Best Horror Games 2023: Our favourite scary games

Resident Evil Village is one of the best entries in the franchise, with fantastic graphics that particularly shine when played on the latest generation of consoles or on a PC. Lady Dimitrescu and her beautiful Bram Stoker-style castle look particularly striking, with remarkable detail in every room and a style that harkens back to the original Resident Evil games. 

Village takes on a first-person perspective, in the same vein as Resident Evil Biohazard, which makes the game feel a lot more personal. You’re confronted with hordes of terrifying goo monsters as well as feral lycans that will chase you through the town. Our reviewer found this game to be particularly unsettling, with every setting in the game oozing with atmosphere. 

You play as Ethan Winters who will shoot and slash his way through each level. There is a lot less emphasis on stealth in this title, which gives players more opportunities to tackle enemies head-on. We thought that this really added to the scare factor, as most of the time you won’t have any places to hide, forcing you to take on a nine-foot vampire with only a handgun to defend yourself with. 

It goes without saying that Resident Evil fans should definitely try out this game, as it combines new features with classic Resi mechanics, like item management and the ability to visit the Merchant. New fans that are after a scare will be delighted by the creepy art style and fast-paced combat, making Resident Evil Village a horror game you really won’t want to miss. 

Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full Review: Resident Evil Village

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 1 is still a must-have title for anyone looking for a nuanced and terrifying experience. This remake features a massive graphical overhaul when compared to the original and it’s a fantastic game to play on the PS5 or on PC, with a more immersive and believable story. 

While the storyline is unchanged when compared to the original, we still think that it’s an incredible tale worth revisiting. We noted that very few games manage to hit the storytelling heights of this title, with Joel and Ellie’s story still being as compelling and emotional as it was when we first saw it in 2013. 

The story is complemented with fantastic horror elements too, with players having to frequently sprint away from hordes of Runners and take on massive monsters called Bloaters. Clickers may be the most iconic enemy in this game, as they send out chilling squeals and clicks that notify the player of their impending advance. Their faces are malformed, with only jagged teeth and lumps of fungal infections on display, which need a surprising amount of ammo to be taken down. 

Regardless of your familiarity with The Last of Us Part 1 and its storyline, we think that this is a horror game worth revisiting. If you’re after something that requires less stealth, then Resident Evil Village or Back 4 Blood may be more up your alley, but we urge anyone who enjoys narrative-driven horror to try out The Last of Us Part 1 and see how they fare in this post-apocalyptic world. 

Reviewer: Thomas Deehan
Full Review: The Last of Us Part 1

We think that The Quarry is well-worth playing, regardless if you’re a gamer or not. It features an engrossing story that branches out depending on the choices you make during the game, in a similar vein to Until Dawn. Unlike Until Dawn, we thought that there was a lot more intrigue at the centre of this narrative, with more factions and viewpoints contributing to the storyline as the game progresses. 

Due to the branching storylines, this game also has massive replayability value, with our reviewer noting that they will be returning to this game to figure out everything they missed during their first run-through. 

The Quarry features a ‘Death Rewind’ feature which gives characters a second chance at life, as players are given three chances to right their wrongs. In some ways, this does decrease the scare factor, as you have some solace in the fact that you can bring characters back to life. However, we noted that even with this feature there were still many moments that had us jumping behind the back of the sofa, making this a perfect pick for anyone who’s after a title that isn’t as unrelentingly scary as some games out there, like Alien: Isolation. 

The Quarry is a fantastic game to play with friends as not only does it lead to unintentional hilarity on occasion, but it’s interesting to see how the story plays out when you’re not the one in the driver’s seat. If you’re after a new horror experience and want to see what mystery lurks under these remote forests, then The Quarry is definitely for you. 

Reviewer: Thomas Deehan
Full Review: The Quarry

The first co-op title to grace this list is Back 4 Blood, which boasts a card-based perk system that you select at the start of each match. Each round gives players access to one perk card that grants a special ability or an improved stat when taking on the hordes of zombies (aka the Ridden).

Progressing further into the game opens up the doors to more impressive cards for your team and more terrifying cards for the Ridden, which we thought gave this game a great learning curve and more incentive to utilise your perk cards than we originally anticipated. We also thought that this added to the game’s replayability, as you may want to return to a level with different perks to see how it shakes things up, with our reviewer touting the replayability aspect as the primary reason to buy the game.

It’s definitely worth noting that if you’re after a truly terrifying game experience, then Back 4 Blood may not be for you. Playing with friends does inherently make the game less scary and we thought that the focus lay more on the shooting mechanics than on the horror. However, there is still something so very chilling about being confronted with a mass of Ridden, and it doesn’t get less scary when you’re backed into a corner with no way for your teammates to save you. 

While this game can be tackled as a single-player experience, we really recommend that you take it on with friends, as the design is clearly optimised for co-op. With that being said, if you’re looking for a creepy and fast-paced zombie shooter that will still send chills down your spine, Back 4 Blood is one of the top picks out there. For something focused entirely on horror, we recommend taking a look at Resident Evil Village or The Evil Within 2, as both titles are single-player experiences that force the player to combat inhuman monsters at every turn. 

Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full Review: Back 4 Blood