The epitome of what I’m trying to refer to is the Playdead games (Limbo and Inside). Dark Souls and BioShock both hit on this idea but not quite so directly. The game BADLAND is also a great example of this, too. The mobile game The Silent Age also did this exceptionally well. Never quite knowing what’s going on, and maybe some tension without release, but again not straight up horror. A feeling of uneasiness is what I’m looking for.
When playing through Inside, there’s never any moments where you’re scared, but you’re never sure what’s going on and there’s always a level of unease. What are all the mindless zombie-like people? Why is everyone hunting the player? What happened to this city? What’s the goal of the character the player controls? What exactly is going on here? That’s what I’m looking for. If you know of any other games which do this, I’d greatly appreciate hearing about them. It’s a very specific niche so I’m not sure how many games do this, but the games that I’ve seen do this tend to be some form of post-disaster or dystopia. I’ve seen some great artwork do this too. Zdzisław Beksiński had done some stuff like this. Some great dystopian novels also do this quite well.
I’d recommend Control by Remedy. It’s got some SCP vibe and has liminal spaces, spooky supernatural shit and great looking environments and game play.
I’ve received lots of suggestions for Control, I think I’ll be playing it soon
Control was so unbelievably good and creepy. Can’t recommend it enough. Really recaptured the love of gaming and exploring a new world that I had started to lose.
Absolutely Control. I’ve just gotten back to it after a too long hiatus. About half way through and loving every beat. The logs and docs are 100% worth reading.
Subnautica has some creepy overtones.
I loved Subnautica, but it was too scary and claustrophobic for me to finish because I am a weenie. The first time I had to go down to that abandoned underwater cave base shivers
Seconding Subnautica.
It was one of the few games I’ve played where I felt sad finishing it.
The sequel does not have the same vibe, though, so be aware of that. It’s an okay game, but it definitely misses the vibe the original.
I’ve heard as such. I also love nautical themes in general (no surprise given my username), so I’ve been meaning to play it for quite a while. Thanks for reminding me of this game
Outer Wilds. It’s better to play it without knowing much beforehand. All I’m gonna say is: it will make you feel very lonely and even vulnerable at times, although it’s not a horror game by any means. It’s a beautiful videogame with a mind-blowing story.
I’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews for that game, but I haven’t had any aspect spoiled for me at all. Thanks for the recommendation!
I agree. The DLC adds creepy.
I’d say Arkane’s Prey hits that for me. The feeling of isolation, not only on the station, but by virtue of being in space, and the story itself. The mechanics of the mimic enemies can create emergent jump scares, but I’d definitely say it’s not a horror game.
I’d also say Death Stranding, at times. While the human NPCs are very wholesome, the atmosphere and experience of delivering the packages out through the timefallen wasteland and that isolation lends itself well to introspection and the BTs are pretty creepy and axiety-inducing until you’re used to them and can fight them.
Oh Prey’s a good one. Fantastic game.
I loved Dishonored 1 and the second was also quite good. I know Redfall was a disappointment but I’ve never played it, so every experience I’ve had with Arkane has been positive so far. I’ve been meaning to play Prey because of this, and I think I bought it over the previous steam sale. I’ll consider downloading it soon to try it out.
I picked up Death Stranding as one of the free games over the Christmas free games thing with Epic, so I don’t have an excuse to not try that one.
Incidentally I just started Prey about an hour ago after sitting on it in my backlog for a couple years. It’s very good so far, seems to have a good spread of systems with decent depth and the graphics are still 2023-approved.
I’ve been playing a lot of DOOM so the combat feels a bit Lite™, but I felt that way about Dishonored too—blows land like wing chun and not like a rock crusher.
It’s got BioShock’s turrets, F.E.A.R.'s slow-mo and Dishonored’s stealthy parkour, and so far it all comes together nicely.
It feels very much like an Arkane title, too. Maybe a bit too much going on at once, but boy do they know how to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Redfall was a break from their usually fantastic single player immersive Sims.
The dishonored games obviously has the top slot, but prey follows the same type of setup. Then deathloop is similar in presentation but mixes the formula up with some roguelike-style repetition.
Redfall was unfortunately just the death rattle of arkane as their first xbox-involved launch, if developer interviews are to be believed
What made Redfall so bad? I haven’t really heard anything about the game other than that it was a massive disappointment. Is it just that Arkane usually does a fantastic job and so when they didn’t it was perceived as worse than it was? Or is it genuinely a bad game?
I’d recommend against playing the Epic version that was free. That was the standard edition. Product placement ruins the atmosphere. Your health potions are literally Monster Energy Drink. If you want to play this game, get the director’s cut.
I was one of the few to get the director’s cut before they switched it, and I kept my copy of the director’s cut and also got the standard edition as well. I guess I got lucky
Half Life/Black Mesa. I replayed it recently and I had forgotten the level of unease that pervades most of it. While short of horror, there’s been an obvious disaster, people are panicking, and it’s unclear to the PC what is going on for most of the game.
I played Black Mesa a few months back and loved it. It also did a really good job with what I’m trying to explain. I kind of want to go through the original as well at some point, too.
The original is great. I actually haven’t played Black Mesa all the way, but played the original recently… I have to admit it looks quite dated, which isn’t surprising considering it is (amazingly) 25 years old.
I don’t mind outdated graphics (unsurprising, given that I mod this community). I’ve been meaning to get to the sequels too. Are they similar in terms of creepiness?
Oh, definitely! I don’t really recall the add-ons (Opposing Force, etc) but Half-Life 2 is a very worthy sequel.
I know some people say the second is the best one, others swear by the first. I own all the Half-Life games so I really should continue the series
I am not sure which is better. I played the first at a seminal time, when the only other FPS I knew was quake. We also played a lot of HL P2P (back when it was ‘deathmatch’…). I played HL2 much later, several years after it was released, and did no PvP ever. All in all, I like about 60% of each one, as far as the single player story experience.
Fair. There are some advantages to playing games at the time they were popular for sure. I’m a little bit younger though and Halo CE was my first ever video game so I didn’t really experience Half-Life as a brand new game
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
it’s about scavenging and fighting in a radioactive exclusion zone in Ukraine
it has some monsters, that scare the shit out of me, and ‘anomalies’ that break the rules of physics
it’s really good
I think the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games are outright survival horror. The realism of the games, the historical event as background, makes it even more creepier.
That sounds really cool. I’ll definitely be taking a look, thanks.
Control does a good job of starting out uncomfortable and weird, and continuing to escalate as the story progresses. A great deal of unease since you don’t understand what’s going on with your character or the environment she finds herself in.
That sounds perfect. Thanks for the recommendation. I own it so I really should play it
There’s 2 indie games that are SETI simulators. The original is Signal Simulator. It spawned a newer one, done like a half life clone, called Voices of the Void. Neither game is outright horror, but both give you a feeling of isolation induced paranoia. You feel like you’re constantly being watched. There’s a few random events that are creepy, but the idea is not outright terror.
I’ve never heard of either of those but they look really interesting. One of the better suggestions on here, based on pictures at least. I’ll definitely be checking both of those out, thank you.
I have another. One of my all time favorite games for the PS2 is Everblue 2. It’s a first person diving adventure game, you swim around a tropical island, looking for treasure and advancing the plot. Travelling around the map, you’re fixed to just moving left, right, forward, and back, but there are dive sites where you are given full motion. These are dark, claustrophobic spaces, sometimes with dangerous sea life. Usually, you’re searching for a specific item at the request of a person on the island. You’re given a time limit to each dive in the form of oxygen, and each item you collect effects both your overall health and the amount of oxygen you consume. Once you’ve got what you want, you then have to exit the site. There’s literally no music during dives unless there’s a threat. The only sounds are you and water…
Not super scary, unless you have thalassophobia. Just paranoia inducing, creepy, and tense at times.
If you’re not opposed to emulation, because that’s the only way to play it now, I really recommend giving it a try! We only got the second game, but there’s a European release of the first Everblue too. Emulation isn’t perfect for it though. There’s a ton of interlacing jitter no matter what settings you use, to the point that I can’t play it because it screws with my eyes too much. The same company also made the Endless Ocean games for the Wii.
I’ve been wanting more games in the genre like it ever since. Only Subnautica came remotely close.
I’ll definitely look into that more, it sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the suggestion, I especially love hearing about these lesser-known games
Little Nightmares comes to mind.
I’ve played the mobile version and plan on playing this one next I think.
I saw a game that fits this bill mentioned on two videos recently. It’s called BABBDI and you explore a eery city where everyone you meet can’t move other than to twist their heads to look at you. Nothing ever puts you in danger and that’s established right away. But everything looks… Off.
I saw it mentioned in a video recently too. It’s free so I just added it to my library after seeing your comment. I’ll be playing it soon!
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Bloodborne
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Control (definitely what you’re looking for)
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The Last of Us
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Little Nightmares (quite similar to Inside, horror-inspired and creepy but barely any jump scares)
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Inscryption
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Dying Light (admittedly not very scary, but at night where you get chased by creatures can be very intense)
Control was so good! I found it was a little tough at times, but it maintains the creepy vibes throughout the game. And the more you progress, the more Jesse feels like an absolute badass without undercutting the game’s atmosphere. Just a fantastic game all around.
I’ll be bitter about Bloodborne not being on PC until the day they release it on Steam. I’ll look more into the other ones though. I think I own Control already so I might play that one soon
Control is definitely 10/10 for me, very satisfying once you get used to the mechanics.
Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time.
So amazing. The music in the goal… shivers!
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Outer Wilds. It isn’t the whole game, but there are parts that will chill you to the bone.
Also, the expansion.
I’ve heard that before, I found 99% of it just beautiful. I dropped acid playing it in VR and it was just incredible. But yeah, I knew enough not to go to Dark Bramble! Some of the quantum effects can be spoopy too.
“Don’t go to Dark Bramble” is the only thing I’ve heard about that game, other than a general idea of what the game is. It does sound intriguing though, I might have to play it
It’s honestly one of the most wonderful games I have played in a really long time. Totally different from anything I’ve played, the sort of thing I wouldn’t have thought I’d have enjoyed.
All I can say is, read as little as you can before going in, and resist the temptation to look up guides, at least to start with. Your curiosity slowly leads you to answers, and the satisfaction of piecing together bits of information and constantly making and adapting your own theories as you play is priceless. It’s a game actually designed to be completed by natural curiosity and exploration, which you rarely see!
Oh cool! Yeah I’m definitely interested and will check it out. I rarely use guides anyway so no issues there. I only ever do a guide if I’m going for 100% which is usually not on the first playthrough anyway
Firewatch is a good example of this. Wandering round an empty forest, seeing an evergrowing forest fire all the time. It’s quite eerie but not outright horror.
That game looks stunning. I’m very interested in checking it out
I’ve been playing DREDGE and it definitely has the creepy element down. It’s gotten me hooked for sure
I’ve been absolutely loving DREDGE. Picked it up in the summer sale without really knowing anything about it and I’ve been having so much fun with it.
OP, I’d strongly recommend this game but don’t look anything up, it really adds to the suspense and eerieness.
Duly noted, I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Second dredge.
I pirated it and then like it enough to buy it on steam.
Portal series
Absolutely. I forgot to mention those in my post but I’ve played them many, many times and they’re some of my favourites. Once you leave the test rooms in Portal 2 and explore the rest of Aperture after it became abandoned is one of the coolest experiences in video games for me. I love abandoned stuff, creepy in all the right ways
Yes, the games are not especially creepy but the implications are really horror material the more you think about it. Like the reason why Aperture is abandoned, what experimentations were conducted there, what are the consequences, who is the rat man… Chills.
That’s the best way to do creepy imo. Not immediately in your face or done in a horror-type way but more subtle.
