Horror video games and tragedy go hand-in-hand. After all, the worst things most humans can imagine usually involve losing a loved one or watching someone they care about become a horrid monster — literally or metaphorically. Consequently, horror video games tend to evoke sadness.
While the horror genre primarily seeks to frighten people, it also often attempts to elicit other emotions from the audience because a one-note story usually isn’t the most effective. As such, many horror games also include heartbreak, which often makes them more memorable than any horror game that’s only scary.
Updated February 9, 2023, by Anthony Jeanetta. As HBO’s adaptation of the Last of Us has become a hit, it’s driven more new fans to pick up the survival horror classic. Still, The Last of Us is just one in a long line of horror games that are as heartbreaking as they are spine-tingling.
The following contains spoilers for many of the games included. The article also discusses sensitive topics, including abuse, torture, and suicide.
15 Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Is About Killing Your Own Creations
Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs centers on an engineer and butcher named Oswald Mandus, who enters a living machine of dubious purpose. As Oswald, the player goes further into the Machine and discovers he’s the one of made it, and it’s threatening to consume the outside world. He also flashbacks to the death of his sons during the Battle of the Somme.
In Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Mandus discovers that all these events are his fault; that his ambitions threaten to destroy the world. Eventually, Mandus realizes he must sacrifice himself to stop the Machine. This sad tale is even more pitiful once the player learns the origins of the pig-men, the game’s primary antagonists.
14 Resident Evil Remake Introduced The Sad Tale Of Lisa Trevor
The 2002 remake of the original Resident Evil introduced the monstrous creature that was once a little girl named Lisa Trevor. Kidnapped by the organization that would later become Umbrella, she was experimented upon in the Arklay Mansion.
Resident Evil explains that Lisa Trevor’s mind is still present in the monster she has become, but it’s a shallow description. Playing as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, the player eventually defeats Lisa by showing the monster her mother’s corpse. This revelation causes Lisa to throw herself down a nearby giant hole.
13 SOMA Questions The True Nature Of Identity And The Self
SOMA was Fractional Games’ 2015 follow-up to Amnesia: Dark Descent. It follows Simon Jarret as he undergoes serious brain surgery before waking up in 2014 in an underwater facility called PATHOS-II. The player quickly discovers the last remnants of humanity are in PATHOS-II after a comet has wiped out the rest of the planet.
The robotic primary antagonists of SOMA aren’t terrifying. Still, SOMA takes several sharp turns, many focusing on Simon salvaging brain scans of now-dead humans — including Simon himself — and putting them on a rocket that will soon depart Earth. However, this rocket leaves at the end of the game, with Simon still on Earth. The player then learns that Simon’s brain scan is eventually attached to the corpse of someone else, someone in PATHOS-II.
12 Control Shows How Ambition Can Cause One To Lose Everything
Control isn’t a conventional horror game, but it has several horror elements. Jesse Faden becomes the director of the Federal Bureau of Control after infiltrating the organization to discover what happened to her brother Dylan after the Bureau had taken him away when they were both children.
As players advance through Control, they realize a vaporlike entity called Hiss that can control humans and has taken over the Bureau. Later, Jesse learns Dylan is at the core of this invasion, and his story is quite tragic. Similarly tragic is the tale of ambition and self-destruction of Doctor Casper Darling, whose touching story makes him one of the most memorable characters in Control.
11 Bloodborne Explores The Never-Ending Tragedy Of Yarnham
On its surface, Bloodborne is a pretty unconventional fantasy horror game with a heavy bent towards its horror elements, which include all the monsters, mutilation, and gore standard to the genre. The game occurs after the world, Yharnam, has experienced an apocalypse.
This apocalyptic setting makes Bloodborne rife for the several sad narratives the player can watch during their journey through Yharnam. These tragic tales include the story of Father Gascoigne and his family, the atrocity of the Orphan of Kos and the Fishing Hamlet, and the final battle of Eileen the Crow. Overall, it’s an incredibly melancholic game.
10 Dead Space Rips The Rug Out From Under Isaac
Dead Space tracks the frequently depressing tale of Isaac Clarke as he returns to the Aegis VII space station with his comrades. Isaac is looking forward to returning to his girlfriend, Nicole, who awaits him aboard the Aegis VII. However, upon returning, the player learns that undead monsters called Necromorphs have overrun the space station.
Throughout Dead Space, Nicole’s voice guides Isaac down what is supposed to be the correct path. However, the player eventually learns that Nicole has been long dead. The Marker, the heart of the Necromorph plague, used Nicole’s voice to manipulate Isaac into their will.
9 Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing Describes The Fall Of A Zombie-Killing Veteran
The original Left 4 Dead is a zombie-killing romp that fans typically don’t consider particularly sad or scary. Still, this Valve classic has a tragic side to it. The Passing, an expansion of Left 4 Dead 2, finds the quartet from the first game meeting the foursome of the second.
Eventually, Bill, the old Vietnam veteran who helped keep the original group alive, sacrifices himself to save the other three. It was an immensely sad death for L4D players who spent hours battling alongside Bill before his untimely death, and it still sticks with fans.
8 Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Reminds Players That Everyone They Love Will Die
The Undead Nightmare expansion to the first Red Dead Redemption — a classic PS3 title — finds John Marston trying to survive in an old west world overrun with zombies. This DLC kicks off by killing several beloved characters from the original game, including Uncle and the Marshall of Armadillo’s two deputies.
Undead Nightmare’s real horror comes when Abigail and Jack become infected, driving John to find a cure. There’s also an extremely depressing Sasquatch side mission in which players learn about the extinction of the sentient and highly intelligent Sasquatch race.
7 BioShock Probes Turn People Into Grease For The Machine Industry
BioShock was a sublime mixture of action and horror, and the game’s infamous Big Daddies served as one of its most dangerous and unsettling threats. However, these antagonists are also one of the best illustrations of the dark side of Rapture’s dystopia and downfall.
In BioShock, the Big Daddies are mutated humans who accompany and protect Little Sisters. The Little Sisters are genetically altered and brainwashed little girls. During the game, the player chooses to save or kill these girls to harvest them. Together the backstories of and interactions with Big Daddies and Little Sisters depict the underwater city's corruption.
6 The Last Of Us Part 1 & 2 Explore A Never-Ending Cycle Of Violence
Both The Last of Us games are horror games at their core, but many forget this fact due to their storytelling prowess. The gut-wrenching narrative of either game far outshines the palpable horror of the cordyceps plague. The Last of Us Part I follows Joel Miller, who, after losing his daughter and later his partner, Tess, commits atrocities to ensure he doesn't lose his ward, Ellie, too.
Similarly, The Last of Us Part II finds Ellie watching helplessly as Abby kills Ellie's father figure, Joel, for the murder of her own father in Salt Lake City during the first game. Ellie seeks revenge on Abby, and the resulting cycle of bloodshed ultimately destroys Ellie's life while Abby finds a new purpose and beginning with her partner Lev. Each The Last of Us game ends with an absolute emotional gut punch.
5 Limbo Puts Players In A Terrifying And Heartbreaking Situation
While technically not a horror game, Limbo puts the player in a truly horrifying scenario. The black-and-white game tracks the journey of its silent protagonist, a little boy searching for his missing sister in an ominous forest on the edge of hell.
During Limbo, players encounter strange and frightful creatures and traps, all working to stop the boy from advancing through the forest. After solving the final puzzle, players find a little girl who's never identified as the boy's sister or not. Still, upon reaching her, she seems horrified by what the boy has become through his violent journey.
4 The Cat Lady Is A Poignant Reflection On Depression
The Cat Lady, a horror, puzzle-based adventure, is the second installment in the Devil Came Through series from Harvester Games. As the title of this series would suggest, The Cat Lady is a dark story detailing the life (and afterlife) of Susan, a loner — who neighbors call the cat lady — after she ends her life.
The Cat Lady's tale develops after Susan is soon brought back to life by the Queen of Maggots, but pays the hefty price of immortality and the responsibility of killing five murderers. However, these people aren't the real antagonists of The Cat Lady. They're the depression and hopelessness that led Susan to the events players experience during the game.
3 Telltale’s: The Walking Dead Puts Players Through An Emotionally Crushing Story
Even before its release, fans of either Telltale Games or The Walking Dead knew Telltale's: The Walking Dead would be an emotional rollercoaster. The video game adaptation didn't disappoint. Throughout the game, players face important choice after choice, and each decision significantly affects everyone in the group of survivors.
Telltale's: The Walking Dead forces players to make these difficult decisions knowing they frequently lead to the death of a beloved character, or characters. Additionally, regardless of a player's choices, such loss is often unavoidable, further deepening the story's emotional impact.
2 Silent Hill 2 Highlights That Humans Are As Scary As Any Monster
Silent Hill 2 is a survivor horror sequel that publisher Konami based on the Russian novel Crime and Punishment. This follow-up doesn't share any characters from the first game but takes place in the same titular town and delves into some of the spooky setting's backstory.
Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland, who travels to Silent Hill, Maine, after receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, who died three years prior. There, Sunderland encounters numerous supernatural and creepy creatures. Along the way, Silent Hill 2 touches on weighty themes like grief, guilt, mental illness, and abuse. It's a game built to make players think as much as it makes them sweat.
1 Heavy Rain Is A Playable David Fincher Movie
Heavy Rain tracks four protagonists with no connection except to the game's primary antagonist, the Origami Killer. Over several days, the player controls these characters as they all search to uncover the secrets of the serial murderer haunting the streets of their unnamed city.
While Heavy Rain's controls and gameplay don't resonate with some, the game's taut story and atmospheric setting deliver tangible thrills and emotionally touching scenes. Like Silent Hill 2, Heavy Rain also features multiple possible endings. So, depending on their choices, a player can endure hours of melancholy only to reach a profoundly unsatisfying result.