Horror means different things to different people. Some people hate clowns. Some are troubled by the unknown of a dark space under the bed. And some (my old flatmate) will run away if a wooden spoon gets too close to brushing against their skin. The same broad range of fears can be found in video games as well. Sure, there are jumpy moments in The Last of Us Part 2, and Bloodborne’s Yharnam is dressed to the nines in gothic horror, but here we’re looking at those entirely scary experiences – those games that chill us to the core and are purely horrific, yet brilliant. With an emphasis placed on what we find the scariest, here are the 25 best horror games of all time.
In recent years, many have attempted to capture the nostalgic, yet deeply unsettling aesthetic of analogue horror – a subgenre centred around turn-of-the-millennium tech and found footage – but none do it quite as well as developer Puppet Combo. With a library of over 20 developed and published games, there’s no shortage of gory and intense homages to the era of the VHS or PS1 to choose from, but Stay Out of the House is the standout entry of the one-man studio’s work. A mix of immersive sim and survival horror, you’re put to the test as you attempt to escape the disgusting lair of a cannibal butcher.
You have three days to plan your escape: will you scramble for a weapon?; set the serial killer’s traps against him?; or maybe help other survivors? All of these are viable options but unfortunately for you, the killer will adapt to all of them, barricading once-unlocked rooms, hiding items, and more, all to offer you an unforgettable CRT-filtered nightmare.
Who knew that in 2012 a simple sentence like “Collect all 8 pages” would leave such a lasting imprint on the imagination of all those who read it?
Inspired by the success of its creepypasta’s namesake, Slender: The Eight Pages arms you with just a flashlight and tasks you with sneaking through a park at night to collect a series of increasingly creepy