Best Horror Games On The Xbox Series X|S

The popularity of horror in the creative industries has exploded in the last few years. Fans of several legendary TV, movie, and video game franchises have benefited greatly from new content, reboots, remasters, and more. Updates and increasingly powerful consoles mean that there are always new horror games coming out to keep you scared and occupied in the gaming industry.

featured image: the best lovecraftian horror games, including a man from Call of Cthulhu, an example boss from Darkest Dungeon 2, and an astronaut from Moons of Madness floating away
LINKED
The Top 24 Lovecraftian Horror Games
Many horror games have been influenced by Lovecraft, but for fans of both Lovecraft and Cthulhu, these are the greatest.
It’s a terrific moment to be an Xbox gamer, even though the distinction between multi-platform and console exclusive games is becoming increasingly blurred. Horror gaming is an intriguing genre to watch as a result of the continual evolution of well-respected franchises, the constant remastering of classics, and the flood of fresh and inventive independent ventures.

Updated October 12, 2023, by Jack Pierik: Now is the perfect moment for you and your pals to explore the wide world of video games known as horror games. It can be useful to have some additional information handy when you browse around and choose which games best suit your preferences. With this update, you will see information about the game’s release date, developer, and publisher beneath each image of every title mentioned, if appropriate. In any case, there’s no reason to wait around any longer—the eerie thrills and images these games offer are waiting for you!

10 Inside

Inside’s developers are familiar to longtime fans of independent horror films as they created Limbo. From a mechanical standpoint, the entire experience also functions rather similarly. You take control of a young child who has broken into a type of covert establishment. You navigate a 2D plane, solve riddles, and gradually reveal the dark mysteries that lie within.

This game embodies everything the company has come to be known for, including employing simple graphic styles to convey a dialogue-free story and a slow-motion progression of unpleasant concepts and situations. You’ll never be scared, but as you go further, you’ll start to feel uneasy and afraid. For those who are eager to learn more, there is even a hidden, alternate ending.

9 The Dark Pictures Anthology: House Of Ashes

While a lot of horror games make you feel scared by controlling every action you do, House of Ashes makes you fear what will happen next. This sequel to The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan and Little Hope, which belongs to the interactive story game subgenre, reaches a peak in the narrative.

Some games blend powerful narratives with terrifying elements.
Taken during Iraq’s 2003 invasion, you’re focused on cooperating in spite of disinterest after many soldiers got lost in a vampire-infested temple. House of Ashes features several playable characters and over thirty possible endings, which are determined by your choices in combat and moral quandaries, much like games like  Until Dawn and Heavy Rain

8 Resident Evil 4 Remake

Resident Evil 4, which comes out in 2023, proves to be an even better Resident Evil game than the remake of Resident Evil 2 and Village put together. Returning with a new generation of character models, Leon S. Kennedy puts on a more polished front as he saves President Ashley Graham’s daughter from the Las Plagas monstrosities and the Los Iluminados. But bingo is still going on.

The adored cast, bosses, and adversaries all have amazing new character designs, and the classic settings have a fresh aesthetic. The lake area has been enlarged for further exploration, Leon’s knife adds new stealth gameplay and parrying strikes, and key story beats have been adjusted to enhance the overall plot.

7 The Medium

The Medium  is a very unique game and by certainly one of the scariest Xbox Series X|S titles. The Medium is incredibly innovative even though its rules have a stylistic influence from the Silent Hill series. You take control of Marianne, a lady who can interact with spirits and is trapped between their dimension in this late 1990s Polish setting.

She must look into the killing of a little girl that she saw in one of her visions. In order to progress and elude enemies, the action sometimes requires you to switch between mirrored split-screen gaming. Traditional horror exploration is mixed with a dynamic twist of puzzles. Although it feels distinct, Bloober Team’s look is all too familiar.

6 Simulacra

The most devastating kind of horror is the one that makes commonplace appliances seem frightening. If a demonic, cult-built AI were to start stalking you, you would be reluctant to use your phone in the instance of Simulacra. In this unique first-person shooter game, you utilize a smartphone interface to play as a lost object that belonged to Anna, a woman.

The story takes increasingly unsettling turns for the worse the more you look into it. Simulacra is a must-see horror film for everyone who enjoys being shocked, thanks to its inventive jump-scares, well-paced narrative, and believable dialogue from a wide range of characters.

5 A Plague Tale: Innocence And Requiem

A Plague Tale: Innocence has aspects of pure horror (rats, sickness, mass mortality, and menacing adversaries), yet it’s not explicitly meant to frighten you with typical, unanticipated jumps. As the 15-year-old Amicia, your mission is to keep your ailing younger brother Hugo safe while escaping from plague-ridden rats and troops.

A Plague Tale: Requiem, the sequel, features even more breathtaking scenery and enhances the gameplay with new abilities. As you continue to accompany your buddy Lucas on your terrifying trip to save your brother, you continue to play the role of Amicia. Along the way, you encounter new people who lend a hand.

4 Layers Of Fear (2023)

With the 2023 remake of Layers of Fear, the horror game makers at Bloober Team have done it once more. The goal of this game is to tell an anthology of stories using both original content and all of the first game’s DLC. With the new writer protagonist, Layers of Fear (2023) is now a coherent story that links the Painter, the Actor, and the Musician.

With jump scares, set pieces, sound cues, and a continually moving setting as smooth and effective as a James Wan horror film, it skillfully creates an unnerving horror mood. Despite the eerie and sinister undertones of each story, Unreal Engine 5 has made this version remarkably lifelike, with each area you enter being a visual marvel.

3 Amnesia: The Bunker

The terrifying sequel to  Amnesia: Rebirth will transport viewers a little earlier into 1916, during World War I, to a military bunker with a massive creature hiding in its cramped quarters. In Amnesia: The Bunker, you take on the role of Henri Clément, a soldier who has been separated from Augustin Lambert, his buddy, on the battlefield and is now trapped in a different kind of nightmare within the bunker.

A three-photo collage featuring Mary in period attire by a fire in Little Hope, Hugo and Amicia de Rune strolling through a village in A Plague Tale: Innocence, and Jonathan Harker biting an enemy’s neck in Vampyr.
While there have been some really terrifying monsters in previous Amnesia series chapters, nothing compares to the Beast in The Bunker. It can appear at any moment and anywhere, stalking you through the gaps around the bunker. Henri can wield weapons such a shotgun, a pistol, and even grenades, unlike in earlier games, but ammunition is limited and light is still your best ally.

2 Outlast

Unreservedly brutal and unrelenting in its anguish inducing nature, Outlast is an undeniable modern horror classic. The game is set in an abandoned mental asylum, and your job is to explore the closed facility and find out about strange tales circulating about how the place is doing.

Outlast throws you into terrifying encounters with ruthless murderers, cannibals on the loose, deformed human experiments, and anybody else you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark street. Your only allies are your wits and a battery-operated night vision camera. It’s a clever, innovative horror masterpiece that is almost perfectly executed; it’s arguably the scariest game available on any platform.

1 Alien: Isolation

No one can hear you scream in space, but if you’re playing this by yourself at home, your neighbors definitely can. The 2014 version of the beloved film series is every bit as chock full of gory scenes and outstanding sound effects as the original.

Alien: Isolation firmly holds a hold on you, whether you’re roaming the eerily deserted hallways of Sevastopol Station or hiding in a locker to keep your breath from the Xenomorph’s raptors. One of the most important cinematic horror gaming experiences is this survival horror, which has been critically lauded and consistently re-released for new systems since its release.