The gaming news magazine Gameinformer recently released its 300th issue and to commemorate the release, the staff came up with The Top 300 Games Of All Time and not surprising a decent handful of horror games made the list with one that just missed being in the top 10!
Disclaimer: There were 300 titles to look through so I apologize if I’ve missed any games that are horror, some games are “horror-like” but are not classified as horror games so I did not include them.
So with the disclaimers out of the way, here in order are the horror games that made the list!
297 Alien Isolation
2014, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
Players take on the role of Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda in this first-person stealth horror game as they encounter a Xenomorph while trying to learn about what happened to the Nostromo that vanished years earlier.
265 Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
2003, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation 3
Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura discover an abandoned village deep in the woods that’s enshrouded in eternal night. The twins find clues about a failed ancient ritual in which they are somehow linked to, all the while defending themselves from vengeful ghosts with only a magical camera.
250 Limbo
2010, Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360
A puzzle game where players take on the role of a nameless boy who journey’s through the forest on the “edge of hell” (AKA Limbo) looking for his sister while encountering other humans who are either hostile, run away from him or are dead.
230 Dead Rising 2
2010, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Sequel to Dead Rising, in this game players, play as Chuck Greene who’s caught up in the middle of a second zombie outbreak stranding him and his daughter at a casino resort and shopping center. Greene needs to salvage supplies to survive as well as keeping up his daughter’s medication in order to prevent her from turning into a zombie.
199 Silent Hill 2
2001, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox, Microsoft Windows
Taking on the role of James, players must travel to Silent Hill to find his wife who wrote to him saying she’s there. While there, James encounters hell on earth. The game also introduced the horror world to the now iconic Pyramidhead villain.
192 Amnesia: The Dark Descent
2010, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
The main character Daniel (NO, Not me!) awakens in a castle with no memory about himself, with the exception of his name and where he’s from, or how he got there. Daniel must explore the castle all the while being hunted by creatures who he must hide from in order to not be driven insane or worse, killed.
174 Left 4 Dead
2008, Windows, Xbox 360
A first-person co-op game that pits a motley crew of survivors against an army of zombies, and mutated monsters. The game spawned a sequel and countless internet memes.
150 The Walking Dead
2012, PlayStation 4, Android, Xbox One, PlayStation 3
An interactive drama based on the TV series but animated as if it’s a living comic book. Players take on the role of Lee, a university professor and convicted murderer who finds himself caught up at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Lee encounters a child named Clementine who he vows to protect her during the crisis.
111 Dead Space
2008, Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Players explore the derelict spaceship the USG Ishimura as Isaac, an engineer who not only was part of a team sent to assist the crew of the ship but is looking for his fiancé who works on the ship. The ship has been taken over by monsters who were once the crew and colonists after an event that occurred when an object called “the marker” was found on the planet the Ishimura was mining.
060 System Shock 2
1999, PC, Dreamcast
Set in a cyberpunk world, the game takes place on board a ship that’s been overrun with an unknown infection turning people on the ship into killers. The System Shock series ended with this title but years later the same company released its spiritual successor Bioshock.
059 Resident Evil
1996, PlayStation
The survival-horror game that pitted players against zombies and mutated creatures, while blending in unique puzzles. The game spawned many sequels including…
034 Resident Evil: 4
2005, Android, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
The fourth installment of the series that took players outside of Raccoon City and away from zombies to the Spanish countryside with cultists infected with a mutating parasite. The game featured the updated third-person perspective now called “over the shoulder” perspective.
032 Bloodborne
2015, PlayStation 4
Players take on the role of “the hunter” who is looking for the source of an infectious blood-borne disease that’s ravishing a fictitious gothic-Victorian style city in which its inhabitants are turned into creatures.
025 The Last of Us
2013, PlayStation 3
This critically acclaimed game has players playing Joel, a smuggler in charge of escorting a teenage girl named Ellie to a safe house belonging to a militia group called the fireflies. The game takes players through the post-apoplectic US after a “Zombie” outbreak that occurred 20 years prior when people became infected with a virus resembling a certain fungus.
The horror game that made it closest to the top of the list…
013 Doom
1993, PC, SNES, PlayStation
One of the most well known first-person shooter games on the market. Players take on the role of a nameless space marine who goes to Mars with his squad to investigate a disturbance resulting in our hero being left alone to face off against demons from hell who wish to go to Earth with you acting as a one-man army to stop them.
For those curious about what game was #1 on the list
001 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1991, SNES, Gameboy Advance
My honorable mention of a game that I consider horror:
128 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
2000, N64, GameCube
Mainly because of the transformation animation whenever Link puts on masks
and of course… that moon!
Know Your Meme
