If you’d like to be scared shitless tonight, you’ve come to the right place.
Horror is a bit like comedy. What scares one person might not scare another person. Have you tried explaining why a joke is funny? It’s a bit like explaining why a monster is scary.
With the release of Until Dawn, and it being an exclusive, those who do not own a PS4 only have two options: Watch gameplays on YouTube, or read through our list of some of the best horror games to come out in the recent years.
Let’s be clear. This list is not about honoring and recognizing the horror genre’s historical milestones. Resident Evil and Silent Hill remain important horror games, but if you’re simply looking to download a video game and scream on the couch with a beverage in hand, this list will serve you well.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
When I saw the credits roll on Amnesia, it felt like I’d earned the kind of t-shirt you buy at the end of a rollercoaster. “I survived The Dark Descent.” I’m still not sure how I managed to make it through the infamous water sequence without screaming.
Getting to the end is a harrowing journey, a slow-moving exploration into a perturbed mansion with many secrets to hide. To survive, you must hide. To hide, you must remain in the dark…. but the dark makes you go mad. That means that to avoid dying, you must flirt with death for as long as you can. Devilish.
Outlast
Even if you’re over the found footage thing, Outlast is scary as hell. You’re a journalist entering into an insane asylum with nothing more than your wits and a night vision camera. Most of the game takes place in the dark, which means the camera becomes your best buddy.
The camera’s batteries run out quickly, forcing you to choose wisely. It’s about hiding, watching, and running very, very fast. Everything is out to get you, and in the DLC expansion, there’s a sequence that involves cutting off your…well, you’ll see.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Welcome to the jump-scare factory. Five Nights at Freddy’s has a comfortable predictability that makes it so utterly effective. Pretty much every game of FNAF’s ends with a mechanical demon screaming at the screen and running at you. Every time, it will result in you nearly falling out of your chair. It’s easy to call the game’s scares cheap, but it’s more subtle than that.
FNAF’s represents some elegant game design. The jump scares are a consequence for failure. In most horror, jump scares work because you don’t see them coming. In FNAF can see every jump scare from a mile away, but that’s what makes it frightening. If you screw up, if you forget about a room, it’s time to cover your eyes.
Alien: Isolation
Games have not been kind to Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger’s monster from deep space. Hell, the movies haven’t done right by the xenomorph in ages, either. It seemed unfathomable that someone could make the primordial alien scary again, but Alien: Isolation pulled it off. And, this game is best played with another fan of the Alien series!
Sure, Alien: Isolation sticks around 10 hours too long, but the highs outweigh the lows by a hefty margin. Be warned: I hope you like sulking in stuffy lockers and patiently waiting to die.
Dead Space
The Dead Space series has been on a steady decline since the first game, and my personal preference of Dead Space over Dead Space 2 is pretty similar to the split between fans of Alien and Aliens. (Alien is the right answer, but I’m trying to be civil here.) Dead Space relies on the element of surprise; it knows how to tease out the moments where a seven-armed thing finally pops out of a vent.
You’ll walk down a hallway for long stretches, the screechy violens building in the background. You’ll hear creatures rustle in the vents. The tension builds to a breaking point. If you’re lucky, the game offers the satisfaction of killing whatever was moving around you. Often, though, the game keeps its monstrosities in the shadows, forcing you to cautiously walk through the next door, not knowing when a screaming death will finally appear.
For more news and reviews, keep checking back Gaming Central.
