Sons of the Forest

Sons of the Forest is perhaps one of the best-realized fusions of survival sandbox gameplay and horror. At first glance, it seems like just another in a long line of sandbox crafting games. Yet it executes both elements so well that the experience eclipses expectation. Between the uncanny swamp mutant abominations to the unpredictable scenarios and clever diegetic crafting menus, Sons of the Forest is not to be missed.

Layers of Fear (2023)

If you prefer more subtle horror with psychological leanings, Layers of Fear may just end up being a new favorite. Labyrinthine creepy mansion: check. Mysterious past to uncover: check. Heaps of atmospheric storytelling and puzzles to solve: check. This game hits all the marks of classic survival horror from days past, with echoes of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and even The Shining. Fans of the Silent Hill 2 remake should especially consider checking out this gem from Bloober Team.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Ghostwire: Tokyo takes a more unconventional approach to horror, ditching the ‘survival’ aspect and replacing it with some good old karate….with magic. The atmosphere of the game is a highlight. Shibuya is haunted and desolate, with nothing but neon lights and abandoned belongings of those who went missing. Your adversaries are modern-day interpretations of Yokai from Japanese folklore. These take the form of blank-faced salarymen and headless schoolgirls to name just a few. The fast-paced action of the magic karate doesn’t take away from the unsettled nature of the empty Tokyo streets or the creative enemy designs.

Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil does all the things excellent survival horror is supposed to be. It situates players into a vulnerable position with lack of resources, and the atmosphere and zombies are downright terrifying. Resident Evil Village does the classic formula and vibe well, filling the journey with a blend of slower-paced exploration and puzzles with tense set-piece moments and boss fights. Village does a particularly good job with its contrasting environments and themes. The baroque Castle Dimetrescu feels so distinct from Heisenberg’s industrial factory. And it’s all framed through an interesting folktale lens to boot.

Amnesia: Rebirth

The Amnesia series does one thing better than pretty much every other horror series: instilling vulnerability to the player. Like previous Amnesia titles, Rebirth features no combat. Encounters must be overcome through escapes, puzzle-solving, and exploration. But unlike other past games, Rebirth takes place out in the desert instead of a factory or other claustrophobic interior. You play as Tasi, a pregnant woman searching for her missing crew within the vast Algerian desert. You’re still sneaking through interiors such as pitch-black caverns and creepy abandoned ruins though, so it retains that dark atmosphere despite its unique setting.

System Shock Remake

For those itching for deep choice-driven gameplay mechanics, System Shock Remake is a sure bet. The original is a seminal classic in the survival horror space, being one of the first immersive sim games to reach broad appeal. The ship’s AI, SHODAN, remains one of the more engaging villains in the genre. The sci-fi ship almost feels haunted by SHODAN, with the persistent monitoring and sabotage of various ship systems engaging the player’s every move. The game’s atmosphere compliments her constant presence with eerie rattles and distorted sounds almost too well, and the modern remake polishes those scares to a beautiful and terrifying shine.

Choo-Choo Charles

Taking a different turn is the indie game Choo-Choo Charles. This is the ideal horror game on the list if you don’t have a lot of time to invest as it only takes around 3 to 4 to go through. The premise is both unique and simple. You collect eggs and do tasks for NPCs in order to summon the villainous train, Charles, to defeat him. It’s a unique and charming concept and Charles’ jump scare attacks provide ample scares.

Visage

Visage is another indie horror game but this one is often lauded as a spiritual successor to P.T. You’re stuck exploring a 1980s suburban mansion, one that’s both haunted and filled with locked doors. Aside from the numerous puzzles to solve, you must keep your sanity in check by avoiding dark zones and ghost attacks. Those looking for an unpredictable P.T.-like experience owe it to themselves to play Visage.

The Mortuary Assistant

Ever want to inspect dead bodies and exorcise demons in a video game? Well, This solo-developed indie horror title provides that and then some. The Mortuary Assistant puts the player into the shoes of a newly trained assistant at a morgue, tasked with performing her job of preparing corpses for burial. However, it isn’t just another mundane job; demons regularly inhabit the corpses and Rebecca must exorcise them out in-between her paid work. The story is somewhat procedural as well, providing a good amount of replayability.

Ad Infinitum

Ad Infinitum represents yet another creative premise on this list. Players take on the role of a World War 1 vet coming home to take care of an ailing father. The horror takes form from the trauma suffered  in the trenches. This trauma is represented by monsters scouring the house through the mind of the veteran. In gameplay terms, this means solving puzzles around the large house while overcoming the threat of monsters.

Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia is perhaps the most widely played game on the list, which may come as a surprise for some. Social deduction games have been popular of late, and Phasmophobia channels that chaotic premise into a terrifying horror atmosphere. Investigating ghosts as a team may not sound like the most terrifying thing compared to other horror games, but the slow unraveling and eventual reveal of the ghost, and the player’s possession by it, can be a shock, even in a group setting.

Still Wakes the Deep

Described as “The Thing on an oil rig”, Still Wakes the Deep is another game on the list with no combat whatsoever. Players must rely on stealth and avoidance when it comes to monster encounters. The oil rig evolves as the story progresses, with previously explored areas becoming flooded or wrecked. The lack of a HUD helps sell the atmosphere even more. If you enjoy traditional explorative horror, give Still Wakes the Deep a try.

Nightmare of Decay

For those on a tight budget, this $4 indie horror game just might do the trick, especially for fans of old school action horror titles. Nightmare of Decay plays a bit like a first-person Resident Evil 2 with its generous ammo supply and healthy number of zombies infesting the mansion. And there’s plenty of mansion to explore here with puzzles and numerous weapon types scattered about. This is a hidden gem for the Resident Evil 2 fans.

Stay Out of the House

You didn’t think we’d get through this list without a slasher themed horror game, did you? Stay Out of the House is a straight-up cannibal escape simulator. Your goal is simply to survive from the serial killer cannibal stalking the house and surrounding neighborhood. It’s done on a budget, but with tasteful retro filters to make the PS1 aesthetic charming rather than a detriment.

The Outlast Trials

The Outlast Trials is a clever take on cooperative horror gameplay. The game follows a structure that updates the player’s abilities upon successful trials. It’s one of those titles with superb gameplay/story integration. Set during the Cold War, recruits are sent to compete in trials against failed recruits who have become psychologically deranged and dangerous. There’s plenty of lore through radio recordings and environmental details that enrich the experience beyond that of just another horror game.

Dying Light

Dying Light taps into what makes horror games so irresistible. It’s got a scarcity of resources, infected humans transforming into zombies, and the fear of nighttime adding anxiety on top of it all. And while most gamers would argue the best horror games are linear curated experiences in nature, Dying Light uses its open-world to ramp up the horror in ways only it could. Threats aren’t fully scripted and can come from pretty much any direction in the map. Similarly, scrounging for resources takes on a new life given the large dynamic environments. Dying Light 2 would take the parkour of the first one and really polish it up while adding a paraglider for faster traversal. Though fans still largely prefer the darker tone of the first game over the more colorful style of the sequel.

Days Gone

Want to simulate what it would be like to outrun and outgun an ocean of zombies out in an open field? Well, Days Gone is the closest thing to that experience on the gaming market – yet nothing could prepare us for the sheer size of hordes that the game would bless us with. While it would have been amazing to mow down zombie hordes using pick-up trucks or even a combine harvester, Days Gone limits its vehicles to primarily bikes. Still, the bike controls are quite smooth and ramming into zombies is a fun, though less ideal, way to squash their huge numbers. The icing on the horror cake are the stealth sequences, which make for some terrifying moments when swarms get alerted. Now if only we could finally get a sequel that gives us more vehicles to mow zombies down with.

The Evil Within 2

The world design of The Evil Within 2 may not be as open-ended as the previous games on this list, but it makes up for it in its tightly crafted narrative. Sebastian Castellanos’ mind is still reeling from the events of the first game, but he still has to rescue his daughter, Lily within the surreal Union labyrinth. The stakes are more personal here than in the first game, amplifying the psychological aspect tenfold. The semi-open world design adds some interesting side stories and secrets to discover, nicely contrasting the more claustrophobic sequences. Oh, and the bizarre, surreal world can even be experienced in first-person thanks to a 2018 update to the game.

Sons of the Forest

Being stranded on an island full of cannibals has to be one of the more harrowing concepts in horror, and Sons of the Forest executes it frighteningly well. The size of the island and its predominant forest biome is four times larger than the first game. The larger layout both helps the player and hinders them with helpful NPCs and a host of new terrors lurking in hidden corners of the map.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

After developing The Evil Within, Tango opted to go fully first-person with Ghostwire: Tokyo. The more intimate perspective combined with a supernaturally shifting environment enveloped in fog gave it a unique brand of horror. The game’s developer describes battles with the phrase ‘karate meets magic’. You’d think being adorned with such supernatural abilities neuters the sensation of helplessness a bit, but no, the many occultic monstrosities populating the possessed Tokyo are enhanced with even more terrifying abilities than the player character, making for an unpredictable and haunting journey.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Stalker 2, actually the fourth game in the series, was first announced way back in 2010. Typically, games with development hell history turn out poorly, but Stalker 2 nailed the post-apocalyptic premise and gameplay the series had been celebrated for prior. The limited inventory space and sparse resources within the Exclusion Zone make for a true survival experience. Add on a hunger and sleep meter and some reality-altering anomalies within the open-world and you’ve got a game sure to raise players’ blood pressure.

Dead Rising

This 2006 game may be the oldest on this list, but it’s also one of the most iconic in terms of open-world horror. Willamette Parkview Mall makes for a fantastic locale to combat hordes of flesh-hungry zombies. Part of the endless charm of the series is the sheer variety of weapons available to smash zombie brains with. The first Dead Rising hosts 250 weapons ranging from useful shotguns to fun props such as Mega Man’s Megabuster. The horror aspect, while less severe than others on this list, still comes into play when dozens of zombies close in on a defenseless and unaware Frank.

State of Decay 2

The State of Decay series has quickly become one of gaming’s most immersive zombie survival experiences. There’s few games that can match the feeling of building outposts and combating zombies together with other co-op partners quite like State of Decay 2. The series has always been primed for co-op, yet the first game lacked any multiplayer, being a purely solo affair. Besides the four-player co-op, the additional facilities and utilities, as well as a far more diverse map made for an improved gameplay loop. The improved open-world may have sacrificed some of the memorable story moments the first had, but the series is certainly headed in the right direction, giving us optimism for State of Decay 3.

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus is another game that uses its semi-open world structure well. The Volga, Caspian Desert, and Taiga regions feel so distinct from each other, as opposed to the largely monotonous regions of previous games. But the game still hones in on those narrow tunnel corridors that the original did so well. The Metro series also evokes a peculiar sensation of dread with the semi-frequent hallucinations and horrific mutant creatures aptly named The Dark Ones.

Dead Island 2

Dead Island takes a more arcady and fun approach to its horror, though getting overwhelmed by zombies still provides some tense jump scare moments. The sequel partitions up its open world into regions, helping to make each area distinct. What really makes Dead Island 2 stand out from the rest is the environmental interactions. Most objects lying around can be used as weapons, and a number of hazards such as electric and fire can be used against zombie hordes.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Combining a spaghetti western wild west setting with a zombie apocalypse probably hasn’t been done in games before Red Dead did it with Undead Nightmare. It’s such a unique fusion of disparate elements, yet feels so satisfying and fun to experience. The addition of classic folklore monsters, from Chupacabras to Sasquatches, is just the cherry on top of a well blended horror-tinged desert of the Red Dead franchise.

Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid takes a unique twist on survival horror. It’s not about how you survive, but how you die in this game. Players are fated to get eliminated by a single slow zombie bite, yet the game manages to make this process rewarding and, above all, fun. The unlimited nature of sandbox mode puts all the tools in the player’s hands, giving control of the zombie population, weather patterns, and loot. It’s a top-down 2D game though, so if you’re just in the mood for a cinematic and graphically intensive horror experience, others on this list will have to substitute.

Once Human

One of the most recent entries on the list, Once Human prides itself on its community-focused gameplay. Players can craft and build base camps meant to serve as a home base within the game world. Hunger and sanity needs to be kept in check lest players lose their loot with a respawn. What helps separate Once Human from other multiplayer survival games is the wild creature design. I mean, there’s a walking bus monster that players can use for transportation for crying out loud. Once Human isn’t lacking in creative  charm.

Beyond Hanwell

Surprisingly overlooked despite its quality, Beyond Hanwell lets players loose in the rainy streets of Westminster London amid an outbreak of mutant anomalies. The sound and music in particular really create an unsettling atmosphere, which is further aided by the environmental details of within the first-person perspective. Your primary source of self-defense is a pistol and some other light weapons, but a bigger aspect of the game is simply exploring the old buildings for notes and objects that help uncover the mystery.

The Sinking City Remastered

Fans of Lovecraftian horror should check out The Sinking City if they haven’t already. It’s filled with a variety of weird monsters beyond the familiar mortal coil, and even features a mental stability meter that diminishes as you learn new truths. The semi-open environments help fill out the background lore of Oakmont well, and the motorboat is just plain fun to traverse the waters with.

For starters, there’s Ghostwire: Tokyo, Tango Gameworks’ first-person action-adventure open world title, which takes players to a haunted verson of Tokyo, where you’re charged with hunting and dealing with all manner of supernatural entities as part of your attempts to save the city.

Another major title for subscribers to look forward to is Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, Milestone’s acclaimed arcade racer, which launches last October. Finally, there’s also Death Note Killer Within, a multiplayer social deduction game for 10 players set in the Death Note universe, which publisher Bandai Namco has confirmed will be available day one via PS Plus at launch.

All three games will be available starting November 5 for subscribers of all PlayStation Plus tiers, which means you have until November 4 to claim October’s games.

In a statement to MP1st, Krafton confirmed that its acquisition of Tango Gameworks only includes Hi-Fi Rush as far as IP developed by the studio are concerned. That means The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo will remain under Microsoft’s ownership. Whether that means the company intends to do anything with those properties in the future is anyone’s guess, but we do know, at the very least, that Tango and Krafton will not.

As for Hi-Fi Rush, while we can presumably look forward to sequels at some point in the future, in the short-term, it should be interesting to see whether the game releases for Nintendo Switch (or its upcoming successor). Leaks prior to Tango’s closure by Microsoft suggested that it would, as did a PEGI rating.

THE SABOTEUR

The definition of a cult classic, Pandemic Studios’ 2009 World War 2 stealth action game is one that deserved more praise than it got back in the day. Though it certainly had issues, it had more than enough strengths to make up for them, from an incredible visual aesthetic and an atmospheric setting to excellent open world action and much more.

Launched in 2022 for PS5 and PC before coming to Xbox Series X/S earlier this year, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a first-person action-adventure game. It’s set in Tokyo, where various residents are suddenly spirited away and replaced by the malevolent Visitors. As Akito, possessed by a spirit known as KK, players must find a way to defeat the mysterious Hannya and save his sister.

Ghostwire: Tokyo has had six million players since launch and received a new significant content update, Spider’s Thread. It added a rogue-lite mode with 30 floors, a new boss, the Middle School area to explore and more. New skills like Charge Rush, Counter-Attack and Quick Dodging have also been added. Check out our review of the game and its update here.

Coal ❌
Free game ✅

Check your stocking for Ghostwire Tokyo, FREE today! https://t.co/sgBXeJVq3Q pic.twitter.com/XxQbhbd2Rz

— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) December 24, 2023

System Shock Remake (2023)

System Shock is considered to be one of the most important games of its time, as it was one of the earliest pioneers of systemic game design applied in a first-person space. But even apart from it, System Shock is an impressive game with a gripping story and a detailed world with plenty of lore to surround it all. Nightdive was hard at work on a full-fledged remake of the original, and System Shock Remake was finally released earlier this year to great reviews. It does a great job of modernizing this classic with plenty of clever design tricks and changes that make this experience a more digestible one for fans accustomed to modern first-person games. 

Of course, sales haven’t been revealed. Ghostwire: Tokyo was first released last year as a PS5 console exclusive but made its way to Xbox Series X/S this past April. It also arrived on PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium and Game Pass while receiving a new update, Spider’s Thread. It added a new location in the Middle School, new quests, abilities and more.

It also added a new rogue-lite mode, with players venturing through a 30-floor area, conquering various challenges and earning upgrades before confronting a new boss. For more details on the game, check out our review for the Xbox Series X/S version. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

6 MILLION PLAYERS have explored #GhostwireTokyo's spooky streets! That doesn't make those eerie alleyways any less haunted, of course…

Thank you again to all our fans! pic.twitter.com/jEXuZtp61K

— Ghostwire: Tokyo (@playGhostwire) September 15, 2023

Ghostwire: Tokyo was first released for PS5 and PC in March 2022 and was exclusive to Sony’s console for a year. Though it didn’t exactly set sales charts on fire, it’s gained a steady following since then. It launched for Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass last April while also launching for PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium. How many players bought the game is unknown, but it’s good to see it still getting players.

Check out our review for Ghostwire: Tokyo on Xbox Series X/S here. In addition to the base game, it also covers the Spider’s Thread update, which sees players running through a 30-floor area with rogue-lite aspects. A new location, the Middle School, and extended cutscenes for the main story are also available.

From everyone at Tango Gameworks, thank you to 5 million fans who have played #GhostwireTokyo!

Please enjoy this commemorative artwork by Concept Artist Kenta Muramatsu! pic.twitter.com/cCqqowYEA9

— Ghostwire: Tokyo (@playGhostwire) June 19, 2023

Of course, sales numbers weren’t revealed, and the title is also available on PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium and Game Pass. Several players could thus be subscribers checking it out for the first time. Ghostwire: Tokyo launched in March last year as a PS5 console exclusive and on PC. It only recently arrived on Xbox Series X/S after the exclusivity period ended.

A hefty new update, The Spider’s Thread, was also released. It added a new rogue-lite, 30-stage gauntlet game mode and boss, a new Middle School area to explore with associated side quests, new abilities and extended story scenes. There’s also an option to reduce the horror effects, with Shiibuya Hachi serving as a replacement.

Check out our review of the Xbox Series X/S version for more details.

Thank you to 4 million fans thus far who have taken a thrilling tour of @TangoGameworks' Tokyo!#GhostwireTokyo pic.twitter.com/nutcWNOHmi

— Ghostwire: Tokyo (@playGhostwire) May 5, 2023