The Best Horror Games On PS4, Ranked

Horror games, much like their film counterparts, fall into a niche genre experience that is supported in large part by a very loyal and active fan base. Especially in the Indie Horror game scene. The most recent generation of video game consoles has seen the release of more games annually than we’ve seen in previous generations.

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The PlayStation 4 is home to many great gaming experiences, and if you’re simply looking for horror games it’s home to some of the best the genre has ever seen. Due to the nature of the medium horror games come in many different shapes and sizes. Let’s take a look at the best horror games on the PlayStation 4.

Updated January 11, 2025 By Matthew Mckeown: Whilst it may seem like the PS4 is getting slowly shuffled out the door like an overstayed elderly relative, it’s still going down swinging with some great games. Especially when it comes to horror titles as there’s still plenty left on the PS4.

Whilst it may feel like everything is slowly shifting over to the PS5 for the foreseeable future, you can still get the odd release of lower end indie games or mass released horror titles. If you’re looking to fill up your console with some good horror games before we’re all forced to switch to next-gen for good, then here’s an updated look at the best horror games on the PS4, ranked.

26

Daylight

Escaping Another Abandoned Asylum

A horror game from Atlus that slipped under the radar somewhat, Daylight is a little rough around the edges but for a horror game on the PS4 it’s still enjoyable. After waking up in an abandoned hospital on a strange overgrown island, it’s a quick drop into nightmare territory as you try to find your way home.

However, a dark presence haunts the island and with only your phone light to keep the shadows at bay it’s going to be a tough time getting out alive. There’s plenty of puzzles to solve along the way and with procedurally generated thrills around every corner you’re always kept on the edge of your seat for the next big scare. A solid if janky horror experience, Daylight is worth checking out if you’re in need of a new spooky game for your console.

25

Blair Witch

Watch Your Back In Those Woods

Loosely based on the hit horror film, Blair Witch takes place in the same Black Hills Forest that haunted our screens back in the day and they’re still just as scary. This time around you play as a police officer helping to hunt for a missing boy. But things start to get weird pretty quickly.

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What follows is a twisting tale in the woods as you wander around with just your trusty handheld camera and canine companion. Dark shadow creatures can lurch out of any overgrown outcrop and you’re never quite sure where the story is taking you right until the end. Despite a disappointing ending, Blair Witch still manages to sink in some solid scares and unsettling atmosphere. If you loved the film and wanted to take your own walk in those woods then this is your best option for that.

24

Layers of Fear

Experiencing An Artists Breakdown

Many people consider art to be confusing and overrated. Abstract art tends to be the one that draws the most disdain and confusion from people trying to figure out why people like or enjoy it. Layers of Fear is a horror game that follows the story of an artist struck by tragedy and personal demons.

Everyone at one point in their life has come across a piece of art that’s off-putting or makes them irrationally uncomfortable for some reason. Layers of Fear plays on this general experience in brilliant ways.

23

The Evil Within

Mind-Bending Horror With Surreal Scenes

Shinji Mikami, the man responsible for Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, formed Tango Gameworks with the hopes of tackling the survival horror genre once again. The Evil Within was the studio’s first release and the moment they released the first trailer for the game, fans across the globe new Mikami was back with a vengeance.

The Evil Within pays heavy tribute to Resident Evil while giving fans a new disturbing world to play around in. It features new devilish creature designs that invoke characteristics of Pyramid Head from Silent Hill or the dogs from Resident Evil.

22

Resident Evil 7

Welcome To The Family Son

Resident Evil Seven was a return to the original formula that made the franchise so popular. It returned to its survival horror roots and stepped away from the ongoing action focus that upset fans of the series as the franchise continued to move away from horror with each new mainline installment.

Despite returning to the classic formula it made the bold decision to be entirely played from the first-person perspective. The game has players traveling to a home estate in the backwoods of Louisiana in search of your missing girlfriend.

21

Little Nightmares

An Instant Cult Classic

You’ve likely never considered the possibility of a 2-dimensional platformer delivering a top-notch horror experience. In Little Nightmares, you play as a small child trying to escape this awful world that surrounds her. The art style and design of the horrid people that live in this machination of terror will make your stomach hurt.

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Players will feel fear and fright not only in the grotesque imagery but in the immersion of playing as a character much smaller than the people around her. It’s like a dwarf trying to escape the land of giants, only the giants were designed by Tim Burton and Wes Craven.

20

Visage

A Haunted Home Invasion

Visage is a title that is heavily inspired by P.T. There was a bevy of indie horror games that tried to ride the wave of the Silent Hill demo that took YouTube and the gaming world by storm.

Visage takes place in a home and features high-quality environments and plenty of scares. The game’s mechanics rely on light and if the player spends too much time in the dark their sanity begins to slip and the supernatural events occur at shorter intervals. Visage is a great horror experience.

19

Project 13

Spot-The-Difference With Consequences

A Walking Simulator meets Spot The Difference, Project 13 from Drybread is a gorgeously rendered game that relies heavily on your ability to focus on the tiny details in life. You play as a Probant, someone who’s been captured and used for experiments by the mysterious Project 13 Group.

You’re sent through seemingly normal-looking areas, but if you can’t find the anomaly during your wander through it’ll all reset and you’ll need to try again. Find all the anomalies, escape the loop by the 13th walkthrough, and don’t get trapped forever. It’s a surreal adventure that’s short, simple, and enjoyable, plus its relatively inexpensive.

18

In Sound Mind

A Psychologists Playground

Dive deep into the twisting psychological realms of past trauma with In Sound Mind from We Create Stuff. A very imaginative, colorful, and very artistic Indie horror game, In Sound Mind has you traveling into various worlds transposed from therapy session tapes scattered around an abandoned building.

Unravel the mystery of each person’s pain whilst trying to escape from the strange void you find yourself trapped in. There’s some light puzzle elements to solve, strange creatures to encounter, and some pretty haunting memories to listen to as you go further into this world of unreality. If you enjoy horror games with a lot of hidden meanings, then check out In Sound Mind.

17

Observation

Security Camera Simulator

4.0/5

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Observation

OpenCritic

Top Critic Rating:
76/100


Critics Recommend:
72%

Released

May 21, 2019

Developer(s)

No Code

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Mild Violence, Strong Language

How Long To Beat

6 Hours

Observation is one of the newer releases on this list seeing as it came out in the first half of 2019. It’s a science-fiction horror game where you play as the artificial intelligence of a space station. You work alongside an astronaut aboard the space station and your focus is on figuring out what happened to the other astronauts.

As the story unfolds the tension builds and you start to question everything you’ve done. It’s a neat perspective to play for a sci-fi game and it makes use of the player’s strengths and weaknesses of playing as a piece of technology as opposed to an actual human being.

16

Outlast

Outlast in many ways was the catalyst for an entire sub-genre of horror video games. In Outlast you’re trying to escape an insane asylum with nothing but your wits and a video recorder. The main mechanic of the game revolves the video recorder being used as a light to visual guide you through the game.

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Its batteries drain the more you use it so gathering and stocking up on new batteries is a big part of the experience. There’s also follow-up downloadable content for Outlast as well as a sequel that follows a brand new protagonist if you happen to enjoy your time with this game.

15

Home Sweet Home

Terrifying Thai Horror

A first-person horror game from Yggdrazil Group, in Home Sweet Home is a journey into the terror of Thai mythology. You play as Tim, a man that’s been having a pretty hard time since his wife’s mysterious disappearance. One day poor Tim wakes up at home, except it’s not his house at all.

Instead, he finds himself hunted and haunted by hostile spirits as he tries to sneak his way out of his home and to safety. A surprisingly tense game with an emphasis on stealth and puzzle solving, Home Sweet Home will keep you on edge right until you hit those end credits. Plus, the environments are large and very unsettling so you never quite feel safe.

14

Until Dawn

Surviving A Horror Film With Your Friends

Horror games had stuck to a pretty familiar structure for a long time. The genre itself is very niche and fans have always yearned for refreshing experiences that invented new ways to scare the player. Until Dawn mixed survival horror with a consequential choose-your-own-adventure game and knocked it out of the park.

Players take control of several young adults spending the weekend out at a log cabin. It’s considered one of the best games to play with friends because instead of yelling at a screen because someone did something dumb in a horror movie, you’re actively choosing what the best action to take is.

13

Home Safety Hotline

Cowering In A Call Centre

An analog horror game that’s got a lot of buzz about it, Home Safety Hotline from Night Signal Entertainment is as odd as you think, but trust us, give this one a go. The premise is simple, you’re the hotline operator that has to help people having all sorts of difficulties, but there’s a twist.

Some of the problems are of the supernatural and as things start to unwind you’ll get to see how deep and weird the rabbit hole goes. There are untold horrors living in those homes and you’ll have to do your best to help your callers. It’s an unnerving and fantastic return to form from Nick Lives and highly recommended if you like odd indie horror games on your console.

12

The Outlast Trials

Chaotic And Murderous Group Therapy

If you’re looking to drag some friends into a night of screaming, jump scares, and teamwork then The Outlast Trials from Red Barrels is worth picking up. Similar yet different to previous Outlast games, Trials has you and your friends working together to torture targets, perform gruesome tasks, and complete other mind-bending experiments.

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It’s got quite the learning curve but a ton of customization options, brutal gameplay moments and it leaves a lot of room for cathartic chaos with some friends. For replayability, there’s extra side missions and a skill tree system that lets your team specialize for each encounter.

11

Escape The Backrooms

Liminial Space Has Never Been This Good

A title from Fancy Games that needs little introduction by this point, Escape The Backrooms is the go-to for fans of the Backrooms urban myth horror lore. You, or a group of friends, are members of a team sent into the titular Backrooms, but after becoming trapped you’ll need to find your way out.

Descend through the depths of the Backroom realms through floor after floor of nightmare worlds, strange monsters, unique puzzles, and some genuinely unsettling and tough gameplay sections. All whilst trying to scavenge Almond Water to survive and just get to the next floor alive.

10

Amnesia: The Bunker

Subterranean Period Horror

3.5/5

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Amnesia: The Bunker

Released

May 16, 2023

Developer(s)

Frictional Games

Publisher(s)

Frictional Games

ESRB

t

How Long To Beat

6 Hours

A successful follow-up in the Amnesia series, The Bunker took the familiar formula and locked it inside a small World War One bunker that had become the hunting grounds of a Mole-like monstrosity known as The Beast. You play a lone French soldier trapped within this deadly Rabbit Warren and with the exit blocked by rubble, trying to escape is going to be a hard task.

The Bunker is pitch black, your fuel to keep the lights on is limited and every noise you make draws the ire of the resident man-mulching monster. The game itself is fairly short, but there’s some unique replayability in that non-key items will change position on each playthrough.

9

Dead By Daylight

The Best Multiplayer Horror Game On The Market

An asymmetrical horror game with a massive roster of monsters and celebrity cameos, Dead By Daylight is a great spooky game to have on your console. Especially around Halloween as there’s usually a special event or new character drop to celebrate the scariest time of the year.

For those not familiar, Dead By Daylight pits a team of Survivors versus a Killer. The arenas can be small or sprawling, but the goal is Survivors have to repair Generators to power up an Exit Gate, whilst the Killer has to stop them. There are a lot of bizarre powers, helpful passives or skills, and the ability to mix and match to get your own unique build once you put a good bit of time into the game. Great on your own and better with friends, Dead By Daylight is definitely worth trying.

8

Alan Wake

A Masterclass In Horror Writing

A literary adventure into the metaphorical and literal darkness. Alan Wake is a cult-classic horror game that took an interesting look at the haunted, tortured author trope and made it into a third-person survival horror game set in the haunted pines of Bright Falls.

Feeling like a mixture between a Stephen King novel and Twin Peaks, you play as the titular Mr. Wake. Who after visiting a quiet town to finish writing his novel, unleashes a dark demonic entity upon the town. With the only safety from this eldritch nightmare being in the light, what follows is a rollercoaster adventure into a reality-warping nightmare realm. Plus, with the well-received Remaster making the rounds and a sequel shortly about to drop, now is the perfect time to take a trip to

7

Conscript

War Is Hell

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Conscript

Systems

Released

2024-00-00

Developer(s)

Catchweight Studio

ESRB

m

A horror game oozing atmosphere and dread, Conscript from Catchweight Studio and Jordan Mochi is a highly anticipated survival horror game that you really need to play. Set during the First World War, you play as a lone French soldier that has to navigate a dangerous warren of German trenches.

Combat is close, brutal, and a viscerally stark portrayal of the violence of the War. The period weaponry feels enjoyably chunky and impactful, plus with plenty of puzzles and some genuinely dark and unsettling imagery, Conscript is a highly recommended horror game.