Thehorror genreis always able to engage with audiences in a fascinating, visceral fashion that other forms of content just can’t achieve. This is especially true when it comes to video games since players are forced to become a part of the experience and are immersed into horror more thoroughly than what film and television allow.
RELATED:The 10 Scariest Horror Games Of The Last Decade
As a result, there are manyextremely frightening video gamesthat know how to creep out their demographic. Each new generation of gaming brings with it more realistic graphic and impressive technology, which makes horror titles even more intimidating to some audiences. This has resulted in some of the scariest games of all time getting released in thecurrent gaming generation.
10Outlast 2 (Score: 79)
Outlast 2is a horror gamethat isn’t afraid to push boundaries with how far it will go with violence and disturbing subject matter. Players control an investigative journalist, but the game cleverly plays into horror tropes with how it’s experienced through a first-person point of view courtesy of a handheld camera. The “found footage” approach helpsOutlast 2become vastly creepier and ordinary visuals get a frightening makeover. Despite the very mature nature ofOutlast 2,it’s curiously the recent Switch port that has the highest Metacritic score.
9Amnesia Collection (Score: 79)
Some horror games pride themselves on how they throw the audience into a sea of monsters where survival looks impossible, but then there are other titles that can do a lot more with a stripped down premise and limited amount of resources.Amnesia Collectionpackages together the three unnerving psychological horror games fromtheAmnesiaseriesand gives them a modern upgrade.Amnesia Collectionis a creepy and mysterious experience whichever platform it’s played on, but the Xbox One version has a slightly higher score than the rest.
8Until Dawn (Score: 79)
All consumers of media, not just video game fans, have become increasingly savvy of genre tropes and conventional storytelling. Audiences can now handle more reflexive stories that function as passionate pastiches to an older genre.Supermassive Games’Until Dawnis an enjoyable love letter to the slasher genre of horror cinema.
RELATED:10 Of The Scariest Regular Enemies Found In Horror Games
The game brilliantly taps into the energy of an ‘80s B-horror movie with its cast of characters and cabin setting, but it’s also legitimately frightening, especially when the bodies begin to drop and the player becomes more alone through this disturbing adventure.
7Layers Of Fear: Legacy (Score: 80)
Layers of Fearis a recent psychological horror game that places the audience in control of a disturbed painter whose sanity begins to increasingly slip away while he tries to finish his life’s work.Layers of Feartells an emotional story that will repeatedly surprise the audience with its dark twists and turns.Layers of Fear: Legacyis the recent Switch port of the title, which package it together with all of the released DLC material, and functions as the definitive version of the game.
6Alien: Isolation (Score: 81)
Sometimes horror properties in film naturally translate over to video games and other franchises take a lot more work.Alienvideo gameshave been coming out for decades, butAlien: Isolationis really the first time that a title hasn’t gotten anywhere close to the level of terror of the original movie.Alien: Isolationis a claustrophobic and stressful experience due to the extremely resourceful nature of the enemy Xenomorph. The game makes this extraterrestrial threat truly feel intimidating and instill a crippling sense of helplessness in the player.
5Prey (Score: 82)
Preyis an exceptional blend of horror and science fiction, but it immediately makes a strong impression fromits creative premise. Set in an alternate version of the world where John F. Kennedy survived his assassination attempt,Preyis set in 2032 and deals with an enemy alien force that antagonizes a space station’s research team in unbelievable and invasive ways.
RELATED:10 Scariest Japanese Games To Never Play Alone, Ranked
Preyis easily one of the best and scariest first-person shooters of the generation and it’s one of the very few games that have been able to capture the hostile energy of System Shock.
4The Evil Within 2 (Score: 82)
Shinji Mikami is a legendary name in the survival horror genre andThe Evil Withinseries marks his modern take on where the genre has headed. Impressively,The Evil Within 2mildly improves upon its predecessor and even though the story occasionally struggles, it makes up for it with a never-ending assault of upsetting visuals. Gameplay gains greater depth with a stealth system that creates greater tension around these monsters. The enemy design for the Haunted and the other monsters that terrorize Sebastien are also somehow more intense than what’s present in the original game.
3SOMA (Score: 84)
So many survival horror games tread down similar territory that it’s genuinely exciting when a game likeSOMAswings for the fencesand looks for horror in new places. Instead of undead zombies or shadow demons,SOMAturns towards the future and tells a story where man and machine have become horrifying hybrids.SOMAis packed with scares, but it also has a lot to say about identity, free will, and some eerily prescient questions about where technology is headed.SOMAis available on multiple platforms, but it’s the PC version that has the best reputation.
2Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Score: 86)
When gamers think of the horror genre it’s usually theResident Evilfranchise that’s the first thing that comes to mind. The later entries in the series slightly lost their way and became too bogged down with hyperbolized action rather than intimate horror.Resident Evil 7: Biohazardgloriously gets the series back on track with what might be the scariest game in the whole franchise.Resident Evil 7’sfirst-person perspective and disturbing family of lunatics turn the game into pure nightmare fuel and a stunning look at just how much the series has evolved since its humble start.
1Resident Evil 2 Remake (Score: 91)
The originalResident Evil 2was considered to be a high mark in the acclaimed survival horror franchise, yet nobody expected that the title’s recent full remake would so excellently update the game for a modern audience.Resident Evil 2’sremakeisn’t afraid to make changes to the original formula and the way in which it handles Mr. X become an early prototype for what would be done years later with theirResident Evil 3remake. The remake forResident Evil 2isn’t just a triumph of survival horror, but it’s helped ignite Capcom’s current obsession with horror remakes.
