Horror games have become a staple of the video game industry and with each new generation, we are given even more realistic and disturbing titles to play. While this industry is highly saturated, we've had to narrow the list down to six of the best AAA horror franchises that continue to deliver horrific nightmare fuel that will keep you awake late into the night, wondering what is hiding in the closet.

While there are many other titles that are worthy of being considered the best horror games around, we looked for titles that had more than just guts, blood, and gore. The franchises we have included are nuanced, have great gameplay, interesting mechanics, and fantastic storytelling. So if you haven't already, make sure to pick up these titles on whatever platform you use and give them a try for yourself.

👁 Custom artwork in the game library on Steam
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6 Dark Pictures Anthology

A horror movie night experience for gamers

The Dark Pictures Anthology consists of a number of horror games under its belt. Some of the more notable titles include The Devil in Me, House of Ashes, Man of Medan and many more. Each game has a different story and setting, featuring different playable characters and different threats that you have to navigate. The goal of the game is to try and survive to the end.

These titles take a horror movie night approach to a game that we just don't see very often. Each game has a cast of protagonists which you and a group of friends have to play as. You can play two player co-op or up to five players for the movie night mode. You can play games online with friends, but it's much more fun playing the games offline with a group of friends.

If your character dies, then you will be out of the game and the story will continue on with your other friends playing the game. This game is better played with a group of friends and will have you all working together to solve puzzles, fighting or running away from enemies, and sometimes making choices about who lives and who dies.

5 Dead Space

A cult classic with a new remake

The original Dead Space is known as one of the greatest survival horror games of its time, and although the sequels were regarded as average, the new remake from 2023 is considered on par with the original.

Dead Space places you, Isaac Clarke, onboard a mining ship as an alien infestation takes over. You will have to fight off horrifying reanimations of your previous crew mates as you try to figure out how the outbreak began and get to safety.

Navigating through the ship's narrow corridors will make you feel claustrophobic, and the dark, menacing atmosphere will have you on edge at all times. The game is more combat heavy and will give you a plethora of weapons and tools to help make your way through the ship easier as you go.

If you're looking for a Sci-Fi horror game with excellent sound design and grotesque monsters to fight, then look no further than Dead Space. And if the original title doesn't look good enough for you, then the remake is a good alternative for exploring the universe that the franchise has created.

Isaac Clarke is an engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship's crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner is lost somewhere on board.

Genre(s)
Survival Horror

4 Alien Isolation

In space, no one can hear you scream!

If you are a fan of the Alien universe, then this game will have you on the edge of your seat. Alien Isolation throws you into an abandoned space station as Amanda Ripley. You will have to navigate your way around the station while trying to survive as a Xenomorph relentlessly hunts you down.

The game's mechanics are built around stealth, unlike other Alien games, which are usually FPS games, with the biggest focal point of the game being the Xenomorph's AI, which is particularly impressive. Creeping through vents and hiding in closets, you will have to make your way through the station while monitoring your motion tracker to keep an eye on where the Alien is.

The Xenomorph's AI is constantly learning and will adapt to your playstyle in order to catch and kill you. If you hide in closets too much, it will start opening them, if you try to distract it too often, it will ignore the distraction and look for the source of it, and if you use the same path too often, it will set traps for the player.

The dark and ominous environment of Alien Isolation will have you continually on edge, looking at every corner and crawl space for the Alien. If you're looking for a horror game that doesn't have predictable enemy AI or obvious jump scares, then Alien Isolation is a must-try.

Fifteen years after the events of Alien™, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda enters a desperate battle for survival, on a mission to unravel the truth behind her mother's disappearance.

Genre(s)
Survival Horror

3 Alan Wake

You write your own story

Alan Wake follows the story of a renowned crime thriller author as he goes on holiday to overcome his writers' block. Alan soon finds himself trapped in the world he had written, only he doesn't remember having written it.

Trapped in the sleepy town of Bright Falls, a darkness soon begins to take over, controlling humans and animals, turning them murderous and leading them to attack the game's protagonist as he explores the world he has created. Alan realizes that this is not the real world, but instead, an alternate dimension called the Dark Place, and the stories that he's writing are coming to life before his very eyes.

The sequel to Alan Wake, Alan Wake 2, continues the story of the original game, but 13 years have now passed. You play again as returning hero Alan Wake, as well as an FBI agent, Saga Anderson. Together, the two must make their way through nightmarish scenarios, as Alan tries to write a new story for himself while agent Anderson investigates a series of ritualistic murders in the real Bright Falls.

2 Silent Hill 2

A true psychological horror game

Silent Hill is one of the pioneers of the horror games genre, with many modern titles drawing inspiration from its original games. Unfortunately, the franchise has been silent for the last 10 years apart from a few playable demos. But that all changed with the release of the Silent Hill 2 remake.

The original Silent Hill 2, from 2001, was considered the holy grail of the franchise and is still held in high regard today. So when the remake was announced, horror fans were frothing for the chance to replay the game on modern hardware. And the studio behind the game, Bloober Team, did not disappoint.

Silent Hill 2 follows a man by the name of James Sutherland. After receiving a mysterious letter from his wife, who had died three years earlier, he was asked to meet her in a town called Silent Hill where they had vacationed as a young couple. When James arrives in the town, he finds it abandoned and shrouded in a thick fog. As he explores the town further, he finds it full of nightmarish creatures.

As he makes his way through Silent Hill, he encounters other people who got stuck there too, each with their own gripping life stories that led them to the town. In order to make it out alive, James must fight demons and help the others who are lost, all while fighting off his own inner turmoil and searching for clues about his wife. Your decisions and actions throughout the game will all culminate in one of eight possible endings, six from the original game and two new ones.

Silent Hill 2
Survival Horror
Horror
Adventure
Action
Systems
Released
October 8, 2024

Investigating a letter from his late wife, James returns to where they made so many memories - Silent Hill. What he finds is a ghost town, prowled by disturbing monsters and cloaked in deep fog.

Genre(s)
Survival Horror, Horror, Adventure, Action

1 Resident Evil

Some of the best AAA horror games on the market

After years of unsuccessful sequels, the Resident Evil franchise made a triumphant return to the horror genre, starting with Resident Evil 7. In the subsequent years, Resident Evil has added three remakes and two new games to the roster, which has modernized the series and pushed it to the number one spot in the horror genre. The two new entries to the series are Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 8: Village. After the success of these games, Capcom decided to remake the original games from the series; Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 7 and 8 changed the franchise from a third-person perspective to first person, which made a lot of scenes feel more claustrophobic and made the graphic scenes and jump scares much more terrifying. The Resident Evil Remakes, on the other hand, takes the series back to its third-person view and, for the most part, stays true to the stories from the original games.

Resident Evil 7 and 8

Resident Evil 7 is set in an abandoned plantation in the countryside of Louisiana. You play Ethan Winters, a man desperately searching for his lost wife. Upon investigating her disappearance, he is taken captive by the Baker family, a Midwestern family that has become deranged after being exposed to a biological weapon. Ethan must survive his encounters with the family while searching for his wife and trying to escape the Baker Ranch and make it to safety.

Resident Evil 8: Village continues the plot of RE7, albeit a few years later. Without any spoilers, late at night, something important is stolen from Ethan Winters by a group of armed men, and he finds himself traveling to a remote village in Eastern Europe in order to get it back. After arriving, he was attacked by a group of monsters that stalk the locals in the night. He must now scour the village, fight off monsters, and go up against some of the most powerful enemies he has ever faced, to reclaim what has been taken from him.

Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4 Remakes

Resident Evil 2 has two main protagonists; Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Leon is a rookie cop on his way to his first day on the job and Claire is looking for her missing brother Chris, the protagonist from the first game. The main plot revolves around a biological attack on Raccoon City that turns the city's inhabitants into mindless zombies. Leon works to solve the mystery of what happened to the city while trying to save innocent people along the way, while Claire looks for evidence about what happened to her brother and ends up saving a little girl in the process.

Resident Evil 3 takes place at the same time as the second, in Raccoon City during the outbreak, only this time you play as Jill Valentine. She is a former police officer and Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S) agent, and another protagonist from the first game. Follow along as Jill works to find evidence of the Umbrella corporation's involvement in the zombie outbreak in the city and works alongside a special forces unit as they attempt to evacuate civilians before the whole city is consumed.

Resident Evil 4 sees Leon S. Kennedy return to the spotlight as the main protagonist. Several years after the events of Raccoon City, Leon is trained and works as a special forces agent for the U.S. government. He is tasked with rescuing the kidnapped daughter of the President of the United States. His mission takes him to a secluded village in Europe, where a parasite has taken control of the townsfolk. Fighting off the murderous villagers while attempting to rescue the president's daughter, he uncovers a plot to spread the parasite further into Europe, and possibly even the world.

The genre is very subjective

Horror is a very subjective genre and a person's particular feelings towards different fears may make them consider one game more nightmare inducing than another. Some people may be able to play these games without batting an eye, while others may need to go to therapy after the first hour or two.

While there are other games that could surely fit on this list, these are the games that have captured the fear of thousands and bottled it into a playable experience complimented by beautifully handcrafted worlds, extremely addictive gameplay, and gripping narratives.

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