Best Sci-Fi Horror Games for PS5 & PS4

Why it's here: The list's definitive pick. You play an engineer rather than a soldier, which is why combat means cutting limbs off with mining tools instead of shooting centre mass, and why ammo anxiety never lets up aboard the Ishimura. Steam reviewers single out the audio design and the seamless single-shot presentation; the recurring complaint is uneven performance on some setups. Start here if you want sustained sci-fi horror rather than a scare reel.

Why it's here: The pick for anyone who wants the horror to stay with them after the credits. Set in the undersea facility PATHOS-II, it keeps asking what a copied mind owes the original, and the answers land harder than any monster does. Players consistently praise the writing and sound design, while the common criticism is that the stealth sections are the weakest part. Play it for the questions, not the chases.

Why it's here: The showcase pick if you own a PS5. Selene crashes on Atropos, dies, and wakes at the crash site again, so the dread comes from a loop that quietly rewrites itself rather than from a stalker in a corridor. The haptics and 3D audio do real work here. Player reviews split on the difficulty, with a recurring complaint that runs start to feel repetitive. Come for the bullet-hell combat, stay for the mystery.

Why it's here: The thinking player's choice. Aboard Talos I the aliens can imitate any object in the room, so a coffee mug becomes a threat and paranoia does the work a jump scare usually does. Almost every obstacle has several solutions, and the station rewards learning it properly. Players praise the world-building and the freedom; the common gripe is backtracking and an ending that lands flat for some. Already included with PS Plus Extra.

Why it's here: The best small-team horror game here by some distance. You play Elster, a Replika technician picking through a frozen retro-futurist facility with a six-slot inventory that forces genuinely hard choices about what to carry. Its art direction and score are why people finish it twice. Reviewers warn that the story is deliberately cryptic and the combat stiff. Take it slowly and let the ambiguity sit.

Why it's here: The one for players who finished Dead Space and want more of that exact texture, from the same creative lead. Black Iron Prison on Jupiter's moon is grim and extraordinarily well lit, and the melee-led combat commits harder to gore than anything else here. Player reviews are genuinely split: visuals and atmosphere draw the praise, while repetition, checkpoint placement and launch performance draw the criticism. Included with PS Plus Premium.

Why it's here: The best value on the list by a distance: three games and their single-player add-ons in one purchase, spanning the drowned objectivist city of Rapture and the sky-bound Columbia. Plasmid powers are the hook, but these endure because each game turns its setting into an argument. The PlayStation Store carries too few written reviews to summarize player sentiment here. A gentler entry point if the genre's harsher corners put you off.

Why it's here: The ancestor almost everything else here descends from, rebuilt without being modernised into something else. Aboard the Von Braun you level skills like an RPG, ration ammo like a survival game, and get taunted by SHODAN, still the best villain the genre has produced. Players praise the fidelity and the quality-of-life work; the recurring reservation is the price and some deliberately dated systems. It also supports four-player online co-op.

Why it's here: Start here if the sequel above sounds too old-school. This is a ground-up remake of the 1994 original, keeping the maze-like Citadel Station and SHODAN's sneering while adding modern controls and a striking neon-and-grime art style. Player reviews praise the atmosphere and exploration, and consistently flag fiddly inventory management and heavy backtracking. Bring patience for navigation and it repays it.

Why it's here: The loudest game on this list, and the one that treats horror as pressure rather than dread. A containment failure on a Mars research base turns every dark corridor into a flashlight-and-shotgun decision, and the pacing rarely lets you settle. It is a 2004 game and plays like one, which is part of the appeal. The PlayStation Store holds too few written reviews to summarize player sentiment. Included with PS Plus Premium.

Why it's here: The pick for players who want their horror rerolled. On a doomed colony starship the layout reshuffles every death and you return as a different cloned crew member, so stealth matters more than firepower and no floor plan stays learned. Player reviews are divided: atmosphere and stealth draw praise, while control schemes and technical problems carried over from its VR origins draw the criticism. Best in short sessions.

Why it's here: The strategy pick, and the only game here where you command rather than control. You direct a squad of Colonial Marines in real time on Moon Lethe, managing stress and dwindling ammunition across a campaign that remembers your losses. Players call it the most faithful Aliens adaptation in years, with tension closer to the film than any shooter manages. The consistent complaints are bugs and a restrictive save system, which is what holds it back.

Why it's here: The co-op pick: three players against Xenomorph waves on LV-895, with class builds and weapon customization deep enough to keep a regular group busy. It is the most straightforwardly fun thing on this list and the least frightening. Player reviews split sharply, praising the atmosphere and squad play while flagging repetitive mission structure, empty environments and poor bot squadmates when you play alone. Bring two friends or skip it.

Why it's here: The cyberpunk entry, and the closest this list gets to a detective story. You play an investigator who hacks into the minds of the dead, and each dive becomes a fractured, hallucinatory reconstruction of someone's last memories. Rutger Hauer's final lead performance anchors it. Players praise the atmosphere and voice work, and commonly note it plays close to a walking simulator with thin interactivity. Included with PS Plus Extra.

Why it's here: The most unusual premise here: you play S.A.M., the station's artificial intelligence, watching through cameras and operating systems while a stranded astronaut asks you for help. The horror comes from a limited perspective rather than a threat, and from slowly working out what the station has become. Players praise the concept and sound design, and consistently criticise confusing navigation and an ending many found unresolved. Short, strange and worth it.

Why it's here: The reverse-horror pick, and the only one where you are the thing everyone else is afraid of. You are an amorphous mass of teeth and tendrils tearing through a research facility, growing new abilities by consuming staff, and the pleasure is entirely in the movement. Players praise the concept and the combat feel, while the two recurring complaints are the absence of a map and a four-to-five hour runtime. Included with PS Plus Premium.