The 10 Best Horror Video Games to Play This Halloween

 

The genre has been around for ages; many remember that Resident Evil was on the first PlayStation, but almost a decade before that, games like Friday the 13th were gracing the Nintendo Entertainment System. As gaming has gone more mainstream and technology has become more sophisticated, the horror genre has exploded, with Silent Hill setting up a world where "survival horror" was the name of the (video) game. Players are now being given little in the way of story or abilities, hoping to make their way through some of the scariest video games developers have to offer. With titles like Amnesia: Rebirth receiving widespread acclaim just weeks into its release, it'd be fair to say that the scary video game genre isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

'Amnesia: Rebirth'

Developer: Frictional Games
Release date: October 20, 2020
Playable on: Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4

In 2018, Frictional dropped what some call a horror classic with Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which found players trying to keep their sanity in a dark and scary castle that has monsters lurking behind every corner. Two years later, the sequel hits, and as a first-person survival game set inside caves and tombs, this one is perfect for some candlelit Halloween spookiness. This game is tense. Jumpscares abound, but it's the wandering around the underground holding nothing but a candle that will bug you out. It's a welcome addition to the Amnesia series and could be one of the scariest games to drop in 2020. It's no wet gore extravaganza, but it earns its cred for being a genuinely frightening ordeal, especially when the character you portray, Tasi, can't fight against the monsters after her...and could catch a panic attack because of it. Legit terror.

'Emily Wants to Play'

Developer: SKH Apps
Release date: December 10, 2015
Playable on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, iOS, Android

Fans of jumpscares, this one is for you. In Emily Wants to Play, you take the role of a pizza delivery guy who gets trapped inside of a house with a little girl named Emily and her friends (Kiki, Mr. Tatters, and Chester) who all want to play some of the games you learned as a kid—peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek, and red light, green light—only if you get caught, you're dead. Similar to other survival horror games, you have to survive the night in order to beat the game; this game gives you from 11pm to 6am to make it outside. The problem? You're having to a) figure out how to interact with each character while b) figuring out why you're there, keeping in mind that c) you have to survive! The animations and scares are quick and terrible—you hear a sadistic laugh and all of the sudden, some creepy lil fucker is all in your face. And this is something they willingly put out in VR! No thanks.

'The Evil Within'

Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Release date: October 14, 2014
Playable on: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Shinji Mikami, the man who directed the first Resident Evil, directed this nightmare on disc. Living up to its title, this action-paced horror game takes you through one of the more twisted realities you've seen in a game, where the scene of a mass murder turns into you running for your life from chainsaw-wielding foes, traps, and an assortment of demented demons. It's a gorgeous game, taking full liberties with the bent reality that persists throughout the game's chapters. You truly feel like you've been thrust into the pits of hell and are fighting tooth-and-nail to escape. The story may not have satisfied everyone, but there's so much that's great about this game, you're guaranteed to pick it up on multiple occasions, especially when you want the soul sucked out of you via your TV screen.

'Five Nights At Freddy's'

Developer: Scott Cawthon
Release date: August 8, 2014
Playable on: Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

If you've ever been to Chuck E. Cheese and been scared shitless of the animatronic characters, then here's the perfect survival horror game for you. Even if you've not played of Five Nights at Freddy's, you've definitely heard of FNaF. It's actually amazing that it's blown up the way it has—13 games have been released and/or announced for this franchise, with merch, novels, and film adaptations being released and/or announced in the last six years. That all makes sense if you take a second and realize how rapidly this game, which finds players hired to be night watchmen at a pizza place, primarily to make sure that the animatronic characters—who have had incidents with children before—aren't terrorizing. Which, of course, means that you get terrorized all night in a room with limited power, loads of cameras, and nothing but your wits (and mouse clicks) to aid you. The sounds of these robots clomping down stairways to try and KILL YOU is bad...them banging on the door you shut before the got there can be worse. Being a sitting duck in a dark, powerless room before Bonnie or Chica pops in to devour you? That's almost as bad as how frustrating the later levels can be. You will get pissed off at this game, but the satisfaction of completing another Night? Priceless.

'Friday the 13th: The Game'

Developer: Gun Media
Release date: May 26, 2017
Playable on: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Friday the 13th: The Game is an interesting release. It received mostly-negative criticism from reviewers, primarily to its lack of diverse maps and bugs, but it's hard to deny the absolute fun you'll have either running from whoever is playing as Jason Voorhees or with a squad, trying to outwit and escape the masked monster. Fans of the original film (and all of its horror cliches) should actually get more of a kick out of this game; there are all kinds of references to the film in here, as well as dope callbacks to things like Jason's throwback Charlotte Hornets-esque colorway from the 1989 NES game. It's really about the squad you're with, though; if you're with diehards who know the ins and outs of this game, you can really have a lot of fun dodging Jason (and maybe even escaping). As Jason, you're equipped with loads of powers that will make you the unstoppable force, rewarded with a cornucopia of ways to murder anyone at Crystal Lake.

'Outlast'

Developer: Red Barrels
Release date: September 4, 2013
Playable on: Windows, Linus, OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Nah, nope. This game is all-around terrifying. You take control of Miles Upshur, a journalist looking to crack open a situation at a mental institution. As he descends deeper into the madness of this facility, he uncovers all kinds of horror, mostly in the way of gruesome fellows looking to grab hold of him and force him to be a part of their twisted rituals. One of the biggest things in the game is capturing footage of the insanity going down, which means that you spend a lot of time holding a camcorder to your eye, but at a certain point the night vision on the camera, when it uncovers one of these homicidal patients spotting you and taking chase, you may audibly scream, by yourself, and turn the game completely off. Being chased by one of these brutes through a corridor full of tables and other debris is scary enough to keep your heart racing well past you beat this game, then the DLC, then the even more maniacal Outlast II.

'Resident Evil 2'

Developer: Capcom
Release date: January 25, 2019
Playable on: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

This game is just nasty. All of that "wet gore" equals this remake of the 1998 Resident Evil 2 making you lose your lunch while hiding in the closet. Truth be told, if you do end up puking at the entrails and exploding monsters and just all the blood, that's be design: "we wanted to emulate that inherent level of fear that people have towards sickness and disease," Resident Evil 2 director Kazunori Kadoi told Complex back when the title hit shelves. "They have a natural intuition to know that moist or wet areas tend to carry more pathogens than a dry area." Moist. But it's moist entrails and dripping blood from zombies randomly bursting out of walls or appearing during dark corridors. This game gets everything right about scaring the shit out of you. Maybe keep a light on.

'Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'

Developer: Capcom
Release date: January 24, 2017
Playable on: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna

With a franchise like Resident Evil, there's a point where sequels stray so far from the original vibe of the game that you ask "why bother?" Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was a proper return to the Resident Evil that many grew to love on the PSX. Instead of being put into the shoes of a trained professional, Biohazard has you portraying another everyman, this time in search for his wife in the WRONG house—think of the family behind the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but on some creepy supernatural shit instead of out-and-out violence. Surprisingly, this game does allow you to fight off the Baker family in the complex labyrinth of terror they call their home, but the actual aim of the game is to just scare the shit out of you. You can stealthy avoid certain situations, but know at some point that a creepy grandmother will appear out of nowhere, or the Baker family patriarch will try to bash your skull in. While some felt the story was ultimately underwhelming, the imagination brought to the design of the Molded, the quality of the horror baked in the game, and the overall vibe make this one of the creepiest picks you'll ever make in terms of horror gaming.

'Silent Hill 2'

Developer: Konami
Release date: September 24, 2001
Playable on: PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows

Konami's 1999 original Silent Hill kicked off a truly impressive horror video game franchise, transporting players into the empty town of Silent Hill. Fans of Davids Fincher and Lynch have a ball in this game, and the ante was upped for Silent Hill 2, which succeeded in bringing the horror of the survival horror genre that its predecessor defined. Just look at Pyramid Head, the faceless figure who stalks you throughout the game. Dude's got a giant red helmet on, obscuring any facial features and carrying a Great Knife. As the game gets deeper, and you realize how figures like Pyramid Head are tied into James Sunderland's own psyche...man. The Silent Hill games always came with an engrossing story, and Silent Hill 2—which is one of the greatest horror games of all time, while also being one of the greatest video games of all time—keeps you invested throughout while scaring the shit out of you.

'Until Dawn'

Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: August 25, 2015
Playable on: PlayStation 4

This was an intriguing experiment in survival horror games. While the player would gain control of the different characters in this game (some of them portrayed by actual Hollywood stars like Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere), the actual scariest moments were the (sometimes split-second) live-or-death decisions you're tasked with making throughout the gameplay. Sometimes it's as easy as taking one path over the other, other times it's making sure you're tapping a button quickly. Either way, every playable character can get it, and the always-watching butterfly effect system in the game means that every decision the player makes will directly effects the rest of the game. The actual gameplay? It's like a Blumhouse horror film, constantly building the intensity and terror in the deep caverns or tussles with masked killers...all with cheesy AF dialogue. It's like hopping directly into a Blumhouse flick!

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