Outlast 1 + 2
If you’re looking for one of the scariest games to have released in the past few years or so, look no further than Outlast.
It’s about a journalist that winds up in a decrepit mental institution to investigate some disappearances (first wrong move) and ends up partaking in some very strange and scary situations.
Outlast’s main gameplay element is the use of his camcorder, which allows him to see in the dark thanks to its night-vision feature. But, this camera runs on batteries that you have to find around the hospital, and trust us, there’s not a lot to be found. There are times that you have to conserve your battery so that you don’t run out when you really need to.
These moments of pure darkness are uncomfortable, unsettling, and just plain spooky. You’re also avoiding this deranged man who’s trying to perform experiments on you who is usually wielding a gigantic pair of scissors –oh yeah, and you can’t attack him either.
All you can do in Outlast is hide, and if you’re not good at hiding and moving stealthily, then you will need a lot of luck.
Resident Evil Revelations 1 + 2
The Resident Evil Revelations series came at a time that the survival horror series wasn’t too sure about what it wanted to be. After Resident Evil 5 and 6 took the more “action movie” route, Resident Evil Revelations mixed up the horror and action and gave us two games that played similarly to Resident Evil 4.
The first Revelations put you on a spooky ship in the shoes of Jill Valentine as she searches for a missing Chris Redfield. The game was designed to give players the feeling of the old-school Resident Evil games by providing the player with somewhat limited ammo, green herbs, and sense of security.
Even though you would rarely run out of ammo, especially towards the latter half of the game, the enemies and boss encounters were scary as all hell, with some of them even chasing you throughout the entire ship.
Revelations 2 was a bit different, as it threw cooperative play into the mix, allowing the entirety of the campaign to be played with a second player. The game finally let us play as one of our favorite RE character, Barry Burton, and that is something to celebrate.
Layers of Fear: Legacy
In Layers of Fear, you play as an insane painter who lives in a Victorian-era mansion, attempting to complete his Magnum Opus. While exploring the mansion on this psychedelic adventure, the world will literally change around you by just the movement of the camera, making for some pretty intense and bewildering situations.
You will begin to encounter the horrors and secrets of this spooky mansion as you progress, but don’t let that stop you, as this painters work has yet to finished.
Layers of Fear will do everything in its power to scare you in more ways than one. It will make you question your sanity at any given moment and keep you on your toes.
If you play this game on your Switch with the lights off and your headphones plugged in, you’ll no doubt have a scary good time.
Little Nightmares: Complete Edition
Remember when you were a small child and you were scared of what may lie beneath your bed? Or perhaps you were the kid who was scared of a monster or something jumping out of your closet? Whatever the fear might’ve come from, we’ve all dealt with stuff like that, even still today as adults.
Little Nightmares takes all of those insane fears that we had as children and puts them into a video game, a Little Big Planet-esque platformer that brings those terrifying dreams into reality.
As you progress on your atmospheric journey to help Six avoid a frightening vessel called The Maw, you will encounter the most disturbing of creatures in this dollhouse of horrors and it’s absolutely maddening. This is definitely one game that would be great to play cuddled up on the couch with your Switch in hand.
Detention
Detention tells a heart-wrenching and terrifying tale of two students who find themselves trapped in a high school with no way out. Inspired by Taiwanese culture, the religious themes here are unique in the way that they help flesh out the story and gives players insight into things like Taoism and Buddhism.
The 2D horror side-scroller plays like your typical point and click adventure game, you’ll soon realize that this school has a lot of dark secrets and past that’s long been hidden from the students.
Detention’s gripping narrative, along with the variety of odd objects and puzzles to interact with, Detention is one horror game on the Switch that should not be missed.
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