Horrorgames have a lot of tools in their toolbox to get scares out of the player, but immersion is maybe the most effective. Nothing makes things feel more scary than making them feel as realistic as possible, and refusing to let a player step away from the controller.
Luckily, there are plenty of incredible horror games that place realistic immersion as the top priority, resulting in a terrifying crop of great horror games. This list is ranked both by the quality of the game and how immersive they are to play.
Horror games tend to go through evolutions and fads, hopping on a popular idea and exploring it as much as possible before moving on to the next idea. In the 2020s, the biggest trend in horror gaming is social multiplayer horror with communication-based shenanigans to make even co-op gaming scary.
Phasmophobiais perhaps the best example of this trend. Players are tasked tohunt ghostsin a variety of spooky locales with their friends, but the ghosts rarely cooperate. Voice chat can get disrupted, jump scares are dynamic, and the deeply immersive atmosphere is the glue that ties the whole experience together.
Sons of the Forestis a very ambitious game, not only as a sequel to the very popularThe Forest, but also as a game that’s built almost entirely out of systemic scares rather than scripted scares. The mutants and cannibals of the island will make themselves known based on systems, not what the devs have pre-programmed in.
Mix that with a lack of music, great realistic graphics, and immersive sound design, and the player is constantly put on edge inSons of the Forest,where bad guys could be lurking anywhere in the thick brush. Every twig snapping could be a hostile, makingSons of the Foresta great recipe for frayed nerves.
In the wake ofAmnesia: The Dark Descent, the early to mid-2010s saw a massive influx of first-person horror games where the player can’t fight back, jumping on the increasing popularity of reaction videos on YouTube.Outlastis one of the best games to come out of that genre.
Tasked with documenting the breakdown of Mount Massive Asylum, the player is soon plunged into a deadly fight for survival among the insane inmates who have a propensity for… unsavory acts. The night-vision camcorder perspective has a great immersive effect, making a relatively low-budget game feel much more realistic and extremely scary.
Some games in the horror genre act as complete tidal shifts, andAmnesia: The Dark Descentis perhaps responsible for the biggest one of all. Inspired by the likes ofEternal Darkness,Amnesiaputs the player in a helpless position where they need to nurse a sanity meter in order to stay alive in the abandoned Gothic manor full of monstrous creatures.
The real magic from the game comes from its immersive approach to light and sound, with big, scary moments that provoke even bigger reactions in the player. It’s a major reason why a lot of the biggest YouTube channels ever got popular in the first place, and it’s agreat introduction to horror games for beginners.
Doubts were high when the remake ofSilent Hill 2was announced. The original version of the game is considered one of the best horror games ever made, so any remake has a high quality bar to hit. Thankfully, Bloober Team didn’t disappoint and pulled it out of the bag with their 2024 remake, where they absolutely nailed the assignment.
While the original PS2 version is certainly brilliant, the fresh coat of paint in the 2024 remake has made the graphics look better than ever, with expansive levels andhorrifying monstersthat are even scarier than ever. That extra level of realistic immersion works in the remake’s favor, making the darkly oppressive atmosphere ever more overbearing to play through.
Frictional Games had a problem following the massive success ofAmnesia: The Dark Descent. Sophomore efforts always have a lot of pressure, and the mixed reception toAmnesia: A Machine for Pigs, the Chinese Room developed spinoff, showed that players' expectations were high.
SOMAwas the result, a blindingly brilliant sci-fi horror game that explores consciousness and robotics at the bottom of the ocean. The game’s immersive sound design is some of the best ever made, and the game’s graphics hold up very well to this day. The base at the bottom of the sea is one of gaming’s most immersive settings ever.
Adaptations of theAlienfranchise to the world of video games have a spotty history, to say the least. Expectations were low, but whenAlien: Isolationreleased in 2014, it quickly became a cult favorite due to its incredible graphics, immersive sound design, and pioneering enemy AI thatmakes fans hunger for a sequelto this day.
While the player can fight back against the Xenomorph, options are limited, meaning they need to pay attention to every bump they can hear to try and figure out the Xenomorph’s location so they can hide or run as the situation demands. Game design feeds into the immersive presentations, making it one of the most nerve-shattering horror games to release, made ever more terrifying in VR.
Few games have cultivated the cult status ofP.T., the short-lived demo for the canceledSilent Hillsthat was supposed to revive the franchise under the stewardship of Hideo Kojima in collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus. That never came to be, andP.T.can no longer be downloaded, but it remains one of the most immersive horror games ever made.
The short game forces a player to simply walk down a corridor, around a corner, then down some stairs as many times as they need to finish the game. However, Kojima uses sound,stunning photorealistic visuals, and keen horror sensibilities to scare the living daylights out of a player. It’s immersive, impressive, and incredibly frightening from start to finish.
