The 13 best Halloween games to play this scary season

We’ve listed 13 of the best Halloween games for all scare thresholds, from hardcore horror to games you can play with friends and even cozy mysteries

Behaviour Interactive/Konami

Halloween games don’t have to just be about blood and terror, though among the best video games ever, plenty fit that description. A quiet sense of lurking dread or the tension of what may be creeping up behind you – if you dare to look – make for just as good a scare as the gory stuff, though. And, if you’re like me and prefer not having to sleep with the light on, you can still get in the spirit of the season without regretting it later, thanks to some games that put vibes above fear.

We’ve listed 13 of the best Halloween games for all scare thresholds, from hardcore horror and games you can play with friends, to thought-provoking mysteries and a cowardly plumber’s colorful adventure.

Dead by Daylight

Four against one seems pretty unfair - and that's the point / Behaviour Interactive

Dead by Daylight is an essential horror experience, assuming you’ve got the stomach for it. Four survivors fight to stay alive as a brutal killer stalks them through the fog, sticking them on hooks if they’re caught and offering them to some evil deity in the great beyond. The killers are a mix of developer Behaviour Interactive’s own creations and characters drawn from the pantheon of horror greats — everything from Pinhead, to Vecna from Dungeons and Dragons, and even monsters drawn from regional folklore. Every match is a scramble for survival – or death, if you’re the killer – that never plays out the same, and that chaos and freshness is what keeps Dead by Daylight interesting even after a decade.

• Read more: Dead by Daylight 2v8 mode is coming back with new Killers, fresh maps, and tweaked Survivors

7 Minutes in Hell

More like 30 seconds in hell and then I'm dead / Gaggle Studios

If you prefer a more roguelike spin on your scares, 7 Minutes in Hell is definitely worth your time. It’s like what you’d get if Squid Game were a horror multiplayer game, where contestants battle through obstacle courses, face monsters, and deal with the ultimate threat – each other – in a bid to win riches, assuming they make it out alive. Their misfortune is broadcast on a livestream for others’ enjoyment, and while that might sound twisted, you can, at least, win sponsors to help give you advantages in the maze.

The premise is, admittedly, similar to other games out there, like Lethal Company, but with 7 Minutes in Hell’s matches only lasting, well, seven minutes, you’re in and out much more quickly and don’t have to commit to a long haul. It only just entered early access, so expect more features and polish in the coming months.

Yomawari

The bliss of ignorance / Nippon Ichi Software

Getting chased by ghosts and other horrors of the night is one thing, but getting chased and having no way to protect yourself other than your wits and, hopefully, a good hiding place makes for a much more intense set of scares. That’s the idea behind Nippon Ichi’s Yomawari games, a trio of horror adventures that task you with surviving the night and finding your loved ones – and maybe yourself – before the horrors find you.

• Read more: The best survival horror games ever

You’ll explore haunted schools, totally safe (they aren’t) alleys and byways, and ominous farmsteads in a bid to find what you’re looking for, and all the while, there’s something looking for you as well. Ghosts, monsters, and myths of Japanese legends stalk the city streets and old dirt roads at night, and the only thing you can do is run, shut your eyes, and hope they pass you by.

The House in Fata Morgana

He's had better days / Novect

The House in Fata Morgana is the visual novel equivalent of a ghost story collection, and the house in question is a decrepit old mansion whose every room hides a story most unsettling. You’re an amnesiac traveler seeking shelter in the mansion, and from its gloomy depths emerges a maid, a mysterious woman who, somehow knows every misfortune that befell the mansion’s former occupants, even those stretching back hundreds of years. Family tragedies, brutal murders, unbridled greed – all of these shaped the house and those who lived in it, but a secret much darker lies at the heart of the home.

Case of the Golden Idol

Everything's fine! / Color Gray Games

The Case of the Golden Idol might fall under the adventure game category, but it dabbles in horror and the macabre at almost every turn. As you investigate a string of suspicious deaths across 50 years, you’ll poke around a dead man’s room for clues about his life and death; prize information out of the brains of reluctant villagers  (metaphorically, of course); examine corpses for evidence about their deaths; and keep your cool while some poor cursed man slowly burns to death in front of you. The goal is gathering enough information to correctly fill in the blanks in journal entries describing a scenario and get insight into the broader network of mysteries that ties each death together.

There’s also a sequel, Rise of the Golden Idol, coming soon and a demo you can check out if you’re keen.

Kingdom Hearts

Now that's a good costume / Square Enix/Disney

Okay, so Kingdom Hearts only has one Halloween-themed world in it, but since that world is Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, it gets a pass in our book. Sora, Donald and Goofy help Jack Skellington push back the darkness creeping over Halloween Town and get special costumes of their own in the process, and you end up taking on Oogie-Boogie in a rather good boss fight before all’s said and done. It’s a lovely little homage to the film.

Bloodborne

Making a point / FromSoftware

Bloodborne drops you in the creepy gothic city of Yharnam, a place that’s rotting from the inside out, full of frenzied hunters driven by unquenchable bloodlust to stalk and kill their prey. Not your usual vacation spot, in other words. Your job is to hunt down monsters, which, admittedly, is almost everyone in the city, and try to awaken from the nightmare you find yourself in.  It’s eerie, gruesome, and grueling, and it more than earns its title as one of FromSoft’s best games.

The downside is that it’s locked to PS4 and PS5.

Castlevania

I'm sure they're actually very nice dragons / Konami

It’s vampire hunting, of course Castlevania is a good fit for Halloween, and thanks to Konami’s recent re-releases, you have easy access to some of the best Castlevania games around. The premise behind each is largely the same. You – sometimes a member of the Belmont vampire hunting clan, sometimes just a random person – get drawn into Dracula’s castle and must stop his impending resurrection.

Each castle is a hellish labyrinth filled with deadly traps and monsters, and you’ll gain new abilities that help you take down frightful bosses as you delve further into its secrets. If you’re after the best of the best – aside from Symphony of the Night, which, bafflingly, remains locked to older consoles – check out the Castlevania Advance Collection.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Not getting a good review on TripAdvisor, I fear / Nintendo

Luigi’s Mansion 3 puts a lighthearted spin on ghost hunting and features the best level design of the cowardly brother’s three ghostbusting adventures. Luigi, Mario, and the crew visit a hotel, and the next day, only Luigi is left.

• Read more: The best Nintendo Switch games

You’ll travel through sewers, across movie sets, and into the desert, all without leaving the hotel – that’s the power of ghost magic, baby – and accompanying you from a safe distance is the quirky professor E.Gadd, who supplies you with new tools and gadgets and a doppelganger made of green goop. Puzzles and battles are much more engaging than in Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon, and if you have a hankering for fully completing everything, you can track down lost Toads and other valuable items as well.

Slay the Princess

Off to commit unspeakable atrocities, teehee / Black Tabby Games

Slay the Princess is definitely not what you’re expecting, even if you already know the gist of it going in. Black Tabby crafted one of the best horror games and most interesting visual novels around, all built around a simple principle: You can’t trust what you’re told. The idea is that you, a hero, set off to slay a princess who, the narrator says, is a monster in disguise who will end the world if she escapes the dinky little basement where she’s held captive. 

• Read more: Slay the Princess The Pristine Cut: all Princesses and routes from worst to best

Every choice you make influences what happens next, and “what happens next” could be a romance between you and the princess. She might stomp you to death, or she could even turn into a godlike being who poses questions about the nature of existence. Everything you do changes the narrator, the princess, and you, and if that weren’t enough on its own, the even more excellent Pristine Cut adds new princesses and ways to track your choices over time.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

"Hey how about a snack to calm everyone down NO WAIT" / Capcom

Who needs a haunted mansion when you can explore a corpse-filled police station, an underground laboratory filled with monsters, and a terrifying orphanage? That’s surely what Capcom’s devs were thinking when they made Resident Evil 2 and then made it even better with 2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake. Resident Evil 4 might be an action masterpiece, but Resident Evil 2 is peak survival horror gaming.

The world is falling apart around protagonists Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, as they try to survive a night from hell, solve obtuse puzzles in classic adventure game style, and make it out before hordes of zombies turn them into a midnight snack. It’s easier said than done, especially when the gigantic Mr X shows up and stalks you relentlessly through the police station’s narrow corridors.

Metroid Dread

Smooth moves / Nintendo

Few games get the feeling of creeping dread that comes from being completely alone like 2D Metroid games do, and Metroid Dread is one of the best. Bounty hunter Samus Aran, stripped once again of all her special abilities, has to fight her way through a planet where everything wants to harm her – and nothing is as it seems. That last part sounds like a cliche, but it’s true in Metroid Dread. Dead enemies from Samus’ past resurface, very much alive, the ghost of an old friend turns out to be the specter of a new foe, and lurking behind it all are the consequences of her actions from earlier in her career.

There’s also a handful of complex zones where ultra-powerful robots murder you on sight, because why not.

Strange Horticulture

Sure hope I don't pick the wrong plant and accidentally kill you / Bad Viking

Strange Horticulture is as close to a spooky mystery novel as you can get with a business simulator. You move to a creepy little town and open a flower and herb shop, identifying the best plants to solve your customer’s problems. And boy, do they have problems. Somehow, these all link back to the rise of a mysterious cult, dark magic, and a series of brutal murders plaguing the village, and it’s your job to figure out how, all while maintaining your shop and a good label system for your plants.