Summary
The besthorror gameswould be nothing without their atmospheric locations that make you feel a certain sense of unease, and most spots go on to become characters of their own in the story. Aside from the creatures and gameplay moments, what you might often remember the most about a particularly influential horror game is where it took place.
Throughout survival horror gaming history, there have been tons of memorable and unique settings where developers wanted to leave a lasting impression on you. From oil rigs to pizza restaurants, fog-ridden ghost towns, zombie-infested malls and mansions, castles, and mental asylums, these are the spookiest and most iconic ones!
11The Beira D Oil Rig
Still Wakes The Deep
While a newer horror game setting,Still Wakes the Deep’s Beira D oil rig is worthy of taking its place as an iconic horror game location. Developer The Chinese Room did a wonderful job with this setting, allowing you to feel claustrophobic and be in constant peril across every detailed part of the rig you find yourself in, especially when you’re on the run from Lovecraftian monsters.
The Beira D is a Scottish oil rig in the North Sea. It came across something otherwordly that resulted in infections among the crew that turned them into horrifying creatures. The layout and level design around the oil rig is super intricate and realistic,especially with the engine being Unreal 5. It also includes a suspenseful underwater section that is so immersive that you might feel like you’re drowning with your character.
10Willamette Parkview Mall
With the launch of 2024’s Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, this location of zombie carnage from the Dead Rising series has never been more iconic and relevant. The Willamette Parkview Mall marks the setting of the original Dead Rising game, where you followphotojournalist Frank Westas he mows down zombies floor-to-floor and store-to-store.
This zombie-infested mall idea Capcom decided to go with undoubtedly takes some inspiration from Dawn of the Dead, and there’s truly no better setting to encounter hordes upon never-ending hordes of zombies in. Interacting with all the items in every store and room,whether for a weaponor an article of clothing, is great fun.
9Derceto Manor
Alone In The Dark And Alone In The Dark (2024)
Alone in the Dark is a classic survival horror game series predating Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and its haunting location, Derceto Manor, is where the original chapter takes place. Derceto is an atmospheric Gothic mansion in 1920s Louisiana with a darker Lovecraftian history behind it, which protagonists Emily Hartwood and PI Edward Carnby will investigate while encountering eldritch terrors.
It’s one of the earliest ‘haunted house-style’ horror games, and the puzzles, creatures, and rooms within Derceto Manor may bring back nostalgic memories. The 2024 remake of Alone in the Dark by Pieces Interactive likewise does the story and setting justice to bring it to a modern audience,even if the gameplay falters in parts.
8Mount Massive Asylum
Outlast And Outlast: Whistleblower
Outlast is a game where it’s just you and your video camera trying to document evidence for a journalistic assignment. The only problem? The area you’re investigating is the Mount Massive Asylum, where truly disturbing things are happening with the patients. And you have no other defenses except to run and hide from enemies, making it one of the most terrifying gaming experiences.
Old, decrepit hospitals are done a lot in horror games, but none quite capture the atmosphere in the same way Outlast does with its first-person found footage and no-combat formula. You surely won’t be forgetting your harrowing journey inside Mount Massive anytime soon, with the Outlast: Whistleblower DLC further showing a new character’s perspective in Mount Massive Asylum.
7Brennenburg Castle
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Even though 2023’s Amnesia: The Bunker can give it a close run for its money, the original Amnesia game, Dark Descent, will always be the best in the series and has the most iconic location. Brennenburg Castle, located in East Prussia and cursed by the otherworldly forces acting upon it, is host to lots of puzzlesand unrelenting monstersthat chase you until your sanity becomes affected.
It’s the perfect location for a horror game, especially one that’s first-person and relies on you keeping your lantern burning. Wandering the castle’s mysterious halls as Daniel, the environments, creatures, and lore will leave you just as unsettled as your protagonist.
6Bright Falls, Cauldron Lake, And The Dark Place
Alan Wake Series
Remedy’s Alan Wake is an iconic Lynchianand Twin Peaks-inspired seriesin its own right, and that’s mainly due to its setting and eccentric cast of characters. The Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Washington, is a core location of Alan Wake and its 2023 sequel. It’s where you have the Oh Deer Diner, Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station, Elderwood Palace Lodge, Valhalla Nursing Home, Pat Maine’s radio station, and, of course, the neighboring Cauldron Lake.
Alan Wake 2 introduces FBI Agent Saga Anderson into the storyline, and she gets to have her experiences fighting Taken and meeting the locals in Bright Falls as Deerfest approaches. Meanwhile, Alan spends his chapters being guided by his wife, Alice, in escaping the Dark Place. Thus, The Dark Place now becomes an essential location, a darker version of NYC hosting the Oceanview Hotel, Parliament Tower, the subway tunnels, Poet’s Cinema, and the talk show In Between with Mr. Door.
5USG Ishimura
In Dead Space, you’re an engineer with a badass, minimal HUD suit wielding weapons meant to dismember the sharp limbs of Necromorph enemies through brutal combat. And it’s all happening on the USG Ishimura planet-cracking ship. Space horror games truly don’t get more iconic than Dead Space, perhapsone of the best EA games of all time.
From the moment you arrive in the ship’s docking bay and have your first Necromorph encounter in the Flight Lounge to using the ship’s upgrade benches, exploring all the eerie environmental storytelling and Unitology lore, and getting acquainted with the masterful sound design and lighting, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, despite all the unnerving horror.
4Rapture
BioShock Series
The award for the most amazing world reveal in a video game still goes to the original BioShock. The underwater civilization of Rapture and all its architectural wonders will always feel surreal to take in, no matter how many times you walk into the lighthouse and enter the bathysphere at the beginning.
Rapture was envisioned as an underwater utopia by Andrew Ryan to be free of existential threats during the Cold War,and maybe he had the right idea, but things quickly took a turn for the worse. ADAM was what ultimately brought it to ruin, a gene-altering substance that led to the creation of Rapture’s former citizens-turned-enemies called Splicers.
3Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
Five Nights At Freddy’s Series
Game designer Scott Cawthon struck gold with his brilliant use of camera footage gameplay and jumpscares inside the creepy Chuck E. Cheese-esque horror setting of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.Five Nights at Freddy’s started a phenomenonof never-ending sequels, spin-offs, tie-in novels, and even a live-action adaptation from Blumhouse, with 2024’s Into the Pit bringing you to a new 2D pixel art iteration of the pizzeria.
Freddy, Chica, Foxy, Bonnie, Spring Bonnie, and many more animatronics all await their fun in scaring you away from your postas a security guardthroughout each suspenseful installment. And when you discover the dark and disturbing lore behind Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, let’s just say you definitely won’t be wanting pizza anytime soon, or any food for that matter.
2Spencer Mansion And Racoon City Police Department (RPD)
Resident Evil And Resident Evil 2
Before the Resident Evil series turned into a globetrotting action-adventure series taking you to parts of Europe and other virus-afflicted nations, the first three Resident Evil games take place in Raccoon City and its outskirts and stay true to the ‘resident’ in Resident Evil. However, it’s the Spencer Mansion from the first game and the Raccoon City Police Department from Resident Evil 2 that are the most iconic.
Alone in the Dark’s Derceto Manor walked so that Resident Evil’s Spencer Mansion could run. The location, with all of its puzzles, zombie enemies, expansive rooms, and Umbrella experiments and lore, solidified Resident Evil’s place in survival horror game history. Then, in the sequel, you have rookie officer Leon Kennedy, along with Claire Redfield, getting chased all around the RPD by Mr. X.
