I’m not the first person at DualShockers (or the internet at large, presumably) to have noticed that it’s been one hell of a year for horror games. It kind of snuck up on us, and even though the year’s been headlined by follow-ups or remakes to some of the most beloved horror series, it’s the less hyped offerings that have fleshed 2023 out into a year that we could legitimately start declaring the best year for videogame horror of all time.
But that’s a bold statement to make, and we don’t make such statements lightly here, oh no! While our Wyatt has already waxed lyrical about some of the horror games out this year, let’s summarise just why it’s been so good, before looking at other years in gaming history that could rightfully make a claim for GOAT in horror gaming.
2023
Notable games: Resident Evil 4 (Remake), Dead Space (Remake), Alan Wake 2, The Outlast Trials, Amnesia: The Bunker, Dead Island 2, Dredge, Sons of the Forest, World of Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre | TBC: Silent Hill: Ascension, The Drifter, Holstin
Let’s start with the baseline, the year up on the stand, the ‘control’ for our declarations here, and figure out what has made 2023 such a great year for horror (so far). First up, and you’d be hard pressed to find a year when games from a trio of big-name horror IPs have come out with such strong entries in their respective series. Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 are excellent remakes of what are widely regarded as two of the greatest horror games of all time. A little bit more towards the leftfield we have the wonderfully weird Alan Wake 2—a worthy sequel to Remedy’s 2010 cult classic—while at the pulpier end we’ve had another long-overdue and surprisingly solid sequel in Dead Island 2.
The Outlast Trials and Amnesia: The Bunker have both proven to be surprisingly original and progressive entries in their respective series, and revivals for series that themselves spearheaded a horror revival in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, meanwhile, offers some cool twists on an otherwise saturated genre.
One of the huge advantages that this year holds over some of the earlier horror years in gaming is the indie scene, and to that end 2023 has seen nautical horror Dredge, hit horror-survival sequel Sons of the Forest, as well as the Junji Ito-inspired World of Horror finally leaving Early Access. If Holstin and The Drifter (both of which presented very well in their demos) make it out by year’s end, then it’ll have been a stellar year for indie horror.
1999
Notable games: Silent Hill, Dino Crisis, RE3, Parasite Eve 2, Echo Night/2, Dark Tales: From The Lost Soul, System Shock 2, Shadow Man, AvP 1, D2
If Resident Evil 1 and 2 set the stage for survival horror in 1996 and 1998 respectively, then 1999 was the genre’s true boom. The importance of the original Silent Hill really can’t be stressed enough, as it showed videogame horror could deliver something truly original and thematically powerful. Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis were fine representations of Capcom’s ongoing survival-horror chops, while Parasite Eve 2’s strange alien body horror offered something a little different on PS1.
But there were plenty of forgotten gems from this era too. Dark Tales: From the Lost Soul was a Japan-only game that was quite possibly the first ever to use an anthology format, taking you on a Lynchian journey through several creepy tales that merged live-action with CGI with in-game graphics. Echo Night 2 was another survival-horror that never made it out of Japan, and was a rare, atmospheric example of first-person horror from this era.
Over on the Dreamcast we had D2, the excellent final game in Kenji Eno’s trilogy, while on PC we were treated to the sci-fi nightmare System Shock 2. Maybe Shadow Man and Aliens vs Predator 1 veered a bit more towards action than horror, but both were tremendously atmospheric, with a special nod going to the latter’s Marine campaign.
2001
Notable games: Silent Hill 2, Aliens vs Predator 2, Clive Barker’s Undying, Fatal Frame/Project Zero, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Dark Fall
A bit of an outlier, given that there wasn’t a tremendous quantity of horror games to come out in 2001, but the quality wasn’t to be sniffed at. There was, of course, arguably the greatest horror game of all time, Silent Hill 2, which holds such gravitas that really whatever year it came out in would have to be considered a monumental one for videogame horror.
But Silent Hill 2 wasn’t the lone horror representative in 2001. I’ve always maintained that spooky ghost-snapping horror Fatal Frame is one of the scariest horror games of all time, despite later entries leaving a lot to be desired, and this is when it made its debut. Clive Barker’s Undying, meanwhile, was a massively overlooked game, with excellent writing courtesy of Clive Barker and an interesting haunted mansion to explore, while anticipating Bioshock’s combat by combining firearms with magical powers.
AvP 2 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein were shooters at their core, but the Marine campaign in the former and catacombs segment in the latter were prime slabs of horror game design. Then there was Dark Fall, an overlooked puzzle-adventure in the style of Myst that had you ghost-hunting in a spooky train station and using all manner of gadgets to communicate with them.
2017
Notable games: Resident Evil 7, The Evil Within 2, Prey, Doki Doki Literature Club, Darkwood, Outlast 2, Stories Untold, Friday 13th: The Game, Detention, Narcosis
Like 2023, 2017 showed just how important a healthy indie scene is to a well-rounded horror games roster, and really it’s the only year that comes close to 2023 when it comes to a mix of high-profile triple-A and thoughtful indie horror games. Resident Evil 7 dragged the long-ailing series out of the gutter and back into the big time with its unexpected first-person hillbilly horror, while The Evil Within 2 was a rare example of open-world horror done right.
Rounding out the high-profile horror games of this year was Arkane’s sci-fi morph-into-a-mug immersive sim Prey, which admittedly wasn’t as scary as System Shock 2, but beyond that it was every bit the spiritual successor to the venerable game.
It’s the indie scene that really padded out 2017 though. Doki Doki Literature Club was a shocking subversion of the dating sim genre, Darkwood showed that games could still be spooky from a bird’s-eye perspective, while Stories Untold was an incredibly clever episodic radio ham horror that earned its devs the street cred to work with the Silent Hill license in the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall. Taiwanese horror Detention paved the way for the incredible Devotion in 2019, Narcosis was an intensely claustrophobic nautical horror, while Outlast 2 and Friday the 13th offered cheaper but still well executed thrills.
Who Wins It?
When you line them up like that, it’s got to be 2023, right? Yes, we live in an era of endless sequels and remakes, and in terms of innovation and progress you probably can’t beat the late 90s, but the sheer polish and diversity that horror’s enjoying this year really is a triumph and highpoint in its history. It’s a glorious time to be a horror fan, so enough of my prattling, and go dig into some of this year’s gaming treats this Halloween. Next stop for me: Alan Wake 2.