Halloween Horror shooters and action horror

Sinister Halloween

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Go trick-or-treating in a festival town where the Halloween monsters are real.

Platforms: PC, VR
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (123 of 149 reviews positive)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse and keyboard, or a PC VR headset with motion controllers (walking or teleport movement).
Made by: Celeritas Games
Released: 2019

What frightens A night of trick-or-treating turns real when werewolves, a ghostly mother, graveyard mummies, a chainsaw butcher and a soul reaper come out among the jack-o'-lanterns; in VR the creatures lunge at arm's length in dark houses and woods.
Content: gore, violence.

Sinister Halloween is a first-person horror game played on a screen or in PC VR. On Halloween night in a mountain town in northern Canada, you go trick-or-treating with friends and through haunted attractions on the way to a party, and the legendary monsters of the holiday turn out to be real.

About Sinister Halloween

Sinister Halloween is by the indie studio Celeritas Games and came out on Steam on 31 October 2019. It can be played with mouse and keyboard as a traditional first-person game or in a PC VR headset, where you reach, grab and act with your own hands.

The town of Mountain Peaks in northern Canada is famous for its horror festival. You set out in the dark with your costumed friends, collecting candy from porches lit by jack-o'-lanterns and stepping into haunted attractions on the way to the big Halloween party. Something about this year is wrong, and the old legends start to come true.

The story campaign runs across nine maps. Along the way you find notes, newspapers and spirit books, and arm yourself with a pistol, shotgun, fire torch and holy cross against werewolves, ghosts, mummies from the graveyard, killer trees, a chainsaw butcher and a soul reaper. Eight further survival maps throw waves of monsters at you to fight to the end.

It is a straightforward, gory Halloween shooter more than a slow-burning scare, made with parties in mind. It suits players who want the full holiday in one night, pumpkins and costumes included, especially in VR.

How to play Sinister Halloween

Buy it on Steam and start it in desktop mode or with a PC VR headset.
Begin the story campaign and head out trick-or-treating with your friends.
Explore the houses and haunted attractions, reading notes and newspapers to learn the town's legend.
Pick up the pistol, shotgun, torch and holy cross and use them against the monsters.
Try the survival maps afterwards to fight wave after wave of creatures.

Screenshots

Sinister Halloween key art: four carved jack-o'-lanterns, one reading Trick or Treat, under a skull

Sinister Halloween screenshot: a werewolf lunges at the player's pistol in a stone washroom with a pumpkin on the side

Sinister Halloween screenshot: a pale, bloodied ghost woman steps through a broken window as the player fires

Sinister Halloween screenshot: a grand candlelit staircase with pumpkins under a Halloween Party banner

Sinister Halloween screenshot: a girl in an orange costume caught by a living tree in a dark forest

Tips

Read the notes and spirit books, they tell the legend behind the night.
Use the holy cross and fire torch on the supernatural enemies when ammo runs low.
In VR, choose teleport movement if walking locomotion makes you uneasy.
Play it with friends watching on Halloween night; the store pitches it as a party game.