Summary
What’s a bettersource of horrorthan the other predators who share the planet with us? There are a lot of games that take inspiration from animals for companions, or even protagonists, but what about the games that make use of animals as a source of tension and fear?
A game doesn’t even need to be a horror game to remind you of the awesome power of nature. These games will make you think twice about animal companions and NPCs in other games. They also might make you think twice about how safe you are when you’re out in the wild.
10Zoochosis
Horrific Animal Mutations
In this bodycam horror game, you play as a zookeeper who has to keep your animals from mutating into horrific abominations. Since you can’t die, this is a zoo simulator with a very dark twist. You have to make sure you’re cleaning up after the animals, feeding them, and, curing them so that they don’t become nightmare fuel.
Depending on how well you do this, there are multiple endings. The animal mutations are the scariest part of the game, and once you see what they can turn into, you’re not going to be able to see the normal animals the same way again.
9Rental
A Darker Animal Crossing
If your current association with animals in gaming are the very cute creatures of Animal Crossing, here’s a game to turn that on its head.The game is very short,it’s free, and it’s definitely creepy.
You play as a little bunny named Umi, and your parents have rented a small cabin on the beach for the summer. While this sounds great, the reality of the situation is darker than the caretaker had let on before you arrived.
8Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Chased By A Rabid Bear
In a world of serial killers, hallucinations, and cults, what’s the scariest thing you may possibly imagine? If you thought a rabid bear, then you’re on the exact same page as this game. This huge, aggressive animal is a terrifying reminder of just how scary real bears are.
you may’t even fight this enemy until you get a certain item. You just have to avoid it, which leads to a heart-stopping chase sequence. If it catches you, you’ll automatically be killed, no matter where your health is at. Those are the stakes, and that makes this normal-looking bear the scariest thing in a game full of horrors.
7Animal Well
Unsettling Creatures
Travel down into the depths of this strange, neon labyrinth, which is home to strange new animals of all different shapes and sizes. You play a character best described as ‘a little guy,’ navigating puzzles that are much bigger than you in this gorgeous pixel landscape.
While this certainly isn’t a horror game, you’ll find yourself running (and jumping) for your life more times than you can count as you explore. And even if that doesn’t leave you scared of animals, there are certainly some unsettling creatures in this world that fit the category of ‘haunting.’
6Legend Of Zelda
Fear The Unkillable Cucco
There is very real fear involved in the first time you ever discover what happens if you hit one of those kickable little birds too many times. In a lesson about avoiding animal cruelty, the cuccos of Legend of Zelda will strike back if you anger them too much, and they’ll do it with a vengeance.
When a swarm of cuccos attacks there’s nothing you can do: they’re an unkillable hoard. And while they may not succeed in ending you, they are a good reminder that even cute animals can hide a scary side.
These Animals Are Real And Could Hurt You
Arthur Morgan, who’s just a normal man, is here to remind you that normal people are, in fact, very vulnerable to normal animals. In this game, they don’t need to be mutated or supernatural in order to strike fear into our hearts. Specifically, you’ll find yourself getting very accounted with what it’s like to be mauled by a panther as you try to hunt one.
What makes these encounters so tense isn’t that the animals are unbeatable, or even that they’re aggressive, it’s that they’re based on realistic encounters. When you encounter alligators, bears, and panthers in-game, you come away from them knowing you do have to share a world with those creatures.
4Resident Evil
Zombies, Dogs, And Snakes, Oh My
One of the most iconic enemies in the Resident Evil games is the zombie dog. They’re not only creepy to look at, they’re fast, agile, and often travel in packs, making your first encounter with them memorable. No longer man’s best friend, these dogs can get our hair standing on edge before we even see them, when we hear them coming.
Of course, dogs aren’t the only animals impacted by the experimentation happening in this series. There’s also, notably, a very, very big snake nicknamed Yawn that might trigger ophidiophobia (if you didn’t already have it).
3A Plague Tale
What Lurks In The Dark
As the name Plague Tale suggests, these games are completely rife with rats. So rife with rats that this lurking, ever-present living mass of creatures is always just one step away from completely overwhelming and devouring you. They’re an unkillable and unavoidable swarm, only afraid of light.
But that means the teeming mass of flesh is always ready to catch you in the dark, thousands of mouths gnawing down to the bone in what is undoubtedly a gruesome death. What’s more terrifying than that?
2Far Cry Primal
Nature At It’s Fiercest
If you want a taste of what it’s like to survive in a world that willdefinitely kill yougiven the chance,Far Cry Primal brings that very dog-eat-dog fantasy to life. There are a lot of animals in the game, and most of them can, and will, try and hurt you.
Though your character, Takkar, has the ability to tame and use these animals, it doesn’t take away from how, well, primal these encounters are. Both the animals you send to attack and the animals attacking you, might have you looking over your shoulder the next time you’re out alone and hear an animal in the distance.
1Depth
Heart-Pounding Shark Combat
If Shark Week, and all the low-to-mid-budget shark movies that have come out in the wake of Jaws’s success, weren’t enough to make you afraid of sharks, you could try playing Depth. In this multi-player game, you may play as either the shark or the human diver, trying to kill or be killed as you explore.
As if the depths weren’t scary enough,this game has filled the ocean to the brim with the most violent, exaggerated version of its best-known predator, which will hunt you relentlessly. It’s enough to make you never want to try diving.
