Discover 5 New Horror Game Classics

It’s a magical time of year where writers everywhere dust off their Top 10 Scare Games List, add in the newest installment of long-running series, and call it a day. Let’s do something different.

Tell Google Maps to skip Silent Hill. Let Leon Kennedy take the day off. Have The Last of Us have some rest at last. The classic list of horror titles needs to make room for a new generation of games innovating what goes bump in the night and how we can run from it. I want games that inspire as well as frighten the audience to dream of new stories and not just how to put a bigger number at the end of a title.

Here are five games that deserve the title of classic from the way they bring new ideas and new stories to the audience. Of course, there are far more than 5 classics that should go on your playlist this year. 

Check out my extended list of new classic horror titles that you need to stick in your backlog.

Fear & Hunger

For a game that takes less than an hour (if you know what you’re doing) and developed in RPG Maker MV, this black and white title hit the digital world like a monster and made many rethink the definition of “difficult.” 

You are going to die in this game. That’s all there is to it. The game boils down to entering an underground dungeon, fighting monsters through turn-based fighting, and surviving long enough to beat the final boss. From only having two save points in the game to permanently losing appendages – yes, if you lose both your legs, you crawl through the rest of the dungeon – Fear & Hunger is merciless when it comes to situations, lack of information, and betting on actual coin flips if you live or die.

Lost In Vivo

Imagine taking the insanity system of Eternal Darkness, applying it to a first-person shooter, cranking it all the way up to 11, and then breaking off the knob. Lost In Vivo tosses you into the murky waters of the sewers as you look for your lost dog. You explore darkened room after darkened room with new twists on what you’re anticipating such as things attacking you that you wouldn’t expect – like a train.

Lost In Vivo also marks one of the first forays into the PS1 chunky aesthetic as a part of horror. With the low field of view, blurry textures, and dark rooms; the player’s mind fills in the spaces to create horror in those empty spaces.  

Darkwood

Instead of one large overarching story, this top-down survival title feels more like a series of vignettes that you are trying to survive as the things that go “bump” in the woods are breathing down your back. The game dances on the edge of “needing to find supplies to survive” and “needing to stay away from things that can rip you apart.” This waltz of survival gives every interaction an edge of danger as you try to keep an eye on your exit.  

Golden Light

Imagine a maze made of meat. You wander through it like it's the backroom of a cluttered Staples with desks, books, and abandoned PCs everywhere. One of these things is not as it seems. A desk, a discarded book, even disguised as a door; the mimic waits for you to come close enough to attack. You can attack it with a lead pipe or throw an unmarked vial at it. However, you don’t know if the vial will set it on fire or make it stronger. That’s the whole unmarked part. And if you survive and need a bit of healing, you can eat your lead pipe. 

After release, the developer added multiplayer to the title – the friends to a slop maze. All of the elements that we know of Friendslop come together in a survival rogue-like title where enemies can come from any corner and spectacular failure is a part of the fun.

The Upturned

I don’t know why more people haven’t played this game. It’s brilliant.

The game starts you off stumbling across an eerie hotel in the middle of the woods. With nowhere else to go, you enter and find a hotel employee gifting you a room for the night – on the top floor of this monstrously high building. As the elevator makes its way up, it breaks down. Lucy for you, there’s a part of the floor to fix it. All you have to do is return with it, alive. 

Comedy is tough. Horror is just as tough. Making them both work in the same game is a damn miracle. The developer behind the title, somehow, does so beautifully mixing a goofy world with anxiety bubbling just underneath the surface. Simple to pick up controls, a new world to explore on every floor, and humor that keeps you moving forward makes this an easy “classic” waiting for you to discover it for the first time. 

And if some of the enemies and items look familiar, you probably played the game following this title – Lethal Company.

What horror games do you think deserve to be classics? Let me know on Bluesky.