The best horror video games. In the aftermath of Halloween, that most terrifying day of the year, we’ve realized that we’re among those who enjoy fear, and we’ve asked ourselves: why waiting a full year to spend a frightfully good time?
Last year we answered two fundamental questions about horror movies: what are the best ones? And who are the best voice talents in the trailers? Now, we want to offer you a ranking of the most horrifying, startling and chilling video games? Are you ready? Let’s begin! These are the best horror video games.
Related article: Voice acting in video games. A Voiceover Wonderland
Notice: the order does not correspond to a ranking.
Alan Wake
Developed by Remedy. It gives us a psychological thriller full of action and horror in a small coastal village in the Northwest of the United States. During the day, the story moves at a tranquil pace, but when night falls, violence, despair and darkness take over.
It has a certain Stephen King scent, haunting the player with mystery, twists, tricks and dramatic effects.
Layers of Fear
Developed by Bloober Team. It’s a psychologic horror adventure. The plot, set in the 19th Century, puts us in the shoes of a tormented artist, who fights his own demons and a serious mental illness. While he tries to create his life’s masterwork, he’ll discover a dark story about his past. A suffocating atmosphere that will make you live moments of true anguish.
Asylum
Developed by Argentinian team Scratches. Yes, of course, it’s also a horror adventure. Asylum places us at a mysterious mental institution, surrounded by chilling characters. Prepare to get out of maddening situations.
Outlast 2
Sequel to the very popular Outlast. Developed by Barrels Games, it’s a first-person horror game that keeps its predecessor’s identity marks. You’ll discover countless strange happenings around you while you try to survive a religious fanatics group on a secluded Arizona mountain.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Developed by Frictional Games. You wake up in an abandoned castle without knowledge about your past, without knowing who you are, but with the suffocating sensation that something is watching you, and a note in your own handwriting, that insists hat you descend to the lower part of the castle. Begin your battle against madness in a constant getaway to save your live.
SOMA
Another one of the best horror video games developed by Frictional Games. Horror and science fiction game that will tackle and analyze conscience itself, which, according to the creative director, is one of the deepest questions about the character, his human condition.
Soma immerse us until PATHOS II’s facilities. Without knowing how we’ve ended up there, our only goal is to find a way out. During our journey, we will encounter nasty creatures, lunatic robots and even an Artificial Intelligence.
Dead Space
Developed by Visceral Games. It’s a third-person horror game. You’re a lonely astronaut, in the immensity of space, and your goal is to survive. Of course, it gets complicated.
Isaac Clarke, a rescue team’s spatial engineer, is sent to USG Ishimura, a mining space base that has stopped sending life signals right after unearthing a mysterious object from a distant planet. Once there, he will discover that we’re not alone in the universe.
Alien: Isolation
Developed by The Creative Assembly. That Alien is a pop icon all around, we know. That the extraterrestrial designed by H.R. Giger is the most well known in science fiction, too. And the best game, based on this incredible saga (better in its beginning) is Alien: Isolation.
Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda Ripley arrives to the Sevastopol spatial station to find the communication archives of the Nostromo, which might explain what took place 15 years ago.
Silent Hill 2
Developed by Team Silent, Konami’s old subdivision. This third-person survival horror became in 2001 the greatest psychological horror best exponent in video game world. A dark story, it invites us to dive into each character’s subconscious, to know their most perverse wishes, frustrations and regrets.
Our protagonist, James Sunderland, after receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, deceased three years earlier from a terminal illness, decides to look for her, and he won’t give up in his endeavor until he finds her. It’s here where the mental game begins, with the apparition of a new character, named Maria, who is very similar to Mary, his wife. Or maybe it’s her?
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Developed by British company Supermassive Games. Man of Medan is the title of the first chapter of The Dark Pictures Anthology horror saga, that told its story with a method similar to the one of famed and awarded TV shows like American Horror Story and Black Mirror.
Man of Medan places us in the situation of five young people who must overcome a horror from beyond the grave. And, in top of it all, it all takes places at sea. Who will survive? Our decisions will move the story forward.
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Which one of these games seems more horrifying to you? Is there any other one that you would like to add to the best horror video games list? Give us your opinion in the comment section.
