Horror Games Where You Play as The Killer
Ever fantasized about killing your nosy neighbor or your coworker who steals your turkey sandwich from the break room fridge? Here are 7 games where you play as the killer. While it may not be as satisfying as gutting Nick from accounting, it is a lot less messy.
7. Deceit
Deceit: Gameplay Trailer
Deceit is not the game for people with trust issues. A multiplayer horror/survival/FPS where 3 of your friends are innocent and two are infected. The innocent must try to escape. The infected must try and keep them from escaping. Which one are you?
This FPS PvP style game about gave me a heart attack. You wake up in an asylum surrounded by 5 other people. A strange voice tells you that two of you have been infected with a virus. The rest are innocent. Who is infected and who isn’t is totally random so when you wake up you find out whether or not you’ve got the bug. Occasionally the power goes out, then the real fun begins. The infected transform into these incredible gruesome monsters that consume (or at least gut) their fellow players.
The innocent can work together to vote and figure out who the killers are and this time it isn’t Miss Scarlet in the library with the candlestick. Gameplay gives the infected fun little behavioral tics. Only the infected can consume the blood bags that are scattered throughout the map. So you would be tempted to just camp and watch and wait but that’s also a good way to become someone’s lunch. After a while everyone starts to get a little trigger happy and you’ll shoot anything that moves. Did you shoot an infected player or did cousin Jimmy just catch a round?
The monster the infected becomes in the dark devours its’ victims. This is the last thing they see
The Infected
6. Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Gameplay as Jason
We’re back at Camp Crystal Lake but this time you aren’t the innocent camp counselor. You are Jason Vorhees, the ax wielding nightmare of campfire legend.
I’m used to these kind of games being all about survival. Like Five Nights at Freddy's or Evil Within. Instead, as the hapless teenagers fumble around in the dark trying to solve puzzles like getting their car working or hiding in a nearby cabin, you play Jason Voorhees.
Like with Deceit, one player out of your group will be chosen at random to be the infamous Jason. While the counselors are rushing to repair items in the game to escape the map, Jason strolls around collecting skills. Each match lasts twenty minutes and in that time Jason upgrades “time periods” several times. With each time period comes a new set of stats like increased strength or stamina. Jason's weapon is predetermined depending on which Jason in particular is chosen by the player for the match. Each one of these weapons deals a fixed amount of damage. For example Parts 3 and 4 Jason deal higher amounts of weapon damage because of the strength stat but Part 6 Jason has a longer range. Sadly, he cannot pick up any counselor weapons he finds, nor can he destroy them but he can force counselors to drop their weapons by grabbing them.
You break down doors, stalk your victims, and slay other players with an ax or your signature machete. I feel like I’m fulfilling a teenage dream strangling those meddling kids. I was never scared of Jason in all of the movies. I would chomp my popcorn and cheer him on, coming up with ways to take down the next one. Maybe it’s just the bloodlust talking but chasing down the “Hot Chick” and turning her into a bloody pulp is so much more fun than hiding under the bed.
There are many methods of killing the camp counselors. Not all of them involve weapons.
As Jason Vorhees you can be armed with an ax or your classic machete
5) Lucius
Lucius: The Killing of Gene
I don’t know about you but this kid creeps me out. That strange high pitched giggle. Those puppy dog eyes that can get anyone to do anything. Lucius is a horror/stealth/psychological game where you play as the son of the devil, a six-year-old boy named Lucius. Using powers of telekinesis and mind control it is your job to plan deadly “accidents” that kill off the family of Dante Manor.
The game starts at your sixth birthday party. When you finally go to bed a man in a suit visits you. He tells you how easy it would be to lock one of the maids, Mary, in the freezer. So you do what any son of Satan would do. You padlock Mary in the freezer for the family to find the next morning.
As the story unfolds you find out that this man-in-the-suit is Lucifer.
It is your job to pay back a debt to the devil by murdering everyone in the house without leaving any evidence. There are some ingenious “accidents” people die from in this game like an exploding gas stove or rat poison. You even get to frame a maid for the death of another character. At least this time, the butler didn’t do it.
At night Lucifer comes to you and tells you, you are his son
The Detective is working hard to track down the killer in Dante Manor
4) Lucius 2: The Prophecy
Lucius 2 gameplay trailer
The sequel to Lucius, Lucius 2: The Prophecy picks up where the last one left off. This time we follow The Book of Revelations. It predicts the coming of a child who would, one day, rule the world with an iron rod. The child has been born, fulfilling the first part of the prophecy . Now it’s time to take care of the rest.
Now, seven-year-old Lucius, is taken to the psychiatric ward of a hospital by his new caretakers. They are convinced he needs help after his family fell victim to so many “accidents.” With the help of Detective McGuffin, from the original game, Lucius works his way down through the hospital from floors five to one. While the gameplay in the sequel is very different than the original game the goal is still to murder without being caught. You still have use of telekinesis and mind control to move objects (and characters) to do your evil bidding. However, instead of just “accidents” you are the antichrist setting into motion the trials of the apocalypse into the town of Ludlow. As Lucius you release locusts, put acid in the sprinklers, and apparently even kill another character with salt. The game ends with Lucifer telling Lucius he is special and can bring forth the rapture as “the little Antichrist.”
There are many different grizzly ends to meet in the game including an exploding stove
In Lucius 2 you are trapped in a mental ward. Your task is to kill to escape. Just don’t get caught
3) Hatred
Hatred gameplay trailer
Hatred is a game fraught with controversy. With a rating of Adults Only and with no other goal than complete global genocide there is a concern floating around the internet that games like this one and GTA encourage violence in teens and contribute to school shootings. Despite these rumblings Hatred did well enough to be reintroduced to the Steam platform.
The game is presented in a top down view and in grainy black and white reminiscent of gritty detective stories. The player has no name (he declares it’s unimportant) and is a mass-murderer who “hates this world, and the human worms feasting on its carcass.’ He launches on a “genocide crusade” with the only goal of killing everyone in his wake.
Even your health is regenerated by killing incapacitated people which are executed with cinematics. There is a loose plot involving a nuclear power plant in New Jersey, the military, and even local politicians. There are also several side quests that allow the player to rack up a limited number of spawn points in the case of your death.
It’s a lot of fun to just let loose and kill indiscriminately but the lack of real direction makes the game feel much longer than it actually is. For those of you that have played the Grand Theft Auto series (GTA) the game mechanics for Hatred are similar. The biggest difference, besides the lack of color and the change of perspective, is the lack of dialogue. The character doesn’t say much and the victims don’t say much outside of screaming.
Overall, the game is very straight forward. Kill indiscriminately to continue. Keep in mind the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rated this game Adults Only (AO) but it can still be found on Steam.
Kills in Hatred often switch camera angles and play a short cinematic
Every time you kill you increase your health
2) Last Year: The Nightmare
Predator Mode Gameplay Trailer
Last Year: The Nightmare is bringing everything I love about 90s horror movies like Friday the 13th or Cabin in the Woods to an first person survival horror game. This game was crowdfunded on kickstarter and is only now receiving a release date of Summer 2018.
Last Year: The Nightmare is typical of the 90s slasher/horror genre with 5 teenage archetypes. You can play as the popular girl, the jock, the nerd, or others. Each have their own skill set essential to surviving the night. Or, you can play the killer with an array of different characters to choose from.
What sets this game apart from all other survival horror games is something called predator mode. Given the element of surprise the killer can “unspawn” and become invisible. This allows you to move incredibly fast and hide in closets or around the corner giving you the advantage of a surprise attack. Now you see me, now you don’t!
For more information you can check out their kickstarter campaign.
Using predator mode you can move quickly and sneak up on your victims using the element of surprise to you advantage.
Concept art from the kickstarter campaign. Last Year: The Nightmare launches summer of 2018
1) Dead by Daylight
Gameplay trailer
The last game in our list is another survival horror game. This one borrows from everything that came before it. You can play as a survivor where it’s your job to escape by either restoring power to the generators or by finding a back door out. Or, you can play as a killer and that’s where the real fun begins.
The killer’s main objective is simple: stop the survivors. The Entity wants the survivors hunted down and sacrificed before they can escape. All the killer has to do is patrol the area to find the survivors. Once the survivor has been injured and caught they are hung on a sacrificial meat hook to later be devoured.
There are some amazing options as the killer. Each one has its own skill. You can play as the nurse from Silent Hill or Freddy Krueger or even one of their original characters. Each one has an unique skill like bear traps, invisibility, or hatchets. The killer cannot upgrade their skills but you can add perks like Barbecue and Chill which unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. So after hooking a Survivor, all other Survivors' aura are revealed to you for 3 seconds.
Fellow survivors can come to your aid but you cannot save yourself.
One of the original characters from Dead by Daylight you can see, in the background, one of the sacrificial hooks.
This game is full of fun easter eggs from cult classic horror movies and games like this one from the Saw franchise
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