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There are all kinds of “creepy” things. There’s what I’d call a “scary haunted house,” anything that immediately triggers a sharp scream, like a plate falling to the kitchen floor that you forget about as soon as it’s over – you pick up the shards and move on.
Is “Scary Joe Rogan” the least fun kind that makes you want to put a bag over your head because you can’t believe it exists. Then you have “creepy blood stains on the carpet” that are slowly sinking, a black bat got tangled in your hair. That kind of fear comes back to you when you can’t fall asleep at 2am. It makes you want to wash your brain. And that’s what I’ve been trying to call into this list of spooky game recommendations.
These games, all the indie games you can get on Steam, probably won’t make your heart beat faster than in a more gaudy horror movie – squealing monsters from Resident Evilall sharp and shiny teeth Alien: Isolation, Until dawn jumpscare etc. – does. But their big eyes and grainy blood stain will scare you forever. These are some of the least cozy games you’ve ever played. If you can accept it, read on.
Read more: “18 cozy games that feel like a warm blanket”
Survive
I’ve been able to grow up since I first encountered first-person survival horror Survive IN
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2013, I’m taller and have longer hair, but the thought of meeting the deformed asylum occupants still makes me want a triple lock on the door.
A game where you have to keep skinny journalist Miles Upshur, who documents the deadly events at Mount Massive Asylum, alive is a vat of corruption. There is cannibalism, amputation, crucifixion and self-immolation. Tons of blood, ropes and loose organs. You’d think it was some heavy, disgusting shit, but Survive he has no struggle and rarely has light, so his limbs are more like electric undercurrents to an unsettling uneasiness that cannot quite be located. You know something is wrong, but you can’t see it.
I’m probably a lifelong fan of this game because of how much it gives me chills, but so do I have personal beef with its crazy (and harmful) representation of people with mental illness. Somehow I like it less than self-immolation.
Read more: “No one wins when horror movies stigmatize mental illness”
How to play: For PS4, Xbox One, computerOr Switchwith all lights off
Lost in life
Psychological horror Lost in life is as the creator Akuma Kira he goes on itch.io game website, is mainly “about claustrophobia”. After your sweet guide dog was swept away by a storm and dragged down the drain, Thisstyle, you follow it and find yourself stuck in a series of suffocating, liminal environments as embarrassing as your mind makes you think.
“You Feel It Everywhere” Lost in lifeThe itch.io quote on the back of the box says. “The walls are closing in, the sky is falling more and more every day. With every breath your world shrinks. Lo-fi lo-fi and enemies, many of which look like bleeding, anthropomorphic silkworm cocoons, will leave you feeling incredibly disgusting.
How to play: ON windowswith a blanket around him
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia it was a game my friends’ older siblings played in front of us, so that the news would spread around the elementary school and scare all the students. “He can literally sense your fear,” I remember one of them saying.
It can’t, although that would be a truly impressive possibility for 2010 PCs. Instead, survival horror uses Daniel’s confused, amnesiac psyche to make you feel just as vulnerable and broken.
As Survive, Daniel can’t fight any of the monsters he finds in the dank, cavernous Brennenburg Castle, their skin loose and ragged like half-peeled apples. He retrieves the pages of his journal to understand why he got there, uncovering a complex gothic horror about human evil and ritual magic. It’s your job to guide him through it, protect his sanity from his own unfortunate actions, and try not to feel too dirty doing it.
How to play: For PS4, Xbox One, computerOr Switchby a burning taper candle
Fran Bow
Point-and-click horror. Fran Bow invites you to another vintage horror, this time in the style of a gothic cartoon from the 2000s Ruby darkness AND Growing Creepie.
Little Fran Bow found her parents dead and dismembered in their home and decided to escape the asylum she was forced into after it happened. There is no other way to help her reunite with her black cat and Aunt Grace, a living relative, than by clicking through her ghostly hallucinations filled with black magic, dark forests and floating eyeballs. Throughout the bloody adventure, Fran remains unfazed, taking all the blood with optimism.
It’s gruesome in the same innocent way it is jaś and małgosiabut while it’s sweeter than the other games on this list, Fran Bow yet he manages to bury himself in you. His steadfast heroine makes a charming, lasting impression as she navigates fallen leaves in striped tights, creating a deeply surreal path to salvation, perhaps even inspiring her own.
How to play: ON computer, Apple devices, Android devices, while listening Bella and Sebastian
What are your favorite scary games?
