Halloween is the time for spooky music, movies, lots of candy and, of course, scary video games. Whether you’re into a first-person player or more of a third-person point of view, there are horror games for everyone this Halloween season. As we get closer to Oct. 31, here are five horror video games to get you in the spooky mood:
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
Resident Evil 2 originally came out in 1998, but in January 2019, Capcom decided to release a remake of the classic horror game with updated graphics, added stages and free downloadable content. This is a game that has been set as the standard for remakes. A remake should feel like a new game, but it should still hold the identity of the structure it once encompassed. The remake does change key elements of the original. Instead of a fixed camera angle, it’s now a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective. Also, puzzles are now easier to understand, and there are new voice actors for good measure.
Outlast 2 (2017)
Cults, ghosts and Catholic schools — what else does there need to be to encompass a first-person horror game? Outlast 2 is the second installment in the franchise by Red Barrels. You play as Blake Langermann, a man with a distraught past that is catching up with him. Alongside a crazed cult that has found its home in Temple Gate and a camp in the deep woods shadowed by the mountains, it’s up to you to make it out alive and have any trace of sanity left. With tense gameplay and jaw-dropping graphics, it’s a game for anyone who is looking for a compelling story and classic horror fun.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)
Unlike Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard strays away from its counterparts by being first-person, the first-ever in the Resident Evil series. The story centers around a man named Ethan Winters looking for his wife Mia, who has gone missing and has been taken by the Baker family. With twists and turns around every corner of the Baker estate, it’s up to you to solve the mystery of what’s happened in the bayou. With the up-close perspective that the first-person perspective offers it makes the action more intense. Along with its added virtual reality mode, definitely play Resident Evil 7 at your own discretion.
Dead Space (2013)
In a time when survival horror games were extinct, Visceral Games made a survival horror game that wasn’t seen since the early Resident Evil back in the early 2000s. You play as an engineer named Isaac Clark, who’s sent out with a crew to check on a spaceship that has relayed a stress signal. When you find yourself on the ship, it’s been abandoned and taken over by deformed humans, as well as a mystical artifact called the “Marker.”
Dead Space is a landmark in claustrophobia, with ambient sounds like heads in on the wall, vents shaking above you and valves going off. It makes sure the intensity never drops and you feel as though you’re always being hunted. The only time to let the tension down is when you make it back to the train to go to the next chapter.
The Walking Dead: Season One (2012)
When thinking about the loss of self-identity, a point-and-click zombie game doesn’t necessarily come to mind. Nonetheless, Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Season One tells that story beautifully through great dialogue, character development, voice acting and scary situations that help grow a vast array of characters together. But among the roster of characters in the game, you play as Lee, a convict who’s being driven to prison for killing a senator who slept with his wife. On the way to prison, Lee gets knocked unconscious after a car accident. Once waking, he trails the woods where he finds a young girl named Clementine. They decide to join together and attempt to survive the zombie-riddled world. Throughout the process, they discover more about themselves as they fight for their lives in the apocalypse.
