With it being that time of year again (no, not that time of year, the other one), the temptation to find a particularly scary flick to get you in the mood for the annual spooky celebrations can be a strong one. Perhaps stronger still is the compulsion to take a more interactive role in such nightmarish scenarios, and what better way is there to do that than to carve your way through some of the best Halloween games to enjoy on PC in 2024 – so here we go!
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
Based on the hugely successful horror movie franchise of the same name, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a spin-off that takes place during the first 100 days of the alien invasion chronicled in the terrifying big-screen flicks. Much like its famous cinematic counterpart, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead knows how to weave an atmosphere of intense dread, as you creep through an apocalyptic landscape in silence as grotesque, sound-hunting aliens swarm around you. Exacerbating the terror further still is a special microphone mode that allows the aliens to pick up on your gasps and screams through the mic to discover your location. Have a clean set of underwear ready.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Representing a neat take on tales of the New World, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden sees developer DONTNOD operating at the peak of its considerable powers. Set in an alternate, newly discovered America known as ‘New Eden’, Banishers is a third-person, action horror RPG that casts players as Red and Antea, a pair of supernatural warriors whose love for each other is as deep as the corruption that seeps through every pore of the land. Dripping with atmosphere, superb writing, great characters and some of the most imaginative monsters to come along in quite some time, Bainshers: Ghosts of New Eden is a Halloween adventure quite unlike any other.
Crow Country
Fully embracing its mid-1990s, PSOne-era aesthetic, Crow Country is a beautifully made, isometric survival horror effort. Throwing players back in time to 1990, Crow Country has players snooping around a spooky theme park and its darkened, wooded surroundings to find its missing owner, Edward Crow. Filled with terrifying creatures, a mountain of jump scares, some neat puzzles to solve and an eye-stroking visual presentation, Crow Country is an easy choice for anybody looking to spend Halloween with one foot in potent nostalgia and another in nerve-shredding terror.
INDIKA
Though INDIKA’s titular protagonist appears to be a meek, mouse-like nun, it turns out there is a lot more to our seemingly humble sister than meets the eye. Set at the turn of the nineteenth century in an alternate version of the Russian Empire, INDIKA unfurls the story of a nun looking to free herself from the confines of her harsh, puritanical convent and discover the world beyond its walls. The thing is you see, she has an imaginary friend called the Devil (yep, that one), who whispers amusing sweet nothings into her ear as she’s off doing her thing, resulting in a kaleidoscope of different gaming genres being offered up to the player as INDIKA’s grasp on sanity becomes more and more tenuous. Horror doesn’t get much more original – or just outright odd – than this.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
A cinematic, audiovisual showcase with flair to spare, much like its 2016 predecessor, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is an effective representation of psychological trauma borne out as a hyper-violent, dark Viking horror tale. With her path of vengeance taking her to Viking-dominated Iceland, Senua forces players to face up against a horde of Norse mythological horrors as she must also deal with the horrors that lurk inside her soul. A third-person action-adventure boasting some of the best visuals of the year and some cracking binaural audio which brings Senua’s frail psyche to life, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II isn’t just an effective sequel, it’s also a keenly made psychological horror with real verve, too.
SILENT HILL 2
It’s no secret that before the release of its SILENT HILL 2 remake, developer Bloober Team knew that the gaming public at large was split as to whether the Polish horror developer could do justice to one of the most beloved survival horror classics of all time. Yet, that’s precisely what the studio did. A full-fat, full-love remake of SILENT HILL 2, Bloober Team’s reinvigoration of Masashi Tsuboyama’s seminal horror sequel not only maintains the classic essence of its source material but also meaningfully builds around it by introducing new areas, new collectables, new voice actor performances and stunning, retina-searing visuals thanks to Unreal Engine 5. Proven to be both a roaring commercial and critical success, Bloober Team’s SILENT HILL 2 will not only go down as one of the best remakes ever but one of the very best survival horror titles of the year as well.
Still Wakes The Deep
Framing a very different sort of horror scenario front and centre, Still Wakes The Deep puts players in the hefty overcoat and thick boots of an oil rig worker in the North Sea during an especially brutal storm in 1975. Played from a first-person perspective, Still Wakes The Deep tasks players with escaping said oil rig to reach their family and as you might well expect, such a feat proves easier said than done as it also happens that there are otherworldly horrors to deal with, in addition to the wildly chaotic whims of the sea. Filled with intense moments and the sort of thick creeping dread that you could cut with a knife, Still Wakes The Deep is the sort of North Sea, Scottish seaborne horror you never knew you wanted until now.
The Outlast Trials
A proper evolution of the pants-wetting horror formula established in the previous Outlast titles, The Outlast Trials invites players to return to the Cold War where human guinea pigs are captured before being brutally tested on with cutting-edge indoctrination and mind control techniques in a black site facility. In practice, The Outlast Trials has you and up to three other unfortunate friends earn the right to freedom by avoiding terrifying enemies and crafting tools to stymie them, all the while locating evidence which proves the depths of malpractice that is being executed in the Murkoff facility. Filled to the brim with nail-biting, stealth-induced tension and toe-curling violence, The Outlast Trials is an easy recommendation for a spot of escape horror shenanigans with friends this Halloween.
