Summary
The besthorror gamesare those that draw fear from within, rather than relying on typical “horror” tropes. Unlike horror movies or other scary content where the audience is more of an observer, horror games throw players directly into the experience. They’re immersive, and they place players right in the shoes of someone who’s being hunted or haunted. This level of immersion makes horror games uniquely impactful and leaves a stronger psychological mark on their players than any other type of horror media.
What’s even better is that horror games, by their nature, have the flexibility to push fear to terrifying new heights. While relying on jump scares and cliches might be tempting, the most effective horror games take a different path by embracing subtle, immersive methods to unsettle their players. This is why the most impressionable, and in turn the most notoriously famous, horror games are those thatutilize their environments to create an uncanny atmospherethat’s hard to ignore.
Alien: Isolationis adark sci-fi survival horror gamethat’s recognized for having one of the most intense gameplay experiences in the horror genre. Despite being a 2014 release, the game features some of the best graphics, storyline, and horror build-ups ever. It’s also particularly known for having one of the smartest and most revolutionary AI antagonistic mobs in the horror genre, the Xenomorph.
That’s precisely what elevates the entire “horror” aspect of the game and thrusts the player into a constant flight-or-fight state where they have to consistently think about surviving. The game is set in outer space with limited resources, no place to escape, and a very keen awareness of the main character’s humanness in the face of an increasingly smart alien being that grows smarter by the minute.
Playdead’s second critically acclaimed game afterLimboisanother puzzle gamereleased in 2016 calledInside. It is technically a spiritual successor toLimboand uses a lot of the same mechanics as the previous game, but ultimately does give off an even more desolate and empty feel.
That “lonely” state of the world and the absolute barrenness of the gameplay is exactly whatInsidethrives around. Despite being a 2.5D puzzle platformer, the game has a very cold atmosphere that makes it just as creepy and uncanny as some of the bigger games in the same genre. In addition to that, the absence of any established soundtrack, apart from occasional gameplay sounds, and the very greyscale-forward graphics turn it into a deeply unnerving experience. It’s almost like there’s a constant feeling of being watched and a constant paranoia of impending doom. When players factor in the backstory of the boy—or rather, the lack of it—Insidebecomes one of the best uncanny games ever made.
SOMAis a 2014 darksurvival first-person psychological horror gamethat’s known for being as dark and atmospheric as its initial impressions suggest. However, what truly makes this game unsettling is the existential dread it instills in players throughout the experience, amplifying its uncanny effect.
The game is almost entirely set in an underwater research facility that is set somewhere in the distant future—so it’s safe to assume there’s been some sort of major apocalyptic event that has pushed the hands of those who made this facility. The game cleverly makes use of horrifyingly accurate music and sound cues like creaking metal, water gushing, and distant pitches that may sound like screams to some. It’s the kind of experience that would have anyone with claustrophobia breaking out in a cold sweat.
What’s creepier: a game set in outer space with aliens or a game set in an underwater biome infested with massive Lovecraftian creatures? Set on an alien planet that’s completely covered with water and hasmassive, aggressive Lovecraftianaliens out to get the player,Subnauticais a 2018 action-adventure survival game that is notorious for having some of the biggest, scariest, and most nightmarish environments and enemy mobs in the uncanny horror genre.
Subnauticastarts off like any other survival game: the player character is stranded on a strange planet with the simple goal of surviving and exploring.It’s after the early game that the horror elements really start to pick up pace. The casually harmless and friendly-looking creatures around the player character start growing bigger, and the biomes start becoming darker and harder to navigate. Eventually, players receive the unfortunate luck of coming across the Leviathians; utterly massive sea creatures that make everything around them feel puny and insignificant, which really puts the existential dread aspect into perspective.
Little Nightmaresis a 2017 puzzle platformer game that features an adorable girl navigating through a very bizarre world that harbors danger at every metaphoric turn that she has to make. Despite how “cutesy” and charming the game initially comes across, it consistently holds a horribly dark and appalling undertone in its atmosphere, one that grows the more the story is revealed.
The game centers around a small and silent nine-year-old girl named Six who has to find her way out of a massive ship without being caught by the adversities she’s unquestionably going to run into. Six’s personality is characterized by being very nimble, athletic, and occasionally very questionable—pertaining to her going ham on certain creatures and eating them alive when she experiences bouts of hunger. The twisted nature of this little girl’s persona, in addition to the grotesque-looking enemy mobs in the game that are consistently after her, along with the overall dark atmosphere that’s primarily centered around a child, definitely create a feeling of dread like no other.
An uncanny atmosphere combined with aproximity voice featuremay be one of the most effective horror game tactics to ever exist because of how immersive and almost realistic it makes the gameplay experience.The Classroomsis a 2022 game that makes use of this perfectly. It’s a first-person procedurally generated horror game that’s set entirely in liminal spaces that are infested with some of the creepiest and the most outlandish-looking backroom creatures ever.
What raises the stakes in this particular game is not only its proximity voice feature but also the fact that, because it is a procedurally generated game, it’s essentially a different game every time players start it up. No two players are going to have the same experience with the maps and levels in this game. Additionally, because it’s designed in a found-footage format,The Classroomsessentially becomes a “lived through it” experience.
2FLATHEAD
A Surreal Environment That Evokes A Primal Fear Of Being Watched And Facing An Inevitable Fate
Most survival horror games have a freedom to them, correlated to the player character’s ability to move around and essentially just hide when there’s danger nearby. However, not all horror games offer that.FLATHEADis aRoguelike puzzle gamethat emulates a tabletop/ board game similar toInscryption,and basically pins the main character to a chair while they try to escape, or at the very least delay, their imminent demise.
FLATHEADis basically an over or under-guessing game, with life and death hanging in the balance. The player is strapped to a machine, and they have to guess if the number that appears on the screen of the machine is going to be higher or lower than the original number. But that’s not what the scary part of the game is. It’s the unknown creature hidden in the dark that’s constantly lingering around the character, waiting for the right time to get them. Combined with the surreal, pitch-black atmosphere,FLATHEADtaps into a primal, bone-deep fear that keeps players on edge for every passing moment.
Inspired by the works of H.R. Giger,Scornis a blatantly nightmarish game that invokes certain feelings in the players simply because of how weird it is. It’s a 2022 survival horror that throws the player character into an odd-looking world that blends high-tech futuristic elements with ancient visual cues and abstract body horror to create a freaky dissonance throughout the gameplay.
The overall dark, gritty, and dusty atmosphere of the map, in addition to the massive maze-like world that’s all somehow interconnected and needs to be explored as such, makesScornone of the best contenders for the uncanny horror genre. Everything players encounter feels tied to a larger, more mysterious scheme, and nothing they come across is truly human or ordinary.
