Horror and games are made for each other. Sure, the finest horror films are terrifying, but when you add a degree of control and immersion, you can genuinely terrorize anybody. It’s okay to be terrified now and then. The genre has always been with us, prowling in the shadows and occasionally snatching a victim from the mainstream. These terrifying titles will frighten, disturb, and scare you. Whether you’re looking for jump scares or psychological torment, we hope you’ll find it here.
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Outlast & Outlast 2
Outlast & Outlast 2 are both equally horrifying but the sequel is even better. The only tool you have is a camcorder, which you must use to record the horrors of the case you and your reporter wife are investigating. Outlast 2 has an immersive recording system that allows you to record or snap crucial events and messages, then review them with a push of the ‘-‘ button.
A night vision mode is a helpful feature of this recording equipment, and it’s via this grey screen that you’ll see the game’s most ominous moments. Outlast 2 has a disproportionately large amount of unbearably gloomy portions and dialing up the gamma level can only get you so far. Personally, I’ve completed Outlast and I was blown away by the visuals of this game and now I’m moving on to the sequel. Get Outlast & Outlast 2 on Steam today!
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Detention
This psychological horror game deftly combines human flaws with aspects of Chinese traditional religion and a particularly horrific period in Taiwan’s political history.
Detention follows a young student at Greenwood High School in 1960s Taiwan during the White Terror period, when the country was under martial control. During this time, the powerful regime repressed political dissenters, and even students were hauled up and imprisoned for reading “banned” books.
It’s one of the rare games whose success led to a critically praised film of the same name in 2019 and a Netflix series in 2020. For those who prefer playing the game, get Detention here!
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Layers of Fear
The narrative of this psychological horror game puts you in the shoes of a distraught artist striving to finish his magnum opus painting. Indeed, your first objective upon entering his creaky, enormous estate is to locate and complete the incomplete paintings. After a few brushstrokes, our anguished artist begins to experience strange hallucinations that appear to be related to the masterwork’s secrets. This intriguing game will draw you in so check out Layers of Fear on Steam here!
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SCP: Containment Breach
Inspired by the SCP Foundation Wiki, SCP: Containment breach lures me in unlike typical horror games, when something eerie chases you down and you must flee or hide. This game makes certain that every fatality was due to my negligence. It nicely matched my sense of powerlessness in the darkness of the structure while also ensuring that I could always flee. This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this in a horror game.
However, it wasn’t only the game play that kept me going. The tiny events and easter eggs that you could locate to truly contribute to the environment you were in were a big part of my beating this game. When I first started playing the game, I was anxiously seeking for any form of instruction. The body that emerged from the pocket dimension terrified me to death. Normally, that’s when I’d turn off the game, play something less terrifying, and forget about the whole thing but the game continues to pull me in with it alluring gameplay. Check it out for yourself here!
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P.T.
In P.T. players find themselves in a creepy, haunted suburban home. You play in first-person perspective and walk around this strange house finding clues and solving puzzles. If you get caught, you return to the beginning of the current “loop” you’re on, but with various changes and new puzzles to solve.
P.T. was merely a playable teaser for Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills, as the name implies. It was a walking simulator, a response to the idea, “What if Gone Home was a horror game?” It worked almost like a short film in motion, with little interaction but a lot of mood. Fun Fact Lisa (As shown above) will always be right behind you throughout the entire playthrough. Sadly P.T has been pulled out from the PlayStation Store but the PC Port can be found here.
Unlike most video game genres, the horror game genre is not based on gameplay elements, but rather the result of playing the game. These are not for the faint hearted so play what intrigues you instead.
This article was brought to you by Han. I pretend to be broke in order to stay wealthy, yet I’m not wealthy.
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