The best horror games on PC.

 

Best horror games to play right now

From Silent Hill and Resident Evil, to Alien Isolation and PT here are the best horror games

The best horror game cover the gamut of what it means to be afraid. From dread to terror, tension to jump scares. There can be monsters or sometimes, even worse: a worrying lack of monsters. You  might interpret the symbolism of things, or just see a pile dead bodies and laugh at the excessive gore. Whatever you encounter these game can be enjoyable scary fun, introspective metaphor, or more. 

Coming up this list of the best horror games covers a broad range of games, across a range of eras and platforms. There's some old classics that are worth seeking out, some modern stuff but whatever's here is almost guaranteed to be an essential play for any self respecting horror fan. So turn down the lights, wait until midnight and prepare to be terrified with the best horror games you can play right now.  

25. Returnal

This might not seem like an obvious scary game but there's strong vein of cosmic horror running through everything Returnal does. This time looping roguelike is littered with Lovecraftian alien ruins, wrong shaped monsters and a terror that comes from trying not to die every 10 minutes. I get that it's a big ask to try this as it is all about trying to fight through waves of monsters and impossible feeling boss fights. But there's a great atmosphere to it all and disturbing story that gradually unfolds as you piece together the past and your place in it. 

24. Slender: The Eight Pages

It's old but it's free and a classic moment in horror gaming. While you can no longer play it online, it's easy to find a free download you can try. The premise is simple - find eight pages scattered around a spooky forrest location without the Slender Man catching you. Every time you find a page he gets closer and harder to avoid. It's a simple idea but the execution is flawless and, even with the potato graphics, it's a terrifying experience. It's also a great game to challenge your friends to play and see how they get. 

Available on: PC

23. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

Picking up on the tropes of Japanese horror and folklore that were made famous in The Ring and Ju-on, the Fatal Frame series has always been unsettling. Characters are frozen in place with fear, their only weapon against soul-stealing ghosts is an ancient camera. This means the only way to fight your enemies is to face them head-on, an increasingly terrifying proposition as the game wears on. The franchise has several great entries, but we choose to single out the second game as the best fit for this list.

Crimson Butterfly updates the graphics a bit from the first game, and it's the most inviting in its difficulty, making sure there's an ever-present threat without getting too frustrating. It also has the best story, a personal journey between two sisters dealing with loss and guilt. Its always nice when the intense experience is backed up by a plot thats deeper than 'survive'.

Available on: PS4 and Xbox One (via backwards compatibility).

22. Mundaun

Mundaun is weird creepy little game with a The Lighthouse and Midsommar vibe to it's strange hand drawn tale. The black and white first person scares see you revising your Swiss hometown after the death of your grandfather and uncovering [spooky voice] an ancient family curse. The Swiss, 1920s-ish location and folklore, along with the scratchy penciled art, create an otherworldly vibe that give the whole thing a foreign movie vibe you usually only see in Japanese horror games. It's a little clunky in places, with a few unclear puzzles and goals, but worth powering through if you want to try a horror game build from a different cultural foundation. 

Available on: PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch.