Halloween is nearly here, and the gaming community is certainly getting in the spirit. With streamers queuing up their favorite horror games and Halloween-themed events in everything from Pokémon GO to Destiny 2, it seems like spookiness is everywhere in video games right now. For the creepy inclined, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.
However, to the uninitiated, horror games can seem daunting. Casual players can easily be put off by these games’ unique mechanics, gruesome graphics, and plethora of scares. With franchises like Silent Hill and Resident Evil spanning more than twenty years’ worth of games, getting into them now can seem like an impossible challenge.
However, players should have no fear. There are many horror-adjacent games out there that serve as a perfect segue into horror gaming, introducing players to many of the elements of horror games without throwing them in the deep end. Here are four of the best titles for easing into the world of horror video games.
Gone Home
Gone Home follows a young woman named Katie the night she returns home from a year abroad, only to find her entire family has disappeared. Players control Katie as she walks through her family’s enormous (and supposedly haunted) house, slowly piecing together what happened to her parents and little sister.
Though it starts off very “it was a dark and stormy night,” Gone Home’s spooky atmosphere and mysterious narrative is (spoiler alert) a red herring: the game is actually a heart-warming story of love and self acceptance, one that will leave players with a smile. Bonus points: due to its mid-nineties setting, the game is able to organically incorporate references to multiple classic video games, including The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong Country. A content warning, however, is in order - though never explicit, it is implied that one of the unseen characters may have been a victim of childhood abuse, so players sensitive to such subjects should proceed with caution.
Limbo
Once players have mastered the spooky atmosphere and dark tone of Gone Home, they’re ready to graduate to more onscreen horrors. Limbo, an award-winning puzzle-platformer from indie developer Playdead, is an excellent next choice. The game follows a young boy as he journeys through an apparent purgatory in an attempt to save his sister. Along the way, the boy must outsmart and evade a variety of enemies, including mind-controlling worms and a particularly creepy giant spider.
Though the game’s highly stylized graphics and minimalist sound design give the player a certain amount of removal from the material, Limbo does feature its share of spooks. The boy’s deaths can be particularly gruesome, a deliberate choice by the developers in order to discourage players from making mistakes that lead to character death. Thankfully, these elements can be avoided entirely with the game’s generous “gore filter,” which changes the character’s death to a simple screen blackout.
Whether they employ the gore filter or not, Limbo players are in for a spooky treat of a game, featuring gorgeous artwork, mind-bending puzzles, and a compelling vision that has gone onto influence multiple other games, including Playdead’s spiritual successor, Inside. While Inside, like its predecessor, has been praised as a remarkable achievement for the art form, players may want to wait until they’ve become a bit more familiar with the genre before diving in: Inside is more frightening than any of the games on this list, and features elements of body horror that some players may find difficult to stomach.
Little Nightmares
Another spooky indie game with a child protagonist, Little Nightmares takes Limbo to the next level in this gorgeous, full-color horror experience. Featuring ghoulish enemies and a genuinely chilling story, Little Nightmares keeps things suitably spooky while employing very accessible puzzle-platformer gameplay.
The game follows a young girl named Six as she attempts to escape a nightmarish vessel of child-eating monsters, aptly named The Maw. With underlying themes of cannibalism and speculated matricide, Little Nightmares is certainly not for kids, but manages to balance out its darker elements with a sense of childlike wonder reminiscent of films like Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Appropriately, Coraline and Nightmare director Henry Selick is actually set the helm the television adaptation of Little Nightmares, which is currently in development. Also in development is the hotly anticipated Little Nightmares 2, which is set for release on multiple platforms in February 2021. Better get playing.
Until Dawn
Once gamers have acclimated to creepy atmospheres, spooky mysteries, and frightening enemies, it’s time to take on a true horror game: Until Dawn. Though the game is frequently categorized as survival horror, it’s really more of an interactive drama. Gameplay is mostly limited to walking and interacting with objects, and players are strongly encouraged to meditate on the potential consequences to each of their actions. Though the game makes use of a number of horror tropes, including the occasional jump scare, its slower interactive gameplay and mildly dated graphics (the title was originally slated for the PlayStation 3) make it an excellent transition title for those new to horror games.
Until Dawn follows eight characters as they return to a remote cabin where two of their friends disappeared one year prior. The night takes a drastic turn when someone – or something – begins hunting them, and soon the teenagers find themselves faced with unfathomable horrors. The player assumes the role of each of the eight characters, and every little decision counts as the game’s “Butterfly Effect” mechanic tracks their choices and determines the outcome of the story. With a premise reminiscent of classic horror films and a “Don’t Move” mechanic that will surely leave players sweating, Until Dawn is an excellent final step in one’s journey into horror gaming.
Once they have mastered the above four games, players should feel ready to take on any horror game that catches their eye. From the Lovecraftian horrors of FromSoftware’s Bloodborne to long-running franchises like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, no game will seem too much to those who have survived these four worlds. Just be sure not to play them too close to bedtime - no one is immune to nightmares, not even the most seasoned of horror gamers.