Survival mode

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Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges. [1] A variant of the mode requires that the player last for a certain finite amount of time or number of waves, after which victory is achieved and the mode ends. [2] Survival mode has been compared to the gameplay of classic arcade games, where players face off against increasingly stronger waves of enemies. [3] This mode was intended to give the game a definite and sometimes sudden ending, so that other players could then play the arcade game as well. [4]

Contents

Survival mode in tower defense games

Rampart , released in 1991, is the first prototypical survival game mode in tower defense games. [5] Survival mode is particularly common among tower defense games, such as Plants vs. Zombies . [6] where the player must improve the defenses of a specific location in order to repel enemy forces for as long as possible. [7]

Survival mode in fighting games

Power Instinct , released in 1993, added a survival game mode, called 'Life Attack' to their Super Nintendo Port in November 1993. [8] Street Fighter II: The World Warrior on the Game Boy introduced the mode in 1995, and both Tekken 2 and Street Fighter EX included the mode in 1996 and 1997 respectively.[ citation needed ]

Survival mode in cooperative shooter games

Killing Floor , originally a total conversion mod for the game Unreal Tournament 2004 , first released in 2005, introduced the cooperative wave-based survival game mode. [9] [10] Popular games that have a survival mode include zombie games such as those in the Left 4 Dead series, [11] games in the Call of Duty series following Call of Duty: World at War , [12] Gears of War 2 introduced the term "horde mode" as an alternative name for survival mode, [1] and subsequently picked up by other games such as World War Z . [13]

Survival mode in sandbox games

Many sandbox games, such as Minecraft , take advantage of this game mode by having players survive the night time from a variety of monsters, such as skeletons and zombies. [14] Another sandbox game, Rust , uses both non-player characters and other players as enemies, inviting player vs player combat in order to survive in the game's environment. [15]

Related Research Articles

Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive structures on or along their path of attack. This typically means building a variety of different structures that serve to automatically block, impede, attack or destroy enemies. Tower defense is seen as a subgenre of real-time strategy video games, due to its real-time origins, even though many modern tower defense games include aspects of turn-based strategy. Strategic choice and positioning of defensive elements is an essential strategy of the genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

<i>Garrys Mod</i> 2006 video game

Garry's Mod is a 2006 sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve. The base game mode of Garry's Mod has no set objectives and provides the player with a world in which to freely manipulate objects. Other game modes, notably Trouble in Terrorist Town and Prop Hunt, are created by other developers as mods and are installed separately, by means such as the Steam Workshop. Garry's Mod was created by Garry Newman as a mod for Valve's Source game engine and released in December 2004, before being expanded into a standalone release that was published by Valve in November 2006. Ports of the original Windows version for Mac OS X and Linux followed in September 2010 and June 2013, respectively. As of September 2021, Garry's Mod has sold more than 20 million copies. A successor, Sandbox, has been in development since 2015.

<i>Killing Floor</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Killing Floor is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed and published by Tripwire Interactive. It was originally released as an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod in 2005. A full retail release followed on May 14, 2009, for Microsoft Windows, and for OS X on May 5, 2010. A version for Linux was released via Steam in November 2012.

Survival games are a subgenre of action games which are often set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by finding the resources necessary to manage hunger, thirst, disease and/or mental state. Many survival games are based on randomly or procedurally generated persistent environments; more recently, survival games are often playable online, allowing players to interact in a single world. Survival games are generally open-ended with no set goals and often closely related to the survival horror genre, where the player must survive within a supernatural setting, such as a zombie apocalypse.

Facepunch Studios Ltd is a British video game developer and publisher headquartered in Birmingham, England, founded in June 2004 and incorporated on 17 March 2009 by Garry Newman. The company is most known for its sandbox video game Garry's Mod and survival game Rust. Facepunch is currently developing s&box, which is regarded as a spiritual successor to Garry's Mod.

<i>Plants vs. Zombies</i> (video game) 2009 tower defense video game

Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 tower defense video game developed and published by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the game has since been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. The player takes the role of a homeowner amid a zombie apocalypse. As a horde of zombies approaches along several parallel lanes, the player must defend their home by placing plants, which fire projectiles at the zombies or otherwise detrimentally affect them. The player collects a currency called sun to buy plants. If a zombie happens to make it to the house on any lane, the player loses the level.

<i>Terraria</i> 2011 video game

Terraria is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows and has since been ported to other PC and console platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting, and combat with a variety of creatures in a procedurally generated 2D world. Terraria is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling 58.7 million copies as of 2024.

<i>Project Zomboid</i> Open world survival horror game

Project Zomboid is an open-world, isometric video game developed by British and Canadian independent developer The Indie Stone. The game is set in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested exclusion zone of the fictional Knox Country, Kentucky, United States, where the player is challenged to survive for as long as possible before inevitably dying. It was one of the first five games released on the alpha funding section of the gaming portal Desura.

<i>CastleMiner</i> 2011 video game

CastleMiner is a 2011 video game developed by American indie studio DigitalDNA Games and released on Xbox Live Indie Games on July 27, 2011. It is a block-building sandbox game that uses Xbox Live Avatars as the player characters. Less than four months after its initial release, a sequel to the game called CastleMiner Z was released on November 9, 2011. A third game, CastleMiner Warfare, was released for Windows PCs in 2013.

<i>No More Room in Hell</i> 2011 video game

No More Room in Hell is a cooperative first person survival horror video game, created by Matt "Maxx" Kazan and initially developed as a modification on Valve's Source game engine. Set in a zombie apocalypse, the player assumes the role of one of eight remaining survivors, with a focus on co-operation and survival. The game can be played through "Objective" or "Survival" mode. It is heavily inspired by George Romero's Living Dead series, with the title being a reference to Dawn of the Dead, specifically the line "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.", and some characters being references to other films such as American Psycho and The Big Lebowski.

<i>Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare</i> 2014 third-person class-based shooter video game

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a 2014 multiplayer third-person shooter and tower defense video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. The third game in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, the basic premise revolves around plants defending humankind from a zombie invasion. In the game, players assume control of either the Plants or the Zombies, as they fight in various cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Upon completing matches and finishing objectives, players earn coins to acquire stickers that unlock customization items and character variants.

Rust is a multiplayer survival video game developed by Facepunch Studios. It was first released in early access in December 2013 and received its full release in February 2018. Rust is available on Windows and macOS. Console versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One developed in conjunction with Double Eleven were released in May 2021. Rust was initially created as a clone of DayZ, a popular mod for ARMA 2, with crafting elements akin to those in Minecraft.

<i>Contagion</i> (video game) 2014 video game

Contagion is a survival horror first-person shooter video game, developed and published for PC by American independent studio Monochrome. It is the spiritual successor to Zombie Panic! Source. The game was mostly self-funded of its development, but with the support of others via a successful Kickstarter campaign, it was able to be released on Steam as an Early Access title. Contagion released on October 25, 2013 as a Steam Early Access title and was published as full release on April 11, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Survival</span> Concept; act of surviving

Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things, to physical object, and to abstract things such as beliefs or ideas. Living things generally have a self-preservation instinct to survive, while objects intended for use in harsh conditions are designed for survivability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SethBling</span> American video game commentator and live streamer (born 1987)

SethBling is an American video game commentator and Twitch video game live streamer known for YouTube videos focused around the 1990 side-scrolling platform video game Super Mario World and the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. He created original and derivative video games, devices and phenomena in Minecraft, without using Minecraft mods. He created an interpreter for the programming language BASIC and an emulator for the 1977 home video game console Atari 2600 in Minecraft. In addition to Minecraft builds that run without mods, he created plugins for the game.

<i>Call of Duty: Mobile</i> 2019 video game

Call of Duty: Mobile is a 2019 first-person shooter video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Activision for Android and iOS. Released as a free-to-play title, it was one of the largest mobile game launches in history, generating over US$480 million with 270 million downloads within a year. Call of Duty: Mobile was published in other regions by Garena, Tencent Games, VNG Corporation and TiMi Studio Group.

<i>Vintage Story</i> 2016 sandbox survival game

Vintage Story is a sandbox survival game developed and published by Anego Studios. The founders of Anego Studios, Tyron and Irena Madlener, began development on a standalone version of an earlier mod for Minecraft called Vintagecraft in April 6, 2016 and became available for owners of a "game key" in September 4, 2016. It became publicly available for sale in September 28, 2016. An old version of the game is available for free download. The game is in early access and can be played in singleplayer or multiplayer modes.

<i>Orion: Prelude</i> 2012 video game

Orion: Prelude is a first-person shooter and online cooperative multiplayer game, developed and published by Spiral Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. In the game, armed players work together to defend generators against dinosaurs.

References

  1. 1 2 Glasser, Aj (15 October 2008). "Gears of War 2 – Horde Mode Is The Way To Go". Kotaku. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  2. ↑ Rodgers, Scott (2010). Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design. John Wiley and Sons. p. 383.
  3. ↑ Osborne, Joe (11 October 2011). "Empires & Allies Survival Mode: Everything you need to know". Games.com. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  4. ↑ Osborne, Joe (11 October 2011). "Empires & Allies Survival Mode: Everything you need to know". Games.com. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  5. ↑ Mitchell, Luke (June 22, 2008). "Tower Defense: Bringing the genre back". PALGN. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2008.
  6. ↑ Hatfield, Daemon (18 January 2011). "Plants vs. Zombies DS Review". IGN. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  7. ↑ Walker, John (5 May 2009). "The Plants Vs. Zombies Review". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  8. ↑ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 464. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 January 1994. p. 35.
  9. ↑ de Matos, Xav (22 March 2009). "Killing Floor mod gets standalone Steam release". engadget . Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  10. ↑ Grubb, Jeff (26 March 2018). "The 2000s-era mod scene prepared Killing Floor dev for living games". venturebeat . Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  11. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (22 April 2009). "First impressions of Left 4 Dead's survival mode". Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  12. ↑ McElroy, Griffin (25 October 2008). "Call of Duty: World at War co-op mode pits players against Nazi zombies". Joystiq. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  13. ↑ Wales, Matt (20 July 2020). "World War Z's latest update brings cross-play support to PlayStation 4". Eurogamer . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  14. ↑ Miller-Watt, Josh. "Minecraft beginner's guide". GamesRadar . Future plc . Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  15. ↑ Caldwell, Brendan (28 March 2014). "To Hell With Other People: Nine Lives in Rust". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved 27 September 2018.
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