Highlights
- Horror games guarantee terror and death - no happy endings here.
- Protagonists meet grim fates: shot to death, infected, or turned into monsters.
- In the horror genre, expect no survivors, just spine-chilling storylines.
This list features spoilers for games from the following developers: Techland, Red Barrels, Visceral Games, Telltale Games, Konami, and Scott CawthonHorror is a genre in which a happy ending is rare, rarer than a horror not having blood and gore. With the best horror games, players are usually encaptivated in the story and immersed in the terrifying reality that they love to play, but hate to be in. Within these horror titles, in particular, two things are assured: terror and death.
The Scariest Horror Video Games Of All Time, Ranked
From the torture of Doki Doki Literature Club to the eerieness of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, here are the scariest horror video games of all time.
Players will find themselves at a loss, as the protagonist is going to die in the games listed below. Whilst that might sadden some players, it’s a harsh reality that exists as part of stories, especially the horror genre. After all, if it’s horror, then players should expect no one to survive, no matter how hard they root for a happy ending.
6 Outlast
Upshur Is Shot To Death & Becomes Walrider’s Newest Host
Miles Upshur is an investigative reporter who ventures to Mount Massive Asylum in search of dark secrets and thrilling answers for a diabolical story in which the truth must be exposed. Throughout this thrilling horror journey, players must run and hide their way through, or else, die.
At the end of the game, players might think that they are so close to freedom, only to be shot and killed by Dr. Wernicke’s men, who demand no witnesses be left alive. Mike Upshur’s death was undeserved, but upon his death, he is possessed, made into a new host for the Walrider, a source of madness and power.
5 Dying Light
Kyle Crane Becomes A Night Hunter
Dying Light
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , PS4 , Switch , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One
- Released
- January 27, 2015
- Developer(s)
- Techland
- Genre(s)
- Open-World , Survival Horror
When Kyle Crane is dropped into the quarantine zone of Harran, he is quickly shown just how engulfed in carnage this infected city is. Kyle is soon defeated and captured, and then infected thanks to a group of biters, causing him to become one of the people, desperate for a cure like the rest of them, with only shots of antizin keeping the virus at bay.
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Kyle’s journey has him parkour through Harran in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in the city and in himself, but there is no cure, and in The Following DLC, Kyle becomes a Night Hunter, eventually losing his identity and being nothing but rotten flesh that lives for the hunt of humans.
4 The Walking Dead: Season One
Lee Succumbs To His Infection From Walkers
Whilst The Walking Dead: Season One is more a thriller narrative-focus than pure horror, the elements that are horror cannot be denied, and still stick with players to this day thanks to Telltale Games’ magnum opus of a story. Within, players will discover Lee, a man who has been given a second chance to try and make a better world for himself and those around him, where his choices directly alter the fates of others.
Yet, in his quest to make sure that a young orphaned girl, Clementine, has a good life, he is bitten, and it’s only a matter of time before his infection turns him into a monster who must be killed. It’s one of the saddest video game deaths, and truly one of the most well-known horror deaths.
3 Five Nights At Freddy’s 4
The Crying Child Dies After A Horrific Bite From Fredbear
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The FNAF series harbors many games, and more are yet to come, but perhaps the darkest is Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, the game where the protagonist not only dies but is also a child. The game follows the same pattern as its predecessors, where players must repeatedly check rooms for horrors and try not to get a game over jumpscare, but this time, there’s a twist.
Every Five Nights At Freddy's Game, Ranked
No matter how one feels about the original game and its many sequels, it seems fair to say that FNaF has forever changed the indie horror genre.
Each night, pieces of the story unlock, like fractured memories reawakening. Both the creator and fans of FNAF weave the story together, and it’s pretty clear that despite surviving 5 nights, the protagonist of the unnamed crying child in FNAF 4, has his skull bitten by Fredbear, and he dies in the hospital of his wounds.
2 Silent Hill 2
James Drives His Car Into A Lake
After receiving a letter from his dead wife addressed to Silent Hill, James Sunderland ventures to the desolate town in search of answers. What James finds, is nothing but horror, where the once beautiful town is engulfed in fog and monsters that seek to deter James and cause him to lose his grasp on reality. That is if he hasn’t already lost it.
Many characters and themes are present in Silent Hill 2, and theories surrounding the truth of the game continue to encapsulate players and viewers alike. Yet, it’s the ending that is the most controversially discussed, and with several to go on, James could well and truly be dead if the In Water ending is used, which has James commit suicide.
1 Dead Space 3
Isaac, On A Living Moon, Crashes It Into A Planet
Dead Space 3
- Released
- February 5, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Visceral Games
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter , Horror
Isaac Clarke’s life was turned upside down ever since he interacted with the Marker in the original Dead Space. His mind has become a prison of the Marker’s design, showing him things he wishes he could stop seeing, plaguing his mind with memories and confusion, all because he was an engineer who wanted to find his girlfriend on the Ishimura. There’s no rest for Isaac, and Dead Space 3 takes him off-world again to stop the Markers once and for all.
At the end of the game, Isaac sacrifices himself to crash the Moon-sized organism that threatens the existence of all life into Tau Volantis, attempting to destroy both of them so the origins of the Marker and the Necromorphs would die with him. Despite dying at the end of the game, the credits tease he is still alive, and the DLC, Awakened, proves just that. Yet, with the story going back to a reboot, it’s likely that Isaac is pretty dead here.
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These horror games from the PlayStation 2 are the genre's best titles from the console's era.
