While horror games are known chiefly for their scares, they’ve also been growing a fearsome reputation for delivering some of the best stories in modern video games. Influenced by horror films and their largely single-player nature, video games are pushing against the boundaries of how fear and storytelling can overlap in new and interesting ways.
Whether it’s a tense first-person indie game where the player has no weapons to fight back or a gonzo send-up of horror-action’s biggest delights, horror video games are more than capable of delivering brilliant stories.
While the originalDead Spacewas a brilliant game, the remake has upped the standard for what a modern horror video game story can be. Taking place on the ruined remains of the USG Ishimura spacecraft, the protagonist Isaac Clarke must fight through hordes of necromorphs to discover the fate of his wife Nicole, the mysterious effects of ‘The Marker’, and themounds of incredibly cool lore that make up the unforgettable setting.
As a clear homage to the films of John Carpenter and Ridley Scott,Dead Spaceexcels at crafting a tense atmosphere where a genuinely affecting story of mental illness and Lovecraftian horror collides into a heartstopping adventure.
Developed by The Chinese Room as a standalone expansion to the originalAmnesia: The Dark Descent,Amnesia: A Machine for Pigshas a somewhat mixed reputation for ditching most of the engaging gameplay of the original game.
However instead,Amnesia: A Machine for Pigsdelivers one of the best stories horror games have to offer with an incredible central premise and an ending whose fame and musical score have far exceeded the original game’s lifespan. This one’s worth playing for the ending alone.
While the horror master Shinji Mikami’s firstThe Evil Withingame was interesting, its story was mercurial, to say the least. However,The Evil Within 2refined everything that the first game laid up and crafted a story full of scares and genuine pathos that did the impossible and made players feel for protagonist Sebastian Castellanos.
Though, like the original game,The Evil Within 2may outstay its welcome a little bit, the way in which it ties the entire series together in an ending for the ages fueled by theplayer’s mastery of the game’s arsenalis genuinely incredible and well worth playing for anyone who hasn’t experienced it yet.
No list of great horror stories in video games would be complete with the original master. TheSilent Hillfranchise is well known for its creepy atmosphere, Lynchian vibes, and sincerely frightening enemies, butSilent Hill 2marks the high point of cohering all these elements into an effective story.
Playing as James, a recently widowed man who received a letter from his supposedly dead wife to come to the town of Silent Hill, the game is a dark descent into James’s inner psychosis and uses the horror genre to explore dark but profound areas few other games have,resulting in the game’s famous endingsthat’ll stay with the player long after the credits.
Taking everything they learned from theAmnesiaseries, Frictional Games’s next original outing wasSoma, a mind-bending game set at the bottom of the ocean where fleshy mechanical horrors roam the creaking corridors making upone of the best horror games on last-gen hardware.
However, as the game progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Frictional is playing with some incredibly complex sci-fi concepts that explore ideas of consciousness and artificial intelligence that’ll haunt players long after they put down their controller.
Remedy games are well known for their complex and incredible stories, andAlan Wake 2is no exception. Ruthlessly unforgiving for players who haven’t engaged with the first game,Alan Wake 2builds on everything that came before and delivers a complex, emotional, and endlessly delightful story (need we say more thanthe game’s famous musical sequence) that is never afraid to take a big swing.
All this is delivered in a game defined by genuinely scary moments and a moody lighting system that makes even daytime feel frightening. Let’s just say old folks' homes have never felt the same since playingAlan Wake 2.
Where some horror video games take clear inspiration from movies to deliver their stories,Inscryptiongoes the exact opposite direction and leans into the incredible storytelling possibilities available only to video games to deliver genuine scares and emotional stories in equal measure.
To say more would be to spoil some ofInscryption’s biggest surprises, particularlyits very hidden endings. Rest assured, just when a player feels like they understand what the game is doing, the rug will be pulled from under them and the game will evolve in unpredictable and exciting directions.
Though there are many valid criticisms levied atThe Last Of Us, it’s hard to deny just how much it has changed how video game stories are told over the last decade, and how it delivers genuinely brilliant scares throughout inits fearsome and difficult areas.
More than any other game on this list,The Last of Usmanages to lay out the perfect balance of story and horror that complements each other in unforgettable ways. Whether it be a tense encounter with the infected in the spore-ridden ruins of Boston or the university campus of Boulder, there are always pathos-fueled scares around every corner.
