Survival horror is a subgenre of horror games. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and vision, or through various obstructions of the player's interaction with the game mechanics. The player is also challenged to find items that unlock the path to new areas and solve puzzles to proceed in the game. Games make use of strong horror themes, such as dark mazelike environments and unexpected attacks from enemies.
Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four mainline video games in the series—Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill 4: The Room—were developed by an internal group called Team Silent, a development staff within the former Konami subsidiary, Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo from 1999 to 2004.
Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror game developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, and published by Konami. The game was released from September to November, originally for the PlayStation 2. The second installment in the Silent Hill series, Silent Hill 2 centers on James Sunderland, a widower who journeys to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife. An extended version containing a bonus scenario, Born from a Wish, and other additions was published for Xbox in December of the same year. In 2002, it was ported to Windows and re-released for the PlayStation 2 as a Greatest Hits version, which includes all bonus content from the Xbox port. A remastered high-definition version was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012 as part of the Silent Hill HD Collection. A remake developed by Bloober Team was released on October 8, 2024.
Siren, known as Forbidden Siren in the PAL region, is a 2003 survival horror stealth video game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It was originally released in Japan in November 6, 2003, and in other regions between March and April of the following year.
Silent Hill is a 1999 survival horror game developed by Team Silent, a group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, and published by Konami. As the first installment in the Silent Hill video game series, the game was released exclusively for the PlayStation. Silent Hill uses a third-person view with real-time rendering of 3D environments. To mitigate the limitations of the console hardware, developers used fog and darkness to obscure the graphics and hide pop-ins, which, in turn, helped establish the game's atmosphere and mystery. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character of Silent Hill is an "everyman".
Team Silent was a development team within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET), responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004. Later titles were developed by non-Japanese companies such as Climax Studios, Double Helix Games and Vatra Games. According to a Silent Hill: Homecoming artist, Team Silent was ultimately disbanded by Konami itself, because Konami wanted Western developers to make the games. KCET was merged into the parent company in April 2005.
Keiichirō Toyama is a Japanese video game director and designer, best known as the creator of the Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush franchises.
Gravity Rush 2, known in Japan as Gravity Daze 2, is a 2017 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio's Team Gravity division and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The sequel to Gravity Rush, the game was released for the PlayStation 4 in January 2017. Directed by Keiichiro Toyama, the core mechanic of the game is the player's ability to manipulate gravity, allowing unique movements and navigation. The game follows Kat, a gravity-shifting teenage girl and super-heroine, after she is drawn from her home of Hekseville into another universe and must liberate the citizens of Jirga Para Lhao from its evil rulers.
Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. Formerly the video game development division for Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. and serving as a first-party developer for the company, it was best known for the Ape Escape, LocoRoco, Patapon, Gravity Rush, and Knack series, the Team Ico games, Bloodborne, The Legend of Dragoon, and Astro's Playroom. In April 2021, Japan Studio was reorganized and merged with Team Asobi and other SIE studios.
Gravity Rush, known in Japan as Gravity Daze, is a 2012 action-adventure video game developed by Japan Studio's Team Gravity division and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Vita. Gravity Rush Remastered, a high definition remaster developed by Bluepoint Games for the PlayStation 4 was released in 2015 in Japan and 2016 in the West. In Gravity Rush, players control Kat, an amnesiac with the power to manipulate how gravity affects her, and uses her powers to help the people of Hekseville against the mysterious Nevi, helping its people against threats and uncovering the mystery behind her past. Gameplay has Kat exploring the open world of Hekseville, completing missions for townsfolk and defeating Nevi. Navigation and combat heavily involve Kat's gravity-altering abilities.
Bloober Team S.A. is a Polish video game developer based in Kraków. Founded in November 2008 by Piotr Babieno and Piotr Bielatowicz, the company is best known for developing horror games such as Layers of Fear (2016), Observer (2017), Blair Witch (2019), The Medium (2021), and Silent Hill 2 (2024). In January 2018, Bloober Team received the Paszport Polityki award in the "Digital Culture" category. It owns third-party publisher Feardemic.
Sam Barlow is a British video game designer, best known as the writer and designer of Her Story, the two British Silent Hill games Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Telling Lies and Immortality. He previously worked as a game director at Climax Studios, before leaving in 2014 to become an indie game developer. He published his first independent game, Her Story, in June 2015. In 2017 he founded Half Mermaid, a video game production company based in Brooklyn, New York.
Silent Hills is a cancelled horror game developed by Kojima Productions that was to be published by Konami Digital Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It was in development since 2012 until its cancellation in 2015. It was to be the ninth main installment in the Silent Hill series, and was to be directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro.
Takayoshi Sato is a Japanese video game character designer, writer, and CGI director. Sato is best known as being a member of Team Silent from 1996 to 2003 and was responsible for creating the CGI cutscenes for Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2.
Kat, known in Japan as Kitten, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Gravity Rush series. A young woman with retrograde amnesia, she awakens in the city of Hekseville after falling from the sky, and sets out to discover the origins of her power to shift gravity. She becomes a hero to the people of the city after defending them from the threat of mysterious creatures called the Nevi. Her powers stem from Dusty, a supernatural, catlike organism that is bound to her, and whom she later realizes is a type of being known as a guardian. Her rival and, later, ally is Raven, a fellow shifter with a crow guardian named Xii who is said to be Kat's other half.
Remothered: Tormented Fathers is a 2018 survival horror video game created and directed by Chris Darril, developed by Stormind Games and published by Darril Arts. The game was originally released digitally on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. A Nintendo Switch version was released digitally in 2019, in collaboration with developer Dico Co., Ltd. The game was also released physically in October 2019 by publisher Soedesco.
The Dark Pictures Anthology is an anthology series of interactive drama and survival horror video games developed and published by Supermassive Games. The anthology is planned to consist of eight games, with each game inspired by a different horror genre. Each game features five main characters whose survival depends on the choices made by the player. While each character only appears in one game, face models are often reused in other games, except those of the leading actors. The games use a third-person perspective and the ability to choose from various dialogue options and courses of action.
Abandoned is the tentative title for an upcoming survival horror game being developed and published by Blue Box Game Studios, an independent video game company based in The Netherlands. Described as a "cinematic horror survival shooter" featuring "realistic" gameplay mechanics, Abandoned's premise centres around Jason Longfield, who must escape a forest after being kidnapped. A playable teaser of Abandoned, titled Abandoned: Prologue, is also in development and is planned to be released before the main game.
Toyama is the transliteration of several Japanese surnames.
Slitterhead is an upcoming 2024 action-adventure game developed and published by Bokeh Game Studio. The game is scheduled to release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on November 8, 2024. Upon release, it received mixed reviews from critics.
