Limbo
Limbo is a 2D platform game that came out in 2010. The atmosphere is more spooky than horrific, and there are less nerve-wracking chase scenes that there are puzzles, but the overall ambience of the game is very surreal (and not the happy fairy-tale kind of surreal), with its black-and-white theme and the hazy, fog-filled forest in the background. The minimalist visual style accompanied by the subtle gore makes this one a lot less scary, but that’s pretty okay for those of us that can’t handle the jump-scares as much.
Little nightmares
Little nightmares is quite similar to Limbo because it’s a platform game. You play as a very tiny person who wears a bright yellow raincoat, quite a contrast to the gloomy atmosphere that you explore in this game. There are a lot of puzzles varying from getting high enough to turn a door knob or stealthily making your way past enemies.
Amnesia
Amnesia is one of the first true horror games to come out in 2010. It’s an interesting story about a chemist named Daniel who wakes up to find himself in a huge castle in which he explores, slowly finding the key to his past and the faded memories that haunt his already craze mind. Daniel fights to remain sane as he runs from the monster that lurks through the stoned halls of Amnesia.
Ib
Ib is an RPG-maker horror game that came out back in 2012. You play as a young girl who, after walking through a painting, finds herself in a painted fantasy world full of haunted creatures that try to keep her trapped within its walls. Like most pixelated RPG-maker games, Ib has a certain charm to it separates it from the rest on this list, with its hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and the sweet (but sometimes really sad) story. It’s also a great treat for those looking for a free, quality horror game for PC!
The Last of Us
The Last of Us is a survival-based horror game that follows the story of Joel, a man who lost his daughter in the start of the apocalypse brought on by an outbreak of a mutant fungus that turns people into—you guessed it—zombies. Years later, he finds himself protecting a young girl named Ellie, who might just be the cure to the infection that has ravaged the United states for more than a decade. This game has a lot of gore, no lie, but what made it the scariest for me was the thought of either of the two main characters dying. The father-daughter bond that Ellie and Joel share is so strong, my heart leapt at every instance where they both could have been in danger. When it comes to survival games like this and the Walking Dead, I find that the scary part isn’t really getting infected or dying and turning, but the loss of your loved ones in such a desperate time.
Until dawn
Until dawn is like every 90s horror movie all smashed into one, but tastefully so. It’s full of stereotypical characters that are still pretty interesting on their own, and some terrifying scenes that will keep you up for days. There’s not much else to say about this horror game other than that the art is amazingly realistic, and that you need to check it out right now.
Slender
Slender is literally the horror game of all horror games. Based off the creepy pasta meme ‘slenderman’ it was released in 2009 with pretty mediocre graphics but a solid premise for a horror game: a dark forest that is almost impossible to see on your screen, full of trees that makes you go round in circles, and a steady, dauntingly loud drum(?) beat that makes sure you’re never at ease while playing. The player has one objective in this game, which is to find 8 pages before Slenderman, a faceless, tuxedoed man with abnormally long limbs, finds you. The player’s vision becomes intensely blurred whenever he is nearby, and you are forced to move at a turtle’s pace while roaming. Horror tends to be most effective when you have simple devices like this one. Why do you think it’s so popular? 8 years later, and it’s still terrifying.
Outlast
I still haven’t gotten through half of this game. Outlast came out in 2013 as one of the most anticipated horror games of that year. You play as a journalist who has to find his way through an asylum filled with demented, cannibalistic patients with nothing but a camera to document his findings. You have no choice but to run, hide or die in this twisted universe.
Corpse party
Corpse Party is another RPG-maker game about a group of high schoolers who find themselves in another alternate dimension of a haunted elementary school filled with the souls of past students who died within its halls. While this game has its fair share of jump-scares and chase scenes, it’s the narrated descriptions of all the deaths in the game that are shiver-inducing. Do you want the image of a dude’s head getting repeatedly smashed into the ground while still being fully conscious forever implanted in your mind? Play Corpse Party.