The Halloween Season is finally here. Some games are the perfect place to get yourself in a spooky mood. The PlayStation 5 has a great library to enjoy some late night scares.
If you're looking for some jumpscares, here are 5 of the scariest PlayStation 5 Games to play this Halloween.
Dead Space
Isaac Clarke’s one bad day could be ours too. Dead Space, especially the remake, is the perfect start for our scariest PS5 games list. The Necromorphs are a vile threat that plagues the USG Ishimura and our lowly space engineer Isaac is not having it.
Armed with the trusty Plasma Cutter, sever the limbs of these indescribable horrors and find your missing wife. If this is your first Dead Space game, prepare to trudge across claustrophobic hallways looking for answers as to what happened to this derelict space station.
Compared to the 2013 original, this remake does a lot more than just upping its graphics. There are a variety of quality of life changes, especially in its traversal and combat. Although we can’t consider the original’s combat dated, the Remake did a great job of adding new detail to its Necromorph gore and dismemberment.
Navigating through the station has also changed. Veteran Dead Space players will find familiar sights, only to get jumped by the nearest Necromorph somewhere. There are randomly generated scares found in every room, so pay attention to suspicious vents and ‘fake’ dead Necromorphs. Additionally, with the game enhanced 3D audio, there’s extra tension when hearing mysterious noises from god knows where.
The Remake also did a great job fixing its quest structure. We still have the original’s chapter-based story, but we can backtrack from previous areas of the ship without having to reload previous saves. This encourages exploration and finding more secrets to this alien infestation.
So if you’re looking for something along the lines of Lovecraftian horrors similar to movies like Event Horizon or The Fly, the latest Dead Space Remake is for you.
Alan Wake II
Next on our list is Remedy Entertainment’s sequel to their 2010 supernatural horror game. Alan Wake II is a major leap from its predecessor, adding in more layers to its complex science-fiction story. There’s a reason why it won multiple awards last year.
Alan Wake II takes place 13 years after the events of the first game. It features a dual-protagonist story, where we can switch between Alan Wake and FBI Agent Saga Anderson seamlessly.
This sequel did a great job of capturing the horrors plaguing a small town. Bright Falls’ quaint rural setting can be home to a cast of endearing locals, but the threat of the supernatural slowly corrupts its people.
There’s a lot of surrealistic horror found in the Dark Place as well. Remedy has mastered these dreamlike levels that take you to unexplainable places. It’s definitely unnerving being stuck in this place for 13 years and surrounded by shadow people. This is especially important as Sam Lake, creator of Alan Wake, is inspired by the works of David Lynch, specifically Twin Peaks.
Both Saga and Alan have their own journey in-between dimensions. The third-person survival horror evokes a sense of dread, especially when we don’t know what kind of monsters we are dealing with here. The fear of the unknown is what Alan Wake excels at. Thankfully, we still got Flashlights and an arsenal of guns to blast these shadow people to hell and back.
Alien Isolation
In space, no one can hear you scream. Alien Isolation is pretty much the same thing as Dead Space– trapped in a derelict space station with an extraterrestrial threat stalking you.
But unlike Dead Space, we have no Plasma Cutters, powerful curb stomps, and Laser Rifles to help us eliminate the Perfect Organism. Heck, not even Isaac Clarke can beat the Xenomorph.
Alien Isolation has received a ton of awards all thanks to the Xenomorph’s terrifying AI. You can’t outrun the perfect organism, you simply have to outsmart it. It stalks you in every corner and knows the last place you hid. It’s like it is rigged to almost perfection.
Even if we get Sigourney Weaver’s wits, the alien is still unpredictable. Consistently changing our pattern can definitely buy us more time. If it is as clever as us, we can only hope it makes a mistake.
This is the perfect game to play if you enjoy the Alien movies, or if you like running away from pursuer enemies like Resident Evil 2’s Mr. X.
Silent Hill 2 Remake
From Final Fantasy VII to this, 2024 had us on a chokehold with its impressive selection of remakes. Bloober Team and Konami definitely did a great job with this reimagining of James Sunderland’s story.
Silent Hill 2 Remake is a terrifying game and we’re not even kidding. It is designed to scare the living crap out of us. Everything about it is carefully crafted to spook us– with its eerie sound design, tricky levels, and fog-covered streets.
Even with the Remake’s new and improved gameplay, we still can’t be sure as to what comes out of the corner. This is especially terrifying for players who are new to Silent Hill. Don’t worry, even veterans shiver at the sight of these horrors too, especially with those pesky Mannequins.
Of all the games on this list, this is my personal favorite for a Halloween game. It is just a dreadful and depressing experience, one that will resonate with you once the credits start to roll. It’s a horror game, sure, but it’s also James’ personal living hell and we get to live in it.
Amnesia: The Bunker
We close this list with a game series everyone’s probably familiar with. The Bunker is considered by many as the scariest Amnesia game to date, even surpassing the original!
The Bunker has a deceptively simple premise: You escape an abandoned World War 1 Bunker. Knowing previous Amnesia titles, the path to freedom is no mere cakewalk. The increasingly terrifying horrors that await these games will haunt us for days, and The Bunker knows how to recapture that feeling.
The entirety of the game takes place in this Bunker. You can familiarize yourself with its hallways, save stations, light sources and such, but every run is different. The puzzles are randomized, traps are scattered everywhere, and a monster lurks you in every turn. Yeah, you read that right. You are not alone.
Trying to find a means of escape while running away from this mysterious beast is what makes The Bunker a terrifying experience. It’s not even just a regular beast. It’s an unstoppable, nightmare-inducing monster that just won’t die. Not even a fully loaded pistol can quell it, but at least it's afraid of fire.
The Halloween Season just began and these aren't the only scary games for the PlayStation 5. Games like Resident Evil 4 Remake, Evil Within 2, and the indie game Crow Country are also exceptional horror titles. But these five games are also special in their own ways that we can’t help but recommend. Pro tip: bring extra diapers.
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