In the past few years, horror culture in the creative arts has skyrocketed. Fans of numerous iconic series across film, TV, and gaming have been treated immensely with new content, reboots, remasters, and more. With more powerful consoles and updates constantly being made, the gaming industry is inundated with fresh horror projects to keep you occupied and terrified.
RelatedThe Best Xbox Series X|S Games Of All Time
Since its launch in 2020, the Xbox Series X & S have amassed a library of games readily available - these ones are the best of the bunch.
Posts By Ben JesseyWhile the line between console exclusives and multi-platform titles thins, it’s a great time to be an Xbox gamer. The continuous reprisal of classics getting the remaster treatment, the influx of new and innovative indie projects, and the ongoing evolution of respected series make horror gaming an exciting genre to keep an eye on.
Updated on October 6, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: No matter the time of the year, you can always rely on horror games to be released in droves, with studios always keeping horror fans fed with constant ports and new installments of games. As the Xbox Series X|S continues to receive an influx of new horror titles, here are some more you should know about!
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
Relive The Classic Zombie Horror With Next-Gen Graphics
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
Released September 19, 2024 Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Platform(s) PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC Powered by Expand CollapseAlmost two decades after the game's original launch, The Willamette Parkview Mall has reopened in next-gen for some updated zombie carnage with protagonist Frank West. Capcom's Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is made with the RE Engine, so not only do all the environments and character models look more refined, but there are plenty of other improvements and changes as well.
Dead Rising is a fantastic alternative to Capcom's other zombie horror game series, Resident Evil. Instead of tighter spaces and more suspenseful encounters, you have large crowds of zombies populating every area of a shopping mall and its surrounding areas, where any item you pick up, no matter how comical, can be treated as a weapon. The game's Psychopath system also introduces a scary killer component.
The Casting Of Frank Stone
A Supermassive And Dead By Daylight Collab For Double The Horror
The Casting of Frank Stone
Released September 3, 2024 Developer(s) Supermassive Games Publisher(s) Behaviour Interactive Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S Powered by Expand CollapseResponsible for their own masterful brand of cinematic choice-driven horror games, Supermassive's The Casting of Frank Stone continues in that direction, while also serving as a spin-off for Behaviour Interactive's Dead by Daylight. By the end of the game, it's clear there's a new Killer to be inducted into the DBD universe, but the story of how you get there bends both time and reality.
RelatedThe Best Horror Games On PC
Spooky scares aplenty with these horrifying horror games on PC.
Posts By Matt MckeownThe Casting of Frank Stone transports you to the '60s, '80s, and present-day in 2024. You'll follow a group of teenagers who are amateur actors and filmmakers working on what will become a cursed project known as Murder Mill, filmed inside the Cedar Steel Mill where serial killer Frank Stone claimed his victims. The modern-day storyline follows a group of strangers turning over their pieces of film to a collector in a mansion harboring Lovecraftian secrets.
Lunacy: Saint Rhodes
Another Creepy And Intriguing Flashlight-Wielding Horror Game
Like similar first-person horror games where it's just you and your flashlight, Lunacy: Saint Rhodes will come with the same aesthetics and mechanics. This one takes you to the titular town of Saint Rhodes, where your protagonist's family has been murdered, and you have to get to the bottom of what dark and disturbing supernatural secrets lie behind the killings.
You'll investigate your family's home and the outskirts of town, where scary entities lurk and objects will move in ways that will make you question reality. Add on the stress of finding puzzle items and solving them in this atmospheric haunted house environment, and Lunacy: Saint Rhodes will prove one of the eeriest games you've played in a while.
The Mortuary Assistant
The Former PC-Exclusive Can Now Terrify You On Series X|S
The Mortuary Assistant
Released August 2, 2022 Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch Developer DarkStone Digital Publisher Dread XP Powered by Expand CollapseCan you think of a scarier profession than working late hours alone in a morgue, where dead bodies are lying around everywhere, waiting for you to embalm them? Well, The Mortuary Assistant puts you in the shoes of a person tasked with such a job. But for an even more terrifying twist, the mortuary you're working in happens to be haunted by demons that are now trying to possess you.
RelatedShort (But Scary) Horror Games Worth Playing
They may not take long to beat, but these short horror games are scary enough to be more than worth your time.
PostsHaving launched in 2022 on PC, this acclaimed horror experience now officially finds a new home on consoles, like the Xbox Series X|S. You'll learn a little something about working as a mortician, and be absolutely terrified by the short yet thrilling and unsettling hauntings that this game throws at you.
Alone In The Dark
A Worthy Successor To The Classic Video Game
Alone in the Dark
Released March 20, 2024 Developer(s) Pieces Interactive Publisher(s) THQ Nordic Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S Powered by Expand CollapseWas Alone in the Dark (2024) as successful as other horror game remakes? Sadly, no. However, it's still a great Alone in the Dark game that set out to be a modern retelling of the original. Taking you back to Derceto Manor in the Southern Gothic landscape of 1920s Louisiana, you're once more able to assume the roles of Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood, who here are voiced and performed by actors David Harbour and Jodie Comer.
Like the 1992 game, Emily is on a quest for answers about her uncle, Jeremy Hartwood, where otherworldly dimensions and Lovecraftian horrors quickly creep in. The lighting and environment design, ghastly creature concepts by artist Guy Davis, and the story and directing from Amnesia and Soma writer Mikael Hedberg ultimately make it an atmospheric, story-driven mystery that far outshines the less-spectacular combat.
Ad Infinitum
The Great War Is Even More Frightening Than Before
Ad Infinitum
Released September 9, 2023 Platform(s) PS5, PS4, Xbox One, PC Developer Hekate GmbH, Hekate Publisher Nacon, RealDecisions Powered by Expand CollapseGoing through WWI on the frontlines is already a harrowing and traumatizing experience in and of itself, but Ad Infinitum adds more eeriness to that premise with its terrifying creatures and psychological horror elements. It's genuinely as nightmare fuel as war can get.
Similar to Amnesia: The Bunker, you're alone in the trenches and facing inexplicable creatures and grotesque phantoms, which challenge your perception of reality as well as your past and present. The scares come almost non-stop, and the puzzles will likewise keep you on your toes.
The Outlast Trials
A Different Horror Vision With Equal, If Not Better, Results
The Outlast Trials
Released May 18, 2023 Developer(s) Red Barrels Publisher(s) Red Barrels Platform(s) PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S Powered by Expand CollapseRed Barrels went in a completely new direction with the Outlast series' next installment. The Outlast Trials is not only a prequel to the original game set in the late 1950s, but now also a multiplayer co-op survival horror experience. That's right. You and up to three other players will now be the Murkoff Corporation's test subjects in a series of trials you'll have to brave through in order to win.
RelatedThe Best Horror Games On PS4, Ranked
From Resident Evil to Until Dawn, the PS4 has a number of great horror titles — and we've ranked the best of them all.
PostsEven though it's not a singleplayer horror walking sim experience, The Outlast Trials manages to somehow be even more gruesome, disturbing, gory, and suspenseful than the previous entries. You can think of this game as if the movies Hostel, Saw, and The Cabin in the Woods all came together for a cross-over video game adaptation.
Alan Wake 2
A Once In A Lifetime Horror Game Experience
Alan Wake 2
Released October 27, 2023 Developer(s) Remedy Entertainment Publisher(s) Epic Games Platform(s) PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Powered by Expand CollapseAlan Wake 2 offers both masterful video game storytelling and masterful survival horror gameplay that's sure to keep you uneasy the entire way through. Besides the incredible horror atmosphere established in Bright Falls and the Dark Place being inspired by Silent Hill, the game has a very unique way of handling jumpscares, which are sure to get you countless times throughout.
The story takes place right where the last game and Control's DLC left off. You'll experience the plot through two different perspectives – FBI Agent Saga Anderson and haunted literary author Alan Wake –and see how their literal stories collide in a very mind-bending narrative, filled with homages to David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Remedy's multiverse. The highly creative and original Night Springs DLC is also a must-play after the main story!
Still Wakes The Deep
An Immersive Oil Rig Horror Experience You Didn't Know You Needed
Still Wakes the Deep
Released June 18, 2024 Developer(s) The Chinese Room Publisher(s) Secret Mode Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S Powered by Expand CollapseIt's not too often that a memorable and highly replayable linear first-person horror game comes along. Still Wakes the Deep is probably one you won't stop thinking about any time soon and keep coming back to, even if you've already played through it multiple times. It's genuinely able to encapsulate multiple fears into one game, all with a brilliant Lovecraftian narrative steering the experience.
Related12 Games To Play If You Liked John Carpenter's The Thing
The irony of looking for games that copy The Thing.
Posts 4 By Mackenzee HardykThe story is gripping, the graphics and visuals are photorealistic and truly capture that feeling of being on an oil rig where things go wrong very quickly. The mysterious growth from the bottom of the sea and the infection it brings to the rig is fascinating, mysterious, and cosmic horror at its finest, as well as the grotesque creatures that are created from it. The voice acting also features some of the best performances you'll ever hear in the genre.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
A Must-Play 360 Horror Game
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Released November 22, 2005 Developer(s) Monolith Productions Publisher(s) Sega Platform(s) PC, Xbox 360 Powered by Expand CollapseThe Xbox 360 had some killer launch titles, including Call of Duty 2 and Kameo, but another excellent one was Condemned: Criminal Origins. Developed by Monolith Productions, creators of Fear and No One Lives Forever, Condemned offers a stellar atmosphere with its abandoned, rundown buildings that's still effective to this day.
It's one of those games where you'll be checking every corner for every big step you take because enemies arrive suddenly and abruptly. Future Silent Hill games were even influenced by Condemned, with one specific memorable sequence. It's a shame the sequel didn't deliver, but the original is a must-play horror title from this era.
