Content Warning: This article contains discussions and references to violence, psychological torture,
It's rather difficult being a fan of horror games. While the genre is certainly revered by many, good horror games are oddly hard to come by when compared to the more accessible and bright genres of video games, such as platformers and first-person shooters (as ironic as that latter example is).
Resident Evil and Silent Hill have defined and dominated the discussion for survival horrors for a long time. With simple walking simulators and jump scares seemingly popping up every other year, it's hard not to see why. With many completing Resident Evil 8 and dreading that long silence before another classic horror game arrives, one should at least consider a few other contemporaries that have managed to terrify people within their own right.
Outlast
Survival horror games separated themselves from the more empowering fantasies of other games by opting, in most cases, to make their main characters weak. This was a huge part of the early Silent Hill games, where the protagonists had to slog through waves of nightmare metaphors with a rusty pipe.
In recent years, one game decided to up the ante by having the player character armed with nothing but the legs they're running on. In the Outlast franchise, the main character is thrust into the den of the series' zombies, the Variants, with nothing but the ability to either hide or parkour their way out of deadly situations.
Five Nights At Freddy's
As much as the developers have tried to milk the game for all it's worth, Five Nights at Freddy's, at its cold, mechanical heart, is a strong horror series with a genius formula. Five Nights at Freddy's has people monitor a variety of screens and switches, encouraging them to be vigilant and punishing people for making the slightest mistake.
New players can easily be lulled into a false sense of security while long-time players know the pain and anxiety of the constant micromanagement. With the added benefit of the series' secrets and lore, Five Nights at Freddy's will certainly stay in people's nightmares for a while.
Welcome To The Game
Much like Five Night's at Freddy's, Welcome to the Game has the player do a series of seemingly tedious tasks while also trying to avoid getting murdered, though the franchise is a little more infamous for its challenging and unforgiving gameplay loop.
Players are tasked with exploring the deep web, either to find the mysterious Red Room or to find a missing girl. However, they are soon targeted by hackers, kidnappers, and a variety of other bad people associated with that corner of the internet. By having the player read some of the darkest corners of the web while also constantly looking over their own shoulder, Welcome to the Game perfectly simulates the feeling of never knowing who could break through one's door.
Soma
As if BioShock really hammered down on being a psychological horror game, Soma is the underwater adventure that horror fans always wished never existed. Tasked with nothing else but learning more about the facility entombing them, the player must explore an underwater laboratory and solve a variety of puzzles, all while avoiding the various monsters that now patrol its depths.
Having to stealth past these creatures far below the sea in a thin, oppressive lab, Soma is always keeping the player in a claustrophobic state. The game was even deemed so scary that the developers had to put in a "Safe Mode" just so people could actually progress through the game.
Amnesia
The Amnesia franchise will always have a special place in people's hearts for contributing to the early years of Let's Players just screaming into their cameras. In it, the player must explore the world and solve a variety of puzzles to progress, all while avoiding various monsters. While this may seem typical of any survival horror game, Amnesia takes its psychological horror more seriously and implements an entire health bar to indicate the player's sanity.
When putting the protagonists in stressful situations or staying in the dark too long, the character's sanity will work against them, creating illusions, attracting monsters, and even slowly killing the player themselves. This, the world, and the series' infamous monsters all contribute to one of the most consuming, horror game narratives in recent memory.
Devotion
Devotion and its developer, Red Candle Games, will always be overshadowed by the tumultuous politics. This was a little disheartening given that the developers did create enticing, deeply affecting narratives that can scare a player in a way that only video games can.
In Devotion, the player doesn't fight or solve puzzles. They must simply investigate the dark history surrounding a house and its inhabitants, letting that knowledge and the atmosphere work in tandem to really get inside the player's head.
Layers Of Fear
Though many feared that Layers of Fear would simply ride the curtails of Silent Hill's erased P.T. legacy, it has more than carved its own path since release, a path that has left deep marks within several players' minds.
Layers of Fear is all about betraying the player's sense of place and reality as the world itself is constantly shifting, almost as if it's conspiring against them, mocking them in subtle ways. As the player progresses, their surroundings are constantly changing, forcing them to either adapt quickly or become consumed by the horrors of the game. While most games just have their haunted houses act as mere setting, the house of Layers of Fear almost acts as a monster within its own right.
The Evil Within
The Evil Within games are made by Shinji Mikami, a man of Resident Evil 1 and 4 acclaim, who decided to pick up the legacy of horror games during a period when Capcom had seemingly abandoned it. Advancing the work on Resident Evil 4, The Evil Within games are over-the-shoulder shooters that pit the player against hoards of zombies and other, supernatural threats.
It maintains the heavy action that Mikami became famous for but still manages to terrify the player with tight settings, dense atmospheres, and some of the most creatively horrifying enemies that gamers have seen in years.
Dead Space
Taking heavy inspiration from Resident Evil 4, the Dead Space franchise is an over-the-shoulder, survival horror game that pits the unfortunate main character against hoards of the undead...but in space. What really puts Dead Space above simply being a reskin of RE4, however, is its near unbroken sense of immersion.
A lot of this is done with a hud that plays as part of the protagonist himself, ensuring that the player's eyes will never hide into a menu screen and are forced to always be examining Dead Space's dark, jump scare ridden corridors. With the added benefit of some iconic violence and a limb-cutting mechanic that forces the player to actually take aim, Dead Space has become one of the most beloved and feared horror games within recent memory.
Alien: Isolation
There are few good, movie franchise games, but there isn't zero. A gold standard masquerading in pitch black, flesh, Alien: Isolation does its main series justice with its claustrophobic setting and nightmarish monster, while also innovating the way game developers see A.I. enemies.
The player is trapped on the Sevastapol space station while trying to uncover the mysterious circumstances of her mother's disappearance, only to quickly realize and become hunted by the very reason for it. Here, the player must escape a hungry Xenomorph, whose A.I. is constantly learning. The player must never rely on one tactic or attack the Xenomorph as they will constantly evolve to get at the player. It's a horror game experience unfortunately unlike any other.
