History GuideDangIt / SurvivalHorror

** In order to determine which ending you get, the game keeps track of the player's behavior, such as how long you spend looking at certain items in your inventory or how you interact with an NPC character. The fact that the game does this is not hinted at anywhere on the first play-through.\\
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This is made worse by the fact that getting the best ending is more likely by doing some extremely non-intuitive things: allowing Maria to be attacked by monsters or otherwise take damage even though normally [[EscortMission this is the exact opposite of what you want to do]], avoiding reading the "wrong" memos found in the game, repeatedly examining certain inventory items that are never used to solve any puzzle, and leaving the room before a recording that gives plot-critical information finishes playing near the end of the game. All of these factors combined mean that many people get the worst ending on their first play-through.\\
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The game hints at the methods by a self-help magazine in the first building of the apartments, on the second floor. However, it is only available on the second play through and beyond and even if it is noticed, the player may be puzzled and brush it off as a RedHerring there only to add atmosphere. However, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, and this ending award system has its fans due to how unusual it is, and this was the first ''Silent Hill'' game where play-style influences the ending.
** In the [=PS2=] version only, getting the Dog Ending unlocks [[spoiler:a minimap and a save-anywhere function]]. Don't remember this? That's because they're hidden behind convoluted button codes, which weren't found ''by anyone'' until 2018, 17 years after the game released.
*** For added context, these specific features are part of a debug menu that was only intended to be used by QA play testers. These weren't meant for the average person to access and use at all. With that being said, use these at your own risk, because a save file could be corrupted or lost.

** Players going for a "kill all enemies" run are likely to get tripped by several groups of enemies that respawn in previously-visited areas -- the most of grating of which is Chapter 9, when a slew of enemies spawn in the area visited in Chapter 8 (the outer ramparts of the Castle), requiring a significant amount of backtracking for no apparent reason.

* ''VideoGame/{{Insanity}}'': Some players get tripped up trying to avoid [[spoiler:Kenta]]'s death, as you need specific items to save him, and it's [[ChekhovsGun not indicated that they're important to collect]]. Getting one of them also requires you to first complete a puzzle with Keisuke, but it is likely you will encounter Yuuki first and trigger the event that prevents you from playing as Keisuke, preventing you from getting the item.

** The bonus charms awarded by the Shooting Gallery minigame are generated at the beginning of each run, are distributed in a specific order from one of several loot lists (based on which combination of Tokens you insert into the gacha machine), and require significant [[{{Metagame}} metagaming]] to know which of the best charms appear in each list, and which combinations (either 3 Gold, 2 Gold[=/=/1 Silver, 1 Gold[=/=]2 Silver or 3 Silver) is best to use, particularly if the player isn't particularly skilled with the minigame.

* ''Many'' of the conditions necessary to unlock secondary objectives in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' are... unintuitive, at best, and the hints given if you're to replay a mission are typically pretty vague. It's only exacerbated by the fact that these objectives are unlocked for missions that will take place quite a bit later in the game, so it's not like one can make an educated guess on their first playthrough. Some examples include "wetting and freezing a towel so you can later create a distraction by laying it over a gap, putting a ceramic object on it, and waiting for the towel to melt," "knocking over a series of unobtrusive stone markers for no clear reason," and "telling a [[EscortMission character you're escorting]] to hide in a specific place so that she'll find a key which ''you can't see yourself,'' because if the character ''you're controlling'' were to pick up the key instead of her, the secondary objective wouldn't make sense."

** At one point in the game, Jill gets trapped in a hole and requires Barry to run off and find a rope. However, Barry takes a bit to return and there is a secret passageway to an unexplored area inside the hole that players will be tempted to enter rather than wait. You actually ''have'' to wait for Barry to return in order to get the good ending; entering the passageway will lead to the bad ending where Barry is dead.

* A recurring mechanic in the series is that you're almost never told that certain weapons or ammo types work better against certain enemies. For example, in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', nowhere are you told that the acid rounds for the grenade launcher are most effective against lickers. Although some weapons follow basic logic (e.g., fiery weapons are most effective against hairy or plant-based enemies), it still would've been helpful to know all this beforehand. The worst has to be Claire's Spark Shot, which has a limited number of bolts and is pathetically weak against regular enemies like zombies, so the player is likely to give it the raspberry and stuff it in an item box once they see this. What the game doesn't tell you is that the Spark Shot is crappy against regular enemies, but it's incredibly effective against bosses like the G-type and Mr. X.

* A recurring mechanic in the series is that you're almost never told that certain weapons or ammo types work better against certain enemies. For example, in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', nowhere are you told that the acid rounds for the grenade launcher are most effective against lickers. Although some weapons follow basic logic (e.g., fiery weapons are most effective against hairy or plant-based enemies), it still would've been helpful to know all this beforehand.

** Finding all the tiny dolls in the ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIV'' is incredibly difficult without a guide handy or knowing where they are beforehand. Some are rather easy to find, like being very noticeable under a desk or upon entering a room. But then there are some stuck in plants or in a small space only visible if you stop in the middle of a staircase.

** The clogged garbage chute, which you have to drop a case of canned juice down to dislodge a critical puzzle item (see SolveTheSoupCans).

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', clickers kill you in one hit, and the tutorial informs you that they use echolocation and can't see. You're not told that if any part of your body (other than your fist) touches any part of their body, they'll instantly kill you even if they're stunned or looking the other way. Good luck not touching an enemy you're supposed to beat to death with a brick.
** There are also achievements/trophies for unlocking all of the shiv doors, which can be easy to miss in the gorgeous sprawling, semi-linear levels with little backtracking as well as collecting all of the comic books, Fireflies pendants, artifacts, and training manuals, some of which are behind the aforementioned shiv doors and those that aren't are in corners of rooms you may not notice you can get to, or past ledges that may not immediately seem traversable. All in all getting all 141 collectibles without consulting a guide is very difficult, especially on higher difficulties where resources are significantly scarcer and more precious.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'':
** Finding and destroying all fifteen of the Mr. Raccoon toys is quite a challenge without guidance. Though a select few are in plain sight, most of them are either hidden, exclusive to each campaign, or [[PermanentlyMissableContent appear in one-shot areas that would require having to start all over if you missed it]]. The only hint you are given to their presence is the very faint rattling noise that they make.
** Specific weapons work best on certain enemies, and vice-versa (e.g. the Lickers are hurt most by the acid rounds in Claire's grenade launcher). However, the game never tells you any of this.[[note]]This is softened somewhat by being a recurring mechanic in the series, as every appearance of the grenade launcher includes elemental weaknesses. These also generally follow video game logic as well; hairy enemies tend to be weak to fire, scaly to acid, etc., with the basic rounds being the neutral option.[[/note]]

** The fountain that appears late in the game requires placing medals of a wolf and eagle into hollow slots in order to open up the staircase underneath the fountain. By this point, you'd have obtained the Last Book Vol.1 and Vol.2 but there is seemingly nothing of value to them. However, the medals are located ''inside'' these books, which requires examining them and rotating to the opening side of each book. No other puzzle in the game requires doing such. The 2002 remake at least gives an early hint at this since examining a book is required to get the sword key.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' has a fire extinguisher that must be used early in the game, but it runs empty after use leading players to store it. However, it's best to keep it in the item box rather than the security deposit box on the Prison because the fire extinguisher can be refilled once you get to Antarctica. Doing so can help put the fire out that's blocking access to the [[InfinityPlusOneSword magnum]]. The security deposit boxes aren't linked to the item boxes, so if you happen to store the fire extinguisher there instead, it becomes a PermanentlyMissableContent because you [[PointOfNoReturn won't be able to return to the Prison after going to Antarctica]]. Because of the large gap in-between each segments, there's no exact hint that the fire extinguisher will be needed again. Though the fact that you can still hold on to the fire extinguisher after it's been used up could be a clue that it can be refilled (in this series, items with no further use normally either prompt you to discard them or automatically vanish from your inventory).

** During the second Haos boss fight on Chris' campaign in the storage room, there is literally '''nothing''' that tells you that, after breaking Haos' cocoon shell with enough damage after wasting countless amounts of ammo just to get it to "cocoon" itself, Chris immediate says to "open fire", except that will not do '''anything''' to progress the boss fight further and the '''actual''' way to progress is to either use Chris's survival knife on it or [[spoiler: Piers' mutated arm]] to pierce one of its heart fragments, thus allowing you to further progress in the boss fight. Many a great first-timers felt an exorbitant amount of sheer hair-pulling frustrastion on just how the hell one can kill Haos before knowing the proper aforementioned method of what to do after destroying its cocoon shell.

** During the second Haos boss fight on Chris' campaign in the storage room, there is literally '''nothing''' that tells you that, after breaking Haos' cocoon shell with enough damage after wasting countless amounts of ammo just to get it to "cocoon" itself, Chris immediate says to "open fire", except that will not do '''anything''' to progress the boss fight further and the '''actual''' way to progress is to either use Chris's survival knife on it or [[spoiler: Piers' mutated arm]] to pierce one of its heart fragments, thus allowing you to further progress in the boss fight. Many a great first-timers felt a an exhorbitant amount of sheer hair-pulling frustrastion on just how the hell one can kill Haos before knowing the proper aforementioned method of what to do after destroying its cocoon shell.

** During the second Haos boss fight on Chris' campaign in the storage room, there is literally '''nothing''' that tells you that, after breaking Haos' cocoon shell with enough damage after wasting countless amounts of ammo just to get it to "cocoon" itself", Chris immediate says to "open fire", except that will not do '''anything''' to progress the boss fight further and the '''actual''' way to progress is to either use Chris's survival knife on it or [[spoiler: Piers' mutated arm]] to pierce one of its heart fragments, thus allowing you to further progress in the boss fight. Many a great first-timers felt a an exhorbitant amount of sheer hair-pulling frustrastion on just how the hell one can kill Haos before knowing the proper aforementioned method of what to do after destroying its cocoon shell.

[[folder:''Dead Space'']]
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'':
** In the [[WesternAnimation/DeadSpaceDownfall animated prequel]], the zombies cannot go near the ArtifactOfDoom that was dug up. But when it comes to be your turn to escort the thing, all manner of baddies can come right up to the thing with no issue. And by extension, you.
** The Valour. Sure, Pulse Rifles are weak against Necromorphs, and maybe the soldiers needed a while to grab their guns, but seriously. One Slasher - the weakest type of Necromorph - manages to kill and infect an entire ship stocked to the brim with trained soldiers wielding Pulse Rifles and wearing advanced body armour that is as good or better than Isaac's Level 5 suit. (In fairness, some of the marine corpses clearly were killed by the crashing of the ship and not a necromorph, plus, according to one of the logs you can find on the ship, most of the marines actually survived until after the Valour crashed into the Ishimura, and were killed in a running battle against a horde of necromorphs that were attracted to the ship by the crash.)
** Necromorphs are, in-story, impossible to kill. The reason you cut off their limbs isn't to kill them, it's to dismember to the point that they can no longer attack. In gameplay, however, shooting them in the chest enough will kill them eventually, albeit using up a lot of ammo and dismemberment deals high damage to them causing them to die if you cut off enough limbs even if some are remaining.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'':
** The [[http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Hacker_Suit Hacker Suit]] (an OldSaveBonus from ''Ignition'') leaves Isaac's neck and ears exposed. This should cause depressurization problems, as your ears are connected to your lungs. This problem even extends to the following game, when Isaac is wearing a variant of the Hacker Suit (albeit, with no helmet), and gets shot into space soon after when the hull depressurizes and ejects him out just before he can put on the helmet for the EVA Suit. As before, he suffers no damage from the few seconds spent shooting through space before he puts the helmet on.
** Titan's atmosphere has a surface pressure about one and a half times that of Earth's. On the other hand, Titan's ''temperature'' at surface level averages around -180°C, so while pressure wouldn't be a problem, hypothermia certainly would. [[MST3KMantra Eh.]]
** No real space suit would have an air supply of 3 minutes or less, but it is good for dramatic moments.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'':
** A particular case that results in content being impressively bipolar in its execution involves the second player character, John Carver.
*** Unlike most optional co-op games, players who use both Isaac and Carvver get unique dialogue and cutscenes if he is present. This includes several exclusive co-op missions that have different visions for the players and different gameplay encounters based on who's controlling who. The problem occurs with the ''rest'' of the plot. Despite his presence, Carver won't (or can't) help Isaac during certain cutscenes, in order to keep the continuity of the plot flowing. This is exemplified in one of the early cutscenes, where Isaac is wounded just before Danik drags him to his feet and begins the Marker event -- Carver (in co-op) is standing behind Isaac, but the cutscene outright states that Isaac is the only one who survived the ambush on the extraction team. Just after this, Carver is shown standing awkwardly around as Isaac wakes up and rolls out of the pile of bodies he fell into a few moments earlier.
*** The game still finds ways to keep Carver present, if non-participatory, for boss fights in single-player mode, so that his "helper" dialogue (mostly things like "hit its weak point for massive damage!") doesn't seem to come out of nowhere. That said, it ''also'' causes problems when the later single-player cutscenes have Carver and Isaac talking to each other like they're close buddies, despite the fact that he only randomly shows up when he needs to deliver exposition (and not at all at other points).
*** This even extends to the opening prologue sequence, where the finale (Serrano executes the soldier before shooting himself) makes no sense if there's a second soldier who happened to be accompanying the first and they both survived.
** This phenomenon is zig-zagged when it comes to cutscene damage. Isaac's health will go down when he gets punched in the face or crash-lands on planetary reentry, but there are other scenes where he falls off several cliffs or gets a nasty gash to his head and his health bar is unaffected. Notably, when you crash onto Tau Volantis, the suit Isaac is wearing is completely undamaged from the impact -- ''unless'' you're wearing the EVA Suit, in which case, the armor has noticeable damage (with a unique model), Isaac's face is partially bloodied (and has frost on it).
** Considering the emphasis Unitology put on preserving dead human bodies in their entirety during Dead Space 2, their liberal use of suicide bombers in DS 3 veers into this trope.
** Being forced to make use of the SCAF's abandoned gear on Tau Volantis because nothing else is available is a reasonable explanation for the game's new DesignItYourselfEquipment mechanic when the player reaches the system. It doesn't explain why ''everyone'' is using those cobbled-together guns - even Norton and Carver when they "recruit" Isaac on Luna, as well as the Unitologists, an organization so well-organized and funded that, during the opening of the game, they are able to execute a ''coup d'etat'' against [=EarthGov=] and become the ''de facto'' rulers of the human race.
** During sidequests to Tau Volantis, you can occasionally come across preserved corpses from the Expedition 200 years ago (IE Tucker Edwards). If stomped on, they react like freshly-slain human corpses in terms of spurting blood and such.
** Despite the segment leading up to its acquisition emphasizing upon the danger of hypothermia, the Arctic Survival suit is not actually required to advance. Any RIG would do, in fact.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Resident Evil'']]
* The earlier entries in the franchise can be hell without a proper guide, considering the open-ended nature of each of the games, the complex puzzles that need to be solved, and the large amount of backtracking that's usually required for essential items. Though the games do provide hints on how to solve each individual puzzle, they're either too vague or there's a pretty good chance one might skip over it since there's often a lot of reading involved. This is especially frustrating if one would be attempting to complete a speedrun.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1''
** The fountain that appears late in the game requires placing medals of a wolf and eagle into hollow slots in order to open up the staircase underneath the fountain. By this point, you'd have obtained the Last Book Vol.1 and Vol.2 but there is seemingly nothing of value to them. However, the medals are located ''inside'' these books, which requires examining them and rotating to the opening side of each book. No other puzzle in the game requires doing such. The 2002 remake at least gives an early hint at this since examining a book is required to get the sword key.
** At one point in the game, Jill gets trapped in a hole and requires Barry to run off and find a rope. However, Barry takes a bit to return and there is a secret passageway to an unexplored area inside the hole that players will be tempted to enter rather than wait. You actually ''have'' to wait for Barry to return in order to get the good ending; entering the passageway will lead to the bad ending where Barry is dead.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'':
** Finding and destroying all fifteen of the Mr. Raccoon toys is quite a challenge without guidance. Though a select few are in plain sight, most of them are either hidden, exclusive to each campaign, or [[PermanentlyMissableContent appear in one-shot areas that would require having to start all over if you missed it]]. The only hint you are given to their presence is the very faint rattling noise that they make.
** Specific weapons work best on certain enemies, and vice-versa (e.g. the Lickers are hurt most by the acid rounds in Claire's grenade launcher). However, the game never tells you any of this.[[note]]This is softened somewhat by being a recurring mechanic in the series, as every appearance of the grenade launcher includes elemental weaknesses. These also generally follow video game logic as well; hairy enemies tend to be weak to fire, scaly to acid, etc., with the basic rounds being the neutral option.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' has a fire extinguisher that must be used early in the game, but it runs empty after use leading players to store it. However, it's best to keep it in the item box rather than the security deposit box on the Prison because the fire extinguisher can be refilled once you get to Antarctica. Doing so can help put the fire out that's blocking access to the [[InfinityPlusOneSword magnum]]. The security deposit boxes aren't linked to the item boxes, so if you happen to store the fire extinguisher there instead, it becomes a PermanentlyMissableContent because you [[PointOfNoReturn won't be able to return to the Prison after going to Antarctica]]. Because of the large gap in-between each segments, there's no exact hint that the fire extinguisher will be needed again. Though the fact that you can still hold on to the fire extinguisher after it's been used up could be a clue that it can be refilled (in this series, items with no further use normally either prompt you to discard them or automatically vanish from your inventory).
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'':
** There are 30 BSAA emblems hidden throughout the game that you can shoot to unlock certain bonus features, but when we say hidden, we very much mean it. Especially noteworthy is the second-to-last emblem, which requires you to throw a grenade at one of the open crates due to being ''literally'' out-of-sight, with no outward hint it's there or why this particular open box is special (a number of boxes in the same level are used as [[MonsterCloset monster closets]]).
** The game does not tell you that you can perform specific melee attacks from the very start. Chapter 3-1 has a clipboard that introduces the player to such attacks, but only the basics of it. This is especially frustrating considering how useful melee would've been prior to this discovery: it can save ammo, the player and their partner can do very damaging combo attacks if they chain them together, and doing one after shooting a human enemy's knees and facing their back instantly kills them and totally prevents the enemy from mutating into more powerful enemies.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'':
** The final version of the "Beginning Hour" demo gives a purpose for the Dummy Finger item, as it's attached to a dummy hand, then used in conjunction with several clues to point out the location of murders that took place in the house. The clues themselves aren't too hard to decipher, but the processes for obtaining them can be very unintuitive and oblique. The final clue, in particular, is not only ''absurdly'' hard to discover through experimentation alone, but every walkthrough for the demo lists different prerequisites for making it appear!
** Finding all Antique Coins and Mr. Everywhere bobbleheads in the large and cluttered Baker plantation is a difficult experience. While the Psychostimulants and unlockable X-ray glasses can make this easier, since they literally show where every item is in your location, there's still a few hidden in tight locations you may not think to look through.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak'':
** Try figuring out how to get all the SP items without a guide, much less try figuring out that they're even there in the first place since it's entirely possible to complete the whole game many times over without ever realising that they're there. And the "set" of items spawned on the map is determined by a [[{{LuckBasedMission}} random variable]] and further confusing people, some can only be obtained on certain difficulties and by certain characters. Have fun. Your reward for all of this? [[{{AndYourRewardIsClothes}} Costumes and alternate character models that play identically to existing characters]].
** A less annoying example but still valid, is that in order to complete the Event Checklist for each scenario and therefore unlock an extra mode, you are required to ''kill yourself'' in a specific way on ''two separate occasions''. One isn't so bad to figure out and might be accomplished by the player for [[{{VideoGameCrueltyPotential}} laughs or just out of curiosity]] but the other requires the player to stand around for close to ''two minutes'' while nothing happens with no indication that anything even ''will'' happen there.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'':
** Attempting to get the good ending is achieved by switching to Moira in the middle of a QuickTimeEvent at the end of Claire's episode 3 when the boss [[spoiler:(Neil)]] lands on Claire and knocks the gun out of her hand, resulting it to slide to Moira. In the previous two episodes, the game often drilled it into the player that Moira would never use guns under any circumstances and it generally isn't possible to switch characters in the middle of said QTE's. Only by leaving the tutorial function on and waiting 3 seconds does the "Switch Character" command appear, hinting at the possibility... long after a player may have turned it off.
** Slightly less irritating are the traps in the first factory area in the same episode arc. You'll often find writings on the wall which are meant to guide you, but aren't always clear enough. Examples include the spiked ceiling to put the eye back on after it breaks a taller statue holding a key then a room full of lasers where you have to follow a set of blue footprints made visible by Moira's [[{{SeeTheInvisible}} flashlight]] then using the glass eye found there in the first trap area.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'': The game has four endings, based on combinations of two factors that the game barely hints at. The first factor is what percentage of hauntings Henry exorcised in his apartment (threshold is <80% or 80%+). The second is how much damage Eileen takes while in Henry's care. As Eileen is damaged it is hinted that [[spoiler: Walter Sullivan begins to possess her.]] At the end of the game, [[spoiler: when you fight the Big Bad, Eileen will be possessed by Walter Sullivan and will walk to her death, unless the player kills the Big Bad and stops her. The faster she travels is directly correlated to how much damage she took over the course of the game (less damage = higher resistance to possession = slower speed). Note that even if Eileen took no damage throughout the course of the game, she can still die if you fail to save her in time.]]

** Similarly, to get the good ending when playing as Chris, Chris has to save Rebecca from being killed by a Hunter. However, for this to even happen, Chris must refrain from entering the guard house, and ''this'' either requires saying no to her in the storeroom or fail to bring Richard the serum in time.