The most effective horror video games to play in 2024

Partway between a point-and-click journey and an idle recreation, The Longing is a soulful, typically darkly comedic reflection on solitude, persistence, and actually, life itself. You play as a small, sooty-looking servant referred to as the Shade, who serves a titanic king, alone and deep underground. Because the king enters an uninterruptible sleep, he instructions you to wake him in 400 days, at which level he’ll finish all concern and longing on this planet. A timer then seems on the high of the display screen, and the 400 days begin to elapse in actual time, even when the sport is closed.

What occurs from there may be as much as you. You’ll be able to wait the precise year-plus and see what occurs. You’ll be able to defy your orders and search the surface world. You’ll be able to merely exist someplace in between, studying public-domain books, adorning your underground dwelling, exploring the caverns, taking your time. It doesn’t matter what, the clock retains ticking, every second its personal determination. To name The Longing an acquired style could be an understatement: It’s glacially sluggish by design, with no enemies to combat or dense gameplay techniques to sink into. However few video games are as provocative or singularly centered because of this. It’s the type of venture that makes you marvel why extra video video games aren’t so audacious. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter

INDIKA is a visceral recreation. It’s a (principally) third-person narrative journey set in another nineteenth century Russia, and it stars an ostracized nun, Indika, who has the satan’s voice in her head. From this basis, the sport presents a flurry of whimsical absurdity, spiritual criticism and uncooked human struggling, all the time with a wink and a nod.

Your entire recreation is underpinned by a delirious rigidity between levity and agony, and the builders at Odd Meter obtained the steadiness good. Indika’s actuality is a frozen hellscape crammed with ache and isolation, however she additionally encounters laugh-out-loud moments that make the expertise really feel extra like a rom-com than a psychodrama a couple of unhappy nun. The sport additionally slips right into a lighter visible fashion because it delves into Indika’s previous, mining recollections out of pixelated platformers in sun-drenched environments.

INDIKA is a masterful instance of maturity in video video games. That mentioned, it contains scenes of sexual violence — although they’re dealt with delicately and don’t really feel exploitative. INDIKA thrives within the messy space between pleasure and discomfort, and it’s value a play for anybody searching for one thing fully unique. — Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a third-person noir detective recreation set in a haunted resort with unattainable structure and a grotesque historical past. Its hallways are dense with logic-melting puzzles about magicians, mazes, astrology, filmmaking, mausoleums and physics, and it isn’t even clear why the protagonist is there within the first place. With artifacts from the 1800s, set items from the Sixties and know-how out of the 2010s, it’s barely clear when she’s there. Lack of course is a key tenet of the sport, leading to a way of solitude that’s deliciously unsettling.

It’s additionally empowering. The resort in Lorelei is a playground of secrets and techniques with no set path for gamers, and there’s a wealthy density of riddles and lore to untangle in each scene. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is horrific and emotionally highly effective, and its visible vibe is “David Lynch does Kentucky Route Zero.” Your entire factor is deeply, endlessly satisfying as a puzzle-solving expertise. For lovers of riddles and psychological terror, this is without doubt one of the finest video games of the era. — J.C.

The Outlast Trials attracts from darkish and true tales of government-backed inhumanity, spiritual manipulation and capitalistic greed within the twentieth century. Trials is a cooperative, four-person horror expertise the place gamers are trapped in a secret facility run by the Murkoff Company. The aim is to graduate remedy (with your pals), full goals and survive monstrous villains in varied maps, together with an orphanage, courthouse, police station and toy manufacturing unit. As within the unique Outlast titles, gameplay primarily entails operating and hiding from prowling, deranged sadists, although this time you’re not alone. Trials is a residing recreation and its developer, Purple Barrels, is churning out new content material regularly.

Your entire Outlast universe is value exploring, and most of it may be tackled solo. The unique Outlast and its Whistleblower DLC are fashionable horror classics, introducing the collection’ iconic night time imaginative and prescient mechanic and injecting gamers with a deep sense of helplessness whereas they attempt to escape the monsters of Mount Huge Asylum. Outlast 2 takes the phobia to the Arizona desert, the place a doomsday cult is on a homicide and torture spree. These unique video games are first-person, single-player experiences fraught with rigidity and battery looking, they usually’re all important performs for horror-game followers. — J.C.

Kentucky Route Zero is a recreation vaguely a couple of street journey by way of the guts of Americana — not America, however the very thought of the USA. It’s extra of an interactive artwork installment than a well-recognized journey or exploration recreation, with slender characters touring by way of a shadowy world of magical realism. It is mysterious and barely harmful, and it rewards light curiosity with heartfelt human tales. It’s odd. Principally, although, it’s lovely.

Kentucky Route Zero was as soon as a recreation trapped in purgatory. Created by members of an artwork collective, it rolled out over the course of 9 years, revealed in 2011 and its last installment touchdown in 2020. The unique launch cadence was becoming for the sport itself — disjointed but completely seamless — however gamers in the present day have the distinctive pleasure of having the ability to devour it unexpectedly, closing the loop in a single fell swoop. The factor is, Kentucky Route Zero is the type of recreation that by no means actually ends. It lives on within the unconscious in little snippets of music, monochromatic vignettes and haunting dialogue, and a sense of bittersweet nostalgia that by no means really dissipates when you’ve hit play. — J.C.

Hellblade II is extra of an prolonged, extraordinarily anxious and violent vibe than a conventional journey recreation. Its fight is OK, its puzzles verge on tedious and it’s emotionally one-dimensional — however as an interactive brutality visualizer, Hellblade II is excellent. Senua fights till her pores ooze blood, screaming by way of every swing of her sword as whispers fill her head, cuing her when to strike and telling her to disregard the ache. Each combat is close-up and one-on-one, warriors ready in a circle of fog for his or her flip to hurry in, punch her within the face and slice her to items. The sounds of flesh smacking towards flesh be a part of the whispers and the display screen splatters purple when Senua is hit. Hellblade II revels in bodily violence.

And right here’s the factor — it’s completely lovely.

Hellblade II is a third-person narrative journey set in Iceland within the tenth century, and it’s the sequel to Ninja Principle’s 2017 recreation, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Senua is a younger warrior who hears a cacophony of disembodied voices in her thoughts, judging her each transfer. The whispers are a essential and everlasting a part of Senua’s psyche — a lesson she discovered within the first recreation, after realizing the depths of her father’s abuse when she was a baby. In Hellblade II, Senua is determining the best way to stay outdoors of her father’s affect, however his voice nonetheless rumbles in her head at inopportune instances, drowning out the softer whispers that she’s come to view as her allies. Hellblade II is the proper recreation for a quiet afternoon once you’re craving a darkish sensory overload. — J.C.

In Return of the Obra Dinn, you are put aboard a ship, alone. There may be, nonetheless, a corpse close to the captain’s cabin. As you monitor the deceased’s last footsteps, resulting in but extra grotesque ends, it’s worthwhile to work out what occurred. Who killed who? And who continues to be alive?

Return of the Obra Dinn is an unforgettable ghost-story-slash-murder-mystery with a particular old-school graphical fashion. It is not like any recreation we have performed in a protracted whereas, with a low-key musical rating and a method of puzzle fixing that is like unraveling one prolonged, satisfying, grisly riddle. Particular point out to the sound impact that kicks in each time you remedy the fates of three of the crew. Goosebumps. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Image this: It’s the Nineteen Nineties and also you’ve simply began a brand new job as a phone operator answering calls about mysterious dwelling pests and hazards. You’re tasked with correctly diagnosing every subject and offering treatments to the involved callers. Simple, proper? Nicely, what if a number of the issues had been brought on by poltergeists, boggarts, goblins and one thing referred to as “bed teeth?” And what if a misdiagnosis might end in a complete household being drained of life by otherworldly forces? Yeah, that’s extra prefer it.

House Security Hotline gives gamers with a ’90s laptop interface and a rising record of home hazards, some customary and a few paranormal, and the aim is to precisely pinpoint the pests and supply treatments to a string of callers. Your boss is in your ass your complete time and laptop glitches take away your entry to hazard descriptions at random intervals, which turns this right into a recreation of identification, memorization and intestine emotions. It will get fairly tough.

House Security Hotline is the proper recreation to play at your desk, on the PC, so you’ll be able to let the retro interface absolutely engulf your senses. — J.C.

Resident Evil Village is pleasant. It’s a gothic fairy story masquerading as a survival-horror recreation, and whereas this represents a recent vibe for the franchise, it’s not an unwelcome evolution. The characters and enemies in Village are energetic — even after they’re decidedly undead — and Capcom has put a scrumptious twist on the concept of vampires, werewolves, sea creatures, giants and creepy dolls. The sport retains its horror, puzzle and motion roots, and it has Umbrella Company’s fingerprints throughout it. It merely appears like builders had enjoyable with this one, and so will you.

And, sure, that is the one with the tall vampire girl. — J.C.

In Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, horror is available in a number of types. Eldritch creatures stalk the Beira D oil rig on skinny, too-long limbs that burst from their our bodies like snapping bungee cords. Human-sized pustules and bloody ribbons develop alongside the corridors, emitting a sickly cosmic glow. The North Sea is an unrelenting menace, wailing beneath each step. After which there’s the rig itself, a maze-like industrial platform supported by slender rigidity legs in the midst of a raging ocean, groaning because it’s ripped aside from the within.

Gameplay in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is conventional first-person horror fare, executed with class and experience by The Chinese language Room. Its motion entails leaping throughout damaged platforms, balancing on ledges, operating down corridors, climbing ladders, swimming by way of claustrophobic holes, and hiding from monsters in vents and lockers. There aren’t any weapons on the Beira D, and the protagonist has only a screwdriver to assist him break open locks and steel panels, putting the give attention to pure survival relatively than fight. The sport is absolutely voice acted and its crew members — most of them Scottish — are extremely charming, which solely makes the carnage extra disturbing as soon as the monsters board the rig.

Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is an prompt horror traditional. It’s crammed with heart-pounding terror and laugh-out-loud dialogue, and all of it takes place in a setting that’s not often explored in interactive media. Amid the sneaking, swimming, operating and climbing, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep manages to inform a heartfelt story about relationships and sacrifice. — J.C.

The Lifeless Area remake appears like a heat, juicy hug from a murderous necromorph, and we imply that in the easiest way attainable. The 2023 model of Lifeless Area spit-shines the mechanics that made the unique recreation so magically horrific again in 2008, and it doesn’t add any pointless, fashionable bloat. The remake options full voice performing, new puzzles and expanded storylines, and it introduces a zero-gravity potential that enables the protagonist, Isaac Clarke, to fly by way of sections of the sport in an ultra-satisfying manner.

None of those additions outshine the sport’s core loop: stasis, shoot, stomp. Isaac features the flexibility to briefly freeze enemies and he picks up a wide range of weapons, however he by no means feels overpowered; he’s all the time in peril. Mutilated corpse monsters seem out of the blue within the cramped corridors of the area station, charging at Isaac from the shadows, limbs akimbo and begging to be shot off. The primary recreation of Lifeless Area popularized the concept that headshots don’t matter and the remake stays true to this ethos – but its fight rhythm nonetheless feels recent.

The 2023 model of Lifeless Area proves that modern recreation design is timeless (and so are plasma cutters). — J.C.

The Fabulous Worry Machine is a cheeky, real-time technique recreation about utilizing terror to realize final energy. It’s a heady matter offered in a pulp-horror fashion, with a magical fortune-telling automaton, exaggerated stakes and dramatic noir dialogue softening the narrative’s severe edge. Suppose Tales from the Crypt, however with propaganda and disinformation because the goal topic.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a mix of Plague Inc. and Cultist Simulator — every spherical is ready on a brilliant world map, zoomed in to the suitable cluster of nations. After planting a seed of terror in a single spot, gamers assist it unfold by dispatching brokers to main cities, accumulating data, after which dropping Legends playing cards there, cultivating darkish myths and conspiracy theories primarily based on native beliefs. Spreading chaos and terror — and perhaps making some cash alongside the way in which — is the aim.

It’s kitsch, it’s camp, and at instances it makes you pause and say, huh. Put merely, it’s fabulous. — J.C.

Doki Doki Literature Membership! appears to be like like some other high-school courting sim, together with your fundamental character wooing the woman of his alternative from amongst three choices: the cheerful finest buddy, the quiet geeky girl and the nasty however secretly good freshman. Your courtship is performed by writing poems, angling your phrase selections towards the woman you hope to finish up with. It appears easy — however when the ladies begin offering their very own works of poetry, the cracks begin to present. They’re bizarre. They’re unsettling. And the sport solely will get extra distressing — like, deeply, soul-shatteringly disturbing — from there.

In visible novels, you are presupposed to make selections and have these selections matter. Generally you are incorrect and also you fail, however you attempt once more. In Doki Doki Literature Membership!, the alternatives are all the time incorrect. You are all the time going to fail. The sport will emotionally abuse you so long as you proceed to play. It should even break down the fourth wall to do it, one thing that made me scream, though I knew your complete time it was only a recreation. — Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter

POOLS is the bodily manifestation of the phrase “oppressive.” It’s much less of a recreation and extra of an interactive expertise the place each room and each flip is designed to extend your emotions of discomfort — though it’s actually only a bunch of swimming pools. Gameplay entails strolling by way of a cavernous, M.C. Escher-esque constructing of hyper-realistic moist rooms, touring down darkish corridors and wading by way of waters of varied depths. It’d sound lame, however this recreation is extremely efficient at producing emotions of claustrophobia and mortal peril. It’s additionally surprisingly beautiful.

POOLS is a lovely and unsettling immersive expertise. It appears like one thing that was plucked instantly out of my nightmares — and perhaps yours, too. — J.C.

In Crow Nation, you play as Mara Forest, who should painstakingly make her manner by way of an deserted amusement park within the yr 1990 to search out its elusive and corrupt proprietor, Edward Crow. Sources, like ammo and well being kits, should be scavenged. Skinless monstrosities might emerge from the shadows at any flip to seize at you and puzzles of various complexity promise to stall your progress. There may be an ensemble of characters who — together with the protagonist — every appear to have questionable motives.

There is not any query about Crow Nation’s PlayStation 1 influences, which its creators at SFB Video games have been upfront about: It is vitally deliberately the creepy-cute youngster of Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Closing Fantasy VII. The sport nearly checks all of the containers for survival horror, however it takes a gentler method to the style, making it really feel extra like a check of psychological endurance towards some all-consuming bleakness than a continuing combat on your life. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor

At its core, Inscryption is a roguelike deck-builder that is dripping with horror. You will sacrifice sure animal-based playing cards to play extra highly effective ones towards your opponent, and there are secrets and techniques to uncover within the room outdoors of the cardboard recreation itself. There’s a lot extra to it than that, although that is undoubtedly a kind of video games the place the much less about it getting into, the higher. It isn’t an excessive amount of of a spoiler to say issues get fairly unusual. Inscryption will completely mess together with your expectations. — Okay.H.