Horror games are one of the most beloved genres of gaming that have a track record of coming in twos or threes, sometimes even stemming entire franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It's hard to choose a favorite when presented with such a variety, and some of the best and most impactful ones that stand on their own often get left out.
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Not all horror games should or do get a sequel, and that's perfectly alright. Whether the developers decide to continue branching out into different projects or simply don't want to mess with the captivating storyline they achieved, the standalone games become some of their most effective works.
10 Call Of Cthulhu
Influences of H.P. Lovecraft can be found in many existing horror games, but 2018's Call of Cthulhu is definitively based on the classic board game, which is based on the various stories and novellas by Lovecraft, going as far as to be named after one of them. The gameplay may not be the best, as the game tries to juggle stealth, investigation, and RPG elements of upgrading skills, but it conveys a compelling Lovecraftian narrative.
Call of Cthulhu creates a lot of intrigue and uncertainty around the gloomy atmosphere of Dark Water Island, where the game takes place. The premise has you become private eye Edward Pierce, there to investigate the tragic death of the Hawkins family in a house fire, which turns into a nightmarish series of supernatural phenomena and psychological horror.
9 Soma
Soma appears to be the only game thus far without a sequel from the hit horror studio Frictional Games, publishers of the Penumbra and the Amnesia games. Soma also pivots away from their past titles by taking to the aquatic horror environment of a research station that lies deep below the sea but still keeps in line with the no-combat aesthetic.
Set in the future year of 2104, Soma tells a narrative where humanity has gone extinct, and its final remnants are in the underwater facility of PATHOS-II, currently inhabited by eerily human-like androids that have gone rogue. Parallel to Amnesia, you're desperate to uncover the pieces of your fading recollection of events under unsettling sci-fi circumstances.
8 Days Gone
It's no secret now that there won't be any further installments of Days Gone from Bend Studio, but that doesn't stop it from being a spectacular zombie horror game that opted for a new experience. A great way to describe Days Gone is that its gameplay is a cross between slaughtering massive hordes of zombies prevalent in Dead Rising with the drama and emotional story of The Last of Us.
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Days Gone centers on the post-apocalyptic life of Deacon St. John, an ex-affiliate of the Mongrels Motorcycle Club biker gang traveling around the devastated Oregon landscape with his best friend in hopes of locating his presumably deceased wife. The game is remarkable for delivering intense sequences involving overwhelmingly large hordes of “freakers,” along with a terrifying variety of their different forms.
7 Blair Witch
The 1999 cult horror film The Blair Witch Project had a bit of a revival in the 2010s, first with a new movie in 2016 and then a game by Bloober Team in 2019. Blair Witch takes you back to the ominous Black Hills forest in Burkittsville, Maryland as a former police officer trying to locate missing nine-year-old local Peter Shannon.
The Blair Witch Project inspired the popular found-footage horror genre. Therefore, the development team incorporated that aspect into their puzzles, allowing you to manipulate objects in time by rewinding video camera recordings. Blair Witch is reminiscent of Slender: The Arrival, but here you have a lovely dog companion named Bullet to aid you with retrieving items and providing some relief.
6 The Quarry
The Quarry is the latest interactive horror narrative from developer Supermassive Games. And continuing with the trend of their previous games, the notable faces appearing in the cast are alone enough to hook you in. The characters even include horror film industry veterans like David Arquette, Lin Shaye, Lance Henriksen, and Ted Raimi.
The Quarry sets its backdrop against the wilderness of a family-owned summer camp and follows a group of counselors forced to remain an extra night on the grounds, unaware of the harrowing situations that'll soon test their survival. The story is once again its own contained narrative with an original plot unrelated to the other anthology games or Until Dawn, yet just as riveting.
5 Bloodborne
Though it may not be considered a horror title in the traditional sense, FromSoftware's Bloodborne is certainly one of those games drawing inspiration from the works of author H.P. Lovecraft. Hidetaka Miyazaki is known for designing acclaimed Soulsborne games like the Dark Souls series, Sekiro, and the latest Elden Ring, but Bloodborne is a rare astounding piece of gothic horror.
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In this FromSoftware game, you play as a Hunter seeking a cure for an unidentified sickness in the blood-curdling city of Yharnam. The setting accomplishes an incredibly brooding and chilling atmosphere complimented by the detailed Gothic architecture dominating the landscape, hazy shadowy areas within the level design, and grotesque infected enemies and giant bosses that will obliterate you in combat.
4 Until Dawn
While Until Dawn received a rather unsuccessful spin-off, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, and a 2017 VR prequel game called The Inpatient, a sequel never truly happened. Supermassive Games went on to develop the first season of their Dark Pictures Anthology and, of course, The Quarry. Still, Until Dawn remains one of their best interactive horror offerings.
The game achieves a better twist than The Quarry, one that creatively blends horror genres. It also captures a more atmospheric horror feel with the snowstorm trapping the characters on a secluded mountain and features more locations where the horrors follow, such as an abandoned sanatorium, a defunct mine, and a cabin retreat.
3 The Witch's House
Don't let the vibrant JRPG pixel art aesthetic of The Witch's House fool you because it's one shockingly dark and disturbing game. You may start along a lush forest path brimming with beautiful red roses, but your destination lies in the haunted corners of a mysterious old house built upon eerie puzzles and jump scares.
That's just some of what you'll have to endure throughout the game, and death—lots of possible deaths. The Witch's House has a brilliant way of never letting you shake off the constant unease you're feeling through the disturbing revelations revealed within the story and the fear of never knowing what awaits you around the next area.
2 The Medium
Bloober Team's The Medium, is exceptional for bringing a classic Silent Hill horror ambiance with a unique technical twist. Unlike their previous games, which were ultimately first-person psychological horror, The Medium switches to a third person, fixed camera movement, and an innovative 'split screen' design to represent the split between reality and the spirit realm.
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The game's haunting narrative of a medium caught between two worlds and the puzzles requiring you to utilize both alternate dimensions are intricately crafted. The overall mood is quite bleak, and the plot slowly comes together, but the environment art is gorgeous, styled in a way that makes you feel like everywhere you're walking is a painting.
1 Dead By Daylight
All these previous games mentioned so far have been single-player story-driven experiences. Dead by Daylight flips the script on many of these horror game styles and creates a thrilling online multiplayer gameplay system modeled after slasher films. You can either assume the role of the killer or one of four survivors tasked to escape the killer's sinister wrath.
Dead by Daylight is a perfect example of a horror game that doesn't benefit from getting a sequel of any sort. The formula works great as is, and the endless amount of expansion DLCs that consistently add new slashers from licensed franchises for you to play should prove sufficient to satisfy anyone's horror needs.
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