It’s no mystery now that 2023 has been one of the best years ever for video games, and the great number of titles that were released to exceptional reviews and fanfare is further proof of this. Popular franchises received new entries, some existing games got amazing expansions or spin-offs, entirely new IPs started to thrive thanks to their communities and developers, and even sequels years in the making finally hit store shelves. While horror games have had incredible representation this year in the form ofAlan Wake 2, with it being still fresh in the memory of many fans, there have been many more titles this year deserving of praise.
For starters, 2023 proved that remakes of classic horror games can be as effective as new titles, appealing to old fans and new with a set of quality-of-life features, improvements to audio and gameplay mechanics, and a fresh coat of paint in terms of graphics and overall performance. Indies also got some deserved love in 2023, with the fan-favorite titleSea of Starswinning the Best Indie Awards at TGA. This doesn’t mean that horror indies were snubbed, though, and instead, there were a handful that ended up dominating the gaming discourse in their respective niches. These are thebest horror games of 2023, listed in alphabetical order.
Alan Wake 2
Right off the bat is one of the best games of 2023, let alone within the horror genre, and that isAlan Wake 2. Winning multiple big awards and enjoying its time in the sun (ironically),Alan Wake 2immediately became a massive success thanks to its unique storytelling, its dual protagonist approach, the way it perfectly nails the same vibes of the first game while also building on what it offered, and much more.Saga Anderson was one of the best female characters of 2023and a great protagonist, withAlan Wake 2’s ending possibly paving the way for her to return in a sequel. Gameplay mechanics also elevate the title, such as the Mind Place and the overall survival horror approach, with the story and characters being the icing on the cake.
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A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
Blood West
The full release ofBlood Westdropped this year, and it became a massive hit on Steam. Upon exiting early access,Blood WestcastDishonored 2actor Stephen Russellas its main character, which helped boost the game’s reach further. Still, one of the most interesting aspects ofBlood Westis its unique style, as it is a retro Wild West FPS where players are tasked with shooting their way through hordes of demons and other eldritch horrors. The game’s low-poly graphics make it a nostalgia-inducing release that is sure to make indie fans happy, especially if they are into hard difficulty and the option for stealth gameplay.
Weird West legends meet eldritch horror inBLOOD WEST, an immersive stealth FPS. Become the Undead Gunslinger, doomed to roam the barren lands until he finds the means to purge their curse and free his soul. No, this isn’t your typical Wild West desperado redemption arc. This is a damnation arc.The Canyons, the Swamp, and the Mountains. Each swarming with abominable monsters and unholy demons, these are open-ended worlds for you to explore freely at your own pace. It will take the player over 20 hours on average to complete all three scenarios, and over 35 if they want to see everything the barren lands have to offer.Blood Westis a stealth FPS inspired by the genre classics such as the Thief series (whose fans will be happy to hear the voice of Stephen Russell, the actor voicing the master-thief Garrett, returning here as the protagonist), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, or - from the contemporary catalog - Hunt: Showdown. The gameplay rewards the careful approach: scouting the area, stalking your enemies, and striking from the shadows. Can you figure out a way to clear a fort full of ghouls and monsters without raising an alarm?The Barren Lands present the player with a nightmarish, twisted vision of the Wild West legends. The curse that has befallen the realm has corrupted every living thing, defiled the land itself, while summoning restless spirits and dark entities. In this mixture of gunslinger pulp and Lovecraftian horror, dark occult magick presents just as much of a threat as sudden lead poisoning.InBlood Westyou will meet many colorful, yet strangely twisted, fully-voiced NPCs. Just as much prisoners of the Barren Lands as you are, they will sometimes share their unusual stories and send you on various missions. Play nice and they might reward you or become your allies. Cross them and risk their wrath.
The game won’t hold your hand. You’ll have to explore the land for yourself (buying a map from a vendor might prove useful!), and figure out your own way to approach quests. As you poke around the three expansive maps, keep an eye out for hidden places and secret stashes. There’s gold in the mountains! Fair warning - it’s probably cursed.If sneaking around isn’t exactly your thing, or you feel that you have a power advantage over your enemies, you can always take the head-on approach and meet your enemies guns blazing.Blood Westcomes from the creators of the fan-favorite boomer shooterPOSTAL: Brain Damaged, so much gratuitous fantasy violence and pixelated blood splatter is to be expected!One man’s hell might be another hoarder’s paradise! From simple one-use items like bandages, through medical tinctures, explosives and incendiaries, straight to arcane artifacts that - once slotted - can change the way you play the game, the Barren Lands are just filled with STUFF. There are tons of useful items to discover, and there’s a special player’s stash crate for all those super-rare potions that you’ll hoard and never use.A gunslinger without a gun would be just a regular slinger. Where’s the fun in that?Blood Westmakes sure you’ll have plenty of weapons to choose from. Revolvers, rifles, shotguns, carabines - a great variety of firearms, from standard army-issue to those infused with powerful magic, or straight-up possessed. And if you prefer not to cause a ruckus, there’s a wide selection of hand-to-hand combat weapons and archery weapons to pick your favorites from.The RPG-like perk-based progression system inBlood Westwill allow you to highly customize the gameplay experience to your liking. Become a stealthy hunter, a revolver-fanning gunman or a relentless berserker. You will gain experience and progress through the skill tree, while discovering new artifacts in each of the scenarios that will bestow on you additional abilities. Combining skills and load-out creates more possible playstyles than you’d normally be able to explore in one playthrough.Are you ready to take back the frontier from the dark forces of demonic corruption and earn the right to move on to a better world? The Barren Lands call you, Gunslinger!The developers describe the content like this:Blood West is a dark and gritty horror/western game. Scenes of gore and brutal violence are to be expected, presented in glorious low-res, low-poly 3D. The game also contains depiction of alcohol consumption.
To the surprise of many,Dead Island 2was one of the best horror games this year. It proved that, even after a long and rocky development process, it can still be a fantastic franchise for zombie slasher lovers.Dead Island 2isn’t the scariest horror game on this list, but it strikes all the vibes on the right note. The game received its first expansion in the form of Haus, focusing on a death cult-inspired new faction, and 2024 will see the release ofDead Island 2’s Sola Festival DLC. Even in its base game, though,Dead Island 2was well worth the 10-year-plus wait.
Dead Island 2
The open-world zombie slaying action RPG makes its long-awaited return. Dead Island is back, and with it comes a host of enhancements to its winning combination of creative first-person zombie slaying, pitch-black humor and open-world exploration. Welcome to HELL-A. The City of Angels has been transformed into a hellish sprawl, its populace now mutated into disgusting zombies with an insatiable appetite for humans. In this extensive, visceral RPG experience you’ll journey to iconic LA locations, taking on quests, meeting eccentric survivors and enjoying a joyously pulpy narrative along the way. The game’s brutal melee combat gives you access to an expansive array of inventive zombie-slaying weaponry that lets you slice, smash and tear through the hordes before they get the chance to do the same to you. Can you survive HELL-A?
As much asAlan Wake 2and other titles helped make the end of 2023 a huge one, theDead Spaceremake was a trailblazer with its January release date. Acting both as a faithful remake of the original and a massive improvement over many aspects that made it so iconic, theDead Spaceremake became one of thehighest-rated games of 2023, displaying incredible graphics, a deeply well-finished soundtrack, and new secrets and puzzles for players to solve. The 2023 remake ofDead Spaceis more of a reinvention of the franchise than anything else, and it could become the first step in a complete reboot if EA so wishes, potentially taking the series to a whole new level.
Dead Space (2023)
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
Dredge
At first,Dredgemay seem like a nice fishing game, but its horror themes surface quite fast, making the experience much more interesting and worth trying. Even thoughThe Best Debut Indie Award went toCocoonat TGAthis year instead ofDredge, it was a close call, considering how popular the game became over time. Not a full-blown fishing sim,Dredge’s horror permeates the gameplay loop in various ways from eerie atmospheres and creepy townsfolk to eldritch creatures chasing the player’s boat, and it’s what makes it such a great title to play.
Captain your fishing trawler to explore a collection of remote isles, and their surrounding depths, to see what lies below. Sell your catch to the locals and complete quests to learn more about each area’s troubled past. Outfit your boat with better equipment to trawl deep-sea trenches and navigate to far-off lands, but keep an eye on the time. You might not like what finds you in the dark…Starting from your new home in the remote archipelago, ‘The Marrows’, take to the water and scour the depths for curious collectables and over 125 deep sea denizens. Explore each area while completing quests and visiting neighbouring island regions – each with their own unique opportunities, inhabitants, and secrets.
Lethal Company
Yet another indie making a big name for itself,Lethal Companyhas been one of the most unexpected hits of the year. Back in November 2023,Lethal Companysurpassed 100,000 players on Steam, marking an incredible milestone for an indie game and further cementing its standing among the best games of 2023. What makes the game an exceptional one is that it’s a co-op multiplayer survival horror title that excels in this regard, something that is quite difficult to accomplish, allowing players to scavenge haunted moons and obtain several upgrades to improve their exploration and survival capabilities. But monsters are around the corner, and inventory is quite limited.
You are a contracted worker for the Company. Your job is to collect scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons to meet the Company’s profit quota. You can use the cash you earn to travel to new moons with higher risks and rewards–or you can buy fancy suits and decorations for your ship. Experience nature, scanning any creature you find to add them to your bestiary. Explore the wondrous outdoors and rummage through their derelict, steel and concrete underbellies. Justnevermiss the quota.These dangers prey upon the vulnerable and lonesome, and the protection of your crew may be your only hope. You can guide your crewmates from your ship, using the radar to call out traps and using the ship’s terminal to access remotely locked doors–or you can all go in together. The Company store has many useful tools for the job, including lights, shovels, walkie talkies, stun grenades, or boomboxes.Things get dangerous at night. Communicate with your crewmates to carry all valuables to the ship before things get too dangerous, and try not to leave anyone behind.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Another stellar horror game came in the form ofResident Evil 4 Remake, which behaves similarly toDead Spacein how it improves the gameplay and general feel of the original, while also changing some bits for the better. The incredible success ofResident Evil 4 Remakeprompted Capcom to confirmmoreResident Evilremakes are on the way, which is great news for fans of the series. The game encapsulates the feeling of theResident Evilsaga like no other, taking the original’s Las Plagas to the next level, and making the whole ordeal a big, thrilling experience. With modernized controls, satisfying weapons, and plenty of quality-of-life improvements, the remake is a 2023 game through and through, not showing the original’s age for a single moment.
Resident Evil 4
Survival is just the beginning.Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City.Agent Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors of the incident, has been sent to rescue the president’s kidnapped daughter. He tracks her to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals.And the curtain rises on this story of daring rescue and grueling horror where life and death, terror and catharsis intersect.Featuring modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics, Resident Evil 4 marks the rebirth of an industry juggernaut.Relive the nightmare that revolutionized survival horror.
Sons of the Forest
AfterHogwarts Legacy’s release,Sons of the Forestbecame the most wish-listed game on Steamfor a hot minute, and it delivered a gruesome and enjoyable sequel toThe Forest. The title’s success is in no small part due to its characters and setting, with the forest actually changing with seasons in a dynamic weather landscape where survival is not always set in stone, and instead, players have to earn it. The game’s map is around four times the original, too, making the flora and fauna as much of a protagonist as the player character. With creepy monsters, a compelling non-human companion, great use of AI-governed NPCs, and various collectibles,Sons of the Forestis easily one of the most interesting games of the year.
The sequel to 2014’s The Forest, Sons of the Forest sends players to find a missing billionaire on a remote island where they find themselves in a cannibal-infested hellscape. Craft, build, and struggle to survive, alone or with friends, in this terrifying new open-world survival horror simulator.Experience complete freedom to tackle the world how you want. You decide what you do, where to go, and how best to survive. There are no NPCs barking orders at you or giving you missions you don’t want to do. You give the orders, you choose what happens next.Arm yourself with pistols, axes, stun batons and more to defend against a range of mutated creatures, some who are almost human like. Feel every interaction; Break sticks to make fires. Use an axe to cut out windows and floors. Build a small cabin, or a sea-side compound, the choice is yours.Keep an eye on the changing seasons because, as winter rolls in and food and resources become scarce, you won’t be the only one looking for a meal.Survive alone, or with friends.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
It could be easy to write offThe Texas Chain Saw Massacreas a video game knock-off of the original movie franchise, but that would be doing it a disservice. The title delivers a fun yet macabre asymmetrical multiplayer experience that makes it stand out as one of the best horror titles of the year. Oftentimes,The Texas Chain Saw Massacreis compared toDead By Daylightin terms of how it approaches killers, survivors, and everything in between.DBDmay use its collabs very effectively, butThe Texas Chain Saw Massacrehas everything great about a singular IP. With a strong online component that makes it tons of fun with friends, the title left its mark on the industry in 2023 and may continue to do so.
Inspired by the seminal 1970s horror movie, Sumo Nottingham’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an asymmetrical PvP experience that pits a group of victims against a Slaughter Family representative. The game features iconic villains from the films like Leatherface, The Hitchhiker, and Grandpa.
World of Horror
For those who like horror games being unsettling and simultaneously nostalgia-inducing,World of Horrorcaptures the 1980s vibes perfectly and matches them with minimalist graphics and intense adventures in a world that has roguelike elements. A mix of Japanese horror a la Junji Ito and Lovecraftian horror, the game is one of the most atmospheric releases of the year, and it can easily keep players hooked for a few hours.World of Horroris also a completionist’s dream, as unlocking achievements grants a series of in-game benefits for players to delve into, further expanding the extent of the gameplay loop and the title’s replayability. With great a soundtrack and audio design, mysteries to unravel, unforgiving combat, and the ability to make safe elements feel uncanny,World of Horroris one of thebest cosmic horror gamesto play.
The Old Gods are reawakening, clawing their way back into a world that’s spiraling into madness. In hospitals, abandoned classrooms, quiet apartments, and dark forests, strange appearances and unexplainable phenomena test the sanity of residents in Shiokawa, Japan. Is it chaotic retribution, or the machinations of beings beyond our comprehension?This is WORLD OF HORROR: The end of the world is nigh, and the only solution is to confront the terror reigning over the apocalypse. Navigate this hellish, roguelite reality through turn-based combat and unforgiving choices in this roguelite-style cosmic horror RPG.Invoke dark rituals, uncover disturbing clues, and solve puzzles across multiple randomized mysteries. Each perplexing case unravels into a series of random encounters with nightmarish figures inspired by the works of horror legends Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft.Unveil the fates of 14 unique playable characters, and choose your path through a pool of 20 dreadful investigations. Most mysteries harbor multiple endings - for those that survive long enough.
