Ever since Capcom revolutionized the genre in 1996 with Resident Evil, horror games have gone from strength to strength, largely thanks to improvements in gaming hardware that have allowed developers to create increasingly atmospheric, unsettling, and ultimately terrifying games than ever before.
Video games have the power to elevate horror stories to a level that books and films can’t, as they uniquely put players in the shoes of the protagonist. This powerful selling point has led to the horror genre being flooded with games over the years, many of which subsequently go under the radar. This list will feature games that received praise for how unnerving or downright scary they were but didn’t get the mainstream attention that they deserved.
10 Layers of Fear
Initially released in 2016, Layers of Fear is a psychological horror game that follows an unstable painter who is obsessed with creating a masterpiece. The game was well-received by critics, exemplified bit its 78 score on Metacritic.
Layers of Fear was developed by Bloober Team, who made a name for themselves with the 2019 survival horror game Blair Witch, as well as the recently released psychological horror title The Medium.
9 Imscared
The suitably named Imscared was initially released in 2012 before coming to Steam in 2016. The game offered an extremely unique experience by continuously breaking the fourth wall through intentional crashes and by adding game files to the player’s PC.
Imscared showed that high-budgets and impressive visuals aren’t essential in scaring players, and that simply taking gamers to a place that the genre hadn’t explored before was far more unsettling.
8 Fatal Frame
Fatal Frame was released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2 before coming to Xbox in 2002. Like many horror games that were released in the years following Resident Evil, the game puts players in an atmospheric mansion.
Fatal Frame was well received by critics, receiving Metascores of 74 and 77 respectively. The game inspired numerous sequels and successors, the most recent of which is the Wii U title Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.
7 Penumbra: The Black Plague
Penumbra: The Black Plague was developed by Frictional Games and released in 2008, making it the second game in the Penumbra series. Swedish developer Frictional Games are best known for their Amnesia series, which is today recognized as being among the horror genre’s most influential franchises, along with Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Much like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, 2008’s The Black Plague differentiated itself from other horror games at the time with its lack of weaponry and emphasis on exploration.
6 Stories Untold
No Code’s Stories Untold is an episodic puzzle game set in England during the 1980s. Despite releasing as recently as 2017, much of the gameplay is reminiscent of classic text-adventures.
Stories Untold was well-received by critics, exemplified by its impressive Metascore of 81. Praise for the game was directed towards its excellent story, atmospheric 80s aesthetics, and grippingly tense pacing.
5 Clock Tower
Clock Tower earns a sport on this list for having one of the most terrifying villains in gaming history, Scissorman. The suitably named villain pursues the player with a giant pair of scissors and must be evaded or trapped due to players having no weaponry to fight back with.
The point and click game is particularly notable for its impressive eight different endings, as well as its emphasis on puzzle-solving, which was unique for a horror game at the time.
4 Soma
Soma was released in 2015 and is the second game on this list developed by Frictional Games. The game is one of the most critically acclaimed titles on this list, exemplified by its 84 Metascore on PC.
Praise from critics was directed at Soma‘s story, which offered a bleak glimpse into a possible future akin to an episode of Black Mirror. Although Soma has numerous unsettling gameplay sequences, it’s the game’s thought-provoking story that provides the true horror.
3 Doki Doki Literature Club!
A quick browse through the Steam page of Doki Doki Literature Club! will likely give the impression that it’s little more than a cheerful dating simulator. People wouldn’t exactly be wrong to think this, as the game presents itself in this way for a significant amount of its runtime before taking sharps turns into dark and horrifying directions.
The game was rewarded for its unique storytelling by the SXSW Gaming Awards, which gave Team Salvato’s game their Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award.
2 SCP – Containment Breach
Free and open-source indie game SCP – Containment Breach was released in 2012 and had a development team of just one person, Joonas Rikkonen. The game is notable for being based on the fictional SCP Foundation, as well as its unique gameplay.
SCP – Containment Breach‘s gameplay stood out with its procedurally generated levels, which were rare at the time, and its Boo-inspired SCP-173, which closes in on the player when they aren’t looking at it — this is made more difficult by the playable character’s need to blink.
1 Cry of Fear
Team Psykskallar’s Cry of Fear was released in 2012, initially as a mod for Half-Life. The game impressed players with its innovative gameplay mechanics, such as the player’s ability to dual-wield weapons or items.
Cry of Fear is infamous for having one of the most unexpected and terrifying jump scares in gaming history, which has likely caused many players to swiftly uninstall the game and start searching for something more lighthearted to play; hopefully, such people don’t come across Doki Doki Literature Club!
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