From Triple-A titles to indie bangers, 2023 was a fantastic year for horror games! This past year, the horror genre reached new heights with a slew of terrifying titles that promised to haunt even the most laid-back gamers’ nightmares.
Prepare to immerse yourself in the macabre with our curated list of the all-time scariest horror games of 2023! These interactive nightmares are not for the faint of heart, as they plunge players into wicked worlds where every creak, whisper, and shadow could be a harbinger of unspeakable horrors. Brace yourself for an adrenaline-fueled journey through the darkest recesses of 2023’s most chilling landscapes!
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
As many of you are likely already aware, a remake of the 2005 version of Resident Evil 4 was released earlier this year by Capcom. This reimagining of the survival horror classic propels players back into the badass shoes of Leon S. Kennedy as he navigates through the nightmarish realm of the undead.
With updated visuals, enhanced gameplay mechanics, and a renewed emphasis on immersive terror, the Resident Evil 4 remake not only pays homage to the original masterpiece, but it also introduces a whole new generation to the relentless thrill of undead survival horror! Brace yourself for an experience that doesn’t just haunt your wakeful gaming hours, but also lingers in the shadows of your nightmares themselves.
Dredge
There’s just something so deeply unsettling about open water, especially when you can’t see what’s hiding at the bottom. If you’ve ever wanted to experience what it’s like to be relentlessly and hopelessly stalked by nightmarish creatures of the deep, then congratulations, you’ve found your match with Dredge!
Dredge may disguise itself as a fishing game in the beginning, but as you keep playing, you soon realize that something much more sinister is lurking beneath its surface. Beyond the simple act of casting a line, players must navigate an eerie undercurrent of darkness as they sell their malformed catches, upgrade their vessels, and dredge the mysterious depths for long-buried relics. As you begin to collect more strange artifacts and more peculiar tales from sketchy locals, you realize, too late, that some secrets are better off left at the bottom of the murky deep.
Everyone knows that wet horror games are the scariest.
World of Horror
With a name like “World of Horror”, you’d think that this game would easily be considered one of the scariest horror games of 2023, if not ever; and you’d be right! Described by its developers as a “1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft”, World of Horror effortlessly beckons players into a nightmarish realm where cosmic horrors and eldritch mysteries collide.
Set against the haunting backdrop of a rural Japanese town in the 1980s, this rogue-like RPG seamlessly blends cosmic horror with nostalgic retro aesthetics. As an investigator, players grapple with sanity-shattering encounters, solve mind-bending mysteries, and face haunting, otherworldly entities. World of Horror is a cryptic journey where every decision carries weight, and survival hinges on the delicate balance between strategy and sheer terror.
Demonologist
If you’ve ever played Phasmophobia and thought, “Wow, I wish I was even more terrified right now”, then you should be adding Demonologist to your Wishlist, pronto. Frankly, it’s insane that this game was made entirely by a single indie game-developing company; its intense commitment to horror immersion blows most Triple-A horror games out of the water.
Demonologist’s gameplay is pretty much exactly like Phasmophobia’s, with a few unique and chilling twists. Just like Phasmophobia, Demonologist is a supernatural investigative game that allows up to 4 players at a time. However, Demonologist introduces an even darker layer to players’ investigations, emphasizing forbidden rituals, arcane artifacts, and the thin line between the investigator and the investigated.
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
Dear god, where do I even start with this game. The Coffin of Andy and Leyley might just be one of the most traumatizing horror games you play all year, and not even just for the reasons you’d expect. This game boldly goes where it probably really shouldn’t, and where most horror games wouldn’t dare even try to follow; seriously, just brace yourself for this one.
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is a deeply disturbing story about two morally bankrupt siblings, Andrew and Ashley Graves, who have been locked inside their apartment and left for dead. While slowly starving to death, the creepily codependent siblings decide to throw caution to the wind and do everything in their power to survive; which, unfortunately, involves cannibalism. A lot of it. Surprisingly, however, the consumption of human flesh is the least deranged thing that players will have to deal with when playing this game.
So good luck, godspeed, and go get therapy, gamers.
My Friendly Neighborhood
Don’t let its unassuming title fool you; My Friendly Neighborhood is easily one of the scariest horror games of 2023, by far. My Friendly Neighborhood is like if Sesame Street and The Muppets had an in-bred love child in an alley behind a dumpster.
This horror game is eerily reminiscent of games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Poppy Playtime, so if you’re easily spooked by possessed children’s toys who are out to get you, then you might want to skip this one (or don’t, depending on who has to do your laundry). My Friendly Neighborhood follows the sinister story of The Friendly Neighborhood, an educational Saturday morning TV show starring family-friendly, felt-faced puppets. Once the show’s ratings begin to dwindle and the studio closes its doors for good, however, the show’s forgotten stars… don’t exactly take it well.
Slay the Princess
Rather than rely on petty jumpscares to terrify its audience, Slay the Princess instead employs a building sense of existential dread that holds your fight-or-flight response hostage for the entire game. If you want a horror game that’ll wedge itself into your subconscious and haunt you for the rest of your life, then you need to play Slay the Princess!
You can probably already guess what Slay the Princess is about, more or less, from its title. You, the player, are tasked with slaying a bound and captive princess; if you don’t, she’ll supposedly bring about the end of the world. This may sound like an easy choice to make (the greater good, and all that), but you’d be surprised at the difficulty of the task once the time finally comes (and not for the reason you’d expect).
Sons of the Forest
Few things are as terrifying as multi-limbed mutants and carnivorous cannibals flinging themselves at you whenever you least expect it, and that’s a fact that Endnight Games, unfortunately, took to heart. Sons of the Forest is the mind-bogglingly more terrifying sequel to The Forest, a survival horror game that came out in 2014.
How Endnight Games managed to mangle The Forest’s base gameplay into something infinitely more terrifying is something we’ll just never know. The Forest was already bad enough, but Sons of the Forest takes everything you thought you knew about horror and takes it to the next level. Its storyline and gameplay are a bit hard to explain if you’ve never played it, but just imagine an infinitely worse version of The Forest and you’ll get the right idea.
Little Goody Two Shoes
Little Goody Two Shoes is similar to My Friendly Neighborhood in the sense that its title is very off-base with its subject matter, but that’s about where their similarities end. Little Goody Two Shoes is a “phantasmagorical horror adventure” game (say that five times fast) that feels oddly reminiscent of yester-year horror titles like The Witch’s House and Fran Bow.
I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say Little Goody Two Shoes damn-near reinvents the entire RPG horror genre; it’s a “choose your own adventure” horror game where literally every single choice you make matters, turning every single second of this adventure experience into a heart-pounding, white-knuckling, adrenaline-fueled nightmare of “what ifs” and “oh dear god why’s”.
Also, one player on Steam described it as “part life sim, part horror”, and part “cottage core lesbian pacifist Persona”, and if that doesn’t convince you that it’s one of the greatest horror games of 2023, then I don’t know what will.
Killer Frequency
And finally, we come to the final masterpiece on our list of the scariest horror games of 2023: Killer Frequency. Don’t let its hot pink backdrops and 1980s aesthetics fool you; this game gets real twisted, real quick.
Killer Frequency is a first-person horror adventure game that throws players into the shoes of a late-night radio host in 1987, which is already a scary enough concept if you’ve seen literally any horror movie made in the 80s (classic horror movies just really liked to pick on radio hosts, didn’t they? Anyone ever seen The Fog?). As Forrest Nash (the radio host), players must solve the case of a series of mysterious radio show-callers who are all being stalked and threatened by a mysterious killer. Getting to the bottom of the mystery will be tough, but getting out alive will be even tougher!
And that’s it for our curated list of all the scariest horror games of 2023! Whether you’re battling eldritch horrors in World of Horror or navigating the sinister depths of Dredge, these games promise a chilling joyride into the realms of nightmares! For more 2023 game recommendations, check out Twinfinite’s list of the “Most Underrated Games of 2023 You Probably Missed” and “Best Indie Games of 2023“!
