From theHaunted Houseoverlay for the 1972Magnavox OdysseytoCapcom’sgenre-definingResident Evilfranchise, scary games have existed in some shape or form since video games began. Much in the same way horror movies bring fans to theaters by themillions, video games have always tried to push the envelope to instillfearin those who dare play them.
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Technology has advancedleaps and boundsthroughout the years, so much so that video game developers are now able to fully immerse you in their versions of trueunfiltered horror. If you are looking for a scary game to keep you up at night during this spooky season, then look no further. Here’s the list of the best scary games you probably never heard of.
10Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Fleshis an example of a scary game that benefits from asingle-blind playthroughwith as little information about theuncomfortably horrifyingjourney you are about to embark on. Puzzle of the Flesh is an interactivepoint-and-click moviereleased for the PC in 1996.
The story revolves around your player characterCurtis Craig, an office worker suffering frompsychotic breakdownsdue to childhood trauma. Your gruesome journey begins when the office bully ends up brutallymurderedinyour cubicle, and shortly after you become a vessel for ademon spirit.
9Hugo’s House Of Horrors
The mightyMS-DOSfor thepersonal computerback in 1990 was home to some of themost influential gamesin history. One such game you probably never heard of wasHugo’s House of Horrorsdeveloped byDavid P. Gray.
You play asHugoon a mission to save your girlfriendPenelopefrom an evilhaunted housecomplete with spooky secret passages,monstersandcreepy moments. Armed with nothing but yourwits and keyboard, you navigate Hugo with the arrow keys and use your mouse to select pre-scripted text to solve puzzles. Along the way, you disguise yourself as a monster,collude with a mad scientist, and eventually flee the clutches of the evil murder house and get married.
8Blue Stinger
Sometimes you just want to throw aholiday partyon a boat off the shore ofDinosaur Islandwhen suddenly a meteorite full ofmutantscrashes lands and changes your plans. TheDreamcast, even with itscriminally short lifespan, was home to a surplus of scary games such asResident Evil: Code VeronicaandAlone in The Dark.Blue Stinger, published bySegaand developed underClimax Studios, is a charmingly campy survival horror game that lets you play as multiple characters and has some intense combat encounters.
You play as Elliot trying to fight back the mutant hoard with your companion Dogs, the Captain. Theheart-pounding musicanddeliciously viciousenemy design are where this scary gameshines brightestif you may get past the equallyscary voice acting.
7Maniac Mansion
One of the more influential games on this list, Maniac Mansion designed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, is an immersive point-and-click horror adventure game released on home computers and the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. you’re able to play as one of five characters, each with its own inability and distinctive ending.
Maniac Mansion also helped codified the term “Cutscene” to describe ceasing player input to allow for a narrative sequence to push the story along. This concept, certainly not new in 1987, was crucial for some later scary titles, such as Until Dawn, because restricting player agency can be an important immersion tool if done correctly. Also, you can microwave a hamster.
6System Shock
Even on board theCitadel Stationin the year 2072, horror and cyborgs will find you.System Shock, developed byLooking Glass Technologiesfor theMS-DOSand home computer, is the type of game that was never shown the reverence it deserved until well after its initial release in 1994. You are a nameless hacker who’s made a deal with Diego, an executive of a future mega-corporation known asTriOptimum, to eradicate a rogue A.I.,SHODAN. SHODAN has taken over the Citadel Station and unleashed adeadly biochemical weaponthat transforms the entire crew into mindless mutants andmurder cyborgs.
You make your way through ship corridors hoping the next turn you take isn’t directly into the arms of ahumanoid mutant. The emergent gameplay and terrifying enemy design are what madeSystem Shockahead of its time. Hopefully, theremakecan reignite the chilling feeling of surviving a cyborg-infested space station once more.
Often, terrifying games come from the mostunexpected places and innovate on or refinetruly immersive horror. IMSCARED, an indie title developed and created byIvan ZanottiofMyMadnessWorks, offers a single-player horror experience, unlike anything you have ever played before. It is because of that fact that not much of the story will be explained here, as the way you experience this game is part of its brilliance in creating a heart racing,dread-inducinginteractive media.
What must be said about this title is you shouldplay it alone, with the lights off, at night, probably during a thunderstorm, this one isnot for the faint at heart.
4Silent Hill 4: The Room
Konamimay not publish as many games as they used to, but they most definitely have had one of themore successful horror franchiseswithSilent Hill. InSilent Hill 4: The Room, you areHenry Townsend, an average 20-something loner who lives in an apartment building in the city ofAshfield. One day you wake up and realize you arephysically unableto leave your apartment and your bathroom becomes aportal to another dimension. The game depictshorrific paranormal imageryand maintains an anxiety-inducing andmorbid ambiancethroughout the entire game.
The Room expertly creates anongoing sense of dreadand the constant feeling that you arenever really alonein your apartment. You discover the portal in your bathroom leads to a dimension where a serial killer has systematicallymurdered nearly 20 peoplebetween dimensions. Eventually, you meet Joseph, a paranormal apparition who was the latest victim ofWalter Sullivanand the former owner of your apartment. You and Joseph then embark on a journey to hunt down and kill Walter in his dimension and depending on the actions you can complete the game to one of three, oftensomber,endings.
3Friday The 13th
The only licensed video game on this list is well deserved for its frightful place at number 3.The Nintendo Entertainment Systemsported verycolorful visualsandupbeat musicfor most of the hundreds of titles in its library.Friday The 13th, developed byAtlusandLJN, was one of the very few horror-type games that made its way into peoples living rooms in 1989.
You play asone of six playable counselorson a mission to locate and defeatJason Voorheesbefore time runs out, and hemurders all the children and counselors, brutal.
Viciously immersive gameplayis a common thread among most of the more popular scary video games in history. Some of the scariest franchises have had a game flop once or twice and developers have had to set standards on how to engineer what makes scary, even scarier. The point is, to nail adreadful atmospherewith a compelling narrative and immersive gameplay can bea monumental task,learned over the course of generations, unless you’reP.T.
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P.T is the perfect tool to use on your friends to determine which way the pendulum swings on thefight or flightscale.Playable Teaser,dubbedP.T., was created by thefrightful mindsover atKonami, under the creative guidance of world-renowned game developersHideo KojimaandGuillermo Del Toro. P.T. is a first-person horror game that was intended as a playable teaser for the now-canceledSilent Hillshorror game starringNorman Reedus.
Abrutal test of your humanitySOMA, by developerFrictional Gamesand released in 2015, is a survival horror video game more than worthy of the top spot of this list. SOMA is viciously scary because it hits all the terrifying atmospheric bells and whistles that make all the popular horror games great. Sulk and crawl your way through thelast remnants of the earthas you try to find a way to send the seeds of life,known as The Ark, to space.
You play asSimon Jarretta car accident survivor who has been in a coma in an underwaterexperimental medical centerduring the fall of humanity. When you wake up you find the medical facility to be overtaken byhuman-robot hybrids, whose consciousness have been hastily, and poorly, preserved for far too long.
