Best Horror Games

This article compiles the best horror games of all time across different platforms. The selected titles are not necessarily the scariest in their genre, but they are certainly high-quality and engaging. While the list includes both new releases and fairly old games, they remain relevant even in 2025.

One of the first horror games not about fighting monsters but about survival, hiding, and making quick decisions. The protagonist of Clock Tower must avoid a terrifying pursuer armed with massive scissors. The problem is that the so-called Scissorman can appear at any moment in any room of the old mansion, making it nearly impossible to relax, even for a second.

Clock Tower is the ancestor of games featuring vulnerable protagonists, where stealth is the player’s main weapon instead of a gun. Despite its age, it remains a stressful experience, especially if you play the recent remake.

Sci-fi horror games remain rare, so even older titles like System Shock 2 hold great value for fans of futuristic horror. While SS2 has visibly aged in terms of visuals, its gameplay has stood the test of time remarkably well.

The game doesn’t hold the player's hand, forcing them to adapt to the harsh survival conditions aboard the Von Braun spaceship. You must carefully plan combat strategies against deadly cyborgs or find alternative routes if limited resources make direct confrontation too risky.

Strangely enough, many games inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft fail to fully capture the essence of cosmic horror. Lovecraft’s stories are not about defeating monsters but about the insignificance of humans in an endless, indifferent universe. Typically, his protagonists, upon realizing the horrifying truth of existence’s futility, lose their sanity forever.

Eternal Darkness is one of the rare games whose creators truly understood Lovecraft’s themes. The feeling of losing one’s mind is cleverly achieved through metanarrative techniques. The game doesn’t overwhelm the player with hordes of monsters but instead makes them question their own sanity.

As you encounter various terrifying phenomena, the "fourth wall" starts to break down, leading to strange and unexpected occurrences not just for the protagonist but also for the player — ranging from sudden volume drops and controller issues to a fake console reboot. Such techniques are rare in horror games, so if you missed Eternal Darkness over twenty years ago, now is the perfect time to catch up. Its surprises have not aged a bit.

Still the gold standard of the survival horror genre. The remake of the first Resident Evil not only looks stunning (the graphics were updated again in the 2015 remaster) but also impresses with its perfect difficulty balance, complex level design, and unique atmosphere you won’t find in other entries of the series.

The fixed camera angles and unusual controls take some getting used to, but over time, they become a highlight: when you can’t simply peek around a corner to see what kind of monster is making those eerie sounds ahead, the game becomes even more terrifying.

Many argue that since the second game in the series has a stronger narrative than Silent Hill 3, it is automatically the better game. However, evaluating SH3 as a whole rather than by just one criterion makes it clear that this is Team Silent’s finest horror title.

Visually, the game still looks good today (developers fully utilized the PS2’s hardware potential), its atmosphere matches or surpasses its predecessors, and it refines many gameplay elements. The combat system and controls in SH3 are the least frustrating among the classic Silent Hill games.

During gunfights, the first F.E.A.R. is an intense, spectacular shooter featuring smart enemies, powerful weapons, time-slowing mechanics, and impressive visual effects. But once the action dies down, F.E.A.R. transforms into a terrifying horror game filled with eerie visions — such as the sudden appearance of a mysterious ghost girl. The game constantly shifts in tone yet does so seamlessly, never making it feel like two unrelated experiences stitched together.

A gripping blend of detective work and survival horror, Condemned: Criminal Origins stands out for its focus on realism rather than supernatural elements. The game follows an investigation into serial killings and the attempt to understand a killer’s deranged mind.

Condemned is also notable as an action game, featuring one of the best first-person melee combat systems ever created — a benchmark that few horror games have surpassed to this day.

Fifteen years ago, the original Amnesia single-handedly revitalized the stagnant horror genre. While not the first first-person horror game, Amnesia’s success triggered a boom in indie horror titles utilizing a similar perspective.

The game also popularized the concept of a vulnerable protagonist unable to fight back. Even today, Amnesia remains compelling thanks to its unique atmosphere and engaging mechanics, such as the sanity meter, which decreases if you stay in the dark for too long.

The sequel to Dead Space is certainly not as terrifying as the first game or its recent remake, but you’ll hardly find a game that blends horror and action more successfully. Even the legendary Resident Evil 4 falls short in some aspects, such as weapon variety, enemy diversity, and sheer spectacle. Dead Space 2 is a Hollywood blockbuster in the world of horror games, and that’s why we’ve cherished it for all these years.

Red Barrels' project is often called one of the scariest games of all time for a reason. In Outlast, much like in Amnesia, the protagonist is unable to fight back, forcing players to avoid the inhabitants of the abandoned asylum through stealth.

Adding to the tension is the fact that Outlast requires constant use of the night vision mode on the protagonist’s camcorder to see anything in the dark. However, visibility is significantly limited, and battery power must be conserved. In short, Outlast is not a game for those who suffer from claustrophobia.

Some horror fans look down on the first Five Nights at Freddy's, believing horror games shouldn’t be for kids. However, games like FNAF play a crucial role in popularizing the genre.

The snobbery toward Five Nights at Freddy's is misplaced, as it is an excellent game with a unique concept. FNAF essentially pioneered an entire subgenre of horror games where players must monitor different rooms through security cameras and detect anomalies in real time.

No list of the best horror games would be complete without P.T., even though it is technically not a full game but a demo for the canceled Silent Hills by Hideo Kojima. Despite this, the short playable teaser, where the protagonist repeatedly walks down the same hallway, left a lasting impression on both gamers and developers.

Today, experiencing P.T. firsthand is difficult: you’d need to find a PlayStation 4 with the demo already installed, as it was removed from the digital store back in 2014. Alternative options include watching a playthrough on YouTube or trying a fan-made PC port, though the latter may not offer complete authenticity.

The game that proved it is possible to create a truly terrifying horror experience based on the Alien franchise. Alien: Isolation doesn’t scare you with hordes of aliens but with a single, unbeatable, highly intelligent enemy. The monster adapts to the player’s tactics and hunts them like a living, thinking predator. You must rely on stealth and limited resources to distract the Alien or at least drive it away temporarily.

Interestingly, Alien: Isolation was so outstanding that it directly inspired the recent film "Alien: Romulus."

If you appreciate deep, philosophical storytelling, then SOMA is a must-play. It is a terrifying game, though not in the traditional sense: unlike Frictional's other projects, SOMA doesn’t rely on immediate threats from monsters. Instead, its horror comes from the narrative itself and the existential themes it explores — such as the loss of one's identity.

This interactive movie is a love letter to 1980s slashers. Like classic B-movie horror films, Until Dawn is both terrifying and absurdly entertaining. It tells the story of a group of young people trapped in an isolated location, where, as per genre traditions, they begin dying one by one. Who survives and who perishes depends entirely on the player’s decisions.

The most popular asymmetric multiplayer horror game (4 vs 1). In Dead by Daylight, a group of players faces off against a single player who assumes the role of a dangerous killer. The killer's goal is to prevent the survivors from escaping the level, while survivors must repair five generators to open the exit gates.

Dead by Daylight is a true celebration for horror fans. It not only features original killers created by Behaviour Interactive but also iconic villains from movies and games, such as the Xenomorph, Freddy Krueger, and Pyramid Head. Many maps are also inspired by legendary locations from classic horror franchises.

Darkwood throws the player into a sinister forest with no clear objective except “find the stolen key to escape.” Everything else must be figured out independently. By day, you scavenge for supplies, and by night, you rush back to your shelter before dark entities emerge.

Darkwood is a prime example of how a game doesn’t need cutting-edge graphics to instill fear. Its simple visuals are compensated by a genius gameplay mechanic: you can only see monsters within the narrow glow of your flashlight. This builds suspense purely through paranoia.

Arguably the scariest installment in the series. Resident Evil 7 is pure horror, with every aspect of the game designed to terrify players.

The photorealistic graphics make the Baker family's eerie mansion feel like a real place. The performances of the antagonists rival those found in top-tier horror films. The hardcore gameplay ratchets up the tension to its peak — exploring a dark basement is much more frightening when your shotgun has only two shells, aiming is difficult, and enemies sway unpredictably as they move.

The developers learned from the mistakes of the first game and delivered a refined experience that, unlike its predecessor, doesn’t feel derivative. The original TEW borrowed too much from Resident Evil, whereas its sequel introduces fresh ideas to the horror genre.

For instance, The Evil Within 2 experiments with open-world elements, which is rarely seen in horror games. The locations are significantly larger than in traditional horror titles, packed with secrets and even side quests. According to rumors, the upcoming Resident Evil 9 will follow a similar structure, so playing TEW2 now might be a great way to see how horror and open-world mechanics can blend.

A perfect blend of old and new. At first glance, the Resident Evil 2 remake is a modern game with a third-person camera, stunning visuals, and excellent cutscenes. However, the updated RE2 remains faithful to its old-school roots: level design, limited resource management, and puzzle focus are all directly taken from the original.

The developers didn’t sacrifice the essence of the original, fearing that modern audiences wouldn’t appreciate classic gameplay. Quite the opposite — Resident Evil 2 Remake became the most successful game in the series.

Is it possible to make a co-op game truly terrifying? Don’t all multiplayer experiences with friends turn into comedy? Phasmophobia proves that creating a genuinely scary co-op horror is indeed possible.

In this online ghost-hunting game, players must literally communicate with spirits — using voice chat. This feature alone makes the immersion incredibly strong. Moreover, Phasmophobia's voice chat system is designed so that if you stray more than 20 meters from your teammates, they will hardly hear you. Getting lost in the pitch-black darkness of an abandoned hospital and facing a cunning demon alone is all too easy.

The eighth installment in the Resident Evil series feels like a greatest hits collection. Resident Evil Village draws inspiration from multiple past entries: it adopts the first-person view and block mechanic from Resident Evil 7, while its inventory system and merchant mechanics are reminiscent of Resident Evil 4.

Some fans criticize Village for lacking a unique gameplay identity, but this is more of a subjective drawback rather than a true issue—especially for newcomers. If you’ve never played a Resident Evil game before, Village is a great place to start.

An indie horror game with a highly original concept. Players take on the role of a mortuary worker who is unexpectedly called in for a night shift. The task is to prepare five corpses for a funeral service while also figuring out which one is harboring a demon. The process is slow and incredibly unsettling, with the developers crafting dozens — if not hundreds — of terrifying moments that The Mortuary Assistant randomly throws at the player.

Inspired by classic horror games from the late ’90s, SIGNALIS is arguably the best indie game in the vein of old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles. The project deserves praise for its aesthetic, its deep story that will be discussed even a decade from now, and, most importantly, its gameplay. Exploring secret-filled locations, scavenging for ammo and medkits, and planning optimal routes to avoid deadly monsters make for an incredibly engaging experience.

Motive approached the development of the Dead Space remake much like Capcom did nearly twenty-five years ago when they reimagined the first Resident Evil. Similarly, the new Dead Space faithfully recreates the original with modern visuals, enhancing rather than removing content. The level design is more intricate, an AI director adds unpredictability to encounters, and even side quests — absent in the original — have been introduced. This is how remakes should be done.

Many fans of the original RE4 viewed it as nearly perfect and were initially skeptical of a remake. However, the updated Resident Evil 4 proved that modernization was indeed worthwhile.

The new RE4 is even more dynamic, thanks to refined controls, smarter enemies, and new mechanics like knife parrying. The expanded environments make exploration more engaging, and the remake’s more mature tone enhances the horror elements that were somewhat lacking in the original RE4.

Like Alien: Isolation, Amnesia: The Bunker is a game about claustrophobia and a constantly adapting monster. However, Amnesia is even bleaker — at least due to its setting. It’s hard to imagine a darker location than a World War I-era bunker.

From a gameplay perspective, The Bunker pushes the horror genre forward by incorporating immersive sim elements. The game encourages creative thinking and allows for experimentation with mechanics. Every locked room can be entered in multiple ways, each with varying degrees of risk. You can search for a key, crawl through ventilation shafts, or simply blow the door open with a grenade.

Remedy’s first full-fledged horror game isn’t particularly terrifying, but it is highly atmospheric and unusual. Alan Wake 2 captivates players with its unique storytelling: the game presents a bizarre narrative where the line between reality and fiction blurs so much that even game director Sam Lake is written into the story. He plays three different characters, including himself.

Alan Wake 2 is not just an innovative narrative experiment but also a well-crafted survival horror experience, featuring memorable locations, terrifying enemies, and the genre’s signature resource management.

It would be unfair to call last year’s Alone in the Dark a flawless game. There are issues, unfortunately. However, despite its shortcomings, it remains engaging — and isn’t that what matters most? Survival horror fans will appreciate many aspects of this title: the eerie atmosphere, intricate level design, puzzles, and the option to experience the campaign from the perspective of two different protagonists.

Many Silent Hill fans doubted that the Polish studio Bloober Team could successfully reimagine the legendary second installment. Their skepticism wasn’t unfounded, as the company’s past projects weren’t exactly flawless. However, the developers approached this task with great care and exceeded all expectations.

They didn’t alter what was already perfect — the story. While it has been slightly expanded and refined, its core elements remain untouched. The biggest changes, and all for the better, lie in the gameplay. The remake transforms SH2’s weakest aspect with a new combat system, improved level design, and more engaging puzzles.

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If your favorite horror game isn’t on our list, don’t worry! We’ll periodically update this article with new additions. Let us know in the comments which games should be included next!