The horror game landscape has never been more impressive or varied, and in 2024 you can find some of the beset scary games on PlayStation 5 and PS4 via the growing PS Plus catalog. Ever since Sony expanded the program to emulate Game Pass’ Netflix-style library of downloadable and streaming games, fans of zombies, slasher flicks, and murder mysteries have had plenty of classics to choose from that are just a few button presses away. Here are our recommendations:
2 / 19
Within the horror genre, there are some go-to gameplay types, and “asymmetric multiplayer game” is one of them. Fortunately, Dead by Daylight is one of the best. It revolves around a group of players called survivors escaping a map before the person playing as a killer manages to impale them all on hooks as part of a ritual summoning sacrifice. Somewhat barebones back when Behaviour Interactive released it in 2016. Dead by Daylight has continued to get new updates and improvements. There’s also plenty of licensed crossovers with villains ranging from Halloween’s Michael Myers to Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head. Even if the killer doesn’t manage to hook you, the game certainly will.
3 / 19
Until Dawn is a great horror game for people who love corny horror movies. It’s laden with genre tropes and familiar character archetypes, but delivered by studio Supermassive Games in a way that lets you in on the joke. “Anyone who’s spent time with horror movies knows how much fun (and frustrating) it is to yell at the screen when characters are doing increasingly stupid things in the face of imminent and obvious danger,” Patrick Klepek wrote in his Kotaku review at the time. “Until Dawn lets you be those people—finally, you can do more than yell at the screen!” It’s fun enough to play alone, but better enjoyed with someone else to turn to on the couch and go “lmao are you kidding me?!” The remake just came out but many fans recommend sticking with the original version.
4 / 19
Dead Island 2 isn’t a particularly scary game but it is a gory one. The zombie limb severing sequel arrived after so many years in development hell it seemed impossible that it might actually be good. Instead, the 2023 undead sandbox is a surprisingly fun and absurd romp through the zombie apocalypse, complete with RPG-lite mechanics to make you feel like all that hacking and slashing is adding up to something. “I love that this game offers a chain of semi-pure fun; it’s a fable with a lesson, if you want it to be, or regular zombie mayhem if you don’t,” wrote Ashley Bardhan in her review.
5 / 19
If you want to fight zombies but also ride a motorcycle, than Days Gone has you covered. Okay, they’re not technically zombies. Instead they’re called Freakers, but the result is more or less the same. The third-person open world game is a bit like a zombie apocalypse by way of Far Cry map cleanup. There are some light survival mechanics and beautiful landscapes to conquer. “It’s about shooting things and foraging for useful equipment to better your chances at staying alive in an increasingly hostile environment,” wrote Joshua Rivera in his review. “Those are expressed through play, and even when said play is derivative as Days Gone is, it can still be compelling.”
6 / 19
What if a fishing game was full of psychological horror? That’s Dredge in a nutshell. The Lovecraftian exploration game has you flirting with eldritch terrors just below the surface as you catch fish, sell them, and upgrade your boat. It’s a surprisingly taut gameplay loop all the more compelling thanks to Dredge’s immaculately macabre overtones.
7 / 19
When it comes to horror games, there’s nothing more classic than the original Resident Evil. Players have the option of both the HD remaster and the Director’s Cut of the PS1 game through PS Plus Premium. The tank controls and jagged polygonal graphics don’t hold up, but everything else does. If you were too afraid to play it when it first came out, or haven’t revisited since, there’s no better time.
8 / 19
Capcom has been on a roll with the Resident Evil remakes. They’ve been surprisingly good, and the modern overhaul of Resident Evil 2 happens to be on PS Plus. It’s not suffused with as much dread as the original, but Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield’s attempt to survive a virial outbreak in Racoon City on one fateful rainy night remains a tense puzzle box that’s still incredibly satisfying, and gruesome, to solve.
9 / 19
Bloober Team’s horror games can be more miss than hit, but Observer deserves to stay in the rotation. Starring the late Rutger Hauer of Blade Runner fame, the cyberpunk thriller tells the story of an aging detective charged with solving murders by hacking the brians of corpses. It’s a grizzly mashup of futuristic sci-fi and old-school film noir that mostly works. The stealth sequences can be annoying, but Hauer’s lowkey delivery helps keep the heady concept grounded.
10 / 19
Returnal is praised for its twitchy bullet hell action and uncompromising high-concept roguelike structure, but it’s space horror mood is also an important part of the overall 2021 GOTY package. It revolves around a crashed pilot trapped in a time loop on an alien planet and the deeper mystery and dark secrets she uncovers along the way. It’s not constructed as a horror game per se, but the fear of losing everything when you die as you navigate grim ruins and deadly monsters is as effective as any jump scare.
11 / 19
It’s a card game. What’s so scary about that? I can’t really say without giving Inscryption’s best secrets away, but the Hearthstone-lite game mechanics and Five Nights at Freddy character designs are worth the price of admission alone. Imagine the premise of Jumanji mashed up with Saw? That’s not quite what’s going on, but if that peaks your curiosity Inscryption should more than deliver.
12 / 19
What’s more frightening than blood-sucking immortals? The grimy, smoky black heart of Britain’s industrial-age empire. Vampyr puts you in the shoes of a doctor trying to cure the sick who also happens to be a vampire. The RPG combat is clunky, and most of the things in this game are done better elsewhere, but it has a clear and irresistible sense of place—post-Great War London—and intriguing NPCs who will occasionally make you feel bad about harvesting their flesh.
13 / 19
Look, Bloodborne should be on every video game list, full-stop. It might not have all the elements of a classic horror game, but what’s more macabre than slicing eldritch horrors with a scythe while wearing a tri-corner hat? FromSoftware’s fast-paced, blood-soaked one-off is creepy, brooding, and will make you scream as much as any clunky, over-the-shoulder shooter ever has. Don’t let its reputation scare you away, the environments and lore entries alone are worth the trouble.
14 / 19
On its face, Animal Well seems like an innocent enough metroidvania designed using a Lite-Brite. It doesn’t take long to realize it’s much creepier than that. You play an easily killed blob traversing damp, dark tunnels populated by various creatures that range from silly to terrifying. It has at least two moments that qualify as some of the scariest moments I’ve ever experienced in a game. I’m a wimp so that’s not saying much. If you want a more subtle horror experience, however, Animal Well is one of the best.
15 / 19
Legendary Capcom director Shinji Mikami was involved in some of its best games, from the first Resident Evil to its groundbreaking fourth entry. He later founded Tango Gameworks and sought to recapture that survival horror magic with Evil Within. It was its sequel, though, that helped the series stand on its own two feet as something separate, unique, and memorable. Evil Within 2‘s mix of psychological horror and familiar trauma is tense and arresting, while the greater focus on combat helps ratchet up the action a bit.
16 / 19
A a spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead games, Back 4 Blood is a four-person PVE multiplayer game about surviving zombie hordes. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t really need to given the strength and enduring appeal of the underlying wave-based formula. Adding to the chaos in Back 4 Blood is a more in-depth character progression system with skill trees and cards that make survival more strategic and rewarding.
17 / 19
Most survival horror games are overwhelming gruesome or hyper-unsettling. Control isn’t like that at all. The paranormal thriller is more in the vein of X-Files than a conventional horror story, with creepy oddities folded into the fabric of its underground office building haunted by ghostly demons with guns. If you like spooky vibes and a good mystery, but also feeling empowered, than Control is the perfect antidote to gorier gaming adventures.
18 / 19
The Last of Us is prestige survival horror at its most cinematic and playable. Terrible things happen, and not just at the hands of fungus-infested zombies. If you’ve watched the HBO adaptation but never played the game, or played the game but only years ago and not the PlayStation 5 upgrade, it’s worth discovering where Joel and Ellie’s journey all began. Few games are able to balance profound post-apocalyptic character drama and emotional arcs with punching body-horror abominations in the face as effortlessly as The Last of Us.
Update 10/18/2024 9:20 a.m. ET: Removed Inside, Limbo, Deadlight, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Observation and Little Nightmares since they are no longer on PS Plus. Added Dead Island 2, Dredge, Inscryption, Days Gone, Control, The Last of Us Part 1, Animal Well, Resident Evil 2, Back 4 Blood, and The Evil Within 2.
19 / 19