The Top Horror Games of the Last Decade 2010-2019

As we officially kick-off “Spooky Season” this is a fantastic time of year to play those games that creep us out, give us jump scares, or just give us anxiety. I have always been a fan of games that creep me out or make me nervous. My first experience with a horror game dates all the way back to 1989 on my NES, after having my tonsils taken out my parents took me to Toys R’ Us (RIP) and let me pick out a game. Now, this is before the internet, and gaming magazines were mainstream to find out what you’re getting into so all you have to go off of is the box art and I picked up Friday the 13th. If you don’t think an NES game could scare you? This was the OG master of the jump scare.

But I digress, the purpose of this article is to give you a list of (in my opinion) are the best horror games from the last decade, one for each year.

 

2010 – Alan Wake

 

One of the (very) few games I experienced on an Xbox 360 other than Gears of War was Alan Wake. Coming out a few years after some greats like Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, and the like Alan Wake seemed to take some of the best elements from the genre and smash it all together with some Stephen King-like flair. Armed with his flashlight to battle the darkness was a fun and engaging experience in a very cool world where Alan wakes imagination came to life and proceeded to torment him in the coolest way possible for Horror fans. Sadly it never reached great commercial success and was branded a financial disappointment, a small sequel was released two years later “American Nightmare” but didn’t do enough to save the series. All but forgotten Alan Wake was recently brought back from the grave so to speak in a cross over with Control this year. Hopefully, we see a proper return eventually.

 

2011 – Dead Space 2

 

My pick for 2011 is the amazing sequel to 2008’s Dead Space. One of my favorite franchises, this title was easily the best in the series. While taking everything right about the original, the weapons, combat, and the fan-favorite Necomorphs and just making it a better running, and looking game to boot. With some surprising twists and turns along the way, this was definitely the highlight of the series. Sadly after 2013’s Dead Space 3, the series has disappeared from the landscape.

 

2012 – Telltale’s The Walking Dead

 

I mean, come on now, I don’t know of another story-based game that swept the world better and more successfully than this one. The story of Lee and Clementine went on to spawn 3 more seasons and two spin-offs. Eventually leading Telltale to explore other franchises like Batman, The Wolf Among Us, and Game of Thrones. The story in this first season however got us hooked, invested, and eventually torn apart at the end. Sadly Telltale grew too big too quick and seeming collapsed in upon itself, leaving a major hole in story-based gaming that I don’t think we have yet seen recovered. (Kevin will remember this….)

 

2013 – Outlast

Sure, this style of game might have overstayed it’s welcome by now. But at the time of release Outlast terrified gamers in a new way, the fear of getting caught. This game focuses entirely on you running and hiding away from the things that go bump in the dark, leaving you defenseless except with a night vision camera with limited batteries. Jump scares galore here, this game made me feel physically uncomfortable plenty of times. Taking inspiration almost from the “Found footage” movie phenomenon Outlast made a major impression back in 2013, enough to spawn a sequel that bumped things up to a more supernatural level than the first.

 

2014 – The Evil Within

 

By the time this game came out, Resident Evil had pivoted hard in an action-focused direction that put off a lot of old school fans and Silent hill was going away thanks to Kojima/Konami fighting. This game designed by the original Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami came at the right time. In a brilliantly executed balance of survival horror and action, this game was a blessing. The art direction and design of the “haunted” and the feeling that you were never OP and had to think about what you did was a welcome back to classic survival horror. Years later The Evil Within 2 came out, which in my eyes enhanced everything about the first but sadly poor sales might have laid this one to rest while Mikami has his focus on Ghostwire Tokyo.

 

2015 – Until Dawn

 

Another story-driven game, but not like The Walking Dead at all, Until Dawn, took decision making to a whole new level with it’s “Butterfly Effect” choice system the game often made you make tough decisions that radically changed the game each time you played. The game truly took all the tropes of horror movies of the ’90s and 2000s and mashed it up here in a Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Cabin in the Woods gorefest. With great acting from the cast paired up with an intriguing story. Until Dawn was a must-play for anyone that could get it. Similar games from the studio since then haven’t seemed to gain quite the traction that Until Dawn did.

 

2016 – Dead By Daylight

It is REALLY hard to believe that this game came out so long ago and is still regularly releasing new updates, content, and more. Originally released on PC in 2016 and hitting consoles in 2017 Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer experience where you can take on the role of the killer, whose goals are to capture and kill everyone, or a survivor, who has to ultimately survive and escape. While not particularly scary per se, this game is a great nod to how killers operate and move in horror movies of old, a deliberate campy experience that only got better with time as they added in tons of DLC bringing in mainstream killers into the mix like Mike Myers, Ghost Face, and the Demogorgon each with unique playstyles and stages.

 

2017 – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

 

 

After quite a few years of truly (in my opinion) disappointing entries in the franchise, Resident Evil came out swinging with this one. While making a major shift back to horror and surviving vs action combat, and changing to first-person this game was terrifying to play through. The scares were legit, the “family” was terrifying and the game just looked great. This one might have been the easiest pick for me in the entire list and is one of the best, let alone this decade.

 

2018 – The Forest

 

So 2018 wasn’t a great year for horror games overall but one that stood out to me was The Forest, as the lone survivor of a plane crash, after watching your kid eaten by cannibalistic mutants, you have to build, explore and survive. This game is a true survival game, from having to keep warm, fed, and alive everything around you can be used to help. Build traps and shelter during the day and defend your camp at night, build tools and weapons, and more. This game was not exactly my cup of tea but was a very good looking game that nailed down the true horror of the situation.

 

2019 – Resident Evil 2

Of course, this one was going to be on my list, a remake of one of (if not the most) famous survival horror games of all time. Giving it a major facelift and some tweaks to combat controls, this game offered you everything you could want while keeping the 90s puzzle solving and inventory management that is frustrating (but well known) intact. The best voice acting we had seen to date in the series with some stunning visuals thanks to the new engine, this one should not be missed by fans of the old and new style horror games.

Well, that’s it from me for now, I hope you enjoyed my retrospective on the best horror games of the past decade. Feel free to comment below with some of your favorites from my list, or ones you think could have topped them!