Good horror games to play in October?

[Marty McFourth]

Title. I'm looking at playing some horror titles, I don't mind if they are indy or whatever. It could be good to get some suggestions down. So I can scope out my purchase options.



I'll recommend some to get started:

Until Dawn

It's been out for a while now but if you haven't played I'd highly recommend. It has Hayden Panettiere which is already a big plus. It's basically creating your own slasher movie and making the choices. Very fun stuff. I'd highly recommend just going in blind and letting any mistakes happen. It'll make the experience far more tense.

Soma

Really immersive experiences that forces you to run and hide, a bit like Outlast. Although I found it a lot more refined than that game, and it is by the same developers who made Amnesia and Penumbra which were also worth playing if you haven't despite their age.

Resident Evil 2 (Remake)

If you're going to play any Remake from recent memory, make sure it is this. It respects the original but has so many lovely quality of life improvements and was overall just a very good game from Capcom and got me fully back on board with them.​

 

[King Kota]

Played all three

 

[Marty McFourth]

Played all three

Well damn...I'll try better next time. Which was your favourite out of them?

 

[King Kota]

Until dawn

 

[Wangman Page]

Dead by daylight is a fun little time waster on PS, XBOX, PC and Switch

 

[PeepShow]

Not a huge horror guy as scary shit fucks me up, but Until Dawn is really good. Also, if you haven't played them, give the Outlast games a go. Good games, but I couldn't finish them.

 

[Chris]

Not a huge horror guy as scary shit fucks me up, but Until Dawn is really good. Also, if you haven't played them, give the Outlast games a go. Good games, but I couldn't finish them.

Oooh I played the first outlast in college with some friends once, it was pretty fucking scary

 

[Marty McFourth]

Dead by daylight is a fun little time waster on PS, XBOX, PC and Switch

Man if you keep recommending this I'm going to have to buy it.

 

[Marty McFourth]

Not a huge horror guy as scary shit fucks me up, but Until Dawn is really good. Also, if you haven't played them, give the Outlast games a go. Good games, but I couldn't finish them.

Outlast fucked me up, tbh. Then I saw there was a trophy for doing it on an even higher difficulty and I NOPED the hell out of there. I can't handle the not being able fight back stuff, it is terrifying.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Alan Wake is always good. I also enjoyed Blair Witch even if most have called it borin'. There is also a thousands of shitty free horror games if you just want a decent laugh at some trash.

 

[GARBAGE]

Been playing Alien: Isolation. I'm hot and cold on it right now but I'd lean more toward hot gun to head. Visually the environments are great, especially the lighting and the composition of details to make it feel like an actual lived/worked-in area. I love xenomorphs too much to be realllly that afraid of them but the game has done an excellent job in using it sparingly, while still making me cautious in every new room. I was disappointed in its introduction, though. It was really obvious that that random dude we met was just there to get killed and I was hoping the alien wouldn't just out-of-blue show up in a cutscene, but instead first in-gameplay.

I couldn't give eight fucks about the androids, I get the lore reason they look the way do (people don't like not being able to tell them apart from humans) but I just feel they look too intentionally scary, when they should just look like employees. It actually often hurts a fear factor for me when I feel like something is so obviously designed by somebody to be scary. I'm really not into the saving system either, it's just tedious having to walk through the same area slowly and stealthily, and picking up items multiple times because I didn't know the android on the ground wasn't actually dead. And I don't vibe with that lame excuse posers on Steam use that it would "suck away the tension" or some other pretentious horseshit if it just let me quick save/load whenever I wanted. "I BET YOU'D HATE DARK SOULS!" System Shock 2 is the most scared I've ever been playing a game (as an adult) and it had a quicksave. I was scared because the game actually freaked me out and not because I was bothered about losing progress. I don't "feel da tension" having to crawl through a room again, I just get annoyed. And with it being stealth, it's way different to something like Resident Evil having sparing checkpoints because I don't gotta move around RE so slowly.

So in short I'm looking forward to screwing around with the alien and concerned the rest will bother me.

------

The RE2 Remake is my favourite game in the series and one of my favourite games of all time. I love the original but it still floored me how gripped I became with it. And I think the game being made now in a different camera angle, and still being great, is a testament to how phenomenal the level design especially in the game is. I haven't played the RE 3 remake yet because frankly I just could never like RE3, but I desperately want a Code Veronica remake in the same style. Maybe those dumbass bandersnatches will be tolerable.


Oh yeah and if you're into playing old games try System Shock 2.

 

[Marty McFourth]

Alan Wake is always good. I also enjoyed Blair Witch even if most have called it borin'. There is also a thousands of shitty free horror games if you just want a decent laugh at some trash.

I quite enjoy the shitty horror games. The jankiness can make them scarier sometimes.

Alan Wake is a classic, it's getting the remaster treatment soon apparently.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

The remaster gave me hope that we could be gettin' a new Alan Wake finally. Also, Control hintin' at it helps too.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

I'll hit up some recommendations for y'all:

Sweet Home (NES)

The Grandfather of Survival Horror, Sweet Home is a horror based RPG with timeless game mechanics and one of the all time greatest stories for the system. Five survivors, parties of two-three people, inventory management, perma-death, and five different endings depending on how much of your group survives. It is most recognized as the spiritual ancestor to Resident Evil.

Haunting Ground

A unique take on the Clock Tower formula, you and your dog companion hide from stalkers and solve puzzles in a game that contains four different endings and a *lot* of trial and error. Each stalker has different behavior and intelligence checks for themselves that allow for a sliding scale of difficulty for each one you face.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

One of the more well known "obscure" horror games, Eternal Darkness is a combat puzzle adventure game taking place through a bloodline of the Roivas family and their encounters with the eldritch. While it can be a frustrating experience for some, it is rewarding to those who stick with it all the way through.

 

[Marty McFourth]

I really wish I could replay Haunting Ground. Having my PS2 and all those games I used to own for those classic horror experiences would have been nice right about now. Great write-up Barry. I recommend people play it if they have never done so, it's a really enjoyable experience.