Halloween has always meant horror games. You could be playing alone in the dark, or with a backseat gamer yelling directions at you from the couch, but there's just no better time of the year to feel that delicious chill down your spine. For the longest time, Microsoft's Game Pass has been one of the best ways to play those AAA horror titles without breaking the bank. But with the recent price hikes across all tiers — which have not been met kindly — a lot of players are understandably pulling the plug on their subscriptions.

So, if this is going to be your final month with Game Pass, you might as well make it count. Download these eight terrifying, unforgettable horror games to get one last bout of terrors and frights from your Game Pass, because after that, the only scary thing left would be the subscription fees.

Now is the time to play The Evil Within if you haven't

An underrated Shinji Mikami masterpiece

When The Evil Within came out back in 2024, it was essentially Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil 4, showing the world how survival horror could still be brutal, punishing, and deeply psychological. After the disappointment of Dead Space 3 being more action-oriented and geared towards co-op, the gaming space definitely needed something like The Evil Within, where every bullet counts, every shadow hides a threat, and every corridor makes you feel like something is watching you from behind.

The game forces you to conserve ammo, master stealth, and survive some truly grotesque encounters. Even after all these years, The Evil Within's twisted environments, gruesome enemy designs, and the feeling of helplessness it instilled in you, hit just as hard. The thing is — The Evil Within games are always in a grey, murky area where players hesitate to purchase them even when they are on massive discounted sales. So, there's nothing better than your Game Pass subscription to experience some truly spine-chilling horror where you'll likely stop for a breather every fifteen minutes.

Still Wakes the Deep is the best AA horror game

You're alone on a deep-sea oil rig... or are you?

Perhaps the best AA horror game the world has seen in ages, Still Wakes the Deep is one of 2024's most atmospheric horror releases. The game drops you into an oil rig in the North Sea, and it quickly goes from mundane to monstrous. It's a first-person horror experience that leans hard into isolation and environmental storytelling, taking notes from other horror classics like SOMA and Amnesia, all while giving it that gritty British realism we just don't see enough of.

There's no combat in Still Wakes the Deep. In fact, it's just you, the creaking metal of the rig, and something unspeakable lurking in the fog. Every step feels heavier, and every sound turns sharper, getting deeper under your skin. It's a short experience, yes, but an absolutely haunting one. If you're into immersive, slow-burn horror that gets under your skin without over-relying on cheap jump scares, Still Wakes the Deep is one you'll want to experience before losing your Game Pass privileges if you're thinking of unsubscribing.

Dead Space 2023 is the perfect remake

This is the only way you should experience Isaac Clarke's story

2008's Dead Space was a revival of the survival-horror genre at the time, and boy did it really get the ball going. Back then, we'd never seen anything quite like it, especially at the level of spectacle that the game presented. Isaac Clarke was a space engineer with the worst possible luck, and with the terrifying necromorphs in the fabled USG Ishimura, Dead Space was a smash hit. Now, it's easy for a remake not to do the original justice (looking at you, Resident Evil 3), but 2023's remake from EA Motive was perfect from start to finish.

The remake only made the entire experience more modern and way more accessible, adding dialog to Isaac's character that he only got in the sequel originally, and tweaking the flow of the narrative and a few characters in just the right ways to make the entire game even better. As such, the 2023 remake of Dead Space, which is available on Game Pass, is the definitive way to experience this classic, and you'd even be done within 15 hours. It's just a shame that we won't get a remake of the second part, which, honestly, was the peak of the trilogy.

Prey will get under your skin to inject paranoia

Talk about brilliant reboots

Prey is one of those games that constantly makes you second-guess your surroundings. A coffee mug? Well, it could be an alien. That office chair could be an alien, too. This fantastic reboot from Arkane Studios is technically sci-fi, but don't let that fool you into thinking you could play it with the lights off, because it's a horror game through and through, and one that preys (pun intended) on your paranoia.

In Prey, you're stuck on a derelict space station filled with shape-shifting horrors and eerie silence. It's the kind of game that rewards exploration and experimentation, but it also punishes carelessness. The sound design, level layout, and environmental storytelling in Prey are so top-tier that even standing still can be unnerving, as I found out very recently on a repeat playthrough. Plus, it also has one of the most memorable opening levels in all of gaming. Prey might not scream "boo," but it sure as hell will whisper "you're not safe" every single time you walk down a corridor, and that's genuinely worse.

Alice: Madness Returns is for you if you want something different

Not your average horror title

If you want something a little out of the box when it comes to horror in your Halloween lineup, Alice: Madness Returns is a trip worth taking. It's the perfect blend of gothic horror, psychological drama, and surreal art design that turns Lewis Carroll's Wonderlands into a full-blown nightmare. This isn't Alice like you remember her from your childhood. The game follows a traumatized version of her as she battles her inner demons across some incredibly twisted and beautiful landscapes.

The game may be fourteen years old today, but its incredible art direction still holds up remarkably well. If you want horror with a heavy dose of dark fantasy and a genuinely gripping story you won't soon forget, this is the perfect palette cleanser between all the blood-soaked survival games on Game Pass.

The Evil Within 2 was the perfect sequel

Play this one if you have time for just one new horror game

It's a shame that The Evil Within 2 never sold as well as it should have, because it was a significant improvement on the first game. This sequel blew the first game out of the water, and it modernized the first game's formula with some open-ended exploration. The pacing never felt off, the moment-to-moment gameplay felt smoother, and environments became bigger, all while the horrors kept coming with strength.

Sebastian returns in the sequel, and the game is significantly more emotional and story-driven in the sequel. Every improvement across the board only serves to make the game more terrifying, and The Evil Within 2 was a rare sequel that truly improved upon its predecessor in every way. If you only have time for one Evil Within game before you unsubscribe, make it this one.

Dead Space 2 may look dated, but the horrors still feel fresh

This is a sequel that perfected everything from the first game

Following in the shoes of a smash hit isn't easy, but Dead Space 2 did that, and then some. The 2011 sequel to Dead Space introduced more elements into a galaxy-spanning horror adventure, adding more depth and lore to Isaac's tale, all while ironing out the kinks of the first game. Dead Space 2 boasted a level of polish that only maturity can bring, and it never let go of its horror roots, either.

It might look a little rough around the edges today, but taken as a product of its time, Dead Space 2 remains one of the greatest survival-horror games ever made. This one's even shorter than the first one, and shouldn't take more than 12 hours to complete if you download it from Game Pass before bidding the service goodbye.

Resident Evil 2 set the gold standard for survival-horror in two generations

The blueprint for modern remakes

Speaking of remakes that truly replace their original counterparts as the absolute best way to experience the game, the Resident Evil 2 remake is at the top of the hill. The game that effectively set the blueprint for how to give a classic game the perfect modern treatment, RE2R is every bit as terrifying as you'd remember it. The puzzle-solving, backtracking, and inventory-managing you do inside the Raccoon City Police Department, all while keeping your head on a swivel for one humongous trenchcoat-wearing monster, is something that never gets old, and if there's one AAA horror game you should replay before canceling your Game Pass subscription, it's this one.

Sure, Resident Evil 3's remake is also on Game Pass (while the absolute best RE4 isn't), but it took a far more action-oriented approach, and the content that got cut from the original game is simply unforgivable. Even though the Resident Evil 3 Remake isn't nearly as scary, you still have Resident Evil 2 ready to download on Game Pass to get a good helping of the heebie-jeebies in time for Halloween.

It's easy to see why Game Pass became such a staple

With Spooktober in full swing and Game Pass subscriptions hanging in the balance, there's no better time to make the most of what's already in your library. Game Pass is getting pricier, but it's easy to see why this service became such a staple in the first place with such a fantastic and massive curation of titles available in a single genre.

So, if you're still saying goodbye, then load up your library, dim the lights, and give yourself one last haunting hurrah. After all, who needs trick-or-treating when you can get chased down a hallway by Mr. X instead? It's just a shame that the prices of the subscription are getting as scary as the games on it.