Horror is a strangely addictive genre. No matter how many times it makes my skin crawl and keeps my mind up at night, I keep coming back. I've enjoyed countless horror films, from arthouse passion projects to schlocky slashers; it's all entertaining to watch morbid motion pictures. It's all from a distance, and the character's choices and mistakes are not my own.
However, it's another experience entirely to step into the shoes of the character and be responsible for all their actions. Horror video games offer an uncomfortably intimate perspective between the player and the fears being portrayed, sometimes reaching out to interact with us. In horror video games, the character you control can't survive without you, and that heightened anxiety is unmatched compared to every other medium of fiction.
This list of spooky simulations consists of household names and indie cult classics in no particular order. They all have their petrifying potential, and there are certainly scarier games out there. This list reflects the games I've played, and which were my favorites for their creativity to creep me out.
1. Outlast
Developed by Red Barrels, Outlast is one of the most influential horror games of a generation. It spawned countless reactions and playthroughs on YouTube, to the point where I'm convinced more people have watched gaming channels play Outlast than have actually played Outlast.
Trapped in an abandoned asylum, you play as investigative journalist, Miles Upshur, who, with nothing but his camera, must run and hide from the terminally insane lurking around every corner.
As a survival horror game, it leans heavily on avoiding combat, hiding under beds and lockers, and lots of frantic running. Outlast has a sequel, Outlast 2, and an online multiplayer, The Outlast Trials. However, they're regarded as fondly as the original. Not even Red Barrels can outdo themselves.
2. Observer
What do you get when you mix Blade Runner and Inception? You get Observer, developed by Bloober Team. Set in the year 2084, specialized police units known as observers have cybernetic implants that grant them access to people's minds.
Even if they're dead, if their brain is intact. A person's dreamscape is crawling with insecurities, traumas, and dark desires. It tells all, whether we like it or not, as detective Daniel Lazarski is aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Having dived into so many minds, it takes a toll on him, so it does on you as well.
Observer offers choices that'll influence the narrative and make you part of the investigation experience. In an apartment mega-complex, where you hear the digital remnants of your son, you'll have to solve a troubling string of crimes to reach him. Bloober Team released Observer: System Redux in 2020, which visually enhanced the game and added more story snippets. To this day, it stands as one of Bloober Team's best titles.
3. Layers of Fear
Another well-known title from Bloober Team is Layers of Fear. Wander the deteriorating mind of an obsessed painter, and traumatic memories warp a Victorian mansion. While trying to complete his magnum opus, he must face his deepest fears, even if it unravels his soul.
Like Observer, Bloober Team's gameplay design philosophy shines through, as it feels like you're walking through a dream. The environment feels alive, like it's aware you're interacting with it. During some segments,
I was surprised to see the game react to a choice I didn't even know I was making. No dialogue-choice prompt, I just chose not to go a certain way because I was afraid, and the game called me out on it. Layers of Fear has plenty of unforgettable thrills that'll live in your head like a memetic virus.
4. Little Nightmares 1
If you're not into gruesome gore or psychological discomfort, then perhaps a cozy horror game is more your speed. I say "cozy," but Little Nightmares, developed by Tarsier Games, is still as creepy as it gets. It's a blend of folkloric myth with dark childhood whimsy.
You play as Six, a girl in a yellow raincoat, who was placed on the Maw, a sailing structure at sea that appears ever so often. It appears to be an orphanage, but with an eerie lack of children.
Little Nightmares excels at visual storytelling and intuitive platforming. As you explore the Maw, the level design, environments, and enemies all visually contribute to the lore and reveal the motive of this twisted place. Once the realization hits you, it'll never leave your mind.
Little Nightmares also has a DLC, Secrets of the Maw, which adds substantial story content as a shocking twist to the base game's narrative.
There's a sequel, Little Nightmares 2, and a third title on the way, developed by Supermassive Games, Little Nightmares 3. In addition to the mainline games, there's a mobile game, Very Little Nightmares, and a VR game on the way, Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes.
5. Signalis
Crafted by two radical developers at Rose Engine, Yuri Stern & Barbara Wittmann, Signalis is a morbid and intoxicating blend of eldritch, survival, and action-horror. Like Observer, it has Blade Runner elements, except that it merges with Dead Space.
Set on a backwater planet owned by the totalitarian government, Eusan Nation, the halls of a decrepit research facility are crawling with mangled infected creatures.
You play as a "replika" technician (synthetic android), Elster, who's searching for a woman who's very important to her. You'll scour the rotting government station, stomp on every squirming infected, and unlock every restricted door until you find her. That's if she's still out there. Along the way, you will uncover this world's cosmic secrets, but the consequences could be dire.
6. Corpse Party
It's been years since I experienced Corpse Party, and it's left a scar on me. Partially because I was way too young at the time, but Kenix Soft's indie horror game still holds up as a cult classic.
You play as a cast of teenage high schoolers who, after playing an occult friendship game, accidentally trigger a supernatural event that traps them in another dimension of a haunted school. Japanese horror, especially of the spirit variety, has a way of getting under your skin.
Corpse Party, by its namesake, is gory, dark, and sometimes over the top, but always lands its dreadful execution. This is one of those games you must play alone and in the dark to enhance the mood.
7. Oxenfree
Don't let the vibing, cozy art style and lo-fi soundtrack fool you—or perhaps let it, so it'll make the scares so much better.
Oxenfree is a mind-bending, supernatural thriller developed by Night School. It seemingly takes inspiration from classic horror movies where teenagers go to a mysterious place and something goes wrong, but with a thoughtful layer of puzzle-solving and tension-inducing dialogue options and character-action choices.
You play as Alex, who's out on a special night with friends on a remote island, until the radio starts speaking in riddles. Reality cracks when the dials are turned to the right frequency, and Alex accidentally invites something else into the world. Is it too late to seal it back?
With nail-biting choices and consequences, multiple endings, and loads of easter eggs, Oxenfree has fantastic replayability and can be completed in one sitting. So why not boot this up instead of a movie?
8. Dead by Daylight
Death is not an escape here. Enter the unforgiving world of Dead by Daylight, developed by Behaviour Interactive. Unlike all the other games on this list, Dead by Daylight is an online multiplayer experience that popularized the one killer versus multiple survivors gameplay structure.
Many game adaptations like Friday the 13th: The Game, Evil Dead: The Game, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Resident Evil: Resistance, and more, took direct inspiration to middling success. Dead by Daylight retains its player base and constantly adds new killers, survivors, lore, and crossover events, adding iconic slashers from all those franchises I just mentioned, except for Jason—but even Chucky is in there.
In Dead by Daylight, survivors must find a way to escape a caged environment while avoiding the killer and their deadly abilities. The survivor has two options: repair enough power generators to open the gate, or wait until a random hatch opens. Dead by Daylight has its hilarious moments, especially when played with friends. However, the sweat-pouring anxiety of exploring corridors and making too much noise while avoiding the killer, who is a player, offers a unique horror experience that few games and no movie can compete with.
I remember a time when I was the last player alive, and I was running, bleeding. One last hit would've finished me off, but I ran into a corner and found the hatch before time ran out, and I heard the killer's weapon hit the metal. You don't get a rush like that from watching Halloween.
9. Baldur's Gate 3
You probably didn't expect this entry, did you? Understandably, the biggest game of the decade (until GTA 6 releases), Baldur's Gate 3, developed by Larian Studios, wasn't marketed as a horror game. It's a fantasy role-playing game with fun adventures, but with a lot of horror-leaning quests, monsters, and locales.
The premise of the plot itself, which involves Lovecraftian-esque Mindflayers inserting mutagenic psychic tadpoles into your brain, warrants a horror tag alone.
The gameplay also complements the tension within certain key areas and quest lines, like when fighting Shadows in the Shadow-Cursed Lands. They're invisible until within your light source, adding dread and uncertainty to exploration. In the Underdark, a subterranean biome, creatures can ambush you with little warning, and are more than capable of wiping out your party if you're not careful.
The sheer volume of horror-story quests is more than I can list, from cultist surgeons straight out of Saw and Silent Hill, to Slavic witches wanting to eat you alive. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the spookiest and harshest RPGs out there.
10. Alien: Isolation
In space, no one can hear you scream, but your roommates might. On my final addition to the list, I present Alien: Isolation, developed by Creative Assembly.
Unlike recent video game entries into the franchise, like Alien: Rogue Incursion, Isolation strips away your weapons and marine training. Over a decade since the events of the original film, Alien, Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, is onboard the Sevastopol space station. She's on a mission to retrieve the flight recorder of the Nostromo, the ship her missing mother had manned.
You can probably see where this is headed: Somehow, an alien gets onboard the Sevastopol and it's killing people, but Weyland-Yutani wants it alive, of course. You, as Amanda, must avoid the ultimate predator and perfect organism using whatever wits, tools, and survival instincts you have.
What's uniquely disturbing about Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation is that the xenomorph AI is smart, like scary smart. It adapts to your gameplay style. It studies you as prey, learning your habits and mistakes, so that they don't work as easily again.
In the game, it's physically present, real-time, always somewhere, in some air duct or distant hallway, sniffing you out. I suggest finding a flamethrower quickly, before you get a razor-tooth tongue through the face.
From slashers to psychological thrillers, dark fairytales, and cosmic encounters, there's something for everyone in horror video games. If you have the guts and aren't afraid to spill them, then pick your poison. Spooky season is around the corner!
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