2024 has been a landmark year for horror video games, from highly anticipated sequels like to the against-all-odds success of the . Whether it was triple-A or indie, physical or psychological, it seems like every major horror game had something new to offer this year.
Still, a select few games stood out among their peers, boasting immersive atmosphere, unrelenting frights, or fearless dives into the darkest parts of the human psyche. Based on Metacritic scores, accolades, and 's own reviews,these are some of the best horror games of 2024.
Brooding, atmospheric, and cinematic, is a narrative-focused game that tells the story of a 19th-century nun with a unique set of problems. She's an outcast among the other nuns at her convent, she's grappling with a mysterious illness she can't pray away, and she's subject to frequent visions and visits from the Devil himself. is split between immersive, 3D walking simulator segments, in which the protagonist explores the convent and the world around it and solves simple puzzles, and innovative, 8-bit platforming flashbacks to her troubled past.
is as disturbing as it is daring, presenting a surreal vision of an unrelentingly harsh world. It's artful and challenging, forcing the player to engage with a pointless point and perk system to augment its nihilistic narrative. It's undeniably a horror game, but it's unlike anything else on this list, and must be experienced to be believed. Available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, earned an 80 on Metacritic, and a positive 7/10 review from .
Few things are more terrifying than the prospect of running out of gas along an isolated stretch of country road. takes that fear and spins it into an atmospheric game, in which players are tasked with crossing the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a span of abandoned highway in the Pacific Northwest pockmarked by inexplicably deadly anomalies. plays like a standard survival game — players scrounge for resources, maintain their equipment, and seek to
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