It’s my favourite time of year and as usual we’re celebrating in style here at Respawning. From Luke’s Spooktacular live streams to exciting upcoming releases like Dark Pictures: Little Hope, we’ve got it all this October.
I was considering talking about my favourite horror games of all time but I feel this has been done to death, in fact we did exactly that this time last year! Instead I want to focus on smaller horror games that just may have slipped you by. They’ll be no Resident Evil’s, Silent Hill’s or Dead Space’s in this list!
So if you love a good scare then sit back, settle in and join me as we jump into the dark and spooky world of horror games you may have missed. As always, you can check out the video version of this list if you prefer in the link below.
I’m going to start with a cool little indie that was released earlier this year and that’s Maid of Sker. Although I had a few issues revolving mostly around frustrating and laughable enemies, that didn’t stop the BioShock-esque story and atmosphere shining through. Add to that a really unique mechanic of having to stay completely silent by holding your breath, and you’ve got a short budget horror game that might just be worth your time.
Although I haven’t played this one myself yet, I have lost hours to watching Luke live stream it as part of his Spooktacular series. Being a fan of games like Limbo, Little Nightmares stood out to me as the sort of horror that will never get you with over-the-top jump scares. Instead it uses clever gameplay, a great use of sound and eerie visuals to give the player a constant state of unnerving discomfort.
Having just mentioned Limbo in the previous entry, I couldn’t help but bring it up as a must play game if you enjoyed Little Nightmares. Both games are in the same vein and will leave you feeling uncomfortable and massively creeped out. Despite the giant spiders and haunting darkness that surrounds this scary side scroller, there’s still a certain charm to it all that makes it stand out from the competition. Limbo has been around for a while and is available on pretty much every platform for a reasonable price so you have no excuse not to play this classic!
Man of Medan may not exactly be an underground indie title, but I still feel it was a fun horror that incorporated elements of Supermassive Games’ previous outing – Until Dawn yet didn’t get nowhere near the same love and attention that the latter did. For those that don’t know, Man of Medan is the first entry in what will be an ongoing collection of short spooky tales known as the Dark Pictures Anthology. With the next installment of that Anthology – Little Hope coming this Halloween, what better time to jump on board the doomed Medan ship if you’re yet to do so.
Admittedly The Suffering is showing its age in 2020 but that’s partly the reason I wanted to include it in this list. Now only available on PC, through backwards compatibility on Xbox or on PS2 if you still have one lying around, I can’t help but feel it’s a game that’s slowly being forgotten about and is likely a complete unknown to more younger horror fans. If you can cope with the games early 2000’s style visuals then I highly recommend you give this action slasher a go. It’s a very in your face horror that often borders on cheesy, but the level and enemy design which is based around a claustrophobic prison island haunted by executed prisoners of the past is truly horrifying and has stuck with me for years.
There we have it, my favourite five horror games you may have missed out on. Now I know for a fact there are dozens more which could have made this list and even more that I may have missed myself. So make sure to include your favourites in the comments or by hitting us up over on Twitter @RespawningUK.