If you’re a fan of guts, gore and horror then you probably love Halloween. October is the time for all this spooky and horrific to make an appearance. From movies, TV specials and of course video games. There’s nothing quite as chilling as turning off the lights, putting on the headphones and immersing yourself in a spine-tingling horror game. The horror genre of games has seen a lot of evolution over the years. It’s not only jump scares and gore but the creators have gotten creative and psychologically twisted in their stories and monsters. Is this a good thing? You tell us. Because we’ve rounded up our Top 10 most horrifyingly disturbing games from the year 2020 for you monsters to play. In no particular order.
Maid of Sker by Wales Interactive
First-person survival horror is the classic scare your pants genre and it’s because it bloody well works. Looking through the eyes of this poor unfortunate person, seeing the terrifying monsters, hearing their fear it’s all enough to make you forget where you are. Based on a true story The Maid of Sker is set in a remote hotel, a real-life dwelling that’s one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. You play as Thomas Evans a musician who is thrust into a terrifying battle with the nightmarish Quiet Men to save the woman he loves. When they arrive, do not panic — don’t even breathe.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC – Steam
In Silence by Ravenhood Games
Who says horror needs to be experienced solely on your own? I say the unified sound of multiple people screaming is more likely to scare off any monsters imo. If you’re a fan of Dead by Daylight then you and your squad are going to enjoy In Silence. Play with up to five players stranded in a forest. Either one player or the AI will play as the Rake, a hideous, rat-like cryptid with more teeth than is sensible. The rest will need to survive. Either scavenge enough parts to fix the car and escape or find the scattered codes to the armory and take on the Rake. The monster is incredibly fast and incredibly strong, but is almost blind and relies on its hypersensitive hearing. Imagine this as survival training for you and your friends if our world ever went the way of A Quiet Place.
Platforms: PC – Steam, Mac
World of Horror by Panstasz
Terror is not always jumpscares and slasher men, sometimes true horror is just quietly hellish. World of Horror is a 1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft where you’re given choices with unforgiving consequences. The Old Gods are reawakening, clawing their way back into a world that’s spiralling into madness. In hospitals, abandoned classrooms, quiet apartments, and dark forests, strange appearances and unexplainable phenomena test the sanity of residents in Shiokawa, Japan. The end of the world is nigh and the only solution is to confront the terror reigning over the apocalypse. Here are all the endings you can get from World of Horror.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC – Steam, Mac
Stories Untold by No Code
Inspired by old episodic horror shows like The Twilight Zone, Stories Untold is a compilation tape of four experimental adventures. This is a narrative-driven experimental adventure game, that combines a mix of classic text-adventure, point-and-click and more. It’s 4 short stories packaged together into a single mysterious anthology. The game pulls together 80s retro nostalgia, innovative and experimental genre-defying gameplay, and tense, phycological horror.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Swich, PC – Steam, Mac
Amnesia: Rebirth by Frictional Games
Amnesia: Rebirth, is a sequel to 2010’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In both games, players are almost powerless and left to try and survive. Unlike other horror games, Amnesia emphasises hiding, avoiding conflict and mastering your own fear. You play as Tasi Trianon, a French woman who joins a mining expedition to Algeria in 1937. A plane crash of supernatural origins leaves Tasi as the lone survivor and as she goes to search for her team members she discovers portals to a dark parallel world. In the deadly heat and smothering world of the desert, you struggle against your character’s limitations and even her perceptions. Fear is a mechanic and the more frightened Tasi becomes the less reliable her senses are. Eventually, if you can’t control it she’ll lose herself and wake up somewhere else with no memory. Push through and keep your fear under control.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC – Steam, Mac