I’ll be the first to admit that, despite a long-running love for the horror genre, I’m a massive pussy when it comes to playing the top horror games. I can sit through a horror movie with no issues, but place me into an immersive world filled with terror, and I bug out of there. Still, it’s almost the holidays, so we must explore a few of the best horror games for Halloween!
SOMA
If you prefer a more story-focused horror experience, with a world brimming with character and terror in equal measures, then SOMA should to your list for Halloween.
Developed by Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, SOMA takes an unsettling approach to horrific storytelling by asking you what being a human genuinely means. You’ll witness a lot of body horror, corrupted flesh and monstrosities, and dangerous artificial intelligence that makes you question everything you see.
For scaredy-cats, thankfully, the game allows you to minimize its creatures’ impact. You can alter the settings to ensure monsters cannot hurt you. Instead, they appear more like setpieces to add to the frights.
Alien: Isolation
Humans have an innate fear of something larger and stronger hunting us. Add in the unknown, a touch of darkness, and the inability to call for help, and you have Alien: Isolation.
While you can learn to cheese the xenomorph throughout your game time, the unsettling dread lurking around each corner remains. For instance, if you hide in a locker, the xenomorph may rip the door off to check. Or, it will skulk through overhead ventilation shafts to get the jump on you.
While there is no time limit per se, the ever-coming threat of the xenomorph hunting you aboard the Sevastopol makes every action tense and chaotic. Can you pick a lock or hack a computer fast enough before it finds you?
Phasmophobia
They say playing horror games with friends can make the experience more rewarding and less terrifying. Whoever said that sucks because it’s wrong. Phasmophobia proves that, despite having four-player cooperative gameplay, the fear is genuine and ever-present when you investigate haunted locales.
Phasmophobia tasks the player, or multiple players, with exploring haunted locations as part of a ghost removal team. You’re part detective, part Ghostbuster. You’ll immerse yourself in the role by monitoring cameras and motion sensors, bringing EMF readers into the basement, and ridding schools, residential homes, and hospitals of specters.
Everything may appear quiet at first, but the more you piss off the ghost, the more it presents itself and will take someone’s life.
Outlast
Outlast will always hold a special place in my heart despite its age. Remember how I said horror games terrify me? It’s true, so don’t take what I’m about to say lightly. Outlast is one of my top five games of all time, alongside some massive RPGs I invested thousands of hours into. It’s that good!
To some, Outlast will appear generic. You run and hide from bad guys, which is a mechanic tried and tested for years in the horror genre. Personally, I think Outlast is one of the first to do it well, though.
You’re tasked with investigating strange happenings at an insane asylum, where it is said that a doctor is performing experiments on inmates. What happens next is a spiral into absolute madness and terror as abominations hunt you, inmates jump you, and otherworldly beings present themselves.
Resident Evil 2
Despite how absolutely excellent Resident Evil 2 plays, I have yet to finish the remake. Why? Because it’s terrifying, that’s why!
This time around, you’re not exploring a massive space station or various multi-story dwellings; you’re trapped inside a police station and its attached structures. Even worse is the building is filled with both zombies and bioweapons alike. It’s a lot to manage.
Sure, you’ll have a knife and various firearms, which help quell the terror somewhat, but Mr. X constantly chases you down. That, and you’ll have zombies with horrific detail chomping at the bit to get a taste of your flesh.
There you have it! A few of the best horror games for Halloween this year!