Indie Horror Games That Officially Changed the Genre Forever
Between mass layoffs and other major shake-ups, AAA game development is in a state of flux right now. Meanwhile, independent titles make up more and more of the average person's gaming library. Horror is the one genre…
Between mass layoffs and other major shake-ups, AAA game development is in a state of flux right now. Meanwhile, independent titles make up more and more of the average person's gaming library. Horror is the one genre that indie gaming may be most at home in, and that's hardly a recent development. In fact, one could argue that indie gaming owes its rise in popularity to a few horror titles in particular.
There are plenty of games that have strong horror-inspired elements, but aren't very scary to play. The Binding of Isaac comes to mind as a certified classic, and Deadlock stands as a much more recent example. In short, indie horror is a genre that has become very saturated with top-tier games, but only a few of those titles have proven themselves to have a lasting impact on the gaming landscape. Those are the games whose influence can be read all over, sometimes crossing out of the genre, or even outside the medium entirely.
Five Nights At Freddy's
Your Grandfather's Horror Game
Created by Scott Cawthon Creation Year 2014 Developer(s) Scott Games, Mega Cat Studios, Steel Wool Studios, Illumix Publisher(s) Scott Games, Clickteam LLC USA, IllumixFive Nights at Freddy's is a first-person survival horror and resource management game from Scott Cawthorn that raced to popularity thanks to its creepy animatronic enemies and its array of panic-inducing jumpscares. Bringing life to a cavalcade of well-known characters like Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Foxy, Bonnie, and more, Five Nights at Freddy's has seen immense success, spinoffs, and fan games.
In a list ranking iconic games, it makes sense to get the most obvious out of the way. When it comes to indie horror specifically, it doesn't get more obvious than Five Nights at Freddy's. Since the very first game, FNAF has enjoyed an unparalleled virality thanks to several popular Let's Play series. FNAF single-handedly pioneered the now-massive mascot horror subgenre, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that indie gaming as a whole couldn't have reached as near to the mainstream if FNAF wasn't such a smash success.
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More GamesInscryption
Deeply Immersive and Disturbingly Addictive
Inscryption Roguelike Deckbuilding Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 86/100 Critics Rec: 96% Released October 19, 2021 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Daniel Mullins Games Publisher(s) Devolver Digital Engine UnityFrom the creator of Pony Island and The Hex comes the latest mind-melting, self-destructing love letter to video games.
Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...
In Inscryption you will...
Acquire a deck of woodland creature cards by draft, surgery, and self-mutilation.
Unlock the secrets lurking behind the walls of Leshy's cabin.
Embark on an unexpected and deeply disturbing odyssey.
For games that reached influence past the horror genre, Inscryption is another title that immediately comes to mind. Inscryption was an early adopter of the rogue-like deck builder format, a genre combo that has become almost infamous for its overwhelming saturation in the modern day. Other than Slay the Spire, Inscryption is perhaps the game most responsible for this explosive trend.
Inscryption remains an unforgettable experience in its own right, thanks to blending found footage horror into an ARG element of the game. This escape room-esque narrative structure brought immersion to the forefront of the experience, while never crowding out the addictive game mechanics.
Slay the Princess
Dictionary Definition of Existential Dread
Slay the Princess Adventure Horror Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 90/100 Critics Rec: 96% Released October 23, 2023 ESRB nr Engine ren'pyYou're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess.
You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.
She will do everything in her power to stop you. She'll charm, and she'll lie, and she'll promise you the world, and if you let her, she'll kill you a dozen times over. You can't let that happen. Don't forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.
You're not going to listen to him, are you? We're supposed to save princesses, not slay them...
Fully voice-acted by the impeccable Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight. Hand-penciled art - every background and sprite is drawn traditionally with pencil and paper by Ignatz-winning graphic novelist Abby Howard.
A princess. She's very bad and you have to get rid of her for all our sakes.
No, the Princess isn't a “cosmic horror,” whatever that is supposed to mean. She's just an ordinary human Princess, and you can definitely slay her as long as you put your mind to it.
Don't even think about trying to romance her. It won't end well for you.
Hopefully you won't die. But if you do, you'll die a lot. Be careful and stay focused on the task at hand!
Slay the Princess may very well be the least traditionally scary game on the list, but it's no less horrific, and certainly no less deserving of praise. Horror games used to be somewhat infamous for trading a coherent narrative for immaculate vibes, but Slay the Princess helped prove that you don't need to have one without the other.
Slay the Princess is an existential horror visual novel with so many branching paths that it feels genuinely impossible to see everything. On the other hand, it's impossible to walk away without undergoing a profound experience with the game's meditation on the multitudes inside a person, and the sheer impossibility of ever truly knowing yourself.
Signalis
Love Is Terrifying, Retro Aesthetics Rule
Signalis Survival Horror Indie Games Adventure Shooter Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 82/100 Critics Rec: 86% Released October 27, 2022 ESRB m Engine unityAwaken from slumber and explore a surreal retrotech world as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost partner and her lost dreams. Discover terrifying secrets, challenging puzzles, and nightmarish creatures in a tense and melancholic experience of cosmic dread and classic psychological survival horror.
SIGNALIS is set in a dystopian future where humanity has colonized the solar system, and the totalitarian regime of Eusan maintains an iron grip through aggressive surveillance and propaganda. Humanoid androids known as Replikas live among the populace, acting as workers, civil servants, and Protektors alongside the citizens they are designed to resemble.
The story of SIGNALIS begins as a Replika named Elster awakens from cryostasis in a wrecked vessel. Now stranded on a cold planet, she sets out on a journey into depths unknown. Experience fear and apprehension as you encounter strange horrors, carefully manage scarce resources, and seek solutions to challenging riddles. Explore the dim corners of a derelict spaceship, delve into the mysterious fate of the inhabitants of a doomed facility, and seek what lies beneath.
Sometimes the best way to gain influence is to take it from days gone by. Signalis understands this better than most, with its PS1-inspired visuals and survival horror gameplay lifted right out of Resident Evil, both of which helped spark trends that still endure in many indie titles. Signalis is rich with literary reference and obscure lore, making it perfectly primed for today's video essay landscape. With multiple endings and a powerful narrative about love, doubt, and identity, Signalis has firmly earned its place inside the indie horror hall of fame.
Mouthwashing
A Cult Classic in the Making
Mouthwashing Psychological Horror Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 84/100 Critics Rec: 92% Released September 26, 2024 Developer(s) Wrong Organ Publisher(s) Critical Reflex Engine Unity Number of Players 1Mouthwashing is a first-person horror game following the dying crew of a shipwrecked space freighter.
Who could have known what good ol’ Captain Curly was capable of? Guess he thought his crew dying alongside him was only right. But some men can’t even kill themselves properly. Maimed, limbless and unable to speak, but alive, Curly is now at the mercy of the crew he has doomed to a slow death.
Descend into Madness
Follow the lives of the crew as they weather starvation, isolation, and each other. People were never your strong suit anyway.
Zero Chance of Rescue
The ship will run out of power within six months. Food rations long before that.
Immersive Storytelling
Pay attention to your surroundings.
Psychological Scares
Your eyes are lying.
Unforgiving Narrative
Hope to die, or for goodness sake, pray that everyone else did.
If you pulled an indie horror fan out of a hat and asked them for game recommendations, you'd better be ready to hear an hour-long lecture about Mouthwashing. All of this is to say that Mouthwashing has caused another paradigm shift in how active fans can engage with their favorite indie titles.
Despite being a genuinely traumatic experience with almost unspeakable subject matter, Mouthwashing has managed to spread its wings into the realm of marketable plushies. New ambitious fan projects still pop up all the time, often with professional voice actors at the helm. Horror is an evergreen genre as it is, and indie games are increasingly encouraging their audiences to become lovingly rabid. Mouthwashing took the best of both worlds, and may still make waves we have yet to witness.
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0 POINTS — More GamesLethal Company
The Mascot of Gaming's Most Viral Genre
Lethal Company Horror Systems OpenCritic ReviewsReleased October 23, 2023 ESRB t Developer(s) Zeekerss Publisher(s) Zeekerss Engine Unity Multiplayer Online MultiplayerYou are a contracted worker for the Company. Your job is to collect scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons to meet the Company's profit quota. You can use the cash you earn to travel to new moons with higher risks and rewards--or you can buy fancy suits and decorations for your ship. Experience nature, scanning any creature you find to add them to your bestiary. Explore the wondrous outdoors and rummage through their derelict, steel and concrete underbellies. Just never miss the quota.
These dangers prey upon the vulnerable and lonesome, and the protection of your crew may be your only hope. You can guide your crewmates from your ship, using the radar to call out traps and using the ship's terminal to access remotely locked doors--or you can all go in together. The Company store has many useful tools for the job, including lights, shovels, walkie talkies, stun grenades, or boomboxes.
Things get dangerous at night. Communicate with your crewmates to carry all valuables to the ship before things get too dangerous, and try not to leave anyone behind.
These days, the lovingly titled Friendslop genre tends to top the Steam charts any given week. Even in this already saturated genre, horror threatens to reign supreme, and that's in large part thanks to the influence of Lethal Company. Nothing beats the experience of getting scared to death alongside your friends, and Lethal Company throws so many things at each player that the stress is near guaranteed to bring you to the edge of terror. As more Let's Play content flocks from long-form video to livestreams on Twitch, Lethal Company showed audiences that indie horror isn't going anywhere.
Phasmophobia
Eerie Environments and Hair-Pulling Puzzles, All With Your Friends!
Phasmophobia Survival Horror Puzzle Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 76/100 Critics Rec: 62% Released October 29, 2024 ESRB T For Teen // Blood, Use of Drugs, Violence Developer(s) Kinetic Games Publisher(s) Kinetic Games Engine UnityPhasmophobia is a 4-player, online co-op, psychological horror game. You and your team of paranormal investigators will enter haunted locations filled with paranormal activity and try to gather as much evidence as you can. Use your ghost-hunting equipment to find and record evidence to sell on to a ghost removal team.
Immersive Experience: Realistic graphics and sounds as well as a minimal user interface ensure a totally immersive experience that will keep you on your toes.
Unique Ghosts: Identify over 20 different ghost types, each with unique traits, personalities, and abilities to make each investigation feel different from the last.
Equipment: Use well-known ghost-hunting equipment such as EMF Readers, Spirit Boxes, Thermometers, and Night Vision Cameras to find clues and gather as much paranormal evidence as you can. Find Cursed Possessions that grant information or abilities in exchange for your sanity.
Full Voice Recognition: The Ghosts are listening! Use your actual voice to interact with the Ghosts through Ouija Boards and EVP Sessions using a Spirit Box.
Locations: Choose from over 10 different haunted locations, each with unique twists, hiding spots, and layouts.
Game Modes: With 5 default difficulties and hand crafted weekly challenges, there are plenty of ways to test your skills.
Teamwork: Dive in head first, get your hands dirty searching for evidence while fighting for your life. If you're not feeling up to the task, play it safe and support your team from the truck by monitoring the investigation with CCTV and motion sensors.
Custom Difficulty: Create your own games to tailor the difficulty to your or your group's needs, with proportional rewards and come up with crazy game modes of your own!
Co-operate: Play alongside your friends with up to 4 players in this co-op horror where teamwork is key to your success.
Play together: Phasmophobia supports all players together, play with your friends with any combination of input types.
While many co-op horror games today take a great deal of influence from Lethal Company, that game owes its own success to Phasmophobia. Famously, the developer of Phasmophobia only created the game because he couldn't find something like it anywhere else. There's nothing scarier than solving puzzles while disappointing your friends, after all. Phasmophobia not only laid the groundwork for other smash successes in co-op horror, but pioneered an eerie realism aesthetic that remains a go-to for many horror devs.
Dead by Daylight
Many Imitators, Few Equals
Dead by Daylight Horror Survival Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 70/100 Critics Rec: 48% Released June 14, 2016 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language Developer(s) Behaviour Interactive Publisher(s) Behaviour Interactive Engine Unreal Engine 4Ever wished to play as one of the characters from your favorite horror movies? Dead by Daylight is a 1v4 multiplayer game that draws from all corners of the horror world from a powerful slasher to a terrifying paranormal entity.
Choose between playing an unstoppable Killer and one of 4 Survivors trying to evade a gruesome death. Each character has their own deep progression system and plenty of unlockables that can be customized to fit your personal strategy. Work together to escape, or stalk and sacrifice every Survivor.
This Edition of Dead by Daylight gives you access to a roster of 7 Killers (The Trapper, The Hillbilly, The Wraith, The Nurse, The Hag, The Huntress and The Doctor) and 9 Survivors (Meg Thomas, Claudette Morel, Jake Park, Dwight Fairfield, Ace Visconti, Nea Karlsson, Bill Overbeck, Feng Min and David King). It also includes two cosmetic add-ons packed with outfits for various characters.
What Phasmophobia is to co-op horror, Dead by Daylight may be to competitive horror. There is a key difference, which is that many of DbD's successors have fallen short of its success. Dead by Daylight is uniquely capable of generating the feeling of terror in its players, even more so than the games which clearly imitate its slasher-inspired formula. There are still plenty of games that attempt to recapture the magic every other year, and one of them may very well succeed. In the meantime, Dead by Daylight has become the biggest crossover fest this side of Fortnite, so it should stick around to keep players satisfied for many years to come.
Dredge
A Class Act of Cosmic Horror
Dredge Adventure Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 82/100 Critics Rec: 87% Released March 31, 2023 ESRB E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco Developer(s) Black Salt Games Publisher(s) Team17 Engine UnityCaptain your fishing trawler to explore a collection of remote isles, and their surrounding depths, to see what lies below. Sell your catch to the locals and complete quests to learn more about each area’s troubled past. Outfit your boat with better equipment to trawl deep-sea trenches and navigate to far-off lands, but keep an eye on the time. You might not like what finds you in the dark...
Starting from your new home in the remote archipelago, ‘The Marrows’, take to the water and scour the depths for curious collectables and over 125 deep sea denizens. Explore each area while completing quests and visiting neighbouring island regions – each with their own unique opportunities, inhabitants, and secrets.
Dredge is one of the more recent titles on this list, but no less impactful. It was received with near-universal acclaim, becoming the rare horror game to receive wide recognition in awards season. Part of why Dredge stands out is its deceptively cozy vibe, thanks to its focus on life as a fisherman. Moreover, Dredge takes a dive into the cosmic horror subgenre. Fear of the unknown is hard to convey in an interactive experience, but Dredge is able to pull off the longing sense of dread so well, it may as well be the final word in cosmic horror.
Iron Lung
Indie Horror Gaming Has Never Climbed Higher
Iron Lung Indie Games Adventure Simulation Systems OpenCritic ReviewsReleased March 10, 2022 ESRB t Engine unityIron Lung is a short dread-driven submarine horror game from the developer of DUSK, The Moon Sliver, and Squirrel Stapler.
Set entirely within a claustrophobic one-man submarine nicknamed the "Iron Lung," you must blindly navigate an ocean of blood to take photographs of key locations, and hope whatever lives below doesn't find you.
There is only a single porthole on the sub, and it needs to be closed due to depth pressure, so you have to navigate purely via an incomplete map, proximity sensors, sound, and a primitive external camera which can be used to take the pictures you need to complete your mission, or to get a grainy low resolution visual of what's happening outside.
Success will require resourcefulness and patience.
There's one reason Dredge can't wholeheartedly be called the best cosmic horror this side of Lovecraft, and that's all thanks to Iron Lung. The profoundly terrifying isolation of Iron Lung has already reached far enough to influence several of the games earlier on this list. In a way, you might call it your favorite horror game's favorite horror game. If you hadn't heard of the game prior to this year, you certainly have now thanks to Markiplier's Iron Lung movie. Iron Lung will stand the test of time as proof of indie horror's ability to fully break containment into the mainstream, and the oncoming tide of indie game adaptations will know exactly who to look back on and thank.