Scare stories
IT’S THAT magical time of year when we can openly embrace our darker sides ... And while the spooky season will look very different in 2020, thanks to the global pandemic, there are still safe ways for you to get your horror fix.
While it’s fun to sit and watch a horror movie, nothing truly gets the blood pumping like being immersed in a terrifying game.
So turn out the lights, fire up your console and settle down with one of these chilling classics.
DARKWOOD (PEGI 18) PS4, XBOX ONE, PC, Switch
ONE of the most unforgiving survival horrors I’ve ever played, this really will leave you with a fear of the dark.
Released in 2017, for some reason Darkwood sailed under the radar, meaning it’s one of the best games you’ve probably never heard of.
Set in a procedurally generated, open world, the game starts with a warning about a coming plague, and that the woods are coming to life to claim everything around them.
The bad news is you are in a cabin in those woods (a horror cliché, I know) and there’s something out there that’s trying to get in. Even worse, if you have any hope of surviving, you need to venture out among the trees for supplies.
Packed with skin-crawling terror, and tension so thick you could literally slice it, Darkwood makes you work to reveal its story – and it’s more chilling than you could ever imagine.
Buy it: £11.99 from store.steampowered.com
CARRION (PEGI 18) XBOX ONE, PC, Switch
TRADITIONALLY in games you play the role of the brave soldier, the scientist or the lone survivor working to bring down the evil monster.
Not so in Carrion.
Here you get to experience the unbridled joy of life as an amorphous creature whose sole purpose in life is to consume everything – and everyone – in its path.
Using your fleshy tendrils (think of The Thing), you move through pipes, cracks and crawl spaces in a mysterious underground lair, grabbing your victims and dragging them into your fanged jaws.
Acquiring new DNA as you move through the base, you develop new abilities, like web slinging and echolocation.
The pesky humans will try to fight back, but as you grow and evolve they stand no chance.
■ Buy it: £16.99 from store. steampowered.com
DEAD SPACE (PEGI 18) PC, XBOX 360, PS3
TAKE a pound of Alien, blend it with Event Horizon, add a touch of Pandorum and bake... et voila, you have Dead Space.
Sent to find out why the mining ship USG Ishimura has broken contact, the crew of the USG Kellion soon find themselves in a terrifying situation.
As Isaac Clark, you must fight your way through the myriad ‘necromorphs’ that now inhabit the Ishimura, and escape back to the Kellion.
You destroy the necromorphs with strategic dismemberment – taking off a limb here, or a head there.
The 2008 original spawned two equally excellent sequels, but if you’ve yet to dip your toe into this series’ waters, this is the place to start.
Gory, visceral and full of horrifying ways to meet your end – in Dead Space, everyone hears you scream.
■ Buy it: £14.99 from microsoft.com
BLOODBORNE (PEGI 16)
PS4
THIS is an absolute must for fans of Lovercraft.
Spewed forth from the Dark Souls stable, Bloodborne is a taxing challenge for even the hardiest of gamers.
Set in the darkly beautiful gothic city of Yharnam, The Hunter must track down and destroy the source of a terrifying plague that is ravaging the inhabitants of the ruinous city.
And as frustrating as this game can be at times, the twisted beauty of the set pieces, the need to uncover its dark secrets and the compulsion for retribution on the beast that’s just wiped you out for the tenth time, means you can’t walk away from Bloodborne easily.
A sprawling, nightmarish vision of Victorian Europe, this is an eldritch horror that delivers spectacular chills.
■ Buy it: £25 (Game of the Year Edition) from uk.webuy.com
LITTLE NIGHTMARES (PEGI 16) PS4, XBOX ONE, PC, Switch
AS children we all have illogical fears, and they are exactly what Little Nightmares taps into.
As a rain-coated, barefoot child with nothing but a lighter for protection, you set out from your prison cell in a bid for freedom from ‘The Maw’. This unsettling facility is deep underwater and filled with sickeningly monstrous inhabitants – all of whom want to catch the child.
The game’s hauntingly beautiful graphic style only fans the flames of fear and, to be fair, the villains are not to be sniffed at.
There are the hideous butcher brothers, twisted chubby chefs and the Janitor, with incredibly long arms who lurks in the darkness to grab at you.
If you haven’t played this yet, then now is your chance, as next February sees the release of the sequel.
■ Buy it: £12 from uk.webuy.com – look out for collector’s editions.