As much as we love horror movies, there's something truly special about horror games. As players are directly in control of their characters when playing a video game, horror games allow players to more intimately experience the horror and anxiety of a situation firsthand. While the genre of horror games has been growing steadily in popularity in recent years, it has a rich history in the video game medium.

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Many of the most successful games within the horror genre draw influence from horror games of yesteryear, with many influential horror games being released throughout the 1990s. So today, we're going to examine the ten most quintessential horror games that were released throughout the '90s.

10 Clock Tower

Released for the SNES in 1995, Clock Tower is a point-and-click adventure that is as terrifying as it is excellent. The game does a great job at setting town through its use of visual and sound design, pairing dreary and cramped visuals with anxiety-inducing scores. The game notably featured numerous endings based on a player's choices and success. In addition to setting the tone expertly, the game features well-thought-out puzzles for the players to solve as they attempt to survive.

9 Dark Seed

Another point-and-click adventure like Clock Tower, Dark Seed was released in 1992. Focusing more on psychological horror, the narrative of the game is split between reality and a nightmarish dream world. This realm of nightmare is notably visually inspired by the work of H.R. Gieger, the designer of Alien.

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The game is heavily based around trial and error, requiring a player to succeed a variety of tasks with a strict time limit, adding to the growing feeling of anxiety.

8 The House Of The Dead

While horror-based shooters are commonplace within the modern landscape of gaming, this wasn't always the case. Released in 1996, The House Of the Dead is an on-rails shooter that has a player fend off hoards of zombies with up to two players. Like Clock Tower, the game distinctly has several possible endings based on a player's choices and actions.

7 Resident Evil

Another game released in 1996, the first entry in the Resident Evil series is easily one of the most influential horror games of all time. Released by Capcom, the game requires players to manage their finite resources as they attempt to flee and survive hoards of the undead.

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While the game's fixed camera and tank controls haven't aged the most gracefully, the game directly influenced the course that horror gaming took, helping horror break into the gaming mainstream.

6 Alone In The Dark

While survival horror is now one of the most popular sub-genres in horror gaming, most modern horror can trace its influences to Alone in the Dark. Released in 1992 for PC, the game features a somewhat simple premise, only requiring a player to escape a haunted mansion. However, through the array of puzzles and undead foes that must be overcome, this is easier said than done. Like Resident Evil, resource management is integral in Alone in the Dark, as players must keep track of how much gear they are carrying at a given moment.

5 Resident Evil 2

While Resident Evil 1 may have started things for the series, it truly came into its own with the release of Resident Evil 2 in 1998, with the game setting the stage for what we expect from the series to this day. Improving on nearly every element of gameplay from the first game in the series, Resident Evil 2 greatly builds on the themes of horror within the series, with a looming, ever-present threat hunting the player relentlessly. Anyone familiar with Resident Evil 8: Village can confidently confirm that the principles of design within Resident Evil 2 can still be felt to this day.

4 Parasite Eve

Released by Square in 1998, Parasite Eve is a game that mixes together elements of RPGs and real-time action games, wrapping it all together within an incredibly atmospheric package. Putting the player in the shoes of Aya Brea, the player must attempt to find ans stop Eve, a woman who is planning to eradicate humanity. While the game's action combat is solid in its own right, much of the game's quality is derived from exploring the game's ambient environments.

3 I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

Like Dark Seed, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a game that is based more heavily around psychological horror rather than elements such as jump scares or zombies. The game was released for PC in 1996 and serves as a video game adaptation of Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story of the same name, in which the last surviving five human beings are kept alive and tortured by an artificial intelligence. The game goes notably farther than one would expect from a horror game of the 90s, and features what is easily the most unsettling and uncomfortable subject matter of any other game on this list.

2 Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night

While not a horror game in the traditional sense as the other entries on this list Castlevania: Sympohony of the Night is a game absolutely oozing gothic horror atmosphere. While not a blatantly scary experience, Symphony of the Night is widely considered to be one of the most genre-defining Metroidvanias of all time, boasting gothic-horror inspired locations and foes while putting a primary focus on tight gameplay.

1 Silent Hill

Released in 1999, few games have had as profound an impact on the genre of horror games as the original Silent Hill. An immersive and atmosphere-driven experience, Silent Hill is a game that players with a player's uncertainty obscuring one's visuals with a heavy blanket of fog. With a basic premise that only asks the player to find their lost daughter in the town of Silent Hill, the game offers five potential alternate endings depending on how they handle the events that unfold.

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