Best Horror Games, Loved By Gaming’s Greatest Editors
Come on. Horror games aren’t all jump scares and ear-piercing noises. The ones that really linger? They stick in your head. They linger. They keep you questioning what happened—and whether you can playfully shut down the game.
IGN, Polygon, GameSpot, and Kotaku editors have praised these games for a reason. They’re not just scary. They’re smart, thought-provoking, and well-crafted. Let’s dive deeper into the horror games everyone, even critics, simply won’t shut up about.
1. Signalis
Platform: PC, PS4, Switch
A sci-fi psychological survival horror masterpiece. Think Resident Evil meets Silent Hill—but with a deeply personal narrative, pixel-perfect visuals, and eerie worldbuilding. It’s subtle, cerebral, and terrifying in all the right ways.
Why it’s a masterpiece: Picture Resident Evil’s stressful resource management mixed with Silent Hill’s suffocating psychological terror and richly symbolic storytelling. Signalis is precisely that, but with an original, retro-futuristic pixel art aesthetic that serves only to heighten its unsettling world-building. It isn’t about what’s overtly pursuing you; it’s about the insidious awareness of existential terror and an existentially deeply personal tale of loss and identity. This game gets properly in your head, and you’re stuck piecing together its broken narrative after the credits roll.
“It’s not about what’s chasing you. It’s about what you’re becoming.”
2. Inscryption
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch
On the surface, it’s a card game. But don’t be fooled. This title slowly unravels into a twisted, meta-horror experience filled with secrets, disturbing moments, and 4th-wall-breaking mind games. You’ll never look at a card deck the same way again.
It’s a card game: Oh, you’re expecting to sit down and play a strange deck-builder, huh? Think again. Inscryption is a horror masterpiece of meta-references, repeatedly breaking the fourth wall and coalescing in ways that are impossible to predict. It starts off as one thing and then devolves into something far more sinister, riddled with eerie secrets, spooky interactions, and enigmas that extend beyond the screen. The genius lies in how it keeps surprising you and disturbing you, making you question the very nature of the game you’re playing. It’s an experience that will really make you rethink card games.
3. Dead Space (Remake)
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
The remake not only updates visuals but also ramps up terror. The sound design alone is worth an award. Each corridor is like death. It’s refined, gruesome, and improved beyond belief. Every creak of the USG Ishimura, every rat-a-tat of scurrying movement in the ventilation, every death gurgle of some unseen Necromorph is enhanced by its flat-out phenomenal, award-worthy sound design. The atmosphere is so thick you can cut it with Isaac Clarke’s plasma cutter. This game does not just refresh graphics; it cranks up the gritty, cramped feeling of being hunted in the vast, frozen emptiness of space. It’s a polished, gory, and terrifying accomplishment that has never been more successful.
“When the lights go out, your brain fills in the horror.”
4. Simulacra Series
Platform: Android, iOS, PC
You find a phone. The apps work. But all is very off. This found-footage-style mobile horror game tries to immerse you as far as it can,and while trying to solve the mystery of its absent owner, you ventured into a virtual nightmare? That’s the hook for the Simulacra series, and it succeeds. This found-phone horror gets you completely in the zone, employing real app screens, messages, and videos to present a terrifying story. It breaks down the boundary between game and life and makes you believe you are the immediate protagonist in a tech-thriller. It works because it utilizes the gadgets we have closest to us and turns them into fear mongers.
5. Darkwood
Platform: PC, PS4, Switch
No jump scares. No cheap frights. Only very uncomfortable survival mechanics, dirty NPCs, and a forest that knows you’re there. Top-down view never felt so claustrophobic.
The forest is alive: If you crave horror that quietly strangles you with fear instead of scaring the wits out of you, Darkwood is your game. With its creepy top-down view, you find yourself in a nightmarish, constantly shifting forest in a Soviet Bloc nation. No cheap jump scares here; its excessively unsettling survival systems, grotesque, quotable non-player characters, and creeping feeling that the world itself is a living, breathing, evil entity do the job. Every day is a mad dash to scrounge up resources, and every night is a nightmarish battle to survive as unseen horrors scrape at your barricaded doors. It’s raw, unadulterated psychological suffering.
6. Little Misfortune
Platform: PC, Switch, PS4
Cute turns to disaster. This black comedy adventure title leads you through a book of miserable choices, strange characters, and “.did that just happen?” moments.
Grimly whimsical horror: Don’t let the cute storybook look fool you. Little Misfortune is a dark adventure that guides you through an 8-year-old girl who is manipulated by an unseen force. It’s a game of heart-wrenching decisions, quirky characters, and moments that are genuinely disturbing, often leaving you questioning how innocent the protagonist world is. It’s that beautiful combination of childlike naivety and profound melancholy, exploring adult themes of abuse, mental illness, and destiny in a darkly whimsical manner. It’s the kind of game that has you thinking, “.did that really just happen?”
7. Detention
Platform: PC, Switch, Mobile
Red Candle Games’ 2D Taiwanese horror game mixes political trauma with local legend-based ghost stories. It’s half lesson in culture, half descent into madness.From award-winning Red Candle Games, Detention is a 2D side-scrolling horror classic firmly rooted in Taiwanese history and culture. Released during the White Terror period of martial law, it intertwines classic Taiwanese folklore, ghost stories, and political trauma to create a suffocating environment of despair and fear. It’s not just a horror game; it’s an emotional portrayal of memory, repression, and the price of political oppression. The horror because it’s so deeply embedded in historical and cultural context.
8. The Mortuary Assistant
Platform: PC
You have a midnight shift at a mortuary. Sounds simple. Piece of cake, right? Wrong. The Mortuary Assistant becomes a deeply unnerving nightmare quickly. The indie horror gem excels at procedural horrors, so no two plays are ever the same, and you’ll be in a heightened state of dread. As you work on your embalming tasks, you’ll find yourself uncovering gruesome lore, witnessing demon rituals, and coping with escalating paranormal activity. The fear is too uncomfortably real, like the malevolence is personal and aimed directly at you. It’s a game that makes you really feel vulnerable and alone, with monsters around every bend of the mortuary.
This indie game introduces procedural fright, demonic ceremonies, and real dread. It’s close—and disturbingly intimate.
Why Editors Love These Games
The highest-rated horror games don’t hope to get a superficial reaction; they hope to have an impact. These games are the greatest evidence of what really makes horror work:
Atmosphere is King: They emphasize masterful atmosphere, sound design so crushing it gets under your skin, and professional pacing over relying on old jump scares. The horror builds slowly, insidiously.
Respect for Intelligence: They give you intricate stories, elaborate metaphors, and more profound depths, often taking on serious psychological or social issues. You’re not just a passive observer; you’re an active participant in their unsettling stories.
Emotional Resonance: These games have a surprising depth of emotional resonance, often working through grief and trauma or identity in ways that transcend most non-horror games.
Lingering Impact: They stick with you, haunting your brain long after the game is turned off. The disturbing ideas, the creepy visuals, the questions they pose—they dig deep into your psyche. “It’s not just about being scared. It’s about feeling something real.”
What Kind of Horror Are You Into? These Games Have Got You Covered.
Psychological Horror: Inscryption, Signalis
Body Horror: Dead Space (Remake), Darkwood
Story/Folklore Horror: Detention, Little Misfortune
Found Footage / Found Phone Horror: Simulacra Series, The Mortuary Assistant
Minimalist Survival Horror: Darkwood
These games cover different fears, proving that horror is a broad, diverse genre.
What Kind of Horror Do You Enjoy?
Psychological Horror → Inscryption, Signalis
Body Horror → Dead Space, Darkwood
Narrative Horror → Detention, Little Misfortune
Found Footage / Found Phone → Simulacra, The Mortuary Assistant
Minimalist Survival → Darkwood, The Forest
Everybody’s fear looks different. Our games are built to fit that.
Final Thoughts
Solid horror games aren’t plentiful. The good ones—like the ones on this list—aren’t just meant to spook you. They transform you. They get you to think. And they get you to feel. Don’t skip over them.
