Just in Time for Halloween

Happy Halloween to all my wonderful blog viewers! To fully immerse ourselves into the Halloween spirit, let's count down the best games that truly capture the horror essence!

A game doesn't necessarily have to have jump scares to be scary. It has a number of factors, like atmosphere, gameplay, characters, and monsters. To me, a horror game's good when it leaves an impression on you long after you've shut it off. It gets real deep under your skin and leaves you curled up in your blanket come nightfall.

These games either fuck with your mind or just scare you shitless. Either way, they're still some of the best horror games out there.

Top 5 Scariest Horror Games

5. Resident Evil 4

While every Resident Evil game before RE5 was superb, I chose RE4 because it's my favorite! What's that? Bias? You bet! But still, RE4 is one of the first games to advocate the third-person, over the shoulder view which really added to the game (giving us a nice view of Leon's ass...whoops! I digress). The graphics were very detailed, allowing us to fully capture how grotesque those enemies were. And speaking of enemies, who doesn't remember their encounters with those huge El (Los?) Gigantes, those goddamn dogs, and those nearly indestructible Regenerators? This game is probably the most memorable of the series!

4. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem 

Eternal Darkness did the one thing that every single video game player is ultimately afraid of. No matter how tough you are or how long you've played video games, this little thing can cause anyone to scream bloody murder. It deleted your entire saved game. Or, at least it appeared to do that! Eternal Darkness is a game that just fucks with the player's mind if they let their sanity meter run out. Your character's head falls off, you hear whispers in the background, your TV suddenly mutes, you somehow get the blue screen of death, or your save files get deleted. Eternal Darkness did an excellent job blurring the line between the game and reality.

3. Silent Hill 2

This game pretty much gave birth to what we call "Survival Horror" in video games. It laid the foundation of what we expect from a horror genre game. After its debut, many games have struggled to recreate that perfect terrifying atmosphere and the anxiety we felt while playing this game. Silent Hill 2 wasn't just a game, it was an experience. It had it all: excellent atmosphere, memorable characters, mind-blowing twists, and horrifying enemies. This game also created one of the most recognizable, iconic creatures in all of horror genre games: Pyramid Head. Who can forget their first encounter with PH, walking in on him having some
"fun" with a couple of mannequin monsters?

2. Dead Space

What's so bad about being trapped on a spaceship isolated in space with hundreds of mutated alien monsters that want to tear you to pieces any chance they get? I mean, it's not like you're completely surrounded by darkness with only a small circle of light to guide your way. It's not like necromorphs are really fast and strong and sneaky and terrifying or anything. It's not like you have to aim for that little area of ligaments to shoot off their limbs to kill them while they hurl themselves toward you. It's not like you're slowly going crazy throughout the whole game. Right? ... Right? Oh who am I kidding? I was screaming and firing my gun like a maniac every time I saw a necromorph.

1. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

If I had to use one word to describe why this game is so terrifying, it would have to be atmosphere. You wake up all alone in an enormous mansion with no memory except your name. Right from the start you feel such a disturbing sense of isolation, helplessness, and fear. As you search for answers, you feel that something is following you. Soon you find yourself unconsciously looking back, checking every corner, listening to every sound that echoes through the dark hallway. Shadows move, voices whisper, and you hear something growling. You're afraid of something, but you have no idea what. A nameless fear. This fear then takes the shape of a horrendous, mutated creature that's sole purpose is to hunt you down. If it sees you, it will chase you to the ends of the earth. You can't reason with it. You can't fight it. You can't destroy it. Just run. And whatever you do, don't. look. behind. you.


As a horror game enthusiast, I had a lot of fun making this list! I always enjoy a good game that keeps me on the edge of my seat and then scares me out of it!