Certain top 8 games have such memorable horror stories, mythology, and gaming worlds that they immediately come to mind when you mention video game horror. Films like Silent Hill, a psychological thriller, and Resident Evil, a zombie action film, continue to set the standard for the horror genre. More and more horror games, however, feature a wide range of terrifying scenarios. Some horror films provide such wildly contrasting feelings that they can even be funny if they are executed poorly.
If you’re searching for a horror game with an unexpected dose of humor, look no further than the mechanics in some of today’s titles, which can turn single-player and multiplayer experiences into comic gold.
Top 8 Horror Games: Silent Hill
Contrast the pressure players feel when striving to flee the surroundings of Resident Evil with the absolute terror of addressing one’s demons manifested in the horrors of Silent Hill. Most Silent Hill games take place in the namesake town, where the protagonists either search for missing loved ones, try to contact the dead, or simply get away from their troubled lives. Players must make their way through the murky town of Silent Hill and the twisted realms of the Otherworld, both of which are populated by deadly supernatural creatures, while completing various puzzles along the way.
Things in Silent Hill turn weird when players understand that the game’s monsters and events often reflect their own deepest fears. In this case, it was the deadly Pyramid Head, who symbolized James Sutherland’s own remorse for having killed his helpless wife. If you apply similar reasoning to other creatures, such voluptuous nurses, you’ll soon have Sigmund Freud running for mayor.
Top 8 Horror Games: SOMA
There is a stark difference between the strain players feel when striving to escape the hostile atmosphere of Resident Evil and the pure terror of addressing one’s demons manifested in the horrors of Silent Hill. The protagonists of most Silent Hill games explore the fog-engulfed namesake town in search of answers to their most pressing problems, whether that’s communication with a deceased loved one, the whereabouts of a missing family member, or simply a way to escape their troubled lives. Players must find their way through the murky town of Silent Hill and the twisted realms of the Otherworld, both of which are populated by nasty supernatural creatures, while solving a slew of riddles along the way.
The strangeness of Silent Hill begins when players understand that the game’s monsters and events often reflect their own deepest fears. Just like the murderous Pyramid Head, who symbolizes James Sutherland’s repressed remorse for killing his helpless wife. The difficulty is that if you apply this reasoning to other monsters, like voluptuous nurses, then Sigmund Freud has some competition.
Top 8 Horror Games: Clive Barker’s Jericho
It’s not often that a genuine horror novelist helps make a horror game, but Clive Barker’s Jericho is one of the few exceptions. Clive Barker (Hellraiser) imagined the fictional figure Jericho to represent the Department of Occult Warfare’s Jericho team, whose objective is to eliminate global dangers posed by the supernatural. The Firstborn, God’s very first creation, is an aberration that must be stopped from unleashing havoc throughout all realities, and this proves to be their most challenging task yet. Thus, the 7-man Jericho Team had to go back in time to stop the Firstborn from ruining God’s work.
Nevertheless, Jericho does a wonderful job at establishing its barren setting that goes directly into the uncanny valley, from its monsters to the Squad’s supernatural skills, which adds to the film’s unsettling vibe and sense of presence. To “explain” why players can save their game or even improve their characters, one Jericho operator, Cpl. Simone Cole, has limited reality-warping skills, and this is where the humor begins.
Top 8 Horror Games: Resident Evil 3
All of the Resident Evil games are terrifying in their own ways, but veteran gamers know that Resident Evil 3 is among the most terrifying in the series’ history. The player takes on the role of Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3, one of the few remaining STARS agents who stumbled upon Raccoon City. Umbrella Corporation used the pandemic to field test its most sophisticated Bio-Organic Weapon, the Nemesis T-Type, which was programmed to obey orders to the letter. The lesson? The remaining STARS agents must be wiped out. Nemesis becomes irrationally obsessed with finding Jill Valentine as a result of this in the game.
This leads to the game’s scariest and funniest exchanges. Nemesis can arrive and startle players at any time during the game (outside of Safe Rooms), sending them on a fruitless cat-and-mouse pursuit that may cover the whole playable landscape. Those who aren’t playing Nemesis for serious reasons will find the game’s jumpscares to be humorous, despite its potential for frightening experiences.
Top 8 Horror Games: Five Nights At Freddy’s
The popularity of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) game propelled the series of this otherwise forgettable horror game about a night-shift employee stuck in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria into the mainstream. At its core, players take on the role of a pizza parlor worker who must make it through their shift by making use of the restaurant’s electronics, such as the lights, cameras, doors, and vents, and even playing minigames, all while fending off a variety of animatronic enemies.
Freddy Fazbear is the main attraction, but the games quickly show that there’s much more to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza than that. Perhaps the game’s accidental humor stems from the developers’ commitment to crafting backstories for nine (9) ongoing core games and about ten (10) spinoffs featuring deadly mascots. Having to think back on how their character met their untimely demise at the hands of a mascot isn’t exactly a happy memory for players.
Inside The Backrooms
“Backrooms” is one of the most specialized horror subgenres to arise from current meme culture; it was originally a 4chan thread about exploring a vast office building with a deadpan yellow color scheme and seemingly endless rooms. As an example of a game that captures the existential dread that such a premise may inspire, we recommend Into the Backrooms.
Players in Into the Backrooms must find clues and solve puzzles on a randomly created gigantic office floor in order to make their way out of the forbidding area. On the other hand, Creepypasta-inspired monsters follow players around Within the Backrooms and even include jumpscares. Even though it’s obvious that Inside the Backrooms is terrifying, the game quickly shifts into a hilarious irritation as players try to escape a relentlessly pursuing predator and a tremendously large internal environment they have no idea how to handle.
Top 8 Horror Games: Phasmophobia
Trying to outrun a ghost is one thing, but going deep inside a haunted house to hunt it down is a whole different ballgame. Phasmophobia does the latter, providing a new spin on the ghost-hunting genre by putting players in teams of four to investigate cases, during which they use a white range of equipment to look for ghosts while trying to avoid the spirits’ wrath. Ambient and atmospheric horrors in Phasmophobia range from the anticipated (old, bloody settings) to the unexpected (items that the ghosts can interact with).
Yet, the game takes on an unintentionally comedic tone when players inevitably become incompetent ghost hunters. Identifying “clues” offered by the ghosts is essential to finding the desirable ghost type, which leads to players arguing over who should pursue specific objectives or even running into a ghost by chance. When using the Spirit Box, players can obnoxiously ask the ghost questions like, “Are you pizza?,” much to their amusement and the annoyance of the ghost.
SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer
The SCP series is well-known among readers of “creepypasta” and similar horror flash fiction. The SCP Foundation (Secure, Contain, Protect) is the subject of several stories in this subgenre of creepypasta. Formatted to look like classified documents, SCPs scare readers by exposing them to fantastical creatures and making them guess at what’s being said about them in “redacted” sections. Moreover, Steam’s SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer makes playable versions of a number of the most well-known SCPs.
Players of Containment Breach Multiplayer investigate Site-19, where a wide variety of Special Containment Procedures (SCPs) are stored. After a containment break, however, players must escape the facility by solving riddles and locating exits before the SCP can kill them. Whilst the game’s premise is unsettling, the fact that players can take on the roles of both SCP Foundation employees and SCPs makes for some humorous situations. People freaking out and dying hilariously or local multiplayer games turning into funny chases with pals.
