6 Horror Games that made me almost Sh*t my pants

I am a big horror fan. I grew up on horror, both in games and film. Bad Taste and Jacob's Ladder on VHS, Stephen King and Dean Koontz for reading, Resident Evil and Silent Hill for playing.

Even before that, my brothers and I often found ourselves huddled tightly behind my father's shoulders in the evenings, peeking over as he carefully navigated the corridors of the "horror" games of the late 90s: Marathon, Hexxen, Half-Life, Doom, Quake.

Over the years I have consumed (and shrieked) over a fair bunch of horror, and these are the top six titles that managed to crawl under my skin and leave me scared, sweaty, or both.

Systems: PC

Ever played a game that makes you uneasy because it just feels wrong? That's what They Hunger feels like to me. Created by Black Widow Games' developer Neil Manke, They Hunger is a single-player horror game mod version of Valve's Half-Life.

Consisting of three acts: They Hunger, They Hunger 2: Rest in Pieces, and They Hunger 3: Rude Awakening, the game takes you through a zombie-ridden small American town in the 1950s. And what a ride it is. From unnerving radio static to zombies, an evil zombie sheriff, and absolutely terrifying headless zombie bulls.

The parts that stuck with me for years after playing this as a young teen are the eerie ambiance and the unsettling audio. Sure, those polygon zombies did come off as kind of scary back in the day, but it's the way they spoke that left a more permanent impression.

In They Hunger, the zombies are still somewhat sentient, and they wander around with a sense of longing and loneliness that makes their connection with flesh feel almost perverse. To this day, I can still hear them say "you're going to nourish the little ones", "fresh brains," and "why do we hunger?" and get shivers down my spine.

Systems: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Prey is a game about furniture. Or rather, alien entities mimicking furniture with the sole purpose of giving you a false sense of security just before killing you.

In Prey, you play as Morgan Yu, a scientist aboard the space station Talos I. Morgan is there to research the Typhon, an alien entity that (obviously) escapes, kills everyone else, and hides across and around the station.

While I can laugh at it now, no other game has made me walk around with nervous paranoia, hitting every chair, table, trash can, potted plant, and lamp, like Prey. And as if that wasn't enough, there's an element of the game that requires traversing on the outside of the space station in a space suit. 100% pure nope.

Systems: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

There's something especially terrifying about running zombies. Ever since watching 28 Days Later back in 2002, I've had this uneasy feeling in my stomach about "what if there is a zombie apocalypse and they are fast!?"

World War Z did not ease those feelings, and Techland's Dying Light for sure didn't either.

In Dying Light, we play as Kyle Crane, an undercover GRE (Global Relief Effort) agent sent to the fictional city of Harran to infiltrate the zone and locate a rogue political figure. The game features parkour-like mechanics, and a big part of it revolves around multitasking between traversing houses and smashing zombie skull.

One important aspect of the game is its day-to-night cycle. And while droves of the usual hungry zombies can be stressful enough even on a sunny day, it's when the sun disappears behind the Harran skyline that the game really picks up its pace.

Harran's nightlife consists of unique, mutated zombies known as Volatiles. They are strong, fast, and capable of traversing buildings. Getting spotted by a Volatile after dark triggers a chase, and the only sane thing to do if that happens is to run. Run. like. hell.

Dying Light is a game I have replayed several times, and that first nightfall is still (almost) as stressful as it was the first time around.

System: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Ah, here it is again. That feeling of wrong. While the game shares format with third-person polygon-classics like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill 2 gets deeper on a psychological level. Everything is grimy, bleak, and muted. And there's the thick fog that seems to have swallowed both the town and our own sense of direction.

Already from the start, we are left uneasy about why we're even here in the first place. Who sent those letters? What happened here? Who are we? Silent Hill 2 features unexplainable monsters, an award-winning soundscape, and fever-dream environments.

I remember having this almost-nauseating feeling in my stomach while playing Silent Hill 2 as a young teen, and I happily (masochistically) revisited Silent Hill and the Lakeview Hotel recently in the masterful 2024 remake.

Systems: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, mobile (iOS, Android)

Set 15 years after the original 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien, Alien: Isolation is a beautifully crafted first-person horror game that utilizes adaptive AI for its main feature, the Xenomorph.

We play as Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter, and in true Amnesia fashion, we are, for the most part, completely unable to defend ourselves. Hiding in closets and under tables becomes our best chance of survival as we navigate the '70s lo-fi, futuristic corridors of Sevastopol.

And believe me, it is absolutely terrifying to be hunted by a Xenomorph in this game, not only due to the alien's ability to show up at any time, but also because the game is exceptionally good at immersing us in our mission.

Nowhere is safe, not even save stations, or checking the map or quest logs. It's been over 10 years since its release, and it is still considered one of the scariest games of all time. Alien: Isolation 2 was announced in 2026.

From what I can see, plenty. While I am sure we will continue to see new variations of "classic" horror games like The Last of Us, Dead Island, Killing Floor, and Visage, machine learning and AI are opening up even more ways to scare us.

While the Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation seems to learn about us as we progress through the game, or the father of the Baker family in RE7 appears at random, they are still confined to rules and areas. And as such, as soon as we peek behind the veil, we shatter the illusion. Because what is horror if not just a trick of the mind?

So what happens when there is no veil to peek behind? No patterns to notice or safe spots to provide respite? I, for one, will keep exploring, and I hope to experience plenty more games that will make it into my top list.