One of the main things that gamers love about owning a PC is Steam. That is mainly because PC gamers have the options to play an extremely large assortment of games on Steam whether it be God of War or the terrifying game that will make many people have trouble sleeping–Outlast. This list aims to focus on the latter.
Steam carries a lot of the scariest titles available and because of this those titles deserve to get noticed so horror aficionados or those looking to play a game with big scares are able to. All of these games are scary in different ways with some being more focused on psychological scares and others creating tension within the player.
10/10 Dark Deception
Dark Deception is like a combination of Pac-Man and Five Nights at Freddy’s. The game is split up into five different chapters that can be seen as different games, but for the purpose of the list will be seen as a cohesive piece. Each chapter has it so that the player needs to run through the hallways of a building like a school in chapter 2 that forms maze-like corridors.
The player needs to collect a certain amount of gems before they are able to teleport out or need to complete another challenge and then be faced with the exit. It’s a fun heart-pounding experience in every chapter as the players will be avoiding demonic children, killer monkeys, and so much more in high-speed chases.
9/10 The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan
Man of Medan in The Dark Pictures Anthology Series has some flaws pertaining to the build-up during the first half of its story, but it makes up for this with the scares that the game provides in the second half. The game features an array of apparitions like a lady who continues to get older and more decomposed as she chases the player.
The setting of the abandoned World War II frater is also a nice touch as it is reminiscent of the 2002 Ghost Ship movie but actually has some scares through the duration of its about 4-hour run time.
8/10 Darkwood
Darkwood is a horror game that plays to its style well as many people wouldn’t expect top-down horror experience to be able to scare them, yet Darkwood does just that. It adds a limited field of view mechanic that makes it so that a player only ever really sees what’s in a cone in front of their field of vision for the most part.
The game has a day and night cycle that revolve around scavenging and then trying to stay alive from creatures of the night. The sound design is where the unnerving elements of horror start the bleed-through amplified with the vision mechanics. The combination of both creates a horror that keeps the player involved.
7/10 Dead By Daylight
Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer game which just means that there are two teams with different objectives that they must complete to win the game. The killer in the game must kill all the players that are in a team as survivors. The survivors have to sneak around the map trying to avoid the killer while getting generators, opening the exit, and then escaping.
It creates a game of cat and mouse as players will need to master different killer classes like Michael Myers from Halloween and survivor classes with different abilities to create the best possible outcome for them to win. It’s a game that creates a lot of tension whether the player is being hunted down or looking for the survivors.
6/10 Alien Isolation
Alien Isolation might be too long for its own good, but that does not stop the game from creating some intuitive scares for the Xenomorph in it. Other games might want to use this game as a blueprint for their survival horror enemies in the future as the game makes sure that the player isn’t grabbed and killed in a single way every time the monster is encountered.
There are so many ways to die that the player will feel like they rarely see the same animation more than a couple of times if that. They might be run down or pulled into a vent without realizing it.
5/10 Layers Of Fear
Layers of Fear is as much a game about art as it is a game about insanity. The game’s design matches that energy. There will be plenty of times when beautifully detailed areas will become corroded by nightmarish dark illusions. The game is not meant to be extremely challenging but more of an experience for the player to have.
The player will uncover a well-designed story about an artist and his family. As the story progresses there will be plenty of memorable moments such as the one that occurs in the child’s room that will make the player fear music boxes after its jarring experience.
4/10 Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia takes ghost hunting to the next level by creating a ghost-hunting simulation game. The gameplay mechanics are smart as the entire game revolves around the player or players having to go into haunted locations and figure out the type of ghost that is haunting that location. As players progress they will earn more money which gives them access to more ghost-hunting tools.
It’s a game that might be too scary for some to play alone and even with friends the game is bound to cause some panic. For horror fans, it’s a must-play ghost-hunting mystery full of different ghost models and creepy locations. The addition of needing to use tools like a black light to solve ghost puzzles and check off what type of ghost could create a tight multiplayer experience.
3/10 Outlast
There can be an argument made for which Outlast is actually the scariest and while some may say that the second game has a lot more terrifying layers to itself, the first one sets the tone. Outlast lets the player know that it’s a game that was created with the sole purpose of absolutely terrifying the player.
This game does not mess around as each of the different enemies like the giant disfigured Chris Walker model have freakish mutations that were caused by being experimented on in the game’s asylum backdrop.
2/10 Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the best survival horror games that does not allow the player to fight back against the monster. The game does however have some flaws with the amount of interactivity in the environment that it has available. A lot of interaction sounds great at first, but that’s not what it feels like after a player has opened up the hundredth drawer.
Even with its slight flaws, the first Amnesia still includes plenty of scares and large labyrinthian areas that the player will need to explore to then be able to move on to the next area while losing sanity and being chased by monsters.
1/10 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard took the Resident Evil setting and went back deep into its survival horror roots. Resident Evil 5 and 6 felt a lot more action-oriented than some of the older titles that were centered around the survival horror aspects for the most part. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard brought back the suspense of feeling helpless when a player doesn’t have the means of fighting back against an enemy.
The game runs wonderfully on many PCs and has some dark twisted moments that also have an accent of beauty due to the detailed environments that they created.
