10 Games That STOLE From Resident Evil

10 Games That Stole From Resident Evil

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we are pointing the finger and saying “shaaaaame”. Resident Evil popularised a lot of survival horror elements, but some games were pretty obvious when they tried to do their own version. These are 10 Games That Stole From Resident Evil. Let’s go!

“Countdown Vampires” (1999)

“Countdown Vampires” is one of those games that perfectly fits the phrase “so bad it’s good.” Released by Bandai on the PlayStation, it borrowed so heavily from “Resident Evil” that it sometimes feels less like inspiration and more like somebody changed the enemy textures five minutes before launch. Instead of zombies, players fight vampires, how clever, although mechanically they behave almost identically to classic survival horror undead enemies. The game does try a few strange ideas of its own, though, including using tranquilizer darts and holy water to “cure” vampires instead of simply killing them outright. There are also some fun secrets hidden away, like a code that lets players control a vampire and an alternate mode unlocked by beating the game in under eight hours.

“Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn “ (2000)

“Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn” might lean far more into action than horror, but its “Resident Evil” influence is impossible to miss. The game uses fixed camera angles, pre-rendered backgrounds, tank controls, and deliberate pacing that feel straight out of the classic survival horror playbook. Instead of fighting monsters in a mansion, though, players infiltrate a hijacked train to stop a terrorist threat, giving the game a very different tone that feels closer to “Mission: Impossible” than traditional horror. Honestly, the train setting is a fantastic idea for a ’90s action game because it creates tension naturally while still encouraging plenty of backtracking and exploration. What really helps “Covert Ops” stand out are its espionage-style puzzle sequences, what makes it stand out more is it’s just “Resident Evil”.

“Blue Stinger” (1999)

Here is one of the most shameless “Resident Evil” clones ever made, to the point where it somehow also manages to rip off “Dino Crisis” at the same time with its bizarre dinosaur-heavy action plot: “Blue Stinger”. Released for the Dreamcast, the game absolutely leans into survival horror trends of the late ’90s, complete with awkward combat, strange pacing, and voice acting that sounds like every actor was recorded separately inside different rooms of the same collapsing building. Still, for all its weirdness, “Blue Stinger” actually experimented with some genuinely forward-thinking ideas. Its fully rendered 3D environments were a major technical shift compared to the pre-rendered backgrounds used by many survival horror games at the time. Even if the environments often looked rough, the added freedom allowed for larger spaces, more dynamic action, and more experimental puzzle design. Honestly, it’s a complete mess, but a strangely lovable one.

“Obscure” (2004)

You know I do this list with peace and love, because I LOVE this game, but even as a kid I just called it coop “Resident Evil”. Released in 2004, the game follows a group of high school students who basically feel like a checklist of horror archetypes, including the nerd, the rebel, the athlete, and the stoner. The clever part is that these stereotypes actually affect gameplay in meaningful ways. Each character has unique abilities that help with exploration, puzzles, or survival, meaning players constantly swap between them to progress. The nerd can help solve puzzles, while other characters can pick locks or force doors open. It’s a really smart mechanic that turns cheesy horror clichés into useful gameplay systems. Honestly, “Obscure” feels like a game that was released about ten years before audiences were fully ready to appreciate it.

“Deep Fear” (1998)

“Deep Fear” is one of the greatest survival horror games most people have never played, largely because it suffered from the worst possible combination of bad timing and bad luck. It was released on the Sega Saturn near the very end of the console’s lifespan and never even made it to North America, which basically guaranteed it would disappear into obscurity. That’s a shame because the game genuinely had some fantastic ideas. Its underwater setting immediately helped it stand out from other “Resident Evil” clones, especially with oxygen management mechanics adding extra tension to exploration. What really made “Deep Fear” impressive, though, was how fluid the gameplay felt compared to many survival horror games of the era. Combat and movement were faster and more responsive, while the Saturn controller’s extra buttons allowed actions to feel smoother overall.

“Tormented Souls” (2021)

From the fixed camera angles to the creepy mansion-like environments, “Tormented Souls” absolutely captures the atmosphere of late-’90s survival horror. It also mixes in puzzle design inspired by games like “Silent Hill,” resulting in a strange but effective blend of tension, exploration, and complete architectural nonsense. Like the old Capcom classics, the game is filled with awkwardly placed healing items, unsettling save rooms, cryptic puzzles that no sane building owner would ever install, and horrifying monsters lurking around corners waiting to ruin your day. Survival horror fans embraced it because it genuinely felt like discovering some forgotten PlayStation-era Capcom project hidden away in a dusty basement for twenty years.

“Daymare: 1998” (2019)

“Daymare: 1998” has one of the most fitting origin stories imaginable for a survival horror game because it actually began as an unofficial fan remake of “Resident Evil 2” before Capcom shut the project down quicker than a naughty tab when your parents walk in. Instead of abandoning the idea entirely, the developers transformed it into an original game, although the “Resident Evil” influence remained incredibly obvious throughout the final product. The inventory management, zombie encounters, over-the-shoulder combat, resource scarcity, and overall tone all feel heavily inspired by modern “Resident Evil” games. Honestly, you can practically picture the developers studying Leon Kennedy screenshots like sacred texts during production. The game even recreates some of the accidental charm of older survival horror titles through awkward dialogue and delightfully clunky voice acting.

“Martian Gothic: Unification“ (2000)

Released during a period when people were starting to grow tired of “Resident Evil”-style games, “Martian Gothic: Unification” ended up getting overlooked despite having some genuinely fascinating ideas, mainly because people were sick of the aesthetic. The setup feels familiar at first: a space station suddenly goes silent, a team arrives to investigate, and naturally everything has gone catastrophically wrong because horror protagonists fall into bad situations like a divorced kid in a soap opera. What makes “Martian Gothic” stand out is its brutal focus on survival mechanics. Inventory space is extremely limited, save opportunities are restricted, and many enemies cannot be permanently killed, forcing players to carefully manage every resource they find.

“Carrier” (2000)

Released on the Dreamcast, “Carrier” arrived during a fascinating period where developers were experimenting with how survival horror could evolve beyond the pre-rendered style popularized by early “Resident Evil” games. Underneath the technical novelty, though, “Carrier” is actually a pretty solid horror experience in its own right. The game mixes sci-fi horror with a surprisingly complicated geopolitical storyline and features a more advanced targeting system that almost feels like a distant precursor to the strategic limb-targeting combat later seen in “Dead Space.” The rough edges are definitely still there, because this is absolutely a Dreamcast-era game in every possible way, but it remains another great example of how creatively weird survival horror became during that generation.

“The Ring: Terror’s RealmTerror’s” (2000)

Interestingly, “The Ring: Terror’s Realm” is not actually based on the famous film adaptation of “The Ring.” Instead, the Dreamcast-exclusive game pulls more inspiration from Koji Suzuki’s original Japanese novels, which already makes it a much stranger experience than many players probably expected going in, it felt like we’d all rented the wrong game from Blockbuster by accident. Rather than retelling the movie directly, the game follows a CDC researcher investigating why her coworkers are mysteriously dying under bizarre circumstances. From there, things spiral into increasingly chaotic survival horror madness in ways that feel both fascinating and completely unhinged. Mechanically, the game is very clearly trying to imitate the classic “Resident Evil” formula with fixed camera angles, clunky controls, and puzzle-heavy exploration. Unfortunately, it also inherits many of the rough technical issues common to lower-budget survival horror games of that era. Still, its bizarre storyline gives it a weird charm that makes it oddly memorable today.