The Most Unique Horror Games Ever Made

Of all video game genres, horror gaming remains one of the most consistently experimental. Players adapt to scares, so game developers always need to think of new ways to try and deliver once reliable scares in new ways that make their games feel more exciting than ever. Boosted by horror’s affinity for indie experimentation, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about horror gaming’s future.

Whether it’s games that have unique sanity mechanics or experiences that fuse near-countless genres into one, there are plenty of great, unique horror games. This list is ranked both by the quality of the game and by how unique they remain in the present day.

8

The Cat Lady

Psycho-Somatic Adventure Gaming

The early 2010s were something of a golden age of horror gaming. The indie boom led to renewed interest in smaller projects, and horror gaming became a profitable way for indie developers to make their mark in the era of online discourse while still showing off their development chops. This time, more than any other, bred loads of great, unique horror games.

The Cat Lady is one of the best from this era and is well-regarded for its great writing. Set up like an old-school side-scrolling adventure/puzzle game, The Cat Lady is a disturbing and effective look into the experience of depression and misery, resulting in not just an effective emotional story, but also some truly surprising scares that will make even the most steeled horror gamer shiver.

7

Darkwood

Twin-Stick Horrors

A presumed truism of horror gaming is that the closer the player is to the first-person perspective, the better. It’s one reason why something like Resident Evil 7 is frequently cited as being far scarier than Resident Evil 4. So, by that logic, a top-down perspective should be the least scary of all… right?

Darkwood set out to prove that idea wrong. Though it does have a top-down perspective, Darkwood delivers a consistently eerie atmosphere and some genuinely great scares. Few other horror games attempt this perspective, making Darkwood stand out to this day.

6

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Sanity Breaks Reality

The popularity of sanity meters has waxed and waned in horror gaming for decades, mostly because many devs struggle with integrating them in a meaningful way. Sanity meters are a key part of horror TTRPGs, but they can struggle to transfer to the world of video games.

Eternal Darkness is largely credited with being the first video game with a sanity meter mechanic (the patent to which has only just expired), and to this day, it remains one of the most unique and enduringly popular executions of the mechanic. Sanity is just as important as health, and when it decreases, things get really weird. Somehow, even over two decades later, it’s still one of the most unique horror games ever.

5

Iron Lung

Bloodborne Submersible

Though the heady days of the early 2010s in indie horror gaming have long passed, it still remains a viable root for indie developers to make their mark and, if they’re lucky, create a truly viral hit that can break out into the mainstream. Iron Lung is one of the very best examples of this process in an atypical horror game, breaking out from the crowd.

In the game, players are sealed into a rickety submersible tasked with navigating a literal ocean of blood, using faulty sensors and clumsy movement, all while the craft threatens to rupture, and there’s increasing evidence that there’s something in the ocean hunting the player. It’s oppressive, atmospheric, and genuinely scary stuff that stands out from the horror crowd and has become a community favorite.

4

Doki Doki Literature Club

Dating Sim Reimagined

A lot of games don’t like to get too meta about their genre or presentation, because it can break a player’s immersion, which doesn’t help with engagement. However, for horror, one of the best ways of creating great scares is by breaking down the presumed barrier of safety between fictionality and reality, and that’s exactly what Doki Doki Literature Club does.

In the game, players take control of a high-schooler in a very trope-heavy, stereotypical dating simulator game. However, as the player continues, it becomes clear that there’s a dark, sinister underbelly to the game’s world and characters, resulting in some of the finest horror sequences in the whole genre. It remains unique in horror gaming and beloved for it.

3

Dredge

What Lurks Beneath The Waves?

One problem with the boom in the horror genre of gaming since the early 2010s is that it can be increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd when everything seems to have already been done. That means indie developers tend to focus on what can make their games unique, and Dredge is a great example of that process in action.

In the game, players take on the role of a boat captain tasked with going out to sea and catching some fish. The only problem is that the sea is haunted by Lovecraftian monsters, and there is horror abound in every island. It’s a charming but effective horror game that makes thalassaphobes out of every player.

2

Inscryption

Card-Gaming Horrified

Daniel Mullins is close to rising ot the Mount Rushmore of indie game developers, consistently making great games that prioritise unique gameplay and powerful mechanical narratives over all else, and it’s earned him a massive fanbase, never bigger than after the release of Inscryption.

It’s difficult to describe all of Inscryption, but to say that it’s just a horror-inflected card game is to drastically undersell it, but to say more is to spoil one of modern gaming’s greatest games. This one needs to be played with as few spoilers as possible.

1

Pathologic 2

Fight The Virus

In the modern indie space, it’s always a fight for attention. However, sometimes, a developer decides not to care at all about what the general gaming public might want, and just makes something so odd and idiosyncratic that it can’t help but naturally stand out from the crowd. The Pathologic series stands alone as one of the best and most unique open-world games in that space.

Pathologic 2 is sort of a remake of the original game in which players take on the role of doctors trying to prevent a plague from taking over a small Russian town, but as anyone who has played the game already knows, that doesn’t tell half the story. Genuinely frightening at times, ecstatically funny, janky, and wholly unique, Pathologic 2 is unlike any other horror game ever made and is well deserving of any gamer’s time.