If you remember a while back, I wrote a blog about my favorite horror movies. I decided to write a blog about my top 10 favorite horror video games. I had to really think on this cause there have been some favorites I have played over the years and cutting it down to ten was a tough one to accomplish.

10. F.E.A.R.

What happens when you take The Matrix, The Ring , The X-Files and put it into a first person action shooter? You get F.E.A.R. this game has some of the best enemy A.I. and some of the creepiest moments in a shooter, even though you are this unstopptable force, it still doesn’t get over the fact that there is a little girl following you and haunting you at every turn. The story and the big twist is pretty epic, if you haven’t had the chance to play this I highly suggest you check it out.

9. Homeworld: Cataclysm

Probably the most out of left field game, this is the sort of side story sequel to the Homeworld saga. Cataclysm manages to turn a space opera RTS into a horror game with a new enemy called The Beast, what makes this RTS different is that the enemy can subvert your units and turn them against you. The story very much builds on the Homeworld lore playing as an underdog fleet that isn’t built for war but are just miners and so their numbers can’t exceed a certain count. So you have go at it like a survival horror game, limited resources, and avoiding having your ships be turned against you.

8. Left 4 Dead 2

What is the best way to get scared? To get scared with friends of course. Pulling off a great co op horror game is a undertaking since you are with friends and that can cut back on the scares, but Left 4 Dead 2 uses an AI to change the game in a variety of ways not just by the enemy type, but with changing the level itself, and changing weapon placement. This means you gotta have a great team on the harder difficulty cause the game becomes a co op survival horror and you don’t want to be that person that causes the entire team to die.

7. Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 1 gave us psychological horror, and Silent Hill 2 refined that, I remember playing this on the PS2 and was just being blown away by the graphics and creeped out to the extreme. The gothic horror, the creepy nurses, and pyramid head, and the variety of nightmares from hell. This game definitely left an impression on me even more than the first and on multiple occasions the story sent chills up my spine but I won’t spoil anything cause that is for you to find out.

6. Dino Crisis

What happens when you take Resident Evil and instead of Zombies you throw in Dinosaurs? You get dino crisis probably one of the most unique survival horror games. This story is pretty out there, a scientist has developed time travel technology and divided by zero and brought dinosaurs. You play as Regina a elite commando, and you fight a variety of dinosaurs and this ain’t Jurassic park, these dinosaurs will chase you from room to room stalking you and they take a ton of firepower to stop them.

5. Metro Exodus

Now not a “true” horror game but still some of its moments scared the living daylights out of me. This game is best played on a harder difficulty cause it turns the game into survival horror and the monsters and environment will definitely make your skin crawl. Some of the best moments in the game is when the game isn’t a shooter but a claustrophobic creep fest and having to manage your ammo, oxygen and light sources definitely up the stress. Due to the world being a depression apocalyptic world, the environment story is when you can put clues together to figure out what happened to people of this dark world.

4. Condemned: Criminal Origins

Probably one of the most unknown games on the list. This is one of the games that hardly anyone played but for those who did, it left a impression on them. The story is pretty basic, it starts out like the movie Se7en with you investigating a murder but then it delves into some pretty dark ideas. Also what I love about this game was the combat system and enemy AI with how they would run away and hide and use the environment to their advantage. This game made me feel dirty by the end of it and I had to take a shower.

3. Alien Isolation

Alien games are always hit or miss, such as the superb Aliens Vs Predator 2 by Monolith, and the not so great Aliens: Colonial Marines. Most Aliens games that have come out were always you playing as a Marine with some firepower. Alien Isolation tried something new, it decided to be the sequel to Alien and starred the daughter of Ripley. Now what I found so amazing about this game was the fact you could take on the xenomorph. I know in the movies people would say “oh those people are stupid” for something they did, well Creative Assembly gave everyone who would talk the talk the ability to see if they could walk the walk and it was definitely one of the most stress inducing experiences ever.

2. Dead Space

Probably one of the best IPs that came out of EA was this amazing horror game. It takes horror elements from Resident Evil 4, Alien, The Thing, and many other staples of the horror genre. This game took the idea of unlearning the headshot with a new enemy that required more precision and brought the idea of dismemberment using tools found around the ship. The enemy itself had some crazy good idea with making the enemies be a puzzle, by having to tear them apart piece by piece, couple that with the entire vent system that actually runs throughout every level and even if you run from one in a room it will appear later on down the level. Also what I loved about this game was the science fiction direction, it wasn’t a utopia like in Star Trek but more of a industrialized capitalistic world.

1. Resident Evil Remake

Putting Resident Evil, the game series that made survival horror become a video game genre was simple. The tough part was figuring out which one to put at the top that was tough. Resident Evil 2 was amazing, 3 bought in the idea of a persistent threat, and 4 changed the genre yet again and 7 also changed the series again. But which one scared me? That has to be the Remake on the game cube. This was what the original Resident Evil was supposed to be, the art style, the music, the sound, everything about this game was remade from the ground up. The home was redesigned, puzzles redone and all of the additions were done to perfection, even though I am a resident evil veteran, the new enemies, the new additions and the new puzzles definitely made me question where it was all going. This Resident Evil was a slow burn, it wasn’t focused on non stop action but more of making you question what could be around that corner and what new scares await as you journey deeper into the darkness. This is why this game will be my favorite horror game of all time…for now.