Survival horror video games just hit different. Most people play video games to unwind and have some fun, but who says that intense horror that makes you anxious and uncomfortable can’t be just as fun? You sit there, controller in hand, heart racing. Maybe it’s because nothing else quite captures that feeling of thrill and anticipation, not even the best horror movies out there. There’s a good nerve-jangling mix of fear and adrenaline in a more interactive medium like gaming.
Unlike other action or adventure games, where you feel like a hero or someone with a lot of power, these games strip away that sense of control. You’re weak and desperate, and most of the time you’re just trying to survive and reach the next checkpoint so that you don’t have to start over and lose an hour or two of progress. These nine games listed here are solid examples of that – they’ll push you to the edge, and sometimes right over it.
Resident Evil 2 Remake
If you’ve ever sprinted down the hallways of the Raccoon City Police Department in 2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake, while Mr. X’s heavy boots thumped closer, you know what pure anxiety feels like. At this point, Leon and Claire aren’t the hardened fighters we see in later Resident Evil games. They’re just rookies here, and that makes every encounter more vulnerable, especially with limited ammunition and resources.
The game very effectively balances action with sheer panic. Sure, you’ve got some decent weapons, but ammo is never enough. Every bullet feels like it costs a fortune. Do you waste it on the zombie blocking the hallway, or save it for when something far worse shows up later on, like a boss fight?
That kind of choice and resource management is what makes survival horror games so fun and intense. Mr. X, the stone-faced juggernaut, doesn’t haunt you as intensely once you leave the RCPD in the game, but other terrors in the game keep the tension up.
Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation does sometimes feel like an endurance test. The Xenomorph’s AI was impressively ahead of its time, and it still holds up. You never feel safe, not for one second. Walking across a single hallway feels scary because the Xenomorph can literally show up anytime, even from the vents above you, and quite often, sneaks up and impales you from behind with its tail.
You can track it on your motion tracker, which is a unique feature for horror games, but that only ends up making it more intense. It feels like something actively haunting you, much worse than a supernatural creature. Sure, there are lockers you can hide in for an eternity, but it never feels safe leaving them and moving on to the next objective or location.
What makes it even scarier is how quiet the game can be. Every time you think the alien might be gone, you hear the faint hiss of steam or the subtle clatter of metal. Alien: Isolation is a long game too, easily 20 hours at least on your first play through, which makes it even more nerve-racking of an entire gaming experience to complete.
Outlast
Outlast’s definition of fun is running for your life with nothing but a camcorder. That sense of total helplessness still makes it stand out. There’s nothing you can use to defend yourself like in some other horror games – no guns, melee weapons, or gadgets. Only your night-vision camcorder, and the hope that night vision batteries don’t die at the worst possible time (they usually do, though).
The asylum setting is already eerie, but it’s worse when you often find yourself pressed against a wall or hiding somewhere in a corner, hoping the madman walking past doesn’t detect you. It’s a game that thrives on tension. Sometimes you survive, and sometimes you don’t. But either way, your nerves are left in tatters by the end.
Still Wakes The Deep
Still Wakes The Deep is set on an oil rig in the North Sea during the 1970s, and the game uses its unique setting to amplify fear. The ocean is a great location for a horror game where you’re trapped and feel claustrophobic, because you literally have nowhere to escape to. It becomes a character of itself. You hear the roar of waves quite often, and you know the help will never come (not on time, anyway, due to the storm).
The game has a very peculiar Scottishness – from the authentic dialogue writing and voice acting to the way the characters behave and talk to each other. It feels personal, almost too personal, and the characters feel real with their slangs, accents, and everyday conversations. And that makes every disturbing event even more impactful.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
Hellblade 2 isn’t a horror game in the traditional sense, but it’s definitely horrific and very psychological, much like its predecessor. The sound design alone is enough to make you squirm. Voices whisper from every direction; there’s a lot of disturbing imagery that flashes constantly, and the atmosphere is torturously intense.
What makes both of these games different is how personal it feels. The game plays with themes of perception, reality, and the mental struggle of Senua in ways that few other titles dare to. The combat isn’t common or constant, but when you have to fight someone, it feels so brutal, like you’re desperately trying to survive. Combined with its visual style, which is stark and sometimes surreal, you’ve got a game that unsettles you constantly.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
2024’s Stalker 2 had a lot riding on it. The series has never been mainstream, but it has cultivated a niche fanbase over the decades. The diehard fans were expecting a lot from it, and it mostly delivered. The world of the game is so dark and oppressive that you start feeling like every single thing is out there to kill you, and it kinda is.
The post-apocalyptic setting isn’t just for show (like the newer Fallout games, for example). The game’s world feels alive in a way that’s deeply uncomfortable. You’ll see mutants everywhere, and radiation zones are filled with danger, including the human enemies that are just as unpredictable as the environment itself.
The Last of Us: Part 2
Sure, The Last of Us: Part 2 is more survival than horror. But if you’ve played it, you already know why it’s here. It’s easily one of the most depressing, harrowing, and soul-crushing games ever made. Unlike other entries here, and despite being a “zombie” game, the horror and dread mostly come from the humans in the game.
The narrative forces you into situations where there’s no right choice, and the endgame is always traumatic. Combat is brutal and unforgiving, and its animations and sound design are still unmatched. The Last of Us: Part 1 was also very impactful, but it ended on a mostly hopeful note. This one just leaves you devastated in a way even the scariest horror games don’t.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
If you’ve ever lit a candle in a pitch-black room just to calm yourself down, this game will feel too real. Darkness is your biggest enemy here. The game is developed by Frictional Games, the studio behind SOMA, so if you’ve played that, you’ll know what to expect.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent works because it weaponizes vulnerability. You can’t fight back; you can only hide or run, much like Outlast. The sanity mechanic is also unique and adds more to the inherent tension. If you stay in darkness too long, your mind begins to unravel. The screen gets blurrier, the in-game whispers increase, and these things make the game even harder to focus on, not to mention scarier.
Doom 3
Doom is usually known for fast-paced action shooting. But Doom 3 was very much a reinvention of the originals that defined the FPS genre. It focused a lot more on the horror aspects. It trapped you in tight corridors with flickering lights and the cruelest flashlight game mechanic ever designed (which did get patched later on in the remastered versions to make it less tedious).
You could either see the enemy or shoot it, but not both. The game’s setting is inherently scary, but the long stretches of silence would amplify it. And because the environments were so oppressively claustrophobic, you never had room to breathe (figuratively).
The sound design deserves special mention, too. The demons and monsters crept into your ears first. You’d hear growls behind you, and you’d have no idea where the danger was coming from. Doom 3 wasn’t loved by everyone, but for those who wanted sci-fi survival horror, it remains a solid addition to the franchise, especially since the newer Doom games like Eternal and Dark Ages have pretty much abandoned the horror aspect, unfortunately.