If you find yourself lamenting the end of the spooky season, this list has you covered. If you didn’t get enough of the scary vibes this Halloween and want to keep it going into December, try some of these games.
Disclaimer: This is a list meant to include all kinds of games that might appeal to various gamers, from casual to nightmare hardcore gamers. Also, of course, there are a lot of other great horror games out there, but I couldn’t possibly cover them all, so I picked some that moved me.
Luigi’s Mansion 3
I’m starting this list with a game that’s great for the more casual gamer and isn’t super scary while still supplying those spooky Halloween vibes. “Luigi’s Mansion 3” features everyone’s favorite Nintendo Italian brother once again attempting to save Mario from a hoard of ghosts and the evil King Boo. However, this time, it’s inside a hotel rather than a mansion. In this game, players must explore the Last Resort Hotel and navigate their way through the many floors’ various puzzles and ghosts to get to the bottom of the mystery and save Mario and Princess Peach. Luigi and his trusty ghost dog sidekick Poltipup, Mario, Princess Peach, and the toads all get invited to a grand hotel. Of course, it’s all a trick by the hotel owner, Helen Gravely, and the infamous King Boo to capture Luigi, Mario, and Princess Peach and trap them in paintings.
The game mechanics of this game are similar to past Luigi games, with players traversing floors of the hotel and sucking up ghosts and whatever else they can find in Luigi’s special vacuum cleaner. This game is cute and wholesome with a spooky atmosphere that makes a great game for the whole family or anyone who doesn’t like to be scared. As a bonus, this game has a banger of a soundtrack with the cutest little bop to get stuck in your head and keep the spooky season going.
Resident Evil Franchise
This game is definitely for more intermediate gamers, but if you love a good scare, great storytelling, and zombies, well, you should try one of these games. Capcom’s “Resident Evil” franchise can seem a little daunting with a whopping thirty games in the series, but you don’t necessarily have to go back and play the very first game, which sadly would require you to play a port of it on your PC or an older console, as it was originally released in 1996.
The good news is they recently remade “Resident Evil 2” for the PlayStation 4 and PC, and it’s an excellent place to start. Not only are the graphics incredible but as mentioned above, the story engages with some of the franchise’s more beloved characters entering the scene, such as the main protagonists, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Or you could start with a newer game in the franchise, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which begins its own branching narrative. There will be some returning characters from the main line of Resident Evil games, such as Chris Redfield, but largely, the game features new characters and new types of monsters beyond zombies.
If you play this game, you could follow it up with its direct sequel, “Resident Evil 8: Village,” which features the internet’s favorite giant vampire, Lady Dimitrescu. This franchise is a classic and one of the best pieces of zombie media. And who knows, maybe after playing through one of them, you’ll be ready to launch yourself into the other twenty-nine titles. I haven’t done it myself, but I’d say it’s a worthy endeavor. If you want to play any of these games, they are all available on PC, with both “Resident Evil 2” Remake and Resident Evil 7 and 8 available on PlayStation 4 and 5.
Mortuary Assistant
Now, this game is not for the faint of heart. “Mortuary Assistant” is a newer game, having come out just last year in 2022, and is part of a trend of independent horror games that I find particularly scary…do your everyday job while horrifying things are happening. Now, being a mortuary assistant is already a creepy and somewhat gross job that most people might find abhorrent, but add on that you’re under threat of being possessed by a demon, and you’ve got a particularly hostile workplace environment.
In this game, players play as newly hired mortuary assistant Rebecca, who, after being sent home early from her first shift, receives a call from her new boss to return for the night shift. Once there, her boss locks her in and tells her a demon is slowly possessing her, and the only way to stop it is to discover the demon’s name and what body it’s connected to and then banish it before it can fully possess her. To do this, players must embalm the bodies and prepare them for burial, all while enduring various acts of the demon.
Not only is this game genuinely terrifying, but it also has an interesting back story for the player to discover about Rebecca and her boss. The game also boasts multiple endings depending on the player’s level of success in banishing the demon, all while confronting their own, so players can play this game more than once to see all the endings.
This game’s replayability doesn’t stop at multiple endings; the various encounters with the demon are randomized so that the player won’t see the same scares in every playthrough, and even if they do, they won’t be in the same order. So, players can play this again and again without learning when scares will happen, allowing each playthrough to give them the same thrills and chills as the first time they played. “Mortuary Assistant” is an independent game and is available to play on PC through Steam and Nintendo Switch.
The Quarry
Made by Supermassive Games, the same studio that made the hit horror game “Until Dawn,” which, if you haven’t played, you should also go play, is “The Quarry.” Unlike “Until Dawn,” which is more of a traditional teen serial killer kind of game with a bit of a supernatural twist, “The Quarry” is more of a horror comedy with a supernatural twist. “The Quarry” takes place at one of the classic horror genre locations, a summer camp, and stars a group of teen camp counselors who are packing up and getting ready to head home as the summer draws to a close. Following some car trouble and some strange interactions with the owner of the summer camp, Chris (played by none other than David Arquette), the teens become stranded in the now empty summer campgrounds with a bunch of werewolves on the loose and, of course, it’s the full moon.
The teens must work together to survive and unravel the mystery of who these werewolves are and how they came to be here and perhaps also discover a cure. Throughout this night of horror, players will switch between the characters and try to hit as many quick-time events correctly as possible to ensure the teens’ survival…or not.
This game has a great branching narrative function that makes many outcomes possible for the different characters, including that many of these characters, can live or die based on the player’s choices and ability to hit the correct buttons at the correct time. What’s even more fun about this game is that it’s multiplayer for up to seven people. So, if you’re considering having your friends over to watch a scary movie, you might consider playing “The Quarry” instead. All the same frights, but this time, you and your friends can be part of the narrative. If you want to pick up this game, it’s available to play on PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, and all the recent Xbox consoles.
Phasmophobia
If you and your friends have ever wondered what it’s like to be paranormal investigators, then indie developer Kinetic Games’ “Phasmophobia” is a great choice to try out for an extended spooky season. Phasmophobia has been out for a few years now, but that doesn’t mean everyone has had a chance to play it yet. In this game, players are a team of paranormal investigators sent to investigate houses for paranormal activity.
Players must work together to complete objectives, and all while weird things keep happening around the house. As they explore the house, players must take notes of evidence of paranormal activity while trying not to get killed by the ghost. They will utilize common tools of the paranormal investigator trade, such as an EMF reader and a spirit box. If players do get killed by the ghost, not all is lost, as they can return as a ghost themselves and help or hinder their fellow players. This is a great game to play online with your friends and is full of plenty of jump scares and frightening happenings to get everyone scared together. You can find this game available on PC as a regular version, or if you want to up its spook factor, you can try it out in VR.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Like the other games on this list, this is an older game, but with the new movie having just come out, it’s worth a play in 2023. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was created by Scott Cawthorn and has since been developed by several game studios.
In this game, the player is Mike Schmidt, who takes a new job at Freddy’s Pizza as a night security guard. Their new boss immediately warns them that they need to keep an eye on the animatronics as they move once the sun goes down. Players sit in the security office, switching between security cameras and attempting to keep track of all the creepy animatronics throughout Freddy’s as they slowly move towards the security office, intending to stuff Mike into a spare animatronic suit, thereby killing him. Now, if you don’t like jump scares, this is not the game for you.
However, if you like a game with a sprawling franchise behind it and is full of surprise scares, this might be a fun game for you to try out, even if it’s only to check it out before seeing the new movie. This game and all its successors are available on nearly every console and mobile device, making it one of the most accessible games on this list.
The Closing Shift
Once again, we have “The Closing Shift,” a game that fits perfectly into the do your job while horrible things are happening genre of horror games. In this indie game by Chilla’s Art, the player is a young woman who is a barista at a Starbucks-like cafe. The first half of this indie horror game is largely the horror of being a barista. Players will be yelled at by their boss, forced into small talk with the customers, and struggle to make complex coffee orders promptly, all while being tormented by a stalker as they work the closing shift.
While the graphics of this game are not exactly good at depicting realism, their off-putting, blocky nature actually ends up adding to the game’s overall unsettling feeling. If you’re looking for a thriller-style suspenseful game, this one is great and casual gamer-friendly. I don’t want to give too much away about the plot lest I ruin the scares. The last thing I’ll say is that I wouldn’t recommend playing this game if you’re home alone unless you’re looking to be seriously scared. Like most of Chilla’s Art’s games, this game is only available for PC.
Love, Sam
Another underrated indie game to try is “Love, Sam” by Korean Linguistics Lab. This game is great for casual gamers who are looking for a good psychological, surreal horror story. The gameplay of this game is fairly simple and mainly a point-and-click adventure with a good amount of reading. Players start as an unknown person in their apartment where they are reading the diary of a person who is obsessively in love with someone named Brian. As they continue through the game, players uncover loose pages that appear to also be from someone’s diary; this one belongs to Sam.
The entire story of this game takes place inside the character’s studio apartment and occasionally inside their memory. As players read through the diaries, they will uncover a dark love story that ends in murder with a twist that I certainly didn’t see coming on my first playthrough. I don’t want to say too much more about this game as I don’t want to spoil any of the plot, but if you’re a fan of psychological horror, this one is a must-play. Sadly, this game is only available on PC.
Death’s Door
A relatively new game that came out for PC and Xbox in 2021, “Death’s Door,” was developed by Acid Nerve and published by Developer Digital. Death’s Door features a small crow who works as a grim reaper as the protagonist. As the crow, it’s the player’s job to venture into the world to retrieve the souls of the recently departed and bring them into the afterlife. This little crow protagonist works for Reaping Commission Headquarters, which has an office-like setting. As players reap souls, it becomes clear that more is happening at the office than meets the eye. After getting a tip from another larger crow that there might be a conspiracy going on as other crows have been disappearing.
To solve the mystery, players must collect three Giant Souls that are needed to open Death’s Door. This game is full of mystery and semi-difficult to difficult gameplay. This is not a game for the casual gamer. Players will traverse dungeon-like levels akin to the style of Supergiant’s popular game, “Hades.” Throughout these levels, players will solve puzzles and have to fight some pretty tough bosses, and if they lose, they’ll have to start the level over again. If you like a challenge, cute and sometimes somberly beautiful graphics, and a story full of mystery and interesting characters, then “Death’s Door” is a great way to keep the spooky season alive.
Dredge
For those who like slower-paced mystery thrillers, this game might be a good option for you this spooky season. “Dredge” is a Lovecraftian mystery horror game made by Black Salt Games. The game starts slow, masquerading as a chill fishing simulator game with a beautiful art style, but as the player progresses in their new fishing job in this small coastal town, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems.
The game begins with players taking a fishing job in an island town known as Blackstone Isle. Upon arriving, players crash into the jagged rocks surrounding the island, destroying their boat. Lucky for them, their new boss gives them a new boat so they can begin working as soon as possible.
As players explore the surrounding water’s depths, they begin to uncover a dark secret lurking below the surface of this town’s quaint facade. Once again, this fits into the genre of doing your job while scary things start happening, but in a different way. Instead of adding on the pressure like “Mortuary Assistant” and “The Closing Shift,” this game is less full of jump scares and more wraps the player up in a sinister mystery while they attempt to mind their own business and enjoy the calming fishing mechanics. However, this slowly proves impossible, and players are forced to confront the darkness lurking below the surface. This game is available on pretty much every major console and PC.
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