Sony’soriginalPlayStationwas a landmark achievement in gaming, forever changing the course of the industry. Unfortunately, the early 3D technology makes many games hard to play these days. As a result, numerous titles are lost in time, either due to their rarity and lack of re-releases or their gameplay being too large a hurdle for modern players.
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The following list will focus on horror games most people don’t remember. Some of these are definitely worth checking out, while others weren’t even worth the effort when they came out. However, even the bad games deserve a spot in the history books.
10Parasite Eve
This isn’t a traditional survival horror game. While exploring the environment for clues and items is still key to success, the combat is a turn-basedRPG, making it one of the more unique games for the system.
Few RPGs take place in a modern setting, and even fewer are a science fiction story about a mysterious organism trying to destroy New York City.Parasite Evesaw two sequels, one for the PS1 and another for the PSP, but the series has been dormant for over a decade.
9Nightmare Creatures
This gothicsurvival horrortitle takes place in the middle of the nineteenth century and sees players deal with all manner of ghastly monsters with an arsenal of melee weapons. Looking at it today draws plenty of comparisons toFromsoftware’sBloodborne.
Reviews praised the title, with the majority of complaints only levied at the controls, and its commercial success led to a sequel, but the franchise never left its console generation.
8Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare
While dormant for the better part of a decade, theAlone in the Darkfranchise deserves respect for innovating upon the horror genre. The fourth game was a reboot of the series titledThe New Nightmare, putting the action in a modern day setting.
LikeResident Evil, the player chooses between two protagonists in the beginning, though the campaigns differ greatly. One is more action-focused and the other pays more attention to puzzles. Fortunately, anyone interested in exploring this title can easily find it as a PlayStation Classic on Sony’s PlayStation store, though one needs aPS3or PSP to do so.
7Galerians
Thisscience fictionhorror game deals with two popular tropes of the genre - genetically enhanced humans and an artificial intelligence bent on destroying the human race. The A.I. in question creates the Galerians, the aforementioned souped up humans, with the idea to become their God, and it is up to the protagonist to stop it.
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The game plays like a classic survival horror title, with 3D character models against 2D backdrops and a fixed camera. Unfortunately, load times aren’t hidden by a door opening animation, so expect to see the game’s logo millions of times while traversing the environment.
6Martian Gothic: Unification
While it looks likeResident Evilin space,MartianGothic: Unificationdistinguishes itself from the classic franchise by allowing the player to switch between three different playable characters. The catch is their meeting in gameplay resulting in failure, so one has to be careful where they go.
Coming to North America in late 2001 for the PlayStation almost assured its fall into obscurity, as gamers were already deep into their PS2 catalog and getting ready for heavy hitters likeSilent Hill 2,Metal Gear Solid 2, andGrand Theft Auto III. With these on the horizon, who had time for a last generation horror game?
Evil Dead: Hail to the Kingis far from the best game on this list, but fans of the franchise won’t care about its quality upon finding out Bruce Campbell voices his iconic character.
One of the manyResident Evilclones of its generation, the gameplay was not considered great and the title is really only worthwhile for avid fans. Since it doesn’t look like the actor will reprise his legendary role anytime soon, gamers looking for theirEvil Deadfix could find it here.
4OverBlood
CallingOverBloodrough around the edges would be too kind. It would have been completely lost to the sands of time had the Internet not rediscovered its unintentional comedic value.
The animations all look hilariously unrealistic and the voice acting is janky even by the standards of late ’90s video games. Still, one could argue being remembered as a wonky horror game is better than being completely left int he dust.
3Clock Tower
Point and click adventure games were still relevant in the early days of the PS1, andClock Towerwas the scariest series of them all. The slow pace ramps up the tension and the silence is broken by energetic music whenever an enemy appears.
The gameplay and obtuse puzzles may be a put off to many, but those interested in the genre cannot go wrong withClock Tower. Three games came out on the PS1, while a PS2 game also came out which changed up the gameplay significantly.
2Dino Crisis
of all the titles on this list,Dino Crisisis probably the most fondly remembered, yet it never managed to become a long running franchise likeResident Evil. The third game for the Xbox stopped the series in its tracks. However, the two PS1 titles are all-time classics.
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The first game plays likeResident Evilwithdinosaurs, while thesequelis focused on fast-paced action and chaining together hits. With Capcom having the remake bug recently, perhaps it is time to bring this series back into the spotlight. Imagine just how terrifying the pre-historic creatures would look on the immaculately gorgeous RE Engine.
1Alien: Resurrection
Alien: Resurrectionwas about as well-received as its source material, but it deserves praise for using the dual analog control scheme for a first-person shooter years before it became commonplace. Hilariously enough, some reviews criticized this control layout. Usually being ahead of the curb doesn’t pay off.
To the game’s credit, it did manage to scare some gamers back when it released. It can also take comfort in knowing that since the release of theAlien Vs Predatormovies, it is far from the worst piece of media within the franchise.
