Old School Survival Horror games not Resident Evil and Silent HIll.

[Samtemdo8]

Because during the time when Classic Resident Evil and Silent Hills ruled their respective genre's in the PS1 and PS2 eras. There were a ton of other Survival Horror games that clearly were also trying to compete with the Big 2, so has anyone here played these games, and what's your input on them since some of these games can be obscure.

The Fatal Frame Series which is technically considered worthy of being placed as the Number 3 along with Silent Hill and Resident Evil. The OG Trilogy on the PS2 and the most recent release on the Wii U.

The Clock Tower Games, most famous being Clock Tower 3 on the PS2 and it was made by Capcom even though the prior games weren't, and there's also another Capcom made game called Haunting Ground which is considered a Spiritual Successor to Clock Tower.

Now for more Obscure one off games there was Galerians for the PS1, Siren for the PS2 which was made by Sony Entertainment

So has anyone played any of these games and have any opinions on it?

 

[BrawlMan]

Galerians

Played it once from an ex-friend; got bored and never touched it again.

Other survival horror games I've played:

The Suffering - A good action horror game on a prison island.

Eternal Darkness - A Lovecraft game, better than the man himself and all of his works. Gameplay wise, I don't have the patience anymore, but I loved the sanity meter mechanic.

Splatterhouse 1-3 - More so the first two games are survival horror single plane brawlers. The 3rd game is more like Final Fight, but with map, exploration, and hidden rooms. Some stages have you on a timer to rescue Rick's wife and son. You need to get to the end of the stage before the timer runs out to get the best endings.

Cold Fear - Resident Evil on a Tanker ship RE4 clone that is surprisingly decent. Ironic, because we've had two RE games that are on a cruise ship.

Shadows of the Damned - RE4 with demons, and a sick ass dodge roll. More action heavy, but the horror is more surreal and better than the horror in RE5 & RE6.

Evil Within 1 & 2 - I find them to be the real RE6 & RE7 respectively. Classic and new school over-the-shoulder- horror for the next generation. Evil Within 2 is the best horror game in the 8th generation tied with RE2Remake.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Ah fuck, I forgot to mention Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem as well. I knew I felt like I was missing something.

And there's also the Alone in the Dark games.

 

[gorfias]

Does this count? Great experience back in the day.

 

[BrawlMan]

Does this count? Great experience back in the day.

I do, and I am not even a fan. Most players do, last I checked.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Played it once from an ex-friend; got bored and never touched it again.

Other survival horror games I've played:

The Suffering - A good action horror game on a prison island.

Eternal Darkness - A Lovecraft game, better than the man himself and all of his works. Gameplay wise, I don't have the patience anymore, but I loved the sanity meter mechanic.

Splatterhouse 1-3 - More so the first two games are survival horror single plane brawlers. The 3rd game is more like Final Fight, but with map, exploration, and hidden rooms. Some stages have you on a timer to rescue Rick's wife and son. You need to get to the end of the stage before the timer runs out to get the best endings.

Cold Fear - Resident Evil on a Tanker ship RE4 clone that is surprisingly decent. Ironic, because we've had two RE games that are on a cruise ship.

Shadows of the Damned - RE4 with demons, and a sick ass dodge roll. More action heavy, but the horror is more surreal and better than the horror in RE5 & RE6.

Evil Within 1 & 2 - I find them to be the real RE6 & RE7 respectively. Classic and new school over-the-shoulder- horror for the next generation. Evil Within 2 is the best horror game in the 8th generation tied with RE2Remake.

Have you tried the other games I mentioned in my list?

 

[BrawlMan]

Have you tried the other games I mentioned in my list?

I already mention Galerians. I played Clock Tower (actually the real Clock Tower 2 on PS1. The very first Clock Tower game was on SNES/Japanese PC), Clock Tower Ghost Head (sucks), and never played CT 3. I've seen a playthrough of 3 though. I forgot to mention Parasite Eve 1 & 2. The first game is the best. The 2nd game played too much like Resident Evil. I played the first Fatal Frame once, and that's it. Never touched the sequels.

 

[SilentPony]

I remember a game called Iron Helix that was pretty scary when I was still 5-6ish.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Echo Night (1999, PS1): This was a weird first person adventure game that barely made it through localization in the West and basically had you activating flags in random or unintuitive ways so the plot would move forward. The main setting is gigantic ship but stuff you or take keeps activating the same repetitive flashback. I think the gist of the game was getting things for ghosts so they would be at ease and disappear. Weird and disorienting but not especially scary. An Echo Night 2 was never released outside Japan. A third title, Echo Night: Beyond, was released on PS2. I played a little bit of it and it was the same thing but on a spaceship.

Kuon (2004, PS2): A From Software game! It's set in the Heian Period and you play through the game twice as two different lady exorcists before you unlock a third lady exorcist (a gender bender of the Abe no Seimei of Japanese legend) and get to fight the final boss and wrap up the story. By the end the game feels like busywork, but I remember the setting being very creepy and unsettling. Good audio, good use of color, some good scares, very effective dead-of-night ambience. It has one of my favorite gaming moments in memory too: you save the game by setting little paperboats afloat down a river that courses through the whole mansion, which I guess are meant to represent some kind of cleansing ritual. Towards the end of the game though you discover every boat you've ever crafted has piled up in an underground pool of blood, giving off the sense that all your prayers have been for naught, landing literally at hell's door.

ObsCure (2004, PS2): You control a group of teens trapped after hours inside their school trying to figure out the mystery behind a series of disappearences. This was cool for a bunch of gimmicks: 1) you got to tag in or tag out as the different characters (all huddled in the main hub of the school courtyard) based on the skills you wanted to use, 2) death was permanent meaning you could complete the game with all but one teen dead and 3) it had couch co-op with no split-screen thanks to fixed camera angles. Thing is between me and a friend we had all skillsets covered so that there was never much need for switching characters as you're meant to, and for that matter there was no reason to simply not reload an older save so everyone would make it out alive in the end. Fun game though. There was a sequel on PS2 too but I never played it.

Cold Fear (2005, PS2): This was essentially RE4 (set on a boat, which rocks and all that) but with less versatile gameplay. The plot sort of gives up about halfway and simply ignores all the questions raised in favor of a rather abrupt ending. I don't remember much else about it other than the save system was cumbersome and involved using certain doors as one-time checkpoints.

Haunting Ground (2005, PS2): This was one of the games that impressed me greatly on PS2 as the whole game is technically a massive open world castle (meticulously sectioned off, of course) that requires zero loading times as you run away from relentless stalkers trying to puzzle your way out. You have a puny kick for a stun attack and otherwise have to rely on a dog to stun or distract your enemies as well as figure out puzzles. This was by Capcom and I'm pretty sure some of the RE4 art/assets pooled over since so many characters look alike, there's that Europe-through-Japanese-eyes feel and the castle itself looks remarkably like Salazar's. I did like the general art direction of the game as it veered into more unconventional territory like alchemy, homunculi and golems (instead of the usual Gothic tropes).

Rule of Rose (2005, PS2): Lord of the Flies meets Alice in Wonderland. It's a winner of an idea with shitty gameplay. It's practically impossible to fall into combat without taking damage, for one. The central gimmick - similar to Haunting Ground - has you sending your doggo over to sniff around rooms to uncover items anywhere from key items to consumables to vendor trash. In practice this meant having to comb through every since room which, coupled with ridiculous loading times, proved to be rather grating. The game also had the disadvantage of being so weird that it went past being scary or creepy and just stayed weird. The story is nonsense and the actions you need to take to complete it with anything close to a satisfying ending are wholly unintuitive, like playing through certain chapters in certain order (no way of telling) or having to do the single most unintuitive thing you would do with a final boss: give him your gun so he kills himself.

 

[Samtemdo8]

So my plan right now is to marathon a bunch of these Old School Horror games because I always wanted to try them out.

I got alot of these games at the moment and I want to try them out, to start, I am gonna replay the Silent Hill games made by Team Silent, its been a LONG time since I played the first 3 games. I have the HD Collection for 2 and 3 though and despite all the bad things said about it, I fortunately have the PS3 copy which received a patch that fixes the issues the HD collection had, and I still have this patch to this day and refuse to delete it.

And I have never played Silent Hill 4 The Room before and I have absolutely know idea what the hell happened in the game so I am going in with an untouched mind.

I've been playing Resident Evil games so much that I rarely gave a chance these other contemporaries.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

I absolutely love survival horror at its finest. I've collected quite a few of these games, even though I got them mostly via second hand.

Haunting Ground is one of my favorite games ever. Its like Clock Tower but with doge. The doge is kind of a mixed bag because sometimes Hewie doesn't listen but I noticed that keeping a high friendship level makes him be more consistent. I really love this game's atmosphere and your lack of attacking options. The stalkers are really the highlight of the game because they're so memorable, especially Daniella. This is actually one of my favorite games of all time because it spooked me a lot.

Speaking of Clock Tower I've actually played the first and third games and like Haunting Ground are some of my favorites. 1 (The First Fear for the Super Famicom) was alright, a bit slow for the modern day but I think that makes it work in its favor. Again love the atmosphere and the stalker element but I feel like Bobby is kind of easily dispatched at times, especially if you know a trick or two on the mansion's layout. Its of its era as its a point and click game but its still unique in what it does.

Clock Tower 3 is a different beast but I feel like there's a lot to talk about. Firstly its like the last couple of examples I've mentioned where there's a stalker going after you and all that. However the plot is a time travelling one where you go out and try to exorcise an evil spirit or something. Its been years since I last played this game so my memory is kind of hazzy. But anyways the stalkers in this game are supernaturally enhanced and based on [fictional] serial killers so they do their best to kill you. It is scary yeah because one of them uses chemicals to corrode people away for example but its presentation is a bit..jank. The animations are pretty weird to say the least and sometimes the game feels comical at times. Its something you need to see for yourself. There's also boss battles but instead of being a puzzle boss, its a straight up boss fight; Alyssa has to shoot the boss with a magical bow and arrow and there's a few mechanics to it but it feels so disjointed from the rest of the game. And lastly fuck the final boss of this game; I've never faced such a bullshit boss before until then and its kind of unfair due how clunky combat is. You need to spend the entire game preparing to fight it or you're gonna have an awful time. That said its an interesting experience to say the least.

I've also played a bit of the Fatal Frame series and I have all the games in some form. Its just that I need to complete them. I've played a bit of 1 and 2 and I really like them, despite not finishing them all the way, Again love the atmosphere and limited means to fight off whatever is bothering you. However I think I suck at these games because I know for sure in 1 I'm in a bit of a pinch because I'm very low on film and have to deal with this ghost but can never do it in time when I run out so its a bad spot for me. I'm not detracting it for that because its on my behalf but yeah great games.

Eternal Darkness was mentioned and I really love that game too. Cthulhu Mythos always has fascinated me and inspired me to say the least but seeing it influence a game like Eternal Darkness was interesting because how much existential horror it uses and it does it uniquely. I love seeing everyone's story unfolding and how it fits into the bigger picture. I love how legitimately scary it can be with or without sanity effects. Hell I had nightmares of zombies opening doors because of this game. Weird I know. But while I think the combat is good, I feel like its also a bit too easy if you target the head. Yeah some of the enemies are stronger depending on what opposing evil god you choose and it can be challenging at times but it can be beaten fairly easy, especially in the more modern stories. But still one of the most unique games I've ever experienced.

I'm not sure if counts but speaking of unique games Ilbleed is my favorite Dreamcast game ever. I think it fits the mold because its scary and your fighting options are very limited. I think its first level really show the tone of the game. It starts off very horror themed but it slowly descends into insanity. Its spooky, its crazy, its just everything I really love in a game. Its just an unique experience to say the least.

I'm giving shout outs to both Rule of Rose and Kuon because I haven't really played them because they're so rare but I've heard they're pretty good. I really miss this era of gaming a lot. I feel like the more modern horror games lack what these games have; They're either walking simulators that rely on jump scares or really action games with zombies or something. Its not like that with every game mind you but its hard to find games like Clock Tower out there these days. But yeah good stuff.

 

[Gordon_4]

I was going to say Dino-Crisis but then I remembered you spend that game gunning down velociraptors with an anti-material rifle. Does not qualify.

 

[Dreiko]

It kind of is and isn't oldschool but Corpse Party is one series that fans of horror overlook and it is very much in the vein of Silent Hill. It gives you this terror that makes doing basic things scary in real life.

It's iffy about whether to call it oldschool because while the original version of the game came out in that old era the commercial release we got in the west was during the psp time.


Anyhow, the game isn't at all combat-oriented, the most you can do is run away from things and it is an rpg maker game that has been really spruced up so the fact that it manages to be as terrifying as it ends up being while relying solely on basic sprites and artwork and creepy audio is a testament to the atmosphere it oozes.

 

[Chupathingy]

I haven't played many survival horror games, so most of my recommendations have already been said by others. However, I will mention Rule of Rose again, because I played that for the first time recently and really enjoyed it, seemingly more than most people did. Though I'd recommend emulating it unless you're willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for a physical copy.

I was going to say Dino-Crisis but then I remembered you spend that game gunning down velociraptors with an anti-material rifle. Does not qualify.

The first Dino Crisis is definitely survival horror. Dino Crisis 2 is when you get stuff like anti-materiel rifles, heavy machine guns, and a rocket launcher that fires three homing rockets simultaneously.

 

[Gordon_4]

I haven't played many survival horror games, so most of my recommendations have already been said by others. However, I will mention Rule of Rose again, because I played that for the first time recently and really enjoyed it, seemingly more than most people did. Though I'd recommend emulating it unless you're willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for a physical copy.



The first Dino Crisis is definitely survival horror. Dino Crisis 2 is when you get stuff like anti-materiel rifles, heavy machine guns, and a rocket launcher that fires three homing rockets simultaneously.

Shit maybe it was DC2 I played. All I remember is just plowing through the Velociraptors with a gun the size of a small car.

 

[Kae]

So keep in mind I haven't played most of these games I know about them mostly from videos that I watched a really long time ago and from reading about them, most of the horror games I've played have already been listed.

D: Survival horror first person FMV game, available on PC, PS1, 3DO and Saturn, it's about investigating the murder of your father on a creepy abandoned castle that has a lot of traps, it's actually available on gog.com and while I do own it I've never played it, TBH I'm not into FMV games.

Enemy Zero: A first person sci-fi survival horror made by the same team as D, released on Saturn & PC but has no modern re-releases the game has no connection to D but the main character has the same name and very similar appearance, the game itself is a slow paced game about exploring a ship while you're being hunted by invisible aliens.

D2: A sequel in name only of D and also starring a blonde girl named Laura, made by the same team at Warp orginally released exclusively on the Dreamcast, it's a survival horror RPG game, it's been a really long time since I've read about it so I don't remember many details at all, all I know is it looked cool.

Parasite Eve: Survival Horror RPG game made by Squaresoft originally released for PS1, I know a ton of people really love this game it was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame and it's a body horror kind of game, and I think it's available on Playstation Store, it has 2 sequels but I know even less about those other than they were generally not considered very good.

Sweet Home: An NES horror RPG made by Capcom released exclusively in Japan though there are translation patches online, mostly known for being the game responsible for the existence of Resident Evil which allegedly started development as a remake of Sweet Home, this one I've actually played and it's a surprisingly good horror game, heavy on resource management and very tense, it features permadeath made worse by the fact that every character has an ability that is needed to finish the game and when they die you need an item to do it for them but you only have 2 item slots per character, anyway unfortunately it cannot be acquire in English legally but if you can get your hands on it or can read Japanese it's actually really good.

Illbleed: A Dreamcast exclusive horror game known for being very janky and cheesy, I've never played it but it has a cult following.

I have no mouth and I must scream: A point and click horror game for PC based on the short-story by Harlan Ellison which actually features him as the voice for Am, it's a really cool game but I've never finished it because it's really easy to make a mistake on it and make it unbeatable without knowing, it's actually available on both gog.com and steam if you wish to check it out.


Off the top of my head that's all I remember, if I remember something else I'll be sure to come back and post it.

 

[Samtemdo8]

I was going to say Dino-Crisis but then I remembered you spend that game gunning down velociraptors with an anti-material rifle. Does not qualify.

The first game tried to be more spooky scary, but it ended up being repetitive.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Parasite Eve: Survival Horror RPG game made by Squaresoft originally released for PS1, I know a ton of people really love this game it was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame and it's a body horror kind of game, and I think it's available on Playstation Store, it has 2 sequels but I know even less about those other than they were generally not considered very good.

Well I can safely say that Parasite Eve 2 is obviously the better sequel since its just Resident Evil with RPG stuff.

 

[Silvanus]

Not really "old school", but I highly enjoyed Soma.

 

[NotDavidHayter]

I really like Dino Crisis.