Ah, the 90's. Remember those? If you don't, try turning on the TV or stepping outside. The 90's is on the pulse of nostalgia culture right now.
My wife and I have enough of an age difference to have really experienced the 90's differently. She hit her teens mid to late of the decade, which means she associates the period with beanie babies, pop princesses, and the Disney renaissance. I, on the other hand crossed into my twenties, i.e. the period where you're an adult but sure as hell don't feel like one. For me the 90's was the death of hope and the wasteland of broken dreams; I was a Liberal Arts major.
It was a great time to be miserable. We started with the deaths of Jim Henson, Mel Blanc, and Dr. Seuss, MTV stopped being fun and then stopped being MTV, a culture sprung up based on vampires, and then Japan sent us a bunch of cartoons that made Watership Down look like a Trix commercial. But amidst it all was a crazy little thing called the internet. And with the release came the need for hardware. As such, the personal computer (PC) experienced a resurgence not seen since the Commodore 64's disk drive had finally given out (i.e. about four months after we bought it).
Which brings me back to horror, if you skip a few steps. I can't prove it, but I suspect any time there's been a new medium outlet available, story tellers will inherently lean towards tales of death first. I think most young filmmakers start off in low/no budget horror. And even the first narrative film in history, 1903's The Great Train Robbery, while not technically horror it didn't shy away from violence. It even had cinema's first jump scare.
PCs of the 90's had some new technologies at their disposals which allowed for a rudimentary blending of live performers and animated backgrounds that games hadn't previously been able to experiment with. Combining those elements with standard adventure game tropes, namely solving puzzles and uncovering answers, it was inevitable that we were going to get some haunted houses. I played a lot of them, as many as I could blow my minimum wage earnings on. And...a lot of them were deeply flawed. Sometimes embarrassingly so. But at the same time there was a B-movie charm to this era that I really can't see duplicated today.
So with that said, let's take a stroll through some of my favorites.
1. The 7th Guest (1993)
If you scrutinize any single element of the Stauf mansion (puzzle design, story, scares), you're bound to find another game that did it better. But you'll never find one that out-blends those elements as a concoction. You're (probably) the displaced consciousness of one of Henry Stauf's victims, existing in a ghost-like state, perpetually reliving the past and/or present as if it's a haunting -oh forget it! The narrative wasn't Trilobyte's main concern. What you have is the point and click version of The Haunted Mansion. Stuff happens in it. Every puzzle you solve or hotspot you uncover reveals...something. It's not always important, but it's always in keeping with the house's personality.
Six guests arrive via invitation, with promises of wish fulfillment should they beat Stauf's games. A deal with the devil plus competition easily brings out the worst in the majority of them. It sounds like a nightmare, but in reality this is horror at its most fun. You know everybody's doomed, but you'd strangely rather spend more time here than actually try to escape.
Most people seem to remember The 7th Guest for what they refer to as 'bad acting'. This is incorrect. The game is chock full of spot on overacting. It's a delight watching these performers try to out-ham each other in front of the blue screen. Their characters may be dying horribly, but everyone looks like they're having the time of their life. But none more so than Henry Stauf himself, Robert Hirschboeck. I can't find much about him on-line outside of his videogame appearances, but he just looks like a veteran Shakespearean actor who was finally given that one role he'd been waiting his whole career for.
The 7th Guest is a joy. It was the Myst before Myst, and the template for all spooky point and click adventures since. Flawed? Yes. But who cares. The game is so beloved that it transcends its own shortcomings, as evidenced in the forthcoming fan-made sequel The 13th Doll. Get that? Out of all the games on this list, this is the only one to outlive the 90's. To paraphrase Hamilton Temple, Stauf may very well have discovered the secret to Rrrreal magic.
2. Phantasmagoria (1995)
Switching one mansion for another, we join mystery novelist Adrienne Delaney and her husband Don as they move into the recently acquired home of magician Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch. After Adrienne experiences a nightmare in the house she begins exploring it's hidden alcoves for clues as to what happened to Carno. It turns out he was possessed by a demon and murdered several of his wives. Adrienne accidentally releases said demon in her search and it enters her husband. The marriage plummets from there.
Phantasmagoria was the passion project of Sierra co-founder Roberta Williams (The King's Quest series) who'd been wanting to do a horror game for several years. As a game, it was probably more ambitious than it could live up to, as you spend most of your time wandering around trying to find that hotspot to advance the plot. But as a horror story, it leaves a disturbingly real impression.
The heart of the game is the relationship between Adrienne and Don. They start as a loving couple, but the demonic possession turns Don into an abusive husband, then a murderous one. There's a rape scene midway through the proceedings (thankfully desexualized) which I'm kind of surprised you don't hear more people referring to today amidst the #metoo movement, as it demonstrates how sex can turn into rape even if it starts off as consensual.
This isn't a fun game. It's more of a test of psychological endurance. Some people find the gore so over the top that it pushes them out of the game to the point they start laughing at it. I didn't have this problem. My sense was that Phantasmagoria's intention was to serve as a sort of re-sensitization of consumers to the effects of violence, physical and emotional. And from that perspective, I feel it succeeded.
3. The Dark Eye (1995)
This one totally slipped under the radar. It's even less 'game' than Phantasmagoria was, and more an exploration of how stories can be told through game format. Namely, the world of Edgar Allen Poe.
While not a direct translation of "The Fall of the House of Usher", the main story mimics quite a few of the beats. You are 'you', brother to Henry and cousin to Elise, visiting them at the home of your uncle Edwin. Edwin disapproves of Henry and Elise's love and enlists you to help drive them apart. Throughout the course of the story, you keep lapsing into bouts of insanity, experiencing Poe's tales "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Tell-Tale Heart", and "Berenice" from both the POV of the victim (uncomfortable) and the murderer (freaking unsettling).
The characters are presented as stop motion clay figures, which adds to the overall creepiness. Edwin is voiced by author William S. Burroughs, with a sweet spot between elderly indifference and contempt. Isolation permeates the production as you truly feel trapped in what would ordinarily be a peaceful ocean-side country house. Elise takes ill and is presumed dead. Edwin's butler murders Henry for no reason other than Edwin ordered it. Then Elise recovers and scratches out her own eyes. All of these events, combined with inhaling too many paint thinner fumes, leaves you bereft of sanity.
Again, not much of a game here, but it's a wonderful artistic experience. Poe's atmosphere is perfectly replicated from the audacious prose to the sinister passiveness. A lot of horror lets you feel what it's like to be chased, and sometimes dismembered. The Dark Eye teaches you what it's like to be discarded when you're no longer useful.
4. Shivers (1995)
Okay, time to go back to the fun stuff. Welcome to Professor Windlenot's Museum of the Strange and Unusual. Take a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and add malevolent spirits. Your friends dare you to spend the night in this old museum that was supposed to open fifteen years ago, but never did, owing to a few unsolved disappearances. Do you curl up in a ball by the front gate and wait for morning? Of course not, there's a whole building to explore.
Your ultimate goal is to exorcise all of the spirits roaming the halls, which requires you to search the place for ceramic vessels in which to trap said spirits. There's a tiny bit of a mystery that you solve along the way, but mostly it's a scavenger hunt coupled with solving puzzles to open doors.
It's tragic in a way, because Windlenot had the purest of intentions in building his museum and filling the exhibits in it. One of them sadly turned out to be a collection of cursed pots which took his life, and you're the first person to set foot in the sanctuary of his life's work. Eerie, but also beautiful in its design, Shivers is the kind of location one would love to visit during the day, with lots and lots of other people. Stay awhile, and you might even learn some interesting things.
5. Amber: Journeys Beyond (1996)
We're back at a haunted house, this time as part of a paranormal investigation team. Well, when I say team, I mean there's people back at the office. You're by yourself, going to check on Roxy, who went down early to test the company's newest 'whatever device' which has left her in an astral coma. Three hauntings are occurring at the house, and it's up to you to solve each one in order to restore Roxy's consciousness.
It's kind of like three individual room escape games from past time periods bookended by a lesser game set in the present. The puzzles are fairly Myst-ian and not all too complicated. But where the game excels is in the presentation of the hauntings. In each one you take on the identity of the ghost, and do your best to make them move on. Predating The Sixth Sense by three years, the ghosts don't realize they're dead, each bound to the earth by emotion.
It's hard to say who has the most tragic story. Margaret is the one that hit me the hardest, as she thinks she's still living in the 1940's, waiting for her husband to come home from WWII. It's heartbreaking having to force her to come to terms with the fact that she committed suicide when she received the telegram that he'd been killed, but it's a small comfort to watch their spirits reunite at the end of her chapter. Brice, the gardener in the 60's, isn't quite so uplifting. The implication is he was a man of physical prowess but mental deficiency, who couldn't understand that his employer's daughter wasn't returning his affection. He accidentally kills her, and then himself, and his ghost's resolution doesn't have the peacefulness Margaret gets. The last one I'd just as soon not spoil.
Ultimately my takeaway from Amber is its sincerity. It treats the paranormal investigation seriously, and it views ghosts as conscious beings that just cannot move on without a little external help. A sequel would have been more than welcomed, but regrettably this was the only game Hue Forest Entertainment produced.
6. Shivers II: Harvest of Souls (1997)
Setting is everything. Haunted houses are so common because they require minimal set-up; it only takes a single 'Keep Out' sign to lure a victim in. A ghost town requires a bit more back story, and Shivers II really shines in that department.
Cyclone is a secluded town in the middle of a canyon, made up of predominantly self-serving residents. It's also the home of the benevolent Pearl Larson, the aunt (if I remember correctly) of one of the band members of fictional rock band Trip Cyclone, who have gone for a visit to find inspiration for their next album. They've unfortunately walked in on the town's cover-up of a semi-accidental murder of one of their own (Norah Wharton) relating to a land deal, and guy in a mask called Dark Cloud who's out for revenge. I'll pause for a moment while you say "jinkies".
Then people start disappearing, for...reasons; I never really understood Dark Cloud's end game, but it's not that important. The thing is, everyone is being transformed into petroglyphs, residents and band members alike. Whatever Dark Cloud is doing, he's on the verge of completing it. But then you come in.
You're a friend of the band, arriving no more than an hour before the last Cyclone resident vanishes, leaving you alone in the town with Dark Cloud. He's always a few steps ahead of you, but not so many that he can prevent you from moving forward, and he doesn't count on you getting assistance from Norah's ghost. You slowly unravel the plot through puzzles, answering machine messages, and clues scattered through Trip Cyclone's music videos. It all holds together quite nicely, and even though you're never on any kind of time limit you really feel a sense of urgency as Dark Cloud always seems to be close by. The puzzles are a perfect difficulty level, and the music is awesome.
7. Sanitarium (1998)
It's impossible to talk about this game without wandering into spoiler territory, but it's twenty years old and the big reveal isn't all that surprising anyway. Besides, it's the journey that counts. You're a doctor named Max, determined to find a cure for the disease that took your sister's life when she was a child. Your colleague is of the notion that there's much more money to be made from treating the disease than curing it, and he tries to have you killed in a car accident. The game starts with you waking up in a psychiatric ward with amnesia.
Throughout the game Max doubts his own sanity, as he periodically lapses into hallucinations involving an adult-less farming village with a monster at its heart, a circus being terrorized by a kraken, an alien hive, and an Aztec community. We, as the player, know he's not insane, and it becomes clear that Max's mind is trying desperately to repair itself. It's a nightmare about healing, made all the more spectacular by the repeated attempts on Max's life by his colleague.
Out of all the games on this list, Sanitarium is probably the best written story. The puzzles are mostly fetch quests with a couple of attack/dodge encounters thrown in, but the end result is a very satisfying blend of game and story telling. One of the reasons Hollywood fails at adapting games to films is because they keep choosing games that don't translate well. Sanitarium is the kind of game that studios should be looking at. It's frightening, heart wrenching, and uplifting in all the right places; in other words, a great story.
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