Silent Hill 2

This one is more of a psychological horror story than anything else, but Silent Hill 2 does a fantastic job of getting under your skin. After a while, you’re less concerned with the killer nurses and more worried about James’ state of mind.

Resident Evil

The original Resident Evil game was the master of atmospheric tension and jump scares, and it executed its terrors perfectly with the magnificent and iconic Spencer estate.

PT

This is probably one of the scariest horror games (or demo, rather) we’ve seen in recent years, and it’s shame it’ll probably never be picked up again. PT mixes psychological horror with terrifying jump scares, and of course, violent and gory imagery. It’s seriously scary stuff.

Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear indulges in the myth that artists really do go mad as their talent grows too great for them to handle. You’ll play as a painter, struggling to complete his magnum opus, and you’ll discover disturbing secrets about the painter’s own state of mind as you explore his house. How delightful.

Outlast

Armed with only a camcorder, you take control of a journalist who has to escape an asylum all by himself. There’s no way to fight back, and all you can do is hide, and record your findings for the world to see. If you ever make it out, that is.

Bloodborne

SPOILERS: Bloodborne breaks the mold a little, and presents cosmic horror instead of the traditional stuff we’re used to, like zombies and ghosts. Instead of fearing the undead that walk the earth, Bloodborne directs our attention to the higher powers of the unknown. Will you go mad when faced with the incomprehensible? Or will you find the knowledge and insight you need to overcome it? END OF SPOILERS.

Sincerest apologies, but Bloodborne’s ingenuity couldn’t have been conveyed properly without giving away its endgame twist.

Dead Space

As engineer Isaac Clarke, you have the unenviable task of wandering around the desolate spacecraft, the USG Ishimura, in search for your wife who might already be dead. Just be careful of the hostile aliens lying in wait.

SOMA

You don’t see a lot of sci-fi horror games around, so SOMA will serve as a nice retreat for science fiction fans. Taking place in an underwater research facility, SOMA has you explore the area where several types of machinery have started to adopt more human behavior.

Alan Wake

Alan Wake borrows rather heavily from Stephen King’s horror novels, but it works well in the game’s favor. Players will have to investigate the mysteries of a creepy town, and also wrestle with Alan’s own (in)sanity as he struggles to figure out what’s real, and what’s horror fiction.

F.E.A.R

Sure, you have guns. But guns aren’t quite enough to kill the supernatural. F.E.A.R was one of the first FPS games to come to the PS3 and Xbox 360, and it greatly exceled at creeping players out with flashing imagery of the scary unknown.

Alien Isolation

Alien Isolation captures the vibe and atmosphere of the Alien films very well, which means it’s scary as hell. You have a few tools for self-defense, but if you think you can take down the Xenomorph with a few flares, you have another think coming. As we all know, in space, no one can hear you scream.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia was one of the earlier first-person survival horror games that really made this style of gameplay more mainstream in the genre. You play as Daniel, an amnesiac who wakes up in a creepy, foreboding castle. You’ll have to avoid monsters, solve puzzles, and figure out who you really are.

The Evil Within

The Evil Within might have dropped the ball a little in the game’s latter half, but Shinji Mikami certainly delivered the horror factor in droves during its first half. The game had great atmospheric tension, almost reminiscent of the original Resident Evil, really, and wasn’t afraid to overwhelm the player with violence and gore whenever it needed.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Unlike a lot of other horror games where you can usually just run away from the stuff that terrifies you, Fatal Frame forces you to face it. In Fatal Frame II, you follow the story of two sisters exploring an abandoned village, and as you can expect, they run into all sorts of scary paranormal shit there. In order to survive, players will be forced to use their Camera Obscura to ‘capture’ the supernatural beings.

Until Dawn

Until Dawn isn’t exactly scary, but it’s the perfect B-grade horror interactive experience you can’t miss out on. It might be a little cheesy at first glance, but Until Dawn’s story might actually surprise you as you uncover more of its mysteries.