The nights are drawing in, which can only mean one thing: more bed. But also the impending frights and sights of All Hallow's Eve. Yes, the season of good fear is upon us again, summoning visions of cardboard box robot costumes and other, more devilish things.
And in the spirit of it all, we've crowded around the ouija board to spirit up a list of our horror game favourites - playable on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 1 & 2, and VR - that might just sate your macabre appetites this Halloween. Some are scary, some are grim, others offer milder - but no less spooky - chills. We'll be doing a smattering of other spooky stuff as the week goes on, but if you're looking for more recommendations, we did a different horror list last year. And if you've your own favourites, please do share them below!
Resident Evil Requiem
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2
Where better to start then with Resident Evil, one of the granddaddies of survival horror gaming? And Resident Evil Requiem is, as much as anything, a celebration of the series as it turns 30. If Resident Evil is a series of two halves - one part campy action, one part genuine scares - Requiem is the perfect tribute, and when it leans heavily into horror in its sublime opening hours, it's genuinely terrifying. New protagonist Grace Ashcroft is the perfect accompaniment as she leads these first-person segments, roaming a wonderfully atmospheric Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre and dealing with some very human zombies who, disturbingly, don't yet seem to realise they're dead. Then comes series stalwart Leon S. Kennedy, roundhouse kicking and quipping to ease the tension in intermittent third-person interludes before it's back into the scares. Eventually, the horror gives way to heavier action, but then go on the party hats for a final stretch of glorious fan-service that feels entirely deserved. It's not only a great Resi game, it's one of the best games this year.
Silent Hill: Townfall
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Silent Hill, another grandaddy of the survival horror genre, has always been the moodier of the two big series, trading Resident Evil's B-movie thrills for quieter, more ambient psychological scares. And it's the same story with this year's Silent Hill Townfall, which - continuing the trend established by last year's marvellous Japan-set Silent Hill F - shifts the fog-shrouded action again, this time to a small Scottish island blighted by tragedy. Developer Screen Burn, known for the acclaimed likes of Stories Untold and Observation, takes some big swings here, trading the series' classic third-person perspective for a more intimate first-person one, and shifting the focus from erratic gunplay to stealth. It also tells an unexpectedly gritty and very British tale as it jumps between multiple protagonists. The result is an effective, affecting, and relentlessly suffocating piece of horror. It's not perfect, proving perhaps a bit too relentless, but few series remain this exciting, and so willing to reinvent themselves, after nearly three decades.
Reanimal
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2
What Little Nightmares originator Tarsier Studios did next. Having stepped away from the horror series that made its name a few years back, Tarsier returned earlier this year with a fresh macabre offering that, on paper at least, doesn't sound like much of a departure at all. Much like Little Nightmares, Reanimal follows the adventure of two lovable, spindly-limbed moppets - here, Boy and Girl - lost in a hellish, hostile world players traverse by scrambling over platforms, solving light puzzles, and fleeing horrifying entities during the big crescendo moments. What sets it apart, however, is the sumptuous cinematic flair of presentation and a much darker mood: in Reanimal, Little Nightmares' Burton-esque whimsy gives way to a bleaker, more vicious - and undoubtedly more violent - vision that's often genuinely disturbing. That darkness is somewhat alleviated by the comfort of two-player co-op, but however you choose to play, Tarsier's latest is a treat. A game of phenomenal mood and artistry, as striking as it is enigmatic, and a wonderfully grim accompaniment for Halloween.
Iron Lung
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch
If the name sounds familiar but the game does not, that might be because developer David Szymanski's Iron Lung was turned into a movie earlier this year by none other than YouTuber Markiplier. And even if you've seen the film adaptation, the original game is worth checking out; it's a masterclass in lo-fi horror that's quite unlike anything else. Early on, Iron Lung seals you into a squalid submersible and plunges you into a blood ocean on a distant alien world. Your goal is to chart its labyrinthine depths - an unknowable expanse of suffocating darkness and silence - searching for several points of interest. The problem? No windows. Instead, you're forced to rely on the tiny, murky image of the world outside beamed onto the submersible's TV screen; the darkness so overbearing, all you can see are the glimpses of strangeness caught in your floodlights. As such, movement becomes a game of blind micro-bursts and cautious rotations, as you sporadically consult your map. That's stressful enough, but Iron Lung plays some clever tricks; its stellar sound design increasingly suggesting something terrible lurks in the darkness. Slowly, the tension reaches suffocating, unbearable heights, and you'll frankly be glad it only takes 45-minutes or so to complete.
Ghost Town
Platforms: PCVR, PSV2, Meta Quest
Ghost Town's biggest roadblock is the fact it's a VR-exclusive game. But if you've got the means to check it out, it's a gem. Ghost Town is the work of Fireproof Games, and it shares some similarities with the studio's earlier, acclaimed The Room series - particularly in its love of tactile puzzle boxes and contraptions. But Ghost Town is far more ambitious, building a propulsive urban fantasy adventure around its core puzzling, and plunging players into a brilliantly evocative recreation of 1983 London as protagonist and ghost hunter Edith Penrose hunts for her missing brother. As the grimy streets of the capital make way for the craggy seclusion of the North Sea, and, eventually, strange realms beyond, it's wonderfully spooky stuff - full of great writing, captivating world-building, endearing characters, fantastic puzzles, and some magnificently imaginative set-pieces - there's a bit with a lighthouse trapped in time thanks to a troubled spirit that's a real highlight. This one's for you if you've ever suspected dark arts were occurring on the London Underground.
The Séance of Blake Manor
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2
It's 1879 and you, private investigator Declan Ward, have been summoned to a remote, rain-lashed corner of western Ireland in search of a young woman named Evelyn Deane. It's a journey that brings you to the titular Blake Manor, now a grand hotel, where the turnips - historically accurate jack-o'-lanterns, if you were wondering - are out in force. We are, you see, three days from All Hallow's Eve, and the hotel is bustling with guests: spiritualists, mentalists, naysayers, and more; here to witness the Grand Séance and a never-before-seen attempt to commune with the dead. All, perhaps, also know something about Evelyn Dean's whereabouts. Soon enough, the detective work begins, and you 'll start sniffing around empty rooms and tantalising corners, searching for discarded notes, newspaper clippings, and other useful clues. You'll also want to interrogate the guests as they move around the house according to their hourly schedule. But every action nudges the clock on further, meaning you'll need to spend your time wisely as awful calamity approaches. Soon new secrets, new mysteries, begin to emerge, and as the clockwork rhythms of day make way for the nightmarish hallucinations of night, is anyone safe?
Myhouse.wad
Platforms: PC (requires Doom)
A touching tribute to a Doom modder’s childhood friend, replicating the family home they used to play together in. As Myhouse.wad creator Veddge explained when he first shared the acclaimed level on the DoomWorld forums back in 2023, an unfinished, work-in-progress version of the house was found on a floppy disc gifted to him inside a box of his dead friend's belongings. A journal included in the download file explains more about the mod’s somewhat difficult creation - an endeavour Veddge chose to undertake to honour his friend's memory. But the effort was undoubtedly worth it - as is the slight faff of getting Myhouse.wad to run if you're new to Doom things - and it serves as a simple but touching tribute to friendship across its ten minutes of nostalgic 90s FPS playtime. Only… what's that looking through the window on the ground floor? And was that door in the hallway always there?
Servant of the Lake
Platforms: Android, iOS, PC
Really, you could pluck any Rusty Lake game out of the 18 or so released across the series' ten years of existence, and you'd be in for a grimly macabre treat. But Servant of the Lake is developer Rusty Lake's latest offering, taking players back to 1839, where they've been hired to serve the troubled Vanderboom family across an increasingly strange three-day reunion. Servant of the Lake isn't quite as ambitious as some of the series' other games, such as 2022's excellent co-op mysteryThe Past Within. But what it lacks in structural and narrative experimentation, it makes up for in puzzles, serving up an enjoyably refined take on the series' deceptively clever mix of casual point-and-click adventuring, room-escape-style puzzling, and fascinatingly fragmented, centuries-spanning narrative. And oh yes, it's weird, as its bucolic vistas and gentle bird song gradually give way to blood and butchery, and the comforting logic of reality dims. Sure, it's more darkly amusing than outright disturbing, but Rusty Lake still calls for fresh meat this Halloween.
Horses
Platforms: PC (via GOG only)
Probably not one for the faint of heart, Horses gained infamy after being banned by Steam and then Epic Games last year. It all unfolds across two weeks on a farm where humans are kept, masked and naked, in filthy captivity - a grim sight that goes completely unacknowledged for a surprisingly long time as you perform your daily tasks of gardening, woodchopping, and so on to satisfy the farmer's demands. Soon enough, though, Horses charges full-tilt into the grotesque. But while it'll probably make you gasp, and definitely make you squirm; its shocks are comparatively tame. Instead, writer and director Andrea Lucco Borlera's gleefully odd first-person narrative horror - developed in conjunction with Saturnalia studio Santa Ragione - gains its power from its wholly unique ambience, where surreal, slapstick comedy collides with arthouse experimentalism to create a thoroughly destabilising mood. All this, and it has something meaningful to say - not bad for £4.
Clive Barker's Hellraiser Revival
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2
As a game, Hellraiser Revival is wobbly at best, particularly in its opening hours where its wonky gunplay and undercooked stealth never quite coalesce. That means its real-world bits - which include a lengthy stay in a dildo-strewn BDSM club - have a tendency to drag. But when the Labyrinth intermittently calls, developer Sabre Interactive pulls out all the stops. As Hellraiser Revival protagonist Aiden enters this confounding realm - an Escher-esque, non-Euclidean nightmare of piercing chains and endless, impossibly configured stone that serves as home to the Cenobites and their demonic deity Leviathan - the dull, uneven combat gives way to puzzles, platforming, and wonderfully orchestrated pursuit sequences. And it makes the whole thing worthwhile. Slowly, as the line between the Labyrinth and the real-world blurs - and as Saber starts to have more fun with its combat tools - it gets considerably more engaging. Revival and its endless tableaus of horrifically rended flesh are definitely, absolutely not for the squeamish, but Hellraiser fans - and anyone looking for a bit of body horror nastiness - should get a kick out of this one.
The 7th Guest VR (and flatscreen Remake)
Platforms: Meta Quest, PC, PS5, PSVR2, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Back in 2023, Vertigo Games released a genuinely brilliant remake of developer Trilobytes' seminal 90s CD-ROM adventure, The 7th Guest, for VR. I loved it, and spent many happy hours roaming evil toymaker Henry Stauf's wonderfully eerie mansion, reimagined in new-fangled, fully explorable 3D. Its puzzle made some clever use of VR's 1:1 movement capabilities, and its cast - bringing to life the ill-fated guests of Stauf's macabre soiree - were a blast, hitting exactly the right level of camp and presented using some kind of volumetric witchcraft, letting you walk around their apparitions despite being live-action and FMV. It's great, spooky fun for puzzle fans - even if you're not familiar with the original - but its VR requirements meant it couldn't be enjoyed by all. Well, earlier this year, Vertigo released a non-VR version for Xbox, PS5, and PC. And while it loses a little in translation to flatscreens and standard controls, it's still an enjoyable way to enjoy a cult-classic.
Forbidden Solitaire
Platforms: PC
Well, it's solitaire, isn't it? Only, that's not entirely true. Forbidden Solitaire is a clever bit of found media horror, inviting players to explore the titular CD-ROM game - an imagined relic of the short-lived 90s multimedia boom in which the games industry convinced itself the future was lurid colour palettes, awkward pre-rendered polygons, and juddery grainy FMV. Developer Night Signal Entertainment and Grey Alien Games capture the era perfectly as you begin to investigate the enigmatic game, which - as your sister quickly informs you over DM during the game's 2019-set narrative framing device - was embroiled in controversy on release, not least because of its disturbing links to gruesome unexplained deaths. Forbidden Solitaire's fictional history is told across police records, press clippings, 90s local news reports, grisly photos, and even a pitch-perfect VHS recording of a cheesy true-crime-style mystery show. But the majority of your time is spent playing Forbidden Solitaire itself, lost in a ghoulish labyrinth said to grant immortality to those that can reach the end. But of course all is not as it seems. Forbidden Solitaire is a wonderfully creepy haunted media yarn, and - wholly unexpectedly - plays a damn good game of solitaire too.
Routine
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
For a while, it looked like Routine might not make it. First announced in 2012, it vanished into the kind of development hell that rarely results in anything good. But Routine isn't just good, it's great; a cracking first-person sci-fi horror that's got a particularly old-school vibe. Routine's tale of ancient influences and rogue AI takes place on a retro-futuristic lunar resort where the lo-fi 80s tech lends proceedings a disorientatingly anachronistic flavour. Here, adverts for VHS recorders flash up on chunky CRT screens as you ride the sleek transportation train, and the mall, with its futuristic pre-fab curves, meets an explosion of neon and plastic palms. Routine is refreshingly unforthcoming about what to do and where to go; giving you a loose objective, your C.A.T. device - a wonderfully tactile gadget that's half maintenance gun, half PDA - then just sending you off to explore. Unfortunately, the resort is kaput; full of flickering lights and ominous shadows. Still worse are the Terminator-like security bots, always primed to give chase when they spy you - their relentless footsteps reaching a horrifying crescendo behind you. It's a game of claustrophobic stealth and panicked pursuits - and that's just for starters. You're about to have a very bad shift.