In developing any viral gene delivery vector there are two fundamental problems which need to be addressed. Firstly, replication disabled vectors which will be safe for clinical use must be constructed, and secondly, strategies for obtaining appropriate transgene expression in vector transduced cells must be devised. In this review, the progress which has been made in developing herpes simplex virus (HSV)-based gene delivery vectors is discussed, as are the experimental results which have been obtained using these vectors for gene delivery in tissue culture cells and animal models.