Anatomy — fantastic indie psychological horror. In a dark house, no jump scares at all, just some very good writing and well used graphics glitches.
It’s like 2 bucks and 35 min long, just play it!
Scare factor: medium, but filled with dread and it stays with you.
Alien Isolation — IMO the best entry in the ‘sneak around while a horrifying invincible monster stalks you’ genre. It’s too long by about half the game’s length, but still is worth the price, and has some of the best sci-fi environments and monster AI design out there.
Scare factor: very high. palms damp and slippery.
Darkwood — Tense as hell, top down immersive rpg, with a wonderful creepy, weird setting. Incredibly atmospheric, especially for a game where you’re only looking on from above. Superb audio design. Long (about 20+ hours), unique, and all around outstanding.
Scare factor: very high. It varies though. It’s not cranked to 11 all the time, but when it is, expect terror.
Soma — More like weird sci-fi with some spooky-ness mixed in. Great story with some existential sci-fi horror writing. I’d play it with the ‘safe mode’ that strips out the annoying bits of having to sneak around the monsters. It doesn’t really add anything and detracts from the otherwise compelling story. About 8 hours long, give or take, and has an excellent ending.
Scare factor: low, especially with safe mode on, but it might get inside your head.
Amnesia — Everyone has probably already played this one. The first big entry in the ‘sneak by the monster’ genre that Alien Isolation built on. Still probably worth a play though if you haven’t. Much spookier than Soma (same developers), just not much of a story to speak of.
Scare factor: high. The mechanic of not being able to look at the monsters as they walk up to your hiding place is brilliant.
Stories Untold — Really 4 different short horror stories, with the common element being you sitting at a single set of controls (a desk with a computer on it for example). The first one is especially clever and creepy. Lots of interacting with interface elements and some puzzle solving. The 4th story tries to wrap them all together and mostly fails, but the first 3 are all good. It’s like 2 hours to beat the whole thing.
Scare factor: medium. Each of the first 3 stories builds to some kind of fear in an exciting way.
World of Horror — Kind of like if you mashed up Junji Ito, the Arkham Horror board game, and an old school PC RPG. Some really neat mechanics and fun story elements, and the art is badass. Made to be replayable with a lot of variation in the old ones and stories and encounters.
Scare factor: medium-low. Not really all that scary or tense, but bursting with horrific elements.
Inside — 2d sidescrolling surrealist puzzle/platformer, from the same devs as Limbo. Not sure if this totally counts as horror, but it definitely has an oppressive and unsettling atmosphere. Very weird but enjoyable, it’s art house platforming.
Scare factor: low. Not scary at all, just thought provoking and strange. There’s a few pretty tense situations though, and lots of ways to see your character die.
Oxenfree — Teen supernatural adventure. Not exceptionally spooky but has lots of dialog and detailed characters. Kind of like tagging along with a group of mystery solving teens in a 1980s horror movie.
Scare factor: low. More concerned with characters than spooks.
Evil Within 2 — Well I said jump scare free, but this one definitely has some jump scares. Still, it’s an interesting blend of ‘open world stealth/action’ and horror. Involves a lot of scripted movements though, of you running from things or getting ‘scary things’ shoved up in your face. Story isn’t anything of interest.
Scare factor: medium-high. Pretty tense but also kind of predicable at times.
Resident Evil 7 — The return of actual spooks in an RE game. First person with a great grainy ‘found footage’ vibe. Involves a mix of hiding from invincible enemies, and blasting them away with what little ammo you have, in between solving environmental puzzles. Haven’t finished this one yet, so not sure if the story goes full on bananas near the end like most RE games.
Scare factor: medium-high. This one will probably depend more than most on individual preference.
Pathologic 2 — Open world immersive sim surrealist horror RPG, set in a bizzaro version of pre-industrial revolution Eastern Europe. Intentionally confusing, oppressive, and dour. I doubt I’ll ever finish it, but it’s definitely interesting and complex. For fans of open world RPGs that want something really weird they can sink their teeth into.
Scare factor: ?. It’s not really scary but it definitely involves a lot of suffering, doom, and mystery.
Duskers — Control little drones as they explore derelict spaceships with a command line interface. It really shouldn’t be as tense or atmospheric as it is. It’s abstract and there’s not much in the way of visuals, but it’s definitely scary at times, Mostly because you can’t really see the enemies, only their effects when you mess up as they rip your drones apart.
Scare factor: low generally but it can be intense at times.
The Shrouded Isle- Light small game about running a Lovecraftian cult on an island, while trying to appease your eldritch god and ferret out heresy. Really more of a resource management game, does a great job at getting you into the head of a blindly religious fanatic. Great gameboy style art style.
Scare factor: low but you can still find yourself ripped apart by abominations.
Detention — The only game on this list I haven’t played. Supposedly excellent though, and up soon on my to-play list. Sounds like it has a great story with a unique setting (1960s Taiwan ) and some good spooks to go along with it.
