25 Best Horror Games of All Time: Definitive List, Ranked
Horror has always been a genre in any entertainment medium that’s met with a lot of intrigue. With immersion playing a key role in how effectively scared you will be, it comes to no one’s surprise that the best horror games typically are the ones that get the most praise.
The horror genre has evolved dramatically, from narrative-drawn masterpieces to ones that focus more on gameplay to build up a sense of tension and unease. Since there’s such a wide variety of games, it only makes sense to look at the best horror games released over the years.
We’ve played all these games ourselves and spent many sleepless nights, including roping in some of our friends, to create a comprehensive, definitive guide.
All of these games are purchased from Eneba. Why? It’s a one-stop shop for the cheapest game deals. There’s not one game on this list that we could find cheaper elsewhere.
Top Picks: Best Horror Games
From psychological mind-benders to pulse-pounding survival challenges, all of these games are designed to keep you on the very edge of your seat. Here’s our lineup of must-play horror titles that will haunt your thoughts long after you leave the game:
- Silent Hill 2 – psychological horror masterpiece where your guilt is your greatest enemy.
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard – first-person survival horror that brings the feeling of claustrophobic terror.
- Left 4 Dead 2 – cooperative zombie-slaying fun with friends, where teamwork is the key to survival.
- Little Nightmares – dark fairytale about a small child navigating a twisted world of gluttony and despair.
- Phasmophobia – paranormal investigation gone wrong, where fear is the most powerful weapon.
- Half-Life: Alyx – VR masterpiece that redefines immersive storytelling and gameplay.
- Outlast 1 – journalist’s descent into madness as he explores a nightmarish asylum.
- Outlast 2 – religious cult, a desolate wasteland, and the horrors that lurk within.
- The Callisto Protocol – sci-fi horror thriller set on a dead moon prison.
- Layers of Fear – psychological horror game that explores the depths of a painter’s madness.
But that’s not all! Find our full list of absolutely chilling horror games down below.
The Haunting Allure of Horror Games
Horror is quite a unique genre in the way it captivates an audience. Instead of promising a good time with laughs or a positive end to an otherwise sad story, horror only promises mystery, suspense, and tension.
We’ve always been fascinated with curiosity about the known and our love for adrenaline-pumping excitement. Horror games, however, elevate these experiences even further as they place you right into the action, something a movie or book can never match.
Unlike more passive forms of horror, games can make every moment feel personal. Whether its you creeping down a dark alley in Outlast or getting chased down by Pyramid Head in Silent Hill, the interactivity creates a sense of vulnerability that makes everything scarier.
Beyond just the scary aspect, horror games tap into our most primal instinct, fear. Because of this, the heart-pounding tension alongside the rush of relief you get when you survive an encounter makes the entire premise of them highly addicting.
Ultimately, horror games capitalize on your psyche, forcing you to face your worst fears. And, while experiencing them can be downright terrifying, the sense of accomplishment at the end you get from surviving empowers you to move from one checkpoint to the next.
Understanding the Horror Game Genre
Horror games have evolved, and various sub-genres within them invoke a different kind of fear within you. While all of them are worth checking out, here’s an overview of them alongside some key differences:
- Survival Horror: Survival horror games focus on resource management and emphasize creating a sense of vulnerability. You typically have to either fight enemies with barely any ammo or have to run away to live to fight another day.
- Psychological Horror: Psychological horror focuses on creating tension and unease via plotlines, visuals, and a storyline. They often do not involve a lot of combat, and they always create a sense of impending doom throughout the game.
- Action Horror: Action horror games are ones where you can fight back, and most of the tension revolves around the gameplay with some creepy visuals. This genre is typically confined to multiplayer horror games.
- Multiplayer Horror: Multiplayer horror games are any horror games that have a social element baked into them. Games like Phasmophobia might have you hunting ghosts together, while Left 4 Dead 2 has you killing hordes of zombies, for instance.
- VR Horror: Virtual reality horror games are typically the most immersive and is a pretty young genre compared to the rest. The genre primarily consists of ported games that now have amplified immersion, thanks to VR’s level of interactivity.
How Did We Select the Best Horror Games?
We’ve spent a lot of time devising a methodology to rank the best horror games of all time. A few factors came into account. But, primarily, we focused on what mattered the most: immersion and fear.
While that might be subjective for everyone, a game that focuses on creating an atmosphere via its storyline, soundtrack, visuals, or gameplay will typically be scarier than one that just focuses on one piece of the puzzle. Because of this, games that create a more universally scary experience are ones that we’ve ranked higher on our list.
But, beyond that, we’ve also focused on these particular key factors:
- Storyline and Narrative Impact: A great horror game has a protagonist, maybe two protagonists at times, with a clear objective that is relatable to the audience, which unwraps and evolves as the story progresses.
- Atmosphere and Fear Factor: Having a great art style combined with a concise design philosophy helps create an eerie atmosphere that can make even a normal room look spooky.
- Gameplay Mechanics and Innovation: Games that push the envelope further, for instance, RE4’s introduction of the third-person perspective, are also taken into account.
- Visuals and Sound Design: Going hand-in-hand with immersion, visuals, and sound design play a key role in a horror game. Therefore, games that do right by their art style and have a great soundtrack are ranked higher.
- Replayability and Player Engagement: Horror games should be able to provide unique experiences every time you play them. A very linear approach doesn’t lead to a unique experience, and they certainly don’t feel novel.
- Fan Reception and Critical Acclaim: Critics are important for the industry, but fans, arguably, are more important. While having the most downloads doesn’t always mean a game is great, it certainly is a measure that we’ve used when coming up with these rankings.
Best Horror Games of All Time
With the ranking factors above, we’ve compiled this definitive list of the best horror games of all time. We’ve ensured that there’s a mix of sub-genres present, and we don’t harp on just one franchise.
Moreover, this entire list is spoiler-free, and we’ve focused on highlighting unique points for each game that’ll help you get an idea about whether it fits your preferences and what you can expect from the title. However, all of the games in this list are must-plays, especially if you are a fan of the horror genre in general.
1. Silent Hill 2
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2024 | PS5, PC | 15 hours |
Based on the original Silent Hill, this revival of a cult classic horror game deserves nothing but praise. Bloober Team, Konami, and Team Silent’s emphasis on staying true to the original narrative while remaking Silent Hill 2 with modern gameplay, visuals, and controls stands for everything that a remake should be.
The Silent Hill 2 remake starts you off in the same grim, fog-ridden town you’ve become familiar with. Dabbling deep into psychological horror, the visual palette presents almost no lighting and is accompanied by a slow, melancholic soundtrack that builds tension at every turn.
While the original had a forced camera perspective, innovations in the past decade have eliminated those technical limitations, creating a more dynamic, awe-inspiring environment. The Silent Hill 2 remake offers almost no catharsis; there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. The game purposefully forces you to explore grim, dark realities that you may even project onto your own life. The developers have done a great job in creating images that echo in your mind when you turn the lights out, and they manipulate you into interacting and participating in the very fear you are running away from.
This intelligent combination of horror with a forced realization to explore very disturbing realities makes this game, by far, a Japanese horror masterpiece and perhaps the best horror game of all time.
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2. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2017 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 10-12 hours |
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was released in 2017 for the PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC. It follows the story of Ethan Winters as he receives a message from his long-lost wife, Mia. It is the first game in the Resident Evil franchise to ditch the traditional third-person perspective for a more immersive first-person experience.
The game’s pace was much slower than its predecessors, and it leaned more toward survival horror than previous games. However, the original fanbase critically acclaimed and well-loved the game, with a 86% rating on Metacritic.
It successfully revived the slower-paced survival horror genre and paved the way for future installments like Resident Evil Village. This game is an excellent entry into the horror genre as it has a linear learning curve and features simple puzzles with enchanting stories.
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3. Left 4 Dead 2
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2009 | PC, Xbox 360 | 10-15 hours |
Developed by Valve, Left 4 Dead 2 is an installment to one of the pioneers of online multiplayer zombie shooters, Left 4 Dead. Here, you spawn in as a group of four players in an infested location, where your only aim is to survive and escape.
As you weave through, you’ll be met with hordes of unique zombies that each pose a different challenge. From getting exploded on to clawed on to getting goo thrown at you, Valve went to town with their creativity here.
As you complete maps, you’ll be able to direct entirely new scenes and replay cleared levels as each match is slightly different from the other, featuring new numbers of bosses, keeping the game fresh for years.
Left 4 Dead 2 is one of the best games of all time, and while not always placed in the pure horror genre, it definitely deserves a spot as a horror game that has pioneered a generation of online zombie shooters.
4. Little Nightmares
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2017 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 5-6 hours |
Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares is a welcome refinement in the horror genre, which purists often argue is meant to be challenging and difficult to endure. Little Nightmares follows the story of Six, a child who approaches the world with endearing curiosity.
The game takes an extremely light-handed approach with its narrative, with no cutscenes or dialogue present throughout the game. It forces you to imprint what you understand from the game and take what you can. You are imprisoned in the lower levels of the Maw, a submersible from which you have to escape.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward. You’ll be either grabbing, climbing, or throwing. When the loo starts to get a bit boring, you are introduced to puzzles that keep you hooked for longer. The soundtrack is beautiful, with orchestral crescendos thumping in the horizon as you hear metal creaking through your headphones.
Little Nightmares is extremely beginner friendly and is also one of the only games here that is also available on the Nintendo Switch. Completing the game at a fairly standard pace will only take you 5-6 hours, which means that its a great pickup for anyone who doesn’t want to start a AAA title just yet.
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5. Phasmophobia
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2020 | PC | 10-40 hours (varies depending on players) |
Phasmophobia is a horror game released in 2020 that answers the question, “What if you could talk to ghosts in a game?” It is an exciting game that takes you and your friends for a ride.
You’ve seen the plot of average horror movies nowadays: a group of friends go in to explore a haunted house, and slowly, people just seem to vanish out of your view until you are the only one surviving. That’s an average Phasmophobia session.
You and your friends are ghost detectives with limited resources, trying to lure ghosts into identifying themselves. Your primary objectives vary with each map, and your primary task is to collect proof so you can escape to your van.
Besides the interesting multiplayer element, Phasmophobia is an excellent horror game because of how immersive it is. With your voice chat open, you can talk to ghosts, aggravate them, and try and get them to do things, which makes everything scarier.
Phasmophobia is an excellent party game, and while a tad bit scary, it also leads to a lot of laughs as you get better and familiarize yourself with the game’s mechanics. It is also, in our opinion, one of the most replayable horror games on this list.
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5. Half-Life: Alyx
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2020 | PC (VR required) | 10-12 hours |
Half-Life: Alyx is the only VR-exclusive game on this list. Developed by Valve, it is a traditional Half-Life game. The game truly encapsulates why Valve is considered one of the best game developers in the world.
The environments look absolutely fantastic; every newspaper you see is filled to the brim with text and lore, and the level of interactivity you feel in a VR environment is breathtaking. From being able to pick around and throw things, you can use your hands to push on doors and actually feel your hand torque through objects, just as they would in real life.
Alyx isn’t filled to the brim with jump scares. Instead, it focuses more on creating a tense atmosphere and uses its great visuals alongside your encounters with some truly monstrous creatures to formulate an environment that leaves little to be desired.
Half-Life: Alyx is an ode to what VR currently is and what it can become if developers truly put in the time to add in the details that matter. It is an absolute must-play if you own a VR headset, and we’d make the case that you should go and grab a Quest 2 on sale just to play this masterpiece.
6. Outlast 1 & 2
| Game | Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| Outlast 1 | 2013 | PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch | 5-7 hours |
| Outlast 2 | 2017 | PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch | 8-10 hours |
The Outlast franchise is for anyone who really doesn’t enjoy a good night’s sleep and would rather be woken up by nightmares instead. The game is the perfect personification of what makes a horror game exceptional, great visuals, an excellent atmosphere, and a stressful gameplay loop that’ll have you biting your nails constantly.
Both games feature a somewhat similar plot line. You are in a remote area where a group of cult-like fanatics seem to have taken an insidious liking to you. You constantly try to find enough batteries to be able to see what is in front of you, and typically, when you do, it isn’t a very pleasing sight.
Both Outlast games are must-plays for anyone who is remotely interested in the horror genre. Our only complaints are that they end far too quickly and lack replayability. But besides that, fans and critics alike sing nothing but praises for the franchise.
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7. The Callisto Protocol
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2022 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 10-12 hours |
Put on your space boots. We have a moon gone rogue! The Callisto Protocol is a Dead Space-inspired survival horror game that places you in the Black Iron Prison facility on Callisto. Here, prisoners have been infected with a mysterious virus that turns them into mutated zombies.
Your job now is to escape from the prison, using all your resources and survive through the hordes of infected and the armed robots who are cleansing everything that moves. The game plays exactly like Dead Space. However, instead of focusing on ranged combat, it takes a melee-heavy approach.
All combat sequences feel very fresh. You typically dodge a few blows in succession and are then able to land one, continuing the cycle until whoever you are fighting eventually goes down. The game’s plot is fantastic, and while it isn’t very relatable (none of us have been trapped on moons recently), it still does a great job of conveying that humans haven’t exactly changed in the future.
It does run on the shorter side in terms of gameplay time, but it is a great pick-up for anyone who is interested in Dead Space as it presents a fresh take on the iconic formula that has seemed to work in its favor.
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8. Layers of Fear
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2016 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 4-6 hours |
Developed by the Bloober Team, Layers of Fear is one of those games that really has you questioning yourself by the end. You play yourself in a Gothic home as a painter who clearly isn’t completely sane from the very start.
As you progress, you see the world morph around you, with layers of it seemingly amalgamating into one another, leading you to question every single thing that you’ve seen up to that point. “Was the cup on the right side or the left?” You start off with questions like these until you start seeing the character’s insanity manifesting in the world around you.
The note-based storytelling and the relatively difficult navigation leads for newer players to shy away from the game and rightfully so. Layers of Fear truly packages itself as Bloober Team’s magnum opus, and is an excellent atmospheric horror game that goes deep into psychedelic and psychological horror.
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9. Dead By Daylight
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2016 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 10-15 minutes per match |
Just like Phasmophobia, Dead By Daylight is another game that proves you don’t need to be alone to be very scared. Here, a sole player takes on the role of a killer, while four other players try and fix generators to be able to escape.
As the killer, you can choose from a variety of different characters, each with their own abilities, while survivors can plot to try and slow you down with what little resources they have. The game features a pretty steep learning curve, and there are a lot of advanced strategy and tactics that you learn as you progress, which keeps the gameplay pretty fresh and exciting.
The developers also release frequent updates for the game and have made collaborations with popular Hollywood franchises that allow for characters from films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacare and a Nightmare on Elm Street to be present in the game.
Whether you play as a killer or a survivor, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Dead By Daylight, especially if you play with a few friends. While it certainly isn’t as scary as some of the other games on this list, it is creepy enough to spook you out once in a while.
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10. Dead Space (2023 Remake)
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 12-15 hours |
You can’t have a list of the best horror games without mentioning Dead Space. A cult classic, Dead Space was remastered in 2023 and looks better than ever. Released on all major platforms, you are back at the USG Ishimura, now with better lighting and visuals, recreating everything you remember that haunted space station for.
The remake features welcome changes besides just visual changes; the voice acting and plot lines seem a lot more crisp and the developers have clearly taken their time to ensure that even the controls feel a lot more modern. At first glance, you won’t feel like you are playing a game that was originally released a decade ago.
Dead Space is an example of a remake done right. It has all the bones of the original, and you stay engrossed in the story until the very end. The combat is satisfying enough to keep you hooked for hours. As the fans say, there is no other original game like it, and we sincerely doubt that the crown of the best Sci-Fi horror game of all time will be going away from Dead Space anytime soon.
11. Resident Evil 4 (2023 Remake)
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 15-20 hours |
Based on the most successful Resident Evil game to date, Resident Evil 4 is a modernized version of the original, with a slightly altered story and many gameplay refinements. The game follows the story of Leon Kennedy, a special agent sent by the President to rescue his daughter in a Spanish village.
Initially released in 2005 and modernized in 2023, RE4 isn’t the scariest game in this list, but it is almost in every best horror games list. Moving from the fixed-camera perspective in previous installments to a third-person perspective, RE4 pioneered Japanese horror at a time when faster-paced horror games weren’t considered a true horror game.
The game features extremely quirky characters ranging from small imps to large monsters that throw boulders at you. RE4 isn’t a part of the scariest games on this list, but it definitely is considered a pioneer and revolutionary in space.
Both the original and the remake were met with critical acclaim, and the game is practically on every platform out there. If there’s one game we’d recommend for you to pick on Eneba, it’d certainly be Resident Evil 4. You’ll be able to squeeze hours out of it, especially if you’re a completionist.
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12. Slender: The Eight Pages
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2012 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 1-2 hours |
Slender: The Eight Pages is an example of a video game character turning into an urban legend. Released in 2012, the game gives you a very simple premise, “collect all 8 pages.” As you collect the pages in an eerie forest, a rather well-dressed, tall, slender creature stalks you from a distance.
As you collect these pages, you’ll feel the presence of the Slenderman drawing ever so closer. Your job is to hide, run, and evade from the creature and try and find the eight pages before it gets to you. The indie game has an incredibly simple premise, and completing the game doesn’t take more than an hour or two.
However, it deserves a spot on this list because it solidified that horror games do not necessarily need to be extremely long or have fantastic visuals for them to be a great hit. This horror game runs on almost any PC, and is worth playing, especially if you haven’t already. It won’t scare the crap out of you, but it does have some genuinely great jumpscares that will keep you hooked.
13. Alan Wake 2
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 15-20 hours |
Released in 2023 for the PS5, PC, and Xbox, Alan Wake 2 is the second installment of the critically acclaimed Alan Wake franchise. Coming out a full thirteen years after the original, Remedy Entertainment made sure they pulled all the stops to make this one of the best horror games of all time.
The plot switches between Alan Wake and FBI agent Saga Anderson, as one tries to uncover a recently placed murder while Wake struggles to figure out his own true reality. The game isn’t filled with jump scares and instead revolves around creating interesting survival elements and frightening enemies to create a memorable experience.
The puzzles feel pretty difficult at points, and the gameplay can feel a bit slow for someone who isn’t used to survival horror. However, the visuals are breathtaking, and if you pick up this horror game, you can take advantage of DLSS and raytracing.
This horror game is great for anyone who enjoys a great plot, appreciates more-paced gameplay, and doesn’t mind solving a few puzzles in a resource-depleted survival horror environment.
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14. Outlast Trials
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PC | 10-15 hours |
Outlast Trials is quite a unique entry in this list. It is a relatively new co-operative horror game that feels extremely well-polished and has impressive visuals. Here, you team up with your friends to play through a series of death games and challenges with extremely violent, over-the-top NPCs trying to chase you down.
From searching corpses to searching for psychopaths, you’ll be met with a lot of unique characters throughout your playthrough. While we assume this isn’t an intended effect, the game creates a lot of hilarious moments thanks to characters that seem to take violence and gore to the next level.
Outlast Trials is a very enjoyable weekend game, From being tased in the groins to needing to chop off limbs to survive. However, it lacks the replayability and freshness that a lot of typical multiplayer games have. The challenges and games feel quite redundant after a few playthroughs, and you’ll be left yearning for more variety.
So, while it’s great fun and a fresh take on the genre, don’t expect there to be a professional Outlast Trials tournament anytime soon. If you are looking for a few hours of fun with your friends over the weekend, there’s nothing more fun than running away from creepy monsters who seem to really enjoy killing you in macabre ways.
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15. Resident Evil 2 (2019 Remake)
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2019 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 10-12 hours |
You can’t complete the best horror games list without mentioning Resident Evil 2 now, can you. We’re talking about the 2019 remake in particular, it also, in our opinion is the scariest game in the entire franchise.
Featuring Leon and Claire in Raccoon City, you are met with Mr. X and the Licker. Everything about the game just screams nostalgia. The remake is a great example of how you take a game meant for an older generation and modernize it while still sticking to what made it so great in the first place. The atmosphere and visuals are surreal, and Raccoon feels more alive (pun intended), than ever. The forced camera perspectives are gone and instead, you play the game in a third-person perspective.
This isn’t a run-and-gun game, far from it, you’ll have to conserve your ammo and make sure you try and evade as many hits as possible as you try and make your way out of the city..
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16. Visage
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2020 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 7-10 hours |
A fan of Silent Hill? Well, Visage might just be right up your alley. Visage is inspired and is a recreation of P.T., the iconic demo of what a full game based in the house from the P.T. As an indie title, the game is far from perfect. However, it features a great atmosphere, and the sound design is fantastic.
The game is a bit confusing, especially for new players, and the experience does seem to get frustrating as players aren’t very sure of where to go especially after the first and second chapter. From our experience, indie games like, while not fantastic, tend to explore genres of horror that AAA just do not.
For instance, the entirety of Visage takes place in just the one house creates a sense of dread and eerie interaction with objects. It also aligns with a lot of psychological phobias, with claustrophobic environments and a sense of alienation between the player and plot.
If you are a fan of the Silent Hill franchise, this game isn’t exactly like it. However, it explores interesting gameplay elements that we seldom see in other games on this list.
17. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | Casual Play: 10-15 minutes per match Completionist: 100+ hours |
You and your friends plan to shack up on the weekend in an abandoned cabin near the woods. What could go wrong? Well, Leather Face. Based on the movie of the same name, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game that has three killers hunting down four high schoolers.
Featuring iconic characters from the movie each with their own unique skills and abilities, the multiplayer game is a lot of fun to play especially if you haven’t been exposed to other asymmetrical horror games. Since there are three killers instead of the typical one, teamwork is needed on both sides to meet their goals.
The drawback of the game is that it just doesn’t feel as fleshed out as Dead By Daylight, and it seems to be innovative, but only slightly. This puts it in an awkward spot as DBD already has a dedicated player base with a team of developers that pump out updates on the regular. So, while the game is worth a shot, the player base probably won’t be sustained for a long time.
18. The Evil Within
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2014 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 12-15 hours |
You know you are in a treat when you find out that The Evil Within is inspired by Resident Evil 4. In this gut-wrenching survival horror game, you play as Detective Sebastian Castellanos, an eerily cool-headed detective who investigates a multiple homicide at Beacon Mental Hospital.
The game follows conventional survival horror tropes: deformed monsters and mannequins that spring into life. These lockers seem to always have something hidden inside them and a supply of unique monsters that just seem to get stronger. However, as they get stronger, so do you. With a great upgrade system that rewards you with a sense of progression throughout, the visuals of the game are grim, grainy, and grey, creating a dull and harsh atmosphere that seems to infectiously parade throughout the game.
The gameplay feels fresh, allowing you to either sneakily weave through enemies with traps and distractions or go for a more direct Rambo approach, depending on your mood for the day. It isn’t extremely hard or unforgiving, but it does present a decent enough challenge to keep you hooked till the very end.
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19. Until Dawn
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2022 | PS4, PS5 | 8-10 hours |
Developed by Supermassive Games, Until Dawn has recently gotten an Unreal Engine 5 and the game looks more photorealistic than ever. Its a cinematic storytelling game through and through. The developers never promised genre-defying gameplay but instead worked on trying to provide a level of immersion that not a lot of other games can meet.
It feels like a typical horror movie at times, with cheesy dialogues and typical character stereotypes playing out in real-time. But, when it wants to, the immersive environment leads to the creation of one of the most terrifying horror games ever made. This game isn’t meant for everyone, it’s meant for someone who actually enjoys horror tropes. If you aren’t into jump scares or don’t like being thrown in dark places every few minutes, steer away from the title.
But, if you are a true horror fan, you’ll find that Until Dawn gleefully represents everything that is to love about the genre in general, lots of scares, a lot of tension and excellent visuals all tightly wrapped in a narrative movie-like story.
20. Five Nights at Freddy’s
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2015 | PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Android | 4-5 hours |
Five Nights at Freddy’s is the personification of your childhood nightmare. What if the Chuck E. Cheese you went to wasn’t all that kid-friendly? FNAF is perhaps the only game on this entire list that both kids and adults seemingly enjoy.
You play as an employee tasked with keeping watch over the dimly lit restaurant in the night. You flip through cameras as you see these creepy animatronics seemingly come to life out of nowhere. With a bizarre soundtrack and a trigger-happy developer who decided to go all-out on jumpscares, FNAF is a welcome horror game that clearly doesn’t pull its punches.
Paranormal activity seems to be running rampant throughout the restaurant, and while there isn’t a lot of plot in the original game, the developers have since then expanded on the lore to add a bit of mystery and intrigue. It’s a great game to play for anyone who enjoys some found footage horror and doesn’t mind getting jumpscared every few minutes.
21. Alien: Isolation
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2014 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 15-20 hours |
The Xenomorph from the original Alien movie in 1979 has become a cultural staple over the years. Stemming off countless other movies and franchises, Alien: Isolation pays an homage to the original, with you playing as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, aboard the Sevastopol trying to learn more about your mother’s disappearance.
Alien: Isolation is one of our favorite horror games simply because it doesn’t try to innovate beyond its source. You play in first-person, trying to sneak through corners and alleys as you avoid the ever-present threat of a very well-designed Xenomorph. The game is a great pick up for anyone who is a fan of the original Alien franchise. But, even if you aren’t familiar with the series just yet, it also is a great entry point thanks to its immersive first person perspective.
The feeling of looming terror hopelessness that you feel throughout the game builds into its own symphony that then reaches its catharsis in the form of an alien staring right at your face. Quite a novel experience.
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22. Telltale’s The Walking Dead
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2012 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, Nintendo Switch | 15-20 hours (per season) |
Loosely based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead video game series was a bold attempt at redefining what a horror game looks like. Judging by the fact that they’re on our best horror games list, they’ve succeeded in what they set out to do.
Featuring a more cartoonist art style and throwing all its cards in the plot and story corner, Telltale’s The Walking Dead goes through the gripping tale of Lee and Clementine as they navigate through a newly zombie-infested America.
The game has almost no combat and instead changes its plot and story based on the decisions you make throughout the game. Because of this, the game prides itself on having great dialogue, and you’ll see a lot of voice actors shine through with their performances as you try to survive.
The Walking Dead video game became a cultural icon in its own right, and its success never felt overshadowed by the very famous TV series based on the same name. Kirkman’s direction and involvement throughout the game’s development is obvious, turning it into one of the best horror games of all time. It also is extremely beginner-friendly, thanks to its point-and-click nature, and it often serves as an entry point for a lot of new gamers to the horror genre.
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23. SOMA
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2015 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC | 8-10 hours |
From the developers of the Amensia series comes SOMA, a psychological horror game that has you pondering about what it truly means to be human. You play as Simon Jarrett (or at least a version of him), who wakes up 100 years after his death on the PATHOS-II, a research facility underground.
The world has been wiped out, and now you, alongside an AI travel companion, try to get to the ARK, the apparent last bastion of hope for humanity. As you navigate the environment, you are met with odd AI-infused humanoids and a lot of dead, headless humans who reveal more about the plot.
SOMA is an extremely interesting game, it challenges the norms of a typical horror game and instead poses existential questions that leave you more creeped out than any jumpscare. It has received a lot of love from fans over the years too.
It isn’t the most visually appealing, and the playthrough only lasts a few hours. But, it’s fairly priced and is worth checking out, especially if you are a sucker for some Lovecraftian horror.
24. The Last of Us Part I and II
| Game | Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| The Last of Us Part I / Part II | 2013 / 2020 | PS4, PS5, PC | 40-45 hours |
Like The Walking Dead, TLOU I and II are never considered true horror games. But anyone who has played the franchise for more than a few minutes can attest to the fact that the game can feel really scary at certain points.
Both installments in the franchise use impeccable visuals and audio cues to enhance and heighten tension. In both games, you follow Ellie as she navigates through the once-bustling USA, which is now overtaken by faura, fauna, and…the infected.
The gameplay is extremely crisp, and you can clearly see Naughty Dog, put in a lot of love into crafting the story and making sure that the pacing feels just right. While the game was originally launched as a PS exclusive, The Last of Us Part I received a lot of love from fans and was then remastered and released on PC as well.
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25. Still Wakes The Deep
| Release Year | Platforms | Avg. Playtime |
| 2023 | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/ S | 5-6 hours |
Still Wakes The Deep tries to invoke fear on you with every corner you turn. You play as an electrician on an oil-rig that somehow drills into an alien which subsequently transforms most of the ship into horrendous genetic malformations.
You, then, as Caz, try to navigate the metallic behemoth of an oil rig trying to escape. The game is absolutely beautiful, placing you in grotesque environments where you can clearly see the infectious alien slowly taking over.
The reason why this game hasn’t done as well as many of the others on this list is simply because of its pacing. The game feels extremely linear, even though it has a beautiful map. There are no collectibles, no backtracking, and most of the doors you meet throughout the game are sealed shut.
Because of this, it often feels like you are being forced into a certain path which sets the wrong tone for a horror game that relies on immersion to deliver its message. While the game still is scary, its linear gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering the fact that the developers have clearly put in a lot of love to develop the visuals of the game.
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The Evolution of Horror Gaming Mechanics
Horror games initially stemmed from the adventure genre, introducing an element of suspense into their gameplay. They then evolved into being more visually creepy, such as the Garten of Haunted House, originally released in 1972 for the Atari 2600.
As the genre started developing a fanbase, we were met with the first psychological and survival horror subgenres before the 2000s. As games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill continued to push the envelope, indie games released in the later years would innovate on the formula to stand out.
For instance, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, released in 2010, flipped the concept of real terror on its head. It presented players with a unique Sanity meter that would fill up quicker as you interacted with more supernatural elements, eventually causing you to go insane and die.
Similarly, Outlast, in 2013, introduced an extremely steep learning curve and completely let go of combat in favor of being able to only evade enemies. Naturally, this led to an extremely terrifying experience, as now, when caught, there was absolutely no way for you to escape.
Now, with VR’s entire proposition relying on immersion, it comes to no one’s surprise that games like Phasmophobia and the Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners have made their way to VR platforms. In these games, your physical reactions are tied to the game, so you’ll have to actually duck to avoid an enemy, physically turn around and run chant spells, and more.
Psychological vs Survival Horror: What’s Your Fear Factor?
Psychological and survival horror games stem from the same genre but cater to a completely different audience. Psychological horror games focus on creating atmosphere, unsettling environments, cryptic plotlines and just a general sense of unease throughout. They typically aren’t riddled with jump scares, and don’t feature a lot of combat sequences.
The Silent Hill franchise is considered as one of the best executions of the psychological horror formula, relying on odd enemies such as the Pyramid Head and a very eerie score to create an uneasy atmosphere, always keeping players at the edge of their seats.
Survival horror games, on the other hand, focus on immediate external dangers and emphasize resource management above others. Here, the running idea is that you are up against impossible odds. But, if you manage your resources, you may just have a slim chance.
The Resident Evil series, especially the earlier instalments in Raccoon City follow this exact formula to the tooth. You are often against an enemy that will go down, the only question is whether you have enough ammunition to be able to do so.
If you are a fan of plot above all else, like slower-paced gameplay, and like to sit back and introspect, psychological horror is right up your alley. However, if you enjoy quicker, more adrenaline-pumping action with little downtime and a lot of exploration, survival horror is a great fit.
However, we would never recommend chaining yourself to a particular subgenre just because you might find the gameplay too slow or fast. Both formulas offer a distinct flavor of fear that is worth experiencing, especially when it is executed so well.
Indie Horror Games That Redefined the Genre
Indie games have always pushed the envelope of gaming forward, and it is no different in the horror genre further. While often bottlenecked by their budget, they often outshine larger AAA title just because of the raw passion and love that small indie developers put into their titles, presenting innovations that are then adopted by the rest of the industry.
The reason why indie developers like putting players in new situations is because that’s the only way the game will make a mark in the industry. Indie games almost never have great marketing budgets, and they also lack the pedigree necessary to ensure that an original game will immediately be met with success. Because of this, relying on capturing a cult audience that sings their praises for them becomes extremely important.
If it wasn’t for the indie genre, we wouldn’t get to experience the Amnesia series by Frictional Games, which presented a fresh take on the survival horror genre. Here, the game quickly shifts from combat to survival to just sheer terror as you hide yourself in cabinets with a monster right outside.
Frictional Games didn’t just stop there though. SOMA, released in 2015, questions what it means to truly be human, places you in philosophical conundrums, challenges the existence of retribution, and portrays a grotesque but realistic image of the human mind’s capabilities. Only a few horror games, if any, have been able to invoke such profound questions in a player’s mind as much as SOMA did.
While looking like a pretty innocent game at the start, Doki Doki Literature Club turns does a complete 180 as you progress, turning into an extremely creepy horror game that talks about mature themes like self harm and suicide. It consistently breaks the fourth wall, with the characters addressing you, the player. The game catches everyone pretty off-guard which leads it to being an extremely uneasy game to play.
The Role of Sound and Visuals in Horror Games
All great entries in the horror genre rely on great sound design and visuals as their backbone. Both sound design and great visuals act hand-in-hand in creating an atmosphere that creates tension and unease.
Just like the movies, a horror video game uses subtle audio cues to create to build suspense and then follows it up with a crescendo of louder sounds that transform into jump scares. For instance, the Dead Space remake and the original both used clangs and screams to create a sense of dread as you navigate throughout the game.
Resident Evil 4 had chants from the Ganados echoing through church hallways as you tried to make your way out. Sound design also plays an important role in creating a sense of ease in horror games as well. The same game, RE4, had an extremely iconic soundtrack whose flagship was the typewriter save track, letting players know that they’re safe… at least for a little bit.
You can’t have a great horror game without excellent visuals. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that the graphics need to be lifelike or even feel modern. Games like Amnesia didn’t look great when they came out, and they certainly aren’t visual masterpieces anymore. However, nailing an art style and sticking up becomes pretty important for titles, mainly as most franchises use their art styles to define themselves.
Virtual Reality: Immersing Yourself in Horror
VR has been extremely transformative in the horror genre. Since horror games seem to be more critically acclaimed the more immersive they are, its not surprising that horror games were one of the first to be truly ported into VR.
While there aren’t a lot of VR-first titles out there, games like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard VR really feel very different when everything feels right in your face. As you traverse through, an interesting RE game suddenly feels like a real nightmare as the Baker family chases you down.
Phasmophobia VR played with friends or without can get extremely scary, especially as you try and stay silent because you don’t want the ghost to find you. Having all the lights go out while little girl sings, “Ring Around the Rosie”, can just about get anyone to just take their headset off and zone out for the night.
Tips for Surviving Horror Games
Horror games typically aren’t fast-paced. Instead, they rely on creating a slow, methodically placed atmosphere. As the genre has evolved from the 90s, games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil tend to feature more puzzles and force you into uncomfortable situations by giving you just enough resources before the next checkpoint.
When playing a horror game, pace yourself and explore as much as you can of the environment around you. Typically, you’ll be rewarded with more resources or collectibles as you scavenge an entire area.
As you progress, don’t shy away from the unsettling atmosphere or the feeling that there’s an ever-present threat. Instead, embrace the fear, and you’ll end up having a much better time. In terms of difficulty, modern horror games typically do not have adjusters. The game automatically adjusts its pace depending on how well (or poorly) you are playing.
Here are a few quick tips we recommend:
- Methodically Solve Puzzles: Don’t stay in the same place when trying to solve a puzzle, look around for clues and truly examine your surroundings. Oftentimes, missing a few small details will have you backtrack.
- Manage Your Resources: When playing survival horror games, never spam your first aid or ammunition until you are absolutely sure you need them. In some cases, it is even better to just avoid trouble wherever you can and live to fight another day.
- Don’t Speedrun: We’ve seen this one a lot, “this isn’t my first game. Why shouldn’t I just go fast?” Well, while you technically can, it certainly isn’t a lot of fun. Horror games like Dead Space or Silent Hill aren’t meant to be speedrun. They’re best enjoyed when explored thoroughly since only then will you be able to capture the atmosphere that the developers have worked so hard on conveying.
Getting Started: Recommendations for New Horror Gamers
In our horror games list above, you’ll find a lot of games being mentioned as having a steep learning curve, which is true. A lot of horror games, especially older indie titles, are a lot more unforgiving as they’re meant to push the boundaries of the genre, which makes them pretty unfriendly to beginners.
However, the genre has evolved over the past decades and there are countless games now that can still give you the creeps while being beginner-friendly. If you are new to the genre or gaming in general, here’s what we recommend:
- Telltale’s The Waking Dead: Light on the spooks and heavy on the plot, Telltale’s The Walking Dead is a point-and-click horror game with a heart-wrenching story and some great horror elements. It isn’t the scariest game in the genre, but it serves as a great introduction as it is very easy to play, and runs on almost any platform. The Definitive Edition of the game is pretty cheap, too!
- Little Nightmares: Little Nightmares has a pretty unsettling atmosphere but focuses on puzzles and exploration rather than heavy-handed combat. It’s a great game to play with your partner as the puzzles can feel like great brain exercise sometimes. The controls are easy to understand, and the pace is very well-balanced, making sure that you don’t tire out in the first hour of your playthrough.
Before you boot up a horror game, put up some headphones (make sure your volume isn’t very high), stay in a well-lit room, and get started. If you feel extremely scared or are on edge, take a break. Remember, ultimately, horror games are about tension and buildup, and they shouldn’t be overwhelmingly scary.
The Impact of Horror Games on the Gaming Industry
Horror games have significantly influenced both game design and storytelling. The Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Alan Wake series all introduced new lighting and visual effects such as ray-traced lighting, dynamic environment mapping, and reactive weather. Since these games heavily rely on atmosphere, they’ve often been pioneers of lighting and shadow effects.
Feeling like the monster chasing you is actually real is an effect that many developers have sought to recreate over the years. With Alien: Isolation and the maturity of AI at the time of its release, developer Creative Assembly was able to create adaptive AI that molded itself to your actions.
For instance, the Alien’s AI was made up of 30 nodes, each being unlocked as you progress through the game. Each node would have its own tree of decisions that the alien would execute based on player movements. In fact, the developers have commented that the AI does not actually know where you, as the player are, and it uses its own sets of eyes to backtrack and haunt you throughout the game.
Horror elements have also moved over to other genres since the last decade. Its not very uncommon to see great atmospheric lighting or the usage of auditory cues in even more fast-paced games like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed, where these elements are often used in stealth missions.
FAQs
Are horror games scarier in VR?
Yes, horror games are scarier in VR. This is because they are a lot more immersive in virtual reality, and therefore feel much more real.
Which horror games have the best storylines?
Psychological horror games like SOMA and Alan Wake 2 have the best storylines. This is because they focus more on psychological aspects, which requires better plot building.
Do horror games require high-end PCs?
No, horror games do not require high-end PCs. Games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Doki Doki Literature Club can run on low-end, older PCs very well.
If you want the best experience however and want to expand your catalog, it is worth it to invest into a medium-end PC so you can really crank the visuals up and be truly immersed.
Are there any good horror games for beginners?
Yes, The Walking Dead and Little Nightmares are two examples of great beginner-friendly horror games. Both feature easy controls, a great plot, and have a very easy learning curve.
Can I play horror games with friends?
Yes, Phasmophobia and Left 4 Dead 2 are some of the many horror games that you can play with friends. They’re meant to be played in a Co-Op setting and encourage communication as you strive toward a common goal.
