10 Underrated Video Games Nobody Appreciated In Their Time
3. Alone In The Dark Invented Survival Horror, Not Resident Evil
While not the very first survival horror game, the classic tropes and features of the genre can be traced back to 1992's Alone in the Dark. A haunted house tale that made use of the very best 3D effects at the time (which is to say they look absolutely terrible now), the title pioneered things like pre-rendered backgrounds, static cameras and tank controls that the Resident Evil series would perfect a few years later.
Inspired by H.P Lovecraft more than George A. Romero, the title blended gothic horror with pure Lovecraftian terror. Well received at launch, the promising franchise quickly tanked when its two sequels (which released in the two years following the original) received a critical kicking.
Consequently, the series was effectively dead by the mid 1990s, with the final nail in its coffin being Resident Evil in 1996.
Although it tailed off though, survival horror as we know it wouldn't exist without Alone in the Dark, and classic entries in the genre probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as they were without it.