Summary
Part of what makeshorror gamesscary is that they take away a player’s control over the situation they’re in. Sometimes, there’s no way out, and there’s nothing to be done about it, which is the scariest idea of all.
However, not all horror games are like that. Some attempt to provide as much choice as possible,giving the players tools, strategies, and playstyles to conquer the horror any way they like. This list of horror games is ranked both by the quality of the game and by how many options it gives the player to conquer their fears.
For a long time, theAlienfranchise struggled in the video game world with some truly shocking entries, so expectations were low forAlien: Isolation. Ever since its release, it has become a cult classic, remembered asone of the most immersive horror games of the 2010s, and easily one of the scariest too, with a single Xenomorph hunting the player through the crampedSevastopolspace station.
In a game defined by working around intelligent enemy AI, player choice is everything. Players can choose to stock up on weapons to try and fight the alien off. Alternatively, they can sneak, use tools, rush, or any combination of the above to survive. Succeeding inAlien: Isolationis all about improvising the best solution available in the moment for whatever style suits the player best.
Most zombie games put players in the thick of the horde with little option but to fight for their lives, butDying Light 2is all about giving players power and choice. That’s because they are given a massive amount of traversal equipment to soar through the skies above the zombie hordes, and fight their way out however they see fit (with a great modding sceneto expand that choice set even further).
If players want to, they can grab the biggest gun they can find and mow down zombies, use the game’s nighttime zombies against human enemies, or simply stealth and parkour their way past foes. It’s up to them, and with faction choices that impact the open world, choice is king inDying Light 2.
Though FromSoftware is a proven entity by now, releasing some of the best RPGs in the past decade plus, back in 2015 many were still uncertain aboutBloodborne. The originalDark Soulshad cultivated a large following, butDark Souls 2was divisive, andBloodborneseemed like a big swing in a whole new direction.
It turns out thatBloodbornewas one of the finest games ever made. Though it didn’t offer quite as much build choice as FromSoftware’s other RPGs, there was still plenty of leniency in how players could kit out their hunter with magic, strength, dex, bleed, and beast builds to conquer thegame’s roster of deadly eldritch bosses.
It is extremely difficult to make a horror PvPvE game actually scary, as well as competitive and flexible enough for players to do what they like, butHunt: Showdown 1896pulled off the impossible and remains one of the best extraction shooters on the market.
Players are dropped into a map alongside several other crews and tasked with hunting down a monster, then extracting. However, the amount of choice is incredible, both in builds and in strategy. Some players prefer to sit in the mountains with a sniper and cover large swathes of land, others prefer raw aggression, and some prefer avoiding other players altogether. There’s an impressive amount of psychology and game theory involved that rewards players for creative thinking and playing their own way, and that’s to say nothing aboutthe many build varieties.
Trying to describe thePathologicseries to someone who hasn’t played them before is pretty much impossible. While it is essentially an open-world horror RPG about curing an infectious plague, ten minutes of gameplay will reveal just how weird and idiosyncratic the game truly is.
The game’s infamously brutal difficulty also pushes players into making unique choices. To stay on top of the economy, players can try and help others, steal, starve, or sell everything they’ve got. Most objectives have multiple methods for completing them, and different playthroughs offer branching paths that are both player-influenced and driven by the whims of the plague’s chosen victims. No two playthroughs ofPathologic 2play quite alike.
When the originalThe Forestwas released early in the 2010s, it quickly racked up a reputation as one of the scariest survival games ever made, with impressive enemy AI and a gripping world full of danger. A sequel wouldn’t be easy to deliver on, but today,Sons of the Forestoffers the definitive version of the game.
Plunged onto the island with no choice but to adapt and survive, players need to figure out fast where to build their base, how to build it, and what to do with that cannibals and mutants that come looking for a meal. Scare them off? Kill some of them (and how many of them)? What defenses might be needed for the next attack? When’s the right time to go exploring the island’s caves? There are countless questions to answer, and the game’s incredible AI rewards creative thinking and playing in a unique way.
In the early 2010s, survival games (spurred on by the success ofDayZandMinecraft)were having a moment, with every indie developer releasing their own version to capitalize on the hype. Most of these games faded from memory, butProject Zomboidremains one of the shining examples of this period in gaming history.
Taking place in an isometric low-polyRunescape-style graphical world,Project Zomboidis the definitive zombie survival game that rewards creativity, strategy, and ingenuity, where the only way to survive the mounting zombie horde is for the player to play to their strengths however they can.
Immersive sims are one of the least appreciated sub-genres around. Despite offering maximum freedom to the player with wonderful world-building, immersive sims consistently struggle to find a large audience, which is a particular shame when it comes to the absolutely stellarPrey.
Stranded on a space station full of Typhon aliens who, along with being terrifying monsters, can morph into any object in the game, players are always on edge, and creativity in solving difficult problems is always encouraged. It’s the gold-standard immersive simfull of hidden detailsthat makes it worth playing multiple times just to try out all the possibilities.
