The 10 scariest games you should play this Halloween

We’re getting close to Halloween, which means that it’s a great time to play these fantastic horror games. 

What’s better than a horror game on Halloween? The season of white rag-wearing ghosties and creepy smiling pumpkins is upon us, but we would be remiss to go through the entirety of October without playing a single horror game. After all, there are so many fantastic ones out there! From the paranoia-driven multiplayer shenanigans of Among Us to slicing zombies to pieces in Dead Island 2, there’s really no end to the variety this genre can bring. 

With that in mind, here are our picks for the 10 best horror games you should play this Halloween:

Resident Evil 4 Remake

In this writer’s humble opinion, there is no greater game to play during Halloween than a Resident Evil game. Resident Evil 4 is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made, and Capcom’s recent remake of the classic manages to hone its strengths without diluting what made the original so influential for its time. Leon S. Kennedy arrives at a remote village to save the President of the United States’ daughter from being kidnapped, but quickly discovers that there’s a lot more going on in this village than it seems. 

Resident Evil 4 is a survival-horror game, which means that staying on top of your bullets, healing items and knives are key to Leon’s survival in this adventure. Fortunately, the game’s enigmatic Australian merchant always has something new to add to Leon’s arsenal so long as he has the cash, keeping him well-equipped to deal with whatever lies ahead. Don’t be fooled, however - Resident Evil 4 knows exactly how to keep you on your toes at all times. There is so much more to this game than a few hostile villagers, and Leon is especially unprepared to deal with whatever lurks in the island’s abandoned laboratories… and neither are you.

Resident Evil 4’s Separate Ways expansion was recently released and it’s a fantastic excuse to return to this game’s iconic locations and enemies with a very different perspective. 

Dead Space (2023)

Isaac Clarke is a starship engineer, so what is he doing on a ship crawling with monsters? Motive Studio went above and beyond with its remake of the horror classic Dead Space this year, bringing us back to all the scares that remain vividly imprinted in our minds so many years later. This game lives and breathes true horror in a way few games on this list can match - no matter how much Isaac upgrades his gear, takes down creatures and progresses through the story - every breath he takes feels like it could be his last. 

Set in a 26th century sci-fi universe, Isaac Clarke finds himself on the starship USG Ishimura looking for his girlfriend Nicole. The ship has strangely gone radio-silent, but the cause of that quickly becomes clear: it’s overrun by psychotic mutated creatures called Necromorphs, hellbent on annihilating all life left around them. As he explores the ship, he realises that these monsters might have ties to a newly unearthed artifact called the Marker - and somehow, his missing girlfriend Nicole. . 

Alan Wake Remastered

If your tolerance for horror is low but not quite low enough to avoid the genre entirely, Alan Wake will suit you well. While the game’s resource management and screaming enemies will keep you on the edge of your seat, it relies more on its twisty psychological narrative to keep you hooked instead of doling out frequent scares. It’s nowhere near as tense as games like Alien: Isolation, so you should still have no trouble getting through its spookier sequences. 

The game follows a novelist named Alan Wake who arrives in Bright Falls looking for his missing wife, but things take a turn when events from his latest novel spring to life before his eyes. The weird thing is that he doesn't even remember writing this book, so how is it all supposed to end?

Until Dawn

Until Dawn is a fantastic couch co-op game despite featuring zero couch co-op whatsoever, and I’ll stand by that. If you and your partner can’t settle on a horror movie to watch, this feels like an interactive version of the real thing. The story follows a group of teenagers who make their way to a secluded lodge in the woods a year after one of their own met a tragic end in the very same woods. As you can tell, these teenagers aren’t very bright. 

You’ll play as eight different characters whose lives become threatened in Blackwood Mountain, exploring the lodge and beyond to unearth clues that ultimately decide which of them live and which of them die. All of your actions have consequences in this story, so taking the time to explore and keep your favourites alive really pays off. I played this game by passing the controller off to the next person every time the story shifted perspectives to a different character - but you can always check out Supermassive Games’ more recent fare for horror games with built-in co-op. 

Alien: Isolation

We haven’t forgotten what Alien: Isolation put us through, and there’s a reason for that. Based on the classic Alien films, this game takes place 15 years after Ellen Ripley first awoke to a ship full of horrors in the 1979 original. You play as her daughter Amanda, investigating the disappearance of her mother on the space station Sevastopol. Unfortunately, she ends up reliving her mother’s traumatic past instead. 

The Xenomorph that stalks Amanda in this game is highly intelligent and alert to your movements - so you have to stealthily make your way from one objective to the next without being discovered by any means necessary. If the alien finds you, it’s instant death - so outsmart it with every tool you have at your disposal, few as they might be. 

Dead by Daylight

Horror and multiplayer gaming make for a beautiful combination. Even while playing with friends, Dead by Daylight maintains a creepy and suspenseful atmosphere in every match owing to its unpredictability. The game’s roster of playable characters is split into two categories, each with very different objectives to accomplish during a match. Playing as the Killer allows you to be the monster at the end of every horror movie, but playing as the Survivors puts you in the shoes of their victims instead. 

It’s fun to play either role. Survivors can work in a team to outwit the singular Killer constantly on their trail, while the Killer gets an array of powerful abilities to hunt them down one-by-one. The Killer has to keep Survivors from escaping a map by ending their lives or incapacitating them, but Survivors just have to complete a few objectives - such as fixing power generators - to create an escape route and get out before they’re discovered. 

If you’re a horror fan, this is one of the best possible games you could play on Halloween. It’s basically the horror genre’s Super Smash Bros. too, pulling in characters from Alien, Halloween, Resident Evil, Stranger Things, Saw and so much more to bulk up its roster. Plus, Nicolas Cage is in it. 

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is undoubtedly the cosiest possible game you could play on Halloween. This Nintendo Switch game follows Mario’s more timid brother Luigi as he explores a haunted hotel with different spooks waiting for him on every floor. Luigi is not one to shy away from scares when his friends are in danger however, and that’s exactly what has happened here: all of his friends have been kidnapped by King Boo and the ghosts that haunt this mysterious hotel. 

To save his friends, he’ll need to use the vacuum cleaner-like Poltergust to suck up malicious ghosts residing in the hotel and solve puzzles to slowly unlock access to each floor in the building. The game has a pretty great single player campaign, but there’s a lot of multiplayer content here to enjoy with a partner as well. 

The Evil Within 2

I will stand by The Evil Within 2 until the day I die. Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami returned to the survival-horror genre with the first Evil Within game, although its convoluted plot, poor technical performance and clumsy gameplay didn’t make the best first impression. Its sequel The Evil Within 2 is a wholly different story - its plotting might not be the tightest nor the best-written, but the engrossing mystery surrounding Sebastian’s return to this supernatural creature-infested world will keep you hooked nevertheless. 

The Evil Within 2 is a game that has horror carved into its very bones. From its nightmare-inducing creature designs to its surreal horror aesthetic, this game is spine-chilling without indulging too deeply in despair. The story follows Sebastian Castellanos as he returns to a simulation in STEM in search of his daughter, whom he long thought dead. What he instead finds are giant eyes in the sky, screaming ghosts in white dresses, and masses of limbs and heads wielding buzzsaws. Give this guy a break, for pity’s sake. 

Little Nightmares 2

If you prefer adventure-platformers, give Little Nightmares 2 a shot. This beloved franchise has you play as Mono, a young boy who has been trapped in a world changed and upset by the humming transmission of a distant tower. He’s joined by a girl in a yellow raincoat called Six (the protagonist of the previous game) on his spooky adventures. The duo set out to unearth the dark secrets of the Signal Tower, but they’ll have to face down the terrible residents of this changed world first. 

Mono and Six will have to stay together to solve puzzles, overcome obstacles and defeat dangerous enemies in this harrowing adventure. Make no mistake: Little Nightmares 2’s little nightmares are not very little at all. 

Silent Hill 2

“In my restless dreams, I see that town… Silent Hill.” Silent Hill 2 is often hailed as an icon in the horror genre even beyond gaming, with signature creatures - such as Pyramid Head - so legendary that they have been used and abused far beyond the limits of their original narrative trappings. The game follows a widower named James Sunderland who heads into the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife, who claims that she is there waiting for his arrival. 

Cue spooky shenanigans. Silent Hill 2 is known not just for its creepy atmosphere and beautiful soundtrack, but its intelligent story that touches on mature topics we often see even modern horror games shy away from. James’ journey in this game is as cerebral as it is supernatural, and he’ll discover far more about himself in Silent Hill than he might be willing to accept. 

Silent Hill 2 Remake and more entries in the franchise are also on their way, so this is a great time to catch up.