2024 was a bumper 12 months for horror, not solely on the silver display screen but additionally within the gaming sphere. In reality, the style has arguably by no means been in a more healthy state than it has during the last twelve months; with a great mixture of AAA successes, mid-budget sleeper hits, and plucky indies that punched effectively above their weight. After we might pry ourselves away from compulsive rounds of Balatro, we right here at Bloody Disgusting even managed to play a few of them!
With 2025 simply across the nook, now could be the proper time to have a good time the true standouts. In fact, it was robust to whittle this checklist all the way down to a high 10, and a few favourites inevitably didn’t make the lower. Nonetheless, that’s a pleasant place for us to be in and is a testomony to the unbelievable high quality of people who did find yourself qualifying.
So, with out additional ado, listed below are our high 10 horror video games of the 12 months!
Editor’s Be aware: This text was written by Harrison Abbott and Aaron Boehm.
#10) Killer Klowns from Outer Area: The Recreation
It appears like asymmetrical multiplayer titles are a dime a dozen these days — particularly on the subject of film spin-offs — and, as such, they’re liable to blur collectively if you happen to’re not well-versed in all of the particulars. Positive, there could be infinitesimal variations within the character builds and techniques however, except you’re a seasoned professional, these granular particulars aren’t gonna leap out at you. As a substitute, you’re far likelier to simply settle into the very acquainted routine that’s been codified by the likes of The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath.
To be truthful, this 12 months’s Killer Klowns From Outer Area adaptation hardly reinvents the wheel right here, with all of the style staples being current and accounted for. Amongst different issues, you’ve bought the similar survivor goals that these items are beholden to for some cause (discover the fuses, restore the boat, escape by highway, and so on.) whereas the opposing workforce even has an equal of Lifeless by Daylight’s sacrificial hooks at their disposal. Albeit it within the extra interesting type of cotton sweet mills!
Scratch beneath the floor a little bit, although, and also you’ll realise that Teravision’s providing is tonally distinctive. As is befitting of its zany supply materials — which, lest we overlook, revolves round alien invaders who simply so occur to resemble kids’s social gathering entertainers — Killer Klowns From Outer Area: The Recreation doesn’t take itself too critically. Nor does its fun-loving neighborhood.
On that observe, you’ll discover that almost all matches listed below are stuffed with the refreshing sounds of gleeful laughter and other people straight up having fun with themselves. Which is a welcome change of tempo if you happen to’ve ever been caught in a kind of bizarrely aggressive DbD lobbies, the place everyone’s vulnerable to probably the most unhinged shows of emotional volatility.
Certainly, Killer Klowns is a much more relaxed setting; focussed much less so on META ways and sophisticated loadout tinkering, and extra on goofy visible comedy and slapstick finisher animations. Even the mechanics are fairly forgiving, with survivors being afforded extra second & third probabilities than you’d count on, in addition to the chance to assist out their teammates from past the grave (by way of some arcadey minigames). The jury’s nonetheless out on if this one’s bought any actual legs, however it’s definitely been a hoot whereas it’s lasted. – Phrases by Harrison Abbott
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of Killer Klowns From Outer Area right here.
#9) A Quiet Place: The Street Forward
When you play as many horror video games as we do, you ultimately get desensitized to the varied methods of the commerce, and what have been once-effective scare ways begin to lose their luster. So, once we willingly admit (as a matter of public document) that A Quiet Place: The Street Forward made us dread our personal farts, you already know that’s meant as the very best reward.
The film tie-in does lots proper — capturing the signature rigidity of the movie franchise upon which it’s primarily based, and squeezing as a lot mileage as potential out of the decibel-dependent stealth — however the place it actually shines is in its intelligent use of peripherals. Stick on a pair of headphones, as an example, and also you turn into hyperaware of each undesirable noise you might be producing; whether or not it’s the faintest door creak or the wince-inducing crunch of a leaf beneath your toes.
In the meantime, if you wish to dial up the nervousness even additional, you may as well grant the title permission to hear in via your microphone feed; that means that any sound you transmit in the true world can then be heard by the misophonic Loss of life Angels in-game. It’s a brilliant cool gimmick that immerses you within the Quiet Place universe like by no means earlier than, and may have you stifling each inopportune cough, sneeze or, sure, bout of gasoline that you just may in any other case have indulged. Acoustic situations allowing, it’s positively the optimum method to play and may result in some memorable (however hopefully flatulence-free) anecdotes to share with your folks. – Phrases by Harrison Abbott.
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of A Quiet Place: The Street Forward right here.
#8) Mouthwashing
It’s exhausting to seize what makes Mouthwashing so particular simply from a fast description. It’s a first-person narrative horror recreation that tells the tragic story of the crew of a crashed transport spaceship, depicting the occasions each earlier than and after that fateful incident.
This setup might describe all kinds of sci-fi horror tales, however the twists and turns it takes in direction of its nail biting ending constantly shock, because of charming characters and an exhilarating construction that retains you in your toes. Every of the crew members appears like a totally realized character, and their interactions create an ideal powder keg of rigidity as issues get increasingly dire.
You’re typically doing easy journey game-style puzzles, interacting with individuals and exploring the ship, however the recreation shines when it begins veering into extra surreal P.T.-like dream logic. Its lovely low poly-art model captures the nightmare completely, creating some really hanging photos all through.
Mouthwashing runs about two and a half hours, so you possibly can end it in an extended sitting, supplying you with one of the memorable narrative experiences of the 12 months, in any medium. – Phrases by Aaron Boehm.
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of Mouthwashing right here.
#7) The Outlast Trials
When it was first introduced that Outlast was going to be making the bounce to on-line multiplayer, it raised eyebrows amongst some incredulous followers. In spite of everything, it was exhausting to check how this collection — recognized for its tightly scripted frights, exhilarating one-on-one stalker chases, and common emphasis on disempowerment — might ever make that transition with out additionally dropping a key piece of itself within the course of. But, low and behold, the unlikely spin-off in some way emerged because the franchise’s most interesting hour to this point.
After an auspicious debut in Early Entry final 12 months, The Outlast Trials has continued to go from power to power. Taking inspiration from motion pictures like Noticed and Dice, it places you within the sneakers (effectively, technically, the naked toes) of a hapless vagrant who’s been kidnapped by the sinister Murkoff company, and compelled to take part in a gauntlet of inhumane assessments.
With the final word purpose of stripping away your fundamental decency, these psychological conditioning trials may have you plunging absolutely the depths of human depravity. One minute you’ll be wheeling a jail snitch to his execution, the following you’ll be serving bleach to a cafeteria filled with ravenous orphans, organising a blood rave for a bunch of weirdly amorous nuns, or dissolving severed heads in an enormous vat of acid.
To return to our earlier level, what’s so spectacular is that it nonetheless all feels uniquely Outlast, regardless of that sudden pivot to co-op. In reality, the addition of different gamers — who could or could not have your finest pursuits at coronary heart — truly provides an unpredictable spice to proceedings, whereas the villains stay each bit as colourful as they have been over at Mount Huge Asylum and the chases retain their capability to get your pulse racing. Extra importantly, although, not one of the franchise’s signature obscenity has been watered down right here to accommodate the multiplayer construction. If something, these edges are sharper than ever earlier than, and we couldn’t be happier about it. – Phrases by Harrison Abbott.
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of The Outlast Trials right here.
#6) Crow Nation
It’s been a great 12 months for old-school survival horror video games, and Crow Nation stands close to the highest of the heap.
Whereas it doesn’t have mounted digital camera angles, as an alternative permitting you to freely rotate your view to higher see environments, all the opposite tropes are deployed efficiently, in a manner that clearly understands why they work. The sport has intelligent puzzles, fight that focuses on useful resource administration, and great degree design that means that you can slowly unlock new areas and shortcuts in its densely packed environments.
Crow Nation drops you within the titular amusement park, which was deserted two years prior for mysterious causes. This setting completely units the tone, creating a mixture of menace and whimsy, twisting a historically joyful location into one thing extra horrifying.
The visible selection within the areas prevents you from getting misplaced, supplying you with loads of landmarks to assist you become familiar with the ins and outs of the park. That is excellent consolation gaming for me, utilizing all the weather I liked from the PS1 classics I really like, however doing so with a transparent artistic imaginative and prescient that’s wholly its personal. – Phrases by Aaron Boehm.
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of Crow Nation right here.
#5) Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
One of many largest surprises of the 12 months for me was Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a brand-new IP from Capcom that appears like a throwback to an older period of recreation design.
You play as Soh, the protector of the maiden Yoshiro, tasked with serving to cleanse Mount Kafuku of a horrifying power referred to as the Seethe. This narrative isn’t the main focus of the sport, however it does arrange a beautiful setting steeped in Japanese mythology and a compelling gameplay loop that takes acquainted parts from totally different genres and remixes them in contemporary new methods.
Every degree performs out with a mixture of motion and tower defense-like technique, tasking you with defending Yoshiro as you progress her into place to cleanse the Torii Gates that carry forth the horrible monsters. The sport alternates between two phases: day and evening. Within the day part, you’ll run round and free villagers, assigning them totally different roles, and setup defenses to arrange for the incoming hordes. When evening falls, the Seethe comes via the gates, and also you and the villagers — the latter of whom might be repositioned throughout battle — should preserve them from killing Yoshiro.
As you progress via the sport, you’ll unlock further villager lessons, permitting for brand new protection methods, and new abilities for Soh, making your moment-to-moment actions extra dynamic and compelling. The technique and motion layers mix collectively into one thing greater than the sum of its components, and there’s a neat base constructing mechanic that offers you a compelling method to advance development between ranges.
Kunitsu-Gami is certainly one of the distinctive motion video games I’ve performed in a very long time, with nice monster design and tight mechanics that evolve in satisfying methods over its 18-hour runtime. – Phrases by Aaron Boehm.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is on the market on Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Collection.
#4) Worry the Highlight
By sheer coincidence, October 2024 introduced us not one however two horror titles wherein we have been charged with making certain the welfare of asthmatic protagonists. The primary of those kindred experiences was the aforementioned Street Forward — propped up by a serious Hollywood license and a growth workforce of over 100 individuals — whereas the opposite was far humbler in origins.
A modest ardour undertaking for husband-and-wife duo Bryan Singh & Crista Castro, Worry the Highlight won’t have been the 12 months’s flashiest providing. But what it lacked in big-budget presentation it greater than made up for in good degree design, creepy environment, and a surprisingly heartfelt romance.
Comparatively intimate in scope, it follows a pair of lovely excessive schoolers — Amy & Vivian — who’re crushing exhausting on each other and can go to extraordinary lengths to guard their pet love. Such devotion proves to be totally crucial, by the best way, when shenanigans involving a spirit board go calamitously flawed for the would-be couple, they usually discover themselves trapped in an odd elseworld. One that’s ruled by pure nightmare logic and that pits them towards literal ghosts from the previous (with some critical unfinished enterprise to take care of).
It’s an attractive story with fairly just a few hidden layers, all of which really feel satisfying over the course of a brisk 4-hours. Past the compelling thriller and candy central relationship, there’s additionally a witty use of the ’90s interval setting — most notably in an prolonged sequence that has you attempting to evade detection whereas a floppy disc takes an inordinate period of time to load — and a few intricate puzzles to unravel.
The most effective bits, nevertheless, are reserved for the second B state of affairs that goes even additional down the rabbit gap and considerably ramps up the scare issue. Alas, to disclose any extra about that right here could be an enormous disservice to the sudden twists & turns that the builders have in retailer. Suffice it to say, Blumhouse backed an actual winner with their first foray into the world of online game publishing. – Phrases by Harrison Abbott
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of Worry the Highlight right here.
#3) Silent Hill 2
I’m nonetheless in shock that they pulled this off. As a lot as standard knowledge may encourage remaking the most well-liked entry in a franchise, Silent Hill 2 is such a beloved recreation by so many who Bloober Group was enjoying with fireplace by touching this one.
It was a large threat that paid off in spades, making a totally trendy model of the unique that’s reverent to what got here earlier than whereas nonetheless offering new parts to shock longtime followers. Basic places have been lovingly rendered and expanded upon, including new twists on environments that I’ve explored again and again. What many thought of a weak level of the collection, the fight, has now been made one among its highlights, with nice mechanics that make for tense encounters that all the time really feel fraught with hazard.
This recreation is horrifying another way than the unique, making a terrifying environment that hardly ever lets up. Whereas the density of fight could get a bit exhausting by the tip of the 16-hour story, exploring the city of Silent Hill is extra engrossing than it’s been in many years.
With new endings to find, there’s loads of cause to return to this recreation again and again, even if you happen to’ve been experiencing this story for many years. It’s an impressive remake that can please each previous followers and newcomers to the collection. If the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall and Silent Hill f are as much as this normal, collection followers will lastly have one thing to be enthusiastic about once more. – Phrases by Aaron Boehm.
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of the Silent Hill 2 remake right here.
#2) Nonetheless Wakes the Deep
Strolling simulators typically get a nasty rap, and never essentially with out justification. In spite of everything, the worst examples might be fairly tedious; lazily utilizing the style’s constraints as an excuse to do little or no on-screen storytelling and to place minimal effort into considering of partaking methods for gamers to work together with their digital worlds.
In lots of respects, The Chinese language Room is one among our chief culprits right here. Their calling card launch, Pricey Esther, was on the vanguard of the strolling sim pattern within the early 2010s, and didn’t provide you with a lot to do past “maintain down the thumbstick till you hit the credit.” After which — relying in your tolerance for titles that make you slowly amble round whereas disembodied voices prattle on incessantly — All people’s Gone to the Rapture was both a profound exploration of mortality & religion, or a profound bore.
No matter the way you felt about their previous work, nevertheless, The Chinese language Room actually outdid themselves with Nonetheless Wakes the Deep. For starters, the developer affords you far better company than they’ve ever performed earlier than, incorporating vertiginous platforming sections, simple-but-effective stealth encounters, tense set items, and tangible penalties for messing up throughout any of the above. In brief, it’s a correct recreation.
But even when it have been extra of a conventional strolling sim, nestled inside the studio’s consolation zone, it’d nonetheless be their crowning achievement. That’s as a result of Nonetheless Wakes the Deep has a wealthy world that’s charming to simply, effectively, stroll round! Certainly, the Beira D drilling platform is without doubt one of the most characterful settings we’ve ever explored in current reminiscence, authentically capturing a really particular time & place (the Scottish oil trade, circa 1975) with microscopic particulars that make it really feel really lived in. This dedication to authenticity extends to each different aspect of the title as effectively, whether or not it’s the totally researched working procedures of the rig or the plausible dialect utilized by these working-class heroes who preserve it working.
Even when you’ve got no body of reference for that lifestyle, you rapidly turn into hooked up to the relatable roughnecks right here and are invested of their horrible plight. Talking of which, the elevator pitch for Nonetheless Wakes the Deep was reportedly “Annihilation meets The Poseidon Journey” and boy does it stay as much as that tantalizing premise.
When the crew of the Bierra D by chance disturb one thing within the abyssal waters that ought to have been left alone, all hell breaks free. What follows is a cosmic horror massacre that’s equal components haunting and visceral, however it’s truly the catastrophe film aspect of the equation that basically wigged us out.
You see, as a way to navigate the deteriorating rig, you’ll need to squeeze via tight areas, crawl alongside slippery girders, tiptoe throughout precarious walkways and — in a single excruciating sequence — swim via flooding chambers in near-pitch black darkness. It’d be terrifying sufficient with out the added paranormal problems however, with them, it’s simply among the finest horror video games of the last decade to date – Phrases by Harrison Abbott
Learn Bloody Disgusting’s full overview of Nonetheless Wakes the Deep right here.
#1) Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
For the previous two years, my GOTY have been ones about artwork and the artistic course of. Alan Wake II and Immortality each examined that in utterly distinctive methods, arising with various things to say about how fiction impacts the world and vice versa.
This 12 months Simogo launched Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, a surrealist puzzler with a hypnotic artwork model and a mysterious story that utterly captivated me. You’re dropped into a beautiful European lodge with degree design like Resident Evil’s Spencer Manor, forcing you to unravel puzzles as you determine what precisely occurred to the seemingly mad artist that owns Lodge Letztes Jahr.
What’s beautiful concerning the recreation is how little it holds your hand. With little or no steerage, you poke and prod on the puzzles offered to you, not essentially understanding if you happen to even have the knowledge to unravel them. Whereas this can be irritating to some, I discovered it completely exhilarating. I stuffed up about 20 pages of a pocket book with scribbles of clues that I wanted to comply with up on or ciphers that I used to be trying to decode. There’s even little sketches of symbols or scenes that can make no sense to anybody however me, however flipping via it takes me proper again.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is sort of a 20-hour online game escape room, with a story that wants as a lot decoding as any of the puzzles. The black-and-white (with splashes of pink) artwork model units a creepy tone, and most of the turns taken by the story go to some chilling instructions, with out ever dropping a magician-like sense of surprise.
Determining a puzzle or discovering a narrative beat feels simply as thrilling as beating an Elden Ring boss, making for one of the cerebrally satisfying video games I’ve ever performed. It’s a deeply unusual and difficult expertise, however it’s one that can follow me endlessly. – Phrases by Aaron Boehm.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is on the market on PC by way of Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Swap.
Honorable Mentions: The flawed-but-interesting Alone within the Darkish, Dredge’s wonderful Iron Rig enlargement, the joyous retro throwback that’s Sorry We’re Closed, Helldivers 2, Hollowbody, and that one mission in Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6 the place it inexplicably turns right into a degree from Management.
