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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. Sanitarium key art: a single bloodshot 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: a man's face with a red eye and no mouth, merged into a microchip, beside the chrome title on blue circuitry 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 key art: monochrome mosaic collage with a pale, hollow-eyed woman's face above the white title, set against dark brick and ruined rooms 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 title over a pixelated red and orange collage of a man holding a flame and a pale beaked mask 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 store art: the title in dark gothic capitals with a pale outline, over a soft blue-white glow on a black background Fixed cameraPhantasmagoriaRoberta 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 gleaming scythe under a purple and red night sky, with a domed building and red-lit minarets to the right 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, blood running from one eye, holds her black cat before a red-eyed creature, with a skeleton in a top hat and masked figures 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 segmented suit sits hunched with a hand on his head, cables trailing from his back, in a dim industrial room lit by a purple glow 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: a gothic castle silhouette with a lit round window and an orange occult seal against a blood-red stormy 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. Painted art of Thomasina Bateman at a rain-streaked window, her reflection in the glass, looking out at a moor where cracks of pink light spread from a stone barrow 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 key art: the title in an ornate white frame on a dark cracked wall, blood dripping below and a man sitting hunched in the corner 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 Collector's Edition key art: a man in a coat holds a lantern before a dark manor at sunset, a crow beside the gold title PsychologicalThe Last DoorVictorian occult horror in four episodes of low-resolution pixel art, following a letter to an abandoned manor.
  14. Strangeland key art: a giant skull with glowing violet eyes and a beaked mask, flanked by two ravens, over a fiery orange swirl PsychologicalStrangelandA nightmarish carnival where a woman keeps leaping to her death for your sake, from the makers of Primordia.
  15. The Lost Crown key art: a pale, white-eyed girl beside a clawed, bloodied window with a shadowy hatted figure behind it, crows in dead trees, and the title 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 library art: a dark blue hotel corridor lit by pink glass wall lamps, with a framed portrait of a woman and a window shadow 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. Shivers key art: the blue gothic title beside a glowing orange ring that frames a staring eye, on a dark purple background Puzzle horrorShiversA 1995 first-person night in an abandoned museum, solving puzzles to trap the life-draining spirits that haunt it.
  18. the white chamber key art: an anime-style girl with purple hair crouches in a red octagonal frame 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.
  19. Detention key art: a schoolgirl in a white shirt and necklace holds a picture frame as stools, a chalkboard, papers and a paper plane fly around her PsychologicalDetentionTwo students trapped in a haunted Taiwanese school, explored side-on and solved with items while creatures from folklore roam.
  20. Cube Escape Collection key art: a white cube outline and the title on a purple starry background 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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