Horror video games are a dime a dozen. Scary horror video games, good horror video games—effectively, these are a lot rarer. We’ve rounded up among the greatest horror video games ever made, operating the gamut from big-budget extravaganzas launched this very 12 months to… textual content adventures. Sure, significantly.
End up the lights, placed on some headphones, ensure you’ve acquired a spare pair of underwear close by, and revel in these terrifying spine-tinglers.
Editor’s observe: This checklist was up to date on October 28, 2022 so as to add a number of new video games and take away some older titles. Hayden Dingman and Adam Patrick Murray contributed extensively to this text.
Like Left 4 Useless, Phasmophobia is a first-person, 4-person horror coop recreation. However whereas Valve’s undead shooter leans into motion with weapons a-blazing, Phasmophobia takes a extra classical strategy to terror. You management a tiny workforce of paranormal ghost hunters, touring to varied areas and utilizing an array of apparatus (from UV blacklights to EMF readers) to attempt to determine the kind of spook haunting the home, and the place they’re lurking. The locations are darkish. The ghosts are not pleasant.
It’s already one of the best ghost recreation I’ve ever performed, even in its present barely janky early entry kind. The tips it pulls utilizing the in-game voice chat will be actually terrifying. Flip off the lights, seize some associates, and don’t miss out.
Turtle Rock
Talking of “Like Left 4 Useless,” Back 4 Blood is a cooperative first-person shooter the place you and three buddies (or AI companions) blast by way of hordes of zombies, together with particular variations with meaner talents. Sound acquainted? It ought to—the sport’s even made by Turtle Rock, the developer behind Left 4 Useless. A brand new card system provides a random factor to the sport that may flip conditions on their heads (for higher or worse) and amps up the replayability.
The participant base has dwindled a bit since launch, however when you’ve been feeling nostalgic for the L4D really feel of yesteryear, seize some buddies and saddle up. Higher but, Again 4 Blood is included in Microsoft’s glorious Xbox Video games Move for PC, so that you may not even spend a dime to get in on the enjoyable.
Bloober Workforce
What occurs once you pair up the builders behind horror classics like Layers of Concern, Observer, and Blair Witch with Silent Hill veteran Akira Yamaoka contributing music, then prime all of it off with a cutting-edge real-time ray tracing graphics engine? You get The Medium, a very darkish and disturbing third individual journey the place you play as a psychic who travels (generally in actual time) between the actual world and the spirit world to resolve a thriller in an deserted japanese Europe resort city. This one will stress your PC {hardware} in addition to your psyche.
Chernobylite
Not solely is the concept of exploring the well-known nuclear catastrophe web site Chernobyl scary in itself, however think about if there have been supernatural creatures roaming round as effectively? Chernobylite looks like a sci-fi horror model of S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. or Metro set in Chernobyl’s tour zone as you attempt to observe down what occurred to your fiancee 30 years in the past. It’s a stealth based mostly FPS with some attention-grabbing base constructing and choose-your-own-adventure-style storytelling in a bundle I’ve by no means skilled earlier than, and I find it irresistible.
Over a decade after its debut, Frictional’s Amnesia collection stay among the most actually spine-tingling horror video games obtainable. This 12 months, Frictional delivered a deal with simply in time for Halloween. Amnesia Rebirth takes place within the Algerian desert in 1937, placing you within the sneakers of Tasi Trianon, who—in fact—wakes up with no reminiscence. The sport’s builders name it “A harrowing journey by way of desolation and despair, exploring the boundaries of human resilience.” Higher but, Rebirth is a direct follow-up to the legendary Darkish Descent, and among the locales give off sturdy Soma vibes—two video games we’ll speak about extra later.
Bloober Workforce places out damned creepy video games, however the one I’m extra enamored with isn’t a terrific match for this checklist. Layers of Fear 2 is a masterpiece of art direction, an excellent homage to basic Hollywood that I extremely advocate—however it’s not scary.
Blair Witch is fairly tense although. Taking up the discovered footage aesthetic of the movies, you play as an ex-cop who joins a lacking individuals search—and finally ends up (as you’d count on) hopelessly misplaced within the woods. As ever, Bloober’s acquired a neat gimmick to go along with the motion, scrubbing by way of movie clips to vary the state of the world. That’s a aspect course although. Actually, this one’s simply concerning the pressure of being alone in a forest labyrinth, with no method out. Generally the straightforward ideas are the scariest, yeah?
A remake of Ice Choose Lodge’s 2004 oddity Pathologic, pseudo-sequel Pathologic 2 preserves a lot of the unique’s refined horror. There’s a metropolis. There’s a plague. There’s by no means sufficient time.
And positive, there are extra conventional horror parts—cryptic speeches, otherworldly entities. It’s extra concerning the expertise although. Enjoying as “The Haruspex,” you’re ill-equipped to unravel Pathologic 2‘s mysteries, and that’s a part of the draw. If horror video games are about making the participant really feel weak and powerless, then Pathologic 2 is without doubt one of the most profitable horror video games of all time. Each success is hard-won, and any fleeting catharsis like a breath of recent air for a dying man.
Resident Evil 2 was one of many extra uncared for Resident Evil entries. Whereas each the debut and Resident Evil 4 have been remastered and even remade again and again, Resident Evil 2 was left to languor on the PlayStation for 20 years.
Capcom did right by it though. The Resident Evil 2 remake is the bar for any and all remakes going ahead, transplanting the story and environment of the unique into a contemporary engine. A map that tracks your per-room progress is certainly one of many good tweaks right here, as is ditching the enduring (however annoying) save ribbons for all however the hardest difficulties.
Since this remake got here out, Resident Evil VII introduced pure horror in a single bleak location again to the collection, whereas Resident Evil VIIIage (sigh) revived the clockwork puzzle really feel of the sooner video games. There was additionally a Resident Evil 3 Remake that wasn’t fairly as profitable. However when you’ve solely acquired time for one RE recreation this Halloween season, begin with Resident Evil 2 Remake.
No Code’s Stories Untold created horror from the mundane, nightmares unfolding whilst you spooled by way of microfiche or adjusted the dials on an X-ray machine. Observation is barely extra lively, however retains that analog really feel. This time you’re aboard a spaceship in Saturn’s orbit—or slightly, you are the spaceship. You’re S.A.M., the ship’s synthetic intelligence, solely afforded a window on the world by way of your varied safety cameras.
I nonetheless assume No Code described it greatest of their first pitch, after they stated “Statement is form of 2001: A House Odyssey—however you’re HAL.” Mix that with some Annihilation-esque cosmic horror, and you’ve got all the makings of an unsettling slow burn.
One other one for followers of New Bizarre, Control definitely isn’t probably the most conventional horror recreation. Hell, it’s not even probably the most conventional horror recreation made by Treatment. That’d be Alan Wake, in fact.
However Management attracts numerous inspiration from The Southern Attain Trilogy, from SCP Basis, from Home of Leaves, from The X-Recordsdata and Twin Peaks—in different phrases, from numerous sources which can be horror or not less than horror-adjacent. It’s hardly ever scary however it’s virtually all the time creepy, a pervasive sense of wrongness that arises from each empty workplace, each clean concrete wall, and…effectively, in all probability from the individuals floating immobile within the air as effectively.
It’s the kind of horror that sits behind your thoughts, just like the veil of the world’s been torn again only a bit to disclose the abyss gazing by way of. And that’s very special indeed.
In 2015 Supermassive tailored Telltale’s fashion of branching cinematic storytelling to the horror style. The consequence? PlayStation 4 unique Till Daybreak, a surprisingly entertaining pulp horror story a couple of bunch of ill-fated teenagers.
Fortunately follow-up The Darkish Photos Anthology is funded by Bandai Namco, and thus free to return to the PC as effectively. The primary chapter is Man of Medan, which retells the story of the real-world ghost ship Ourang Medan—albeit from the angle of a recent group of ill-fated twenty-somethings. It’s half journey recreation and half movie, as you make dialogue decisions and selections that would maintain your characters alive, or lead to everybody’s demise.
The writing is pretty predictable, and among the appearing a bit wood, however it’s nonetheless a enjoyable time making an attempt to outsmart everybody’s favourite horror tropes. And no matter you do, don’t open the coffins. What, are you making an attempt to finish up lifeless?
New Blood’s carved out a neat little area of interest, creating not simply retro-inspired shooters however ones which can be vaguely horror-inspired as effectively. Dusk takes you thru sinister farms and deserted cityscapes, Amid Evil to a lot weirder fantasy environs. However each are about transferring one million miles an hour, capturing something that strikes, and opening a bunch of locked doorways. Scary? Perhaps not a lot—however solely as a result of you may have greater than sufficient weapons to defend your self from all of the horrors that await.
If that’s not sufficient, Blood: Fresh Supply remasters certainly one of New Blood’s inspirations. Would possibly as effectively seize all three and get gibbing.
The primary Evil Inside was a large number of a recreation. Oh positive, it had sensible concepts, however the execution was simply dismal at instances—clunky motion, a tedious and poorly paced opening, and a save system that prompted multiple individual I do know to stop after a couple of hours.
However The Evil Within 2 is superb—one of 2017’s best games, even. The extra open-world construction of some acts takes a little bit of getting used to, however its extra story-driven bits are house to jaw-dropping spectacle: individuals’s final moments frozen in time, unsettling structure, supernatural hallucinations. All of the concepts that made the primary recreation well worth the grind are again, and paired with a recreation that really performs effectively this time.
As soon as upon a time this slide was a battle between Useless by Daylight and Friday the thirteenth, two horror video games with an identical conceit: Uneven multiplayer, the place 4 survivors need to band collectively and maintain out whereas one other participant, the highly effective monster, tries to kill them off. “Suppose Evolve, however for sadists,” I wrote.
However Dead by Daylight is your solely possibility now. The Friday the thirteenth recreation acquired caught up within the ongoing lawsuit over the collection rights, with the builders just about abandoning and saying “no new content material” could be forthcoming. Relaxation in peace, and all. You may nonetheless purchase it on Steam, however you’re higher off sticking with Useless by Daylight.
One alien. That was the design course behind Inventive Meeting’s Alien: Isolation, which pursued the survival horror temper of the unique 1979 movie as a substitute of the action-packed plot of Aliens.
And it labored. Although a bit overlong and at instances needlessly tough, Alien: Isolation is the strongest big-budget horror expertise in years. This recreation is simply plain tense—virtually unbearably so when you play it with a VR headset. And it’s obtainable for Linux, Steam Machines, and OS X, too.
SOMA isn’t the scariest recreation Frictional’s ever made. It’s not. It’s barely a horror recreation for lengthy stretches at a time, and the monsters are extra hindrance than terror.
However the underwater confines of PATHOS-II are sometimes unnerving, what with the groans of pressurized steel and the flickering lights and the robots that appear to imagine they’re nonetheless human. It’s a strong experience, and one effectively price taking part in even when it received’t make you leap out of your seat.
Now we’re digging into Frictional’s actually nice scares. A Victorian-era fort might not seem to be one of the best setting for a horror recreation, however with Amnesia: The Dark Descent Frictional took every thing it discovered from its earlier video games, polished it, and launched one of many scariest video games of all time. You play as Daniel, an archeologist who’s misplaced his reminiscence and has solely a letter—apparently written by him—to information his escape from the mad fort and shadowy figures that stalk him.
As of 2018, Amnesia‘s additionally been up to date with a brand new issue degree, more durable than earlier than. I wouldn’t advocate it for brand spanking new gamers, as true horror’s present in pondering you may die after which escaping. However for veterans, it’s nice to have a purpose to revisit the fort.
And whereas it’s extra polarizing, the sequel Machine for Pigs is price trying out, so long as you curb your expectations.
A part of the attraction of Doki Doki Literature Club is just not realizing it’s a horror recreation once you go into it, so it feels a bit like a betrayal to place it on right here, a “Finest Horror Video games” checklist.
However even realizing there’s a twist coming, Doki Doki Literature Membership remains to be a sensible horror expertise that pulls some unsettling tips on the participant. Higher but, it’s free, so even when you’re not huge into the visible novel style usually (I’m not) you received’t danger a lot by downloading it and giving it a strive.
Asylums are straightforward fodder for horror. That stated, Outlast makes probably the most of its clichéd setting by offering you no technique to defend your self and forcing you into the found-footage conceit popularized by horror movies like Blair Witch Venture. The sport has some pacing points, however it’s undoubtedly not for the faint of coronary heart—gore and bounce scares abound.
And when you already performed and loved the bottom Outlast recreation, you should definitely try the Whistleblower DLC launched final 12 months. Outlast 2? Not so much.
It’s a point-and-click, however Stasis has environment in spades. You get up on a wierd spaceship, surrounded by our bodies, and it solely will get worse from there.
Styled after the basic isometric horror recreation Sanitarium and paying apparent homage to Alien, Occasion Horizon, I Have No Mouth and I Should Scream, and different bits of beloved style fiction, Stasis is well probably the greatest horror video games in recent times—not essentially due to overt scares, however as a result of it tells a compelling story and has a method of getting underneath your pores and skin.
If System Shock 2 is one of the best space-based survival horror recreation of all time—and it’s—Dead Space is an in depth second. Engineer Isaac Clarke makes an attempt to restore an infinite house station, solely to search out it’s infested by aliens often known as the Necromorphs.
Useless House is basically the horror recreation Doom 3 so desperately tried to be. It’s completely price trying out.
Scared by… a textual content journey? It’s true. The story of a creepy outdated mansion and a younger couple, Anchorhead is over fifteen years outdated at this level and owes a hefty quantity to Mr. H.P. Lovecraft. Like a very good horror novel, Anchorhead is much less about jump-out-of-your-seat scares and extra about creating pressure, however it does that masterfully.
Plus it’s free, like most trendy textual content adventures, and playable through your browser.
Additionally price trying out: Slouching Towards Bedlam, Vespers.
