Best Cosmic Horror Games for PC

Why it's here: Start here. DREDGE takes the calmest loop in games, casting a line and selling the catch, then lets Lovecraft rot it from the inside, so every night trawl becomes a decision about how much sanity the money is worth. Players single out the art and the sound design in almost the same breath; the recurring complaint is that the fetch quests thin out late. At 4.69 stars from 16,702 PlayStation Store ratings, it is the cosmic horror game I hand to someone who says horror is not for them.

Why it's here: SOMA is the one on this list that argues with you. Its flooded research station is a stage for a question about what a copied mind owes the original, and player reviews keep returning to the writing and the audio design rather than to any monster. The consistent criticism in those reviews is the stealth, which many call the weakest part of the design. 4.53 stars from 26,366 PlayStation Store ratings. For cosmic horror as philosophy, this is the first pick.

Why it's here: Cosmic horror usually happens to one person. Darkest Dungeon makes it happen to a payroll, wearing four hirelings at a time down into paranoia, kleptomania and worse while you decide who is expendable. Players praise the atmosphere and the depth of team management; the recurring complaint is the reliance on RNG, which can cost a run for reasons no plan covers. 4.67 stars from 12,004 PlayStation Store ratings. Recommended to anyone who wants the dread to come with a spreadsheet.

Why it's here: SIGNALIS earns its reputation on atmosphere rather than on scares. It is a tight survival horror loop wrapped around a story about identity and memory that players describe as emotionally devastating and, in the same reviews, as genuinely cryptic. The most common criticism is exactly that: the plot withholds enough that some players finish confused. At 4.87 stars from 3,200 PlayStation Store ratings it is the highest-rated game here, and the one I would give a reader coming from Resident Evil.

Why it's here: The best recent arrival in the niche. Look Outside confines its cosmic event to one apartment block and one rule, do not look out the window, then builds a survival RPG out of the neighbours who broke it. Players single out the art and the sheer number of endings; the criticism that recurs is the save system, which several reviewers call punishing. 98 percent of 10,478 Steam reviews are positive. Play it before it stops being a secret.

Why it's here: WORLD OF HORROR is the purest fusion here, Junji Ito's body horror drawn in one-bit pixels over a Lovecraftian mystery structure that reshuffles every run. Players consistently praise the art and the replay value. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the interface, which buries useful information behind menus and takes a few runs to learn to read. 92 percent of 6,674 Steam reviews are positive, alongside 4.43 stars from 642 PlayStation Store ratings. Best suited to readers who like horror as a puzzle box.

Why it's here: Darkwood is the most frightening game on this page and it never once shows you a monster in close-up. The top-down view turns every treeline into a place something might be standing, and the night defence sections turn your own house into the trap. Players praise the sound design above everything else; the recurring criticism is the inventory limit and the pacing of those nights. 94 percent of 11,617 Steam reviews are positive. The pick for readers who want dread rather than jump scares.

Why it's here: Sunless Sea is cosmic horror as travel writing. You captain a steamer across an underground ocean where every port carries a story better than the last, and the prose is the reason players keep it installed. It is also the slowest thing here: reviewers repeatedly flag the resource management and the permadeath as the reasons they stopped. 83 percent of 7,127 Steam reviews are positive. Absolutely worth it if you read for the writing and can forgive the pace.

Why it's here: Cultist Simulator asks you to found a mystery cult out of cards on a table, and it explains almost nothing. That design is why its Steam standing sits at 76 percent of 7,704 reviews, the lowest on this list: the recurring complaint is the absence of a tutorial and the deaths that follow. Players who push past it describe the lore and the systems in the same admiring terms. Recommended, with that warning attached, to readers who enjoy being taught nothing.

Why it's here: One hour, one submarine, an ocean of blood on a moon orbiting a dead star. Iron Lung gives you a camera, a map and no window, and gets more dread out of that than most full-length horror games manage. Players praise the audio and the restraint; the common criticism is the length and the thin interaction. 92 percent of 11,291 Steam reviews are positive. The one to start with tonight if you have a single evening free.

Why it's here: Termina is the cruellest game here and the most generous with its lore. Three days, fourteen playable characters, a Lovecraftian town that kills you for curiosity, and a save system that means it. Players praise the atmosphere and the character writing; the recurring complaint is the RNG and the punishing difficulty spikes. 97 percent of 15,585 Steam reviews are positive. Come to it expecting to lose runs and it becomes the deepest thing on this page.

Why it's here: Cosmic horror as a middle-management job. Lobotomy Corporation puts you in charge of containing abominations for a company that treats employee deaths as a line item, and the writing around that premise is why players stay. Its Steam standing is 94 percent of 16,427 reviews, though the recurring complaints there are the difficulty spikes and the technical problems, memory leaks and crashes included. For readers who want the horror in the paperwork, nothing else on this page does this.

Why it's here: The quietest game on this list. Strange Antiquities sits you behind a shop counter identifying occult curios out of reference books, and the cosmic horror arrives as paperwork you gradually understand. Players call the puzzles genuinely researched and the tone warm at the edges and grim underneath; the criticism that recurs is the tedium of cross-referencing several books at once. 96 percent of 2,498 Steam reviews are positive. Ideal for a reader who wants cosmic horror without combat.

Why it's here: Ninety minutes, stop-motion animation, and an archaeological dig that should have stayed buried. The Children of Clay carries the highest Steam standing here, 99 percent of 2,678 reviews, and players are unanimous about why: tension built without a single cheap jump scare. The one complaint, repeated inside those same positive reviews, is that it ends too soon. Take it as a short film rather than a full game and it is the best single evening on this page.

Why it's here: Lost in Vivo is about claustrophobia and it does not let the subject go. You follow a service dog into a storm drain and the game keeps narrowing, through sewers and worse, over a soundtrack players rate among the best in indie horror. Reviews split on the pacing: the recurring criticism is that the middle sections drag and that bugs surface. 92 percent of 3,209 Steam reviews are positive. For readers who want horror about trauma rather than about monsters.

Why it's here: The action pick. CULTIC is a Blood-shaped shooter that happens to sit inside a cosmic horror plot, and its gunplay is what players praise first, ahead of the atmosphere. The recurring criticism is Chapter 2, which several reviewers rate well below the first for level design and pacing. 97 percent of 6,887 Steam reviews are positive. Recommended to readers who want the eldritch material at speed rather than in a slow fog.

Why it's here: Scarlet Hollow has the best writing on this page. Its Appalachian mining town runs on cosmic horror and family obligation in equal measure, and the trait system rewrites conversations rather than branching them, which is why players describe replays as different games. The honest caveat, raised in reviews as often as the praise, is that it is unfinished and still releasing in chapters. 98 percent of 4,604 Steam reviews are positive. Start it now or wait for the final chapter.

Why it's here: The joke lands and then the horror does. Sucker for Love: First Date plays its premise, romancing an eldritch god out of a ritual guidebook, entirely straight, and players praise the writing and the art in the same breath as the punchlines. The consistent complaint is the length, a couple of hours at most, and the fixed reading speed. 98 percent of 2,411 Steam reviews are positive. The palate cleanser for a reader who has just finished Darkwood.

Why it's here: The most replayable pick here. The Consuming Shadow hands you a map, a sanity meter and three clues to deduce which Ancient is arriving, then regenerates the whole country when you fail. Players praise the deduction loop and the price; the criticism nearly all of them raise is the rough graphics and the clunky combat. 96 percent of 389 Steam reviews are positive, a small but consistent sample. Worth it for readers who want a real puzzle underneath the horror.

Why it's here: SKALD looks like a 1989 CRPG and reads like a Lovecraft novella. The pixel art hides genuinely good prose, and players praise the atmosphere and the combat ahead of the nostalgia. The recurring criticisms are the visual clutter in busy scenes and an ending that several reviewers found rushed. 94 percent of 3,191 Steam reviews are positive. For readers who want their cosmic horror in a party-based RPG, this is the one to pick.