Best Horror Games With Over-The-Top Stories

Horror is a genre never known for pulling its punches, splashing the screen with gratuitous gore, drenching every environment in a smothering atmosphere, jumping out at players with terrifying monsters, and even killing off characters in gruesome fashion. This is how horror excels, going beyond expectations and shocking their players with unexpected twists.

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Not only are these horror games shiver-inducingly creepy, but they also feature some of the best storytelling in their genre.

Even the stories in horror games can go above and beyond, which some may consider over the top. Whether it is cheesy big bad villains, nonsensical plots, or leaning way too hard into a certain theme…these horror games stories dial everything up to 11, guaranteeing an unforgettable experience.

8

Doki Doki Literature Club

Whatever Happened to the Cutesy Dating Sim?

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Doki Doki Literature Club!

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Released

September 22, 2017

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Doki Doki Literature Club became a worldwide phenomenon following its release. It was passed around with the ominous warning not to look anything up before playing the game, though the content warning at the beginning may have raised players’ alarm bells.

From first glances, players are an ordinary high school boy who has joined a literature club, rejoicing he has found a club with no other members than four cute girls. It’s tooth-achingly cute and overbearingly anime to start with, like any other anime-style visual novel. They spend time with the girls, write and share poetry…everything seems fine. Too fine, too normal. But then the game nosedives into surreal horror, presenting the player with time loops, glitchy visuals, and a terrifying fourth-wall break.

7

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

A Late-Game Twist Changes Everything

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The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

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Released

October 22, 2021

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

The third game in the first season of the Dark Pictures Anthology might just be the most unique entry in the series. For starters, there was actually combat, which involved a lot more QTEs than players might expect from Supermassive Games. The game takes place in a desert in Iraq, where a military squad has arrived to raid a village that might be the location of a chemical weapons cache. That is, until everyone plunges down into hidden underground caverns below, the location where the game began thousands of years ago.

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In typical Dark Pictures fashion, unnerving threats begin to challenge the players at every turn, and more information is revealed as the game progresses. It goes from action horror into full-blown sci-fi when it is revealed the vampiric creatures are actually aliens, resulting in a very drastic change of tone. It’s a twist that, while largely overdone, results in tipping the plot just a little too much, especially when the game turns into Salim just laying a beatdown on the creatures.

6

Resident Evil 5

Wesker Goes Full Cartoon Villain

Resident Evil 4 brought a harmonious marriage between horror and action, becoming one of the most adored entries in the franchise. It managed to balance the two rather well, and it was a combination that was perfected in the 2023 remake. Resident Evil 5 was a follow-up to the original, bringing Chris Redfield back into the fold to face down against his old boss alongside one-time companion Sheva.

In this installment, action was prioritized over horror, bringing in tough waves of enemies, each chapter capped by a monstrous boss. The villain of all villains in this game was Albert Wesker, who was cheesy beyond belief. He back-flipped and Matrix dodged around bullets while taunting Chris and voicing his desire to take over the world. It was truly an over-the-top Saturday morning cartoon villain plot, but it definitely is one of the game’s highlights.

5

Remothered: Tormented Fathers

A Convoluted Plot That is Hard to Follow

Promised to be an homage to the classic horror game Clock Tower, Remothered: Tormented Fathers had a lot riding on its shoulders. In this game, Rosemary Reed arrives at the Felton mansion to look into the disappearance of their daughter Celeste. She is promptly escorted off the premises when the reason for her visit comes to light, but that isn’t about to stop Rosemary, who sneaks her way back inside to investigate the manner in secrecy.

This is where the horror begins, as evading the various villains can be a tense matter. The more the player explores, the more the story unfolds, revealing the importance of Celeste, but things quickly become confusing, and what should have been a simple story becomes a plot that seems like it was trying to throw every sort of trope into the mix, which can result in a confusing over the top storyline, and something that is not completely in the games favor, especially with its rather insensitive handling of gender identity.

4

Parasite Eve

An Explosive Experience

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Parasite Eve

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Released

September 9, 1998

Developer(s)

Square

A long-forgotten horror game from the PS1 era, Parasite Eve is one hell of an experience, right from its surprising opening to its cinematic and rather dark conclusion. It opens with Aya trying to enjoy a date night at the opera, only for everyone other than her, her date, and the on-stage actress to suddenly explode, which is one exciting horrifying way to open a game. Melissa clearly knows what is happening, but before Aya can apprehend her, she mutates into a horrifying monster and escapes.

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As if all of this isn’t enough to result in one exaggerated story, people continue to explode throughout the game, and there is a lot of talk about the mitochondria, and Melissa, now Eve, wanting to birth the Ultimate Being. It’s an absolutely bonkers ride that definitely dials everything up to 11, but Parasite Eve is an all-around excellent experience every classic horror fan should play through at least once, especially since clearing the game grants access to the true boss.

3

Deadly Premonition

Eccentric is an Accurate Descriptor for the Entire Game

A series of murders terrorize the United States, ritualistic in nature with red seeds found at every crime scene. FBI agent Francis York Morgan travels to a rural town by the name of Greenvale, following the most recent murder that follows the patterns of the rest to unmask the perpetrator before another body turns up. So far, the story sounds simple enough to follow, without anything too crazy.

But the rest of the game results in Deadly Premonition becoming an over-the-top, eccentric experience that makes Twin Peaks look pedestrian in comparison. York finds himself in a supernatural dimension throughout the game, the White Room and the Red Room to meet with the Forest or the Red Tree, which represents good and evil. There is also Zach, the unseen companion of York which leads to his sanity being questioned by the NPCs and maybe even the player. A fourth wall break, or is York just an unreliable narrator?

2

Lollipop Chainsaw

A Hilarious Splatstick Experience

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Lollipop Chainsaw

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Splatstick is a genre defined by movies, games, or other media that verge on the ridiculous side of things with the gore on display, and Lollipop Chainsaw definitely fits the bill. On her way to meet her boyfriend Nick, Juliet finds herself in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Her boyfriend is bitten by a zombie when he rushes to protect her, so Juliet decapitates him to prevent his transformation and arms herself to fight against the hordes of the undead.

As if a boyfriend’s animated severed head and a chainsaw-wielding zombie weren’t enough, demons are thrown into the mix, which comes from the Rotten World, who also want a piece of Juliet. While definitely over the top, this hilarious plot definitely serves to make Lollipop Chainsaw a fantastic comedy horror game that is fun and wonderfully bizarre to play at the same time.

1

Dino Crisis 3

Fake Dinosaurs in Space

While not the most popular Dino Crisis game, it definitely has an unforgettable plot for those who braved this polarizing third entry into the much-loved franchise. When telling a story of people with guns taking on dinosaurs, one would think it’s about as over the top as it can get. But then the setting is completely overhauled, placing both antagonists and protagonists in space.

Prehistoric creatures and space aren’t two things that go very well together, but the solution was very easy: make these creatures human-dinosaur hybrids, as if Dino Crisis 3 wasn’t as campy as it could get. This did result in allowing designers to have a lot more creative freedom when designing enemies, but it also meant the plot was a lot more extravagant than previous entries, and maybe not all for the better. But for those who like dinosaurs and space, they have hit the jackpot with DC3.

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Best FPS Games For An Over-The-Top Story, Ranked

FPS games are known for delivering an exciting experience full of action. Here are some titles in this genre that also feature over-the-top stories.