Psychological Horror/Thriller Video Games... (horror/adventure/sci-fi/emotional/existential)
A list of some of my favorite immersive psychologically taxing story driven video game experiences!!
In no particular order...
In no particular order...
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27 titles
- StarsJared ZeusNell MooneyBrian ProtheroeSimon Jarrett finds himself in a mysterious, ravaged facility after seemingly losing consciousness during a new, experimental brain scan which was suggested to him for his brain damage after his car accident.Complete existential terror and mystery tapped on an underwater research laboratory trying to discover what has gone wrong..
Strange twisted things roaming the halls and A.i systems corrupted beyond explanation.
Just amazing food for thought, probably my most favorite Sci-fi storyline of any game.. ever!!!! - DirectorTameem AntoniadesStarsMelina JuergensSteven HartleyNicholas BoultonSet in the age of Vikings, a broken Celtic warrior named Senua embarks on a haunting vision quest into Viking Hell to fight for the soul of her dead lover.Epic Viking adventure into a dark underworld to rescue the soul of your lost loved one..
Plagued by visions of paranoia and insanity, a soul shredding, bloodied and broken struggle to the end!!
One of the most intense adventure journies I've seen in gaming, amazing acting, the portrail of slowly slipping into insanity!!
Amazing audio, amazing graphics!! I proper love this game!!! - DirectorMariusz SzaflikStarsRutger HauerArkadiusz JakubikBrandon FagueA burnt-out cop investigates what caused a rundown apartment building to go under automatic lockdown, which brings him face-to-face with the ghosts from his past.Blade Runner meets Se7en but the game..
On the tail of a killer like no other..
A cyberpunk detective murder mystery filled with biotek viruses, cyber-mod infections..
Insanity and dystopian horror, great stuff!!! - StarsJohn ArmstrongGreg GrunbergKimberli ColbourneFBI Agent Ethan Thomas is framed for the murder of a detective and officer. In order to uncover who murdered the two officers with his gun, he has to do whatever it takes and fight his way through violent, psychotic individuals.You play a detective exploring abandoned run down parts of the city, running into crazed addicts and phychopathic murderers..
Kinda like Silence of the Lambs & Se7en but in game format.. pretty damn creepy!!! - DirectorAndrew ProkhorovStarsChristopher Lee ParsonAnna GravesJamieson Price26-year-old Artyom, flees the Metro in Moscow and sets off on a journey through the harsh nuclear winter in Russia.Venture across the Post-Apocalyptic Russian wasteland.. in the hope of finding green fields free from violence, radiation and mutated beasties!!! Some great indepth character building/disposition, with proper epic wasteland exploration, gun customisation..
- DirectorPetri JärvilehtoStarsMatthew PorrettaLloyd FloydGeoffrey CantorWhile on vacation in the small town of Bright Falls, a struggling writer must investigate the mysterious disappearance of his wife while events from his latest manuscript, which he can't remember writing, begin to come true.You play as a failing novelist away on vacation in a smalltown,
You begin to doubt your sanity as you are plagued by dark visions of an evil presence!!
Lots of running around torchlight and darkness, crazed possessed people in the woods..
Vey unique style of supernatural goings on.. - DirectorKoushi NakanishiStarsTodd SoleyKatie O'HaganJack BrandAn ordinary man must embark on a search to find his missing wife that leads him to an abandoned house where a mysterious family lives who harbor an evil secret within the house and themselves.Redefining the Resident Evil brand into something far more disturbing and immersive!!!
Feels like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of 1000 corpses on steroids,
A hardcore dose of demonic biological super-mutation..
Some real scary moments... - DirectorAlistair HopeStarsAndrea DeckGeorge AntonKezia BurrowsIn this first person survival horror adventure set fifteen years after the events of Alien (1979), Ripley's daughter becomes trapped on an alien-infested space station which holds answers to the mystery of her mother's disappearance.Probably the only truely great Alien game...
Fully modelled on the original Alien movies locations and technology, absolutely dripping with atmosphere, this game hit the nail on the head!!!!
Set a few years after the first movie, you play as Amanda Ripley searching for the truth about her mothers disapearance.. - DirectorMichael CondreyStarsTonantzin CarmeloJ.G. HertzlerIyari LimonEngineer Isaac Clarke and his crew get stranded on a large, abandoned mining ship. There, Clarke needs to repair the giant ship while battling nasty aliens and solving the mystery of what happened to the ship.This game started a whole new generation of sci-fi space based survival horror games, and is to this day, still one of the best...
I challenge anyone to remain calm once horifficially mutated demonic necromorphs come crashing out of the walls, shambling towards you, screeching all the way!!!
Luckily theres a grand assortment of weapons to attempt to defend yourself with.. - StarsGunner WrightTanya ClarkeSonita HenrySet three years after the events of the first, Isaac Clarke's fight against a new Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, a space station above Saturn's largest moon, Titan.The first game set the standard, the second one endulged in it, kinda like Aliens is to Alien.. more horrific beasts, bigger weapons, improved controls, more story and world building.. although more action based than the original this is still a great horror game!!! With a greater emphasis on your slowly deteriorating sanity, the obvious ode to Lovecraftian lore, cosmic horror and a crazy doomsday accension cult...
Carving up demonic mutated space zombies with overpowered futuristic industrial construction equipment has never been so much fun!!!!! - DirectorTakayuki KobayashiMasashi TsuboyamaStarsGuy CihiMonica HorganDonna BurkeAfter receiving a letter from his late wife, from Silent Hill, James Sunderland heads towards the town to search for her, only to come across a terrifying road of truth and redemption.Obviously this was gonna make the list..
An absolute classic that paved the way for survival horror and psychologically disturbing storylines!!!
A deeply confusing yet emotional storyline combined with some of the bleakest environments and most distressing moments in gaming history!!! - DirectorSuguru MurakoshiStarsKaren StrassmanRobert BelgradeEric BossickHenry wakes up trapped in his own apartment. Forced to crawl a mysterious gateway on the wall, he's taken to grisly realities that holds both secrets and answers.Rather than list every Silent Hill game, I thought I'd just pick one more,
The introduction to this game is just so creepy, I remember having no idea what to expect... You awaken trapped inside your apartment, strange things going on outside, there are chains bolted across your door and at first it seems theres no way out... things slowly spiral into madness as you discover parallel dimensions filled with hideous creatures!!! - DirectorKevin ChoteauDavid DedeineStarsCharlotte McBurneyLogan HannanEdan Hayhurst14th century France, Amicia and her little brother Hugo are on the run from the Inquisition's soldiers and survive during their emotional journey unstoppable swarms of rats from the Black Plague.Epic emotional adventure with great acting and fantastic scenery/set pieces..
Travel through the ravaged medieval lands of the black death plague..
War and famine on the surface, but underground something much worse...Beware the rats!!!! - DirectorHideo KojimaStarsNorman ReedusMads MikkelsenLéa SeydouxDeliveryman Sam Porter must travel across a ravaged wasteland and reconnect the city states of America formed after a mysterious apocalyptic event dubbed 'death stranding' left the world in ruins and plagued by supernatural tar creatures.As relaxing as it is terrifying,
As profound as it is confusing,
An exercise in patience and contemplation, smashing all the expectations of the gamer!!! Leaving you pondering whether or not what you just witnessed was a piece of gaming history or just a strange fever dream from a bygon era of absract story telling!! - StarsJoseph MayChristy MeyerKerry ShaleSurvival horror game set in the haunted forest from The Blair Witch Project (1999), where, in 1996, a man and his dog find themselves lost while helping a search party look for a missing boy.A decent detective horror/mystery adventure,
Just you and your dog Bullet and the mysterious horrors that lurk in the woods of Burkittsville...
The game hit the atmosphere on the head!!!!
As the sun starts to set the shadows begin to play tricks on you and the mist rolls in around the trees. The tension is thick in this game, the snapping of nearby twigs and the popping of pine cones as they hit the ground around you. Things shrieking in the distance and whispers behind you... - DirectorRaphael ColantonioStarsWalton GogginsBenedict WongMae WhitmanMorgan Yu is trapped aboard a space station filled with shape-shifting aliens with no memory of how he got there. Guided by a mysterious stranger and his former self, he must set the station's self-destruct before the aliens reach Earth.A dark sci-fi story unfolds and you try to escape through a corporate space station after a catastrophic alien anomaly is somehow release on board. Bizzare and wildly unpredicatble game mechanics, slick and crisp aesthetics provide an exceptionally solid and at times incredibly tense existential sci-fi/horror experience!!!
- StarsJonathan CookeMatthew HallsteanConarium is a chilling Lovecraftian game, which follows a gripping story involving four scientists and their endeavor to challenge what we normally consider to be the 'absolute' limits of nature.One of the few direct H.P Lovecraft inspired games that actually succeeds in creating a real atmosphere of mystery and otherworldly cosmic presence...
For the most part this is a narrative heavy exploration game, but once you get deep into the story there are some crazy discoveries to be made!!! - DirectorCraig HubbardStarsGreg BaldwinJock BlaneySusanna BurneyYou play an elite commando for a unique covert operations unit hunting for a mysterious fugitive who commands a clone army while mysterious things occur around you.One of the best action games ever released also happens to have some seriously creepy psychological story elements such as Government experiments, corporate coverups, psychic powers, enhanced supersoldiers and a ghostly young girl that follows you throughout the journey..
Seeming somewhat cliche nowdays, back in the day this game was seriously fresh, perfectly transitioning from all out explosive particle showering, slow motion gunfights...
to creepy crawlspace jumpscares and demonic hallucinations!!! - DirectorKen LevineStarsJohn AhlinGreg BaldwinJane BellerIn 1960, a lone survivor of a plane crash named Jack discovers an abandoned underwater utopia, only to find out that the mystery behind its creation is much more sinister than he first believed.An underwater utopia falls into chaos after the inhabitance loose their minds due to overdosing on Biological-modifications...
Futuristic retro/Steampunk vibes!!
Cool locations and brilliant sound design,
the reverberation and groaning of the metal tunnels..
Also great water effects, better than some current games attempts!!! - DirectorArtur FojcikDamien GoodwinWojciech PazdurStarsEdward DoglianiJo Stone-FewingsGemma LawrenceThrough a strange device strapped to his head, guided by a stranger named Red, Cole Black will relive his memories to understand why he is ultimately given the responsibility of rescuing a kidnapped girl, strapped to a ticking time bomb.Inception and James Bond in the style of
Black Mirror...But in Game!!
Murder, Special forces, mind manipulation, augmented reality and best of all a round-corner gun!!!
Also really cool sound design!!! - DirectorShinji MikamiYun M. WatanabeStarsAnson MountJennifer CarpenterJackie Earle HaleyWhile investigating the scene of a cruel murder, detective Sebastian Castellanos is knocked unconscious by a mysterious and powerful force. When he awakens, he finds himself in a deranged world.A dark and twisted adventure into mind abstractions of insanity and brutality, heavily inspired by Silent Hill but in no way infringing on that legacy.
This is a whole new world full of strange creatures and dark stories to uncover!! - DirectorJake RodkinStarsRich SommerCissy JonesLarissa GallagherIn 1989, Henry takes a volunteer fire lookout job in the Wyoming wilderness to escape from his troubled past, only to be thrown into plethora of paranoia and mystery.Narrative driven game with beautiful scenery and awesome voice acting.
You play as a park ranger dealing with strange occurences in the surrounding areas..
Your only company, the voice on the radio of a woman in a distant ranger tower..
Intense emotional stuff for a "walking simulator"!!! - DirectorAlan PatmoreStarsMark BerryJohn Patrick LowrieJohn ArmstrongA death row convict must fight his way to freedom when nightmarish monsters invade the prison.Awesome forgotten horror game from the PS2 era, with creature design by Clive Barker!!!
You awaken in a maximum security prison durin a catastophic event, as twisted creatures roam the halls you must fight your way to freedom and discover the truth behind the events!!! - StarsErik BraaKristin LennoxLayers of Fear is a psychological survival horror game in which the player controls a painter who is trying to complete his magnum opus and must navigate a Victorian mansion to discover secrets about his past while slowly losing his sanityAn alchoholic, paranoid delusional artist stumbles around his victorian mansion trying to make sence of the visions that torment him...
Some really great effects here and spooky moments that will totally catch you by surprise,
very tastefully done psychological horror!! - StarsRyan CooperSean BeanAndrzej ChyraHorror/Survival PC game based on the Russian paranormal event "The Dyatlov Pass Incident".No way points, no objectives, just a compass and map to guide you as you trek deep into the Russian wilderness to discover the horrors of the Dyatlov Pass incident!!
Genuinely creepy and occasionally fantastic!!!!