Top 10 Must-Play PC Horror Games for Halloween 2021

Glorious Zach

October 08, 2021

Halloween is not a holiday taken lightly here at Glorious. There is nothing more fun than decorating the house, workshopping your costume ideas, and intentionally scaring yourself silly with PC horror games. Video games offer a level of fear that not even movies can reach because you control the scares. Spooky noise up the stairs? That's on you to figure out. The ominous town has a mystery at its core? Put on the detective hat - you're going in. Here are our favorite horror game choices we recommend playing during this spooky season!

Resident Evil 2 is a ground-up remake done right. The graphics and environments are visually stunning and set a perfectly creepy tone. The gameplay is fast and fluid, with engaging puzzles and fun combat. And the section of the game with an ever-present Mr. X chasing you around Raccoon City PD offers unmatched scares.

This title is a hit in the Glorious office! Its hide-and-seek gameplay, ever-growing casts of killers & survivors, and unique character abilities make Dead By Daylight incredibly addicting to play. For fans of classic horror franchises, both new and old, check this game out! It fills a void left by the failed Friday the 13th video game we sadly lost.

This modern horror masterpiece injects scares straight into your veins. While some other entries in this list provide ominous atmospheres and light spooks, the Amnesia series is pure nightmare fuel with tight corridors, first-person perspective, and frantic gameplay. Seriously, this one will remind you to be afraid of the dark long after your turn it off.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

This game will remind you why to be afraid of the dark. Credit

Just play the game - that's all you need to know.

While Control may not be as downright scary as something like Amnesia, it captures a particular horror sub-genre that is engaging and incredibly ominous. With a dash of X-Files, a pinch of Twin Peaks, and topped off with some SCP: Containment Breach, this game will surely keep your interest as you explore the halls of the Oldest House and unravel its mysteries.

The Left 4 Dead franchise is as good as...well...dead under its publisher Valve. So, Back 4 Blood takes it into its own hands to bring back the beloved series as a spiritual successor that truly captures the feel of the originals. There is nothing more satisfying than mowing down zombies hoards with various guns and melee weapons. The new card system updates the mechanics, adding even more variety to runs than Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 could achieve.

We know, another Resident Evil entry? Well, these two games vary wildly from Resident Evil 2 with their first-person perspectives and vastly different storylines from earlier entries in the RE franchise. Resident Evil 7 introduces players to Ethan Winters as he explores a decrepit Bayou homestead searching for his wife.

A cross between Amnesia and classic Resident Evil, RE7 delivers big scares and engaging puzzles & mysteries to solve. RE8 continues this trend while incorporating more action, introducing a new European setting, and continuing the story established in 7. These are both excellent entries in the classic series that are worth your time.

Resident Evil 7

And you think your family is a mess! They're nothing compared to the Bakers. Credit

Like Back 4 Blood, this game lets you take it to those zombie freaks as you parkour across the game's beautiful and elaborate environments. This title delivers as much exhilarating fun as it does scares, and there is a sequel arriving just around the corner! For a cathartic experience with tense gameplay, look no further than Dying Light this Spooktober season.

Alien: Isolation captures the feeling of the original sci-fi film in a way none of its sequels could. Throughout the game, you find yourself being chased by a single alien throughout incredibly movie-accurate environments. It delivers a feeling of dread and claustrophobia similar to Amnesia, but the spaceship setting is unique and makes for a unique horror experience. In space, nobody can hear you scream. However, in your bedroom in the middle of the night, your mom totally can, so keep it down.

Alien Isolation

The commitment to capturing the look, feel, and sounds of the original movie in Alien: Isolation is impressive. Credit

Days Gone is not an easy game. Unlike some of the other entries that allow you to take on hoards of the undead with ease, this game really makes you earn it, and it is incredibly satisfying when you can finally do it. You play as a biker just trying to survive in the apocalyptic Northwest, and the game is both visually stunning and genuinely horrifying at times when your character is chased through beautiful foothills, river beds, and around gorgeous lakes just trying to survive.


Horror games, like their film counterparts, offer a unique cathartic feeling that is hard to describe. Truly feeling fear or getting jump scared are exhilarating experiences, and we hope the games on this list can provide that for you, especially as we find ourselves in this spooky October month. Let us know what your favorite horror game is in the comments below - we would love to hear from you!

Comments

Eric:

My spooky game is From the Darkness

November 01, 2021

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