10 Extremely Underrated Horror Games That You Need To Play

Great horror video games often have a really hard time trying to break into mainstream popularity. Apart from the stalwart flagships like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Rising, top-notch horror games are frequently overlooked, under-marketed and condemned to the lonely shadows of the outer peripheries of audience mindshare. The horror video game landscape has changed dramatically over the years, hand-in-hand with console hardware’s ever evolving technology. Ironically, the real twist is, good horror doesn’t necessarily need cutting edge tech to be successful. The iconic fog in the original Silent Hill, for example, is well renowned for hiding the technological limitations of the PS1’s limited 3D rendering horsepower and serves as a convincing case study that highlights how hardware limitations can help shape a horror experience for the better. Another hugely influential horror game is the free-to-download, YouTube jump-scare sensation Slender: The Eight Pages. This is another title that veritably drips with atmosphere, and once again, a lot of the game's success stems from its stripped back simplicity and lo-fi, gritty charm. If you haven’t played it and you’re interested in the roots of modern horror, then I implore you to go and check it out — it’s a very pure, unadulterated slice of fear-inducing insidiousness and its charisma is grounded in its low budget, no frills origins. It can practically run on a toaster, so you’ve got no excuse! Long story short, I’m a sucker for horror games and it often makes me sad to see them go under-the-radar, forgotten in the modern industry’s race for more power, more razzle dazzle and more unbridled spectacle. The kicker of it all is that great horror can not only exist, but can actively flourish in the grainy, underpowered, low resolution confines of limited hardware. When it comes to horror — less is often more. In regards to this list, my sole caveats are that only games with an average score of 79 or less on Metacritic have been included (sorry Eternal Darkness, Fatal Frame II and Lone Survivor), and I’ve also decided to only include titles that I’ve experienced personally first-hand. As a result, it’s a pretty diverse list of old and new. So, without further ado, here are 10 underrated horror games that didn’t get the critical or commercial success that they deserved. Drum roll, please… 10) Shadows Of The Damned This PS3/Xbox 360 title is the monstrous lovechild of a Japanese development dream team, including legendary game designer Suda51, veteran Resident Evil 4 visionary director Shinji Mikami and seasoned Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. Mechanically, it plays a lot like Mikami’s aforementioned seminal horror classic, except it’s way wackier and utterly bonkers, much like a bag of demented, zombified frogs. Shadows of the Damned also takes home the award for best named protagonist in a video game, ever — I mean, you can’t get much more badass than… Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who has to venture into Hell itself to save his girlfriend Paula who's been abducted by The Lord of Demons. Hotspur cracks wise with his closest pal Johnson, which also doubles as your handgun, torch and motorbike. One of the guns Johnson transforms into is even called the Big Boner. Seriously. Brimming with dick-jokes, surreal Silent Hill-esque otherworldly segments and some of the most over-the-top action sequences this side of the nine circles of Hell, Shadows of the Damned is a mighty fine third-person horror shooter that not only stands out for just how ridiculously deranged it is, but also for how surprisingly reverential and subversive it is with its affectionate use of its B-movie exploitation-era style, themes and humour. In the words of Garcia Hotspur: “Taste my BIG BONER!” 9) The Thing PS2/Xbox/PC third-person psychological horror The Thing is a video game sequel to John Carpenter’s taut and tense 1982 classic. The story focuses on Captain Blake, a member of the US Special Forces team sent to the remnants of the Antarctic outpost featured in the film in an attempt to discover the truth of what's happened to the scientists and research facility. For the most part, gameplay leans heavily on third-person shooting action, replete with flamethrowers, machine guns and sniper rifles. However, the cool and very memorable mechanics of the game are its Trust/Fear and Infection systems. Trust/Fear governs how NPCs and team members react in combat; the more your team trusts you, the more they help support you in combat and follow your orders, and vice versa. The Infection mechanics, meanwhile, mean that every time your team members take on a Thing type monster in combat, they can, based on a probability system, secretly become infected by it, which can result in them attacking you without warning later in the game. Spooky, right? Interestingly, John Carpenter strongly endorsed this project and even voiced one of the characters in an uncredited cameo. 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. 6) The Evil Within Like Shadows of the Damned, this is another Japanese-centric horror production and this time it sees Shinji Mikami taking the director’s chair. It was released in 2014 for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, and garnered fairly favourable reviews. To be honest, I think it deserved a little more fanfare than received upon launch, as it’s a marvellous horror action hybrid, in a similar vein to Mikami’s previous horror classic, Resident Evil 4. However, its timing coincided with the release of another iconic, frightening monster’s game that features a little bit higher up this list. Though this third-person shooter leaned heavily into its action, it was proportionately well-stocked with traditional survival-horror elements, too. Ammo conservation, careful inventory management, upgrades, environmental puzzles and some huge, lumbering bosses are the order of the day here and helped fill the gap between Resident Evil games (the good ones anyway). The Evil Within's story may have been a bit of a confusing mess, but that doesn’t take the shine off the superbly well executed, old-school survival horror that fans of the genre missed so ardently. 5) Siren: Blood Curse When Team Silent were disbanded by Konami following Silent Hill 4: The Room, many of the developers went on to create Siren: Blood Curse. Released in 2008 as a PS3 exclusive, this re-imagining of the first Siren (a PS2 series) is quite possibly the scariest game I’ve ever played. Set in a quiet, rural Japanese village, you take control of a cast of interconnecting characters who are trying to escape the clutches of the monstrosities known as the Shibito, which are basically zombified people that bleed from their eyes. That last bit is key and strangely makes this game a lot more creepy than you initially expect. The gameplay tasks you with stealthily manoeuvring through rural environments without being detected by the Shibito. However, the core conceit of the game is that your characters have the ability to Sight Jack the enemies and see through their eyes. There are few traditional weapons in the game, too, so using your special Sight Jack power is critical and enables you to plot a safe route through the sickle-armed Shibito who hunger for your blood. There are some marvellous and unforgettable moments here that I won’t spoil for you, but I’ll just say that reigning victorious in one particular level is very bittersweet indeed. 4) Until Dawn This criminally under-marketed PS4 exclusive from 2015 is one of the few titles on this list that relies heavily on its graphical horsepower and high fidelity visuals. Supermassive Games’ interactive slasher is two parts Friday the 13th and one part Heavy Rain with a dash of Saw thrown in for good measure. It’s a game you can play over and over again and have an authentically different experience each time. Much like Quantic Dream’s well-renowned interactive thriller, choices that you make can lead to your characters hastily biting the dust, and when they do, they’re out of the game for good. All in all, it’s a surprisingly reverential love-letter to the cinematic teen slasher genre and in some ways is a big step forward from David Cage’s aforementioned Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, mainly due to its tighter writing and snappier dialogue. If you own a PS4 and enjoy your slasher movies, Until Dawn is an absolute no-brainer. 3) Clock Tower 3 I’m surprised Capcom hasn’t gone back to the well with the Clock Tower series, as it’s an incredibly underrated survival-horror franchise. Released back in 2003 on PS2, Clock Tower 3 is actually the fourth instalment, with the story focusing on 14-year-old Alyssa Hamilton, who must travel through time to defeat evil spirits and bring peace to the troubled, tormented souls who are trapped in the otherworld. The game is played from a fixed third-person angle and tasks players with exploring 1940s London, completing puzzles, along with fleeing and hiding from creepy antagonists known as Subordinates. What’s really striking about the title though is how dark it can be. Your adversaries are serial killers and they’re unrelenting in their hunt for you. Some of the imagery within the game is quite startling as well; a 14-year-old schoolgirl being chased by a giant scissor-wielding murderer is pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel and really sticks in my mind. The Corroder boss also stands out, as he's a hulking, gas-mask toting nutcase who runs around with a backpack filled with sulphuric acid, which he uses to melt his victims with. It doesn’t end there though, as he also dumps their remains into vats of acid to dispose of the evidence permanently. How very thoughtful of him… 2) Alien: Isolation H.R. Giger’s iconic cinematic monster somewhat eclipsed The Evil Within at launch, as it released just a week prior on PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game is a prequel to James Cameron’s Aliens and places you in the shoes of Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda. Set 15 years after the disappearance of the Nostromo, Amanda is determined to uncover the truth of what happened to her missing mother. What’s truly surprising about Alien: Isolation is how incredibly authentic the video game is to its source material. The environments are meticulously cribbed from Ridley Scott’s classic, along with the old-school bleeping and blooping audio that is so evocative of the original movie. The grotesque and chilling alien is also a high point and not only looks the part but acts the part, too (though I would’ve liked to see it crawling on the ceiling a little bit more). Alien: Isolation is a thrilling first-person horror that brims with authenticity, a taut atmosphere and terrific production values. If you're a fan of the movies and interested in taking an "express elevator to Hell," then this might well be just the ticket. 1) Deadly Premonition What's that? Deadly Premonition is one of the most underrated horror games of all time? You betcha. Japanese developer Swery65 and Access Games’ cult survival-horror opus released in 2010 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and went on to become the Guinness World Record’s “Most Critically Polarizing Game Of All Time.” The title is infamous for its B-movie charm, open-world ambition, hilarious dialogue, catchy music and surprisingly well delivered narrative. The latter point is especially impressive considering that the game is set in a massive, living and breathing open world. You play the role of crackpot FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan, who has been assigned to investigate the Raincoat Killer within a small rural American village called Greenvale. A little like Grand Theft Auto — albeit, with a much, much tighter budget — Deadly Premonition can be explored on foot or by car and there are a ton of kooky, memorable characters to meet and creepily intriguing places to visit. It even has in-game shaving and washing, and if you don’t shower enough, you’ll be hounded by a horde of bothersome flies. Nice touch! Deadly Premonition is basically Twin Peaks: The Game, so if the sound of that gets your heart racing, then you should absolutely check this horror gem out. It’s undoubtedly one of the most unique, most bizarre and most memorable titles I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. And it's also unquestionably one of my favourite games of all time. Isn't that right, Zach?