Survival mode, or horde mode, is a

game mode In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics define how a game works for players. Game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide player actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, wh ...

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. 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. Survival mode has been compared to the gameplay of classic arcade games, where players face off against increasingly stronger waves of enemies. 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.

Survival mode in tower defense games

Rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...

'', released in 1991, is the first prototypical survival game mode in

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a Video game genre, subgenre of Strategy video game, 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, usual ...

games. Survival mode is particularly common among

games, such as '' Plants vs. Zombies''. where the player must improve the defenses of a specific location in order to repel enemy forces for as long as possible.

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. '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' on the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

introduced the mode in 1995, and both '' Tekken 2'' and ''

Street Fighter EX is a 1996 fighting game originally released as a arcade game, coin-operated arcade game for the Sony ZN hardware. It is a Spin-off (media), spin-off of the ''Street Fighter'' series co-produced by Capcom with Arika and was the first game in the ...

'' included the mode in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

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. Popular games that have a survival mode include zombie games such as those in the '' Left 4 Dead'' series, games in the ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...

'' series following '' Call of Duty: World at War'', '' Gears of War 2'' introduced the term "horde mode" as an alternative name for survival mode, and subsequently picked up by other games such as '' World War Z''.

Survival mode in sandbox games

Many

sandbox game 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 objec ...

s, such as ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'', take advantage of this game mode by having players survive the night time from a variety of monsters, such as skeletons and zombies. Another sandbox game, ''

Rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

'', uses both

non-player characters A non-player character (NPC) is a Character (arts), character in a game that is not controlled by a Player (game), player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaste ...

and other players as enemies, inviting player vs player combat in order to survive in the game's environment.

References

{{Video game gameplay Video game terminology