Guide: The Best Horror Games to enjoy on Halloween

Halloween is celebrated every year on October 31st, having turned into an event related to ghosts and terror. For us gamers, it’s an excellent opportunity to discover and allow ourselves to explore new horror games.

This niche is so large that it has subcategories to attract the most diverse audiences with different proposals and experiences, be it single or multiplayer. You can look for a more suspenseful style, needing to stay alive with few resources and explore the unknown, aka Survival Horror, or perhaps you prefer more action as presented in the most recent games in the Resident Evil franchise.

These are just a few examples, check out the best horror games in our complete list, I'm sure one of them will meet your preferences.

Phasmophobia is a great way to start the list, given that it can be a multiplayer experience, which we don't see in most horror games, or solo. This title was released in September 2020, attracting many players with its innovative gameplay.

In this universe, we join together with our friends (or not) to explore an environment, be it a house or larger places like an abandoned school or prison. The common point between these places is the presence of a ghost, and your objective is to detect which species torments the place.

The ideal is to provoke situations that will trigger clues about the type of ghost present, each of them possessing certain characteristics and different behaviors. For example, a Revenant will write in a notebook if you leave one at a close distance, as will Yurei, but neither interact with the Spirit Box, unlike an Oni. Good luck finding out before you get killed by it!

The horror in Phasmophobia goes beyond mere jumpscares, the animations of the ghost attacking you are not scary, this really isn't the focus of the game. Here the aim is to create a completely dark atmosphere, where you find yourself without survival mechanisms, in an unknown and, literally, haunted environment.

When a ghost is about to attack, the lantern lights will go out, and doors may get locked. Initially, you won't know which room it’s in, and some species can even walk through walls and kill you, which makes you even more vulnerable at these moments.

Of course, with friends everything becomes easier, but try playing alone, or even see your friends being eliminated one by one, leaving only you to manage everything.

Until Dawn is a game that recently arrived at PC and PS5, but was originally released in 2015, being exclusive to Sony's predecessor console. If Phasmophobia focused on single games among friends, this title prioritizes a narrative, with a beginning, middle and end in a singleplayer experience.

Here we are introduced to the story of a group of ten friends who travel to the Blackwood Pines mountains, in Canada, to spend their holidays in a chalet, however, two twin sisters who are part of the group disappear. One year after that, the eight remaining colleagues return to the same place, trying to get over the possible death of Hannah and Beth, or even find them.

Everything is going well until the presence of a serial killer is noticed nearby, the entire suspense revolves around this, the protagonists are mere young people in an isolated environment having to deal with a killer.

The main feature of Until Dawn is the butterfly effect, where your choices are crucial to the progress of the story. It’s possible to finish the game with all eight friends dead, or saved, it all depends on your decision.

If you’re also a fan of movies, Alien: Isolation could be the perfect game for you, as it encompasses these two worlds! This title tells the events 15 years after the first Alien film, where the protagonist is Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, the main character of the cinematographic works.

Amanda goes to Sevastopol station, after being recruited by a rescue team to look for her missing mother, but some events make her lose contact with the team, leaving her alone. It doesn't take long for her to realize that the station has fewer inhabitants, and many of them left completely paranoid, until she understands that the area has been dominated by a Xenomorph, who will constantly chase you.

Alien: Isolation is a reference in terms of Artificial Intelligence in games, due to its ingenuity and effectiveness, bringing personalized creature behavior to each gameplay. It's completely unpredictable, it always adapts to your behaviors, and it's certainly one of the aspects that causes the most tension for players, as we don't know what to expect.

Outlast is a reference when it comes to horror games, having two extremely successful titles. Here we will discuss the firstborn of the series, which was even better rated than the sequel.

We step into the shoes of Miles Upshur, an investigative journalist who goes to investigate more about some strange behaviors occurring in Mount Massive asylum. However, the reporter did not count on the asylum patients being on the loose and thirsty for blood.

This survival horror stands out for the impotence it puts the player in, we only have a camcorder and a notebook, making us completely fragile, especially if we can't get any more battery for the camera, our only light source. Its only defense mechanic is to hide, bringing even more fear and anxiety during the game, especially in the dark, or when we don't know where our enemies are.

Jumpscares, a claustrophobic environment and completely deformed patients are some of the points that increase the feeling of terror in the experience.

Imagine waking up in a dark castle in the 1800s and with your memory partially erased, this is what happened to Daniel, the protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Then, he finds a letter written by his past self, instructing him to go down the castle and kill Baron Alexander, but he will be chased by monsters during the journey.

An interesting mechanic in this universe is the loss of sanity, the more we witness supernatural events or stay in the dark for long periods of time, something common to happen in Brennenburg Castle. As a result, we will suffer from hallucinations and auditory distortions, bringing an increasingly horrifying experience.

Focus on going down the floors and look for more information about your past motivations to understand why you are in the castle. But be careful, we are completely unable to fight, and can only run and hide from the creatures. Be prepared!

Originally from 2001, Silent Hill 2 was released for PCs, PlayStation 2 and 3 in addition to Xbox and Xbox 360. But this month, its remastered version was released on PS5 and Windows computers.

Said by many to be the best horror game in history, it’s capable of causing enormous fear even 23 years later. You don't need to buy the remake to have a great Halloween playing Silent Hill.

The story begins with James Sunderland receiving a letter from his wife asking him to meet her in Silent Hill, the problem being that she died three years ago. After arriving there searching for answers, he comes across monsters and traumas from the past.

In fact, the way you progress in the game will affect the plot, which offers several different endings.

Your objective is to guide the protagonist, in addition to ensuring his survival. A topic that is covered a lot in this list and that could not be missing from this survival horror is the weakness in combat and limited resources. James is fragile, making any threat the cause of great fear.

Another terrifying factor is the emotional terror we suffer, with enemies that personify our fears and are constantly focused on harming the protagonist's psychological and sanity.

Dead Space is another survival horror, where we follow Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent on a mission to repair the USG Ishimura spaceship. When he gets there, he finds the crew dead or missing due to attacks by the Necromorphs. In fact, he also doesn't know the whereabouts of Nicole, his girlfriend, who is also part of the ship's team.

The grotesque design of the enemies, added to the feeling of loneliness and impotence, given that we are just an engineer alone against this problem, are the main characteristics set to torment you.

The remake of Resident Evil 2, released in 2019, was a complete success, reaching an average score of 91 (critics) and 89 (public) on Metacritic and becoming the best-rated horror game among these on the list, being the perfect title to close today's article.

Another game focused on survival, Resident Evil 2 brings us to Raccoon City, a city completely affected by the T Virus, a biological weapon developed by the Umbrella Corporation to transform humans into zombies. Play as police officer Leon Kennedy or young Claire Redfield, discover secrets about the epidemic and try to escape the city.

I hope the games here make your Halloween full of spooky experiences! I'm open to questions and suggestions in the comments.