The Best Abstract Horror Games

Key Takeaways

• Horror in games can be more than just monsters and jumpscares; abstract horror can create feelings of unease and dread.
• Games like Escape The Backrooms, No One Lives Under The Lighthouse, and Iron Lung excel in abstract horror elements.
• Titles like SOMA, World Of Horror, and Mouthwashing delve into deeper themes of humanity, guilt, and surreal horror.

Horror in games comes in many forms. From the jumpscares of Five Nights At Freddy‘s to the monsters of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, to the atmospheric dread of Alien: Isolation. There’s a horror game out there for every gamer, some co-op, some solo, and somewhere there is fun to be had in scaring friends. Somewhere between them all exists abstract horror.

Creating horror not from explicit monster encounters, gore, or jumps, but rather finding horror in absence and atmosphere. Feeling unsafe, unsettled, and not quite sure of what lurks around the corner, or whether anything is real. These games embody this bizarre feeling in unique and terrifying ways and thus are the best abstract horror games.

8 Escape The Backrooms

Déjà Vu Made Dangerous

Escape The Backrooms was released after the Backrooms craze that took social media by storm. While many may dismiss this game on account of its somewhat “meme” status, the setting of the Backrooms has real abstract horror elements. The feeling of déjà vu in every corridor lit by sickly yellow fluorescents and the knowledge that there is no way out is truly maddening.

There are creatures in each of the levels of the Backrooms, but it isn’t their appearance that makes the player fear them (although it helps). It is the total lack of knowledge about what is out there. Well-lit corridors don’t do much to hide huge creatures, yet they somehow still lurk around corners, making the player break down into paranoia.

7 No One Lives Under The Lighthouse

Lovecraftian Terror With PS1 Graphics

No One Lives Under The Lighthouse makes a spectacle of intentionally outdated graphics. While the latter sections of the game devolve into some explicit creature horror, where the game thrives is the uneasy feeling the player is overcome by and left alone on an island to tend to a lighthouse, or almost alone. Surrounded by vague shapes and blurred lines, both the player and the main character will begin to question their sanity.

At times, the player sees through the eyes of the thing haunting the island, forced to maneuver the character with reversed controls from an outside perspective. It will screw with anyone’s mind, ultimately culminating in an eerie and uncomfortable game that unfortunately becomes a little too action-oriented toward the end.

6 Iron Lung

Minimalism To The Max

Iron Lung, now being made into a feature film by YouTube legend Markiplier, is a strange game, even within this list. The player takes control of a submarine exploring an ocean of blood, completely sealed away and only able to see outside through a blurry camera and proximity detectors. Sealed inside a metal tube, the player must navigate the ocean of blood to take pictures of specific coordinates to slowly uncover what lurks beneath.

Surrounded by strange noises, and overwhelmed by the knowledge that there is limited oxygen, the player has no choice but to keep going, delving ever further into the blind unknown. It is truly unnerving, and with no background music to soothe the player’s nerves, it is easy to begin to hear things that may or may not be right outside that thin metal shell.

5 SOMA

What Does It Mean To Be Human?

SOMA is a game that, similarly to Frictional Games’ other projects, makes the player feel claustrophobic and hunted, unable to fight back against the horrors lurking around every dark corner. Where SOMA differs from other similar games is in its questioning of consciousness and humanity. Each robot the player comes across in this dystopian future seems human and is utterly convinced they are. The player, so sure of who they are, is slowly whittled down until they are left wondering what truly makes something or someone human.

There is a lot to be said about the dread-filled atmosphere and violent encounters with creatures of unknown origins, SOMA thrives in its philosophical debates about humanity and life. It is hard to know what to think when every “human” character is revealed to be an AI, a copy of someone’s conscious, or not real at all.

4 World Of Horror

Junji Ito Meets Text-Based Adventure

World Of Horror is a difficult game to grapple with, but is well worth fighting through the confusing control scheme. If a player can get past the harsh onboarding process, they’ll be met with a truly fantastic horror experience, hence the title of the game. Inspired by the works of Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft, World Of Horror explores multiple stories set in different Japanese locales, with more than a few creatures based on Japanese folklore. As each of the main characters, the player must uncover what is happening in each story, before facing some horror in battle.

Yet no matter how much the player uncovers, they will never truly understand the full picture. The game is also random, with each doorway entered there is a potentially new horror to uncover, forcing the player to come to terms with the fact that nothing is under their control.

3 Home Safety Hotline

Analog Horror In Video Game Form

Ever wanted to experience the mundanity of working in a helpline call center, except there are now horrors beyond human comprehension stalking every corner? Home Safety Hotline fills that niche perfectly. Encapsulating the aesthetic of analog horror that has taken the internet by storm, Home Safety Hotline makes both horror and comedy out of nostalgia. The whole game takes the view of an old PC screen as people call for help with random issues around their house.

As the player answers calls and offers correct advice, they will uncover more possible issues, which become increasingly disturbing and abstract. There is also the creeping dread of failure, as if enough calls are answered incorrectly, the company can fire its newest employee, and no one wants to lose their job.

2 Mouthwashing

Guilt, The Game

Mouthwashing can be a difficult, if not triggering, game to play. While short, with simple controls and stylized graphics, Mouthwashing is a truly horrifying game. The player takes control of two characters, both the past and present captains of a spaceship, one before a devastating crash and the other after. They must figure out how to keep morale up within the crew, all the while laboring with the knowledge that there is limited food, limited oxygen, and limited sanity.

The game frequently devolves into truly mind-boggling visuals, making the player question whether anything is real, or whether many of the actions are merely the inventions of grief-riddled mind. While much of the horror comes from the horrific situation and the feeling of uncertainty in one’s reality, some very unpleasant visuals in the game heighten the sense of dread cultivated in the player.

1 Faith: The Unholy Trinity

Pixel Graphics Have Never Been Creepier

Faith: The Unholy Trinity is a game about faith and the loss of it. The player takes control of a priest tasked with finishing an exorcism that went wrong years ago and is attacked by demons from all sides in this pursuit. Through scavenged letters and flashbacks, the player is slowly told what happened, and why it must happen again, all the while stalked by creatures trying to kill the priest or steal his faith.

While the simple graphics may fool some into thinking this game couldn’t be scary, each of the death scenes is rotoscope-animated, creating an uncanny effect as the pixel graphics move in uncomfortably lifelike ways. The continuous religious imagery is another point of horror, forcing the player to believe, or disbelieve, in a god that may or may not save them at any given point. To say any more about Faith would be to ruin it, as it is truly best experienced with as little knowledge as possible.