Games can evoke all kinds of emotions. Each sub-genre has seen its fair share of experimentations with horror, which produced some of the most spine-chilling experiences we know today. Some of the earliest examples are in Resident Evil 1, released for Sony PlayStation 1 on March 22nd, 1996. At the time, it boasted great graphics, slow and terrifying gameplay, a fixed camera that added to the unnerving factor, and a shocking display of zombies.
The iconic jump scare, where a zombie dog first jumps through a closed window, zombies eating people in the street, and gruesome boss fights remain etched into older players’ memories, and we even have a modern remake made. Resident Evil 1 kickstarted its franchise (which later led to a successful movie series) and popularized zombies as a threat in video games. The zombie theme poured over to other media, and movies like 28 Days Later, World War Z, and Train to Busan are fine examples. If you’re lucky, you might also find the casinos on 99bitcoins list of B2C casino sites by Alexander Reed also have unusual themes. (Less scary is the huge sign-up bonuses offered and instant withdrawals offered, though.)
Around the Resident Evil period, we also had first-person games, which were all fast-paced, action-packed slug fests, where our main character was near invincible while moving down hordes of demons, zombies, ghosts, and other ghastly creatures. Then came the F.E.A.R, most notably the first game, which gave us all the guns, but also injected the genre with horror. The player takes on the role of an elite special ops team tasked with investigating the paranormal may sound exciting until the game soon introduces Alma, a Japanese-horror-style little girl, and the game sections that revolve around her will haunt any gamer’s mind.
Guns are useless, you are defenseless when Alma appears, and it soon becomes clear that something even more sinister is happening behind the scenes. A small child that produces dystopian and horrific nightmares or bends reality to a gruesome visage was a stark contrast in the FPS genre at the time and a welcome one. Continuing down the line of FPS genres with horror, released on September 23rd, 1944, and remade on 30 May 2023, System Shock is set in a distant future. Space travel, robots, nanotech, crypto gambling, advanced medicine, laser weapons, and all kinds of futuristic tech are available to mankind.
While traveling through space, a disaster hits your giant spaceship and a malevolent AI takes over, killing humans and causing all kinds of disasters. Surviving in a hostile environment while battling mutated humans, animals, blood-thirsty robots and deadly AI was and remains a recipe for success and a guaranteed nightmarish experience. System Shock remake is unforgiving, difficult, terrifying, and punishing, all ingredients for a quality horror.
Moving on from the FPS genre, another gaming genre that exploded in popularity by adding horror is the so-called “walking simulators.” On the surface, walking sims usually offer a relaxing, poignant, and calming experience, letting players experience the story at their own pace and enabling players to explore the rich lore behind the world. Then came Outlast and Amnesia series which both gave their player base year-long nightmares and re-invented the genre. While both series are popular cult classics that established a genre, Scorn tried something new by injecting the concept with H.R. Giger’s motives.
Set on a distant alien planet, Scorn displays foreign landscapes, hellish mutilation, and fusion between organic and machines. Just by reading H.R. Giger’s horror, many already know what to expect, but Scorn goes above and beyond to implement some of the best designs which would make H.R. Giger proud and the players physically sick, terrified, scared, and not wanting to go to the next scene, for fear of being even more repulsed. Any horror game list could not be complete without mentioning Silent Hill 2.
The series had its ups and downs, where some games were horrifically bad, but they all failed to compare the dread, depression, unease, and existential horror of Silent Hill 2. The dated graphics only add to the immersion of the oppressive fog that clouds a nightmare-filled city, which you’ll have to go through and survive. Even after you’ve put the controller down, the psychological horror of Silent Hill 2 will still haunt you beyond the screen.
