Best Horror Games

Why it's here: The psychological-horror pick, and the one to start with if dread matters more to you than combat. Bloober Team's remake swaps the original's fixed cameras for an over-the-shoulder view, putting you at James Sunderland's back as he searches a fog-drowned town for his dead wife. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is technical rather than artistic: stuttering and uneven optimisation, plus environments that begin to repeat. Rated Mature 17+, on PS Plus Extra, 4.76 from 60,576 ratings, the highest-rated game here a subscription covers. If you want dread over firefights, start here.

Why it's here: The highest-rated game here, and the survival-horror template at its sharpest. Capcom's remake rebuilds the Raccoon City police station as a single interlocking puzzle box, then sets Mr. X walking through it so no room stays safe for long. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the second scenario: players expecting a genuinely different B-side find it repeats too much of the first. Rated Mature, not on PS Plus, 4.77 from 114,401 ratings. If you are starting the genre from scratch, start here.

Why it's here: The pick if you want horror you can shoot your way through. Leon's rescue mission across a hostile village and castle is built on crowd control rather than scarcity, and the 2023 remake tightens the pacing without sanding off the menace. Steam reviews return repeatedly to the paid upgrade tickets, which sit awkwardly in a full-price single-player game. Rated Mature, not on PS Plus, 4.74 from 144,667 ratings, the most-rated game on this list. Take it as the entry point if the slower survival horror above has never held you.

Why it's here: The science-fiction entry, and the most mechanically precise game on this list. You play an engineer aboard a mining ship where enemies must be dismembered rather than shot centre-mass, and the 2023 remake runs the whole thing in one unbroken camera take that never cuts away from Isaac. The recurring split in Steam reviews is whether the heavier combat focus dulls the horror it inherited. Rated Mature 17+, not on PS Plus, 4.71 from 42,121 ratings. Come for the atmosphere, stay for the best weapon set here.

Why it's here: The most ambitious game on this list and the least conventional. Play splits between FBI agent Saga Anderson and the writer trapped in the Dark Place, with light used as a weapon and a case board you retreat into to assemble the plot yourself. The recurring frustration in Steam reviews is navigation: obtuse stretches and backtracking that stall the momentum between set pieces. Rated Mature, the only pick here on PS Plus Premium, 4.63 from 63,631 ratings. Take it slowly, or not at all.

Why it's here: The nastiest thing here, and the one that dragged Resident Evil back to basics. Trapped in the Baker family's rotting Louisiana estate, the series swaps set-piece spectacle for first-person claustrophobia, and it plays even worse for your nerves in VR. Steam reviews consistently flag the movement: deliberately heavy controls that read as clunky rather than tense to a good number of players. Rated Mature, not on PS Plus, 4.64 from 64,775 ratings. Choose this one when you want horror that stays close and personal.

Why it's here: The list's most overlooked pick, and the one that opens survival horror into semi-open hubs without losing its grip. Detective Sebastian Castellanos hunts through the fractured town of Union, scavenging parts between encounters that reward stealth as readily as shooting. Steam reviews from players who loved the original consistently say the sequel trades its predecessor's dread for something looser and less frightening. Rated Mature, on PS Plus Extra, 4.55 from 34,881 ratings. If it is already in your subscription, it is the easiest yes here.

Why it's here: The thinking reader's pick, and the only game here whose horror is an argument rather than a monster. Set in a collapsing underwater research station, it uses environmental storytelling to ask what a copied mind is owed, and it does not flinch from the answer. The consistent complaint in Steam reviews is the stealth: unloved enemy encounters that many players would rather the game had left out entirely. Rated Mature, not on PS Plus, 4.53 from 26,366 ratings. Play it for the ideas; the monsters are the weakest part of it.

Why it's here: The best-looking horror on this list, and one of three here rated Teen rather than Mature. You play Mono alongside the raincoated Six through a broken Pale City of grotesque adults, solving physical puzzles and running rather than fighting, with art direction doing most of the scaring. Steam reviews return again and again to the controls: imprecise movement that turns trial-and-error deaths into the game's main frustration. Rated Teen, not on PS Plus, 4.55 from 38,797 ratings. Start here if gore is the part of horror you would rather skip.

Why it's here: The one that started the series, and the shortest way into this list. Six creeps through a drowned vessel called the Maw, dwarfed by gluttonous captors, with hunger recurring as a threat and combat almost entirely absent, so the tension comes from scale, shadow and timing. The most common reservation in Steam reviews is length: players finish it in an evening and want considerably more. Rated Teen, not on PS Plus, 4.5 from 61,691 ratings, the lowest-rated pick here. Play it before the sequel, and expect one very good evening.

Why it's here: The pick built entirely around co-operation, and the one that turns horror into a job. Four investigators enter a haunted location with cameras, EMF readers and their own voices, identifying which of more than twenty ghost types is present before it begins hunting them. The persistent complaint in Steam reviews is stability: bugs and crashes that a game built on sustained tension can least afford. Rated Teen, not on PS Plus, 4.59 from 27,750 ratings. Bring three friends and headsets, because alone it is a much smaller game.

Why it's here: The one where the horror fights back, and the newest thing on this list. Kyle Crane returns in Castor Woods, where daytime scavenging and parkour give way at nightfall to a hunt you can now turn around, the Beast mechanic letting the survivor become the thing the infected fear. Steam and PlayStation Store reviews agree the story is the weak part: serviceable setup, forgettable characters, strong everything else. Rated Mature, not on PS Plus, 4.55 from 24,463 ratings, the fewest of any pick here. Take it for the nights and the four-player co-op.