15 Best PC Horror Games Ever Made

Updated:

12 Sep 2016

Here are 15 spine-chilling horror games that will thrill you

It gets your heart racing and your blood pumping — it makes you feel truly alive. Horror fans worldwide have always turned to video games to help them feel that fear from the comfort of their own homes.

These 15 best PC horror games ever made will give you nightmares. Or even worse, they'll make the ones you already have come true.

15) Slender

Enjoying immense popularity during its lifespan thanks to YouTube videos and widespread free downloads, Slender was for a long time the subject of public fascination. The premise was simple. Collect eight pages scattered throughout a dark, desolate forest while being chased by a sinister faceless creature.

There is no explanation of why you are there, nor is there anything revealed to you ingame about your only companion, the Slenderman (a popular character in Internet folklore said to stalk and terrorize children). But when coupled with ingenious game design, Slender nevertheless bore the mark of absolute terror.

A testament to the belief that budgets and impressive graphics do not make a game, its appearance betrayed surprising depth that will surely be remembered in horror history.

He wasn't there a second ago.

14) SCP — Containment Breach

SCP — Containment Breach is yet another example of intelligent game design making a truly terrifying horror experience.

You play as an escaped test subject who must make his way through the top-secret research facility of the SCP Foundation, a top-secret organization housing supernatural entities, navigating complex areas and making use of the blink mechanic to avoid monsters whose movement depend on whether or not you can see them.

Remember you are not the only escapee roaming the halls — various supernatural entities have also escaped, including SCP-173, a murderous sculpture that is frozen when seen and moves when unseen, and SCP-096, a grotesque monster who attacks anyone it makes eye contact with.

With such terrifying creatures scattered throughout the facility, players of this game have terrifying encounters in store.

You've been followed.

13) Among the Sleep

A common trait in horror games is that they will make the player feel weak, vulnerable, and utterly defenseless as part of the experience. Among the Sleep does this in an interesting way... by making you play as a two year old child.

It is up to you to navigate the game's creepy, dreamlike environments. As a toddler, you will need to solve puzzles to accomplish the most basic things like opening doors and climbing over furniture, all while being pursued by either of two humanoid creatures you will encounter during the game.

With a plot that broaches mature themes like alcoholism and abuse in an understated, almost childlike manner, it is what is implied in Among the Sleep, not what is shown, that will strike fear into your soul.

Are you too old to be scared of the dark?

12) The Evil Within

The Evil Within, a Japanese-produced game, is a third-person shooter that blends together psychological horror with thrilling action. You play as a hardboiled detective who is pulled into a nightmare world during an investigation-gone-wrong, and must fight tooth and nail to find your way out.

While its launch suffered from some technical issues and criticized design choices, the game was met with worldwide critical applause. And for good reason.

There is blood and gore aplenty in this horror adventure as you cut your way through fierce hordes of terrifying creatures, whose designs brought chills down the spines of many and will surely be remembered by the game's fans.

Blood and gore aplenty.

11) Lone Survivor

Don't let the retro pixel art fool you: Lone Survivor is no nostalgia trip. Rather, this indie title is a creative addition to the survival horror genre.

In the world of this game, a worldwide infection has transformed the human race into a horde of bloodthirsty mutants, and you are — you guessed it — the lone survivor. The game takes full advantage of this theme of utter isolation.

Your nameless main character's mental state begins unstable. It only becomes more and more fractured as time goes on. So while you are balancing the need to scavenge for food and supplies, you must constantly make sure to deter your descent into insanity.

Will you keep your cool in Lone Survivor, or is madness in store?

How does it feel to be alone?

10) Corpse Party

Another Japanese entry on this list, Corpse Party is an RPGMaker game that has accrued a large cult following over the years.

The well-written narrative is told through the various perspectives of a group of high school students who have become trapped in a derelict elementary school, haunted by the terrifying ghosts of gored children who wish to torture them and capture their souls.

While the gameplay may be dated, and the anime art style may not be your cup of tea, Corpse Party's intense story will shock you with how sick and disgusting it is willing to become. What more could a horror gamer ask for?

Many ghosts haunt these halls.

9) F.E.A.R.

A first person shooter, F.E.A.R. is at its core an action-packed journey into madness peppered with intense shootouts and disturbing encounters with the supernatural.

Through the eyes of the Point Man, a special forces operative you play as during the course of the game, you lead your team of soldiers against dangers both human and undead as you hunt for the psychic supervillain Paxton Fettel.

Heavily inspired by Japanese horror, the scares of the game revolve around making you question your mental state. They get under your skin, psychologically.

Despite your superhuman skills, body armor, and impressive loadout of high-tech weaponry, F.E.A.R. will still make you feel completely vulnerable — an impressive feat indeed.

Enemy activity.

8) Outlast

Outlast recounts the story of a freelance journalist as he braves the shadowy interiors of an abandoned mental hospital overrun by insane patients hellbent on homicide.

Danger is everywhere in this game and, instead of coming from monsters or ghosts or the undead, they come from a deeply unsettling force — that of fellow people, just those whose minds have been corrupted beyond humanity.

In this mental asylum, you are hunted by the Variants, scientifically modified patients whose presence in the hospital speaks of mystery.

It is up to you to solve that mystery and find out the truth — or die trying.

Found footage.

7) SOMA

Thalassophobia is the intense fear of the ocean. If you do not suffer from it now, SOMA may change that for you. In the world of SOMA, an extinction event has wiped out all life on the earth's surface, and only the inhabitants of PATHOS-II, a research facility built deep on the ocean floor, have survived.

You play as a man from 2015 who has awakened in the facility in the year 2104, one year after the end of the world, and you must figure out why.

A change from the more emotional scares of the other entries in this list, this game champions a more literary, almost philosophical take on horror, with a plot that discusses major themes such as identity, sentience, and what it means to be human.

Don't let the thick narrative fool you, however; the game still has its fair share of horror, gore, and wretched creatures to throw at any player. Should they be willing to embrace it.

What will you find on the bottom of the sea?

6) Doom 3

The second first person shooter on this list is the third iteration of one of the most beloved series in gaming history: Doom 3. In this adrenaline-fueled crusade, you play as a marine as he is thrown into the depths of human-colonized Mars as it is invaded by demons from hell.

While Doom has always been known for its gruesome monsters and liberal use of blood and gore since the first title came out in the 90's, it is Doom 3 that truly crafted that gameplay to focus on the survival horror aspect most.

Hallways are dark, bloodstains run thick, and it is up to you — a lone space marine — to take on the legions of hell.

It's your own personal hell.

5) Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a thinking man's horror title. You play as a wealthy industrialist who, stricken with amnesia, must uncover the truth behind a mysterious man called The Engineer and a Machine of unknown design as you are pursued by horrifying creatures that are part man and part pig.

The truth you will uncover, however, will deeply disturb you. The heavily symbolic plot makes great use of its setting and forms its characters and events around the main theme of the selfishness of human nature.

In that, A Machine for Pigs finds its own way to produce despair.

While not nearly as polished or innovative — and as a result of that, as well-received — as the first game in the series, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, A Machine for Pigs still earns for itself a spot in the horror gaming hall of fame thanks to its stellar writing that is bound to command fear in anyone who plays it.

Part man, part beast.

4) Amnesia: The Dark Descent

One of the most famous horror games ever made, Amnesia: The Dark Descent requires no introduction.

You play as Daniel, a man who has lost his memory and awoken in a 19th century Prussian castle, as you retrace your steps and discover your gruesome past. It is the morbidly gorgeous design of The Dark Descent's gothic interiors that truly sets it apart from others in the horror genre.

Whether it in be the desolate but decorated halls of the castle or the dank, putrid sewers that plumb the underground or everything in between, your journey into the darkness in Amnesia is accompanied by stellar voice acting and a unique plot convulsing with Lovecraftian influences.

Face your fears.

3) Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear puts you into the shoes of a depressed, deranged painter as he quietly explores a dark, Victorian mansion filled with shadows, ghosts, and hallucinations. Its rich and mature gameplay focuses on puzzles and storytelling. That's right - Layers of Fear is a thinking man's horror game.

The painter the gamer plays as is attempting to create his masterpiece, but has lost his memories of who he is. As you descend into the creepy mansion, you slowly uncover more and more secrets about the painter, discovering his dark past and the gruesome fate that has befallen his family.

Sure, this all may seem bit slow, but don't worry. this indie title stills know how to freak a gamer out, and the game is filled with jump-scares, ghastly-sounding music, and enough detail and beauty in its environments to make you feel like you're really in the world of the game. It sucks you in, grabs hold of you, and doesn't let you escape. Will you take your chances with Layers of Fear?

Discover what you've done.

2) Alien: Isolation

For a long time it was thought that no one in the gaming industry could adapt this beloved sci-fi horror film series into interactive form, or at least, no one could succeed at it. Alien: Isolation proved that thought wrong.

You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the classic 1979 film from which the game is adapted, as you explore the locales of the film in an effort to discover the truth of what happened to your mother. As soon as you encounter the infamous alien of the film, you begin to understand what fate befell her.

There is nothing more dreadful than to be pursued by as infamously sinister a creature as the alien xenomorph.

Alien: Isolation achieved a truly haunting atmosphere that was borne from gorgeous visuals and insanely effective sound design that made the game an experience in true horror.

Don't make a sound.

1) Dead Space 2

The games collected in this list have included the undead amongst their casts of deadly creatures. They have also included murderous aliens. What can be scarier than aliens or the undead? Aliens called necromorphs, who reanimate corpses into the undead.

The Dead Space series is known for its mastery of selling the atmosphere of horror in outer space.

Whether it be in unlit space station hallways, bloody infirmary wards, or zero-gravity environments flooded with the floating carcasses of man and monster alike, this EA series — and its second iteration especially — will fill gamers with nothing but utter despair.

Set 3 years after the original and following the protagonist, Isaac Clarke, as he survives a necromorph outbreak on a space station, Dead Space 2 polishes the mechanics that made the original so groundbreaking and achieves a perfect balance between survival action and psychological agony.

For that, it earns the spot of #1 on this list. It will certainly give you nightmares. And let's face it... isn't that what all true horror gamers want?

Fight for your life.

Conclusion

So, readers of Gamers Decide, what did you think of our list? Is there anything we missed, or perhaps is there a game we valued too highly? Horror is a very diverse genre, so it was really difficult to pick only 15 of the best of all PC horror games. But that's the beauty of having readers: we can all learn from each other's suggestions and opinions on video games.

Let us know of any thoughts you have!