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Best Horror Games of 2023: Remakes, Indies and Co-op

2023 brought the Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space remakes, Alan Wake 2 and a run of small games that spread by word of mouth, from Lethal Company to The Exit 8. These are the year's horror games that players and critics rated well, on PC, consoles and phones.

The games

15 of the 22 games in this guide are outside your choice (GOG) and are left out. Show them all.

  1. Slay the Princess key art: a pencil-drawn princess kneels in chains on the floor of a dim stone basement under a barred window PsychologicalSlay the Princess: The Pristine CutA hand-drawn, fully voiced horror visual novel: you are sent to kill the princess in a cabin's basement, and every choice reshapes her and the story.
  2. Amnesia: The Bunker art: a soldier's hands, one holding a revolver, as a pale clawed creature reaches out of a dark tunnel SurvivalAmnesia: The BunkerFrictional Games' WWI bunker, one revolver, a generator to keep running and a creature in the walls that hunts by sound.
  3. DREDGE key art: a small fishing boat with two glowing lamps on a rough green sea beside a red and white lighthouse under a brown stormy sky, with tentacles and a spiny fish under the water PsychologicalDREDGEA fishing game on a small trawler that turns sinister at night, when panic sets in and something in the deep shows itself.
  4. STASIS: BONE TOTEM key art: a frightened woman in a diving helmet underwater, a toothed orange-lit tentacle coiled around her in the green dark EscapeSTASIS: BONE TOTEMAn isometric point-and-click descent from an abandoned oil rig into an underwater base full of corpses and a corporation's secret.
  5. Bramble: The Mountain King key art: Olle and his sister seen from behind in a dark green forest, with two gnomes on a red toadstool and a hedgehog StealthBramble: The Mountain KingA boy goes after his sister through a world of dark Nordic fables, sneaking past monstrous folklore beings.
  6. Layers of Fear key art: a torn blood-red canvas, with an eye and part of a painted face showing through the rip and an empty picture frame behind PsychologicalLayers of FearBloober Team's remake of its painter's shifting mansion and actor's haunted ocean liner, with new chapters.
  7. Ad Infinitum key art: a black-and-white screaming skeleton in a German steel helmet, barbed wire around its spine, against a pale grey background PsychologicalAd InfinitumA WWI soldier shifts without warning between his family manor and the trenches, escaping creatures rooted in his mind.

2023 was a year of remakes done well and small games that spread by word of mouth. Capcom's Resident Evil 4 rebuilt the 2005 classic around Leon's trip to a village twisted by a parasite and drew Overwhelmingly Positive reviews from more than 280,000 players on Steam, and Motive's Dead Space remake brought back the USG Ishimura and its Necromorphs with the same fear of running out of ammunition. Remedy's Alan Wake 2 was the year's biggest new horror game: survival horror split between an FBI agent investigating ritual murders in the Pacific Northwest and a writer trapped in a nightmare.

The indie side was just as strong. Lethal Company, a co-op game about scavenging scrap from monster-filled moon facilities for a quota, came out in early access in October and has since passed half a million Steam reviews, nearly all of them positive. Slay the Princess, a hand-drawn, fully voiced visual novel about a princess in a cabin's basement, and The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, a grim story of two siblings in quarantine, both drew Overwhelmingly Positive reviews. The Exit 8 started the anomaly-spotting craze, and DREDGE hid its horror under a fishing game.

Frictional Games returned with Amnesia: The Bunker, more open than its earlier games, with one creature hunting you by sound through a WWI bunker. For mysteries, PARANORMASIGHT and WORLD OF HORROR both draw on Japanese ghost stories, one as a visual novel and one as a 1-bit roguelite RPG. Amanda the Adventurer and Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout are short and good for one evening. Killer Frequency is the lightest pick, a horror comedy about a late-night DJ and a masked killer.

If you only play one big game, play Resident Evil 4. If you want something short, start with The Exit 8; with friends, Lethal Company.

Questions

What was the best horror game of 2023?

Resident Evil 4, Alan Wake 2 and the Dead Space remake were the year's biggest horror releases, and Lethal Company, Slay the Princess and The Exit 8 were its best-loved smaller games.

Which 2023 horror games can I play with friends?

Lethal Company for up to four players online, and Dead Island 2 for up to three.

Which 2023 horror games are short?

The Exit 8, Amanda the Adventurer and Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout can each be finished in an evening.

Which 2023 horror games are on Switch?

The Exit 8, DREDGE, Slay the Princess, PARANORMASIGHT, WORLD OF HORROR, Amanda the Adventurer, STASIS: BONE TOTEM, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Bramble: The Mountain King and Killer Frequency are on Nintendo Switch.

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