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90s Horror Games: The Classics You Can Still Play

The 1990s invented modern horror games: fixed cameras and scarce bullets, CD-ROM adventures filmed with real actors, and nightmares built from pre-rendered rooms. These are the ones still sold today, as originals or faithful re-releases.

The games

14 of the 19 games in this guide are not on PlayStation and are left out. Show them all.

  1. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream key art: glowing blue circuit-board lines on a black background PsychologicalI Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream1995: five prisoners of a mad computer, each sent through a nightmare of their own past, from Harlan Ellison's story.
  2. System Shock 2 remaster key art: the metallic face of the AI SHODAN with glowing green eyes and wires spreading out like hair SurvivalSystem Shock 2: 25th Anniversary RemasterThe 1999 classic, remastered in 2025: alone on a starship whose crew have become something else.
  3. Dino Crisis key art: a scaly dinosaur foot with a long curved claw stands on a bloodied floor in the dark SurvivalDino CrisisCapcom's 1999 survival horror with raptors that follow you from room to room, back on PC and PlayStation.
  4. Clock Tower: Rewind key art: Jennifer, a frightened dark-haired girl in a white blouse, in front of a giant pair of open shears, with the mansion's clock tower at night 2D horrorClock Tower: RewindThe 1995 Super Famicom Clock Tower, finally released in English: hide from the Scissorman in the Barrows mansion.
  5. Killing Time: Resurrected key art: a grinning zombie butler holding a knife and a plate, a zombie and a polka-dot clown on an orange and red swirl Action horrorKilling Time: ResurrectedA 1995 3DO shooter of a cursed estate and filmed ghosts, remastered for today's systems.

Survival horror took its shape in this decade. Alone in the Dark, in 1992, put a lone investigator in a haunted mansion with fixed camera angles, and Resident Evil made that a genre in 1996. Its originals, the 1996 Resident Evil, the 1998 Resident Evil 2 and the 1999 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, are sold again on PC with their fixed cameras and tank controls, and Capcom's Dino Crisis (1999) swaps zombies for raptors. Clock Tower, a 1995 Super Famicom game where you hide from the Scissorman, came out in English for the first time as Clock Tower: Rewind. System Shock 2 (1999), remastered in 2025, is the decade's great science-fiction horror.

On PC, CD-ROM horror adventures pushed in every direction. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995) and Sanitarium (1998) are the two most remembered, both nightmares about guilt and memory. Sierra made Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993), Phantasmagoria (1995), filmed with live actors, and Shivers (1995), a night in a haunted museum. Harvester (1996) and Realms of the Haunting (1996) mixed filmed scenes with stranger games, Kenji Eno's D (1995) gave you two real hours with no saves, and The 11th Hour (1995) followed The 7th Guest back into Henry Stauf's mansion.

Further back, Waxworks (1992) is a gory first-person crawl through cursed exhibits, and Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet (1993) one of the first Lovecraftian adventures. Killing Time, a 1995 shooter with filmed ghosts, is back as Killing Time: Resurrected.

If you play one, start with the 1996 Resident Evil for survival horror or Sanitarium for a horror adventure.

Questions

What were the best horror games of the 90s?

Resident Evil and its first two sequels, Alone in the Dark, System Shock 2, Clock Tower, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Sanitarium and Phantasmagoria are the most remembered, and all can still be played today.

Can you still play the original Resident Evil games?

Yes. The 1996 Resident Evil, the 1998 Resident Evil 2 and the 1999 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis were re-released on PC.

Is Silent Hill from the 90s?

The first Silent Hill came out in 1999 on the original PlayStation, but it is not sold today; Silent Hill 2's remake and the HD Collection are the ways to play the series.

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