Well, for this article in the second season of my “Horror Videogames Series“, I thought that I’d talk briefly about why some modern indie horror games use graphics that are designed to look like an old 1990s “Playstation 1” (PS1) game.
And, yes, this is definitely something of a modern trend. Although one of the earlier examples is possibly the 2016 action-horror game “Devil Daggers“, more modern examples include indie games like “The Devil” (2020), “Alisa” (2021) and, the one that prompted this article, “TSOS (v0.11)” (2021).
This is a screenshot from “TSOS (v0.11)” (2021), a modern indie survival horror game demo that takes influence from “Silent Hill” (1999) and is designed to look and play like a PS1 game from the mid-late 1990s.
These are just a small selection of the many low-budget indie horror games that use this style in some way or another. But, why?
One of the more obvious reasons is that the survival horror genre became popular thanks to games released on this old console. Although precursors to it existed, the game that coined the term “survival horror” – the original 1996 version of “Resident Evil” – was first released on the original Playstation before being ported to other platforms in the following years. It was the game that really put survival horror games on the map.
This is a screenshot from “Resident Evil” (1996). One interesting thing about this old PS1 game was that it used 2D backgrounds (which looked 3D) in order to make the graphics look “more realistic”. This also meant that the game used lots of brilliantly cinematic fixed camera angles, since the background couldn’t move. And, yes, on a modern screen, the 3D models look a lot more pixellated than they would on the sort of blurry CRT televisions that people in 1996 would have used.
Not to mention that, in 1999, the PS1 also saw a certain exclusive title called “Silent Hill” – which was instrumental in adding psychological horror elements and fully 3D graphics to the survival horror genre. It is impossible to overstate how important and influential these two old PS1 games were in the history of the genre.
This is a screenshot from “Silent Hill” (1999). Not only did this PS1 game focus more on psychological horror and atmosphere, but it also used fully 3D graphics too – which allowed for things like a camera that could move and a large “open world” between levels. Famously, in order to avoid the problem of “pop-up” scenery in the distance, since the console’s internal memory could only store the area immediately around the player at any given time, the outdoor areas were coated in dense atmospheric fog.
As such, if an indie developer wants to evoke the classics or tap into the nostalgia that many horror game fans have for these older games, then a graphical style that looks like an old PS1 game can be a way of doing this. It’s a quick way of signalling to the player that they are playing something in the tradition of “Resident Evil” or “Silent Hill”.
This is a screenshot from “Alisa” (2021). As you can see, the graphical style in this modern indie survival horror game has been designed to look more like “Resident Evil” (1996) than “Silent Hill” (1999).
Not only that, although most of these PS1-style games are made using modern game creation tools like Unity, the style allows for the perfect blend of stylisation and practicality. With things like pre-made assets, it’s probably easier to make a game with “realistic” graphics these days – but, if someone is making all of a game’s textures themselves, then retro PS1-style graphics are probably an advantage. They are simple enough to take less time to make whilst also being stylised enough to add some genuine visual creativity to a game too. Most games with this style have at least a slightly unique “look”.
The “old” look of PS1-style graphics also adds to the horror of these games too. This graphical style looks detailed enough for the player to tell what is happening, but it is also blurry, pixellated and unrealistic enough to push the player to use their imagination. It occupies an eerie middle-ground between “realistic” and “unrealistic”. Not to mention that, because of how the PS1 handled 3D graphics, everything will often look a bit angular and the textures will often warp slightly in strange ways. It looks eerie, and many modern PS1 style horror games will often try to replicate this effect.
This is a screenshot from “The Devil” (2020). As you can see, these retro-style graphics pretty much instantly create a slightly creepy atmosphere.
Finally, another reason for the increased popularity of this style in recent years is thanks to an online group called “The Haunted PS1” who hold game-making competitions, release digital-only “demo discs” of games in this style and – in 2020 – even created a virtual interactive “trade show” called “EEK3 2020” where you can explore a PS1-style exhibition centre, watch GIF-like gameplay footage and even meet characters from several games in this style.
This is a screenshot from “EEK3 2020”, a virtual “trade show” where you can explore, talk to videogame characters and, like in this screenshot, watch GIF-like gameplay footage. If anyone is curious about the game being shown here, it appears to be the 2020 demo version of an isometric WW1-themed survival horror game called “Conscript” which, at the time of writing in late March 2022, is still an upcoming game.
So, yes, there are a lot of reasons why some modern indie horror games use PS1-style graphics – everything from nostalgia to practicality to added creepiness to the work of groups like “The Haunted PS1” who are keeping the style “current”.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
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