With Halloween closing in like a zombie that just caught a whiff of blood, it's time to get into the spirit of the season. Video gamers have a vast assortment of horror-based titles to choose from in time for October 31st, and they're not limited to the newest consoles.
In fact, the original PlayStation has quite a few memorable horror games in its vast lineup, and each one helped progress the genre further into the kinds of titles we have today, including Outlast, Alien Isolation and The Last Of Us Part 2. Here's 10 of the best, ranked from spectacularly spooky to downright devilish.
10 MediEvil
For something a little more lighthearted that younger kids can enjoy, MediEvil is the one to beat. Heavily influenced by Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, the game was equally spooky as much as it was charming to play.
The game won't win any awards for gameplay and combat mechanics by today's overdeveloped and refined standards, but it served as a brick in the road for other 3rd party action titles in this same vein. The feel-good charm of the game is reason enough to give it a spin.
9 Alien Trilogy
Based on the hit sci-fi film franchise, Alien Trilogy took extreme liberties with its source material to craft a first-person shooter that referenced elements and locations from the first three films. As Ripley, the player was tasked was wiping out the xenomorph infestation by hunting down and destroying multiple Queens.
The atmosphere of the game is still creepy to this day, with dimly lit corridors stuffed with aliens popping out of every cranny and vent shaft one can think of. The music is appropriately fitting, as are the movie-faithful sound effects and tone. Though not perfect, it would help inspire future Alien-based FPS titles.
8 Dino Crisis
Widely regarded as an R-Rated Jurassic Park, Dino Crisis capitalized on the dino craze of the 1990s by blending it with a survival horror gaming style. It took Capcom's proprietary engine made famous by Resident Evil, jettisoned the zombies and went full-bore prehistoric sci-fi.
The tension of the game was immense, with dangers raptors and other dinos pursuing players already low on ammo and forced to adapt in order to survive. It would start a franchise all its own that proved to be a premiere hit series on the PSX.
7 Parasite Eve
The original Parasite Eve was a landmark title in the horror genre, and it's a shame the series hasn't continued on into our modern day. It marked a paradigm shift for SquareSoft who eschewed the family-friendly Final Fantasy games in favor of a full-on M-rated action/horror title.
The game centers around a police detective in search of an antagonist named Eve who can control the mitochondria in human DNA and cause them to spontaneously combust, among other powers. It's a strong entry in the J-horror craze that would give rise to hot film properties such as The Ring.
6 Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 was a game-changer. It took the formula of a groundbreaking title that single-handedly invented an entire game genre, and built upon it in the same way that Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back built on A New Hope. The story was bigger, the environment was larger, and the enemies were far more terrifying.
RE:2 would prove to be a landmark PSX title that did everything right. It would also break the franchise out of the condensed, self-contained story of the original, and expand it outwards into the real world, creating a full-blowing franchise that is still going strong today.
5 D
By today's standards, D is stone-age, but the clever use of lighting and atmosphere made it one of the PlayStation's premiere horror titles. It utilized dark imagery with psychologically disturbing imagery and content to help draw players into the nightmare scenario.
D also utilized clever snap-cut editing alongside agonizingly slow sequences to help ramp up the tension. In many ways, D was an elevated Myst clone, but it's nail-biting premise and vivid imagery were far beyond anything video games were accomplishing at the time.
4 Clock Tower
There's nothing quite like creepy hunchbacks armed with large cutting shears to send players running for the hills, and Clock Tower did it better than most. This pseudo-3D survival horror sequel to the Japanese-only original was all about dark atmosphere and creep factor in addition to traditional puzzle-solving.
A point and click interface drives much of the gameplay, which won't hold up well in an age of intelligent camera systems and twin-stick platforming, but that's no reason to avoid giving it a try. Clock Tower contributed greatly to the supernatural horror titles that have since popped up on successive platforms.
3 Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Few games are as beloved as Konami's landmark title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was the very first Castlevania title to grace a PlayStation shortly after Konami gave the TurboGrafix CD platform a whirl with Rondo of Blood, the prequel.
SOTN is perhaps the best Metroidvania title ever made, with stellar graphics, deep gameplay and exciting, gorgeous music that help sell the package. It was also far more mature than previous Castlevania titles, which buckets of gore and repulsive bosses that would make Nintendo blush by comparison.
2 Silent Hill
Horror games really took off with the release of Silent Hill, a game that expanded greatly on tension, disturbing imagery and scares. From from the sci-fi-based horror of Resident Evil and it's viral outbreak scenario, Silent Hill went straight into demonic territory to unsettle its players.
The use of repulsive imagery based on manifestations of the characters' minds was a stroke of genius, and put an intellectual spin on a very psychological tale. It would become the hallmark of Silent Hill titles moving forward, each one creepier than the other.
1 Resident Evil
The original Resident Evil on the PSX is a technical and narrative paradigm shift compared to horror titles that came before. For the first time, a truly immersive 3D nightmare scenario was brought to life for players to enjoy.
Nail-biting tension, jump scares and tremendous creep factor played into the haunted house scenario of the story, turning the game into an instant hit. While laughable by today's standards due to its blocky graphics, outdated gameplay and hilariously awful voice acting, it's still a good idea to pick up the seminal original and see just how far we've come on the horror video game front.