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The best horror games scare us in a way that makes us feel alive in the face of something creepy that wants to kill us. Many of us like the suspense that comes with horror, whether it’s waiting for a jump scare, running away from a monster with our hearts pounding, or turning around to fight some really weird creatures.
The finest horror games are meant to make you want to throw down your PC controller and RUN. Or, at the very least, close your eyes during the truly terrible parts. After all, they’re the ones who abandon you in harrowing situations with nothing but a flashlight and the resolve to survive.
There are plenty of various horror titles to explore into here, ranging from AAA titles like Capcom and Konami to tiny indie producers putting the big scarers to shame. Continue reading for the finest horror games that will have you shaking in your boots.
Here is the list of Best Horror Games
Layers of Fear
Most video games may make you jump and scream, but only a few can make you doubt yourself in real life. Layers of Fear appears very familiar at first as you explore a frightening, creepy, and cavernously empty mansion. As you play an unidentified artist returning home, the Gothic story unfolds slowly.
However, it quickly becomes evident that the painter has succumbed to madness, which manifests itself in the untrustworthy narration of the actual world. Doors vanish and passageways warp out of shape simply in front of you; questioning everything after only a few hours. Overall, it is one of the best horror games available for download from the official site.
Alien: Isolation
Countless games have been influenced by Alien franchise features, whether it’s James Cameron’s space marines, Ellen Ripley’s bravery, or the frightening force of quiet in a soundtrack. Despite this, Alien: Isolation may be the series’ most successful video game.
It takes the gut-wrenching horror instilled by the original film’s lone Xenomorph and expands it into a lengthy game. Isolation’s frightening survival gameplay will keep your heart racing for hours. You play Amanda, Ripley’s daughter, who searches a derelict space station for her mother, only to encounter the same beast she fought.
Silent Hill
Silent Hill, a masterpiece delivered to us by Keiichiro Toyama, will go down in history as one of the best horror games ever. Silent Hill combines physical and psychological misery; nothing is as it appears, and each character faces a slew of personal demons in the barren village. The entire series has terrifying enemies that you can only pray never materialise in your dreams.
To mention a few famous encounters, there’s the monster incarnation of Alessa’s anxieties, Double Head, in Silent Hill, the iconic Pyramid Head and Bubble Head Nurses in Silent Hill 2, and the terrifying Valtiel in Silent Hill 3. If your head can handle it, most Silent Hill games have a lot of replay ability.
Signalis
Signalis is a new horror game inspired by the classics on this list, particularly Silent Hill and Resident Evil. So much so that, although having a totally different visual style, it invokes some of the same emotions that those late-nineties and early-noughties best horror games did.
As Elster, whose shuttle has crashed on a distant planet, you awaken with two tasks in mind: locating your partner and figuring out what’s going on. Sure enough, you’re pushed into claustrophobic passageways filled with enemy units that feel like sci-fi Silent Hill nurses and industrial noises reminiscent of Akira Yamaoka’s original series’ score.
System Shock 2
System Shock 2 is one of the android games ever developed, regardless of the category. Few games have captured the claustrophobia that comes with residing in a space surrounded and penetrated by death, whether located in the depths of dungeons or the depths of space.
You’re never supposed to forget that you’re only a metal skin away from extinction, and that the internal voids that the cosmos is pressing against from the outside are teeming with corrupted and corrupting species. That atmosphere of dread and impending catastrophe elevates Irrational’s masterwork to the ranks of the greatest horror games, and it is unique as a sci-fi horror RPG.
Pathologic
Pathologic is one-of-a-kind. It almost feels reductive to call it a horror game, but what else is it? Pathologic, set in a diseased town with districts and key buildings named after parts of the human body or biological functions and extractions, does not centre on the player character.
The story of the city’s death unfolds over twelve days and can be witnessed from three distinct points of view. The scenery and story are among the most literate and clever in gaming, and the fact that they can be experienced in pieces demonstrates Ice-Pick Lodge’s ability to exercise the medium’s unique qualities.
Haunted House
Atari’s Haunted House, released in 1982, emphasises the power of suggestion and the value of tension in horror. Obviously, nothing about the game’s real pictures are frightening—this was 1982, after all, and games were still in the cave painting era. When the game’s tarantula crawls into the room, even the most arachnophobic person would have nothing to fear.
The implications of that spider and the game’s other creatures, though, made them terrifying, as did the unpredictability of their presence. Despite its significant technical restrictions, Haunted House conveyed the basic quality of terror because to our character’s powerlessness and the austere, gloomy structure of the haunted mansion.
Doki Doki Literature Club
You may know what to expect from Doki Doki Literature Club after all these years, but that doesn’t make it any less bizarre. Doki Doki, a visual novel-turned-meta-nightmare, is more disturbing than most of the other titles on our list. The lengths it is ready to go to in order to unsettle players are amazing, and it is unparalleled in terms of sheer grossness and shock effect.
There’s a reason “Just Monika” has been in the gaming language for nearly five years at this time. If you’re searching for a disturbing game to play in one night, this fall into the maw of psychological terror disguised as a kawaii dating sim is a sure bet.
Little Nightmares
In Little Nightmares, you play as Six, a young girl who must navigate a terrifying world that is far too large for her, filled by a broad variety of huge and ugly creatures. Six is a petite girl, therefore you sneak by them rather than fighting these monsters.
The tension is created by navigating difficult platforming areas while being pursued by creatures. Little Nightmares is a fantastic horror game because it generates a sense of powerlessness while yet making it plain that there are still options to escape. It turns familiar domestic surroundings that should be soothing into revolting and dangerous places for Six to navigate through.
The Evil Within 2
The Evil Within series is created by Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, and if that isn’t reason enough to pick it up, the horrifying environment will. This is a third-person survival horror that will draw you into a world populated with bizarre and terrifying foes, coupled with dashes of psychological horror – protagonist Sebastian Castellanos never knows what’s real and what’s a horror concocted by his own mind.
The Evil Within attempted to resurrect the style of Japanese horror games that were once commonplace but have now become far more rare. Mikami, the man identified with Japanese horror gaming, is the perfect person to bring it back to life. The Evil Within games attempted to modernise Japanese horror in order to make it less janky and more approachable, and they were successful.
Final Words
The best horror games shock us in a way that thrills us and makes us feel alive in the face of a creepy creature that wants us dead. Many of us like the trappings of horror, whether it’s the suspense of anticipating a jump fright. There are more games to select from than ever before, so use our list of the top horror games to ensure you make the perfect decision.