The Best Horror Game of 2024

ign.com:

It’s not a stretch to say we’re currently experiencing the best run of horror video games since the PS2 era. The past few years have seen the genre revitalised, in part thanks to nostalgia for a time when survival horror was at its peak. The result has been cutting-edge remakes, retro throwbacks, and new experiences that find fresh ways to send shivers down our spines.

Things in the horror space are so good that last year, for the first time, IGN introduced the Best Horror Game category for its annual awards. And it was pretty easy to bring it back for a second year, so good has the selection of spooks been in 2024. We were treated to the uneasy, claustrophobic terror of Still Wakes the Deep and its infected oil rig; the grisly Saw-ish challenges of The Outlast Trials; Bloober Team’s impressive recreation of Silent Hill 2, and the horrifying twists and turns of Mouthwashing, among others.

But only one can be crowned the best horror game of 2024. What did the IGN team judge to be the most worthy? Let’s take a look at the results…

Thanks to the expansive array of experiences offered up by the current horror game renaissance period, the IGN team’s votes went to a wide range of 2024 releases. While not getting enough votes to secure runner-up status, we’d like to give honourable mentions to two extra games.

Still Wakes the Deep from developer The Chinese Room is a gorgeous narrative horror set on an oil rig that’s been infected with a The Thing-like creature. It’s enjoyably Scottish in tone, painted in the depressing shades of 1970s Britain and powered by the unknowable fear of Eldritch literature. It’s much more engaging than its walking sim fundamentals would suggest, too, with exciting chase set-pieces and creepy stealth encounters.

We also have to tip our hat in the direction of Slitterhead. While our reviewer ultimately struggled to fall in love with it, several IGN team members enjoyed its idiosyncratic approach to an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-style scenario.