What Are The Top 10 Horror Games Released in 2018?
Its past midnight and you know you shouldn’t be awake still, but you can’t seem to tear yourself away from your computer screen and the terrifying scene that is playing out on it. One more level. One more night. One more page. This is what you keep chanting to before SCREECH! Jump scare and now Game Over is flashing on your screen. This feeling, this full immersion, is what keeps us horror fans coming back over and over again. We yearn for the stomach knotting sensation of a good scare and keep looking for our next fix. Below you will find 10 games that will do just that, so strap in and prepare for a scary ride.
10. Witch Hunt
Witch Hunt Gameplay
Witch Hunt is a fascinating and challenging horror inspired hunting game that is set in the 18th Century near a town called Bellville. You play as a witch hunter (who guessed it?) who has given themselves the task to eliminate all evil in the woods of Bellville in an attempt to get some justice for the family that was taken from them.
The town itself looks dreary and isolated, one of the first things you see is a woman hanging in the gallows, setting a tone of unease almost immediately as you continue forward, exploring the small town meeting the townsfolk that you will be trying to save.
Get ready to be fully immersed in a ‘realistic’ hunting simulation that requires a lot of patience and perseverance as you level up and put points into skills and earn gold to buy more tools to help you in your task. Witch Hunt is a single-player game that has full controller support!
Be sure to have a steady hand when you move to take aim at the evil in Bellville woods.
Spooktacular areas to explore and get lost in.
9. DISTRAINT 2
DISTRAINT 2 Gameplay
DISTRAINT 2 is an absolutely amazing sequel to DESTRAINT. Both are set in the style of 2D side scrolling with beautiful art and animations in the game. The DESTRAINT games are psychology horror games and you take on the role of Price, a man who has sold his own humanity in order to get a leg up in the business world. Follow him on his journey of regret, pain, and horror.
The opening scene is a haunting recap of what happened in the first DISTRAINT. With amazing artwork and tone, it certainly sucks the player into the world of DISTRAINT and makes you eager to find out what is going to happen next. Explore a 2D world that is full of beauty and horror, perfectly demonstrating the balance of light and dark in real life.
As you progress in the game you will be greeted with chilling scenes that will make your skin crawl, easily being able to follow along in the store as you try to solve the puzzle of where you are and why. DESTRAINT 2 is a single player game with partial controller support.
Dark and chilling areas that you have to navigate through carefully.
Meet unique characters that will both haunt and comfort you as you go through the game.
8. Granny
Granny Gameplay
Granny is an absolutely terrifying game that will make you afraid to be around your Grandparents. You wake up alone in a dark, dirty room with your head pounding like someone knocked you out. Because someone did. Granny is coming to get you and it is up to you to avoid her while trying to escape the death traps that she has set for you!
The house is pretty big with multiple levels and Granny is wandering around at all times trying to catch and kill you. Not only that but she has set multiple traps for you, including a giant spider or a plank that will break under your weight and drop you to your death. You sneak around, finding parts that you have to combine with tools to help you escape with your life.
The horrifying tension of being constantly alert keeps you more than immersed in the game and the jump scares will get you every time. So remember to be quiet and to be fast so you don’t end up with Granny catching you to ‘punish’ you. Granny is a single player game and is amazingly fun.
The terrifying figure of Granny chasing you down is nightmare fuel that will burn all night long.
A glimpse of the huge house that you have to carefully navigate through in order to escape.
7. HellSign
HellSign Gameplay
HellSign is yet another game that will drag you deep into the depths of horror. Another hunting styled game where you use multiple tools and skills in order to best the numerous evil creatures that surround you. The game takes place in Australia, you wake up with a strange memory of having died the night before while on a really dangerous job. The only clue you have to what happened is a strange brand on your skin that you don’t remember at all.
The game throws you in rather quickly, you customize your character with a few unique options that can really change your experience in the game. The opening scene, which is in comic book style, is haunting and amazing at the same time with detailed art to really drag you into the game. Then you are placed into a field for the tutorial to start and so your life as a hunter officially begins.
HellSign has good controls that are easy to use. The game lets you decide how you want to play. If you want to go in shooting, you are welcome to do that. You can also go in stealthily, hunting your targets quietly so they don’t even know what is coming for them. HellSign is a single player game with stellar reviews.
Explore a dark world to find hidden secrets and clues to what you are hunting.
Fight terrifying monsters as you progress through the world.
6. Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu Gameplay
Call of Cthulhu is an intense ride from beginning till end. The way this game was put together is absolutely amazing. It is 1942 and you are Pierce, a private investigator who is looking into the tragic death of the Hawkins family on a dark and chilling island called Darkwater. It doesn’t take long for the story to take a sharp turn into cultists, monsters, and crazy conspiracies. Sanity is a thing in this game and if you start to lose it, oh boy, you really start to lose it.
The game doesn’t waste time in getting spooky, starting you off in a vivid nightmare that will haunt you as you continue playing the game. Call of Cthulhu has a unique skill tree set up that you can put points (CP) into to build up things such as Psychology, Medicine, and Occultism. Allowing you to customize your game experience, even if it is just a little.
Call of Cthulhu spared no expense in making beautiful and immersive cut scenes, allowing you to fully dive in to the world that the devs have created. It will be a game that you find hard to walk away from as you want to keep going to find the answer to all the questions. Call of Cthulhu is a single player game and has full controller support. So don’t hesitate to plug up your favorite device to make the game play more enjoyable.
Chilling environments that are beautifully designed will make the story jump out at you.
Cthulhu looks absolutely terrifying as the game focuses on the legend that HP Lovecraft created.
5. Viviette
Viviette Gameplay
Viviette is a 2D horror game that is set up like an RPG. The visuals are beautiful as is the audio in this game. They really come together to make playing enjoyable and easy. Your character wakes up in a hospital bed with no idea how they got there. All they remember is that something bad happened at Neuville Mansion and that it also affected your friends.
This game has three different endings, which is amazing. Anything that makes a game worth playing again is always enjoyable and believe me, you will play again to get those different endings. Defeating challenging puzzles that are unique and entertaining. Something interesting about this game is the interconnected game systems design, allowing the “thing” that seems to be haunting you to appear anywhere and at any time, creating a thick environment of tension and fear.
Viviette is a game that will truly take your breath away. The story, the characters, the visuals, and audio. It all comes together to create a piece of art that the devs are sure to be proud of. It has received amazing reviews and also has full controller support for those who prefer to play with a gamepad.
Chilling hints from the game guide you as you move along in your journey.
This game certainly doesn't lack spooky environments, just be careful and watch out for the "thing".
4. The Blackout Club
The Blackout Club Gameplay
The Blackout Club is a game that is meant to be experienced with other people. It is a co-op horror game that revolves around a group of teenagers that are trying to uncover a horrible secret that is lurking beneath their small town. Teens are mysteriously waking up in strange places having no recollection of how they got there. The woods, train tracks, or other random places that could pose danger. With no adults to believe or help them they form a club together so they can get to the bottom of what is going on. The Blackout Club.
The Blackout Club did not skimp on the scenery just because it is a multiplayer. The neighborhood you play in is beautiful and full of houses. And, even though it is a multiplayer game, The Blackout Club worked hard to give the players the freedom to go through the game at their own pace and how they want to. Choosing their own paths as they move through the story, gaining different abilities and items that will help them in their task to solve the evil they are facing. Unlock clothes, gestures, and hairstyles as you play so you can customize your character and stand out from the crowd.
This game is simply amazing and has reviews that show it. People love this game as it offers a single player and multiplayer experience and as an early access game they update often and work hard to make sure the game is running smoothly for the players.
Run with your friends through a town that seems to haunt you as you try to solve this mystery.
Explore creepy caves that are filled with horrors just waiting to pop out at you.
3. Dark Deception
Dark Deception Gameplay
Dark Deception is one crazy game. Think of Pac-Man but instead of ghosts you have horrible, giant monkeys chasing you around. The goal of the game is to collect all of the shards so you can escape with your life. But beware, if one of the monkey guards finds you, it will be a tough act to escape.
Dark Deception has extremely fun gameplay, the controls are easy to learn and maneuver, therefore making it easy to be immersed in the game, running from the jump scares that are trying to get you. The area in which you have to collect shards is rather huge and some of the shards are in tricky places, causing you to run around and around as you desperately try to find them.
It has glowing reviews all across the board, the horror fan base falling in love with the simple yet wonderful concept that this game delivers. It is a single player game only however but one big perk? It is free! So go now and grab it while you can.
This terrifying figure is what you get to look forward to as you run around aimlessly trying to find shards.
The pure shock of getting grabbed by these creatures is enough to keep your adrenaline pumping for hours.
2. God's Basement
God's Basement Gameplay
God’s Basement is less action based and more narrative based, going at a slower pace so you can really enjoy and immerse yourself into the story. You wake up in an office that you do not recognize, hearing a phone ringing in the other room. You soon find out (from someone called The Operator) that you are in what is called God’s Basement and that you need to go deeper and deeper into it to escape.
It has a lot of fun puzzles and an amazing story with amazing visuals. It was really a joy to not only play, but watch others play it as well as it feels like a journey full of terror that you go through alongside your character. If you think having less action will make it less scary, don’t worry, the atmospheric tension that the game builds is one of the very best that I have ever experienced.
It is a single player game, something that you can enjoy by yourself or maybe with a friend next to you (if you are scared). It has amazing reviews so far and is definitely a game that is worth picking up if you enjoy a good horror story.
The seemingly innocent office that starts your journey through one of the most terrifying experiences ever.
Feel that adrenaline pump as you metter horrible creatures on your way through the basement.
1. Visage
Visage Gameplay
Visage is hands down my favorite horror game of this year. It has everything in it. The visuals, the audio, the tension and atmosphere that it builds are you move through it. And, it is just early access. Which means they are still updating it frequently, making sure the game runs smoothly and continues to deliver an amazing scare to the players.
Visage is set in a huge (and I mean huge) house and as the player you have absolutely no idea why you are there or what you should be doing. Your goal is to explore and piece together what horrible atrocities occurred in this house, discovering murders, suicide, and other awful events that have happened. Visage is a game in which you are defenseless, having no weapons whatsoever to save you from the angry entities that are moving around the house, so be sure to always know where a good hiding spot is.
It was an amazing and terrifying game to play through and even terrifying to watch it on YouTube. It got me excited for the first time this year and it did not disappoint in the blood pumping thrills that it promised to deliver. It has amazing reviews and it has full controller support so feel free to hook up that gamepad if it makes you feel more comfortable.
Even if it looks innocent enough, something still feels very off in this hallway.
Be ready to run and hide if you stumble across a ghastly figure like this as there is no way to defend yourself.
This list will give you that gut trembling, blood pumping feeling of adrenaline as you dodge jump scare after jump scare. The games listed above have certainly stood out this year and gives me hope for what we may see next year!
Also, if you enjoyed reading this article, check out the ones listed below as well!
- 15 Best Multiplayer Horror Games You Should Play With Your Buddies
- Top 15 New Horror Games for PC (2018-2019)
