13 Horror Games You Need to Play

With the much anticipated release of Alan Wake I felt it was time to put out a list of the horror games that any gamer worth their salt should play. Some of these games are hard to find, some are old, and some everyone ought to have already played. These are the thirteen games that define the horror genre and even to this day provide hours of entertainment that others try to match, but never quite meet. Though there are some obscure titles I skipped some such as Sweet Home a famicom game that featured a group of people exploring a mansion as traps and monsters kill them in gruesome ways, a real gem if you can find a rom of it. Still I felt that this list should be made up of both games people know and games they may not know. Without further ado, this is the list of 13 horror games you need to play.

[Darkstorn]

Above average list, but I wish they included Penumbra and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

No 'Best Horror Games' list is complete without those two.

And wtf are Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead doing on there? Those are action games, not horror games.

[CaliGamer]

Why is L4D listed as a PS3 title? Poor fact checking I think.

[AndrewE]

writer didn't have a PS3. thanks for the heads up.

[booni3]

Want to piss your pants in the most engaging of horror experiences? Enjoy these titles;

1.Alone
2.In the still of the night
3.In a large, secluded place
4. on an HD Tv set
5. in Surround sound
6. Under 70 degrees Farenheit

You can scream, but no one will hear you.

[wicko]

I would have put Condemned on that list. Game scares the shit out of me.

L4D could be scary, but not in any of Valve's levels. Played some Silent Hill mods on L4D and it was pretty damn creepy. Not really enough to belong on this list but it was pretty awesome.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Lol at L4D and Dead Rising.

Both are Survival Horror, but action/funny Survival Horror Games. If he put L4D, why he didn't put RE5.

Not even scary as the other games in the list.

[mittwaffen]

Chapter 3; this game is so badass.

Seriously; go to your friends house who has it and play it.

[Figboy]

unfortunately, me and my wife just instituted a new game buying budget, where both of us are allowed to buy ONE game a month.

i've already used up my game purchases for May and June by getting 3D Dot Game Heroes and Red Dead Redemption.

i'll try and get Alan Wake in July. it'll be a birthday present to myself. lol.

my wife hasn't chosen her games yet however. there's not much she likes to play besides Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins, although she's shown an interest in Red Dead Redemption as of late.

[N4GAddict]

Great list.

[ZedoMann]

Dementium on the DS is pretty good.
I probably need to play a lot of these on this list.

[Cryptech]

Dead Space?

[Darkstorn]

Good game, but not one of the 13 best. Hell, I liked that crazy game 'Sanitarium' from the 90s more than Dead Space...

[iceman2885]

Dead Space was scarier and better executed than some of the titles they had listed IMO.

[I HARLEM I]

was my favorite but ALAN WAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT man i herd everything about this game sub hd if this isn't hd i dont want hd for real graphics are great then i herd plot was so so man this plot is awesome thanks n4g for calming me down for this title cause if i wasnt i wouldn't be so amazed!!!!!!!!!!!

[mittwaffen]

I dont see any jaggies at all in this; I'm really impressed visually, the N4G trolls that bashed it are 100% incorrect with their bashing of the resolution, I dont notice it one bit.

The art design is amazing, very real life inspired.
Best looking natural environment i've seen in a very very very long time.

Silent Hill 1 (If you were too young, go buy it.)
Silent Hill 2
Alan Wake (Very unique game in the thriller genre)
Silent Hill 3 (The start of crappy Silent Hill)
Dead Space (Good, Polished Gameplay)
Stalker (Bugs when it came out = -points)
Siren (Found it kinda lame; creepy but issues)

[Ult iMate]

Silent Hill 1 is still the scariest game for me.
And also don't forget the Fatal Frame.

[wpggamer]

I didn't really like it. Plus, it doesn't support vga output. Maybe I'll give it another chance.

[iceman2885]

Where they artificially create horror because they don't let you use a flashlight and gun at the same time...what a stupid gameplay element.

Almost as bad as the RE games not letting you walk and shoot at the same time.

[hankmoody]

Dead Space needs to be on this list if its to be taken serious. Still, good call on including Fatal Frame 2 in there, the ONLY game that has ever given me nightmares.

[aryan_irani]

kind of all horror games. nothing comes close although i wish they would make a game that would

[Ult iMate]

Silent Hill 1 was more scary. SH2 was more melancholic and sad, than scary.

[blakstarz]

I would not even consider Dead Rising a horror game....Left 4 Dead is more in line, but there is a few that should of been definitely up there:

Siren - (the PS3 version) damn good underrated and overlooked horror title
Silent Hill 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
The Thing
The Suffering
Condemned

[Darkstorn]

Call of Cthulhu should be in its own genre. I mean, the ending chapters of that game transcended anything I've ever played before. Man I have to play that again...

[mrnjl]

What about FEAR? That little girl freaks me out

[Pozzle]

It's good to see Fatal Frame 2 on the list. Those games are not given the proper appreciation.
It's a shame Fatal Frame 4 was never released int he West. It was a solid game (one of the best survival horrors I've played this generation) and would have been absolutely superb on a HD console. Say what you want about the Wii, but some games (such as horrors) simply benefit better from having HD graphics.

[Nike]

Good list for mentioning Clock Tower, Phantasmagoria, 7th Guest and Eternal Darkness.

However, Dead Space, Sanitarium, Clive Barker's Undying, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Parasite Eve (just for being the first of it's kind), Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Condemned 1 & 2 and FEAR also bear mentioning.

@blakstarz: Agreed. Siren is another vastly under-rated and overlooked horror game.

[Galaxia]

This about the second or third time I've seen it top a list like this before. Why?

The game was ok. But not that great. It had ok gameplay and an ok story and one scary moment. But nothing in it was outstanding I thought. It's also one of the least scary horror titles I've played.

Anyways, for me, the scariest games would be.

Fatal Frame 1. (Gameplay is slow but the scares are top notch)
Silent Hill 3. (Definitely the most scary SH game to date).
Resident Evil Remake. (The GC Remake makes ALL other RE games seem as scary as being attacked by weak malnourished villagers while you're on steroids and have loads of guns, oh wait).
Dead Space. (Definitely the scariest game this gen, and one of the best too).
Silent Hill 2. (Best in the series, but not the scariest).
Fatal Frame 2. (Way better than FF1, but not as scary).
Forbidden Siren. (Very Underrated stealth horror game).
Resident Evil 3. (Nemesisss... still gives you chills).

[spydersvenom]

I really dug this game but I can understand why many didn't like the title. Unlike most, I loved Too Human and thought Eternal Darkness was awesome too, but realistically it was a cult following and not a true appreciation of solid titles. @beasley23803 really dug your list, but you missed Clock Tower on Super Famicom, loved that title.