From oil-rig terrors to cozy cosmic fishing trips gone wrong, these picks mix recent standouts with all-time chillers. Each blurb hits what it’s about and how it actually plays—no filler, just fear.
TL;DR
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A balanced mix of story-first creepfests (Still Wakes the Deep, SOMA), survival classics (Resident Evil 4, Dead Space), co-op chaos (Lethal Company, Phasmophobia), and stylish indies (SIGNALIS, World of Horror, Dredge).
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Every entry includes what the game is and how it plays—so you can pick your poison fast.
1) Alan Wake II
What it is: A psychological survival-horror sequel that flips between novelist Alan Wake and FBI agent Saga Anderson as a meta-mystery devours a Pacific Northwest town.
How it plays: Slow-burn investigation meets tense, resource-scarce combat where light is your best weapon. Expect evidence boards, manuscript pages that foreshadow horrors, and set pieces that slide from crime thriller into surreal nightmare.
2) Silent Hill 2 (Remake)
What it is: A modern retelling of James Sunderland’s grief-stricken search through the fog and guilt of Silent Hill.
How it plays: Exploration and puzzle-solving drive the pace; melee and firearms are deliberate and weighty. It’s less “boo!” and more “oh no,” leaning into psychological unease, oppressive sound design, and monsters that symbolize trauma.
3) Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
What it is: Leon Kennedy’s trip to rural Spain to rescue the President’s daughter—reimagined with sharper horror, nastier cultists, and pitch-perfect camp.
How it plays: Over-the-shoulder action-horror with crowd control, parries, and inventory Tetris. You’ll juggle ammo, upgrade weapons, and survive set-piece gauntlets that keep the pressure high.
4) Dead Space (Remake)
What it is: A faithful, fuller return to the USG Ishimura—an abandoned planet-cracker crawling with necromorphs. Follows the story of systems engineer Isaac Clarke, who’s on a deep-space mission to save his wife.
How it plays: Third-person survival-horror built around strategic dismemberment. Oxygen management, zero-G sections, and a seamless ship layout keep exploration tense between horrific ambushes.
5) Still Wakes the Deep
What it is: A story-driven horror on a 1970s Scottish oil rig where an accident unleashes something you can’t fight.
How it plays: No guns, just scrambling through tight corridors, environmental hazards, and “look-don’t-look” encounters. It’s all atmosphere, fatal choices, and human drama under industrial groans and stormy seas.
6) Lethal Company
What it is: Co-op extraction horror about clocking in for a dangerously underpaid scavenging gig on haunted moons.
How it plays: Four players coordinate via proximity chat, grab loot, dodge creatures, and get back to the ship before the quota (or the locals) kills you. It’s emergent slapstick until it isn’t.
7) Phasmophobia
What it is: A co-op ghost-hunting sim where you ID the entity with real tools—and your voice.
How it plays: Bring EMF readers, spirit boxes, and sanity pills. Use actual voice commands, gather evidence, and get out before the lights go out for good. Procedural maps keep it fresh (and mean).
8) Dredge
What it is: A chill fishing game laced with cosmic dread as a tiny trawler uncovers eldritch truths at sea.
How it plays: By day, manage gear and inventory Tetris; by night, risk sanity drains and sea-things that should not be. Quests and boat upgrades lure you deeper into the fog.
9) WORLD OF HORROR
What it is: A 1-bit, Junji Ito–inspired roguelite mystery anthology set in a cursed seaside town.
How it plays: Turn-based investigations with light RPG builds, reusable events, and escalating doom. You’ll juggle injuries, curses, and Which terrible god is waking up today?
10) SIGNALIS
What it is: Retro-future survival horror about a technician searching for a lost partner on a derelict facility where identity glitches and bodies don’t stay put.
How it plays: Fixed-camera/top-down tension with limited inventory, radio puzzles, and carefully rationed ammo. Minimalist art and sound build dread that lingers long after the credits.
11) The Mortuary Assistant
What it is: A solo shift prepping bodies—while a demon tries to make you part of the paperwork.
How it plays: Perform methodical embalming under time pressure, read clues, identify the correct entity, and perform a banishment. Multiple haunt “seeds” keep runs unpredictable.
12) Alien: Isolation
What it is: Amanda Ripley’s search for her mother aboard a decaying station stalked by one perfect organism.
How it plays: Pure stealth survival. The Xenomorph learns your habits, the motion tracker lies to you just enough, and every locker is both sanctuary and trap.
13) Amnesia: The Bunker
What it is: The newest entry in the cult classic Amnesia series. WWI claustrophobia with a roaming monstrosity and one precious, noisy generator.
How it plays: Semi-open levels, systemic tools, and light-management. Your choices (and mistakes) alter routes, encounters, and whether the thing in the dark hears you.
14) Little Nightmares II
What it is: A grim fairy-tale platformer where Mono and Six creep through television-warped cities of grotesque adults.
How it plays: Side-scrolling stealth and puzzle set pieces where the environment is the threat. Minimal dialogue, maximal mood—and a finale that sticks.
15) SOMA
What it is: Existential, underwater sci-fi horror from the Amnesia team that asks what “you” even means.
How it plays: Exploration, environmental puzzles, and evasion over combat. The monsters are scary; the questions it leaves behind are scarier.
How to pick your poison
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Story-first & low combat: Still Wakes the Deep, SOMA
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Action survival: Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Alan Wake II
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Co-op chaos: Lethal Company, Phasmophobia
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Indie weird: Dredge, SIGNALIS, The Mortuary Assistant, World of Horror
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Classic vibes: Silent Hill 2, Alien: Isolation, Little Nightmares II, Amnesia: The Bunker
Happy hauntings—and don’t forget to turn off motion blur before something else turns it off for you.
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