2020 brought a lot of uncertain changes to the gaming industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtually all studios went remote, and many projects were in jeopardy of being delayed/ But miraculously, lots of games still managed to make it to the finish line. And many of the most pivotal launches that year were also from the horror genre.
Related
While you had new entries from mainstay series like Amnesia, Resident Evil, and The Dark Pictures Anthology, there were also some amazing sequels and original horror games for both multiplayer and singleplayer experiences. Here are the horror selections that 2020 gifted us!
Honorable Mentions: Half-Life: Alyx, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Remothered: Broken Porcelain, And Maid Of Sker
Despite the global pandemic impacting every industry, 2020 was still a huge year for games, particularly in the horror genre. It’s only right to give a mention to all the titles that launched that year, even VR-exclusives and others less talked about today.
Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx came out for VR and, although still considered an FPS game, there was a lot more horror featured in this installment. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners also allowed you to kill hordes of undead walkers in VR, with the game being set in New Orleans.
Both Remothered: Broken Porcelain and Maid of Sker were not as critically acclaimed but still offer decent horror experiences. The former is a third-person survival horror follow-up to the story of Tormented Fathers. The latter is a first-person game rooted in Welsh folklore that mashes together survival horror with Gothic horror and is set in a hotel on the fictional Sker Island.
10
Zombie Army 4: Dead War
4.0/5
Zombie Army 4: Dead War
- Released
-
February 4, 2020
- Engine
-
Asura
- How Long To Beat
-
12 Hours
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
- Number of Players
-
4
2020 didn’t bring a new Sniper Elite game, but Rebellion did launch the next chapter of its spin-off series, Zombie Army, set in a nightmarish alternate horror version of WW2. It’s a new story that continues from the original trilogy, where you and up to three other players can take on Nazi zombie enemies with the same X-Ray bullet-time mechanic and combat from the Sniper Elite series.
The premise is that Hitler has ties to the occult and raises an army of Nazi zombies as part of a new supernatural plan to help him win the war. The Nazi carnage is more gruesome than ever with the zombie enemy types here, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War also allows you to take character and weapon customization further than in the previous installments.
9
Phasmophobia
Fun multiplayer games were needed more than ever during the pandemic (look at how Among Us took off then), and if you had some friends who were horror fans, you would’ve looked no further than Phasmophobia. The game launched in Early Access and is still going stronger than ever in that state as a multiplayer co-op horror title.
2:01
Related
The Best Horror Games To Play With Friends
There are some great horror games with a focus on multiplayer offerings, and here are the best ones you can play with friends.
As its title suggests, Phasmophobia’s gameplay will hone in on your fear of ghosts. From a first-person perspective, you and your friends essentially act as ghost hunters, equipped with all the ghost-hunting tools you need, and there’s quite a variety of entities you can encounter; plus a VR mode is also available for the game.
8
Carrion
- Released
-
July 23, 2020
- Developer(s)
-
Phobia Studios
- Engine
-
MonoGame
- How Long To Beat
-
5 Hours
Typically, in horror games, you’re the one running and hiding from the terrifying monster. In Carrion, it’s the other way around. You get to take on the role of the villainous creature, which here is a giant tentacled alien blob that escapes its containment and starts to take its revenge on the scientists who were studying it.
Carrion is not your average horror game and nor is it your average Metroidvania title, providing you with quite an interesting experience all across the board. One of the main objectives for the creature is to recover parts of its DNA to learn newer and deadlier skills. The ending is also highly reminiscent of some of the best sci-fi shows and cinema, like Ex Machina and Westworld.
7
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
Following 2019’s Man of Medan, the next installment in the first season of Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures Anthology was Little Hope. This one includes Will Poulter, the star of We’re the Millers, Midsommar, GOTG Vol. 3, The Maze Runner, and The Bear as one of the main protagonists. The story takes a historical fiction turn, with the present-day town of Little Hope feeling reminiscent of Silent Hill’s atmosphere.
Like the signature formula of Supermassive horror titles, Little Hope is a branching narrative adventure with some unique twists along the way. You follow a group of students and their professor whose bus crashes in the fog-ridden and demon-infested streets of Little Hope, with doppelgängers of their characters also seen through different timelines, including the witchcraft trials, and it’s all mysteriously connected.
6
Amnesia: Rebirth
- Released
-
October 20, 2020
- Publisher(s)
-
Frictional Games
- Engine
-
HPL Engine 3
- How Long To Beat
-
10 Hours
2020 marked the first new Amnesia title from Frictional Games since 2013’s A Machine for Pigs, and it had a bold new story and gameplay. Though it still wasn’t a match for the original experience in The Dark Descent, Amnesia: Rebirth captures the harrowing tale of a pregnant widow suffering through the series’ classic nightmarish events in the Algerian desert.
Related
The Best Lovecraftian Games For Horror Fans
Lovecraft has inspired lots of horror games, but these are the best of the best for Lovecraft and Cthulhu fans.
Here you are explorer Tasi Trianon, who was in a plane crash along with the rest of her group, landing in a desert with a nearby cave containing otherworldly properties and new terrifying creatures unlike any you’ve seen yet from this series. One of the other new additions to the gameplay is a mysterious amulet that allows Tasi to travel between the Other World and the real world.
5
Observer: System Redux
4.5/5
Observer: System Redux
- Released
-
November 10, 2020
- Publisher(s)
-
Aspyr
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 4
- How Long To Beat
-
7 Hours
Although Observer originally came out in 2017, 2020 brought the next-gen remaster version for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, cleverly titled System Redux. It both updates the graphics and also expands some of the story elements, making the already compelling sci-fi psychological horror game even better (from the studio behind Silent Hill 2 Remake, Layers of Fear, and Blair Witch).
Observer is notable for its futuristic setting of Poland and starring Blade Runner’s Rutger Hauer. Hauer plays Detective Daniel Lazarski, who comes equipped with a special technology called the Dream Eater to physically manifest within the mindscapes of potential suspects to uncover key information. And the disturbing murder mystery that arises in the storyline seemingly involves his own son.
4
Visage
Visage remains one of the scariest psychological horror games in recent memory, one that might be too scary to complete even, and it debuted in 2020. The inspiration for this game was the canceled Silent Hills P.T. by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, aiming to recapture that unnerving haunted house atmosphere but with an original story.
It’s safe to say Visage accomplished that through its immersive first-person gameplay, masterful sound design, disturbing story, and creepy enemies. Even though it came out five years ago and used Unreal Engine 4, the environment design and graphics all look stunningly next-gen and as though the game was created with Unreal 5.
3
Omori
Omori was the indie darling horror game of 2020 that not only proved itself as a top horror contender but also remains important for its story that tackles mental health. It took a development period of six years from its initial Kickstarter campaign before it finally launched on PC, and it’s now one of the most highly acclaimed RPG Maker games.
Related
23 Best Horror Games With Pixel Graphics
Pixel Art can be utilized in some impressive ways, and these games bring the classic look to some scary experiences.
Omori is excellent at blending whimsical elements and the deeper and darker themes of trauma, grief, and mental illnesses such as depression, which makes it equal parts disturbing, fascinating, and powerful to experience. You follow a child named Sunny who lost his sister, Mari, and he now lives between the real world and his imaginary world called the White Space as Omori.
2
Resident Evil 3 Remake
In 2020, Capcom launched the follow-up to 2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake, one of the best horror game remakes of all time. Although, the remake of Resident Evil 3 didn’t strike the same lightning as its predecessor; that instead would’ve been 2023’s Resident Evil 4 Remake. The main criticisms were the shorter length and cut material, which felt like a downgrade from what Capcom achieved with RE2.
Resident Evil 3 does offer the same excellent RE Engine graphics and has a much tighter-paced storyline that delivers some epic and suspenseful moments between Jill Valentine and Nemesis. The new character designs are fantastic, as always. There’s also a greater emphasis on action here, with the classic survival horror elements still in play.
1
The Last Of Us Part 2
- Released
-
June 19, 2020
- Engine
-
Proprietary
- How Long To Beat
-
24 Hours
Naughty Dog’s masterpiece of a sequel, The Last of Us Part 2, is not only a horror game that turns five in 2025 but also one of the most highly acclaimed GOTY-winning games. It continues Joel and Ellie’s story in Jackson, where a new threat emerges to change the course of Ellie’s journey once again. This time, however, the gameplay is even longer and more expansive, featuring ultrarealistic graphics and detailed animation.
While the story decisions made by Naughty Dog were some of the most divisive, and most would agree the gameplay far outshines them (the leaks also didn’t help), Part 2 does give you a perfect morality tale in a tense-filled environment, such as the Cordyceps pandemic. There are no clear villains or heroes. The script is flipped, and you get to see the two sides to the narrative between Ellie and her nemesis, Abby, which is an original take.
