It was amazing in the day, most retro games feel janky nowadays, it’s amazing how far controls and cameras and controls have come.
I’m trying to play resident evil 4 on the switch after BoTW, it’s so hard to go backwards to that control system and camera.
If the original RE4 was rough to you, then be prepared for some serious jank if you do check out the original AITD games, lol.
It is worth checking out for the history behind it at least - to my knowledge they were the first horror games w/3D character models/pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles (the style the OG RE games would later copy).
Still a totally different vibe than the RE series though (RE being more gory, and AITD having more of a Lovecraftian inspired setting).
Part one is pretty goofy-looking, but has its moments. Parts 2 and 3 had better graphics but a less compelling plot. [You can get the entire trilogy for $6](https://www.gog.com/en/game/alone_in_the_dark_the_trilogy_123), though, so it's a moot point.
The PSX/Dreamcast game *Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare* was the last decent one. The series has been on a major decline ever since, and [even the recent remake is pretty divisive](https://www.metacritic.com/game/alone-in-the-dark/).
Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember loving it. Good gamplay and writing, and there would be weird little instances to add a kind of meta horror: It would look like roaches were crawling across the screen, the game would freeze, and a string of random numbers would scroll to simulate a corrupted save, etc.
That game was cool. It had an insanity meter, and the higher that meter would get, the more weird stuff would happen. Also, that game featured three elder gods and the only way to get the true ending was to beat it three times. Really good fun creepy stuff.
I just streamed this not too long ago on Twitch and uploaded the run to YouTube. I was going to suggest this as well. An amazing game, even though I think my copy was cursed.
I saw a playthru of Sweet Home on NES a year or two ago. Gave me some top-down Maniac Mansion vibes with RPG gameplay, if I remember. Combats and spooky mansions. I believe it was a direct inspiration to BioHazard/Resident Evil.
I don't think it ever actually came out to the US, but fan translations exist?
I'm a huge Resident Evil and RPG fan. Don't know if you like RPG's but if you do then you'll probably be like me and LOVE Sweet Home. The music gives it such an erie atmosphere and the exploration feels very much like the original Resident Evils.
I scrolled through the comments looking for this one specifically.
I’m currently playing this for the first time. Well worth it. Starting the game was a little confusing since I didn’t have the manual or was there a tutorial. But once I got how to use the menus and controls, I’ve been having a blast. I would recommend this game. Defiantly has that resident evil feel.
Koudelka is my favorite. It's an horror Jrpg, the predecessor of the Shadow Hearts series. Combines Resident Evil-like exploring with Jrpgs. Not everyone likes that combination but the great voice acting (at least in my language version. Don't know how well the English dub is received) and even some motion captured cutscenes makes this feel like a way more modern game as most other horror games on the PS1.
Alone in the dark is also great, although pretty clunky to play.
How do you feel about FMV games? If you're open to the idea, Phantasmagoria is a classic. Friday the 13th and Shadowgate on the NES. American McGee's Alice is a weird kind of scary, like getting dosed with ambien at a dinner party. Kind of janky but I'd recommend it if you can get it running. There's a HD texture pack that improves the graphics a bit.
I've got Dread Delusion on my wishlist right now, it looks creepy AF: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574240/Dread_Delusion/ It's a new game but retro inspired and done in that liminal PS1 style.
Yeah it's notoriously difficult. I remember renting it when I was a kid and just running until you die over and over again. Play Phantasmagoria! Just embrace the camp, it's like an interactive B horror late night cable movie.
Beating Friday the 13th for NES is just a matter of getting the torch on Day 1 (there’s a trick that makes this super easy) and then the sweater from the cave on Day 2. Then, you’re pretty much all set. If you ever do want to try and beat it, I recommend watching a YouTube guide - you’ll be surprised by how easy the game actually is once you know how to be effective against Jason.
Project firestart on the C64 is a very early sorta-test precursor to the Residrnt Evil gameplay formula, very moody and atmospheric with a fair deal of inspiration from the Alien movies. (Also, the actual Alien game on the C64 is quite brilliant once you understand the gameplay)
There's a [modern Windows remake of *Aliens: The Computer Game* called LV-426](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxpO6aD5Oro&t=233s). It's freeware, and amazingly well-made.
Was thinking of the earlier one based on the first film, that the isolation followup mobile game seemed to take it's cues from, but the aliens game is also pretty rad
I think I played it on psp but I believe there are other options, perhaps even windows early on
It was fun, a bit bizarre though.
Also nightmare creatures 1 and 2 on ps1
If you want something very similar to Resident Evil then I'd recommend you check out Deep Fear for the Sega Saturn. It was released in Japan and Europe though, no US release.
Cold Fear (PS2). Creepy and atmospheric survival horror on a stormy boat and oil rig. Cold Fear came out a couple of months before RE 4 and sadly got overshadowed by that release.
Don't miss out on this good looking and tense game.
Probably not really underrated as it is a rather frustrating game, but Dark Seed was an early horror game that is notable artistically - with H.R. Giger involved.
* https://youtube.com/watch?v=bDAxd-ldCcQ
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Seed_(video_game)#Production
If you're looking for games that look and play similar to the ps1 resident evils, there's a couple that come to mind
- Galerians
- Martian Gothic Unification
- Countdown Vampires
Honorable mention here is In Cold Blood. Not really a horror game, more of a spy espionage game in the same vein as metal gear solid. Really good atmosphere, solid story and voice acting. Can be jank tho lol
Dude check out alone in the dark the new nightmare for ps1, they just added it to the ps store but the physical copy isn’t very expensive either and it’s a 2 disc game.
Came here to say this. Admittedly more action-oriented gameplay but the world building, enemy design, atmosphere, and voice acting were absolutely top notch.
Not an early game by any means but corpse party on PSP is a must purely as it's a rare example of a pixel based survival horror. Not so rare these days as evil tonight on switch is another great example. Both worth seeking out as they have that retro aesthetic inspite of not being that retro
Ecstatica is kind of a missing link between Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil games.
You can run it on Retroarch with Dosbox Pure core. Works well with a controller as well (needs remapping).
The Dark Eye on PC.
Claymation point and click adventure where you play through Edgar Allen Poe’s stories. You can play through as both the murderer or the victim. Great game, a bit hard to find though.
If you like the classic survival horror formula, Dino Crisis is pretty good. Each of the sequels plays pretty differently, so your experience with them may vary.
Also, it is a newer game, but I'd also recommend Signalis. It's retro styled and is heavily inspired by classic survival horror games.
A very little known horror point and click game for Windows called Blackstone Chronicles! Based on a novel, you play a man looking for his son who has disappeared in an oldy times mansion/insane asylum full of the ghosts of old patients talking about how their treatments were more like torture. Oddly educational but scared a young me!
- Catacomb abyss (a horror FPS like Wolfenstein 3D)
- Blood (great 3D FPS, is like Duke Nukem 3D with a gothic atmosphere, dark humor an full of references on the genre)
- Bad Mojo (a visceral click and point adventure)
Tecmo’s Deception is a pretty good one on PS1. It’s a pretty cliched story when looking back on it, but it’s a fun first person maze builder, monster rancher, trap game.
Anyone that loves classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill should check out Tormented Souls
https://youtu.be/QnUyg5gNkrg?si=XzhKGzcLbsXEualyhttps://youtu.be/QnUyg5gNkrg?si=XzhKGzcLbsXEualy.
It emulates the classic games
Clock tower snes
There's also Clock Tower 1 and 2 for the PSX (And the very same you're mentioning under the name "First Fear")
gonna check that out
I just saw it has a remaster coming out too. I’ll have to try it.
Yeah this is great
Not underrated but you’re missing “alone in the dark” from your list.
I remember a friend's dad showing me Alone in the Dark on a CDi or something. Maybe a 3DO.
never actually played alone in the dark i heard it was just really janky and frustrating is it good?
It was amazing in the day, most retro games feel janky nowadays, it’s amazing how far controls and cameras and controls have come. I’m trying to play resident evil 4 on the switch after BoTW, it’s so hard to go backwards to that control system and camera.
played re4 recently too! it's rough 😂🙏🏼 I'll check the game out tho! always worth a shot!
If the original RE4 was rough to you, then be prepared for some serious jank if you do check out the original AITD games, lol. It is worth checking out for the history behind it at least - to my knowledge they were the first horror games w/3D character models/pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles (the style the OG RE games would later copy). Still a totally different vibe than the RE series though (RE being more gory, and AITD having more of a Lovecraftian inspired setting).
Part one is pretty goofy-looking, but has its moments. Parts 2 and 3 had better graphics but a less compelling plot. [You can get the entire trilogy for $6](https://www.gog.com/en/game/alone_in_the_dark_the_trilogy_123), though, so it's a moot point. The PSX/Dreamcast game *Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare* was the last decent one. The series has been on a major decline ever since, and [even the recent remake is pretty divisive](https://www.metacritic.com/game/alone-in-the-dark/).
Alone in the Dark also gets the honor of having one of the absolute worst movies ever made based on it.
Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember loving it. Good gamplay and writing, and there would be weird little instances to add a kind of meta horror: It would look like roaches were crawling across the screen, the game would freeze, and a string of random numbers would scroll to simulate a corrupted save, etc.
That game was cool. It had an insanity meter, and the higher that meter would get, the more weird stuff would happen. Also, that game featured three elder gods and the only way to get the true ending was to beat it three times. Really good fun creepy stuff.
Hell yeah I forgot about that game but it was awesome
I just streamed this not too long ago on Twitch and uploaded the run to YouTube. I was going to suggest this as well. An amazing game, even though I think my copy was cursed.
I saw a playthru of Sweet Home on NES a year or two ago. Gave me some top-down Maniac Mansion vibes with RPG gameplay, if I remember. Combats and spooky mansions. I believe it was a direct inspiration to BioHazard/Resident Evil. I don't think it ever actually came out to the US, but fan translations exist?
imma check it out!
I'm a huge Resident Evil and RPG fan. Don't know if you like RPG's but if you do then you'll probably be like me and LOVE Sweet Home. The music gives it such an erie atmosphere and the exploration feels very much like the original Resident Evils. I scrolled through the comments looking for this one specifically.
I’m currently playing this for the first time. Well worth it. Starting the game was a little confusing since I didn’t have the manual or was there a tutorial. But once I got how to use the menus and controls, I’ve been having a blast. I would recommend this game. Defiantly has that resident evil feel.
Friday the 13th on NES had it's moments with Jason coming out of nowhere.
Def good for a jump scare! haha he for real came out of nowhere
Three games that not enough people talk about: 1. D 2. Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi 3. Realms of the Haunting
D was absolutely terrifying even if I didn't understand it.
Nosferatu: The WRATH of Malachi
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninvited_(video_game) Terrifying to me as a kid
I'll check it out thanks for the rec
That game and Shadowgate on the Mac both freaked me out when I was young.
Splaterhouse
love splatterhouse!
Koudelka is my favorite. It's an horror Jrpg, the predecessor of the Shadow Hearts series. Combines Resident Evil-like exploring with Jrpgs. Not everyone likes that combination but the great voice acting (at least in my language version. Don't know how well the English dub is received) and even some motion captured cutscenes makes this feel like a way more modern game as most other horror games on the PS1. Alone in the dark is also great, although pretty clunky to play.
How do you feel about FMV games? If you're open to the idea, Phantasmagoria is a classic. Friday the 13th and Shadowgate on the NES. American McGee's Alice is a weird kind of scary, like getting dosed with ambien at a dinner party. Kind of janky but I'd recommend it if you can get it running. There's a HD texture pack that improves the graphics a bit. I've got Dread Delusion on my wishlist right now, it looks creepy AF: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574240/Dread_Delusion/ It's a new game but retro inspired and done in that liminal PS1 style.
I've tried friday the 13th on nes was just way too confusing for me lolol. but I'll check out the others!
Yeah it's notoriously difficult. I remember renting it when I was a kid and just running until you die over and over again. Play Phantasmagoria! Just embrace the camp, it's like an interactive B horror late night cable movie.
I'll check that out asap! sounds dope!
Beating Friday the 13th for NES is just a matter of getting the torch on Day 1 (there’s a trick that makes this super easy) and then the sweater from the cave on Day 2. Then, you’re pretty much all set. If you ever do want to try and beat it, I recommend watching a YouTube guide - you’ll be surprised by how easy the game actually is once you know how to be effective against Jason.
Chiming in - Blackstone Chronicles, based on John Saul's book series. Very nice point and click adventure game with some solid scares.
Project firestart on the C64 is a very early sorta-test precursor to the Residrnt Evil gameplay formula, very moody and atmospheric with a fair deal of inspiration from the Alien movies. (Also, the actual Alien game on the C64 is quite brilliant once you understand the gameplay)
There's a [modern Windows remake of *Aliens: The Computer Game* called LV-426](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxpO6aD5Oro&t=233s). It's freeware, and amazingly well-made.
Cool!
Was thinking of the earlier one based on the first film, that the isolation followup mobile game seemed to take it's cues from, but the aliens game is also pretty rad
Slightly more left-field, but Corpse Party?
I'll check it out which console?
I think I played it on psp but I believe there are other options, perhaps even windows early on It was fun, a bit bizarre though. Also nightmare creatures 1 and 2 on ps1
If you want something very similar to Resident Evil then I'd recommend you check out Deep Fear for the Sega Saturn. It was released in Japan and Europe though, no US release.
Condemned on the 360 was my favorite horror game… but maybe it just came out at the right part of my life
Fatal Frame II Crimson Butterfly.
The first one messed me up too. Very interesting gameplay and jump scare after jump scare.
Cold Fear (PS2). Creepy and atmospheric survival horror on a stormy boat and oil rig. Cold Fear came out a couple of months before RE 4 and sadly got overshadowed by that release. Don't miss out on this good looking and tense game.
Nocturne maybe? If it can be classified as retro already.
I'll check that out - haven't heard of it
The Suffering and its sequel
7th guest all the way......
Shadow Man on N64
I used to think the Friday the 13th (NES) game was scary when I was a kid. I think it was mostly the music that creeped me out though.
I came here to say this too. For me it was the jump scare of Jason just randomly appearing.
3d monster maze (it’s the first horror game)
Probably not really underrated as it is a rather frustrating game, but Dark Seed was an early horror game that is notable artistically - with H.R. Giger involved. * https://youtube.com/watch?v=bDAxd-ldCcQ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Seed_(video_game)#Production
If you're looking for games that look and play similar to the ps1 resident evils, there's a couple that come to mind - Galerians - Martian Gothic Unification - Countdown Vampires Honorable mention here is In Cold Blood. Not really a horror game, more of a spy espionage game in the same vein as metal gear solid. Really good atmosphere, solid story and voice acting. Can be jank tho lol
I know I'll get hated for this but I loved playing Night Trap on the Mega/Sega CD. I even play the new pc release.
On the cusp, but D2 on Dreamcast is bonkers.
Eternal Darkness on GameCube & Fatal Frame on PS2.
Have you checked out Sweet Home? Pretty sure there's an english version. Very much the precursor to resident evil.
Dude check out alone in the dark the new nightmare for ps1, they just added it to the ps store but the physical copy isn’t very expensive either and it’s a 2 disc game.
Hugo's House of Horror on DOS
The suffering on ps2 is great 👍
Came here to say this. Admittedly more action-oriented gameplay but the world building, enemy design, atmosphere, and voice acting were absolutely top notch.
It wasn't scary
Immortal.
Too bad I can't talk about FromSoftware's **Kuon**, because it's from 2004. So I won't.
Maniac Mansion scared me as a boy
Though probably not classified under horror, Ecco the Dolphin terrified me as a kid
Not an early game by any means but corpse party on PSP is a must purely as it's a rare example of a pixel based survival horror. Not so rare these days as evil tonight on switch is another great example. Both worth seeking out as they have that retro aesthetic inspite of not being that retro
Ecstatica is kind of a missing link between Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil games. You can run it on Retroarch with Dosbox Pure core. Works well with a controller as well (needs remapping).
D
The Dark Eye on PC. Claymation point and click adventure where you play through Edgar Allen Poe’s stories. You can play through as both the murderer or the victim. Great game, a bit hard to find though.
As a little kid, I got pretty scared while playing Haunted House on the 2600. It doesn’t really hold up now, but it might be fun for a giggle.
Harvester. Probably the most depraved and scary game of its time.
Forbidden Forest on C64, terrifying soundtrack too!
Old school PC adventure-based horror like 7th Guest and Phantasmagoria.
If you like the classic survival horror formula, Dino Crisis is pretty good. Each of the sequels plays pretty differently, so your experience with them may vary. Also, it is a newer game, but I'd also recommend Signalis. It's retro styled and is heavily inspired by classic survival horror games.
3D Monster Maze on the ZX81 (called the Timex-Sinclair 1000 in the US). The first horror game I think, and as creepy as a game could be in 1981.
Project: Firestart Space Hulk (1993) Diablo 1 and Super Metroid aren't underrated but they're not always seen as horror games when they basically are.
Fuck Space Hulk!
Fatal frame on ps2, xbox era
Dark Seed was pretty terrifying.
Deep Fear on Sega Saturn, like Resident Evil in a submarine.
Ecstatica and Ecstatica II
Sanitarium
Does these 2 qualify?: * Alone in the Dark * 7th Guest
Obscure for PS2
A very little known horror point and click game for Windows called Blackstone Chronicles! Based on a novel, you play a man looking for his son who has disappeared in an oldy times mansion/insane asylum full of the ghosts of old patients talking about how their treatments were more like torture. Oddly educational but scared a young me!
Phantasmagoria on PC
Hugo house of horrors
- Catacomb abyss (a horror FPS like Wolfenstein 3D) - Blood (great 3D FPS, is like Duke Nukem 3D with a gothic atmosphere, dark humor an full of references on the genre) - Bad Mojo (a visceral click and point adventure)
Tecmo’s Deception is a pretty good one on PS1. It’s a pretty cliched story when looking back on it, but it’s a fun first person maze builder, monster rancher, trap game.
Cursed Mountain on Wii was excellent
Anyone that loves classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill should check out Tormented Souls https://youtu.be/QnUyg5gNkrg?si=XzhKGzcLbsXEualyhttps://youtu.be/QnUyg5gNkrg?si=XzhKGzcLbsXEualy. It emulates the classic games