So it’s all the more impressive that the video game industry, be it triple-A developers, independent studios (even with the backing of major publishers) and smaller creators, can craft such a wide range of terrifying games, year in and year out. While that also means a heaping helping of shovelware – awful releases that wouldn’t even muster a simple yawn – a select few rise above the rabble to dominate.

Here are our nominees for the best horror game of 2025, starting with…

Routine

Between development troubles and even stopping development, only to restart in 2020, it’s almost impressive that Lunar Software’s first game was released at all, much less received such positive praise. Nevertheless, it’s pretty much what we expected – a slow, methodical trip down the retro futuristic rabbit hole in a station filled with killer robots. Even if the story doesn’t quite stick the landing, being immersed in this surreal world and awkwardly feeling your way through is more than worth the price of admission.

Tormented Souls 2

Old-school survival horror with its save rooms, fixed camera angles, and tank controls – you really couldn’t ask more from Dual Effect, especially after the surprising success of Tormented Souls. However, the sequel actually improves a lot, from more intricate puzzles and exploration to far better lighting that adds the oh-so creepy mood. Caroline Walker may never really catch a break, but her escapades make for some tense gameplay, if nothing else.

The Midnight Walk

If there’s one medium that’s adept at portraying adorably terrifying creatures, it’s claymation, and MoonHood uses it to full effect here. There’s an almost Tim Burton-like vibe to this tale of The Burnt One struggling to protect Potboy, who houses an alluring flame, from the various horrors of this mysterious world. The Midnight Walk straddles a fine line between beauty and terror while remaining engaging throughout.

Silent Hill f

Of course, it’s not just about balancing beauty and terror – sometimes, you can find each in the other, as Konami’s latest mainline Silent Hill showcases. Venturing outside the US for the first time, taking place in the fictitious Ebisugaoka in the 1960s, it’s a rural horror unlike anything the franchise has seen thus far. Deeply disturbing and unrelenting with its gore, yet never descending into senseless brutality, it’s a psychological trip that’s worth taking.

Total Chaos

A Doom 2 total conversion turned full-fledged horror by Sam Prebble of Turbo Overkill fame, this essentially captures all the reality-bending horror the former strived for. Between fighting grotesque horrors across Fort Oasis and trying to discover the truth of yourself, you’re crafting rudimentary weapons to fight back – all the while diving even deeper into this surprisingly meaty nightmare.

Hell is Us

While much of the emphasis remained on dungeon diving and getting by without any hand holding, Remi’s journey through the war-torn remains of Hadea isn’t without some disturbing sights. War crimes abound, but even discovering mountains of corpses and gruesome murders all in the name of ancient practices, which all connect back to the country’s bloody history, can get heavy. You won’t have to worry about jump scares or such, but it’s a stressful experience throughout.

Little Nightmares 3

It’s a shame that Supermassive didn’t innovate much on the gameplay because, in terms of the atmosphere and aesthetic, the spiral of Low and Alone through Nowhere is delightfully dreadful. Witness the Carnevale, with its sentient puppets that won’t stop attacking until you crush their heads. Flee the Supervisor, whose smile is almost as frightening as her Candy Factory. The frights may not be as out-and-out, but the sights remain as disturbing as ever.

Sleep Awake

Imagine if sleep were the enemy – the domain of an entity known as The Hush, who spirits away those that can’t resist nap time. Now imagine being one of the last few people on Earth trying to maintain their sanity. It’s an unconventional premise, sure, and Blumhouse Games further reinforces the surreality by mixing full-motion video with some gameplay sequences. Despite the iffy stealth sections and walking sim-like nature, its narrative stands strong.

Dying Light: The Beast

What’s there to be afraid of when my boy Kyle Crane, making his return after years in exile, can now rip apart zombies with his bare hands? As it turns out, when the sun goes down, everything. Volatiles are more ruthless, intelligent and brutal than ever, and we couldn’t be happier. It’s finally an achievement to survive the nighttime, which now looks properly foreboding and oppressive (the makeup of Castor Woods helps as well).

Cronos: The New Dawn

If Bloober Team was under immense pressure to deliver with Silent Hill 2 remake, then you have to wonder how much higher expectations were afterwards. Lo and behold, Cronos is another compelling survival horror – different, sure, especially with its post-apocalyptic body horror, sci-fi leanings, and unique premise, but still unrelentingly, stressfully frightening.

And the winner of the Best Horror Game of 2025 goes to…

Silent Hill f

Much like when Bloober Team was announced to remake Silent Hill 2, many were skeptical that NeoBards Entertainment could deliver a new mainline Silent Hill. Going back to the past is one thing, but forging a new experience forward, especially for a studio known for flops like RE:Verse and Resident Evil: Resistance? It seemed like Konami had lost its mind.

But it also announced that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni writer Ryukishi07 was penning the narrative while the brilliant kera handled the characters and creatures. Slowly and surely, despite skepticism surrounding its combat, Silent Hill f morphed into a compelling product. None of this could prepare anyone, even fans of the series, for what they would expect when stepping into the shoes of Shimizu Hinako. Heck, even Konatsu Kato, her Japanese voice actor, continues to be traumatized in her playthrough (to the entertainment of thousands, of course).

Suffice it to say, this is a masterclass in terror and pacing with grotesquely beautiful creatures that you couldn’t tear your eyes from. It offers a strong narrative with even stronger characterization (and a surprising number of layers thanks to its multiple endings). Did we mention the fantastic sound design and soundtrack? And as noted before, everything that you see, regardless of how brutal and cruel it can be, serves a purpose. It’s not unlike the symbolism seen in the series’s best games – just tackling new and undeniably uncomfortable themes.

I could go on, but the result is a powerful horror experience that makes you almost forget about the above-average combat. As a result, Silent Hill f is our pick for the top horror game of 2025. Walk in with as few spoilers as possible – you won’t regret it (maybe).

Actually playing ROUTINE, however, instantly shows you where all of that development time and money went, since it’s essentially one of the most unique horror games to have come out in a while. Now, don’t get me wrong, there isn’t a lot happening in ROUTINE that we haven’t already seen in other games before. A lot of the gameplay is just slow-paced exploration and puzzle solving before you run into robotic enemies that you have to run away or hide from. What sets it apart from others, however, is its emphasis on making you feel your character’s body over the course of gameplay. To explain this, however, we’ll also have to take a more granular look at how it controls and plays.

"Just like how it wants you to be aware of all your body parts, the game also has an emphasis on having a more naturalistic UI."

ROUTINE isn’t exactly complicated when it comes to its controls. You get the WASD movement key cluster along with two important keys that affect how you control your body: crouch and lean. Holding down the lean button, as you might expect, lets you lean to either side. Unlike other games that also feature a lean button, however, ROUTINE also lets you use it with the forward or backwards movement buttons, which in turn let you stand on your tip toes or go fully prone to try and get your hands on things that might be in harder-to-reach places. While this might sound like a gimmick, the mechanics are used quite well throughout the game, since there aren’t really any objective markers or UI elements that let you know what you should be looking for.

Full-body awareness is a major gameplay aspect of ROUTINE, and just like how it wants you to be aware of all your body parts, the game also has an emphasis on having a more naturalistic UI. This means that you don’t really get a HUD where you might keep track of your CAT’s (we’ll get to that) battery level or your health. You don’t even get a button prompt for opening doors, in fact. Rather, you have to interact with computers to open doors, and this computer use takes a page right out of 2017’s Prey in giving you a real mouse cursor that you have to use to navigate the system. This adherence to not offering any “gameified’ elements like a HUD goes a long way when it comes to setting up the game’s overall atmosphere.

Speaking of which, one of the best things about ROUTINE is just how good it looks. Fidelity was clearly an important aspect of development, and developer Lunar Software did a phenomenal job of creating a moon base that looks lived-in. To accomplish this, the title goes for a very 1980s-inspired look for its in-universe technology. This means that, rather than having sleek flat screens, computer terminals are large kiosks with low-resolution curved CRT displays and big, blocky buttons. All of the technology is like this, including your own CAT – the Cosmonaut Assistant Tool – which also happens to be your primary method of interacting with the world aside from using computers.

"Going deeper into the base, like entering the living quarters, on the other hand, gives you a great idea of just how out-of-hand things have gotten here"

The visuals go a step further by offering plenty of fun contrast in the different parts of the lunar base that you explore. You start out in ROUTINE’s equivalent of its entry way, for instance, and while things are in disarray, there isn’t really too much wrong there aside from some suitcases being strewn open on the ground and a lack of anyone else in the vicinity. Going deeper into the base, like entering the living quarters, on the other hand, gives you a great idea of just how out-of-hand things have gotten here; there are broken-down doors and blood splatters all over the place. Heading to the abandoned mall will then present you with a more classical style of horror where light and darkness are more pronounced.

Audio is similarly top notch, with ROUTINE opting to not really have much in the way of background music. Rather, the title is more focused on providing you the sense of you actually being in the lunar base and exploring it. This means that you only really hear sounds that your character could feasibly hear, be it the creaking of a loose tile, the opening of a door, the clattering of a tiny robot walking around, or the heavier stomps of a larger robot chasing you.

The story of ROUTINE isn’t a particularly complex one, but it is told in a more twisted way than you might expect. There aren’t really any cutscenes that are going to help you figure out what’s going on. Rather, the entirety of the game’s plot is uncovered through the player’s own exploration and environmental storytelling. You often get large parts of the story beats happening through recordings left behind by other people who might have once lived and worked at the lunar base, and you’ll often find notes, forms, books, and various paperwork that will let you know what you should be doing and where you should be going.

"The central story is fine enough and does a great job of constantly pushing you forward"

Things start off with you waking up in the isolation chamber of the lunar base after having slept through your seven days of quarantine. On waking up, you’re prompted to stretch your body, get your spacesuit helmet and ID badge, and step out the door to marvel at the wonders of the moon base. What you do find when you step out of the door is a base that has seemingly been abandoned and is in complete disarray. Over the course of the game, you realise the threat posed by the robots that once worked as the lunar base’s security force, and have a singular main objective: shut down the system powering the robots.

While the central story is fine enough and does a great job of constantly pushing you forward, some of the smaller stories you get to read about or listen to through old recordings left behind tend to be a lot more interesting. These stories often also give you more questions that you will want to find answers for, like what exactly made the security systems turn on the lunar base’s human denizens to begin with, when all of this started, and even the most basic questions of why you’re on the base to begin with and how you can escape. However, answers to these questions are sparse, and are entirely dependent on your own sense of exploration.

To help you deal with this, you’re given a single item: the Cosmonaut Assistance Tool – the CAT – which is basically your omni-tool for dealing with most of the obstacles in your path. The CAT can be used to diagnose computers that might be too messed up to open doors, clear up the distorted signal coming from some speakers to let you better listen to an old message, or even just power up an electrical box so that it can open a door. This ability of the CAT to release bolts of electric energy can also be used as a makeshift weapon – albeit not a particularly good one. The robotic enemies you face in ROUTINE can’t really be killed with the CAT, and it tends to take several shots to even stun them. This is especially problematic since the CAT’s battery can only hold three shots, and you don’t really get to carry spares.

"What makes it a truly excellent experience is its emphasis on making you feel like you’re really there"

That’s not to say that the CAT can’t eventually become a more useful weapon, however. Depending on your own exploratory efforts, you might find some upgrades for the tool that can allow it to fire shots with more energy, making it a more effective way to stun the menacing robots. However, ultimately, your best bet is to still run away and maybe even hide; these robots will stop at nothing to get you, and you can’t really survive more than a single hit from them. A second hit will outright kill you.

ROUTINE is an interesting horror experience, and even if you ignore its incredible development story that involved two game engine migrations, is still one I’d recommend to fans of the genre. The title isn’t particularly challenging, and even though you don’t get any markers or maps to help you navigate, it’s still a fairly linear experience. However, what makes it a truly excellent experience is its emphasis on making you feel like you’re really there, be it from a general lack of a video game-styled UI, to even how you interact with the world and can do things like check under couches for a spare CAT battery. The only major downside here is the fact that the robot enemies’ overall hardiness means that combat isn’t really an option here, and while running around and hiding is always effective, it’s not the style of horror some players may personally enjoy. Despite that, however, ROUTINE still feels like a game I’m glad to have experienced.

This game was reviewed on PC.

But what happened over the course of the thirteen years since the game was first announced? How much has it changed in the process? What’s so special about it that has us quite excited to make it to at least one of its endings before the holidays are done?

We’re going to dive into all of that, showing you why this one’s worth your attention if you’re a fan of horror titles or games that get very immersive indeed. Join us as we examine a title that has been quite a pleasant surprise.

A Warm Welcome

When we first heard of Routine, it was at Gamescom 2012, and it seemed like a very interesting title at the time. It brought a lot of familiar elements from the best of media in the horror genre to a passion project that saw its lead designer, Aaron Foster, set out to bring his childhood passions together into an experience, and Lunar Software was born once he began to expand his team.

Taking place on the Moon, Routine puts you in the shoes of a nameless protagonist trying to piece together a series of events on a desolate base, braving sentient robots that seem quite insistent on preventing you from going any further. We’re going to dive into why it’s as good as we think it is in just a bit, but before that, let’s take a look at why it’s taken thirteen long years for the game to make its way to its players.

Although things were looking good for Routine following its 2012 announcement, it was hit by what would be the first delay in a long line of them. Nearly four years and multiple announcements of delayed release windows later, 2016 finally gave the game a March 2017 release date. We were as excited back then as we are now to play a game that looked so darn good in all of its promotional materials.

But another blow came to eager fans in April 2018, with the developers expressing dissatisfaction with the narrative’s endings, and further delaying the game’s release. With the team unable to agree on a mutually acceptable option, Routine would be on a very long hiatus until development would resume in 2020. With a lot of the funding for the project coming from within the team, financial constraints would also be a factor at this stage.

The game shifted to Unreal Engine 5 once its development resumed, a move that seems to be the right one based on our time with its early hours. The rest is now old news. The game was announced once again in 2022 at the Summer Games Fest and is finally in our hands.

Sci-Fi Scares

The desolate station you explore in Routine is quite a nasty place. But it’s also a world that’s been cleverly designed to balance scares with a good amount of interactive elements that make exploration a fairly unpredictable experience that does play it safe in order to ensure optimal balancing, but does a good job of keeping you on your toes nonetheless.

It took me a while to get into the habit of keeping my eyes peeled as I carefully made my way through the adventure. That’s because the station’s security system really doesn’t like you and sends its robots to remove you from the board. Although I was initially relieved to know that it could activate only one robot at a time, my elation was short-lived.

That’s because you never know when and where it could choose to activate a robot. Coupled with procedurally generated levels, that’s a recipe for a game of cat and mouse that decidedly places you in the latter role, and at quite the disadvantage. It’s enough to make the sound of robots’ thumping footsteps set your pulse racing as you try to find a way to safely mitigate the threat they pose.

With no HUD and permadeath being an ever-present problem that’s always a nagging thought at the back of your mind as you try to make sense of the world around you, Routine doesn’t shy away from defying mainstream traditions despite being the first release after a very turbulent period for the studio.

It’s clear in its vision, which is to present an unforgiving world that seems hell-bent on preventing you from uncovering the secrets it’s trying to hide. Even the tools it gives you in its attempt to even the odds require a lot of strategy to be effective against your enemies, and its limited battery capacity means you’re going to want to have a contingency plan in place whenever you decide to use it in battle.

However, Routine could have easily fallen prey to a frustrating loop of gathering enough supplies to make a run for your next objective, with failure resulting in some tedious farming as a result. However, the things you need to proceed are never quite far from you, but finding them requires some diligence on your part.

The gameplay loop in Routine is thus suitably tense and fraught with enough peril to make playing through the adventure a riveting, satisfying experience that’s helped along with some excellent art direction and creative flourishes.

An Unreal World

The Moon was always going to be the stage for this adventure, being an area of fascination for Foster and also a location that could convey a sense of loneliness and desolation in the wake of a series of unfortunate events that the player must uncover. While the jury is still out on how the story ultimately plays out, we’re certainly enjoying taking it one painstaking step at a time. But each of those steps feels so immersive thanks to the game’s retro yet futuristic art direction that really sells the material it’s working with. The enemy designs are also suitably impressive, the robots’ raw speed, size, and strength being evident in the way they toss your player around like a ragdoll if you’re unfortunate enough to let one catch you.

You truly feel vulnerable thanks to how well the experience is presented, the lack of any sort of indicators about your health being a superb touch that makes it all feel very real from moment to moment. On the presentation and visual fronts, this one is definitely a winner. The audio design is similarly good, with heavy silences being broken by the sound of your next encounter so suddenly you can’t help but jump.

The level design is another highlight, with enemies so cleverly hidden away, lying dormant until they are called upon to make your day as miserable as they can manage. It helps that said enemies are quite smart, hunting you down with unerring precision and invading hiding spots with clinical efficiency in their quest to put a premature end to your playthrough.

The entire vibe in Routine comes together quite well, making you feel like even the slightest of errors can have you on the backfoot since death comes with very real consequences. By choosing to make the gameplay loop as intense as it has, Lunar Software has crafted an experience that’s largely been worth the wait.

It makes you hold your breath as you carefully make your way past a dormant automated monstrosity, hoping against hope that it isn’t going to power up and give chase. Just when you think you’ve managed to get away with your espionage, you’re set upon by another, entirely new one that you failed to spot since its buddy was holding your attention.

It’s a game that feels like it’s been worth a thirteen year wait. And that’s saying something for a game that languished in development hell for so long. It’s rare for such titles to turn out okay, and for one to be as great and entertaining as Routine currently is, there were clever decisions made and implemented quite well.

Those decisions seem to have paid off, and we’re hoping that Routine continues to enthrall us as we take on more of its challenges and threats. We’re also wondering if 2025 has any more gems hidden under its sleeve as a year of great games draws to a close.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

While you wait for its arrival, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is out now for cloud, PC and Series X/S players, with Monster Train 2 coming tomorrow to Game Pass Premium alongside Spray Paint Simulator. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be available on December 4th with Premium.

On the same day, Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can get their hands on Routine, a long-delayed procedural horror title first announced in 2012. December 9th sees the arrival of A Game About Digging A Hole, Death Howl, and Dome Keeper for all three tiers. Bratz: Rhythm and Style on December 11th caps off Wave 1.

Several titles will be leaving on December 15th, and in an intriguing twist, Microsoft has confirmed those which won’t be available post-31st.

December 15

• Mortal Kombat 11 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Still Wakes the Deep (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wildfrost (Cloud, Console, and PC)

December 31

• Carrion (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Hell Let Loose (Cloud, Console, and PC)

First announced in 2012, ROUTINE is a sci-fi survival horror where players venture through a lunar base filled with dangerous robots. That’s the same year that Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Mass Effect 3 and more launched, and almost all of them have received sequels (we don’t talk about Mass Effect: Andromeda).

What separates it from the likes of Alien: Isolation is permadeath. And just in case you think that trial and error through the same environments will save the day, there’s a bit of procedural generation at play. That also applies to the enemies, so you’ll never truly know where they’re coming from on any given run.

While there could be another delay, Lunar Software confirmed in July that development was approaching the “finish line.” It even released some new gameplay, highlighting the hacking mechanics and the importance of stealth.

ROUTINE will be available for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on release. Check out our interview with the team from 2014 to learn more about its setting and compare how much it’s changed since.

Quite early on in the title, we get to look at how ROUTINE handles its in-game computer terminals, complete with its own special UI that players will have to navigate. Through this terminal, the player can seemingly upgrade their core tools and get descriptions of the new gameplay options they might open up. The one shown in the gameplay trailer is the C.A.T., which can seemingly be used to neutralise magnetic interference from nearby machines, and even has its own camera and screen. It is worth noting that the C.A.T. is seemingly more of a maintenance tool than a weapon, however.

After the opening parts of the video showcase a quick puzzle being solved by using the C.A.T., the player then finds themselves running through a dark corridor before encountering a room with a computer offering some paths forward. The puzzle design in ROUTINE seems to borrow heavily from real-world computer programming, with the player having to read through various terminals’ diagnostics and error codes, and figuring out how they can then fix these errors by understanding what the codes mean.

The final few moments of the video give us a look at the stealth horror gameplay of ROUTINE, with the player needing to carefully make their way across a room and then a hallway without being spotted by seemingly-hostile robots.

Development on ROUTINE has seemingly been going on for over a decade at this point, since the title was first announced all the way back in 2012. Over the years, developer Lunar Software has been popping up every now and then to release new trailers for the still-in-development horror title, before once more going radio silent to continue work on the game. Back in July, designers and artists Aaron Foster and Jemma Hughes, along with programmer Pete Dissler, reiterated that the game is “still very much in active development”.

Developers of the title acknowledged the studio’s tendency to stay relatively quiet about the game, and largely put it down to the studio’s smaller size, as well as the importance for the developers to keep working on the game.

“Working on ROUTINE has always been a huge undertaking for a team of our size, and because of that, we felt it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing ROUTINE,” wrote the developers. “But we are aware of the interest in our work, and we are sorry for any frustration that this may have caused.”

ROUTINE is being developed for PC and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release later this year.

In a new Steam Community post, designers/artists Aaron Foster and Jemma Hughes and programmer Pete Dissler acknowledged the long absence. “Working on ROUTINE has always been a huge undertaking for a team of our size, and because of that, we felt it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing ROUTINE. But we are aware of the interest in our work, and we are sorry for any frustration that this may have caused.”

The team confirmed that ROUTINE is “still very much in active development” and “We are beginning to approach the finish line for the game. We’ve learned a lot from past experiences. One of those is not to commit to a release window before we’re absolutely sure we can hit it. However, we’re confident that we’ll be able to share more news on that front soon.”

Though the team consists of three employees, Lunar Software has been “fortunate enough to gain the support and expertise of additional contributors during the game’s development. We are super thankful to have worked with a variety of awesome and skilled people over the years!” DOOM composer Mick Gordon is one such contributor, and though he worked on the project for “many years,” he ultimately departed in July 2024 due to “conflicts in his schedule.”

“During his time with us, Mick created many outstanding audio assets that will be featured in the final game and provided invaluable audio direction for ROUTINE. These contributions will now be implemented by a new audio designer and team. Over the years, Mick has been an incredible friend and collaborator, supporting us through thick and thin. We are deeply grateful for his work on ROUTINE and wish him all the best in his future projects.”

ROUTINE is in development for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. It’s a first-person survival horror title where players explore an abandoned lunar base inhabited by killer robots. Permadeath is a big part of the gameplay loop, and since there’s no way to heal, players must focus on stealth to ultimately survive.

Agent

Yeah, you’ve probably heard of Agent, Rockstar’s electrifying spy opus. First announced as a PS3 exclusive way back in 2009, Agent pledged a Cold War era thrill-ride through the dangerous world of espionage, counterintelligence, and assassination, but much like the silent death knell of a secret agent, Agent’s fate has been silently snuffed. Rockstar have never officially announced its cancellation, so technically Agent could still be in the works. Given the evocative concept art which leaked a while back, let’s hope so – Agent looked great.

Slitterhead

Gory body horror from Team Silent originators meant Slitterhead’s 2021 announcement was met with much fanfare. Even – exclaim expectant fans – Silent Hill composer-in-chief Akira Yamaoka is along for the ride, lending his blend of warped ambience and bone-crushing guitar riffage to the game’s grisly take on shape-shifting parasites. Last we heard of Slitterhead was a dev diary back in June 2023, so not that long ago, meaning, you know, that Slitterhead is probably still in the works. Be nice to hear something affirmative as to release dates from Bokeh Game Studio though.

Ferocious

If it weren’t for the devlogs shared on February 26^th and April 15^th, we’d think prehistoric survive-a-thon Ferocious had gone extinct. This first-person shooter risks being overshadowed by incoming Jurassic Park: Survival if it doesn’t drop soon, but to be fair it’s blend of jungle stealth, strategy, and survival – with a healthy dose of axe swinging mayhem – looks spot on. Let’s hope the situation at developer OMYOG isn’t as grim as the game’s dinosaur infested isolation.

Pragmata

The sci-fi dad-in-space adventure Pragmata has been delayed indefinitely, so we at least know that this ambitious game has vanished for sure. Why though, the developer haven’t stated. Announced in 2020 with numerous release dates coming and going, the most recent of which was last year which passed without explanation. Even stranger was the developer releasing a brief trailer before the mysterious delaying – almost to remind us it exists before flinging into a black hole. Pragmata might not be in the deepest of development hells, but a window on when we can get our hands on it drifts endlessly further.

Perfect Dark

Just what has happened to Joanna Dark’s rebooted saga? Announced at The Game Awards 2020 with little data forthcoming in the three-and-a-half years since, this Xbox exclusive is likely a number of years from release. What does this mean for Perfect Dark? Well, nothing probably, just that development is probably happening at a very slow pace. The incredible graphics, slick movement, and tight gunplay will remain we hope.

Beyond Good and Evil 2

Despite little evidence, this long-awaited sequel to 2003 Beyond Good and Evil is apparently still in the works. First announced in 2008, it’s genuinely farcical how back in the developer stated in an investor call that development of Beyond Good and Evil 2 was still in its early stages despite contrarily announcing progress as trundling along nicely. The tragic sudden death of Beyond Good and Evil 2’s creative director might understandably have scuppered progress since, but the outlook for this game was bleak either way.

Project Awakening

Let’s be honest, how awesome was Project Awakening’s gameplay reveal? The slick, lifelike dragon slaying looked truly next-gen, but with radio silence for what seems like eons now, maybe next-gen at the time meant next next-gen. The Japanese developer behind Project Awakening Cygames isn’t some faceless corporation though, with Granblue Fantasy: Relink the most recent of their output. Most likely is Project Awakening has been shelved despite it still being listed on the developer’s website as a ‘next-gen’ title advertised as PS4 exclusive.

PLAN 8

This exo-suit MMO shooter was announced in 2019, yet in what is an increasingly crowded sphere of the video game-verse PLAN 8 still seems like it has enough to stand out in 2024. Shame then that the most recent glimpses on its progress date back to screenshots shared in January 2020. The writings on the wall with this one: it’s dead in the water. The developers are supposedly still working on the title but it’s next-gen, genre-defying announcement is going to be woefully out of date by now.

Everwild

Hopefully still incoming from legendary British studio Rare, now owned by Microsoft, is magical nature adventure Everwild. We say hopefully as the glimpses we’ve seen are utterly spellbinding. An MMO in the vein of Sea of Thieves but in a fantasy setting, Everwild looks to meld multiple genres and gameplay mechanics in what is a hugely ambitious project. Every scene in the trailers seen so far look like oil paintings so let’s hope an official reveal is not too far away.

ILL

One of the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo games that drum up reasonable hype but never actually see the light of day, ILL has immense intrigue in it’s The Evil Within-­style torment spliced within a setting reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing. This narrative driven first-person horror has all the ingredients to be a game changer, it’s just that tech demos are hard to believe at the best of times, let alone for a game with little to no update barring a glimpse into gameplay over six months ago.

The Last Night

This is a strange one, as the most hype-accelerating aspect to The Last Night was a tweet some five-or-so years ago which shared a screengrab of its cyberpunk aesthetic comparing it to The Matrix. The loss of esteemed indie game publisher Raw Fury and controversy surrounding game director Tim Soret have likely contributed to The Last Night’s lengthy development., the former especially as developer Odd Tales had to work to reclaim their publishing rights. 19^th November 2023 was the last official update we had of The Last Night. It’s likely still in development, just that progress has been stifled by misfortune.

Vigilancer 2099

This one will ride on the coattails of Cyberpunk 2077 when it eventually drops, it’s neon-soaked cityscapes are so reminiscent of Night City. In Vigilancer 2099 you’ll play as a secretive bounty hunter in a densely populated open world, with limitless traversal options on hand to get to grips with the verticality of Vigilancer’s megabuilding. There’s been next to no news for a couple of years now, so maybe this small-team developer has unfortunately folded.

Splinter Cell Remake

From rumour to full-blown conclusion, it’s been a few years now that a remake to Sam Fisher’s first outing in Splinter Cell has been on the go, but at present it doesn’t feel like we’re close to reliving Sam’s formative missions. For what it’s worth, Splinter Cell remake is confirmed to feature an updated story that will appeal to a modern audience. As and when we get to relive the game, we don’t know, but info will hopefully be forthcoming soon.

Routine

Nearly a decade after it was first announced, sci-fi moon base horror Routine received a new trailer during Summer Game Fest 2022. It’s 80’s retro-future and creepy atmosphere conjure a deep feeling of dread through juxtaposition of style and gameplay, and whilst development has been restarted at least once since its original announcement the aforementioned indie publisher Raw Fury is on board to see this one through to completion. Routine looks genuinely exceptional.

Deep Down

Despite being near completion and never being officially cancelled action role-player Deep Down has still never been released. Instead, this souls like game has been treated to titbits of info over the years since its first announcement in 2013. The developer stated in 2019 that hope wasn’t completely lost on Deep Down, but all hope has all but died. Development might always pick up again seeing as the assets were reportedly close to conclusion, but there’s no sign of that presently.

A.I.L.A.

A.I.L.A. is an upcoming sci-fi psychological horror from Sao Paulo based Pulsatrix Studio. Set in an uncanny near-distant future where advanced AI creates digital horror experiences, A.I.L.A. promises to tap into your inner psyche, establish your biggest fears and tug them to terrifying effect. There’s a sense from gameplay revealed so far that players will have a hard time distinguishing between virtual threats and real-life danger. No word on release windows or platforms yet as it seems Pulstrix Studio still need financial backing to finish the project off. Let’s hope they get there as A.I.L.A.’s creepy first-person perspectives look truly horrifying.

Paranormal Tales

Undoubtably inspired by now-vintage found footage horror movie The Blair Witch Project, with a sprinkling of Hideo Kojima’s P.T., Paranormal Tales is a next-gen horror daring players play through tragic tales of missing persons, experienced from the viewpoint of bodycams, mobile phones, and VHS cameras. Developer Digital Cybercherries are utilising Unreal Engine 5 to, in their words, create a sense of hyper-realism. Release date is to be announced, but Paranormal Tales can be wishlisted on Steam now.  

Layers of Fear

Bloober Team’s narrative-driven psychological horror is returning soon to tell its final bone-chilling tale. Comprising Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2 rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, plus DLC with brand new stories ‘The Final Note’ and ‘The Writer’ offering fresh perspectives on an already iconic series. Layers of Fear’s recent tech demo showcases ray tracing, HDR, 4K resolution and Unreal Engine 5 exclusive features such as Lumen dynamic lighting and Niagara real-time VFX, crafting an immersive, blood curdling environment. Layers of Fear will be out in June on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Stray Souls  

Blending Alan Wake style psychological horror with Soulslike combat is the atmospheric, third-person action horror Stray Souls. There’s an air of eeriness in the game’s haunted town too, immediately conjuring memories of Silent Hill; ghoulish forests and crumbling, dilapidated suburbs are said by developer Jukai Studio to harbour a well of secrets waiting to be unearthed. Stray Souls makes ample use of Unreal Engine 5’s advanced facial animation innovation MetaHuman too, exaggerating fear with unprecedented photorealism and human emotion. Stray Souls is targeting a 2023 release, with PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows platforms announced.

Quantum Error

Cosmic horror FPS Quantum Error tells the story of daring Californian firefighters sent on a rescue mission to save survivors marooned on a mysterious offshore research facility, a sordid place where things unravelled after attack from an unknown entity. Heavily influenced by Dead Space, with maybe a dose of Metal Gear Solid for good measure, Quantum Error’s intergalactic happenstance look deeply unsettling and atmospheric. Originally targeting a 2022 release, Quantum Error still hasn’t arrived although official gameplay has recently surfaced indicating it’s at least on the horizon. It’ll be playable on Xbox and PlayStation when it finally does come out.

Wronged Us

Indebted to classic survival horror series Silent Hill, Wronged Us tasks players with tiptoeing through the darkness of a rotten town through the eyes of Isaac as he investigates chilling rumours of his dead son’s presence. This open-world survival horror from Delusional Studio is also said to take inspiration from Dark Souls’ quest design, so expect intense combat, challenging puzzles, and a ton of creepy crawlies lying in wait to kill you in a hostile environment. Although there’s no release window yet, Wronged Us has been announced for PlayStation and Xbox platforms plus PC via Steam.

EXP: War Trauma

EXP – shorthand for experience – War Trauma is an upcoming psychological horror from Brazilian dev team Cortez Productions. Assuming command of traumatised World War II veteran Krieger, players must navigate through a strange and mysterious apartment, establishing clues and solving riddles to eventually unravel Krieger’s psyche. With no weapons, Krieger is effectively defenceless against the harmful apparitions lurking down dimly lit corridors. Listed as coming soon on Steam, there’s a playable demo available right now.

Level Zero

Intriguingly described as an asymmetrical survival horror PvP, Level Zero’s premise is simple: a team of four scientists must work together to repair broken objectives to escape a dank facility all whilst evading the clutches of an opposing team of monsters; monsters capable of skulking in the darkness, stealthily eradicating light sources which the scientists depend on to survive. Unreal Engine 5’s dynamic global lighting systems are put to good use here, the contrast between neon and shadow a captivating battle between opposing teams. Scheduled for release in 2023 to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam.

File Destined  

Psychological detective thriller File Destined features an impressive story with visceral locations, and boy does Unreal Engine 5 do a good job of portraying the unnerving realism of a corridor cloaked in darkness. Clue gathering in the dangerous carbon blackness eventually unravels a deep mystery, with the truth according to developer Metavision Studio being disturbing and unexpected. File Destined is already out and playable on PC via Steam, with positive user reviews highlighting nerve-shredding tension littered with jump scares.

Fort Solis

Fort Solis glooms in sickly red; saturated neon unnervingly illuminates the confines of a docile Martian base, red dust hanging in the air, every viewpoint conjuring a deep sense of isolation and desperation. Whilst developer Fallen Leaf recently shared a first official look at gameplay with barely a second’s worth of actual third-person gameplay Fort Solis still looks stunning, the act of tentatively treading through dark corridors set to be a haunting experience. Coming in Q3 2023 to PlayStation 5 and Windows.

ROUTINE

This first-person sci-fi horror plunges players deep inside an abandoned lunar base, entrenched in the aesthetics of an 80’s vision of the future. Tentative exploration descends into a desperate need for survival, with immersion heightened by full body awareness and deadzone aiming alongside minimal on-screen UI. ROUTINE is coming to Xbox consoles, plus Windows and Mac via Steam, with no release window announced just yet.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Recapturing the evocative, isolating atmosphere of the original Silent Hill 2 is no easy task, but Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team’s prowess at rendering realistic environments in Unreal Engine 5 seems like they’ll be the perfect fit. Chilling visuals and visceral sound effects are present and correct, as is a liberal dose of fog. Silent Hill 2 Remake is coming to PlayStation 5 and Windows some time in 2023.

Post Trauma

Both a homage to and modern take on classic survival horror games, Post Trauma’s semi-fixed camera angles evoke a sense of early Resident Evil titles. Assuming command of middle-aged train conductor Roman, players must tread through surreal subterranean locales, exploring blood-bathed surroundings unravelling haunted mysteries whilst coming face to face with a host of nightmarish creatures. Post Trauma’s release date hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s said to be landing on PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows when it does come out.

The Shivers / Demonologist

This upcoming ghost hunting co-op game is currently in early access on Steam, with early adopters citing the game’s unnerving terror as an advantage it has over similarly premised titles. In The Shivers / Demonologist players must identify an evil spirit lurking in cursed locales and exorcise it. Playing in squads of up to four, each run through The Shivers / Demonologist will be unique owing to the random concoction of ghosts skulking through the shadows.

The Hauntings

A rival to The Shivers / Demonologist also on this rundown is The Hauntings, an online co-op investigation and exorcism experience for one to four players. Working together as a team of paranormal investigators, unruly ghosts will need to be identified and removed, however these threatening spectres are able to possess players, distracting and hindering the investigation in unexpected ways. Coming soon to Windows, The Hauntings can be wishlisted on Steam now.

Pragmata

Currently in development at Capcom, Pragmata looks to be an intriguing experience with its distinct visual imagery and fresh looking concept. The announcement trailer showcased a little girl and an astronaut in a spacesuit and it seems like a fair guess that these two entities will be the major driving forces for this story. As for the gameplay, we don’t have a lot of information available at the moment but more details are sure to surface soon. Pragmata will be released for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in the near future.