you see them you will die. Where there is nothing you can do but run for your life.

  With these games you really get what you are paying for. Horror, where your heart is pounding and my seven foot tall goliathian friend even screams like a girl. There is no denying there are at least a handful of games like this now coming out, or are already out and many of them I'd highly recommend. Yet strolling through Steam Greenlight recently, realising there are more and more games in this vein coming out I discovered this gem; The Forest. With this trailer;

  Now I'm not going to talk too much about the game as it is here. It does look quite awesome, taking the concept of survival a little bit more literally and including things like shelter, food and warmth and then throwing in terrifying mutant troglodytes. Sounds like a mixture perfect for horror. What I want to talk about however is the potential for co-op in survival horror games. Especially because I saw this thread on Steam Greenlight.

  First off, I'm sure developers love it when you go around telling people that their game isn't meant for certain people. Of course I'm not suggesting this game is for everyone, but you don't have to tell them it's not! Also, I think the original poster might be confusing Dark Souls for a survival horror game suddenly, which it's not. Horrifically hard does not mean Horror. Regardless I couldn't disagree more about co-op mode. Especially in a game that takes the survival element the way this game seems to. 

  One person in the thread suggests an in-game voice chat system that gets louder or quieter depending on your distance from your team mate. Which should be easy enough to do. I would take that one step further myself, make the enemies be able to hear you talking. Searching through a cave, and you're chatting away about what stuff you hope to find down here, and boom you're jumped by terrifying creatures. Suddenly co-op just become a lot harder, and a lot more terrifying. 

  The difficulty of the game does not have to change just because you have an extra person. The most obvious way to effect this would be increasing the number of baddies, or making them stronger. Yet to me it seems obvious. If in the single player game, you're only going to find enough material to fashion one decent weapon then when you can only fashion one decent weapon in co-op you actually add a level of difficulty to the game. Who gets the weapon? What do you do about the person who doesn't have one? Should they stay at camp or stick close to the guy who has the club?

  Co-op simply adds a new layer to the survival horror element, and doesn't detract from it at all. The Forest gives players the option of fashioning weapons and fighting head on, or (the probably more sensible route) of hiding. What happens if your friend doesn't hide well enough. Do you rush out to try save your friend, or do you stay safely hidden and watch them get over-run? What if it's the other way around, do you lead the creatures to you hidden friend, or do you lead them away to keep them safe? When you add another human to the mix, you don't make the game any less scary, you make it even scarier.

  You can't be certain that your best friend won't get you killed in a game like this, and if you execute it properly co-op could be even more terrifying then going it alone with the added elements of being able to talk (and make noise that gets you into trouble), working together only getting you so far and the ever present possibility that you're going to get each other killed. 

  I think it's clear that a decent survival horror game could only be complimented by a co-op experience, especially if that co-op experience is fully fledged and well executed. I also think The Forest is the perfect game to give it a go. What do all you guys think? Feel free to leave comments below or on my twitter @david_haddon.