How many of these survival horror games have you played?
I really enjoy survival horror games. It’s all the best parts of watching a good horror movie but you’re right in the middle of the action. They always give me sweaty palms. I jump at every little sound with my heart racing.
15) Reborn
Gameplay Trailer
Reborn is a FPS survival horror game under development from Knife Entertainment. Based in occultism and its surrounding mysticism, Reborn visually is dark, dank, bloody, and almost overwhelming. This game is different than most survival horror. Instead of relying on sneak or hide game mechanics, Reborn gives you every tool you need to kick some demon behind.
With Knife Entertainment's roots in The Evil Dead, Silent Hill, and True Detective we can guess what’s on the way. The gameplay trailer suggests that the player is looking for a missing person right before you get placed in a world of deadly skeletons, demon dogs, and plague creatures. However, the player is armed to the teeth and ready for war.
You are armed to the teeth and ready to deal with any monsters that cross your path
Is that a skeleton, demon or mutated human?
14) Pathologic 2
Announcement Trailer
Unlike many of the survival horror games of the past, this is an open world survival game. Instead of fighting monsters, you’re fighting a disease. Your job is to save as many people as possible in a series of no-win situations.
This is a brand new breed of game. You’re not here to kick monster butt or hide from zombies and the undead. You’re in this town to find a cure. But, you only have 12 days. In those 12 days the government sends in a doctor, an inquisitor, and eventually the military. Once the situation gets bad enough a strike will be executed on the entire village to “contain the virus.” There isn’t enough time to save everyone.
Pathologic is about survival. In addition to solving the mystery of a dying village, you must take care of your own health. Sleeping and tracking down food, water, and medical supplies is first and foremost. You must keep vigilant. The town is full of strange rules and even stranger customs. "It's a place where the main factory is ruled by a five-year-old girl, where districts are named after body parts, where bulls can only be slaughtered by the initiated, and where ideas and projects banned from the Capital somehow thrive," the developer explained in an interview with eurogamer.
Pathologic 2 isn’t about you, the player, on the stage that is the village. The village itself is the main character with all of its twists and turns and secrets. It tells a story in the way a play or cinema does. The goal isn’t to win; the goal is to just survive.
The atmosphere of the game is dark and hazy. Your job is to blend in with the locals in order to try and save them from the coming plague.
The game takes place over 12 days. During that time the government comes in to assess instill their rule of law.
13) Dead by Daylight
Gameplay trailer
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical (4vs1) horror game from Behaviour / Starbreeze studios. You can play as a survivor where it’s your job to escape the map by either restoring power to the generators or by finding a back door out. Or, you can play as a killer.
The killer’s main objective is simple: stop the survivors. The driving force behind the killer is an “entity” that wants the survivors hunted down and sacrificed before they can escape. All the killer has to do is patrol the area to find the survivors. Once a survivor has been injured and caught they are hung on a sacrificial meat hook to later be devoured.
Reminiscent of Cabin in the Woods, this game borrows from everything that came before. You can play as Leatherface or Freddy or one of their original characters. Gameplay is fast paced, gruesome, and challenging. The survivors have to work as a team. The puzzles are designed to trip you up and slow you down. While you trip around in the dark looking for generators (your team will start with one more generator than survivor. So, for example, if you have 3 survivors, your team has to activate 4 generators.) If you’re caught, the killer will carry you over to one of the sacrificial hooks.
Fellow survivors can come to your aid but you cannot save yourself.
Dead by Daylight includes some fun easter eggs like the puppet from the Saw franchise.
It is the killer's job to hang each victim from a hook as a sacrifice to the entity.
12) Dead Space 1 & 2
Dead Space 1 (PC) trailer
The original Dead Space (2008) redefined the survival horror genre. This unassuming sci-fi/horror game exploded because of everything it wasn’t. Dead Space tells the story of Isaac Clark and his journey onboard the drilling ship, the USG Ishimura. Just as many other games in this genre, the main character isn’t engineer Isaac Clark, it is the USG Ishimura. While there have been other games that echo the dark, industrial, brooding feel of Dead Space, this game is the perfect homage to classic horror and science fiction without being repetitive.
The creatures that overrun the Ishimura are necromorphs. Gory constructs of various body parts and pincers that flail and scream as they burst forth from vents and walls and even play dead. To defeat these creatures, Dead Space requires you to use their “strategic dismemberment’ mechanic. Shooting them isn’t an option, you have to cut off their limbs.
The game isn’t very subtle in teaching you this information. “CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS” is written on a wall in blood. Then the tutorial goes over it. Then an audio diary. Then yet another tutorial. Dead Space makes sure you know how to kill the necromorphs.
Avoiding spoilers, the end of Dead Space left me breathless and wanting more. The true impact of the marker only becomes apparent as the screen fades to black.
In Dead Space 2, 3 years after the Ishimura our hero Isaac Clark finds himself on the Sprawl, a ship orbiting Saturn’s moon Titan. The Ishimura and the marker are parked right outside bringing forth the necromorphs.
Unlike in Dead Space 1, this game is perfectly timed and fast paced making it somehow both suspenseful and scary. The locations range from a school room to one of dozens of dingy metal corridors. The sound encompases you making it hard to tell the difference between your dog rummaging through the garbage and a necromorph on your tail.
Clark’s girlfriend also makes another appearance in Dead Space 2 but I won’t spoil the fun.
Dead Space isn't very subtle with its directions. There is only one way to kill necrommorphs: dismemberment.
Round two and the necromorphs make an appearance as the Ishimura is docked at the Titan station.
11) Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned Gameplay Trailer
You are Ethan Thomas, CSI agent with the FBI. You’ve been framed for murder by the infamous Serial Killer X and your job is to figure out who that is. Throughout the gameplay you must use your intuition and technology to fight off the violent and psychotic citizens of Metro City. They seem to have been driven mad by a mysterious outside force.
Condemned is a first-person survival horror game published by SEGA. Despite being from the first-person perspective, this most definitely isn’t an FPS. There are very few weapons and once they run out of bullets its only purpose is to beat your enemies with the butt end. Instead, the focus is on improvised melee. Things like pipes, wooden boards, and even shovels are provided within the city to arm yourself with.
Overall Condemned focuses on puzzle solving and story progression and less on the combat. The atmosphere sets this game apart. Playing from the first-person perspective, this means that occasionally you won’t even see your attacker until long after the damage has been done. When you’re hit, your screen distorts and blood splatters across the screen rendering you near helpless momentarily.
Overall, Condemned: Criminal Origins is a dirty trip through the back alleys of Metro City to clear your name and catch a killer.
Each attack you are encouraged to improvise a weapon as guns and ammo are slim.
The only time a gun is really useful. Long distance attack
10) Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Jason Gameplay
Camp Crystal Lake is a staple in the horror genre. You can’t make a list of survival games without including Jason Voorhees, the machete wielding nightmare of campfire legend.
I’m used to these kind of games being all about survival, like Five Nights at Freddy's or Resident Evil. One of the defining characteristics of this asymmetrical horror/survival game is instead of just playing the hapless teenagers trying to solve puzzles, you can play Jason Voorhees.
While the counselors are rushing to repair items in the game to escape the map, Jason strolls around trying to find his next victim. You break down doors, stalk your victims, and slay other players with an axe or your signature machete.
Another option is to play one of those hapless teenagers. Your job is to get out. Either repair a car, a boat, call the cops, or just survive the night. Sadly though there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to where the items are so playing as a teen means randomly searching under every bed and opening every drawer. For me that wasn’t terribly interesting, even while being chased. This game improves by leaps and bounds every time you play Jason.
You can wield Jason's standard machete or something else like this axe.
Sometimes you won't have a weapon on hand so make creative use of your environment to kill the pesky teenagers.
9) The Evil Within 1 & 2
Evil Within pt 1 Gameplay Trailer
Evil Within is beautiful, gory, tense, and insanely difficult. A return to his roots,Evil Within is Shinji Mikami’s grand opus. Functionally, this reminds me of Resident Evil 4 yet somehow even darker.
Don’t let the hackneyed setting scare you off. Set in the Beacon Mental Hospital, Evil Within is so much more than the sum of its rather disjointed parts. Detective Sebastian Castellanos is also somewhat lackluster. His dialog is stiff and emotionless to the point of being almost a parody yet somehow, occasionally, darkly comedic.
What this game lacks in dialogue and character development it more than makes up for in atmosphere. Dark corridors and terrifying mood lighting cause you to jump at every shadow and noise.
What ties Evil Within together is the combination of these ever increasing and terrifying foes and an extremely limited arsenal. While the crossbow can be altered for a variety of special attacks, the pistol, shotgun, and sniper rifle aren’t much in the hostile environment.
The Point of The Evil Within is its chaos. Moving with breakneck speed, you are propelled from one encounter to the next.
Evil Within 2 drops the linear format in service to an open-world platform. While it also suffers from its “B-movie” stylizing, this member of the franchise is far more in depth, reveling in its gory details.
There is a more thoughtful progression of plot. Without the demand of a linear story arc and the crafting feature you are free to make this game more than just survival horror. Almost everything was improved for this sequel yet, somehow it is still classic horror. Psychological mixed with gore keeping the gameplay fresh.
The Evil Within plays off of some of your darkest psychological fears.
The monsters in Evil Within are picturesque, grotesque, and insanely difficult.
8) Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent gameplay
Designed for PC by Frictional Games, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is unlike any survival horror game I’ve ever played. Dead Space and even Evil Within gives you a weapon to fend off your attackers. In Amnesia, all you can do is hide.
Playing like a first person adventure game, Amnesia relies heavily on physics puzzles and environmental manipulation mechanics. In order to open a door you have to click the door knob and pull the door back with your mouse. For me this roots you deeply into the game’s reality.
The story is also told as a series of flashbacks, unraveling the tale of Alexander and Brennenburg castle. You play as Daniel, who wakes up in the middle of a seemingly empty castle, completely clueless as to who you are and what’s going on outside of a note you left yourself with instructions to kill Alexander. You work your way through the dark. Sounds echoing, shadows moving. What really defines the authenticity of this Lovecraftian horror is the nagging feeling of pursuit and the easy transition to flight or fight.
I will wholehearted echo what the loading screen suggests: play with the lights out and your headphones jacked in. While the puzzles are easy and the voice acting occasionally cheesy, this is a well thought out atmospheric feast.
The longer you are in the darkness the faster it drives you mad. However, the lantern brings the monsters to you.
The setting has become its own character
7) Resident Evil 7:Biohazard
Resident Evil 7 (PC) Trailer
Resident Evil is a genre all on its own. Part action, part first person adventure, and all survival horror, 7 upped the ante with a new first-person view that makes gameplay visceral and gritty.
Ethan (that’s you) has been summoned to the dilapidated Dulvey Plantation by his wife. With run down shacks and hillbilly cannibals, this resident evil reminds me more of Texas Chainsaw Massacre than Romero’s zombies. The rooms are packed with reminders of the NPC’s humanity in the form of old trophies, discarded photographs, and the clutter that surrounds any lived-in space. This makes the game, and the characters, far more intimate if not slightly cartoonish.
There are parts of the game where the reliance on southern American stereotypes lends the Bakers an almost Hatfield vs. McCoy feeling. The end of the game explains how (and why) the Bakers are the way they are which makes the exaggeration excusable and even worth it.
The game mechanics are pure Resident evil though with limited inventory space and the box system to manage it all. This is all that I love about Resident Evil with a new setting and new challenges.
The setting has changed but it's not any less scary
Stay out of the basement!
6) Alien: Isolation
Alien Isolation Launch Trailer
Alien: Isolation centers around Amanda Ripley searching the depths of space for her mother, Ellen Ripley. The visuals are a perfect and faithful recreation of the 1979 Alien film right down to CRT monitors and “futuristic” tech. Even the fog is perfect wafting out of vents menacingly. Even the music is reminiscent of the 1970s. This is a perfect game to play in the dark.
At first the atmosphere is enough to keep you on edge. Sevastopol Space Station is eerie and isolated, creaking and moaning with every step you take. It does take awhile for the Xenomorphs to show up, but once they do it was well worth the wait. 99% of the Alien’s movement is completely random so you don’t know from one minute to the next where it’s going to pop out of. You’ll spend minutes alone in the dark just to be ambushed from a ventilation duct. The heavy footsteps, the vibration of it skittering around the ductwork, angry hisses and screams all leave you holding your breath. Every move, light, or even sneeze will bring the Xenomorph down upon you and there is no way to defend yourself as it is completely impervious to attack.
You’ll die - a lot- but that makes victory that much sweeter.
Takes forever for the xenomorphs to show up but once they do it was worth the wait
This game is marvelously retro right down to saving via a manual phone
5) Anatomy
Anatomy gameplay
Anatomy is a completely different experimental indie horror game from Kitty Horror Show on itch.io. It’s short, with only a 45 minute play through on average, but from beginning to end it sets your teeth on edge.
The visuals are grainy and reminiscent of a VHS found footage film. The game seems overly simplistic at first. The main mechanic the game uses to tell its story is a series of audio taps you track down throughout the house. It even tells you where the audio taps are, removing the need to search.
The game is pure psychological horror. Its tagline is “every house is haunted.” As you explore the seemingly average, suburban house, the suspense builds. It’s hard not to draw parallels between the game and your own house. Simple tasks like retrieving an audio tape from the basement becomes insanely difficult for no other reason than your own childhood fear of the dark.
Play at your own risk because Anatomy is anything but predictable
The story is told through a series of audio tapes
The visuals are dark and grainy reminiscent of a found footage movie
4) Outlast 1 & 2
Outlast trailer
Outlast is often seen as the gold standard in horror/survival. Set in Mount Massive Asylum, everything around you is designed for terror. Your only goal is to survive and your only weapon is running and hiding from the deranged mental patients around every corner.
The game regularly forces you to make split second decisions to burst into potentially dangerous new rooms armed with nothing more than a night vision camera. Even that fails as your batteries run low.
I love that Outlast remembers that the most terrifying part of any good horror game is the inability to defend yourself. The decaying atmosphere and engaging soundtrack make long stretches of this game painfully tense. You search out pieces of diary and short notes describing the horrific stories of its patients.
Outlast 2 is even better than the first. Ditching the few mechanics I felt were overused and tired, we move from an asylum to the deep south. This isn’t like Resident Evil 7 with its shacks and overtones of domesticity. This is crash-landing in the cult-riddled Supai region. You come across abandoned fields and gory scenes from religious rites.
This open feeling world makes it easier to hide from your enemies. This also makes it harder to see them. Once again you spend the game looking through the lens of a camera and searching for batteries but this only makes the dark seem more sinister.
Both games are beautifully designed and pay attention to the tiniest of details.
Set in an asylum, the patients in the original Outlast were frequently victims of some macabre treatments.
Outlast 2 moves to the deep south where you come face to face with cult members looking for their newest victim
3) Home Sweet Home
Gameplay trailer
This game borrows heavily from Thai myths and beliefs. Taking place in an unknown location, your job is to escape.
This is a first person horror game that lends itself very well to VR platform and is compatible with the Oculus Rift.
You play as Tim, whose wife has disappeared. You try and escape your new surroundings, haunted by an unsettled female spirit. Is this your house? How is all of this connected?
The story is moved along through tense puzzles and jump scares. The visuals are both stunning and unsettling.
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Based in Thai myth Home Sweet Home is oddly unsettling
She haunts you
2) Agony
Gameplay Trailer
Agony is a first-person survival horror game in hell. Players wake without any idea of where they are or who they are. You are gifted with the ability to control the people you encounter and even possess lower-level demons. This is the measure by which the player survives in the extreme conditions they are in. By exploring hostile environment and interacting with the other weary souls of the hellscape, the player will soon understand that there is only one way to escape from Hell. A meeting with the Red Goddess.
Agony will release May 29th, 2018.
A beautiful trip through hell
The Red Goddess is your key to escape
1) Resident Evil HD remastered
This gaming classic just got a facelift. Resident Evil remastered is based off of the 2002 Resident Evil remake with a few minor tweaks.
It is now in HD with full widescreen support. It also includes Crimson Heads. These “super-zombies” occur when a zombie corpse is left unburned. Some minor items have been moved but over all? This is the classic on steroids.
Set outside of Racoon City, your special forces team is set to solve a series of bizarre murders.
The setting is even more beautiful than before with crisp colors and amazing details
The creatures in the remaster have the detail the original lacks. You can almost hear this one hiss
