The Horror Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – October 31

Dead Space, and its recent remake, are both excellent horror games that set the table for the Dead Space universe well, but Dead Space 2 is easily my favorite in the series and potentially my favorite horror game. I am big fan of the genre I like to refer to as “s*** going wrong in space,” and Dead Space 2 leans into that terror well by iterating and improving on the combat, and giving protagonist Isaac all kinds of excuses to face the vast emptiness of space. It’s also a game that pulled off the single-shot idea about seven years before God of War (2018) made it one of its major selling points. It’s a cool feature that I love in God of War, as well, but something about being stuck on various space stations and managing to survive the whole experience literally beside Isaac just works well for the horror genre. 

It’s also home to the infamous eyeball scene (don’t look it up if you’re squeamish) and has an ending that I adore. I still occasionally look it up on YouTube when I want to relive it. I highly recommend it during this spooky season, even if you haven’t played the first game. But I will say, the remake of the first Dead Space is very good, too, so I would encourage you to play that one, as well. But 2 is better.

Outlast II launched more than eight years ago and still, it's the scariest game I've ever played. Perhaps it's my religious trauma; perhaps I watched movies like Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes far too early; but the premise behind Outlast II – a spiritual leader leaves our "wicked world" behind to start Temple Gate, a town separated from even a trace of civilization, deeply and violently devoted to Christianity – still gives me goosebumps. What you encounter in the game itself is even scarier. 

You explore Temple Gate looking for a way out, but that's far easier said than done, as everyone, from witch-like entities with sharp blades to the town's leader, Sullivan Knoth, will stop at nothing to prevent you from leaving. Outlast II goes places, places I don't think many horror games have explored, and its ending is shocking, gruesome, and frankly, f***ed up. But it's not hiding its goals: developer Red Barrels wants to terrify you with its take on the found footage/survival horror genre, and I'd be shocked if your skin doesn't crawl at some point in this seven-hour story. 

If you're in the mood to flip the horror trope on its head, Carrion might be a good one to investigate. This sidescrolling action/exploration game takes cues from games like Metroid, but with a clever twist: You are a roaming tentacled blob creature, recently escaped from a research facility, and you're trying to escape. Along the way, humans who stand in your way are in for a very, very bad day. It's simultaneously horrifying and satisfying to play the other side of this horror movie trope, and the exploration and gradual evolution of powers is great fun.

Immortality is an unconventional horror game. You're not fighting for your life or running from monsters – you're combing through footage of old, unfinished films to learn why they never got made. Still, it's eerie from the first moments, purely because it feels like you're snooping where you're not supposed to and learning secrets better off forgotten. Without spoiling it, the process of actually unraveling those mysteries is genuinely unsettling, breaking the fourth wall in a way that's way scarier to me than zombies or masked killers. It's all propped up by fantastic, era-appropriate writing and performances to be one of my favorite games ever and a fantastic Halloween time experience, even for those who don't usually play games.

2025 has been a year of left-field surprises, and this spooky puzzle game is the latest to receive a ton of positive buzz seemingly out of nowhere. Set in 1897 Ireland, players control an investigator hired to locate a woman who went missing while staying at Blake Manor, a creepy residence turned hotel. Blake Manor is preparing to hold a séance – for what reason, I do not know – and it's far from the only supernatural occurrence happening during your stay. 

If you enjoy unraveling mysteries like Return of the Obra Dinn or the Agatha Christie series, The Séance of Blake Manor may be up your alley. Solving the larger mystery involves combing environments for clues while analyzing and conversing with the Manor’s strange occupants. Unraveling smaller conundrums has been exceptional so far, thanks to fun, inventive puzzles that test your wits in logical, unexpected ways. I also like its approach to time limits, as each interaction spends one minute of an in-game clock; this means 30 interactions burn 30 minutes. This creates a sense of urgency and thoughtfulness to how you poke around, since you often have to act on a schedule; residents move around the hotel during certain times, influencing how you approach your investigations and when.

The Séance of Blake Manor is perfect for Halloween, as it features several overtly creepy moments, including some effective jump scares. I haven't checked into Blake Manor for long, but I’m a sucker for these types of mystery games; I look forward to sinking my teeth further into this fascinating adventure. 

So, maybe this one is cheating a little bit, but there is no shortage of horror elements in the Mortal Kombat franchise. After all, the most iconic part about it is how you can rip, tear, decapitate, or dismember a defeated opponent in the most gruesome ways imaginable. This new compilation from Digital Eclipse, the studio behind notable collections such as Atari 50, Tetris Forever, and TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, pays the same degree of love and care to the classic fighting franchise.

If you want to just play the games and watch the blood rain down like water, you can certainly do that, as Legacy Kollection features 23 games across arcade, consoles, and handhelds. But if you want to dive deeper into the history and making of the Mortal Kombat franchise, that's where the Legacy Kollection really shines. Hours of footage and dozens of relics from the past await in the interactive documentary from the team behind the original games, as compiled by Digital Eclipse.

It's been three (!!) years since Signalis came out, and it still feels like a prime example of how independent developers are doing incredible work in the horror space. This sci-fi chiller follows Elster, an android on a mission to find someone she cares for. In said pursuit, she – you – dive deep into a facility that's fallen to ruins, with few survivors and many more horrors haunting the halls.

Signalis is a brilliant survival horror experience that builds on some of the genre's best. Every run from one room to another feels tense, as the inventory management ensures you're never too prepared and never too strong. Tie in one incredible story filled with pain, regret, and despair, and it's a fantastic pit to get lost in this weekend.