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Point and Click Horror Games: Classic and Modern Picks

Point and click horror trades reflexes for dread: you look, read, combine items and solve puzzles while the place around you grows more wrong. These are the ones worth playing, from the 1990s classics to modern indie games.

The games

1 of the 20 games in this guide are not on Steam and are left out. Show them all.

  1. Sanitarium key art: a single green eye staring out between strips of rough bandage PsychologicalSanitariumA 1998 classic: wake in an asylum with your head in bandages and no memory, and solve your way through dark, shifting worlds to learn who you are.
  2. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream key art: glowing blue circuit-board lines on a black background PsychologicalI Have No Mouth, and I Must ScreamFive humans kept alive inside the master computer AM, each sent through a scenario built from their darkest fears, from Harlan Ellison's story.
  3. The Cat Lady screenshot: Susan stands in a misty doorway while a blood-spattered figure works at a kitchen table covered in red meat PsychologicalThe Cat LadyA lonely woman on the verge of suicide, stark stylised scenes and a story that turns violent and strange; for adults only.
  4. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers key art: the gold title over pixel-art scenes of a man holding a torch, a skull mask and fire 2D horrorGabriel Knight: Sins of the FathersJane Jensen's 1993 occult detective story: ritual killings in New Orleans, a voodoo cult and a secret Gabriel's family has kept for centuries.
  5. Phantasmagoria art from GOG: a woman's terrified, wide-eyed face fading into mist beside a dim window PS1PhantasmagoriaRoberta Williams' 1995 horror adventure filmed with live actors: a novelist moves into a dead magician's mansion and the nightmares begin.
  6. Harvester key art: a hooded figure with glowing red eyes raises a scythe against a red night sky over a domed building PsychologicalHarvesterWake with no memory in a 1950s farm town and do the bidding of a cult whose initiation gets bloodier by the day.
  7. Clock Tower: Rewind key art: Jennifer, a frightened dark-haired girl in a white blouse, in front of a giant pair of open shears, with the mansion's clock tower at night 2D horrorClock Tower: RewindThe 1995 Super Famicom classic: explore the Barrows mansion by clicking while the Scissorman hunts you, and hide when he comes.
  8. Fran Bow key art: Fran holding her black cat Mr. Midnight in front of a red-eyed monster, with skeletal and masked characters on the left PsychologicalFran BowA girl escapes a 1944 children's asylum, and the pills she takes show her a hidden world of gore and creatures she has to use.
  9. STASIS key art: a bald man in a dark stasis suit sits hunched with a hand on his head, cables trailing from his back, a glowing pod behind him 2D horrorSTASISIsometric sci-fi horror: wake aboard a ship falling into Neptune's clouds and search its bloody decks for your wife and daughter.
  10. The Black Mirror key art: the black silhouette of a gothic castle with a lit clock face against a blood-red sky Puzzle horrorThe Black MirrorGothic horror in an English castle: Samuel Gordon refuses to believe his grandfather's death was suicide, and new deaths follow him.
  11. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow art: Thomasina Bateman looks out over a misty moor where a barrow glows with purple light PsychologicalThe Excavation of Hob's BarrowFolk horror in pixel art: an antiquarian digs into an ancient barrow on the moors while the villagers turn against her and her dreams grow strange.
  12. Downfall screenshot: Joe and a woman stand in a hotel lounge under the words Devil Came Through Here written in blood on the wall PsychologicalDownfallFrom the maker of The Cat Lady: a hotel getaway to save a marriage slides from bad to worse to insanity.
  13. The Last Door screenshot: in chunky pixel art, Jeremiah stands in a dark hall with a red carpet before an open door glowing with sunset light 2D horrorThe Last DoorVictorian occult horror in four episodes of low-resolution pixel art, following a letter to an abandoned manor.
  14. Strangeland key art: a huge metal skull with glowing violet eyes between two ravens, over a fiery dark PsychologicalStrangelandA nightmarish carnival where a woman keeps leaping to her death for your sake, from the makers of Primordia.
  15. The Lost Crown screenshot: Nigel, a woman and a husky stand on a fog-covered black-and-white beach strewn with broken crates PsychologicalThe Lost CrownA long, slow ghost story: hunt the dead of a fog-bound English town with a night-vision camera and EVP recorder.
  16. Dark Fall: The Journal art: a dim blue hotel corridor lit by pink glass wall lamps, with a portrait of a woman at the far end PsychologicalDark Fall: The JournalJonathan Boakes's first-person ghost story in an empty railway hotel, pieced together from journals while something listens.
  17. the white chamber key art: an anime-style girl with purple hair crouches in a red-lit coffin as dozens of pale, bloodied hands reach in 2D horrorthe white chamberA free 2005 classic, now also on Steam: wake in a glowing coffin on a derelict space station, with eight endings.
  18. Detention key art: a schoolgirl in a white uniform holds a picture frame as chairs, desks and papers fly around her PsychologicalDetentionTwo students trapped in a haunted Taiwanese school, explored side-on and solved with items while creatures from folklore roam.
  19. Cube Escape Collection screenshot: a man with a crow's head, a giant green glass and a fish with human legs stand in a cardboard room PsychologicalCube Escape CollectionRusty Lake's nine surreal escape rooms, following a detective into the strange, unsettling world of Rusty Lake.

The genre's classics come from the 1990s. Sanitarium wakes you in an asylum with your head in bandages and sends you through worlds that keep shifting under you, and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream puts five people through nightmares built by a mad computer, with Harlan Ellison voicing it. Sierra made three of the best known: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, an occult detective story of voodoo killings in New Orleans; Phantasmagoria, filmed with live actors in a dead magician's mansion; and Shivers, a night in a haunted museum. Harvester is the strangest of the era, a 1950s town whose cult asks for bloodier tasks every day, and Clock Tower: Rewind brings back the 1995 game where you click your way around a mansion and hide from the Scissorman.

For modern horror adventures with heavy stories, start with The Cat Lady and Downfall by Harvester Games, stark and adult, about suicide, violence and guilt. Fran Bow follows a girl out of a 1944 asylum into a world of gore her pills reveal, and STASIS sets an isometric search for a lost family aboard a ship sinking into Neptune. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow and The Last Door use pixel art for folk and Victorian occult horror, and Strangeland, from the makers of Primordia, is a nightmare carnival.

If you want ghosts and atmosphere more than gore, Jonathan Boakes made a line of slow British ghost stories: Dark Fall: The Journal in an empty railway hotel and The Lost Crown with a night-vision camera and EVP recorder. The Black Mirror is gothic horror in an English castle, with two sequels. the white chamber is a free 2005 classic, now also sold on Steam, and Detention mixes point-and-click puzzles with hiding in a haunted Taiwanese school. Rusty Lake's Cube Escape Collection is the lighter, stranger end: short surreal escape rooms on PC and phones.

If you play one, start with Sanitarium for the classic feel or The Cat Lady for a modern story; if you want something gentle to begin with, try The Last Door.

Questions

What is the best point and click horror game?

Sanitarium and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream are the classics most often named; among modern games, The Cat Lady, Fran Bow and The Excavation of Hob's Barrow.

Are there free point and click horror games?

Yes: the white chamber's Definitive Edition is still a free download from its makers, Studio Trophis.

Are there point and click horror games on phones?

Sanitarium, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Detention and Rusty Lake's Cube Escape Collection are on iPhone or Android, and Fran Bow is on Android.

Is Clock Tower a point and click game?

Yes. You move Jennifer around the mansion by clicking, and hide or run when the Scissorman appears; Clock Tower: Rewind brings it to modern PCs and consoles.

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