From roughly 2002 the survival horror type games began to advance in there design. Primarily this was adding more action to the games, this involved bringing in more monsters to compensate for more ammo and guns given to the player. These dominated the market for survival horror games as people could get into the horror genre but feel like they could fight back more than in a typical survival horror.
"The Thing" in 2022 by Computer Artworks was one of the first games to give the player more ammunition. This was compensated for by the fact that most monsters still needed to be burn to death and they limited the flame thrower ammunition. The Thing also gave itself a trust/fear style mechanic so that the player could meet other characters but you wouldn't know if you could trust them, or them trust you. So sharing weapons, ammo and helping them kill monsters helped build trust.
Capcom released DOOM3 in 2004 and continued with the the classic DOOM style gameplay that we all saw in the earlier versions, but now it was all re-vamped with better technology, better effects, better atmosphere, sounds and a stronger storyline. DOOM3 still used its orignaly style mechanics with lock and keys and surprise monsters that would spawn out from anywhere, walls closets, doors holes and more. DOOM3 was also success.
While DOOM was sticking to its previously proven successful roots, others seemed to latch onto the success and began turning Action horror into the more mainstream over the typical Survival horror. With Resident Evil 4, Capcom turned its typical game play style by making the series more action based. More zombies, more ammo and faster movement, as well as changing the camera into an over the shoulder camera meaning a better action style play for the game.
This was followed up later on with Resident Evil 5 in 2009, which continued the exact same style of play accept it carried on the Resident Evil story with Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. While highly successful in terms of sales fans ere dissapointed with the the way the franchise is going and hopes for a return to the classic Resident Evil style are growing.
New franchises turned up such as FEAR in 2005 by Monolith Productions which was heavily action orientated with lots of weapons and gun fights, but it also struck a code with its dark scary ideas inspired by Japanese horror with a young evil child playing a key role within the story known as Alma. Again this was successful and was followed by a sequel in 2009 in FEAR 2.
Game series like Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark sequels also incorporated more action into there games, although each game did it in its own way. In 2008 Valve Released Left4Dead which played off a zombie apocalypse but allowed for 4 players to work together to try and survive. Here they would have access to weapons and lots of ammo, but had to reach certain points to gain more. This was important due to the fact that zombies were everywhere and could run at the players in groups swarming them. This used teamwork as an important factor to keeping the players alive as downed players could be picked back up by colleagues. The multi-player also allowed for the players to play the part of the creatures. Left4Dead fit into the more action style horror very well and did so successfully by being a big seller, which also spawned a sequel in Left4Dead2.
EA also tried there luck with a new franchise with Dead Space in 2008, again this was popular and successful with it spawning a Dead Space 2 in 2011. Dead Space showed some similar style scars that had been used in DOOM3 back in 2004 but with its unique storyline and monsters that mysterious swarmed the Ship that the player goes to investigate the player is left outnumbered and uses a variety of worker tools to defend himself rather than using typical style shotguns, machine guns and pistols. This also played on the fact that enemies had to be compeltey destroyed and the player couldn't just hope for a head shot. for a one hit kill. Dead Space also made use of the over the shoulder camera that was previously seen in Resident Evil 4.
While these games brought action heavily into the horror genre, there were a
few games that actually kept to the original formula while simply expanding in
different ways for it so that it didn't end up as just another Resident Evil
clone. "Obscure" released in 2004/2005 stuck the much slower and lack
of weapons and ammo formula very well but advanced the game play by adding a
clever 2 player co-op. This worked by the game actually having 5 playable
characters but the player was able to switch between any of them at any time. A
second player could actually drop in or out at any time as well. Strapping
flash lights to weapons and using the light to scare away monsters that want to
stay in the dark. This was a successful formula that helped spawn a sequel in
2007.
Frictional games also showed that the original formula was not stale, making
Penumbra Overture in 2007 where a lone player found themselves searching for
there fathers mystery in a cold mysterious mine, against monsters with no
weapons and only clever wits to find there escape. Penumbra was frightening
with a scary eerie atmosphere and daunting creatures that you know you can't
compete with. This spawned sequels of Penumbra Black Plague & Requiem.
After getting themselves noticed they perfected there formula into Amnesia
The Dark Descent which is know as possibly the scariest game ever made.
