What Are The Best PC Horror Games?
Is there a better gaming console than the PC? (There really isn't, but you can pretend otherwise for now)
Now, the last thing I want to do is start a console war. Just like people, all consoles are beautiful, and are capable with providing us with at least fleeting moments of happiness.
With that said, nobody can deny the PC’s massive library – we have so many different ways to scare ourselves! Isn’t it so nice that most of us live in decent conditions and can just choose to make ourselves afraid?
If you’re like me and you recognize the PC’s ultimate power, here are ten of the most exciting and unique horror games to try.
10. Little Nightmares
Little Nightmares Gameplay
Little Nightmares confronts you with your most deep-seated childhood fears. You are given a comfortable, yet alien home to explore that confirms every irrational anxiety you faced when you were younger. Prisons, libraries, and playgrounds contain dark secrets and adorably mortifying sequences to keep you both eager and afraid.
- Solve puzzles to discover disturbing secrets
- Battle and escape threats through wit and quick thinking
- Witness dream-like sequences and escape from all of the beasts manifesting form them
Twisted stuff: The game paints bizarre pictures of our most primal fears. It takes a lot to find something friendly in this game.
Always something new: This game is chock full of nightmarish events. You’ll constantly be wondering about what you’ll stumble upon next.
9. The Cat Lady
The Cat Lady Gameplay
If you’re looking for a slow-burn psychological thriller, The Cat Lady is the game for you. You play as Susan Ashworth, a suicidal woman with no friends or family. One day, she is saved from a near-fatal suicide attempt by a figure known as the Queen of Maggots, who gives her the task of eradicating the world of five notably awful people.
- Solve tricky and challenging point-and-click puzzles
- Tread carefully through story-changing dialogue options
- Avoid or kill threats who want you to suffer forever
Everything’s broken: Your sense of reality falls apart further and further the deeper you go. It’s hard to say if you can even trust yourself in this game.
Grizzly events: This game takes full liberty in presenting a raw image of mental illness and suicide. Tread carefully.
8. Fran Bow
Fran Bow Gameplay
In Fran Bow, you operate as the titular character of Fran, who has been admitted to the Oswald Asylum after witnessing the murder of her parents. And she can’t even find her cat! The doctors prescribe pills to Fran that give her horrendous visions of torture, cryptic messages, and sick experiments all throughout the hospital. It’s up to you to help Fran get out of this place, find her missing cat, and figure out what really happened to her family.
- Visit surreal landscapes and assist a memorable and quirky cast
- Use classic point-and-click mechanics to witness particularly devilish happenings
- Team up with a morally ambiguous skeleton to find your cat
The odd sympathy: This game has plenty of cutesy images and calming events, but it’s counterbalanced by the underbelly of what is supposedly truly going on.
Warped to hell: In the land of drug-induced hysteria, everything makes sense. You’ll start to accept it, too.
7. Resident Evil 2 Remake (jumpscares)
Resident Evil 2 Remake Gameplay
Resident Evil 2 gives you a fresh (rotten?) look at the series’ history, taking audiences back to the iconic police station that shook the unsuspecting town of Raccoon City. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield are back to make their way through the infested building and (try to) rescue any other survivors they find… if they can avoid the vicious G monster tearing through the station.
- Play through your favorite puzzles, updated to make your scratch your head all over again
- Duck, dodge, and dip through imposing bio-organic creatures, or battle them head-on at your own risk
- Explore the dark hallways of the station as violent presences are constantly making their way towards you
Blown to bits: Resident Evil 2 steps up the gore. Watch your opponents get blown to smithereens with ease.
An unfortunate compromise: You can get torn apart just as easily. Watch your back, always.
6. Resident Evil 7 (jumpscares)
Resident Evil 7 Gameplay
Although Resident Evil has had its first-person games before, no game has put you in this intimate of a haunted cabin setting. You’ve been looking for your missing wife for a long time, and by doing so, you’ve ended up in the grasps of a mutated southern boondocks family that wants to violently rip you to shreds.
- Run for your life from monsters that are far stronger than you
- Find a variety of weapons to take them down (at least, for a few seconds)
- Make your way through the tight house and discover its secrets with unnerving notes and tricky puzzles
More than human: Resident Evil 7 takes extra care to make sure nobody’s stomach settles well.
Defenseless: Sometimes, all you’ll ever be able to do is run. Take in your surroundings quickly.
5. Outlast 2 (jumpscares)
Outlast 2 Gameplay
You are an investigative journalist researching the murder of a young pregnant woman with your wife in rural Arizona. Your helicopter crashes, and you wake up to find your pilot skinned alive, with no sign of your wife whatsoever. Eventually, you reach a small town that is occupied by murderous religious zealots who are looking to make human sacrifices to stave off the end of days.
- Run and hide from backwoods cultists using the limited resources of the area
- Use fluid parkour mechanics to make your way through the dingy small town
- Use your camera to record the most disturbing and violent occurrences
Nonstop terror: Rarely, if at all, will this game ever let you feel safe. Anything and everything can become a new worst nightmare.
Rural rawness: There’s a lot to this town. Religious uprisings don’t happen overnight. Discover how the people became what they are now.
4. Oxenfree
Oxenfree Gameplay
Oxenfree puts you in the shoes of Alex, who is taking a ferry with her friends to Edwards Island for a party. After a rather spicy argument, Alex finds herself in a cave, where she finds a frequency on her radio that opens a portal to another dimension. Everything goes black, and she finds herself and her friend Jonas on an unknown, remote spot on the island. Now she must find her friends and solve the mystery behind the supernatural occurrences in the area.
- Make tough decisions and influence the story through dialogue
- Explore the mysterious island and use your radio to unlock new areas
- Communicate with ghosts and learn what’s really going on with this place
Gorgeous scenery: Perhaps one of the game’s most exciting elements is how beautiful everything is. Detailed landscapes all throughout the game really put you in the place of the characters.
To be comprehended: It’s hard to say if anyone really gets what happens during a supernatural event. All the fainting, drama, and disappearances may distract you from figuring it out yourself.
3. Detention
Detention Gameplay
Set in the 1960s, Detention follows senior Fang Ray Shin, who is caught in a typhoon at the currently deserted Greenwood High School. After taking a nap, she wakes up to find the one other student gruesomely murdered, and now ghosts with malicious intentions are roaming the hallways.
- Avoid malicious spirits based on Taiwanese mythology
- Witness horrendous visions of past and present violence, and experience some for yourself
- Navigate the blackened hallways and solve puzzles to sneak through the school
Creeping horror: Experience Taiwanese folklore up close and personal, with nothing to do but run away.
White Terror: Discover a haunting new perspective on real world uprisings in the country.
2. Sally Face
Sally Face Gameplay
Sally Face, a young boy wearing a prosthetic mask, moves into a new apartment with his dad. He teams up with other children and the odd bunch of neighbors to figure out what’s going on with the haunted crime scene in the complex.
- Communicate with ghosts using your patented Gear Boy console
- Play through silly and challenging minigames to unlock deeper narratives
- Search harder to discover the truth behind the characters’ pasts and motivations
Unreliable narrator: You have plenty of choice in this game, but how will you know you made the right one?
Disgusting: Uncover secrets with your new friends and try your best to keep sane.
1. The Evil Within (jumpscares)
The Evil Within Gameplay
While investigating a particularly nasty set of murders, Sebastian Castellanos and his squad are sent into a parallel reality full of vicious monsters and deranged killers. Even when they escape, the nightmare world keeps pulling him and his partners in with one loud siren. It’s up to Sebastian to solve the mystery behind this universe, and how it can be stopped.
- Avoid serious peril through fast-paced quick-time events
- Battle giant, disfigured monsters that want nothing more than to crush you
- Save your partners and discover the origin of the loud siren
Headshot: Blow away monsters with finesse as you traverse the nightmare realm.
Chill out, though: You may be able to take on some monsters with ease, but you can’t take on everything. Make sure you know when and where to fight.
