My Favorite Horror Games 2021
One of my goals in 2022 is to put up more game reviews again. I enjoy the process of exploring a game and analyzing it as I go. There’s a wealth of great indie games that I can get through in a day and write a review for.
This is a long way of explaining where I’m coming from on this list. There are games that will be featured here that I never wrote one word about on the site this year. My timeline with my former job didn’t always leave me enough consistent free time to put in the hours to review these games while it still felt relevant to discuss them. We all love Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters; we also all made up our minds by the time I got to finish my own playthrough of Resident Evil Village and wrapped up my thoughts around what I experienced.
I will also point out that I don’t typically go for the Five Nights at Freddy’s series or similar games because I don’t do well with jumpscare horror games. I do want to play Security Breach because it feels more like the survival horror games I enjoy playing, but I haven’t played it yet. That also means that some highly praised horror games like Poppy Playtime are off the table. I don’t have the heart for jumpscares in games. My instinct in the 90s was to turn off the TV, power off the console, and never look back when they happened.
Part of me wants to be super cheeky and include my own game Haunted: A Slip Story on this list. I am proud of it and it still does scare me. I will refrain from accusations of bias and just encourage you to check it out for yourself.
Without further delay, these are my favorite horror games of 2021 in no particular order.
Inscryption
Inscryption is my kind of hybrid game. It’s a deckbuilding game, a roguelike game, a puzzle game, and a psychological horror game in one. There’s so much going on beyond what you initially think that you really need to brace yourself for an increasingly upsetting journey into a rich, disturbing story. Content warning for gore.
Inscryption is available on PC.
Tormented Souls
Tormented Souls is a throwback survival horror game in the style of a Silent Hill, Clock Tower, or even Bioshock. You play as Caroline, a woman trying to find out what happened to a pair of missing twin girls, who winds up facing a world of unimaginable body horror, sickness, and experimentation. Major content warning for violence against women in this game, as well as blood and gore, as it’s quickly the foundation of the plot. This game is as difficult as it is disturbing, and you really feel like the puzzles are as much of an accomplishment as defeating a boss battle. Content warning for blood, gore, violence against women, and nudity.
Tormented Souls is available on PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.
Little Nightmares II
I loved the original Little Nightmares game, so I was cautiously optimistic going into the sequel. This is a brand new story that builds on the very specific style of horror, platforming, and storytelling that made the first game such a hit. I actually think it’s a better game, which is a very high praise. Content warning for death by suicide.
Little Nightmares 2 is available on PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.
Resident Evil Village
What’s better than one horror story in a Resident Evil game? Try five in Resident Evil Village. There’s the overriding story of Ethan trying to find his missing daughter in the village. Then each of the children of Mother Miranda—Lady Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Moreau, and Heisenberg—has their own unique style of horror and gameplay to explore. I actually found Donna’s world to be the most terrifying, but I tend to react that way to killer dolls. Content warning for blood, gore, violence against women, violence against children, and gun violence.
Resident Evil Village is available on PC, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series S/X.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
I’ve included remastered and expanded games on my best of list before, so Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is totally fair game. Look up the content warning as this game is designed to shock and horrify in equal measure. Then brace yourself for the most disturbing visual novel game ever created, improved with a better UI and more character development. Content warning for blood, gore, death by suicide, mental wellness, and violence against children.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is available on PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.
Reminiscence
I’m a big fan of free horror games. Reminiscence is an incredible psychological horror game you can play for free right now. Without giving too much away, you explore a house in two timelines with a time travel device. You have to travel between the worlds to solve puzzles and uncover the mystery of what happened and what will happen because of this machine. It’s a short horror game you can beat in under an hour, but one with a lot more polish than many bigger, more expensive games that hit the market.
Reminiscence is available on PC.
Propnight
Remember the Prophunt mod in Gary’s Mod that kept being remade again and again in new games like Fortnite and Team Fortress II? If you don’t, it was hide and seek in massive game maps where you could transform into pretty much every object you could see. That mechanic is now a multiplayer asymmetrical horror game called Propnight and it’s super fun. A team of four survivors hide as props and attempt to fix the prop machines to escape. Meanwhile, one of five possible killers is hunting the survivors down to strap them to the prop machine chairs and kill them. Each character has their own unique ability on top of impersonating any prop on the map. The game is silly and scary in equal measure, which makes it a whole lot of fun.
Propnight is available on PC.
Scarlet Hollow
Cartoonist Abby Howard’s visual novel Scarlet Hollow about the hidden dangers lurking in the woods surrounding an isolated mining town continues to be excellent. So far, we have two chapters available, and the finished game will have seven chapters. The wait is worth it between chapters as the entire game is hand illustrated by Howard and updated pretty regularly for balance and the overall experience by her development team Black Tabby Games (her and her husband Tony Howard-Arias). This is another one to look into content warnings for, as I remember playing the first chapter on stream and sharing a collective gasp at one particularly shocking moment. It’s so good, but make sure you feel safe engaging with it. Content warning for blood, gore, animal injury/death, gun violence, and grieving.
Scarlet Hollow is available on PC.
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Those are my favorite new horror games of 2021. What were your favorites? Let me know below.
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