Ever since 1996's Resident Evil brought the horror genre into gaming's mainstream, the genre has, generally speaking, been on a steady upward trajectory. Horror games are now a major player in gaming, with the latest Resident Evil game, Resident Evil Village, being the most completed game of 2021.
The genre's consistent rise can be largely credited to the constant improvements in gaming visuals, animations, sound design, and more. As these technical aspects have improved, developers have been able to create far more unsettlingly immersive horror experiences for players that look and sound disturbingly life-like. These improvements are one of the many reasons why some older horror games have lost their fear factor over the years.
7 Slender: The Eight Pages
Slender: The Eight Pages is a free-to-play indie game that was developed by Parsec Productions and released in June 2012. The game capitalized on the success of the enigmatic Slenderman character and became a huge hit thanks to almost every major gaming YouTuber doing playthroughs of the game at the time.
A few years after Slender: The Eight Pages, Slenderman became more of a meme than a horror icon, drastically reducing the game's fear factor. Moreover, the game itself is barely scary at all when players know what to expect, as Slenderman's movements and actions are very limited and predictable.
6 Doki Doki Literature Club!
Given how heavily marketed most games are today - particularly PC indie games that need to find ways to stand out from the crowd - it's rare that a modern game can subvert its audience's expectations. Doki Doki Literature Club! accomplished this, however, as it initially presents itself as little more than an anime dating simulator. Players will soon realize that something is awry before the game suddenly dives into the dark depths of horror and even manages to unnerve players in ways they'd never suspect, such as messing with their PC files.
Due to how viral and talked about the game was after its release, many new players today know what to expect. Consequently, the shocking turns are ruined for them, dampening the game's fear factor.
5 Resident Evil
The first entry in the Resident Evil series isn't only important for its role in kickstarting the iconic horror franchise but also for influencing numerous other horror titles and series for many years after it was first released. Resident Evil originally hit stores in March 1996 and is regarded as the game that shaped the survival subgenre of horror.
Resident Evil still has some moments that will give unsuspecting players a scare, most notably the infamous jump scare where dogs burst through a window. However, over 25 years after the game was first released, the poorly aged visuals have made the zombies far less intimidating than when they first appeared on screens in the '90s.
4 Clock Tower
The point-and-click adventure genre was at the height of its popularity in the '90s, though the vast majority of games were light-hearted, comedic puzzle games like the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango. However, Human Entertainment's Clock Tower is a point-and-click horror game that featured one of the scariest villains of the '90s, Scissorman.
The game stood out at the time for not giving players weapons to attack the constantly pursuing Scissorman with, forcing them to run or hide instead. This concept was unique and terrifying at the time, though games like Outlast and Amnesia: The Dark Descent have since come along and offered modern takes on the idea.
3 Dino Crisis
Dino Crisis was developed by Capcom and first released on PlayStation 1 in July 1999, before arriving on Dreamcast and PC the following year. Like a lot of the games on this list, the evaporation of Dino Crisis' fear factor can be attributed to the aging of its visuals. The dinosaurs looked frighteningly realistic for 1999 standards, and their A.I. was also disturbingly impressive as they were smart and quick in their perusal of the player.
However, PlayStation 1 visuals and animations simply can't compete with AAA games today, regardless of how impressive they were at the time.
2 Silent Hill 2
Despite many of its gameplay mechanics leaning on the Resident Evil series, Silent Hill 2 is one of the horror genre's most influential titles. This is because of how the game changed the perception of horror games, as Konami's 2001 masterpiece showed that the genre could have far more depth and artistry to its storytelling than just a generic need to kill scary zombies.
Silent Hill 2's narrative and ways of conveying emotion are still gripping today, though the fear factor of enemies like Pyramid Head have been dampened over the years, given how recognizable the game's once bizarre and disturbing character models are now.
1 Alone In The Dark
While the aforementioned Resident Evil is credited with shaping the survival horror genre, Alone in the Dark - the first entry in the long-running series of the same name - is credited with being the subgenre's first-ever 3D entry.
3D horror games were uncommon in the early '90s, so the mere presence of zombies was unsettling for players at the time. However, now that zombies and other supernatural creatures are such a major part of pop culture and even feature in some kid's games, Alone in the Dark isn't likely to spook anyone today.