-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
I'm currently on a retro horror game kick, what are the must-plays?
- Thread starter Jawmuncher
- Start date
Siren 2
Alone in the Dark New Nightmare
Silent Hill Shattered Memories but I think you already played that ! :P
Project Zero 4
Cold Fear is also on my personal list.
It's a PS2 game ! :P
FTFY
Alone in the Dark New Nightmare
Silent Hill Shattered Memories but I think you already played that ! :P
Project Zero 4
Cold Fear is also on my personal list.
It's a PS2 game ! :P
FTFY
Well that's a horrifying thing, but I'm a guy with no children in his thirties :PYou tell me! :p
As far as my favorite goes - American McGee's Alice while not outright scary has one of my favorite oppressive and creepy atmosphere's in gaming. Outside this one, I have a couple lists.
I made a list of decent older Adventure Point and Click horror games on PC awhile back:
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream
Harvester
Dark Seed
Dark Seed 2
The 7th Guest
The 11th Hour
Silverload
Sanitarium
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
Darkness Within 1: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
Bad Mojo
Here's some slightly more obscure PS1 titles:
Echo Night
D
LSD: Dream Simulator
Hellnight
Silverload
Twilight Syndrome: Search (Japan Only)
Twilight Syndrome: Investigation (Japan Only)
Moonlight Syndrome (Japan Only)
PS2 also had a plethora of weird horror games:
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Galerians: Ash
Michigan: Report from Hell
The X-Files: Resist or Serve
ObsCure
Obscure: The Aftermath
Akai Ito
Glass Rose
The Thing
Kuon
Cold Fear
Gregory Horror Show
Awhile back I was making a stab at cataloging every horror title for older consoles so I came across a lot of really cool stuff I'd never heard of, maybe some of these will be worthwhile for you.
I made a list of decent older Adventure Point and Click horror games on PC awhile back:
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream
Harvester
Dark Seed
Dark Seed 2
The 7th Guest
The 11th Hour
Silverload
Sanitarium
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
Darkness Within 1: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
Bad Mojo
Here's some slightly more obscure PS1 titles:
Echo Night
D
LSD: Dream Simulator
Hellnight
Silverload
Twilight Syndrome: Search (Japan Only)
Twilight Syndrome: Investigation (Japan Only)
Moonlight Syndrome (Japan Only)
PS2 also had a plethora of weird horror games:
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Galerians: Ash
Michigan: Report from Hell
The X-Files: Resist or Serve
ObsCure
Obscure: The Aftermath
Akai Ito
Glass Rose
The Thing
Kuon
Cold Fear
Gregory Horror Show
Awhile back I was making a stab at cataloging every horror title for older consoles so I came across a lot of really cool stuff I'd never heard of, maybe some of these will be worthwhile for you.
It'll be 19 years old in September and it'll officially be 3 generations old shortly after that. It's retro, you can't fight the passage of time.
Siren 1 & 2 are the best PS2 horror games IMO. Siren 1 is very tough & a little clunky so I'd recommend checking a walkthrough when you get stuck. Siren 2 is a lot more user-friendly but the English version is UK-only so you'll have to import it & use an emulator (might have to fiddle with some settings since it's one of the hardest PS2 games to emulate) if you're in the US.
Clive Barker's Undying
What a horrible night to have a curse! Someone should have warned the Covenant children:
Realms of the Haunting
Forged in the Beginning and protected by the Seven Seals, there lies a place where though
Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark weaves a chilling tapestry of psychological horror and Southern Gothic
Sanitarium
Imagine a world created out of insanity – deformed children, ancient gods, ghosts from yo
Bad Mojo Redux
You are Roger Samms. All your life you’ve been the little man, the square peg, the forgot
Last edited:
OP
OP
It most certainly does. Such a fantastically weird delight.
This. I recently played it a few months ago and it was pretty fun, but huge disclaimer that the aiming is inverted. The aiming inversion might be intentional like tank controls I guess because that's a huge oversight that I assume inhibits majority of people than obviously inverted players. It still befuddles me to this day that they made that decision or maybe didn't think of it I guess? It kinda has RE4 third person aiming before RE4 did when you think about it. That was a huge downside for me playing the game and getting into it initally. That huge aiming issue aside it's a pretty great RE clone(corny dialog and all) I'd recommend as well.
Last edited:
A lot of my favorites are listed already.
D1 & D2 are wonderful, Haunting Ground is an all time great, the Fatal Frame games are timeless, The Silver Case is not only one of Suda's best but also a tremendous horror game.
My biggest niche recommendation would be Echo Night Beyond. One of my favorite of Fromsoft's games. Just a tremendous sense of atmosphere and setting. Really interesting non-combat oriented gameplay and exploration. Felt
If you want a more conventional horror game by Fromsoft, I highly recommend Kuon too. Put up a LTTP for it a little while back.
D1 & D2 are wonderful, Haunting Ground is an all time great, the Fatal Frame games are timeless, The Silver Case is not only one of Suda's best but also a tremendous horror game.
My biggest niche recommendation would be Echo Night Beyond. One of my favorite of Fromsoft's games. Just a tremendous sense of atmosphere and setting. Really interesting non-combat oriented gameplay and exploration. Felt
If you want a more conventional horror game by Fromsoft, I highly recommend Kuon too. Put up a LTTP for it a little while back.
If anyone wants to complete the trifecta of boat based Resident Evil clones there is also the untranslated Abyss Boat by Utawarerumono developer Leaf. It's an upside down boat PC game that plays like RE 2 with the occasional Punch Out with guns fight. For extra obscure points it's not listed on Moby Games or Leaf's English wiki page.
Haunting Ground
Parasite Eve
Siren 1 and 2, and the ps3 reimagining
Manhunt 1 (Crazy how this game actually was scary when I first played it, even though it isn't super natrual).
Kuon
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream
Cold Fear
The Suffering 1 and 2
Fear Effect 1 and 2
System Shock 1 and 2
Doom 3
Doom 64
Not sure if Deadly Premonition counts but I recommend it.
Parasite Eve
Siren 1 and 2, and the ps3 reimagining
Manhunt 1 (Crazy how this game actually was scary when I first played it, even though it isn't super natrual).
Kuon
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream
Cold Fear
The Suffering 1 and 2
Fear Effect 1 and 2
System Shock 1 and 2
Doom 3
Doom 64
Not sure if Deadly Premonition counts but I recommend it.
What about Condemed 2???
My vote would be System Shock 2 with mods.
Monkeys scare me now 🙈
Just remembered Lone survivor that game was great. I didnt play much of Yomawari but I still need to get back to it since it had an awesome style and unique horror mechanics, not really retro games but have many retro inspirations (mostly Silent hill).
The Fatal Frame series is excellent, and I personally prefer those games to Silent Hill (and would rank the "big 3" survival horror series of that era as RE > FF> SH).
FF 1-3 have a very consistent quality and you can't go wrong with any of them. I downloaded them on PS3 several years back and played them all in order. FF4 is a bit different and you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to play it outside of Japan, but it is worth it if you end up liking the other games.
FF 1-3 have a very consistent quality and you can't go wrong with any of them. I downloaded them on PS3 several years back and played them all in order. FF4 is a bit different and you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to play it outside of Japan, but it is worth it if you end up liking the other games.
OP
OP
Thanks for this super post. A few of these I bought like the suffering, and i've been wondering about others like Nightmare Creatures. Always saw a ton of ads for the 2nd one.
Great game, but it's harder than a T800's robot dick. I've never been able to finish it.
I've never heard of this, but reading the story summary on wiki it sounds very interesting. Is it better read about than played?
I've gone through people's posts so I'll do my best not to repeat any of the games that have already been recommended.
-Deep Fear (Sega Saturn): tank control with 2D prerendered BGs and 3D characters. Takes place in underwater and has some game mechanics specific to the setting. The story is creepy and the atmosphere, claustrophobic. Quite a bit like Enemy Zero in that sense. Too bad the voice acting is absolutely horrible.
-D2 (Sega Dreamcast): You are Laura, a survivor of a plane crash, stranded in the snowy mountains of Canada that's littered with mutated humans. Amazing themes and character development, story's just as interesting, pacing is slow though. The gameplay's anything but terrifying, thanks to infinite machine gun bullets, RPG elements and a rockin' beat at the end of every random battle. It's stlil a game that obviously has had a lot of care put into, and it's also Kenji Eno's last game before passing away. :(
There is also no need to play either D or Enemy Zero to play D2, as they are not connected.
-Sweet Home (NES): An RPG with horror elements by Capcom, based on a movie of the same name. Some people consider this the predecessor to Resident Evil 1 due cutscenes of doors opening when you leave a zone. There are level ups, puzzles and items. The backstory of the game is told through frescoes and notes of people who passed away in the mansion. Oh, and when characters die, it's permadeath immediately.
It's been translated 100% in English by fans.
-Dead of the Brain 1 (PC-98): A horror visual novel game on PC-98. Your scientist friend has developed a serum that revives dead organisms, but they crave brain upon awakening! It's finally been translated in English by a fan and if you can find it online, it probably will already come packaged with DOSBox, ready to be enjoyed. It has only one or two jump scares, but the rest of the game is very scary and creepy. It does a good job at building up suspense and keeping it that way for a long time.
Fortunately, you cannot end up in an unwinnable state in this game and if you die, during QTE-like moments, you can always reload.
Worth going through it as it's fairly short, has that creepy retro horror game vibe, and the very clean pixel art is wonderful to look at (like most PC-98 games).
-Waxworks (PC): An RPG adventure game by Horrorsoft on PC-DOS. With a company name like that, you know exactly what to expect. If you can get past the relentless difficulty and cheap sudden deaths, you'll be able to appreciate the sheer horror of this gory game.
There are LOTS of very graphic death scenes, one for each type of enemy that kills, and each trap that you get caught in. Some of them are the most graphic deaths I've ever seen.
It's available on GOG.
-Deep Fear (Sega Saturn): tank control with 2D prerendered BGs and 3D characters. Takes place in underwater and has some game mechanics specific to the setting. The story is creepy and the atmosphere, claustrophobic. Quite a bit like Enemy Zero in that sense. Too bad the voice acting is absolutely horrible.
-D2 (Sega Dreamcast): You are Laura, a survivor of a plane crash, stranded in the snowy mountains of Canada that's littered with mutated humans. Amazing themes and character development, story's just as interesting, pacing is slow though. The gameplay's anything but terrifying, thanks to infinite machine gun bullets, RPG elements and a rockin' beat at the end of every random battle. It's stlil a game that obviously has had a lot of care put into, and it's also Kenji Eno's last game before passing away. :(
There is also no need to play either D or Enemy Zero to play D2, as they are not connected.
-Sweet Home (NES): An RPG with horror elements by Capcom, based on a movie of the same name. Some people consider this the predecessor to Resident Evil 1 due cutscenes of doors opening when you leave a zone. There are level ups, puzzles and items. The backstory of the game is told through frescoes and notes of people who passed away in the mansion. Oh, and when characters die, it's permadeath immediately.
It's been translated 100% in English by fans.
-Dead of the Brain 1 (PC-98): A horror visual novel game on PC-98. Your scientist friend has developed a serum that revives dead organisms, but they crave brain upon awakening! It's finally been translated in English by a fan and if you can find it online, it probably will already come packaged with DOSBox, ready to be enjoyed. It has only one or two jump scares, but the rest of the game is very scary and creepy. It does a good job at building up suspense and keeping it that way for a long time.
Fortunately, you cannot end up in an unwinnable state in this game and if you die, during QTE-like moments, you can always reload.
Worth going through it as it's fairly short, has that creepy retro horror game vibe, and the very clean pixel art is wonderful to look at (like most PC-98 games).
-Waxworks (PC): An RPG adventure game by Horrorsoft on PC-DOS. With a company name like that, you know exactly what to expect. If you can get past the relentless difficulty and cheap sudden deaths, you'll be able to appreciate the sheer horror of this gory game.
There are LOTS of very graphic death scenes, one for each type of enemy that kills, and each trap that you get caught in. Some of them are the most graphic deaths I've ever seen.
It's available on GOG.
I was going to mention the old Alone in the Dark games. I was watching some long plays of the first game the past couple days and it's like looking at a bizarro Resident Evil clone almost (even though it came out years before RE).
Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark weaves a chilling tapestry of psychological horror and Southern Gothicwww.gog.com
It's weird that this game scared me when I was younger. It's not exactly what I'd call an "obscure" or "lesser known" game though.
In case OP doesn't feel like playing it, but still wants to see it.
PC Longplay [248] Alone in the Dark (Infogrames)
http://www.longplays.org Played by: Deskawa Launched in 1992, this is game is truly a pioneer. It's probably the first game the successfully merged the actio...
youtu.be
For a second that thumbnail made me think it was Black Hole Sun, lol.
I loved Phantasmagoria when I was younger, but I'm not sure if that's really what they're looking for.
Only skimmed the video, not a proper watch, but from what I saw this looks pretty rad.
Last edited:
Gonna give shoutouts to "the suffering " reminded me of an action game set in silent hill done right. There is a second one but I hear that one kind of went off the rails
Here's what I call retro horror: The Legacy: Realm of Terror, published by Microprose in 1992 and developed by Magnetic Scrolls. It's available on GOG for $6 US. If you'd rather just watch it played, here you go:
Legacy is one of my favorite horror games. Ihad still have a boxed copy of this on 3.5" floppies that I got back when it was new and spooked myself pretty good playing late at night on my 486. The game takes place in modern times, but is steeped in very Lovecraftian lore, including demons from the Astral plane, fishmen, 17th century witchcraft and such.
The game itself is an RPG with 4-direction movement and the ability to turn left/right 90 degrees, a la Dungeon Master or similar. But, oddly, it had a window-based interface where you could drag and resize individual components of the UI, like the player's perspective view, the map, the inventory, etc. In practice the screen resolution was so low that there was not much point in reorganizing the UI, at least in my opinion.
Lastly: I absolutely love the music in this game. It's just FM synth like most PC game music was back then, but it's fantastic. Trivia: the composer of the soundtrack was John Broomhall who has gone on to score many more games, including several from the Forza Motorsport series, Heavenly Sword, and Phoenix Point.
Legacy is one of my favorite horror games. I
The game itself is an RPG with 4-direction movement and the ability to turn left/right 90 degrees, a la Dungeon Master or similar. But, oddly, it had a window-based interface where you could drag and resize individual components of the UI, like the player's perspective view, the map, the inventory, etc. In practice the screen resolution was so low that there was not much point in reorganizing the UI, at least in my opinion.
Lastly: I absolutely love the music in this game. It's just FM synth like most PC game music was back then, but it's fantastic. Trivia: the composer of the soundtrack was John Broomhall who has gone on to score many more games, including several from the Forza Motorsport series, Heavenly Sword, and Phoenix Point.
As a fan of old-school RE and DC, I've always been fond of Parasite Eve II. The first 50-60% is great in my opinion: fantastic environments and atmosphere --Dryfields is one of my favourite environments in any survival horror game. And thanks to it being a late Square release, the graphics are some of the best on the system, better than its Capcom equivalents, with some insane in-game background effects and incredible FMV.
Unfortunately, the game goes downhill rapidly in its latter stages as it introduces more and more unavoidable combat encounters, with more and more frustrating enemy types...it just becomes a frustrating, difficult chore, and the late-game environments aren't compelling enough to make it worth it.
I recommend playing to the end of Dryfields then watching the rest on YT.
Unfortunately, the game goes downhill rapidly in its latter stages as it introduces more and more unavoidable combat encounters, with more and more frustrating enemy types...it just becomes a frustrating, difficult chore, and the late-game environments aren't compelling enough to make it worth it.
I recommend playing to the end of Dryfields then watching the rest on YT.
Could always check a let's play of it, but the game goes really cheap on steam and GoG during sales... it's like 4 bucks at the moment. I mean there is no other games like it, every character you meet in this town is like a stereotype cranked up to eleven. It gets quite offensive at times and shockingly gory. There is even a fighting mechanic and you can attack and (try to) kill every person you meet, just keep in mind if you kill too many you'll be sendt to the electric chair lol. As I was playing it I was more flabbergasted and fascinated that such a game could exist. It definitely requires a high toleranse for the dark and twisted though.
Pushinguproses also made a video talking about the game:
Last edited:
Do "I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream" and "Shadow of the Comet" count as horror? If so I guess them. Though be aware SOTC has to be played with keyboard only and is very hard, often for annoying reasons.
