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Best horror games

7 Best Horror Video Games to Play this October


Welcome to the spooky season! It’s our favourite time of year (or, at least mine), where you’re encouraged to dive deep into all the foreboding, dark things you’ve been putting off. It’s the time of year where horror gets its time in the sun, and nowhere is that more confronting than in video games.

I’ve always found horror video games harder to stomach than movies or tv shows. There’s something about having control of the character being stalked, chased, or consumed that makes it feel a bit more immediate, and so, in that vein, we’ve brought together 7 of our favourite horror games from the past few years.

If you’re looking for something spooky to sink some time into this month, we’ve built this list out for you: enjoy!

The 7 Best Horror Video Games Out Now

Still wakes the deep
Still Wakes the Deep | Image: The Chinese Room

1. Still Wakes the Deep

  • Developer: The Chinese Room
  • Genre: Narrative Horror
  • Platforms: Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X
  • Metacritic User Score: 7.8
  • Price: AU$50.95

While The Chinese Room cut its teeth in the narrative horror space with influential titles like Dear Ester and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, it’s here in Still Wakes the Deep that the studio hits its stride and delivers something special.

You play as an offshore oil-rig technician, stuck in the North Sea off of the coast of Scotland on the isolated Beira D mining station. When something shakes the station to its core, and all forms of transport are cut off, you are left to navigate what remains of the station and avoid what remains of the crew in order to figure out how to get home – or what you drilled into.

Still wakes the deep 1
Still Wakes the Deep | Image: The Chinese Room

You’re not going to be going toe-to-toe with the horrors that lurk in the shadows, but rather your aim is to avoid them for as long as possible, creating a particularly tense atmosphere. The rig is claustrophobic, in the same way a submarine is, and when something is chasing you those walls seem to get just that little bit tighter.

That tension doesn’t last too long, though. The game clocks in at around 5 hours, meaning if you want something to last you the entire month you should probably look elsewhere. But if you want something to bury itself deep in your memories as you uncover what happened on the Beira D station, this is the one.

Resident evil 7 1
Resident Evil 7 | Image: Capcom

2. Resident Evil 7

  • Developer: Capcom
  • Genre: Survival Horror
  • Platforms: Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S and X
  • Metacritic User Score: 8.2
  • Price: AU$29

Yes, there have been several Resident Evil games since Resident Evil 7 came out, but none have quite hit the same terror-inducing highs as the series’ grand return to prominence. Resident Evil 7 is, simply put, one of the most terrifying games ever made, mixing together aspects of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw with the classic body horror the series became known for.

You play as Ethan Winters, a regular ol’ guy who is following the trail of his missing wife, Mia, and who ends up entering the mouldy bayou estate of the Baker family. You’re quickly stalked, assaulted, captured, and force-fed rotting meat, before you’re able to escape and start searching the grounds for your wife and an answer as to what is going on, and why there is so much mould everywhere.

Resident evil 7
Resident Evil 7 | Image: Capcom

The first half of the game is undoubtedly the scariest part, with Ethan underpowered and underprepared for what around every corner, but as you progress, you do amass a sizeable arsenal and, if we’re being honest, the lack of enemy diversity starts to wear a bit thin.

But, if you haven’t played the game before, or are just getting excited about the prospect of a Resident Evil 9, a trip back to the Baker mansion might be just what the doctor ordered.

Signalis
Signalis | Image: Rose Engine\Humble Games

3. Signalis

  • Developer: Rose Engine
  • Genre: Survival/Psychological Horror
  • Platforms: Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S, Nintendo Switch
  • Metacritic User Score: 8.3
  • Price: AU$29.99

For a lot of people, Signalis was a sleeper hit. A ‘game about robot lesbians’ that came out of nowhere and blew the critics away. I was lucky enough to stumble on to Signalis a few years before it launched, and watch the game go from obscure in-development idea to certified indie masterpiece, and I have to say that Rose Engine deserves every bit of praise it gets.

Compared to some of the bigger budget games on this list, Signalis might look a bit dated. That’s by design: the game takes the graphical style of the original PS1 horror games and blends it with modern design sensibilities, and puts the whole thing in an off-world mining colony where few humans are left, and the robots that remain have seemingly gone insane.

Signalis 1
Signalis | Image: Rose Engine\Humble Games

You play as Elster, a robot (known as a Replika in-universe) that awakens from cryosleep on a wrecked shuttle, stranded on a frozen planet, and finds that its human operator has disappeared. From there, you descend into a surreal, seemingly abandoned colony, and things start getting weird.

If you miss the glory days of PS1 survival horror you’ve probably already played Signalis, but there’s always the chance that you somehow missed it. In that case, play this game, and when you hit the credits, keep playing it. The world building is top notch, the tension is high, and the brutality of the world is stark.

It’s also the only game on this list available on the Nintendo Switch, so you can take the ghouls on the go.

The forest
The Forest | Image: Endnight Games

4. The Forest

  • Developer: Endnight Games
  • Genre: Co-op Horror Survival
  • Platforms: Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5
  • Metacritic User Score: 7.4
  • Price: $28.95

We get it. Sometimes playing a horror game on your own can be a bit too tense – or maybe the only gaming time you have each week is reserved for multiplayer titles. The Forest is here to not only let you and your friends play together, but to scare the shit out of you at the same time.

The premise is simple: you’re a plane crash survivor on a seemingly-uncharted island which, after a bit of searching, seems to have drawn plenty of people in the past, and is currently host to a group of cannibals. The more you survive, the more you uncover, and the island itself holds some secrets deep below the Earth.

The forest 1
The Forest | Image: Endnight Games

The Forest isn’t always scary, of course. When my friends and I played it, we would bounce between goofing around in our base and being silly, to diving into deep, dark caves filled with unmentionable things that could see far better in the lightless caverns than we could. It’s a great gameplay loop which is bolstered by the survival mechanics – you can’t stay safe in your base forever, or you’ll starve. You have to go hunting, which will also put you in the role of prey. Granted, some of that tension can be released when your friend screams like a child, but you’re usually in such a panic that the relief is welcome.

Plus, you can play it on your own if you really want to, though I do think that the game is best with friends. And when you’re done there’s a sequel, Sons of the Forest, out now.

Soma 1
SOMA | Image: Frictional Games

5. SOMA

  • Developer: Frictional Games
  • Genre: Sci-Fi Narrative Horror
  • Platforms: Steam, Epic Store, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S
  • Metacritic User Score: 8.4
  • Price: AU$43.95

Soma is one of the best horror games ever made, but it goes so much deeper than just being scary. The game, which is Frictional Games’ follow up to the genre-defining Amnesia: The Dark Descent, asks pertinent questions on the nature of consciousness, what is real and what isn’t, and what ‘death’ means.

In Soma, you play as Simon, a man with a terminal brain condition that, after a brain scan, wakes up suddenly on an ocean floor research base. Why is he there? What is happening on this base? Where are all the other people? These are the questions that will drive you forward as you explore the empty, leaking halls, and avoid the screeching things left behind.

Soma
SOMA | Image: Frictional Games

The narrative is the main draw here, but the gameplay is solid. Soma follows where The Dark Descent left off: your main aim is to hide, escape, and survive from things that can easily kill you. This isn’t Doom, and you’re not the Doom Slayer. Instead, the horror comes from realising the truth of what happened to the world around you, and the options you have left.

I don’t want to spoil much more, so just play it. It isn’t too long, but holds up well to repeated play throughs, with subtle hints on a first time through falling into place on a second go around.

Amnesia the bunker
Amnesia: The Bunker | Image: Frictional Games

6. Amnesia: The Bunker

  • Developer: Frictional Games
  • Genre: Narrative Survival Horror
  • Platforms: Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S
  • Metacritic: 7.5
  • Price: AU$36.50

Frictional is back! After releasing Amnesia: Rebirth following the success of Soma, the team behind some of the best modern horror games decided to go back to the drawing board with Amnesia: The Bunker. Rather than their tried-and-true ‘avoid the monster’ gameplay we’re used to, Bunker gives you more ways to defend yourself, and opens up the world a bit more.

Instead of following a rather linear path between scripted scares, Bunker acts closer to an immersive sim: with a monster that stalks you intelligently, and a WW1-era French military base that doesn’t hold you back from exploring each wing at your leisure.

Amnesia the bunker 1
Amnesia: The Bunker | Image: Frictional Games

In The Bunker, everything you do is a trade off between survival and progress. Is there a locked door in your way? You could waste time looking for the key, or risk shooting the lock off and alerting the beast that stalks you. You could fumble around in the dark, or use your wind-up torch to create some light which makes you easier to spot. You could run from the thing that is chasing you, or attempt to drive it off using what little ammunition you have left.

It’s a departure from the studio’s recent launches, and takes Amnesia back to something closer to Frictional’s original series, Penumbra: putting you a bit more in control of how each situation plays out, which also means more tension. It’s a fitting evolution to the Amnesia formula, and is a must-play for any fans of horror games out there.

Dead space 1
Dead Space | Image: EA

7. Dead Space (2008 and 2023)

  • Developer: Visceral Games, Motive
  • Genre: Sci-Fi Survival Horror
  • Platforms: PlayStation 3, 4 and 5, Xbox 360, One, Series S and X
  • Metacritic User Score: 8.7 and 8.4
  • Price: AU$29.95 and AU$89.95

This is a little bit of a cheat, since we’re kind of talking about two different games at the same time, but both versions of Dead Space are worth a play. The original asked the question, ‘what if Resident Evil 4 took place on the Event Horizon?’, while the modern remake asked, ‘what if it was the Resident Evil 2 Remake instead?’

That’s not to downplay how good these games actually are, and how utterly terrifying the Necromorph threat is. An invasive alien biology that reanimates dead human tissue, redefines its flesh and sets it about killing every living thing nearby? It’s like if Zombies could turn their arms into blades made of their own severed bones – no thank you.

Dead space
Dead Space | Image: EA

The original series went a bit off the rails in the following games, but the original is a tense, slow crawl through a derelict space ship, the USG Ishimura, punctuated by moments of extreme dread and horror as the shambling corpses around you decide you shouldn’t be moving anymore.

The recent remake enjoys some enhanced graphics, improved gameplay, and redesigned maps, but the spine of it is the same. Depending on what platform you have, the original might not be playable anymore, but the remake is well worth your time.

The Outlast Trials
The Outlast Trials | Image: Red Barrell

Need More Scares? We’ve Got You Covered

If you’re an aficionado and have already played everything on the list, congratulations! You win! Your prize is a few more recommendations:

  • Alien Isolation: Still regarded as the best Alien game ever made, and one of the best licensed games, Isolation essentially puts you in the plot of the original Alien. You’re on a ship with a Xenomorph which can kill you easily, and you have to figure out how to escape. It’s awesome.
  • The Outlast Trials: One of our favourite games to play online with friends, the Outlast Trials allows you and some buddies to act as lab rats for one of the most evil and unscrupulous corporations in modern media. It’s like if Jigsaw hired down-and-out people to run through his own obstacle course. Have fun!
  • Silent Hill 2: The remake will be out next week, but the original game is one of the best games ever made – horror or not. It’s a fair bit more on the psychological side than pure horror, and the combat feels clunky, but the game itself more than makes up for it. Find a way to play it, or wait for the remake.
  • Resident Evil 2: The original is awesome, but I’m talking about 2022’s remade Resident Evil 2. If Resident Evil 7 gave the series some new life, this remake injected it with adrenaline. Beyond kneecapping zombies and watching them crawl toward you, watch out for Mr. X.
  • Inscryption: A card game? Scary? Unsettling is probably closer to the mark, but Inscryption is a fantastic little game that will leave an impact. It isn’t a big budget affair, but it makes up for it in charm and ideas.

How We Pick the Best Horror Games

When it comes to picking the best horror games, we like to do our due diligence, so we try to only recommend games that we have extensive experience with. Everything on the list has been tested by staff at Man of Many, but we also take industry reviews and player feedback into account when deciding what to showcase. For more information on how we do what we do, check out our Editorial Policy.

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