Best Gateway Horror Games For When You Want Something Scary, But Not Too Scary

• Developer: Valve
• Release Year: 2008
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Number of Players: 1-4

Often regarded as one of the best co-op games ever made, Left 4 Dead (and its pictured sequel) spawned a cottage industry of clones and games inspired by it, but to many, it’s still the best of the bunch. In it, you and up to three friends work your way through linear levels with some randomized elements, all while fending off fast-moving zombies and their boss variants. The scariest moments in this one revolve around the Witch and the Tank variants, which bring two different flavors of horror straight to your personal space, but this is again more like an action game than a proper horror one.

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Naughty Dog’s particular brand of cinematic drama that turned Nathan Drake into a household name later did the same with 2012’s Joel and Ellie, stars of The Last of Us and its 2020 sequel. The series focuses on a fungal infection that turns the world into a zombie-like apocalypse, and though it has several scary moments, it’s always more of a character-led action-adventure game than a survival-horror game. If Uncharted is Indiana Jones, think of this as McCarthy’s The Road, only with mushroom zombies.

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If you were a kid any time in the last decade or so, or if you have kids of your own, you’re probably already familiar with Five Nights at Freddy’s. The previously mobile-exclusive horror series has spawned several sequels, console and PC ports and spin-offs, and even an ongoing movie series. These games are arguably among the scariest on this list, but it’s mainly jump scares you have to worry about, so they also feel easily overcome with exposure over time. If ever you wondered what it’s like to be a security guard in a haunted Chuck E. Cheese, I have just the series for you.

• Developer: Double Fine
• Release Year: 2010
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Number of Players: 1

For the youngest, most horror-inclined players who merely want to dip a single toe in the genre’s waters, Costume Quest is a fantastic choice. It plays like a cartoon set on Halloween, as a group of kids trick-or-treat through the neighborhood, fight monsters, and collect candy. It’s an especially fun game in October, when everyone gets into their Pumpkin Spice Zone. If you like it, there’s also a sequel that continues the kid-friendly story with the same cast of trick-or-treaters.

• Developer: Vertigo Games
• Release Year: 2016
• Platforms: Meta Quest, Valve Index, HTC Vive
• Number of Players: 1

This VR-exclusive zombie shooter can make you sweat–fending off zombies in virtual reality can get your heart pounding for sure–but it’s also pretty comedic and takes place mostly in the daylight. That keeps Arizona Sunshine from ever getting too scary, and it’s regarded as one of the best VR games, for those looking to get into horror and perhaps VR too.

• Developer: Unknown Worlds
• Release Year: 2014
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
• Number of Players: 1-4

The world deep below the waves can be considered akin to an alien planet. Subnautica is basically that idea as a video game. Its gameplay loop is like Minecraft or another survival game where you start with nothing and eventually engineer an entire civilization by hand, but in this case, you’ll do it all underwater as fantastical sea creatures swim around you and sometimes bite at you. Unless you have thalassophobia, this one isn’t going to be too intense for you.

• Developer: Sony Bend
• Release Year: 2019
• Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC
• Number of Players: 1

The pitch for Sony Bend’s open-world zombie game, Days Gone, is simple: The Walking Dead meets Sons of Anarchy. If that premise appeals to you, here you’ll find another great example of an action-adventure game with touches of horror. The most intense aspects are the massive hordes of infected “Freakers” you need to clear out, as they can be a marathon of pain and close calls.

• Developer: Asobo
• Release Year: 2019
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
• Number of Players: 1

Mechanically, A Plague Tale: Innocence (and its sequel, Requiem) is mirrored closely after The Last of Us, only with a rat plague at the center of its Inquisition-set story instead of a zombie-like fungus. Like Naughty Dog’s game, which also appears on this list, The (ahem) Rats of Us uses stealth-focused combat and some scary moments to come close to a horror experience but tends to lean more into being an action-adventure game.

• Developer: Tequila Works
• Release Year: 2019
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC
• Number of Players: 1

Gylt is actually the inspiration for this list. It straddles the line between scary-for-newcomers and something more as well as anything here. Its art style gives off a Dark Pixar vibe, though some of its story deals with things like self-harm, so you’d want to know that before you play it with kids or anyone who doesn’t want to experience that. Still, I think for a teen looking to explore horror, Gylt is one of the first games I’d recommend.

• Developer: Nintendo
• Release Year: 2019
• Platforms: Switch
• Number of Players: 1

If all this talk of “scary, but not too scary” still happens to be too scary for you anyway, start with Luigi’s Mansion 3. Nintendo’s ghostbusting puzzle game stars Mario’s taller brother in a haunted hotel, but this one is as tame as Mario Party, and it’s hard to argue anyone is too young or inexperienced for it. It’s a great family game and can seamlessly be a young player’s first foray into things that go bump in the night.

• Developer: Remedy
• Release Year: 2019
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4
• Number of Players: 1

Like Alan Wake, Remedy’s Control is creepy, but not overly scary. Set in an ever-shifting liminal space called The Oldest House, you’ll encounter unsettling enemies infected by something called The Hiss, which turns them into violent husks, but the game is more of a New Weird project than a proper horror game. If horror games aren’t yet your forte, this is a fine entry point that is still more of a shoot-em-up than a spook-em-up.

• Developer: Daniel Mullins
• Release Year: 2021
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
• Number of Players: 1

As with Dredge and fishing games, card-based roguelikes don’t exactly scream horror. But the nature of Inscryption’s overarching metagame, in which you’re locked in a cabin and forced to play a card game–which is terrific in its own right–lend an unsettling vibe to the whole affair. Mix in a haunting soundtrack, found footage that centers around the discovery of the titular card game (which ostensibly does not exist), and numerous twists that never allow you to get comfortable, and you have an innovative take on the genre that will leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up throughout.

• Developer: Tango Gameworks
• Release Year: 2022
• Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
• Number of Players: 1

As the follow-up to Tango Gameworks’ The Evil Within, a game with the word “ghost” in it would seem likely to be terrifying, but it’s not. It’s not trying to be. Again, what you have in Ghostwire: Tokyo is more of an action game with spooky pieces, like a dreary take on Tokyo where ghosts roam all over, but you fight them with action-genre mechanics. The context of some story beats are its scariest bits, but the gameplay won’t have you losing sleep.

• Developer: Half Mermaid
• Release Year: 2022
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, mobile
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Half Mermaid and Sam Barlow have been making high-concept full-motion video games for years now, but Immortality is the first you could call horror-adjacent. It focuses on unraveling a mystery of an up-and-coming actress who one day vanished not just from Hollywood, but from the world. By dissecting old film reels for clues, you’ll unravel a story that is creepy on multiple levels, but never asks too much of you in an interactive sense, which is where a lot of horror games tend to hit hardest.

• Developer: Housemarque
• Release Year: 2021
• Platforms: PS5, PC
• Number of Players: 1-2

Housemarque’s bullet hell-ish third-person shooter is clearly inspired by Alien–much of the off-Earth world and its ominous sights and sounds feel like homages to Ridley Scott’s classic. It’s not just horror-adjacent; it’s Giger-adjacent. But with so many bullets flying, this is never really a horror game. You’ll fight off strange otherworldly beings, or die and scrape together some roguelite progress for a new run, but the scariest thing here is how difficult the game is.

• Developer: Black Salt Games
• Release Year: 2023
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch
• Number of Players: 1

Games centered around fishing are typically more casual fare, but Dredge upends that tradition by infusing it with a dash of Lovecraftian horror. Dredge tasks you with exploring a mysterious region of seaside communities, making forays into the dark waters to secure hauls of fish and other items to upgrade your boat and expand what it’s capable of. That’s a satisfying loop in and of itself, but along the way, you’ll have to deal with diminishing light sources and the ever-present threat of monsters lying in the deep. This creates a creepy and tense experience whenever you weigh how long you can afford to stay out at night, but without the scares ever becoming too frightening.

• Developer: Ghost Ship Games
• Release Year: 2018
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4
• Number of Players: 1-4

Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op action game with an emphasis on mining alien planets for loot while fending off the giant bug-like creatures who don’t want you there. I guess in that reading of events, you’re the monster, but the game isn’t too concerned with that. If you want a tense co-op game that rewards cohesive teamwork and isn’t going to terrify you, this is a great choice.

• Developer: Ironwood Studios
• Release Year: 2024
• Platforms: PC, PS5
• Number of Players: 1

One of the best games of 2024, Pacific Drive is a roguelite built around a special car you manage and maintain through a Night Vale-like environment. There are plenty of spooky things going on in the woods of this game, and many will do you harm, but they’re more like anomalous environmental events; they haven’t the malice of a video game’s typical monsters. If you want to calm your nerves as you drive across the Olympic Exclusion Zone, I recommend turning on the car’s radio, which hosts a wide range of excellent music from Seattle-based indie bands.

• Developer: Capcom
• Release Year: 2006 (remastered in 2024)
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5 (remaster)
• Number of Players: 1

Capcom’s Resident Evil won’t make this list, but its other zombie series fits nicely. Dead Rising is essentially a goofy take on Dawn of the Dead; you’re trapped in a mall with zombies and you have to survive until rescue arrives using everything at your disposal–be it a gun or baseball bat, or an HDTV or shopping cart. It’s a timeless premise and great video game material, and it’s never trying to be too scary. Its colorful world is full of silliness, even as its hero, Frank West, is a deadly serious dude.

• Developer: Remedy
• Release Year: 2010 (remastered in 2021)
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS5 (remaster)
• Number of Players: 1

Though the 2023 sequel dives head-first into being a true survival-horror experience, the 2010 original Alan Wake that launched the Remedy Connected Universe is merely horror-ish. Remedy has always carefully called it more of a psychological thriller–an action game with horror elements. That’s a good distinction since the game rejects classic genre mechanics like painfully limited ammo and difficulty healing. Still, its creepy Pacific Northwestern setting does well to evoke a spooky mood without dipping into something too intense for genre newcomers.

• Developer: Nintendo
• Release Year: 2002
• Platforms: Game Boy Advance, Switch via Switch Online + Expansion Pack
• Number of Players: 1

Although the more recent Switch game Metroid Dread tried to lean more heavily into its horror aspects, it’s the 2002 GBA game Metroid Fusion that better demonstrates the terror of being stuck on a space station full of hostile alien creatures. That’s largely due to the presence of SA-X, a sort of alien clone of series heroine Samus Aran. SA-X’s ominous appearances and overwhelming power are sure to send your heart rate spiking–almost like the looming threat of Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. But Fusion is a less oppressive experience than that of a survival-horror game like RE3, giving you occasional terrors without being too overwhelming.

Image credit: LAWxz23 on YouTube