Something wicked this way comes
IT’S that magical time of year when we can openly embrace our darker sides... With Halloween just days away, I’ve been exploring the more macabre side of gaming. While it’s fun to sit and watch a horror movie, nothing truly gets the blood pumping like being immersed in a terrifying game.
The tension, the cold sweat, the tendrilly fingers of fear stroking at the base of your neck – it’s thrilling.
So if you’re after a truly unforgettable Halloween this year, these are the games you should be playing...
RESIDENT EVIL 2 (PEGI 18) PS4, PC, Xbox One
THE closest thing to a horror masterpiece I’ve ever played.
Capcom’s impressive reimagining of a modern classic set terrifying new standards for remastered games.
Gorgeously gory graphics make you feel like you’re living the nightmare of Racoon City, as you try to escape the zombie apocalypse.
Combat is tight and visceral, the eerie environments and horrific enemies leaving you genuinely afraid of what’s waiting for you around the corner.
The developers have tweaked the original story here and there, and added new controls and some smart quality-of-life revisions.
Amidst the horror are fun, baroque puzzles to solve which help you on your way.
But most of the time it feels like subsistence survival, always a few bullets away from being slaughtered in the worst way imaginable.
■ Buy it: £17.85, base.com
UNTIL DAWN (PEGI 18) PS4
ONE of the first real attempts at making a slasher movie as a game, 2015’s Until Dawn is now recognised as a classic among story-driven games.
Trapped in a remote cabin in the woods, eight friends begin to suspect that they are not alone and are soon fighting for their lives.
How the story unfolds is dictated by the decisions you make, and those choices could lead to the death of your friends.
Beautiful detailing make the small map feel huge, and everything feels like it’s out to kill you.
If you’ve ever watched a teen slasher movie, then the characters will feel familiar – the jock, the prom queen, the comedian, the bad boy.
As it plays out over 10 chapters, your gameplay is ‘analysed’ by a psychologist, until you really begin to question your actions.
Once you’ve played it through, you can revisit the game and try new tactics, which reveals new storylines you may have missed the first time around.
■ Buy it: £16.40 from game.co.uk
THE EVIL WITHIN 2 (PEGI 18) PS4, Xbox One, PC
LONG after I’d completed The Evil Within 2 I still had a nagging sense of unease ... and that’s a good thing.
This game pulls no punches, starting with a horrifying sequence which sees protagonist Sebastian
Castellanos relive the nightmare of his daughter’s supposed death.
It’s a brutal beginning, one which sets the policeman on a journey which will see you come face to face with equally visceral horrors within STEM – basically a version of the Matrix.
The atmosphere is genuinely tense, a sense of foreboding waiting around every corner. Enemies are belligerent and numerous, and there are many, many disgusting and inventive ways to die in STEM.
There are some genuinely disquieting segments that linger with you, making it a perfect Halloween choice.
■ Buy it: £7.99, game.co.uk
LITTLE NIGHTMARES
AS A child we all have illogical fears, and that’s 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 tiny 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’s the hideous butcher brothers, twisted chubby chefs who will put the child on the menu if they catch her; there’s the Janitor, with incredibly long arms who lurks in the darkness to grab at you, and then there’s The Maw’s guests, who come to the facility to eat, and nothing will stand in their way.
■ Buy it: £14.09, base.com
OUTLAST (PEGI 18) PC, Xbox One, PS4
TRAPPED in the basement of an abandoned hospital, there’s something breathing in the darkness – and it’s moving closer.
This simple, yet petrifying survival game sees you play as a journalist investigating strange goings on at a remote psychiatric hospital deep in the mountains of Colorado.
Unarmed and unprepared for the horrors that lurk within, you have only your wits and your speed to rely on.
The set pieces, the creatures and the constant sense of foreboding, make this one of the best horror games I’ve ever played.
Maybe keep the lights on for this one.
■ Buy it: £8.82 for Outlast Trinity including Outlast, Outlast 2 and Whistleblower, at game.co.uk