The Best PC Horror Games

If you’re looking for horror games on PC then you’re pretty much spoiled for choice. There’s a plethora of great picks out there and the roster is always filling out with more big-budget releases or small-team sleeper hits. The Horror Community has its finger on the pulse of the spooky game market and if you know where to look, it’s pretty easy to find a few things to fill out your evenings.

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The downside of all of these horror games though is that there are a lot of duds mixed in with the diamonds, so it can take some trial and error to find one that works for you. For those struggling to find the next big scare, here’s a helping hand in the form of a helpful list of the latest and best horror games on PC.

Updated October 31, 2024 By Matthew Mckeown: Arguably the best place to find horror games is on PC. Whilst the console market gets its fair share of spooky games, it’s outweighed by the sheer depth of scares you can find on PC.

Whether that’s a small indie crew’s creation over on Itch.io, an Early Access gem waiting in the wings on Steam, and everything else in between, you’ve got a lot to chew through on PC. There are plenty of sources to scrape through and to help you in your hunt for your next big scare, here’s an updated look at the best horror games on PC.

Death In Unison

Going Doing Together

The world’s deadliest psychopaths are in need of caretakers and it’s up to you and a friend to handle their needs. In Death In Unison from Blank Dream Studios, communication between you and your buddy is not only heavily encouraged, it’s your only way to win.

For you see you’re both locked in separate rooms and you each get only half the required information to solve the problems presented before you. So get talking or it’s game over. There’s a lot that can go wrong and the mechanics are challenging enough that they’ll get you sweating fast. If you enjoy working through puzzles with a pal, then pick up Death In Unison.

Krypta FM

Escapades In Eastern Europe

A quirky horror game from Under The Sink Studio, Krypta FM has a lot of creepy indie horror charm that you’ll get lost in for hours. Based in a small village in Poland called Gozdary, things are not right it seems and the residents need rescuing from some strange beast that goes bump in the night.

Explore a quiet and unnerving town at night, then browse the games version of the “internet” for clues and potential reactions to your past evenings activities. It’s a slow burn spooky game that encourages you to wander absolutely everywhere. There’s always some hidden message or hint lurking just out of sight, so get to exploring more of Eastern Europe, there’s a Cryptid to find.

Grunn

Trimming The Verge Is Just The Start

Grabbing a job as a humble gardener may not seem like a scary job, but the Sokpop Collective think differently. Inspired by a small town in real life, Grunn pits you in the role of Greenskeeper for the whole village. But things are not what they seem.

Strange visitors come in the night, odd people watch from behind corners and there’s something dark plaguing your mind whenever you sleep. The town has a dark secret for you to uncover and multiple endings to unlock, so there’s more than one way to bring the evil into the light. A quirky and charming game that’s pretty cheap to pick up, Grunn is an indie horror game doing all the right things.

Mouthwashing

Caring For A Crumbling Crew

According to developers Wrong Organ, in the far future life is cheap and corporations do not care at all. Which is why we find ourselves in the role of a space ship captain having the worst trip in the universe. After your ship crashes after a huge accident, it’s up to you to try and hold things together until help arrives. If it ever does.

Unfortunately your crewmates don’t take to the news well and cracks start to show in their sanity. It’s only made worse when the cargo of mouthwash is found and it’s a steep descent into horror and madness shortly thereafter. A solidly built indie horror with a very good and unsettling story, Mouthwashing is highly recommended and a must-play for those that like the abstract and the weird.

Captured

Home Isn’t As Safe As It Used To Be

Being stuck in your home, especially in a post-pandemic world may not seem too bad. But sharing that space with reality breaking anomalies makes it much harder to tolerate. After another night at home, things begin to shift, and strange entities stalk the halls outside your bedroom.

The building seems to shift and twist infinitely, but there is a way out. There’s thirteen anomalies to spot in your home, and if you find them all you’ll be able to leave. However, miss one and it’s back to the start. It’s a spine-tingling spot-the-difference horror game that’s a slow-burn, but each jaunt out your door is different so it warrants repeat visits. With some truly unique and interesting scares, you’re missing out if you don’t pick up Captured.

Terminus: Zombie Survivors

Turn-based Terror

A tough-as-nails turn-based horror game, Terminus is a roguelike adventure in a zombie apocalypse that will test your skills, and your luck as you try to make it to the next safe zone. Each run is procedural and the devs boast of over 150 different locations available in each try.

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The hordes are massive and even the smallest decision can have massive ramifications in the right circumstances. Managing your resources, maintaining your character’s various stats and dealing with the hordes in first person turn-based combat are just a few of the things you’ll encounter. There’s multiple escape scenarios to try and even the opportunity to create a cure to the Zombie plague. Overall, Terminus is highly recommended for those that enjoy a lot of micromanagement.

Feed The Deep

A Lovecraftian Loveletter

A solo developer’s efforts at its finest, Feed The Deep from Luke Muscat is a fun and surprisingly in depth lovecraftian roguelite that needs more attention. You play as a lone diver in the far future where everyone lives in floating cities all across the ocean.

It’s all pristine and tropical sunshine on the surface, but deep below lurks a dark secret. There’s a massive monster beneath those waves and it’s up to you to keep it sated, or else the surface suffers. Featuring procedurally generated caves that keep expeditions fresh and interesting, plus a soundtrack by Cedar Jones of Jetpack Joyride fame, Feed The Deep is a simple and spooky Indie game you should stick on your Wishlist.

Snap Snap

Puzzling Poltergeist Photography

A horror title with all the hallmarks of an odd Indie Gem, Snap Snap from Beshbarmak Games gives their version of a demonic home invasion by an entity obsessed with puzzles. You return home from the Morgue one night after taking photographs of an odd corpse for your next big story. But something is wrong.

A demonic entity has followed you home. After locking you inside and warping your house into a new nightmare realm, it tasks you with completing puzzles and enduring spooky encounters in order to leave. Your only option for defense is your trusty camera flash, just make sure to keep those batteries charged. Positively received and very cheap to pick up, Snap Snaps a cheeky game worth checking out.

Let Me Out

Adorably Arachnophobic

An Indonesian horror game that’s been getting a lot of praise, Let Me Out from 4Happy Studio, is eery, intriguing, cute and skin-crawlingly creepy all at the same time. You play as Alvin, a young Indigo boy in search of his mother in an abandoned and extremely old Javanese village.

However, he’s not alone as the ghost of his younger sister and his pet spider help him out on his quest. Along the way Alvin has to solve tricky puzzles, exorcize demonic and mysterious creatures and of course, find his mother. If you’re a fan of horror games from another part of the world that are just dripping in culture and mythology, then this is right up your alley.

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Into The Pit

This Time It’s An Adventure Game

Throw a rock in a random direction and you’ll hit at least three Five Nights At Freddy’s games. The latest has taken a rather drastic turn away from first person horror to a slightly slower yet still surprisingly challenging and spooky point-and-click adventure game.

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This time around you play as Oswald, a young chap that wished his life wasn’t so boring. After falling into the ball pit at Fazbear’s Pizzeria, he finds himself back in time when all the chaos first kicked off. There’s plenty of puzzles, references for Fazbear fans and multiple endings to unlock in this latest installment from a franchise that just keeps on surviving.

Mourning Tide

Pulling Up More Than The Catch Of The Day

A fishing game with a dark secret, in Mourning Tide you play as a guilt-filled Fisherman who sets sail every morning to forget his past and catch some fish. Unfortunately, the ocean has other ideas and as you haul up those tasty fishies, the more you’ll learn about the reason why your character fishes to forget.

Mourning Tide is a simple yet supremely unsettling fishing game that’s available on itch.io for free. All you have to worry about is moving and clicking one button to fish, so you can spend lots of time immersing yourself in the spine-tingling narrative. If you like odd Indie horror, Mourning Tide is worth downloading.

Ells Tales: Egg

Don’t Chicken Out

A horror escape game that’s simple, spooky, and slightly more complicated than it looks, Ells Tales Egg is a popular and very, very cheap Indie Horror game from Ells and Pills that’s been making the rounds for all the right reasons. The concept is simple, click the mouse, get the egg, and escape. But don’t lose your hands.

A simple concept with a few extra layers that you won’t be expecting, Ells Tales Egg is the epitome of what makes Indie horror games great. A strange and simple concept, a lot of style and gameplay that lets you hit the ground running. It’s a game that sells itself as a “Survival Horror Clicker” and it comes highly recommended if you’re looking for something short, spooky and simple.

Dish Washing Simulator

Surviving In A Dish Based Economy

By far the best thing about Indie Horror games, other than the fun gimmicks, is that the naming convention can also be strange and misleading, but in a fun way that works. Case in point, Dishing Washing Simulator, a hidden horror game that you wouldn’t realize is a horror until a few minutes in.

Developed by Frinky and Frosty, Dishing Washing Simulator has a simple idea on the surface, just wash dishes in a small room. But once you start digging into it you notice everything isn’t as it seems, there’s a dark realm to explore where dangerous anomalies lurk, a mysterious narrative to unravel and some resource automation to try out. There’s a lot of moving parts for what seems like a simple hidden horror game, but it has a lot of charm that makes it worthwhile.

Voices Of The Void

Screaming Into Space, And The Woods

Another Indie horror game that’s made a lot of noise for all the right reasons, Voices of the Void puts you in the role of a Scientist in a remote and very isolated research station. You’re tasked with gathering signals from deep space using the nearby dishes, analyze their sources, and then use the data to make cash. Simple.

There are over 150 different signals to interpret, with more added through updates and mods, plus the longer you survive, the stranger things get. Over time odd anomalies, strange and deadly weather events and even visits from extraterrestrials will occur and you’ll have to defend your lab and manage resources whilst still gathering those vital space signals. It’s a slow-burn horror management-style game that’s got tons of easter eggs and an active Community if you get stuck.

Still Wakes The Deep

Scottish Accents And Horror At Their Finest

The Chinese Room can be a little hit-and-miss with their releases, but thankfully Still Wakes The Deep seems to be one of their hits. Set in 1975 on the Beira D Oil Rig in bonny old Scotland, disaster has struck and an Eldritch horror from the deep has surfaced and is running amok on the isolated oil rig.

It’s a first-person horror that’s narrative-rich, rich in detail and atmosphere, and has perhaps the most regionally accurate Scottish accents of any videogame so far. Don’t worry there are subtitles for you non-Celtic folk, and there are plenty of unexpected scares that are very reminiscent of John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’. It’s another horror that comes highly recommended, especially if you’re Scottish.

Content Warning

Systems

Released

April 1, 2024

Developer

Skog, Zorro, Wilnyl, Philip, thePetHen

Publisher(s)

Landfall Publishing

Grab a group of your friends and go viral in this sleeper hit from a small group of Indie Devs. The premise is simple: hop into the diving bell, take your camera, and record something spooky in the Old World that will net you all that sweet internet money. It’s a simple, slightly wonky yet incredibly funny game that blends together well.

Cursed relics, strange monsters, and dark passages fill the subterranean realm in this co-op horror game, and it’s up to your film crew to make the best Found Footage film around. You can watch your movie afterward and with Twitch integration you can make it a big event for your audience. There’s gear to upgrade, more monsters to find and all sorts of horror films to make.

Lethal Company

Bringing In Big Bucks For The Company

Another indie hit that seemed to just explode onto the Gaming Community almost overnight, Lethal Company is a supremely spooky game that’s brutal on your own but brilliant with your friends. You’re tasked with scavenging scrap from desolate and dangerous moons and if you don’t meet your quota you’ll be blasted out the airlock into space.

Each moon’s layout is random and whilst there are gadgets to unlock that will help you out, there’s always something new and horrible that can bite you in half just waiting around the corner. Simple on its surface but surprisingly complex once you dig into it, Lethal Company is scary, simple and supremely fun.

Dead By Daylight

Asymmetric Anarchy With Chaotic Crossovers

Say what you will about Dead By Daylight, its hung in there and is considered by many to be the biggest and most mainstream horror game around now. After a few big overhauls over the years, its roster of Killers and Survivors is absolutely bursting at the seams.

From new terrifying monsters made by the devs to classic cult horror icons like Scream, Michael Myers, Chuckie, and Pinhead from Hellraiser to name just a few. There’s an abundance of maps to run around and the terrifying asymmetric gameplay never fails to create some genuinely hilarious and heart-stopping moments. Highly recommended for horror aficionados and anyone looking for a solid multiplayer game to play with their friends, Dead By Daylight is a must-play.

Darkest Dungeon 2

Bringing The Violent Band Back Together

A bigger budget follow-up to the original Darkest Dungeon, in the sequel you’ll be taking your team on the road. Familiar classes return alongside some new ones, and the monsters and marauders have only gotten larger and more deadly.

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The road ahead is long and roguelike, so each journey in your rickety wagon is going to be new whilst teaching you more about this forsaken and lost world as you try to avert the apocalypse. The tried and tested turn-based combat is back, but the difficulty curve has only gotten steeper with time. A true challenge for the tactical, Darkest Dungeon 2 rewards those who like to think ahead.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide

A Horde Shooter In The Grim Dark Future

Despite a rather rough launch, Fatshark’s latest attempt at turning Warhammer into a multiplayer horde game took things from the medieval to the modern 40K setting. Set within a Corrupted Hive, you and other press-ganged degenerates of the Imperium are tasked with cleaning out the Spire for the greater good of the Imperium.

Levels are suitably massive, the hordes have the highest amount of variability seen in these kinds of games so far and they can be downright grotesque at times. Also, the weapons are all classic 40K armaments that will make any fan of the franchise happy. If you’re in need of a horror-themed horde shooter then add Warhammer 40K: Darktide to your Wishlist.