31 Great Scary Games To Play In October

The horror genre is making a big comeback this year. October will see the release of Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within, a spiritual successor to his Resident Evil games, and The Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, a film-to-game adaptation that is already being tapped for game of the year. By Halloween, we will hopefully see survival horror back in its rightful place: as a sector of high artistic expression within the industry, where developers bring their nightmares and biggest fears to our living rooms. 

To really kick off October and the countdown to Halloween night, we've decided to create a list of 31 scary games we'll be playing this month, titles we think showcase the best of what the genre has to offer. You will absolutely see some omissions, but this is by no means a ranked list. This is a diverse list of games that we decided we wanted to play and write about this year. There are countless other fantastic games we could've included. But hey, we heard Halloween is happening again next year! 

In addition to this list, every day for the rest of October, we will showcase a horror game as part of our 31 Days of Horror Games series. The series is our love letter to the horror genre, and we hope that you all enjoy it. Make sure to check out the first part of the series today!

Now, without further ado, here are 31 great horror games to play in October:

Dead Space

2008 | Visceral Games | Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Easily one of the scariest games ever made, Dead Space is a true work of art when it comes to demonic space creatures that make you pee yourself. Something to note right off the bat is the game's setting, which strays away from the fantastic or mundane tendencies of other games in its genre. You're in space, on a mining frigate called the USG Ishimura. As the story often goes, the crew of the Ishimura dig something really evil up on the planet Aegis VII. What ensues is a grotesque and seriously disturbing chain of events that lead back to an ancient relic that turns everyone in its vicinity into crazed zombie space monsters that enjoy eating your face off. If there's one game that the upcoming Alien: Isolation will be compared to, it's this one.

Resident Evil 2

1998 | Capcom | PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube, PC, PSN

1998 was a great year for the PlayStation. It was the year of Parasite Eve, Metal Gear Solid, and the long-awaited sequel to the original Resident Evil. Resident Evil 2 strayed away from the haunted mansion trope of its predecessor and introduced a larger universe in which many zombie stories were told for the next few years. How many times did the zombies invade poor Raccoon City? Almost as many times as it was blown up in a desperate nuclear attack. RE2's biggest contribution to the series was the way it spun its narrative, whose foundation was a "create your own story" mechanic that allowed you to play alternate versions of the same level, switching between two protagonists. Speaking of the protagonists, this game introduced the beloved Leon S. Kennedy and recently-resurrected Claire Redfield, sister of Chris Redfield (Resident Evil). Oh, and this was the first time that double agent Ada Wong broke out hearts with her awesomeness.

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

2013 | The Chinese Room | PC

Whether you enjoyed this game or were completely disappointed, this sequel to Frictional Games'Amnesia: The Dark Descent is undoubtedly NOT what you expected. A Machine for Pigs is the complete polar opposite of the original. While it keeps the haunted mansion trope, it trades in the monsters stalking the long hallways of a castle for a more interactive story approach. The setup is familiar: you journey through a creepy mansion, solving puzzles and unlocking rooms, while you search for your lost children. The story isn't immediately apparent, but it's an incredibly smart narrative about fatherhood at the turn of the 20th century with a bit of steampunk to boot. Most detractors will point out the lessened difficulty and exclusion of the insanity mechanic that made the first game so scary. Still, A Machine of Pigs brings its own brand of terror and refreshes the horror series in an ambitious way.

Killing Floor

2009 | Tripwire Interactive | PC

Killing Floor is a nice twist on the zombie horde modes we've been playing for a long time. Left 4 Dead's grittier cousin takes place in London after the mutant apocalypse. Cloning and genetic manipulation has gone terribly wrong, and suddenly people are turning into flesh-eating monsters with chainsaws for arms. It doesn't really make any sense, but that's okay. You're here for the multiplayer mode, which pits you and 5 of your friends against horde after horde of monsters. No, this game isn't necessarily scary, but there are moments when things get pretty intense ,as you try to balance your flashlight and heavy weapons, all while being attacked from every corner. This is not a game you want to play solo. 

System Shock 2

1999 | Irrational Games & Looking Glass Studios | PC

The spiritual predecessor to BioShock is one of the scariest games out there. This game also heavily influenced Dead Space and Portal -- the latter's psychotic AI villain GLaDOS is undoubtedly an homage to System Shock's SHODAN. Once again, human spacefarers discover a mysterious evil thing on the planet Tau Ceti V that turns them all into mutated monsters. Your character wakes up in a cryo-tube with no memory of what's happened since the chaos began. As you journey through your spaceship, fighting off monsters at every turn, you must team-up with the treacherous AI SHODAN -- a female HAL, if we've ever done seen one -- in order to escape with your life. Is it terrifying to know that there's a crazed AI watching your every move? Does she betray you in the end? Find out if you dare.

Deadly Premonition

2010 | Access Games | Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Okay, sit down for a second and let us explain why one of the most polarizing survival horror (?) games in history is on this list. The graphics are dated, it's buggy, and the combat system is for the birds (a Director's Cut of the game that fixed most of the issues was released last year). But Deadly Premonitionalso executes a complex narrative full of Lynchian horror that is both charming and terrifying at the right moments. The game feels like an extension of Twin Peakswith how weird it is: a cross-dressing cop, a detective with an imaginary friend, evil tree seeds, a serial killer known as the "Raincoat Killer," a travelling tree salesman, a woman who dies from a tree sprouting out of her body, and an alternate reality where things are fine and dandy...Basically, lots of trees and murder. It all makes sense in the end. Promise. (?)

Silent Hill 2

2001 | Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo | PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Suffering binds the the events of Silent Hill 2 together. Never has there been a more thorough examination of human cruelty in video games. The characters presented in the series' second outing all have dark, violent pasts that cripple their sanity as soon as they step into the town of Silent Hill. Protagonist James Sunderland must travel to the town in order to find his dead wife. Along the way, James encounters characters who have suffered some sort of loss in their lives. Of course, not all the things lost are things the characters want to find. In fact, they've buried many of their secrets deep in their minds where only Silent Hill can find them. What proceeds is a tragic play about loss of innocence, guilt, and death that is masterfully executed by Team Silent, the development team that worked on the first 4 games. This is a must-play for fans of the survival horror series. While the graphics and combat system are a bit dated, you won't find a darker and more successful horror game than this one.

Area 51

2005 | Midway Studios Austin | PS2, Xbox, PC

It is oft-forgotten and underrated, but few games handled scifi survival horror as well as Area 51 did back in 2005. Owing more than a little to Half-Life's Black Mesa disaster, this game takes place in the famous secret American military base where aliens and their technology are said to be kept. Of course shit hits the fan, and it's up to Ethan Cole (voiced by David Duchovny because aliens) and the rest of the ill-fated Delta Squad to contain the the alien threat. Area 51 did something I haven't seen many survival horror games due since: it built up to the horror very slowly. The game starts off as a straight shooter, as Cole and his squad blaze through the mutant horde. But as more and more of his squad is thinned down (through very gory dismemberment), Cole finds himself alone in the latter half of the game and in a very dire situation.

Dead Space 2

2011 | Visceral Games | PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Things escalate quickly in Dead Space 2. Once again, you take control of Isaac Clarke, who is good at being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He also has great luck with women. Clarke finds himself in an insane asylum on a space station above Saturn, where the dumb humans are meddling with that evil marker again. Obviously, the government loses control of the relic, and Clarke's newest vacation spot turns into a cannibal's wonderland. He spends the first level of the game tied in a straitjacket, and after he's cut out, without a weapon. Oh, and both the necromorphs AND the military are hunting him down. Don't forget his dead girlfriend Nicole, who is haunting him through the marker. And things only get worse.

Fatal Frame 2

2003 | Tecmo | PS2, Xbox, Wii, PSN

This game ruins lives. Well, no, it's not like tomorrow your house is going to burn down, but it is one of the scariest games on this list. You play as Mio, who is trapped in The Lost Village with her sister Mayu. The village is said to have vanished after a failed ritual sacrifice, and is now full of malevolent Japanese spirits -- which are the worst kind. Mio's only weapon? An old camera that can detect ghosts and take pictures of them. That camera and a flashlight become your only hope for survival. As it usually goes in Japanese ghost stories, the sisters must right past wrongs in order to escape the village with their lives. There's nothing more horrifying than being forced to defeat a monster by looking it straight in the face.

The Thing

2002 | Computer Artworks | PS2, Xbox, PC

Survival horror games based on movies are usually not very good. Most of these licensed games try to bank on horror franchises as quickly as possible, without a second's thought towards user experience. Luckily, Computer Artworks'The Thing is an exception. Serving as a sequel to John Carpenter's remake, you play as a member of U.S. Special Forces team that must investigate what went wrong at the Antartic outpost. Although it is a conventional shooter at its very core, The Thing had really interesting survival horror features, including a "trust system," in which your team could start to suspect that you were The Thing and attack you. This was a genius way to inject the tone of the movie into the game. If you can find this one, definitely pick it up!

House of the Dead 2

1999 | Wow Entertainment | Dreamcast, PC

Sega’s The House of the Dead light-gun series sure knows how to hit that sweet spot for horror game fans, thanks to its seedy story featuring secret agents and fast-paced zombies, its reflex-based on-rails gameplay, and its larger-than-life boss fights and alternate pathways. This winning combination is only heightened in 1999’s The House of the Dead 2, one of the series’ crowning achievements to date. Many fans of the franchise often consider The House of the Dead 2to be among the series’ golden age, before it went off the figurative rails a bit with bizarre spin-off titles like The Typing of the Deadand an over-the-top attempt at a reboot with The House of the Dead: Overkill in 2009. The game has managed to take on a very campy role in today’s world of gaming, thanks to its horrendous voice acting and exaggerated set pieces, but there’s still no arguing The House of the Dead 2’s important place in the history of horror games.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

2004 | Konami | PS2, Xbox, PC

By the time that Silent Hill 4: The Room was released in 2004, Konami’s survival horror franchise had already become a staple of the franchise, thanks in no small part to the masterful game design of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. So then it almost comes as a shock to see Konami take such huge risks with the fourth installment, which ultimately paid off in a very big way. For one thing, The Room primarily takes place in a town called South Ashfield, and not the titular Silent Hill: a stark first for the series. Adding to that, the game progression is focused around protagonist Henry Townshend’s apartment, which is presented in a first-person perspective (another first for the series) and features the only save point. The good thing is that all of these changes worked well for The Room, and its unexpected and unconventional nature somehow makes it even scarier.

Resident Evil

1996 | Capcom | PS1, PC, GameCube, Nintendo DS

And now we come to a classic horror game if ever there was one: the original Resident Evil. The game that started it all and spawned countless sequels and film adaptations, Resident Evilcast players in the role of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, two members of the Raccoon Police Department’s Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), as they attempt to find any trace of their missing Bravo team in a sprawling mansion. In addition to its dark and mysterious storyline, Resident Evil is so important to the world of horror games for the true survival nature that pervades the actual gameplay, where items are scarce and each confrontation is absolutely critical. In fact, the game has become so iconic to the genre that it has received several remastered versions over the years, including the 2002 acclaimed GameCube remake and the upcoming 2015 version for next-generation consoles.

Manhunt 2

2007 | Rockstar London | PS2, PSP, Wii, PC

There is no denying that Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 is terrifying in its own unique right. The game follows the murderous tale of Daniel Lamb, an inmate at the Dixmor Asylum for the Criminally Insane who manages to escape during a power failure. The many unexpected turns in Daniel’s twisted story paint a heart-pounding and bloody narrative, and the realistic sense of horror is only emphasized by the unnerving stealth gameplay that culminates in disturbing execution sequences that have Daniel using everything from scissors and plastic bags to viscerally gut his opposition. The game is wondrously horrifying and horrific in every sense of the word. Rockstar was even forced to edit some of the execution cut scenes in order for Manhunt 2 to receive an actual rating classification, which almost prevented the game from seeing the light of day a month before its release.

Lone Survivor

2012 | Superflat Games | PC, Mac, PS3, PS Vita

In the age of the independent game developer, Jasper Byrne of Superflat Games successfully brings survival horror to the world of 2D pixel-art sidescrollers with Lone Survivor. In the game, players are cast in the role of “You,” a mysterious man who wears a surgical mask and camps out in a decrepit apartment building amidst a post-apocalyptic setting. In keeping with the theme of survival, players will regularly need to make sure that You is fed and well rested in order to continue on in the story, which involves either engaging with or slinking past monsters that call to mind a serious Silent Hillvibe. And much like the Silent Hill series, players can also expect to interact with different items in order to solve environmental puzzles, and ultimately view several different endings to You’s dark and frighteningly hallucinogenic existence.