7 scary games for Halloween

National Spooky Month is coming to an end, but there's still time to celebrate with a few games that will send shivers down your spine.

Here's the thing: Not everyone. He will be happy fear. Some of us want to enjoy the thrill of reminding ourselves that the forest is that dark or the sea is that deep, without anyone having to solve murder puzzles or be chased by the unspeakable.

This list contains seven stellar games packed with excitement, but this one isn't going to leave us with heavy fantasy fuel. If you're still looking for some Halloween time fun, start here. (And if we want some really scary games to play, we've got a list for those, too.)

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

SOMA

Of all the games on this list, SOMA comes the closest to actually being scary. This title comes from Frictional Games, the studio that developed most of the Amnesia series. There are some similarities here—on the normal settings, there are monstrous creatures that can save you if you're not good enough to sneak up on them.

But seeing as the game isn't necessarily about that particular scare, Frictional thankfully saw fit to add a safe mode to the game. The pesky monsters are still there, but they don't attack you and interrupt the flow of the game.

SOMA unlocks your brain by going to the clinic with your main character. When you wake up, you are in an unstable biomechanical position HR Giger. How you got there is only a surface-level question SOMA wants you to think about. As you progress through the story, however, the scares aren't designed to make you think too long about an annoying and uncomfortable concept.

Available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, SOMA explores posthumanism, digital immortality, and other questions about what makes us human and what consciousness means.

Grim Fandango

In the year 1998 was a killer year for video games, and among the classics released that year was LucasArts' Grimm Fandango. Helmed by game designer Tim Shaffer (Psychonauts, Full Throttle), this game isn't scary at all. In fact, it was one of the funniest games of its time and most of the jokes still hold. Instead, this is a PC adventure game that only deals with death.

Grim Fandango combines inspirations from Aztec culture, Mexican Día de los Muertos art, Art Deco and noir influences to create a version of the afterlife. Protagonist Manny Calavera is quite the harvester—he prepares travel packages for the lives he's left behind and leads them to the Great Beyond.

Some of the gameplay doesn't stay the same, but the 2015 controller (available on PC, Switch, Xbox One, PS4, iOS, and Android) has made great strides in bringing Grim Fandango into the modern day. If you want to jump online to find clues, don't worry—these older LucasArts games are well-known for their puzzles.

Alan Wake

Alan Walker 2 fell to critical acclaim last year, but it's still a great time to see the original cult favorite. Writer Alan Wake takes a vacation to the fictional Pacific Northwest of Bright Falls, but finds himself caught up in the story he made. His wife is missing. And the townspeople are being controlled by a “dark presence.”

More than anything else, Alan Walker is reminiscent of those old Stephen King TV mini-movies, right down to the pseudo-episodic pacing. It's a single play, but one that starts with a recap of what happened, is split into “events” narrated by Wake himself, and ends on cliffhangers accompanied by great selections of dark rock music from the likes of Roy Orbison. Poe, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Alan Walker is definitely a 2010 game, with third-person gun action and two different set types, but the story is the star here. The combat is good enough to stay in the game, and is only enhanced by developer Remedy's follow-up, Alan Wake's American Nightmare of Time Loop. Between the original and remastered versions, Alan Walker is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox 360/One/Series X and S, and Switch.

Pony Island

You're probably looking at that name and wondering what Pony Island is doing on this list. Pony Island, like its sequel Inscription, is a metaphorical game that slowly pulls you into the mystery as you continue to play. This game isn't just goofy, it's a crude arcade game. Evil is written in the code, and it's starting to mess with your head.

A simple, short, and inexpensive game that you can complete in a single sitting—about two and a half hours. Created by the same designer, Daniel Mullins, it is the perfect predecessor to the aforementioned encryption.

Encryption

Of course we can't. pointed out Encryption and then they don't talk about it. Mullins' most recent game was a player of the year contender for everyone he played in. After picking up a rare copy of a video game, you're thrown into a stone shed, forced to play a card game with a creepy old man. You can wander around his shed between rounds, but you always have to replay it.

As the story progresses, however, clues point to something much bigger. Like Pony Island, there is a metanarrative here that works to draw you into the novel and make the whole story even more terrifying.

Little dreams

Did you ever get lost as a child—at the grocery store, the mall, or something like that? Everything is big, and all adults are strangers. That's the quiver of little nightmares. It is set in a world deeply hostile to children; Everywhere you go, the adults catch you and sometimes chase you.

The tension lasts until the last moment in this puzzle platformer. Art is a real highlight here; The world is well realized, with lush and brutal characters and environments threatening at every turn. You must be nine years old, but this world is just the wrong size for any child to live in—even in rooms that seem designed with children in mind. It creates a sense of immobility.

Dredge

Dredge's simple, crisp art hides a dark secret. Described as a fishing adventure, you arrive at the beach of a small town and take over a small fishing boat to make a living. As you fish, you'll encounter more and more exotic sea life—and you'll find that the stranger it is, the happier your customers will pay for it. Dredge works like a casual little indie game, but if you keep looking you can find horrors around every corner.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on October 30, 2023 and was last updated with new details on October 27, 2024.