Gamers love their gore. The success of Mortal Kombat or Doom proves this to be true. Gore is simply a breeding ground for some of the most disgusting moments in gaming. Nobody can forget chopping deformed creatures' limbs off in Dead Space or the literal slide of human remains in the first chapter of The Evil Within. Gore, when done right, is disgusting fun.
However, gore and blood don't always make a good horror game. If anything, gore and blood should complement a strong story and tense atmosphere. It is far from necessary. Some games show that chopped-up limbs and overdone violence are not always needed in horror, and in fact, are often scarier leaving it to the gamer's imaginations.
10 A Flashlight Is The Best Weapon Gamers Get In Alan Wake
Alan Wake is the perfect Teen-Rated introduction to survival horror without the blood and gore of more mature titles. Gamers, however, can still expect plenty of terrifying moments fighting a dark presence that has entered into a small town.
There is nothing scarier than carefully balancing aiming a flashlight to weaken enemies while they are coming at the player with an axe. Alan Wake is a thrilling episodic adventure that has recently been remastered. Maybe now there will be a sequel after all these years.
9 Little Nightmares Is Anything But Little Scares
Don't let the title fool anyone: Little Nightmares has more than enough nightmares jammed pack inside of it. Players take the role of a small child lost in an oversized world filled with humanoid creatures just waiting to devour them alive. But Little Nightmares also contains light-hearted, adorable moments thanks to the ever-lovable Nomes players are allowed to hug.
Little Nightmares has a perfect mix of tense set-pieces and beautifully done atmospheric storytelling. Furthermore, with the recent sequel and plethora of DLC for both games, there is more than enough content to keep gamers' hearts pounding.
8 Detention Is Scarier Than 30 Minutes After School
Detention is a Taiwanese horror game that elevates school horror to new levels and does not hold back on its scares. Players play as two different characters trapped inside of a school during 1960's martial law in Taiwan. The game's horror and setting derive from Taiwanese and Chinese folklore.
Players will encounter spirits accurate to the real world throughout Detention, such as the dreaded lantern specter. Overall, a terrifying and culturally educational game that will leave players haunted. Red Candle Games' other game, Devotion, is also worth checking out if players can get their hands on it, as it was unfortunately removed from Steam due to Chinese censorship.
7 Nothing Scarier Than Modern Art In Layers Of Fear
Layers of Fear reminds gamers that, yes, art can be legitimately scary. The premise is simple enough: a walking simulation about an artist who suffers hallucinations while working on their latest piece. However, the scares do not hold back at all.
Layers of Fear is unafraid of shifting around reality at any given moment, literally twisting and transforming the world while the player's back is turned. Furthermore, it contains some of the scariest jumpscares to date. The library bookman scare is sure to chill players even to this day.
6 Players Have 12 Days To Stop A Disease In Pathologic 2
Pathologic 2 is a criminally underrated gem. While a demanding and depressing experience, Pathologic 2 also manages to be one of the most horrific and well-told stories in gaming. Few games even come close in comparison. The game starts simple enough, with the main character coming into town to investigate his father's death. Soon enough, however, a plague begins to ravage the town leaving the player as one of the few hopes to cure it.
Nobody is to be trusted, with the game unafraid to lie to gamers and mislead them. Players will have to make tough decisions on whether to risk getting infected (which will stay with the player for the rest of the game unless cured) to complete the long list of impossible to finish side quests. Overall, Pathologic 2 is a brilliant horror game meant for hardcore gamers and story enthusiasts.
5 Darkwood Is As Survival As Survival Horror Gets
Darkwood is not a blood-free or goreless game, but luckily, the weak-stomached can get past most of its violence due to its pixelated art style. However, it is far from being for the weak-hearted, as only those with the strongest nerves will survive the night.
The game tasks players as a lone wanderer stuck in a strange forest where deformed creatures attack on a nightly basis. Darkwood requires careful resource and time management to get to the bottom of the mystery of this strange realm. Darkwood is undeniably one of the scariest games out there, even more so than most modern titles.
4 Knock-Knock Is No Joke
The title of the game is misleading because Knock-Knock is anything but a joke. Made by the same team as Pathologic 2, Knock-Knock is a side-scrolling horror game about helping a strange little man survive the atrocities that invade his home and mind on a nightly basis.
Knock-Knock is about as strange of a horror game as it gets, but it will scare players endlessly thanks to a killer sound design and a thrilling build of tension each night. As the main character's mind begins to crumble, so does the physical world, slowly becoming more abstract and deadly each night. The art style might be cute, but Knock-Knock is anything but cute.
3 There Is Nothing But Dark Waters In Sunless Sea
In this London, there is no sun. Sunless Sea lives in perpetual darkness and is mostly underwater. Players play as a captain of their own design as they chart Lovecraftian-inspired waters at their own risk. Players must manage fuel and supplies in a careful balancing act while navigating an unforgiving ocean of cosmic horror.
While a slow atmospheric game, there is more than enough gothic steampunk Cthulhu-inspired horror awaiting deep within the ocean. If players are lucky (or unlucky), a sea monster or two will drive them to insanity.
2 Phasmophobia Is Ghost Hunting With Friends
Ghost hunting alone is one thing, but ghost hunting with friends is where the real horror lies. In multiplayer horror game Phasmophobia, players and their team of fellow ghost hunters explore various locations to identify what spirit lurks within. Thanks to stellar sound design and a plethora of scares waiting inside, Phasmophobia never has a dull moment.
Furthermore, thanks to the magic of PC technology, gamers are expected to literally talk to the spirits as the game is able to understand what is being said. Don't go calling the ghosts any mean names or players will soon find themselves also in the afterlife.
1 Many Players Have Already Experienced Five Nights at Freddy's
Practically the king of non-gory horror games, there aren't many who haven't experienced Five Nights at Freddy's killer animatronics yet. The game is so masterful in building tension with the five days giving players time to build up terror before an inevitable jump scare. Likewise, the iconic animatronics are genuinely terrifying.
Newbies to the long-running series would be doing themselves a favor by playing one of the many iterations. Although, nothing truly beats the original. Furthermore, gamers should be excited to see how the game transitions to 3D in the upcoming sequel.