Most Influential Horror Games of All Time

Anyone who plays horror games knows just how terrifying they can be. It's like a walking alone through a haunted house, designed by a guy who takes haunted houses so seriously that you wouldn't be surprised if he murdered you and hung you in the attraction as a decoration. There isn't a more terrifying way to scare yourself.

Well, at least it's almost as scary as appearing on Maury with an EX you'd like to pretend never happened.

But this is not a list of scariest games of all time. Plenty of people do that list, although they leave off Ecco the Dolphin. That game scared the shit out of little 7 year old me.

I can still hear the screams...

No, I want to talk about games that revolutionized the horror video game genre. These are games that pushed the boundaries of what a horror game can do. Love them or hate them, these are the most influential horror video games of all time.


Castlevania (1986) - The Horror Platformer

 Now this game was not survival horror, it was really an action platformer with a horror theme. Castlevania was probably the first video game to take on horror movies and terror as a theme, and do it well. Lest we forget terrible horror adaptations on the Atari, like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game.

Still trying to figure out if that's a chainsaw or just his penis with a bad case of the herp.

You play as Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter. In the game you arrive at Dracula's castle but before you can get to him you have to fight through hordes of undead creatures, many of them taken from the old Universal Monster movies.

The game was an action platformer where you used, your whip, holy water, torches, axes and anything else you can find to take down the baddies. It was a lot of fun but also kinda creepy.

 Even though it may not look like much now, this game actually made me anxious as a kid. When Mario or Sonic die they jump off screen like a cartoon. However when Simon Belmont died they would really die.

While the Castlevania games never gained the popularity two other games that came out on on the NES around the same time. Super Mario and Legend of Zelda. This game was definitely a landmark in scary games.

But overall, this game is really more of an action game with a horror theme. Kinda like halloween decorations at your house. But it lead to tons of other similar games like Splatterhouse, or Monster Bash.

Remember Monster Bash? Remember how if you only had the demo you could only play so many levels then it asked you to call in and make a payment to buy the full game?

Because I remember.

I'll never forget.

You broke my heart Apogee, you broke my heart.



Alone in the Dark (1992) - The Survival Horror Genre is born

Long before we were shocked by the zombies of Resident Evil, and before the shambling meat sacks of Silent Hill, there was Alone in the Dark. This game was really the precursor to modern survival horror games and it came out a full 4 years before the first Resident Evil. This game was actually placed on the PC back in the day when you had to back out into DOS to get into the game. Yeah DOS remember that? If you're younger than 25 or 30 you probably never had to deal with this shit.

Didn't ya just love having to learn DOS commands

You play as either Emily Hartwood or Edward Carnby, a private investigator. You're looking into the suicide of a man in an old mansion long rumored to be haunted and connected to the occult. It starts with you visiting the place where he hanged himself and the shit hits the fan from there.

But before you can dust your hands and say job well done you find that the rumors are true and the house really is haunted as fuck. The entire game is based on you escaping said masion using your fists, blunt objects or any other weapons you find around the house as you're attacked by zombies, rat creatures, ghosts, and more.

The game featured fixed camera angles, decent if not cheesy at times voice acting, good music, and (make all the polygon jokes you want) this shit had some pretty impressive graphics at the time. Remember at this time the most impressive thing we'd seen graphically was Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat. It really was a bit of a marvel at the time winning all sorts of awards.

It's interesting to note how much Resident Evil pulls from this game. The ability to pick either a male or  female character. Being locked in a mansion that is much more than it seems from the outside. The fixed camera angles, the use of zombies and other undead creatures, puzzles and searching for key items to progress through the game, finding old letters and background info on the place.

In so many ways Alone in the Dark lead to Resident Evil and Silent Hill and the majority of survival horror games that would follow.

Clock Tower (1995) - Hiding, multiple endings, randomly generated map

The next really big change for horror games was released only in Japan, but it slowly made it's way over to the states by the way of ports and ROMs. While most people think of the Playstation version of Clock Tower, very few realize that it started in the Super Nintendo in 95'.

You play on of five orphans who for some reason are being trotted out for some rich family that lives in a mansion in the middle of the woods. I guess in this universe, you choose used cars the same way you choose children.

yes yes, I'd like to purchase 3 or so of your children. And of course I'd like to know the return policy in case I don't like one of them. 

Shortly after arriving you get separated from your friends, and they seem to all disappear. So you're forced to wander the mansion trying to find clues as to what happened to your friends and unravel the mysterious history of this place.

You discover all sorts of fucked up shit, from torture chambers, satanic rituals, mutants, cannibals, and some really ugly decorating. Turns out the owners are more insane than a pack of Trump Supporters.

This is much scarier than any horror movie or game

The whole time you're doing this you're being stalked by ....

Sure I know what you're thinking that guy's no pyramid head or Nemesis, but let me tell you something. You like to come home to this guy with this mug.

Imagine him poppin' out from behind your couch with those damn oversized garden shears.  Of course you wouldn't want that. Although his little schoolboy's outfit doesn't take away from the unease. But what the game incorporates that was really original was the fact that you can't fight him. Your character doesn't really have any attacks, you have to run and hide. 

Basically every time you get caught you have to run ahead and hide in a spot before he can see you hiding there. If he doesn't spot you he wanders on and you can proceed. But if he see's you go in there...

What leads to the replayability of this game is the inclusion of multiple endings depending on how much you explored. Also several things are changed every time you play. The main hallways are the same but the doors will always lead to different rooms that are picked randomly with every playthrough. The game encourages you to explore because the more clues you find the better ending you may get. Also adding to the randomness is the fact that the scissorman pops up at random in the game. Sometimes you look behind a curtain and there’s a key. Next time you play and look behind the same curtain and there he’ll be.

Seriously!?! Behind the curtain. What are you 10?

You play the game point and click style. Having that separation from the character really leaves you feeling helpless when you get attacked. So you have this really crazy run and hide system. When you get attacked you have to run to get far enough ahead but that isn’t enough. You’ve got to find a hiding place, but you have to be far enough ahead of him so that he doesn’t see you crawling into that hiding spot. Plus considering the doors all lead to different places you have to make sure you don’t run into a dead end and get yourself cornered. By the way the game has no save points so if you do get killed, you're kicked back out to the title screen. You could say your playthrough was cut short. 

I apologize. 

Resident Evil (1996) - Remake (2002) -- Horror Goes Mainstream, Crimson Heads

This game was a real... head turner *puts on sunglasses*

Resident Evil was the big one. This was the one that really put horror gaming on the map. I didn't know any guy my age who wasn't crazy about this game. I was so terrified I had to watch someone else play it the first time around. I also included the 2002 remake because it took the original game and added so much too it. 

The resident Evil Remake does so much right. It takes one of the greatest horror games of all time and makes it even better than it was before. Updating the graphics, some of the acting and the creepy atmosphere. Man I can’t play this game too long alone at night before getting really creeped out. Walking dead has made killing zombies look super easy, and sometimes fun. This game reminds us exactly how creepy a reanimated corpse that is trying to rip the flesh from your bones can be.

Someone tells you slow zombies ain’t scary... make them play Resident Evil.

You play a member of a special ops team investigating disturbing murders in the forest and find yourself trapped in a mansion by undead bloodthirsty creatures. Either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. It also has one of the first really effective jump scares. 

Now if I'm being fair here, the game isn't quite as revolutionary after you've played Alone In The Dark. Resident Evil basically picked up their recipe and made it a little better and updated the graphics. But I can't imagine that the Survival horror Genre would be the same if this game hadn't come out and brought it to the attention of mainstream audiences. 

Going back to the 2002 remake, the truly creepy thing that this game added to an already atmospheric and extremely creepy game was the crimson heads. In the game you could kill a zombie with about 6 bullets from your pistol. However that didn’t mean they stayed dead. The game has lots of puzzles so there was a fair amount of backtracking. So you had to keep going past rooms that contained zombies you’ve killed in the past. But every so often they would come back. And they don’t come back as a slow, moaning, George A. Romero Zombie, they came back as a snarling, biting, wide eyed 28 Days later zombie. These guys mean to fuck you up.

shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!!!!!

But the scary part wasn’t when they came. It was going back to that room anticipating them coming. I don’t know how many times I avoided rooms and took a longer route around because I knew I killed a zombie in there a while ago and I knew there was a good chance that he got back up. There were ways to kill them for good. You had to destroy the brain or burn the body. But getting the items or having the ability to do that is pretty rare. In fact most items were pretty rare in this game. You had to be really careful about using your guns because there were way more enemies than you are given ammo. And if you waste all of your bullets on the small time enemies and ran out before a big boss... well then you were pretty much shit outta luck and had to start the game all over. 

Don't waste those shots!!!

What really works about this game was the way that it keeps you on edge. You never really feel safe in the game. Sure it has it's great jump scares but I remember just being in rooms or hallways and being afraid of the door bursting open and zombies coming in. The game had this creepy system where if a zombie chased you up to a door, after leaving that room the zombie would sometimes burst through the door following you. 

After you realize that even in empty rooms a zombie could just break it's way in, the player begins to feel unsafe even in the empty rooms. The game works wonders with negative space. You're constantly worried about a zombified dog jumping through a window, or a monster kicking in a door or one of the things you already killed reanimating again. And on top of that the game was really violent for it's time. 

Overall it’s an awesome and horrifying game.

Silent Hill (1999) - Surreal horror

The Silent Hill series has got some of the most unsettling creatures of any video game. As the lines between the land of the living and the land of the dead are blurred, it becomes really tough to play through certain parts of the silent hill games. 

Silent Hill took what Resident Evil did to really jumpstart the survival horror genre and it made it even scarier. Resident Evil had set rules. It was a bioweapon that turned people into flesh eating monsters. It was science fiction...

Okay okay, so it's very light on the science part of the fiction

but science none the less. I mean it's got rules. Silent Hill goes into the supernatural. So it's basically rules.. out the fucking window with that. NO RULES. It had the same respect for rules that French New Wave films had for the traditional narrative structure. 

What the hell is going on here? What's this now?

In this game you come lost in a sort or land of the living and dead. The images and creatures here aren't of our world. Resident Evil was limited to a Mansion, in Silent hill you have a whole town to play in. 

Anything can happen in this game and you have no way of telling how deep down the hellish rabbit hole the game will take you. No longer were games bound to be realistic, now you could pretty much do anything you wanted. 

Bruh...

These creatures had no shape or form. They were terrifying because you were attacked by giant meat sacks. It was pretty horrifying. I can't imagine what horrible thing the creators saw that inspired them to draw such creatures. 

Oh no that's fine, i didn't need to keep my breakfast down

Now while I'm much more familiar with the Resident Evil Series I've only watched my friends play through these creepy ass games, and you don't have to be super familiar with them to recognize the impact they've had on the genre.

Tons of games use really interesting nightmarish monsters now. It took some of the best parts of Resident Evil, such as the jump scares an creepy atmosphere and expanded on it. What's unsettling is that there is so much without explanation in Silent Hill. So many strange and creepy things that are designed to haunt your dreams.

Although I think we can agree, the scariest thing in that game was that damn shakespeare puzzle.




Eternal Darkness (2002) - Breaking the 4th wall and other mindfuckery

 While there are a few games that break the fourth wall this game was the one that really did an awesome job of it.

You play Alexadra Roivas who came to see her uncle’s will after he is mysteriously killed in his mansion. While there you find a book full of stories about a war amongst ancient demons trying to break their way out of the dimension they live in and make it into the land of the living.  The game is told through stories from different people from different time periods. The game spans centuries and jumps backwards and forwards in time as your main character reads different stories. In a sense the game is almost like a horror anthology.

But what’s really cool is the insanity feature. Every time you look into the eyes of a monster it takes some of your sanity. While this won’t kill you it changes the game. The screen tilts. You begin hearing whispers and eventually hallucinations.

Regular humans may appear as monsters in an attempt to trick you into murdering allies. Sometimes you’ll walk into a room and your head will just pop of. I mean your fucking head just pops off and rolls along the ground. But then it does things that play with your senses. The game will act like it froze or  the picture will change as if you sat on the remote.

Other times if you try and save the game will pretend like you pressed a wrong button and say Deleting all Saves leading you into a moment of "no no no no no no no no!"

It will even stop and go “thanks for playing the demo of Eternal Darkness. Order the full game for 39.99”

Very cool.

Now breaking the 4th wall is a regular trick used in certain games. From the 3DS game Spirit Camera that allows you to see ghosts in your house. To indi games that threaten to wipe your hardrive if you die in the game.  Or the really creepy My Little Pony game where after you die the game boots you out and changes your computer's background to creepy images. Or the the creepy dialogue from charactes like Flowey in Undertale or Dr. Stross in DeadSpace 2. 

This is a trope that I hope we get to see used more and more creatively.

Now here's a game that could use a really awesome HD revamp or remake. Or better yet, give us a damn sequel!!

Resident Evil 4 (2005) - Return of the Action Horror Game

You can argue where or not it's impact on the genre was negative or positive but I think we can mostly agree that Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube is to this day is one of the best attempts at mixing horror and action. It’s not nearly as scary as Resident Evil but I can play this game over and over again and not get tired of it. It’s really the most fun you can have being scared.

So much fun

We've had action horror games before, lord knows there are dozens of Castlevania games. But I'll argue that no game has done horror/action better before or since this game. In this game the emphasis isn't on mazes and creepy corridors. You're basically an action hero facing off against hordes of the undead/infected. In all honesty this game has more in common with a Die Hard Film than previous Resident Evil games. 

But all of that works toward its advantage. The game manages to have some legitimately creepy moments, all while including action sequences that not only feel great, but are so much fun to pull off. Plus the deaths are every bit as violent as in earlier games in this franchise. 

The game sold really well across 3 separate platforms. However The downside of the success of this game was all of the copy cats. There were several games that tried to mimic RE4's success, including future Resident Evil games. Many of them missed what made RE4 great. The change in atmosphere, diverse types of gameplay, relatable and likeable characters, clear direction, and really tight controls make this one of my absolute favorite games ever.

It was also the first place I remember seeing action command sequences in an action game. Most people credit God of War as being the game  that popularized that but Resident Evil 4 beat it by a few months. Don't get me wrong both are very fun games but this innovation, which we hadn't seen since the dragon's lair arcade game, crossed from horror to action gaming and really to all sorts of games.

And to top it off it somehow stays scary at points. While the game is definitely leaning on the action side, creatures like the regenerators and the monks keep the game scary. 

Overall, if you haven't played this game then it's definitely worth picking up on Playstation or Wii.

God... It's so much fun.

Bioshock (2007) -- Much more than Horror

The Bioshock series is honestly one of the most cerebral and thought provoking video games I've ever played. I think it has one of the most powerful stories and messages that I've ever seen. You play Jack, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Atlantic. When you go into a lighthouse to look for help you end up transported to a city under the sea.

What you find there is pretty horrifying.

I'd rather not spoil too much of the plot so I really suggest playing the game if you haven't already and please don't look up the ending. It's got probably some of the most amazing twists and turns in videogame history. And I'm really good at guessing twists in movies before they get there. And this caught me completely off guard. 

What's brilliant about this game is that it doesn't just do the horror really well, it has a really powerful story and theme. I could do an entire blog post about how it's a criticism of the philosophies of Ayn Rand and her book Atlas Shrugged. But tons of Youtubers have done that topic to death.

However just the fact that this game has people discussing Ayn Rand and capitalism, racism, religion, altruism vs egoism, and other really complex subjects. This isn't an easy feat but they did it so beautifully in this game.

I do fully realize that this isn't the only game with a complex and interesting message. But it was one of the first really mainstream games to do so in the horror Genre. But I fully admit that some games that are less known have done it before.

If you ever get the chance to play this game, pick it up

The lasting impact Bioshock had was the ability to hell a cohesive and powerful story through a video game. While most Horror games don't seem to have writers smart enough to come up with a story as well done as bioshock, lots of indy games are now thinking outside the box and using similar unconventional methods of storytelling to get across a truly powerful story. Look at games like Alan Wake or the Story of Isaac. At the end of the day this is a powerful series and I really hope that we get more truly thought provoking narratives just like it.

Slender (2012) --- Slender: The Arrival (2013) - The expansion of independent horror games + random enemies + The Oculus Rift

Remember when Slenderman was all over the internet? I mean it was everywhere. Remember when the game was all over the place? That was so long ago.... NO! No, it wasn’t. It was like a year ago!! Fucking millennials have no sense of time.

While Slender may not have been the first independently created horror game it really was the one that put these games on the map. The game was and still is brilliant for such a simple concept.

You play a person in the woods at night with possibly the worst flashlight in the world. You are tasked with finding 8 notes hidden in random spots in this area. However as you search for the notes you are being stalked by the Slenderman. The more notes you find or the longer you play the more aggressively he chases you. Your goal is to find all of the notes before he catches you.

Why are you collecting these notes? Don't know, Perhaps you just hate litter. Why is the Slenderman after you? Don't know, maybe he's a bully who likes to pick on kids who like to read. Who wrote the notes? We'll never find out the answer to any of these questions but we don't have to, the mystery keeps it creepy.  

The problem with most games up until now was that everything was scripted. The jump scares, the monsters, everything. However in this game the Slenderman appears randomly in the park. So everytime you play he can appear from a different angle or come from a different place. That's what makes it creepy to play. You really never know when it's going to show up. And of course this game was followed shorty with the first scary game reaction videos.

If you were careless enough or slow enough to get yourself caught you were rewarded with a jumpscare. What this game did was show how very simple graphics and a super simple game can end up freaking people out. I know that the image of the slenderman in the game isn't scary, is a pretty low res polygonal character.

However the inclusion of the creepy theme music that plays, plus the static sound effect when he's near, and the jump scare sound when you see him truly makes it a scary experience. I can look at the game, or watch someone else play it. But as soon as I do it, my palms get sweaty and my heart begins to race.

This game was also a catalyst to let's plays and reaction compilations. It's a regular thing now but when this first dropped there were tons of people on youtube filming themselves playing these games, something that's  really become it's own genre at this point.

After the success of this there were countless stupid spinoffs that followed the same formula. Drop off the main character in a sandbox, release some "thing" to stalk  them as they explore the area. There are all sorts of versions of the game including ones where you're chased by Santa Claus, Spongebob Squarepants, the Teletubbies, and My Little Pony characters.

They followed up the original with another game that made another huge advancement in horror game kind. The use of the oculus rift.

This thing is the future of horror games. What creepier than playing a horror game on tv? Having one surround you, truly immersing you in the horror experience. While people didn't get as hyped for this game as they did for the first one you have to admit that now tons of games are using the Oculus Rift. In fact you can find dozens of let's players on youtube right now, playing all the different Oculus Rift horror games.

For all of these reasons, love it or hate it, I'd argue that the Slender games may be the most influential horror games this decade.

5 Nights at Freddy's (2014)  -- Tension

Three are 2 types of people on the internet. People who LOOOOVE talking about FNAF, and people who are fucking tired of hearing all about FNAF. 

I feel like both from time to time. But despite how you may feel about this game or it’s shitty sequels. FNAF 4.... you’re still cool but FNAF 3 sucks shit through a straw.

The first game really took a simple, simple, SIMPLE premise and made it into a game. It basically tells you something may come through this door and try and kill you. Talk about a shitty job. Security guards really need to stand up to their boss. 

Seems like the security guards belong to the same union as the storm troopers who stand on a pillar 4 stories up with no guard rail. 

To play this game you have to turn your back to that door. The fact that you franticly have to look around for monsters or things trying to kill you causes the player to feel just an intense feeling of panic. Freddy is built on jump scares. 

Jump scares basically act as punishment in the game. Keep track of multiple things, if you don’t, you get a jump scare. And this is not an easy game. It’s complicated as fuck. Actually no it isn’t it’s simple but it’s difficult as fuck. It's like juggling torches, simple concept but plan to get burned a lot until you get better through practice. 

The game also has an insanely cryptic storyline. The creator realized that people on the internet will come up with insane theories about everything. So he made his game super cryptic knowing that it would spark discussion, theories, interest and sales. There are whole forums of people discussing what hidden clues they found or what tiny inconspicuous detail is the key to the whole mystery.

Whether you love or hate this game series, you have to admit the power it has. It's made dozens of spinoffs with a stationary character. It's even more minimalistic than Slender. And the fact that they've merchandised the shit out of this game I think really points to how huge an impact it's had on gaming. 

You're really milking the fuck out of this franchise ain't ya. Want to know how I know that you're milking it? From the fact that you've spread this game into a franchise tells me you're milking it. PT (2014)  - playable trailer

While slender may be the most, pardon the pun, game changing, PT is definitely the most impressive. It WAS downloadable for the Playstation 4, as a playable teaser to a game. While very few details were given if you actually managed to beat the teaser it turned out to be a brand new Silent Hill game. This was so amazing in so many ways.

Your character wakes up on the floor in a dark room. You walk through a door and enter a hallway that seems to be on an endless loop of itself. As you traverse through the hallway things get creepier and creepier, as you hear whispers, footsteps, babies crying, and even some inhuman creatures.

The game allows you to piece together some pieces of a puzzle. However you only have so long to do so before you're confronted pretty much without warning by...

The game for one has pretty much photo realistic graphics. The subtle use of imagery and the circular route you're forced to take is both unnerving and terrifying as the game always gives you the feeling that this time as you turn the corner something horrible will be waiting for you. The game is scary but not in a cheap way.

Not only did the game get critical acclaim in is viewed as one of the most original and amazing teasers to anything ever put together.

Which begs the question what the FUCK was Konami thinking when the canned this game???

Konami, I know you're listening. You've probably garnered the most hated of any one in 2015. Well... probably most hatred after these fucking assholes.

I would never wish death on anyone. But if we could take Donald Trump, Martin Shkreli, and Roosh V and his followers and stuff them into a rocket and shoot them off to a nearby planet, world would actually be a much better place. But Konami I suppose you'll just keep on with whatever it is that you're planning.

Well either way PT has left an undeniable impact on gaming. Several games are including sections reminiscent of the hallway scene. Developers have talked excitedly about doing something similar. But mostly it reminded us of what real horror should be like. Not cheap jump scares but a genuine sense of dread that grows as the game goes on.


Until Dawn (2015) - Playable horror movie

While this game has just come out it really left an instant Mark. Until Dawn is basically a playable movie where you get to decide who lives and who dies.




The game follows the story of a group of friends who meet up at an oddly secluded mountain resort. You don't really play as one character, you actually take control of all of them at different parts. As I mentioned the game plays out much more like an interactive movie than a video game.

Through the game you get to make choices for the characters and choose the dialogue. SO basically you can decide how douchey you want this gang of young adults to be. Depending on the choices you make, the characters may all die, or none of them may die. Basically it's a horror movie that you can replay making different choices to see how many kids you can get to survive, or if you can get them all killed because, let's be honest: this is a horror game, and some of these people are annoying as shit.

While this game only just came out, they're already talking sequels and spin offs and several other games are looking into doing similar things. Until Dawn was a pretty unique experience but creating an interactive horror film was not only creepy but one of the times that it's actually just as fun to watch as it is to play.

So now that we're in 2016 I can't help but wonder where we'll head next. One thing is clear, horror games are just getting better and there's no telling what we'll be playing in a few years.






Honorable mentions

Sinistar

This was one of the first arcade games to actually talk to you. It was set apart from other space shooter games because you were staked and chased by this creature who actually taunted you and had  a terrifying death roar. Also he was a one hit kill enemy that you had to collect special bombs to even hurt. It was immune to your gunfire, and if you let it get too close you were done for.

Fatal Frame 2

Probably some of the creepiest, scariest ghosts I've seen in a video game. This was seriously a game that could keep me up at night. What's scarier is because you have to take pictures of the ghosts to stop them it forces you to look at them. A mechanic that other games, specifically on the Nintendo DS have adopted.

The Thing

I loved the whole trust/distrust thing. You never knew who was an alien and who wasn't this game truly toyed with your  sense of paranoia and fear.





Happy Trails!