Summary
What is it that scares you most? Spiders? Monsters under the bed? Maybe the feeling of getting lost or the past catching up to you? No matter what keeps you up at night,horror gamesare a surefire way to bring your darkest nightmares to life.
Whether through surrealism or psychological horror, video games have a knack for getting inside your head and bringing to light everything that makes your flesh crawl. The following titles aren’t just scary. They feel like stepping into literal nightmares. Turn off the lights, put on headphones, and get ready to face your fears.
Recurring nightmares are some of the spookiest dreams out there, and no game better captures that than Slay the Princess. ThisLovecraftian visual novelplaces you outside a cabin in the woods. A strange, disembodied voice says there’s a princess inside, and it’s your job to kill her. Otherwise, the world will end. Upon entry, you realize something far more sinister waits for you inside. Will you follow through with your task? Or search for the truth on your own terms?
Slay the Princess has you relive the same scenario over and over again, with different paths based on the choices you make. Each go-around offers a new frightening twist, from blood-curdling body horror to uncanny eldritch monsters. If you’ve ever felt stuck re-experiencing the same dream, this game provides that same kind of terror plus a fascinating mystery.
Limbo is one of themost famous indie horror games, and for a good reason. This spooky puzzler puts you in a monochromatic forest on a journey to find your lost sister. With no dialogue or exposition to guide you, you must rely solely on your wits to survive the woods' devilish traps and spine-tingling creatures.
This forest is home to many disturbing monsters straight from your scariest dreams, including a colossal spider and a brain-eating parasite. However, it’s the game’s clever brain-teasers that truly make the experience stand out. Immersive, surreal, and endlessly creepy, Limbo never fails to make you shudder.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 perfectly captures the childhood fear of monsters under the bed. You experience the nightmares of a young child with a fear of animatronics. Large, tattered robots break into your house, and it’s up to you to listen for their footsteps, peek into the hall, and shut the door when they get too close.
The FNAF series is known formaking you feel completely defenseless, and this game is no exception. Nothing is more panic-inducing than fending off bloodthirsty creatures as they attempt to sneak into your bedroom. Throw in some complex and ambiguous lore, and FNAF 4 will both terrify you and make you think.
Set in the 1940s, Fran Bow is a creepy point-and-click game that uses psychological horror to create blood-curdling frights. The story follows a girl named Fran who gets lost in the woods after witnessing her parents' murder. Traumatized and scared beyond belief, Fran must cope with her devastating reality while surviving the forest’s many unsettling ghouls.
The game takes a deep dive into the struggles of grief, loss, and mental health management. Each bizarre creature symbolizes a new hurdle Fran must overcome to find peace. The intricate plot and cleverly designed puzzles create an engaging, terrifying journey worth experiencing at least once.
One of the most common nightmares involves being chased, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent fully encapsulates that fear. You control an amnesia-riddled protagonist named Daniel, who wakes up in the monster-infested Brennenburg Castle. To survive, you must solve a slew of head-scratching puzzles while avoiding the many nightmarish creatures roaming the halls.
Amnesia is widely considered among themost influential survival horror gamesthanks to the sheer feeling of helplessness it evokes. With no means of defending yourself, your only options are to run or hide. Lingering in the darkness or looking at a monster for too long triggers even more terrifying events. It was horrifying when it launched in 2010, and it’s still just as scary today.
Layers of Fear is a first-personpsychological horror gameabout an artist trapped in a spooky Victorian mansion. You control a person known only as the Painter, who wanders around his old, decaying estate in search of inspiration for his final painting. The more you progress, the more twisted and distorted the manor becomes as the Painter is haunted by his tragic past.
The goal is to explore, solve puzzles, and piece together the tragedy that torments the protagonist. This game really knows how to mess with you, featuring rapidly changing environments and bizarre illusions to make you question everything you see. Check it out for some reality-bending scares.
Nothing is scarier than the past coming back to haunt you, which is the core theme of the legendary survival horror game Silent Hill 2. The plot follows James Sunderland, who’s lured to a haunted town by a letter from his dead wife. Along the way, he encounters a number of bone-chilling frights, including townsfolk who know a little too much about him and an indestructible monster known as Pyramid Head.
Without spoiling too much, Silent Hill 2 is all about unraveling a dark secret from James' past. Every person and creature symbolizes a part of his unsettling history and the soul-crushing guilt he endures because of it. In a way, the town is one big metaphor, creating an emotional, thought-provoking, and terrifying experience that all horror fans should try.
Little Nightmares truly lives up to its name, taking you through a surreal world filled with everything that haunted your childhood dreams. Take control of a young girl named Six, who’s trapped in a nightmarish realm called the Maw. Using a mix of platforming and puzzle-solving, you must find a way to survive the many terrors that lurk in the darkness.
No other game better showcases the horrors of the world from a kid’s perspective. Each monster is a grotesque representation of a childhood fear, ranging from a giant, cannibalistic chef to a twisted, child-capturing janitor. If you want to give yourself goosebumps, Little Nightmares should go at the top of your to-play list.
