8) Layers Of Fear
Polish developer Bloober Team’s first foray into horror had a pretty mixed reception when it released in 2016 on PS4/Xbox One/PC/Mac. A first-person psychological scare-em-up, Layers of Fear puts you in the shoes of a mad artist, hellbent on finishing his piéce de résistance. The gothic Victorian setting is on-point, its intriguing family-focused story is well told and the title shows a surprising restraint when it comes to its jump scares.
It’s a very well constructed horror experience that comes very close to being the magnum opus the main protagonist is striving so hard to paint. A few wonky puzzles stop it in its blood-soaked tracks, but it’s still absolutely worth a look for any discerning horror fans out there.
It takes quite a lot of cues from other modern horror experiences like P.T. and Slender: The Arrival. However, in the words of surrealist artist Salvador Dali: “Those who don’t imitate anything, produce nothing.”
7) Silent Hill: Homecoming
Ok, so Silent Hill: Homecoming is quite possibly the most controversial title on this list. It released back in 2009 to a fairly lukewarm reception and is notable for being one of the first Silent Hill games to be outsourced to a US-based developer. However, despite this new western-styled horror approach, it’s a damn fine experience. Sure, it may not hit the starry heights of the seminal Silent Hill 2 (which is one of my favourite games of all-time), but this iteration is still a hauntingly memorable trip to the titular foggy lakeside town.
Amongst its many strong points is its focused, personal, family-orientated story that explores the broken, detached relationship between central protagonist Alex and his father, mother and brother. These unhealthy, disjointed relationships between his family are put under the microscope and make the title, in my eyes, one of the most relatable Silent Hill games I’ve ever experienced.
Upon release, Homecoming was criticized for lacking the attention to detail and subtle nuance of the Japanese-developed Silent Hill games, which is, to be honest, very fair; US horror and Japanese horror are distinctly different beasts altogether. Nevertheless, it does have its fair share of nice, nuanced touches, such as the throbbing, glowing fetus pulsating in the iconic nurse’s tummies (you’ll only see this when you shine a torch on them) and a ton of exemplary boss design symbolism (the Human Centipede-esque Asphyxia springs to mind).
With such a genuinely arresting, insidious atmosphere, the best combat the series has ever seen, along with some of the most hideously gruesome monster designs imaginable, Silent Hill: Homecoming is easily the most criminally underrated title in Konami’s marquee horror franchise.
