10 Video Games That Had A Bigger Impact Than You Realise

10. Amnesia: The Dark Descent Saved Survival Horror & Popularised Horror Game Streaming

The late 2000s were a fairly bleak time for the horror genre - Resident Evil had largely shirked its survival horror origins in favour of steroid-laced action, and Silent Hill entered a death spiral from which it still hasn't recovered.

Yet in 2010, an indie horror game was released that not only inspired an entire generation of lower-budget, moody survival horror games, but also contributed hugely to shaping gamer streamer culture as we know it.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent turned the genre upside down by giving the player no direct means to battle its monsters, instead forcing you to run or hide.

Amnesia's unexpected commercial success led to a glut of similarly-designed first-person indie horror games, such as Alien: Isolation, Outlast, Layers of Fear, and SOMA.

But Amnesia's true lasting legacy might be its impact on how players interface with video games.

Amnesia was one of the first horror games to be prominently featured in reaction videos and Let's Plays on streaming sites, where people tuned in to watch YouTubers scream their lungs out at a scary moment.

Most notably PewDiePie streamed Amnesia early in his career, bringing considerable attention to both himself and the game, and in turn popularising the now-ubiquitous horror game streamers.

As beloved as Amnesia remains today, it's easy to forget how instrumental it was in both rescuing a dying genre and ushering in a new era of games media.