7 Freaky Horror Games to scare the pants off you this scary season

What makes a horror game? There are many different ways that games can fry your brain. Some games put you on the wrong end of a deadly chase where one wrong move can kill you. Others rely on maintaining a sense of dread and tension that can stick with you long after you've put the game down.

Last year we presented some Scary games for the Halloween season This will give you a chill without necessarily raising your heart rate. This year, we want to do the opposite – put down the controls and highlight the games that will make you think twice about going for good. And games you should consider skipping if you have heart disease.

These games are played with your headphones on and the lights off, but we won't tell anyone you played them with the lights on—unless you tell anyone we did.

Editor's Note: All games featured below are traditional “Web2” games with no crypto or blockchain.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

It's hard to sustain tension over 10-plus hours, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard struggles in the latter half. But the first half of the game is a masterpiece that restores the series to the top of the video game horror genre.

There's a moment, early on, where you're standing at the top of a flight of stairs – and if you listen closely, you can hear someone breathing. But you have no choice but to go down. The first half of this game is full of moments like this, and playing in virtual reality only serves to heighten the experience… if you have the hardware to make it happen.

last one

There's a subgenre in horror that's affectionately called “I gitcha!” Games. These games have something chasing you and you're powerless to stop it, leaving running and hiding as your only options. Outlast is one of the best at this. The game puts you out of your wits and a night vision camera in a supposedly abandoned mental hospital and you quickly learn that you're not alone – and all the creepy men in the game are going to be gitcha. See also: Amnesia: The Fall of Darkness.

Alan Wake 2

In the year Alan Wake's TV adaptation of Stephen King's story, released in 2014, was just as terrifying. It was tense and dark, but rarely scary. Alan Walker 2, however, is a different beast altogether. Developer Solution presents a terrifying and dangerous world as you try to solve Bright Falls as FBI agent Saga Anderson and escape from the dark place as Alan Wake.

Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia asks the timeless question: What are you? Chicken? Sure, you can play Phasmophobia on your own, modeled after ghost hunting shows. But it's best played as a group of 2-4 players. Use a variety of tools and information to track down and identify hostile spirits, but if you get caught yourself, you won't make it out alive. Phasmophobia makes it both incredibly beautiful and terrifying at the same time. See also: Deadly Company.

GTFO

One of the biggest problems with survival horror games (like the aforementioned Resident Evil 7) is that they want to give you a sense of progression, allowing you to work through the gameplay. But when you have a dimensional pocket with half a dozen different weapons to contend with, monsters are terrifying.

GTFO doesn't care. GTFO is a first-person cooperative tactical shooter inspired by horror stories. SCP Foundation Database. You play as a prisoner to explore and complete objectives in a sprawling, maze-like facility. If you and your colleagues communicate and plan, you can probably figure it out. But more often than not, you're quickly overwhelmed by an indescribable horror, and you're forced to start over.

Silent Hill 2

September 25 marks the 23rd anniversary of the release of Silent Hill 2 for PlayStation 2. October 8 marks the long-awaited re-release (pictured above) of the classic horror title. See reviews from critics Very positivebut the main game is still on.

The original Silent Hill 2—as well as other previous games—dropped you into a foggy, empty town filled with terrifying, corrupted and mutated monsters. The creators used the game's real and “other” worlds to explore themes of loss, guilt, and cruelty. See also: Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3—if the latter is late in the game for the terrifying mirror scene.

Dead space

You can't go wrong with Dead Space and Resident Evil 2 for your take on action-packed horror. Both have been updated over the past few years for modern insights into game controls and navigation, and have received excellent iterations while maintaining their image. Their style. Both games focus on an over-the-shoulder camera, puzzle solving, and ammo conservation. Dead Space is a science-fiction horror story similar to The Thing, while Resident Evil 2 is a quintessential zombie story.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.