3 Horror Games From The '90s Everyone Has Played At Least Once

Published Oct 31, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Sharmila is an engineer-turned-gaming hardware journalist and freelance contributor at ScreenRant who has been covering the gaming and tech industry since 2021. While she first built her expertise writing about video games, she has since pivoted towards gaming hardware, with a focus on PC components, peripherals, handhelds, and performance-driven tech. When she’s not testing gear or writing about the latest hardware trends, she can usually be found diving into competitive shooters or keeping up with the evolving esports scene. Horror games have changed quite a bit over the years, but some of the scariest experiences came from a time when developers had to work around limited hardware, awkward controls, and graphics that could barely show what was lurking in the dark. Even in the absence of realistic graphics, the 1990s came up with multiple spooky projects that could effortlessly turn an ordinary hallway into a nightmare. Some of these 1990s titles went on to spawn entire franchises, while others helped establish frameworks that modern horror games would borrow and improve. Whether it was about exploring a mansion filled with zombies, investigating a strange town, or escaping a house haunted by supernatural forces, the decade offered its own take on what made horror work. Looking back, it’s easy to see why certain titles from this period were labeled as unmissable. They offered experiences that were challenging, unsettling, and memorable, even when their controls and graphics showed the limitations of the hardware they were built for. Resident Evil In any conversation about survival horror games, Resident Evil is usually one of the first franchises that comes to mind. Developed by Capcom and released for the PlayStation 1 in 1996, the original Resident Evil game put players inside a mansion where almost every room seemed to hide another problem. What begins as an investigation into mysterious murders quickly turns into a fight for survival against zombies, mutated creatures, and the consequences of a dangerous biological experiment. To begin with, Resident Evil had players experience the playthrough through the eyes of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, members of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.). Both characters had their own strengths and limitations, giving players slightly different experiences depending on their choice. The mansion itself was the real star, though. Its locked doors, hidden passages, scattered clues, and puzzle-filled rooms made exploration just as important as combat. The fixed camera angles played a major role in creating tension. Even if players could hear an enemy moving nearby, it was hard to guess its exact position. The controls also made encounters challenging, particularly when several zombies crowded a narrow corridor. Ammunition and healing items were limited, so shooting every enemy was rarely the best decision. Players often had to decide whether to use their supplies immediately or save them for whatever came next. The mix of combat, exploration, puzzles, and resource management made the mansion memorable long after the credits rolled. No wonder fans are excited about the possibility of another Resident Evil remake coming soon. Alone in the Dark Even before Resident Evil came Alone in the Dark, an MS-DOS game that helped lay the groundwork for the survival horror games that followed. Developed by Infogrames, it placed players inside a mysterious Louisiana mansion called Derceto, where strange events and supernatural forces made a routine investigation dangerous. Players could control either Edward Carnby, a private investigator, or Emily Hartwood, a woman searching for answers about her uncle's death. As you’d expect from a haunted mansion, the one in this game was filled with locked rooms, hidden clues, hostile creatures, and puzzles that required careful observation. Players had to explore their surroundings and work out how different objects and clues fit together instead of simply tackling everything in sight. Some encounters could be avoided altogether, which made deciding when to fight an important part of surviving. One of Alone in the Dark’s most distinctive features was its use of 3D character models against pre-rendered backgrounds. This approach allowed the developers to create detailed rooms and carefully framed scenes without requiring the hardware to render everything in real time. The fixed camera positions also meant players could not always see what was waiting just outside the frame. The uncertainty added to the atmosphere, especially when entering a room with unfamiliar creatures or strange objects. The controls and combat can feel dated today, and players returning to the original game may need time to adjust. However, its ideas remain easy to recognize. The emphasis on exploration, inventory management, environmental puzzles, and carefully staged encounters from here actually went on to become familiar features of the survival horror genre. Alone in the Dark helped establish the foundations for the genre, even though Resident Evil took the chance to popularize many of these ideas for a wider audience. The MS-DOS experience managed to demonstrate how a confined setting, limited resources, and supernatural threats could work together to create creepy magic, setting a standard for the horror genre in gaming. Silent Hill Konami’s Silent Hill showed up near the end of the 1990s, offering a different kind of horror from the games that came before it. Released for PlayStation 1 in 1999, it followed Harry Mason, a father searching for his missing daughter, Cheryl, after a car crash leaves him stranded in the mysterious town of Silent Hill. What should have been a straightforward search soon becomes a disturbing journey through abandoned streets, empty buildings, and places that seem to change into something far more sinister. Unlike Resident Evil’s emphasis on zombies and biological experiments, Silent Hill relied heavily on atmosphere and psychological unease. The town in the backdrop was covered in thick fog, which limited visibility and made it difficult to tell what lay ahead. Interestingly, the fog also helped the developers work around the PlayStation’s technical limitations, eventually becoming one of Silent Hill’s most recognizable features. In Silent Hill, players could hear monsters before they could see them, so they had to quickly decide whether to investigate or run. Harry’s radio made these encounters even more unsettling by producing static when enemies were nearby, often warning players that something was approaching, but without revealing its location. Combat was clumsy by design, and Harry was an ordinary man rather than a trained soldier. Facing monsters could feel uncomfortable, especially when ammunition was scarce and escape was not always easy. Besides the town’s shifting environments, the mystery-rich story also added a separate layer of fear. Silent Hill became a defining and one of the earliest examples of excellent psychological survival horror games, showing that fear didn’t always need to come from constant combat or sudden attacks. Its oppressive atmosphere, disturbing imagery, and mysterious story gave the franchise a distinct identity, which continued to shine in its sequels. Silent Hill 2 might be even more popular today, but any horror game fan owes it to themselves to try the original Silent Hill on PlayStation. Released January 31, 1999 ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence Developer(s) Konami Publisher(s) Konami Engine Unreal Engine Franchise Silent Hill