A Complete List Of The Scariest Games In The Entire World

Horror movies didn’t scare me anymore, so I turned to video games.

At three years old I secretly watched A Nightmare On Elm St. That night, I dreamt Freddy Krueger was chasing me. I knew I was dreaming. At the tender age of 11, I picked up Stephen King’s IT. Safe to say, I’m a bit broken now.

Striking fear into my heart is a difficult gig, but video games found a way. Blame the immersion, the level of control, the sitting in the dark with headphones on — it does the trick. If you find yourself in need an extra jolt to get your spook on this Halloween, here are my top picks from throughout the ages (well, from the 90’s onwards, at least).

Let’s start with some old-school scares, shall we?

Resident Evil (1996)

System Shock 2 (1999)

Alone In The Dark (1992)

The 11th Hour (1995)

Darkseed (1992)

For the next course, may I suggest a modern classic or nine?

Eternal Darkness (2002)

Dead Space (2008)

The “We Don’t Go To Ravenholm” Level In Half-Life 2 (2004)

F.E.A.R. (2005)

Bioshock (2007)

Penumbra: Black Plague (2008)

Project Zero (2001)

Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005)

The Suffering (2004)

Perhaps some more recent thrills are in order?

Alan Wake (2010)

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)

The Evil Within (2014)

Alien: Isolation (2014)

Lone Survivor (2012)

Outlast (2013)

P.T. (2014)

Until Dawn (2015)

observer_ (2017)

When regular gaming isn’t enough, go virtual reality

Resident Evil 7 – PS VR (2017)

The Exorcist Legion – PS VR (2018)

The Inpatient – PS VR (2018)

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood – PS VR (2016)

If you’re finding some of these a bit tricky to track down, there’s a whole category dedicated to horror on Xbox Game Pass. For P.T. though – you’ll need to find a friend who still has it installed. Or pick one up on eBay for $700 or so.

Actually, maybe don’t do that, it could be dodgy. Forget I said anything.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Rae Johnston is the Editor of Junkee, horror game aficionado and baker of excellent chocolate chunk cookies. You can tweet her at @raejohnston.