I love a good horror story. I enjoy being unnerved by my media consumption, often telling family members that scary stories are a form of controlled stress.
The state of horror games in 2023 reflected the last two decades of the genre, and the genre’s potential paths moving forward. This year’s selection of AAA scary games wore their inspiration from the past on their sleeves, while the creepy indie games haunted differently, often challenging players by manipulating genre expectations.
Looking Back Before Looking Forward
Three games released toward the end of 2022 foreshadowed branches in the genre. Scorn (October 2022), Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose (October 2022), and The Callisto Protocol (December 2022) presented three different visions of what horror experiences could be. Two presented versions of body horror, while the usually action-oriented Resident Evil series imagined a more intimate, quieter horror experience that repurposed locales from Village’s base game.
The Callisto Protocol, in particular, gave me pause with its vision for the horror genre. It shared a lot of DNA with Dead Space—at the time, a dormant series with an announced remake—with series creator Glen Schofield at the helm. The Callisto Protocol was the spiritual successor of the former series. In its focus on the past, something was lost in the experience. The game was ultimately gory, brutal, and disappointing.
Whereas Scorn and Shadows of Rose built on their pasts and other media inspirations, The Callisto Protocol leaned heavily on gaming’s more recent past. It existed because of Dead Space—a game that came out of an admiration for Resident Evil 4 (2005). The latest entry in this horror lineage made looking ahead to 2023 difficult where not one but both of these sources of inspiration were being remade.
I’m relieved to admit that these fears were unfounded. Both remakes not only made my 2023 list of best horror games but proved to be two of my favorite gaming experiences of the year. Both Dead Space (2023) and and Resident Evil 4 (202) built on what made their originals so special while also introducing new content and scares along the way.
Few of these moments matched the feeling of the spine-chilling screeches of 2022’s Signalis, but 2023 was full of terrific and surprising horror experiences.
The Best Horror Games of 2023
Dead Space Remake
Visceral Games’s Dead Space and Dead Space 2 were amazing horror games on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. January marked the return of Isaac Clarke, the USG Ishimura, and Necromorphs. Isaac was much more talkative in Motive Studio’s ground-up remake, and it was nice to play a game that felt as solid and as terrifying as I remembered. Isaac’s suits and the corridors of the USG Ishimura have never looked better. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another decade to revisit this world.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Resident Evil 4 Remake and Separate Ways DLC
2023 gave us not one but two remakes of classic horror games. (Sorry, 2016 isn’t far enough in the past to make Layers of Fear (2023) a notable remake of a classic horror game.) The current state of third-person horror game—like the original Dead Space—owed a lot of inspiration to Resident Evil 4, and Capcom proved that there’s room to improve an already incredible formula.
Whereas Dead Space Remake felt familiar, Resident Evil 4 Remake felt fresh. This newness highlights just how much the remake reinvents itself, since Capcom has re-released Resident Evil 4 almost as often as Bethesda has released Skyrim. The best parts of the original meld masterfully with new gameplay features, including the best parry mechanic of the year sets this remake apart.
The Separate Ways DLC takes everything one step further, delivering a lengthy episode that expands on Ada’s existing adventure. Additional story content and Ada’s hookshot only enhance some of the best content in the franchise.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X/S
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Leave it to Nintendo to create one of the scariest games of the year and not even include Luigi. Not all of Tears of the Kingdom is a horror game, but a solid third certainly qualifies.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, traversing the Depths at midnight with nothing but the glow of your switch screen certainly creates plenty of opportunity for genuine scares. Not being able to see very far through the darkness and never knowing what might appear often left me terrified of what would come next. The Depths left me feeling vulnerable and exposed.
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Slay the Princess
Black Tabby Games’ Slay the Princess is a well-crafted visual novel that gave me goosebumps throughout. Players begin with a deceivingly simple set of instructions: go to the cabin’s basement and slay the princess. Regardless of what you choose to do with that information, the game never ceases to surprise, shock, and discomfort. A complete playthrough might be brief, but the replayability reinvents the horrific elements at every turn.
Platform: Linux, Mac, Windows
Dredge
2023 gave us two very good but different fishing simulators. I really enjoyed the diving and sushi action of Dave the Diver, yet Black Salt Games’ Dredge strikes a different chord. Dave dove and could take a few hits, while I stayed in my easily destroyed boat to explore the waters of Dredge. The Lovecraftian seafaring adventure hides many secrets that are well worth seeking out, even at the risk of your character’s growing panic and the haunting eyes in the distance. Dredge is at its best when it embraces the slow burn of its haunting world.
The Dave the Diver x Dredge crossover announced at the Game Awards makes so much sense! Next year, I’ll happily dive back into both.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Series X/S, Windows
Ghostwire: Tokyo‘s First DLC, The Spider’s Thread
Ghostwire: Tokyo deserved more attention when it was initially released in 2022. The game’s atmosphere was spine-chilling, and its open world invoked some of the same fear of isolated urban spaces as Silent Hill games. Tango Gameworks surprised all of us by starting the year by shadow-dropping the immensely fun and colorful Hi-Fi Rush instead of the follow-ups to Ghostwire or The Evil Within 2.
The rhythm-based action game wasn’t the only surprise that Tango Gameworks had in-store for fans in 2023. Alongside the release of 2022’s Playstation exclusive Ghostwire: Tokyo on Xbox and Game Pass, the studio also released a new piece of content called The Spider’s Thread. While the bulk of the DLC is a new game mode, the added side quest “Fear the Children” is one of the most terrifying video game experiences of the last decade.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series S/X
Alan Wake 2
It is no secret that Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 was one of my favorite games this year. I am already well into its New Game Plus mode “The Final Draft,” anticipating its extended ending to leave me with more questions than answers. Of the games listed, this is also the one that I know I’ll still be playing well into 2024 with two expansions forthcoming. The Remedy Connected Universe is alive and well.
With that said, Alan Wake 2 highlights some of the main problems with the genre as a whole. The emphasis on troubled white male protagonists is frankly exhausting. As fellow Punished Backlog writer Amanda Tien notes, Wake is not only a bad dude but the least interesting and most obtuse part of the sequel. I’m optimistic, however, that future expansions, DLC, and Remedy games will continue the stories of Saga Anderson, Jesse Faden, and Kiran Estevez.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X
Looking Ahead: Horror in 2024
I spent a lot of time seeking out horror games in 2023, and now I look forward to revisiting some classic horror experiences in 2024. I already have Eternal Darkness, Folklore, and Silent Hill 3 on deck for January. I’m hopeful that I’ll have the time to revisit Parasite Eve or Resident Evil 1. Maybe I’ll give World of Horror (reviewed by the brilliant Joe Chivers) a whirl.
I’m skeptical that I will get to play Hideo Kojima’s OD in the next twelve months or Silent Hill ƒ. 2024 might see the release of Bokeh Game Studio’s Slitterhead, but its last update emphasized that the game is still in its early days of development.
I similarly look ahead to reimagined horror games with caution. I don’t know how Bloober Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2 will feel in 2024. My caution derives from Silent Hill: Ascension’s subpar reception, not to mention the lack of substantive updates. I also look forward to the Switch version of Luigi’s Mansion 2.
But these games all suffer from a valid complaint related to Alan Wake 2… and Dead Space Remake…. or Resident Evil 4 Remake. They are not only reimaginings, remakes, or remasters of scares we’ve experienced before, but also incredibly male-centric approaches to fear.
More diverse horror stories would take the genre to the next level in 2024 and beyond.
Maybe I’ll settle into some cozy games next year.
