My situation, I used to enjoy gaming but stopped maybe twenty years ago when my PS2 died and I moved abroad. Until last year when I got a steam deck and I’ve been catching up on the good stuff I’ve missed. Played bioshock (great!) and soma (decent), I’m playing prey (think I’m nearly finished, just got to the military operators) and resident evil 7 (just got away from that nasty bint Margheritte).
Most of y wishlist had come from stuff I’ve read on here, so I thought I’d ask - what next?
Back in the day I really enjoyed silent hill (can’t remember which one, would have been early 2000s, the one with the school and hospital). I’m enjoying resident evil 7 - haven’t played any of the others - and I like the atmosphere but most of the scares seem to be jump scares.
Jump scares can be good but I kinda feel like they’re a cheap scare. I’m looking for something more fundamentally upsetting.
No idea why, I can’t watch horror films, I get too frightened! But this seems to be a game genre I enjoy. Any suggestions?
Aha! My field of expertise! Here’s some people don’t talk about often, most of which cost very little and offer very much.
Chilla’s Art games. Start with Closing Shift, The Bathhouse, and Shinkansen 0. Shinkansen 0 is an excellent game but less spooky than the others. The Radio Station is also pretty good, but the driving got arduous to me.
Devotion you can get from Red Candle Games’ website, DRM free. Doable in a day, excellent experience.
Penumbra games predate Amnesia, they’re quite spooky!
The Exit 8. Similar to Shinkansen 0, would absolutely recommend.
One game that nailed PS2 aesthetic while also having its own identity is Homebody. It’s mostly puzzles, but has a very creepy mansion aesthetic and always has you worried about the monster. It’s a “Groundhog Day” game where the protagonist remembers dying, and is caught in a loop.
Another one I enjoyed with a bit more combat is Tormented Souls. The sequel is coming soon, too.
Alien: isolation? Pretty good horror game, imo.
SOMA? Subnautica can be pretty scary,. especially for people with thalassophobia or however it’s spelled… Outer wilds? Not horror, but it is quite unsettling. Also an all around amazing game that everyone should experience, imo.
Came here to second Alien Isolation. I’ve never been able to play past a certain point because my gay ass keeps shrieking loud enough to summon the ghost of Richard Simmons
Yeah I’ve meant to play subnautica but I only really have time to game for an hour or so in the evening and seems like subnautica might take more commitment.
Played soma. Liked it, liked the atmosphere and the end a lot.
Haven’t played outer wilds - I’ve heard the recommendations, somehow mostly avoided spoilers. I know I should but seems like first part takes a while and I’ve not got past it. Maybe it should play that next.
I’m thirding Alien: Isolation, one of the best horror games ever made and a really loving tribute to the movies as well. On console they even had a feature where the alien listened in on you through the microphone and would hear if you made a noise. Not sure how it played out in practice as I didn’t play it on console but sounds rad.
The Outlast games are also frequently brought up as great horror games. I haven’t played them myself but have seen them played by others. Look pretty good, though a little more jumpscare heavy. Still atmospheric though.
Came here to mention the first Outlast game, it is extremely good, and not a super long time commitment. Also seconding Subnautica which someone else mentioned, that was truly horrifying - I want to say it took me 25-35 hours to beat that one.
Yeah, that’s fair enough about Subnautica. Might be worth trying with a trainer or something to just bypass the grinding and still experience the rest, tho.
As for outer wilds… Definitely worth giving it a shot, imo. The first bit is indeed a bit long, but shouldn’t be longer than an hour, tbh. And after that the game autosaves quite often and even when you quit, afaik. Should be more than fine for short sessions.
Pacific Drive has been quite creepy. It alternates between chill working on your car in the garage and slow rising uneasiness that culminates in utter panic.
It’s pretty different from the other games listed so far, but I’ll toss it a recommendation for Oxenfree. At least for me, that game did oppressive creepy atmosphere better than just about any other I’ve played. When it first came out we were dealing with a massive heatwave and I would be shivering while playing it in a 100f+ apartment.
An older one I always really like as well was the very first F.E.A.R. game.
For more psychological horrors, maybe the first Devil May Cry? Early PS2 game, and is a recycled Resident Evil project so part of the ambience remains. Later games are more toned down on horror though.
Dreaming Sarah, I found to be good, but its horror is more on the bizarre.
Limbo, been considering playing for a while now, and from what I’ve seen, jump scares seem minimal. Same for the creator’s other game, Inside.
Just so you know, after you “complete” the game and are returned to the main menu, there’s still a bit of content left, so be sure to continue your save. Though it’s pretty obvious, I still missed it until I started watching a video about the game and realized I wasn’t finished.
Yeah… Maybe ten (… possibly closer to twenty) years ago “spooky games” became popular because influencers loved to React to them so the vast majority became jump scare fests. Then PT’s demo came out and suddenly it was High Art to make a nonsense jump scare game and things never really recovered from that.
Others have mentioned Amnesia/Penumbra which… I loved them but I think they don’t get the balance quite right. And it is telling that a decade old game is still the go to recommendation. So I’ll give a few others:
I only ever played 2, but Alien versus Predator (2000) is on GoG for 6 bucks. And 2’s Marine campaign is still weirdly one of my gold standards. Because ammo wasn’t actually scarce at all and you got some pretty hefty firepower since it is very much more Aliens. But you also feel yourself rapidly becoming Private Hudson as you just get closer and closer to breaking while you walk through dark corridors and occasionally get a blip on your motion tracker. And when the aliens finally do break through that vent? It is less a jump scare and more just forcing you into full lizard brain mode as you react before feeling completely drained afterwards and realizing… you still have another couple kilometers to your evac point that is TOTALLY going to not explode as you get to it. It is a game that understands the scariest part in a Resident Evil is when you suddenly see a wall full of grenade and shotgun ammo and realize… there is a reason for that.
Some moments in Prey (the second one that is an immersive sim from Arkane) had similar vibes but that game is all over the place and the period between “every single coffee cup might be an enemy that takes out half my health in one swing” to “I am functionally immortal” is REAL short. And it is an Arkane game so you are penalized for doing the fun stuff.
For something from this decade (maybe?): I am not sure if I would call them “scary”, but look into A Plague Tale. The dark room and swarm segments have atmosphere on LOCK and it is the first game in probably decades that made me leave the bathroom light on at night because I kept waking up and thinking the wall was moving.
That said… if you want the emphasis on “upsetting”, don’t sleep on the retro aesthetic “ps1 horror game” revival. Mouthwashing came out semi-recently and has a LOT of content warnings (some of which are massive spoilers for the themes of the game) but very much captures the horror of being trapped on a ship with the kind of people who would get the kind of job where you are at space-sea for months or even years at a time.
But yeah, the “ps1 horror game” genre is very similar to modern horror movies from folk like Jordan Peele and Zach “Gallon of PCP” Cregger where they understand that the root of much of these scary stories and horror movies are dealing with the psychological stresses and fears of the world and crank them up to eleven. So if you vibe with the aesthetics, you can basically find anything to deeply unsettle you.
Thanks! So I’m thinking to play amnesia next but you’ve just added to my wishlist.
I’ve been recommended alien isolation but never alien v predator. You think it’s worth a look then? Sounds like you get just what I meant about jump scares, I’ll check it out.
Yeah I’ve been playing prey and enjoying it. I’m really crap at games that need coordination tho, playing it on easy mode and feeling cautiously confident rather than bullet proof.
I’ve just looked up a plague tale, thanks for the suggestion, looks just what I’m after.
I struggle with retro aesthetic. I grew up with 8 bit graphics and got no desire to return to those days now that computers so much better! But I’m not closed to anything.
And yeah I entirely agree with you about horror. I don’t want something that just scares me, I wanna be appalled.
Alien Isolation is just Amnesia/Penumbra but worse. It is VERY clear the devs had also played Penumbra and loved the idea of hiding in a closet and frantically trying to work the lock before you get got. And once you have played one, you have played them all. And I personally prefer the Amnesia approach since A:I falls apart REAL fast once you figure out that you are mostly just balancing the rubber band of the AI and it will either get you or not depending upon where you were standing when it triggered “go scare the player”. If you REALLY like the Alien franchise but never saw anything after 3, it is awesome. If you are part of the crowd that needed to be told a few hundred times that Romulus has an argument for being the best in the entire franchise? Carry on.
And if you genuinely want the kind of horror that makes you more afraid of what you see in the news than what might be under the bed? Definitely give the “PS1 Horror” game genre a go. Those are some of the best examples of true indie games these days and they are, by and large, made people with something to say. They are very much not 8-bit and are really not even 32-bit either (the vast majority are just lower res PS3 games).
I forget which group this is, but the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_PS1) are mostly a bunch of game jams built around the theming. Some are jump scares. Some are deeply unsettling. And some are the kind of things where you have a ten page long list of content warnings. Most tend to be 2-20 minute affairs and some actually become “full games” or are by studios who have “full games” in similar veins.
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Two all time favs …both played in the dark with headphones. F.e.a.r and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Aha! My field of expertise! Here’s some people don’t talk about often, most of which cost very little and offer very much.
Chilla’s Art games. Start with Closing Shift, The Bathhouse, and Shinkansen 0. Shinkansen 0 is an excellent game but less spooky than the others. The Radio Station is also pretty good, but the driving got arduous to me.
Devotion you can get from Red Candle Games’ website, DRM free. Doable in a day, excellent experience.
Penumbra games predate Amnesia, they’re quite spooky!
The Exit 8. Similar to Shinkansen 0, would absolutely recommend.
Missing Hiker. Very atmosphere.
My spooky list I’ve updated over the years and suggest to sort by game rating or popularity.
https://bckl.gg/bfQg
Ever play Scary Maze?
One game that nailed PS2 aesthetic while also having its own identity is Homebody. It’s mostly puzzles, but has a very creepy mansion aesthetic and always has you worried about the monster. It’s a “Groundhog Day” game where the protagonist remembers dying, and is caught in a loop.
Another one I enjoyed with a bit more combat is Tormented Souls. The sequel is coming soon, too.
If you’re looking for scary games, Song of Horror was one of the more unnerving ones for me.
Alien: isolation? Pretty good horror game, imo. SOMA? Subnautica can be pretty scary,. especially for people with thalassophobia or however it’s spelled… Outer wilds? Not horror, but it is quite unsettling. Also an all around amazing game that everyone should experience, imo.
Came here to second Alien Isolation. I’ve never been able to play past a certain point because my gay ass keeps shrieking loud enough to summon the ghost of Richard Simmons
Haha. Yeah, I had to play when I was home alone cause my wife kept making fun of the noises I was making.
Yeah I’ve meant to play subnautica but I only really have time to game for an hour or so in the evening and seems like subnautica might take more commitment.
Played soma. Liked it, liked the atmosphere and the end a lot.
Haven’t played outer wilds - I’ve heard the recommendations, somehow mostly avoided spoilers. I know I should but seems like first part takes a while and I’ve not got past it. Maybe it should play that next.
Don’t play in pure survival mode… Play where water and food are not needed and you’ll have plenty of time for Subnautica.
I’m thirding Alien: Isolation, one of the best horror games ever made and a really loving tribute to the movies as well. On console they even had a feature where the alien listened in on you through the microphone and would hear if you made a noise. Not sure how it played out in practice as I didn’t play it on console but sounds rad.
The Outlast games are also frequently brought up as great horror games. I haven’t played them myself but have seen them played by others. Look pretty good, though a little more jumpscare heavy. Still atmospheric though.
Came here to mention the first Outlast game, it is extremely good, and not a super long time commitment. Also seconding Subnautica which someone else mentioned, that was truly horrifying - I want to say it took me 25-35 hours to beat that one.
Yeah, that’s fair enough about Subnautica. Might be worth trying with a trainer or something to just bypass the grinding and still experience the rest, tho.
As for outer wilds… Definitely worth giving it a shot, imo. The first bit is indeed a bit long, but shouldn’t be longer than an hour, tbh. And after that the game autosaves quite often and even when you quit, afaik. Should be more than fine for short sessions.
Amnesia, obviously
Seconding the Amnesia series. The early games are bit dated, but they’re all spooky atmosphere hands down.
I literally stopped playing because the atmosphere got wayyy too much. Felt like I was hyperventilating just walking around
(Note: The above is my own scaredy pants opinion of the game. Your mileage may vary)
Okay, I’ve just looked these up, are we talking amnesia the dark descent? Yeah that looks right up my street.
Yup, same one. Enjoy! (Hides under blanket)
Now that sounds like a solid recommendation right there! I’ve just bought it, thanks mate.
(It’s safe to come out now)
Pacific Drive has been quite creepy. It alternates between chill working on your car in the garage and slow rising uneasiness that culminates in utter panic.
It’s pretty different from the other games listed so far, but I’ll toss it a recommendation for Oxenfree. At least for me, that game did oppressive creepy atmosphere better than just about any other I’ve played. When it first came out we were dealing with a massive heatwave and I would be shivering while playing it in a 100f+ apartment.
An older one I always really like as well was the very first F.E.A.R. game.
I still remember that ladder from FEAR.
I loved Oxenfree. One of my all time favorites.
Thanks I’ll look em up
Silent Hill: Homecoming.
You can emulate it on RPCS3 for free.
The scary part of this game is that Konami thought this was a good Silent Hill game.
Also, the performance and constant crashing.
RPCS3 is how I played it too. Way better than the garbage PC port.
For more psychological horrors, maybe the first Devil May Cry? Early PS2 game, and is a recycled Resident Evil project so part of the ambience remains. Later games are more toned down on horror though.
Dreaming Sarah, I found to be good, but its horror is more on the bizarre.
Limbo, been considering playing for a while now, and from what I’ve seen, jump scares seem minimal. Same for the creator’s other game, Inside.
Silent Hill 2 remake is surprisingly playable on SteamDeck. Just put -dx11 in launch options.
Edit: Heartworm, Tormented Souls, Alisa, Madison and Layers of Fear (2023) are all good too.
SIGNALIS plays similar to Silent Hill, but is more focused on story.
Yep, thanks, that looks great. Actually I don’t know what to make of the trailer but I’ll give it a try, cheers.
Just so you know, after you “complete” the game and are returned to the main menu, there’s still a bit of content left, so be sure to continue your save. Though it’s pretty obvious, I still missed it until I started watching a video about the game and realized I wasn’t finished.
Yeah… Maybe ten (… possibly closer to twenty) years ago “spooky games” became popular because influencers loved to React to them so the vast majority became jump scare fests. Then PT’s demo came out and suddenly it was High Art to make a nonsense jump scare game and things never really recovered from that.
Others have mentioned Amnesia/Penumbra which… I loved them but I think they don’t get the balance quite right. And it is telling that a decade old game is still the go to recommendation. So I’ll give a few others:
I only ever played 2, but Alien versus Predator (2000) is on GoG for 6 bucks. And 2’s Marine campaign is still weirdly one of my gold standards. Because ammo wasn’t actually scarce at all and you got some pretty hefty firepower since it is very much more Aliens. But you also feel yourself rapidly becoming Private Hudson as you just get closer and closer to breaking while you walk through dark corridors and occasionally get a blip on your motion tracker. And when the aliens finally do break through that vent? It is less a jump scare and more just forcing you into full lizard brain mode as you react before feeling completely drained afterwards and realizing… you still have another couple kilometers to your evac point that is TOTALLY going to not explode as you get to it. It is a game that understands the scariest part in a Resident Evil is when you suddenly see a wall full of grenade and shotgun ammo and realize… there is a reason for that.
Some moments in Prey (the second one that is an immersive sim from Arkane) had similar vibes but that game is all over the place and the period between “every single coffee cup might be an enemy that takes out half my health in one swing” to “I am functionally immortal” is REAL short. And it is an Arkane game so you are penalized for doing the fun stuff.
For something from this decade (maybe?): I am not sure if I would call them “scary”, but look into A Plague Tale. The dark room and swarm segments have atmosphere on LOCK and it is the first game in probably decades that made me leave the bathroom light on at night because I kept waking up and thinking the wall was moving.
That said… if you want the emphasis on “upsetting”, don’t sleep on the retro aesthetic “ps1 horror game” revival. Mouthwashing came out semi-recently and has a LOT of content warnings (some of which are massive spoilers for the themes of the game) but very much captures the horror of being trapped on a ship with the kind of people who would get the kind of job where you are at space-sea for months or even years at a time.
But yeah, the “ps1 horror game” genre is very similar to modern horror movies from folk like Jordan Peele and Zach “Gallon of PCP” Cregger where they understand that the root of much of these scary stories and horror movies are dealing with the psychological stresses and fears of the world and crank them up to eleven. So if you vibe with the aesthetics, you can basically find anything to deeply unsettle you.
Thanks! So I’m thinking to play amnesia next but you’ve just added to my wishlist.
I’ve been recommended alien isolation but never alien v predator. You think it’s worth a look then? Sounds like you get just what I meant about jump scares, I’ll check it out.
Yeah I’ve been playing prey and enjoying it. I’m really crap at games that need coordination tho, playing it on easy mode and feeling cautiously confident rather than bullet proof.
I’ve just looked up a plague tale, thanks for the suggestion, looks just what I’m after.
I struggle with retro aesthetic. I grew up with 8 bit graphics and got no desire to return to those days now that computers so much better! But I’m not closed to anything.
And yeah I entirely agree with you about horror. I don’t want something that just scares me, I wanna be appalled.
Thanks!
I tend to get shouted down when I say it but:
Alien Isolation is just Amnesia/Penumbra but worse. It is VERY clear the devs had also played Penumbra and loved the idea of hiding in a closet and frantically trying to work the lock before you get got. And once you have played one, you have played them all. And I personally prefer the Amnesia approach since A:I falls apart REAL fast once you figure out that you are mostly just balancing the rubber band of the AI and it will either get you or not depending upon where you were standing when it triggered “go scare the player”. If you REALLY like the Alien franchise but never saw anything after 3, it is awesome. If you are part of the crowd that needed to be told a few hundred times that Romulus has an argument for being the best in the entire franchise? Carry on.
And if you genuinely want the kind of horror that makes you more afraid of what you see in the news than what might be under the bed? Definitely give the “PS1 Horror” game genre a go. Those are some of the best examples of true indie games these days and they are, by and large, made people with something to say. They are very much not 8-bit and are really not even 32-bit either (the vast majority are just lower res PS3 games).
I forget which group this is, but the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_PS1) are mostly a bunch of game jams built around the theming. Some are jump scares. Some are deeply unsettling. And some are the kind of things where you have a ten page long list of content warnings. Most tend to be 2-20 minute affairs and some actually become “full games” or are by studios who have “full games” in similar veins.