If you read our article on the
Anatomy of an Action Horror Game, you are now ready to get playing.
Surviving a Action Horror game takes a unique type of approach; it is one part Tetris style puzzle solving to one part trigger happy, "blow the brains out of anything" that moves shooter. If you're too timid you'll stay in one place trying to figure out a puzzle while some blood lusting creature sneaks up on you from behind and makes you into zombie fodder. If you're too bold you'll shoot anything that moves, run out of bullets and become zombie fodder a little bit later.
You can find success if you are able to balance it out and lay the smack down only when you need to, while quickly solving the puzzles, you may just squeak through the game with little more than a few gnaw marks on the barrel of your shotgun and a lifetime worth of nightmares. Here are some tricks that should keep you a live just a bit longer:
1. Keep that itchy trigger finger under control:
It never fails that a well done survival/horror game will always get your trigger finger a bit on edge and present you with more targets than you have bullets. A QUAKE or HALO mentality will only get you as far as what limited ammo you have. Instead, only fight when you need to and rely on dodging enemies instead of shooting up their rotting flesh. This will allow you to conserve ammo for the enemies that can't be dodged.
2. Big guns and small rooms do NOT mix:
There is nothing as empowering as getting a new weapon that makes quicker work of zombies and company. Unfortunately the child like glee one experiences when having their trigger finger on a weapon of mass destruction often overshadows common sense. Firing a grenade launcher at a zombie at point blank range will kill it, but there won't be much of you left to celebrate. Save the big guns for open spaces and for when you truly need them because the bigger the gun, the less ammo you're going to get for it.
3. Avoid areas with regenerating enemies:
It's a good guess that if you have limited ammo the programmers have come up with high traffic areas that have regenerating enemies. Limit the amount of times you have to cross these areas because chances are, the area is tightly confined and the enemies can't be dodged thus leaving you with less ammo for the tougher enemies.
4. Don't be a Wuss:
Conserve those first aid kits! Another item that is sure to be short in supplies are the ever evasive first aid kits. As with the ammo, conserve them. Those first aid kits aren't meant for when some small creature nips at your ankles. They are for when a troop of zombies decide they'd like to take a nice chunk out of you. If you're anal retentive and always like your character to stay in the green full health area you won't last long. Don't be a wuss; don't use first aid kits when all you have is a painful hang nail.
5. Search rooms thoroughly:
So you've just entered a new room after battling your way through some pretty
nasty looking creatures that would very much like to use your finger bones as
toothpicks. You're so relieved to find that extra ammo and first aid kit on the
shelf that all else really seems irrelevant. You leave the room for the next one
and come face to face with something very large and invulnerable to your tiny
little pistol. Congratulations! You're dead.
You never know what a room may contain if you don't search it thoroughly. Don't
let escaping hordes of smaller creatures blind you to what may be in a room.
Anything from stronger weapons to pieces to a puzzle can be anywhere in a room.
