The month of spooks is here! This means it's time to watch scary movies and play scary games. For Game Pass members the latter will be easy considering there are a few great horror games available on the service to download and play immediately, here's a list of 7 of our favorites.
Alan Wake | This psychological action thriller tells a tale about a best-selling author named Alan Wake. When he and his wife Alice are on vacation in an old lakeside cabin to try and shake Alan out of his writer's block, Alice mysteriously disappears. Alan equips a handy flashlight to fight off the darkness as he explores the town of Bright Falls to find out what happened to his wife. Developed by Remedy Entertainment, who also made titles such as the Max Payne series and Quantum Break, bring to life a truly spooky tale surrounded by the facade of a third-person shooter. The game takes only 11 hours to complete the main story, but if you're wanting that 100% you can stretch it out to roughly 26 hours, allowing for the fear to last you over a few days.
Alien: Isolation | One of the best kind of games for the horror genre are survival games. This Sci-Fi horror reflects the same tension as the movies it is based on. Alien: Isolation is set just 15 years after the events of the 1979 Alien film and you play as engineer Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley (the protagonist of Alien), as she searches for an explanation about her mother's disappearance. The game puts its emphasis on stealth and survival, creating for an engaging experience that forces the player to use their brains to outsmart the Alien and stay alive. Creative Assembly (developers of the Total War series) succeed in making a game that brings the feel of the iconic Alien film to the small screen. This game is the second-longest on our list, taking about 18 and a half hours for the main story alone and 32 and a half hours to be a completionist, so perfect for a long weekend or if you just want to play a few hours every day for about a week.
Blair Witch | Bloober Team has made quite a few horror games in recent years, and have a new one coming later this year for Xbox Series X and Microsoft Windows called The Medium. It is easy to see they have a knack for creating short and intense horrors with their previous Layers of Fear series and Observer game, and Blair Witch is no exception. The game is based on the very popular Blair Witch movie series and is set just 2 years after The Blair Witch Project (1999) film. Set in the Black Hills Forest, you play as police officer Ellis Lynch as he helps to search for a missing boy. The game is first-person allowing you to fall right into Lynch's shoes as you try to find the boy and make it back out of the forest alive. At only 5 hours in length, this is a quick game to pop in if you are looking for a scare-filled afternoon.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice | This is probably the least overtly scary of all the games on the list, but the game's darkness creates an intense experience that is reminiscent of horror without the scares. This grippingly emotional dark fantasy adventure game, developed by Ninja Theory, follows a young woman named Senua as she travels into Helheim to retrieve the soul of her deceased beloved. As you explore the pits of hell, monsters lurk around the corner and darkness follows close behind. Through hallucinations and voice-over, you learn the tale of Senua, and it is one that'll keep you on the edge of your seat with your hands gripping the controller tight for all 7 and a half hours.
Man of Medan | This is the first of eight installments in The Dark Pictures Anthology series developed by Supermassive Games, so it's a perfect place to start. Man of Medan is a shorter game that you could easily beat in a day as it only takes about 4 hours for the main story. If you want to do it all, it will take you closer to 10 hours, doubling your time spent. This interactive drama survival horror (that's a mouthful) allows for your choices to impact not only the outcome of the story but also the fates of the characters. The plot of the game lies in an unfinished story that the omnipresent curator asks for your assistance with. The story follows a group of 5 divers whose expedition to find a wrecked WWII plane turns dangerous. Follow the divers and make quick decisions to keep their sanity and lives intact.
Pathologic 2 | This is the longest game on our list sitting pretty at 26 and a half hours for the main story and a whopping 53 hours for that 100%. You'll have to fight for your survival in this "almost unbearable" horror adventure game, the quote comes from the game developers, Ice Pick Lodge, who wanted to make a game that was raw and gritty, and that's exactly what they did. This adventure game is a complete reimagining of their game Pathologic from 2005. The game is planned to be released in three parts, each telling the story of one of the lead characters. Pathologic 2 follows Artemy Burakh, aka Haruspex, as he travels to a town plagued with great difficulties. When you arrive in the town, you speak to the townsfolk and explore in order to try and discover what is going on, and what you find isn't all sunshine and rainbows. If you'd like to own the game on PC, use our link to support the site.
Resident Evil 7 | Is it a complete horror games list without a Resident Evil? To conclude our list we have the newest game (at least for a few more months) from one of the most iconic horror franchises. In this 9th installment of the series, you play as Ethan Winters, an average guy who must try to find his wife in a plantation whose residents happen to be cannibals. As you search for your wife you'll have a choice between using force or trying to sneak, run, and hide your way around. RE7 is the first of their main series games to utilize the first-person view and they use it well. The game is roughly 9 and a half hours long for the main storyline and 21 and a half hours for completionists. Many people have described this game as Capcom's returning to what made the Resident Evil games so special to begin with: survival horror.
If you have a few friends with Xbox Game Pass we also recommend Dead by Daylight, an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a team of survivors has to complete tasks to open the exit gate while being hunted by a player-controlled killer.
The great thing is, thanks to how deeply Game Pass is integrated into the Xbox ecosystem, if you're going to pick up an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S next month, all these games will be playable on those consoles as well. Hope you like our list of scary games and let us know if there are any other games you think should have been on the list in a comment down below. Click here to read our list of 7 great games on Xbox Game Pass with easy achievements and click here to read our list of 7 great games on Game Pass to get immersed in.
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