Summary
- Welcome to the Game is a classic digital horror experience set on the deep web with intense gameplay.
- Home Safety Hotline challenges players to inform callers about dark mysteries lurking in their homes.
- Doki Doki Literature Club revolutionized digital horror by trapping players in a dating simulator with Monika.
There are multiple genres of horror, with new versions of it being created that fit the modern world. One great example of this is the sub-genre of horror known as Digital Horror. This genre is a modern version of the genre some players may know called Analogue horror.
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Digital horror includes settings that are based on technology or the internet, such as making players search through websites or if they find themselves trapped within a video game. Since this genre is quite a niche at the moment, there are few games that fit this genre. However, these are by far the best digital horror games, ranked.
8
Welcome To The Game
Searching The Deep Web Is Scary Both On And Offline
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2016-06-15
- Developer: Reflect Studios
- Genre(s): Puzzle, Horror
Starting off strong, Welcome to the Game is a classic digital horror experience, with the original title being one of the best horror experiences for players to try. Players are tasked with finding several keys across the deep web in order to find out where a Red Room – a sort of live stream where people pay to watch someone be tortured – is located.
As the player is forced to search the deep web through various questionable websites to look for these keys, they will also have to keep the various killers that have found their IP at bay, creating an intense experience both in and out of the deep web.
7
Home Safety Hotline
Browsing The Internet To Inform Callers
Home Safety Hotline
Adventure
Horror
Point-and-click
- Released
-
January 16, 2024
Continuing with digital horror games that challenge the player to search the internet, Home Safety Hotline gives the player the role of being an operator for a company that helps their callers evaluate what has got into their home and how they can get rid of it.
While some cases may be tame, such as informing a caller about how to get rid of an ant infestation, others are a lot darker with the likes of a mysterious invader in their home that is on the darker side, and uncovering what lives deep in a person’s home.
6
KinitoPET
A Computer Forever Friend With A Dark Secret
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024-01-09
- Developer: troy_en
- Genre(s): Horror, Simulation
A digital pet is usually better than an actual pet due to the player having fewer responsibilities when looking after it. However, in this digital horror of KinitoPET, looking after this tiny pink creature is a lot more hassle than the player first expected.
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This digital pet from the early 2000s on the player’s old computer may seem fun, with the player playing games with it, talking to it, and watching it adapt, like any good psychological horror, things will start to sour quickly. KinitoPET holds a dark secret that will begin to corrupt the player’s computer, though thankfully this is only in the game.
5
Shipwrecked 64
Play A Lost Game That Had A Mysterious Launch
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024-01-01
- Developer: Squeaks D’Corgeh, Cogware Game
- Genre(s): Adventure, Horror
Some of the most interesting digital horror games are the ones that act as if they were a mysterious lost game that has suddenly been found. Shipwrecked 64 is a game in a game as players discover more about its supposed mysterious launch and witness the decay while they complete certain actions within the levels while playing as Bucky Beaver.
With an assortment of endings and actions to be completed within Shipwrecked 64, there is plenty to discover within this digital horror title as the player attempts to save their friends and themselves within the game while wading through the dark imagery.
4
MiSide
Trapped In A Video Game With Something Sinister
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024-12-11
- Developer: AIHASTO
- Genre(s): Simulation, Horror
With some digital horror games having players play a video game from an external point of view, MiSide instead has the player becoming trapped within a video game with the character Mita. At first, this title may seem rather cute as the player chats and does chores with an adorable anime girl, but like any horror title, when the player finally wishes to try to escape this video game, it won’t be easy.
Mita doesn’t want the player to leave and as the player attempts to persuade her to let them go, the world of MiSide will reveal that there is much more to it than the apartment the player finds themselves in with Mita.
3
Simulacra
Explore A Phone To Get To The Bottom Of A Horror Mystery
- Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, and IOS
- Released: 2017-10-26
- Developer: Kaigan Game
- Genre(s): Simulation, Horror
There have been multiple found phone horror games, with Simulacra being one of the best. Players in this digital horror title are searching for a missing woman by looking through her phone, but as always, not everything is as it seems.
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Players must look through not only her messages and phone calls, but also her gallery, and her social media in the hopes of finding clues as to what has happened and how to save her. All the while, the phone itself seems corrupted with various glitches and moments of live footage of horrifying moments.
2
I’m On Observation Duty 4
Spot The Difference With Live Surveillance
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2021-12-22
- Developer: Notovia
- Genre(s): Puzzle, Horror
As mentioned, the digital horror genre doesn’t just include the internet but also technology, therefore the various I’m on Observation Duty games are also considered digital horror titles. There have been plenty of I’m on Observation Duty games created, with the type of spot-the-difference horror title becoming incredibly popular in recent months.
I’m on Observation Duty 4 is arguably one of the best created with various locations for the player to explore with plenty of anomalies to spot. From the easy cases of objects being moved or duplicated, some moments may even give the player a fright as an unknown creature is found within the location as players switch between the live surveillance footage.
1
Doki Doki Literature Club
Trapped Talking To Monika In A Dating Simulator
Doki Doki Literature Club!
- Released
-
September 22, 2017
Out of all the digital horror games that have been created over the years, one of the greatest as well as one of the titles that truly started the digital horror genre has to be Doki Doki Literature Club. From an external point of view, this game masquerades as a dating simulator, where the player creates poems to swoon the love interests.
However, the game is incredibly aware, as it turns out that Monika, one of the girls in the game, is fully in control of the entirety of the Doki Doki Literature Club title. Players will encounter various dark imagery as they attempt to talk to the girls until, eventually, there is just Monika, who doesn’t want the game to end.
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