With Halloween right around the corner, there's no better way to prepare than to get your favorite horror games ready for a fun and spooky night with friends. With so many good titles out there's something for just about anyone. However, like all things in life, balance is healthy. Too much excitement can rob you of your night's sleep for a few weeks to come. Luckily, we've got you covered when it comes to balancing your Halloween gaming night. From five absolutely terrifying horror games guaranteed to leave you with a mini heart attack to five games that will lighten up the mood but still fit in the theme of Halloween, we've prepared a full list, ideal for a horror game binge session.
10 Scary: Until Dawn
Until Dawn is the story of a group of teenagers returning to a mountain lodge a year after a tragedy struck them. Soon, however, strange things began to happen and the group seems to be stalked by some sort of a psychotic killer. In Until Dawn you control each character at specific times and make choices that affect their destinies. You can choose to save everyone or kill everyone. The inspiration definitely comes from old school slasher movies, and the game is brilliant at building tension through dialogue and music. Jump scares will also be a thing, so beware!
9 Funny: The Typing Of The Dead
For any old school gamers out there, this infamously bad and funny game concept is probably familiar. The Typing Of The Dead is like any other arcade-style zombie grinder game, where your character moves on its own through the map, in-between static scenes and encounters undead monsters that attempt to approach you. Instead of using a gun to shoot them, however, in this game you need to type the words attached to them as fast as possible in order to defeat them. A perfect Halloween treat for anyone who loves bragging about their keyboard skills!
8 Scary: Slender: The Eight Pages
Who doesn't remember the absolute icon that Slenderman became a few years back when this game was launched? Free to play, this simple but ingenious and highly frightening game puts you in the shoes of a person stuck in a nightly forest, tasked with collecting eight pages. The more pages you find, the stronger Slenderman grows as he follows you throughout the game. The concept isn't anything special and the game is very short, but it's always a guaranteed scare when you turn around and see him creeping behind a tree just a few feet away from you.
7 Funny: Ben The Exorcist
The Exorcist movie may have been terrifying, but this game is definitely not. You take on the role of Ben, as you enter houses to purge them from evil spirits that appear in the form of slow moving, stocky demons in jeans, a tank top and what look like slippers. As with most indie games, the graphics aren't that magnificent, but perhaps the funniest or worst thing about this game is how tame these demons are. You can shove the cross into their faces to banish them, or if you somehow get stuck, you can spray some holy water in their eyes, too.
6 Scary: Outlast 2
Cults have always been a huge part of the horror genre, and Outlast 2 nails the theme perfectly. If you're into found footage movies and love the thrill of being completely helpless and stuck in the middle of psychotic lunatics performing gruesome rituals, this game is for you. After crash landing in the middle of the forest and losing your pregnant wife to cult members, you need to find her and survive among the crazies that try to chase after you and pull you into their twisted ceremonies. Gore and jump scares are a common theme in Outlast 2, so remember, this one's not for the faint of heart!
5 Funny: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Resident Evil games have often walked the fine line between action games and survival horror. It's not an easy task to balance weapons and also bring in the sense of helplessness against a scary enemy. While Resident Evil 2 Remake is a great example of a game that does this perfectly, Operation Raccoon City is the polar opposite. If your fantasy is to shoot down zombies with overpowered weaponry like it's no problem at all, this game is for you and will be a nice break from scarier games. Otherwise, it falls short as a survival horror title and gives the player too much power.
4 Scary: P.T.
With P.T. now available on the Unreal Engine on PC, everyone can relive the hype of 2014 when Kojima released this playable teaser on the PlayStation Store. The game features an abandoned, haunted hallway that you'll play on a loop, collecting photo pieces to complete a puzzle and reach the final stage. Meanwhile, you'll be haunted by the apparition of Lisa, the deformed ghost of a pregnant woman that follows you every step of the way. With highly realistic graphics and disturbing pregnancy-related scenes, this game is guaranteed to leave you with goosebumps.
3 Funny: Dark Deception
Imagine a game that combines Pac-Man and survival horror, and you'll get Dark Deception. In this game you'll spawn into different random levels where you'll have to collect all the purple shards while evading crazed monkies with massive heads and bulging eyes. This is a classic game concept, and with semi-impressive graphics it's not too bad, but it does get very repetitive. Moreover, Bierce, the demonic woman who puts us into this predicament in the first place, makes fairly comedic rewards about our struggles. The monkeys might look creepy at first, but they get old fairly fast, and with games like Pac-Man providing only temporary fun, this game is only good when winding down from playing P.T. so you can start Visage.
2 Scary: Visage
If you absolutely adored P.T., then we've got some good news for you: Visage is very much in the same vein. The graphics are highly realistic as you enter the house of horrors and attempt to investigate and piece together its past. What's even more interesting is that the game features a Sanity meter, which will deplete as you witness paranormal events, and can be refilled by staying in well-lit areas or consuming medication in the house. In Visage, death lurks right around the corner, and you'll witness scenes so disturbing that some players have stated they had to shutdown their computer after playing this game. So, if you do play Visage, play with a friend and keep the lights on. Trust us!
1 Funny: Fiona
Once you've properly scared yourself out of your own pants, the best title to unwind with is no doubt Fiona. This game is as funny as it is bad and bizarre. Clearly made with a low budget, your only task is to find a bus ticket and get back to the bus stop before this strange guy comes running after you screaming "Fiona" from the top of his lungs. He's not scary, but he's pretty fast, and it's unclear why we die whenever he catches up to us. Either way, if you're tired of hyper realistic horror games, this should definitely cool you down and leave you with a smile on your face, as well as a state of mild confusion over what you just witnessed.