Ever since Atari's "Haunted House," many developers have dipped their toes into the realm of horror to varying degrees of success. Most gamers know their "Resident Evils," their "Silent Hills," and their "Amnesias," but what about the horror titles that were forgotten? Like every good scary story, these titles are whispered by a few who know of their nature and provoke shock and fear to whomever dares uncover them.
5. "The Dark Eye"
Edgar Allan Poe and William S. Burroughs are both regarded as literary legends. So what happens when you take three of Poe's stories and get Burroughs to perform and narrate them?
You get iNSCAPE's "The Dark Eye," a game that lets you experience the events of three classic Poe stories firsthand from the perspectives of both the murderers and murder victims. Actively sealing Fortunado beneath the catacombs as Montresor in "A Cask of Amontillado" is one thing, but it's another when you switch places and can only helplessly watch your own demise unfold. In addition, the Poe sections are broken apart by an original tale that deals with dark themes of depression, incest, and insanity.
4. "Enemy Zero"
After the polarizing 1995 horror adventure "D," Kenji Eno and Warp Games decided to make their next project something a little off the beaten path. It's one thing to deal with zombies and demons, but how about monsters that you can hear, but not see?
Enter "Enemy Zero," a game that tasked you with escaping a spaceship filled with such a menace, and your only means of defense was what might be the most worthless gun in all of gaming. To top it off: These monsters kill you with one hit. Terrifying? Definitely. Frustrating? Undoubtedly. Juxtaposing the scares was a masterful orchestral score by film composer Michael Nyman.
3. "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"
Based on a short story of the same name by writing master Harlan Ellison, "IHNMAIMS" put players in control of the five humans left alive after a sentient super computer named AM causes a nuclear apocalypse. As a means of sadistic entertainment, AM subjects them to their own personal tortures that serve as a reflection to their character flaws.
When an unknown outside force intervenes in these nightmares, the prospect of defeating AM once and for all becomes a tantalizing possibility. But to achieve that, they'll have to solve the devious puzzles, confront hard moral dilemmas, and overcome the darkness that dwells within their hearts. Reader beware: Mature themes abound with the Holocaust, rape, and suicide providing characters with emotional baggage that they must endure.
2. "Sweet Home"
Almost a decade before Capcom's "Resident Evil," the company along with Tokuro Fujiwara pushed the limits of the 8-bit Nintendo Famicom to see if horror could be a feasible genre in the medium of gaming. Based on and released along with the movie of the same name, "Sweet Home" for the Famicom was a JRPG that tasked players with exploring a mansion that was infested with supernatural terrors.
Unlike similar games such as "Final Fantasy" or "Dragon Quest," party members could split up into different factions to cover more ground. More importantly, they could not be revived when killed. This made your limited resources all the more precious, and this game was one of the only at the time to provoke fear into those who played. Shinji Mikami would later work with Fujiwara on the aforementioned "Resident Evil."
1. "Clock Tower" (1995)
For the most part, video games both scary and otherwise tend to put you in control of someone who can handle himself or herself in a pinch—but not "Clock Tower" for the Super Famicom. In this game, you're a vulnerable and helpless orphan named Jennifer.
When she and her friends are all adopted by a seemingly nice woman of extraordinary wealth, they discover that there's more to their new home than initially appears.
Things take a dark turn when Jennifer's adoptive mother disappears and her friends start getting bumped off one by one. It's up to Jennifer to explore the mansion, discover the secrets within, and hopefully save herself and what's left of her friends before they all meet a gruesome end at the hands of a deranged killer known as the Scissorman.
Since Jennifer's no superhero, her best methods of survival are to run and hide. This gives the player a fitting sense of helplessness and dread that's bolstered by the game's haunting atmosphere.
