KATIE MARIE

Compelling Narrative for the Win!

Today I am writing to you to talk about my top best-written horror games.

While these games may be considered horror for various reasons, and incorporate visual, sound and even jump scares, they resonated with me due to the depth and skill of the narrative.

I find the best horror is always the one with the most compelling stories. When it comes to games I will tolerate poor gameplay, janky effects etc, if there’s a strong narrative there then I am hooked.

With that in mind, I don’t want to spoil these games for anyone who has not played them, I’ll be brief.

So in no particular order….

Read more: Best Written Horror Games

Soma

This is your typical sci-fi horror, with survival game-style gameplay.

Sounds pretty basic right? How many boogies on spaceships will I be shooting today?

Wrong!

Soma is a story about identity and what it really means to be human, what makes a person alive? What makes them human? It is a moral and philosophical study of the human mind and consciousness told through horror-style gameplay.  

It’s bloody marvellous.

The Evil Within

Again, this is another game where we delve into the twisted workings of the human mind. The story looks at how we cope with trauma and grief. It asks questions about how to deal with our internal demons. Do we reshape reality? Spoiler, Ruvik does and it does not go well.

The game is again a survival-style game where you scurry around the world, find resources and choose to either fight or run when you encounter boogies.

Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear is a physiological horror game, and while I said earlier these were in no particular order, this is my favourite. It’s very story-focused, and the gameplay is basic, primarily puzzle based rather than survival horror, though it does like to jump-scare its players.

Layers of Fear is another exploration of a damaged mind, though not quite in the same style as SOMA and The Evil Within, this game feels far more personal and is more about uncovering the story of what happened to your family. So less philosophy and more mystery.