The PlayStation 5 generation has brought quite a few horror masterpieces to our doorstep, establishing itself as one of the greatest consoles for horror gaming experiences. Whether you love to immerse in a spooky survival horror atmosphere, revisit genre-defining classics remade from the ground up, or get bombarded with jumpscares around any corner, the PlayStation 5 has the games for you.
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This list will consider the greatest horror games to release this generation on PlayStation, reviewing their merits and highlighting what makes each one special as a horror experience. From horror platforming to first-person nightmares, this list breaks down the very best the horror genre has to offer on the power of the PS5.
10Little Nightmares 2
Incredible Horror Puzzle Platforming
Little Nightmares 2takes everything good about Little Nightmares and pushes it further, enhancing the horror atmosphere, wild set pieces, and unsettling inhabitants of this nightmarish world. The game will stretch your puzzle-platforming skills across some really incredible levels, from the bear-trap-infested woods to a sinister schoolhouse and across a crumbling city. Each environment comes with its own quirks, both in its puzzle solutions and in the hazards you’ll need to overcome in order to survive to the next area, and every one will keep you on the edge of your seat with masterful tension-building throughout.
While Little Nightmares 2 is absolutely oozing horror platforming goodness, the game is not without its faults. This style of 2.5D platformer comes with some perspective issues, easily causing you to misjudge jumps or misunderstand the environment in some crucial way. The platforming is mostly good, though it comes with a bit of jank that can quickly put a stop to your game flow.
The puzzles themselves can range from beautifully intuitive to unapologetically obtuse, causing your experience to fluctuate wildly over the course of the game’s ~5 hours of playtime. Despite these minor frustrations, Little Nightmares 2 is absolutely worth your time. From the environmental and sound design to the horrifying “people” from which you must hide and escape, the game earns its place on this list for delivering an unforgettable horror experience, jankiness and all.
Little Nightmares 2
9The Quarry
Best Choose Your Own Adventure Horror
Supermassive Games has been creating some stand-out horror experiences for almost a decade now. With the release ofUntil Dawnin 2015, Supermassive has made something of a name for themselves as the choose-your-own-adventure horror studio. They’ve released a number of games that offer unique horror experiences in the wake of Until Dawn, but few ever rose toward the same prominence and prestige — that is, untilThe Quarry.
Whether playing alone or with friends, The Quarry practically demands multiple playthroughs to get the most out of its web of decisions.
The Quarry takes everything Supermassive Games learned and accomplished across their years in the horror genre and creates something that approaches, if not surpasses, the heights of their 2015 classic, Until Dawn. The story follows a group of teen camp counselors on their last night before the camp closes for the summer — except whoops, they’ve got a werewolf problem. The game is built around a complex choice system that can result in several (or all) of your characters dying as a result of your decisions throughout.
This game especially shines when playing with friends. I played through this title with my wife (who had already played the game), and it was a blast making questionable choices throughout, then discovering all the different outcomes any single decision might bring to the course of the narrative. Whether playing alone or with friends, The Quarry practically demands multiple playthroughs to get the most out of its web of decisions. Have you made it out alive?
The Quarry
8Observer: System Redux
Cyberpunk Horror At Its Finest
Observer: System Reduxisn’t going to be the scariest game on this list — at least, not in a jump-scare around every corner kind of way. And you aren’t going to be mixing it up in intense survival-based combat. Instead, Observer: System Redux delivers a much moresublime psychological horror, where the moment-to-moment dread and paranoia slowly eat at you over the game’s 8 hours. Make no mistake — you will absolutely deal with some jump scares and some terrifying moments, but the game truly shines in its environmental storytelling and in just how bleak this cyberpunk future is.
Palworld Reminds Me More Of Slime Rancher Than Pokemon
Wait, is this Pal supposed to be mining rocks or leaving behind Plorts?
You play as Daniel Lazarski, a detective known as an Observer (who is voiced by the phenomenal Rutger Hauer). Due to his cybernetic implants, he’s able to access people’s brains to “see” their memories to solve crimes. The game primarily takes place in an old, decrepit apartment building, where Lazarski is investigating a series of mysterious murders. After the building is locked down due to a digital plague outbreak, you’re forced to wander the moody hallways, accompanied by chilling isolation, claustrophobia, and the oppressive atmosphere that slowly eats away at your sanity.
The environments and slow pacing provide the perfect setup to fully immerse yourself in this bleak future, and while it delves much more into dread than jump-scares, it plays up that slower, creeping horror beautifully.
Observer: System Redux
The Classic Haunted House Game
Visage is a first-person psychological horror game that might just drive you a little insane. Set in a sprawling haunting house, Visage perfectly mixes the mundane and the chilling, filling you with dread and apprehension with every step through the beautifully lit (or unlit) hallways. The house itself is haunted by a variety of specters and terrors, any of which can show up suddenly and instantly kill you if you aren’t careful. The darkness itself is the key here, as the longer you remain in the dark — or just in the house in general — the lower your sanity meter will go. The lower your sanity dips, the more likely to encounter a severe haunting, one that is capable of killing you.
…if you aren’t careful, you might suddenly find hands reaching around your screen to smother you in an instant.
This constant sense of dread gradually eats at you, forcing you to swivel around at every stray sound in the house. Sometimes, you’ll be able to spot a haunting from across the room or down a hallway, giving you enough time to flee or hide. Other times, if you aren’t careful, you might suddenly find hands reaching around your screen to smother you in an instant.
In many ways, Visage might very well be the scariest game on this list, though it has its fair share of rough edges and unintuitive processes that prevent it from achieving true greatness. You’re ultimately directionless in the house, searching through trial and error to find some way forward. It can be hard to discern what to do next when you’re constantly on the lookout for the terrors that lurk in the dark, but for many hardcore horror fans, that’s the entire point of the clunky puzzles and unclear goals. It’s not a masterpiece, but Visage has certainly mastered the constant sense of dread you’ll feel wandering in this unforgiving setting.
6Resident Evil 4 Remake
Gorgeous Action Horror & Cheesy One-Liners
Resident Evil 4has long been hailed as one of the greatest Resident Evil games and one of the greatest horror games ever made, andResident Evil 4 Remakebrought it forward, both graphically and mechanically, into the full light of the PlayStation 5.
Quite a fewResident Evil gameslean more on the horror side of things, but Resident Evil 4 Remake leans heavily in the survival action direction (though make no mistake, there’s horror aplenty). While inResident Evil 2 Remakeyou eventually learn the best routes to run past enemies, Resident Evil 4 Remake pits you against hordes of infected villagers with nothing but your vast arsenal of weaponry and a steady supply of roundhouse kicks to get through them.
…the first time you parry a chainsaw with your little knife is as ridiculous as it is awesome.
The remake featured a number of gameplay tweaks and improvements, from being able to shoot while moving to parrying with your knife (the first time you parry a chainsaw with your little knife is as ridiculous as it is awesome), but the remake largely holds the same fascinating mix of horror action mixed with the familiar Resident Evil cheesiness fans know and love. Resident Evil 4 Remake is the definitive version to play at this point, not only for its gorgeous graphical improvements, but also for its mechanical tweaks to offer the best experience RE4 can offer.
Resident Evil 4
5The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered
Great Survival Horror With A Heart-Wrenching Story
The ‘newest’ release on this list,The Last of Us Part 2 Remasteredis now the perfect way to experience this incredible video game. WhileThe Last of Us Part 1would certainly have been a worthy inclusion, establishing such an incredible setting and characters, with Part 2’s Remastered release, it has now become the definitive horror experience for the franchise.
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The Last of Us Part 1 offers a much tighter, more linear narrative, with some stand-out scary moments, but it leans a little more heavily on its survival elements over its horror elements. The Last of Us Part 2 really kicked up the horror tone of the story to deliver a phenomenal survival horror experience. Delving into dark themes, darker environments, and some of the most horrifying sequences around (looking at you, Rat King), The Last of Us Part 2 fully trumps Part 1 as far as the horror is concerned.
Beyond comparing the game with its predecessor, this is ultimately just an incredible gaming experience. Offering perhaps the most dynamic survival combat on this list, The Last of Us Part 2 allows you to approach each encounter in a wide variety of ways, whether it’s relying primarily on stealth, hit and run, or direct attacks. The times when the survival dips deeply into the horror pool are major standouts for the game, delivering tense action scenes that fill you with dread. If you find you’re more of a fan of the moment-to-moment survival side of things, however, the remaster’s No Return mode delivers an incredible roguelike mode that is sure to keep you coming back again and again.
The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered
Twisted Sci-Fi Horror Masterpiece
The originalDead Space (2008)is a survival horror classic, establishing one of the most compelling settings in scifi horror, the USG Ishimura. The 2023Dead Space Remaketakes all of that incredible atmosphere, tension, and terrifying enemy design and deliversone of the most beautiful games out there— and one of the most visceral. You play as Isaac Clarke, a systems engineer, who arrives at the massive USG Ishimura to discover some kind of terrifying plague of Necromorphs, humans mutated into horrifying monstrosities, has fully taken over the ship.
The atmosphere on the USG Ishimura is unparalleled. The lighting and ambiance is utterly captivating, and the sound design and beautifully curated scares just land perfectly. Not to skimp on the ‘survival’ part of Survival Horror, the combat itself is the other pillar of Dead Space’s success. Unlike most other shooters, where limbs are generally the weakest place to shoot, your goal is actually to shoot and ‘cut off’ Necromorph limbs in order to incapacitate and defeat the hordes of creatures. They won’t make it easy, however, as their unnatural movement and tendency to show up in groups makes for some brutal and tense combat.
Dead Space also features a dynamic “Intensity Director,” which creates surprise opportunities to scare you, basically spawning unexpected enemies in the next corridor or dropping from the vent behind you, all in an effort to keep you on your toes. And it works. If you’re looking for an isolating, tense, and heart-pounding journey through a ship trying to tear you apart at nearly any turn, Dead Space is THE horror game for you.
Dead Space Remake
3Resident Evil 2 Remake
Racoon City Is Terrifying In 4K
Resident Evil 2 Remaketook the tone and intent behind the original Resident Evil 2 and completely remade it, delivering not only a gorgeous third-person survival horror experience, but completely reconceptualizing the game from top to bottom. You’ll find plenty of overlap here, sure, but the changes between the original and 2019’s remake are stark, delivering what feels like an entirely new approach to this iconic entry in an already iconic franchise.
The game introduces (or rather, reintroduces) Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, and Ada Wong during their fateful night in Racoon City during the T-Virus outbreak. Compared to Resident Evil 4 Remake, RE2 Remake ups the horror, crafting each potential enemy as the one that might do you in. You don’t have the ammo or resources to take on every zombie you come across — instead, you’re forced to scrounge and conserve ammunition for those moments when you’ll truly need it, opting instead to avoid enemies as much as possible. This added tension (can you afford to waste your last few bullets here?) really ramps up the dread that is building throughout your ~8 hours in Racoon City.
The short playtime, especially when compared to RE4’s ~15 hours, greatly encourages multiple playthroughs, allowing you to experience the unique differences between Claire’s and Leon’s campaigns. They predominantly share the same DNA and structure between them, but they offer notably different experiences that are well worth seeing through to the end.
Resident Evil 2
2Alan Wake 2
Pushing The Medium Forward
While the first Alan Wake game was more of an action-shooter with horror flavor,Alan Wake 2, which was released 13 years after its predecessor, fully embraced the survival horror genre. Pushing through any potential recency bias, Alan Wake 2 absolutely earns its high place on this list for its twisted, completely novel storytelling,delivering on such a bizarre and compelling vision. The game follows two split protagonists — the titular Alan Wake, a novelist who has been trapped in a dark dimension for 13 years, and Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a series of murders connected to Wake.
Alan Wake 2 flawlessly combines state-of-the-art graphics and animation with live-action performances, delivering something fresh and new for fans of the genre.
Alan Wake 2 flawlessly combines state-of-the-art graphics and animation with live-action performances, delivering something fresh and new for fans of the genre. The gameplay itself isn’t exactly pushing the genre forward — feeling like some combination of Resident Evil 2 Remake and The Last of Us in how you shoot and interact with the environments — but it melds perfectly with the cerebral narration and nightmarish settings. As the lines between reality and fiction blend, you won’t be able to put this game down. Delivering both on a slower, creeping dread and on some truly cruel jump-scares, Alan Wake 2 provides an unparalleled horror experience that any fan of the genre should seek out.
Alan Wake 2
1Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Hillybilly Haunted House Delivers True Terror
Resident Evil 7: Biohazardtook the world by storm when it first released back in 2017. After several, let’s say… disappointing games likeResident Evil 5and6, which carried the franchise much more in the action-horror direction, Resident Evil 7 simultaneously took the franchise back to its survival horror roots and in a completely new direction — first-person view. Long gone were the days of high-up camera angles and tank controls, as were the days of close over-the-shoulder shooting. Now, you are given a front-row seat to the terror and disgust that permeates this game. You take on the role of Ethan Winters in search of his missing wife. He tracks her down to this creepy estate in the swamps of Louisiana, but he also learns there’s quite a bit more going on here, as he is surreptitiously stalked and hunted by the grotesque Baker family.
Some games on this list might be a little scarier, and some might have stronger storytelling or voice acting, but Resident Evil 7: Biohazard offers a fantastic balance between every facet of what makes a great horror game.
Primarily relying on more intimate horror over the previous entries' bombastic action (though there’s still plenty of that later on), Resident Evil 7 perfects the experience of being pursued by an unstoppable force, not unlike Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 and Nemesis inResident Evil 3. The jump-scares and body horror steadily ramp up throughout the game, but the truly unforgettable horror of this game comes in those early hours as you sneak around the Baker estate, trying desperately to unlock doors, solve puzzles, and rescue your wife Mia, all while being relentlessly pursued by the Baker family. The first-person perspective is used to great disgusting effect as well, as Ethan’s hands (the only part of his body you really see throughout the game) are tortured and abused to an almost comical level, which only continues further in the sequel,Resident Evil Village.
Some games on this list might be a little scarier, and some might have stronger storytelling or voice acting, but Resident Evil 7: Biohazard offers a fantastic balance between every facet of what makes a great horror game. Even if you prefer third-person horror, any fan of horror at any level owes it to themselves to play Resident Evil 7.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
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