Here’s how you can recover from the pink fluffy consumerism of Valentine’s week: it’s a horror spa day with enough jump scares to frighten you and bring the object of your fancy a little closer. Why whisper sweet nothings when you can be screaming together? Each of these titles has been handpicked to take you on a rollercoaster ride to the very edges of terror and madness.
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard (2017)
The latest Resident Evil instalment, Biohazard is best played if you have a PlayStation VR headset. Nonetheless, it’s pretty damn scary without it too, especially if you have a big TV and a very good surround sound system. The game has you trapped in a creepy mansion inhabited by the Baker family. Expect a wonderful grindhouse scare-fest.
Bloodborne (2015)
This one is considered to be one of the finest horror action games out there. You play a hunter sent into the bowels of a festering city — one that looks like a scene out of a Jack the Ripper-esque Victorian horror setting — to extract a deep-rooted disease. There’s minimal story that lets your imagination fill in the blanks. Its difficult-yet-fast-paced combat — against massive monsters straight out of an H P Lovecraft book — will keep you at the edge of your seat.
Alien: Isolation (2014)
You’re stuck on a derelict space station, with one of the most iconic horror movie monsters hunting you down. You play as Amanda, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, the heroine of the first three Alien movies. Isolation is a very frightening experience, as you wander through metal corridors and jump at shadows. The only sounds keeping you company is that of groaning metal and your motion tracker. But it’s the prospect of an alien in every shadow that keeps you moving.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (2014)
Come one, come all to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and let cute animatronic characters entertain you as you feast. It’s your summer job as a security guard at the parlour, and by night the malfunctioning puppets have an agenda of their own. This survival horror title has spawned several successful sequels and is a fantastic point-and-click horror game with distinct humour.
The Last of Us (2013)
One of the greatest horror games of all time, it is also a heartwarming father-daughter story on a road trip through a zombie apocalypse. And you’ll soon come to realise, the biggest monsters are the men you encounter.
Dead Space (2008)
An abandoned mining ship, tight claustrophobic corridors and a horde of monsters that you have to dismember with mining tools. That’s the premise of one of the best in action-horror series.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
This first-person survival horror places you in a castle with no memory of how you got there, except for a note mentioning a shadow chasing you. There are no weapons and a lot of monsters, with a very real threat of losing your sanity.
Among the Sleep (2014)
This one’s a doozy. It’s a short game where you wake up in the middle of the night. You play a two-year-old child along with his sentient teddy bear which magnifies the scare factor, especially when one of the ghosts is a shadowy woman singing a lullaby.
Alan Wake (2010)
Made by the folks behind Max Payne, Alan Wake is a psychological horror title that feels like a Stephen King novel made into a game. Here, the shadows are literally out to get you, and all you have is your trusty flashlight and a gun to protect you.
P.T. (2014)
Starting off as a reboot of Silent Hill, P.T. was a small demo thrown together by Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid series), Guillermo Del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth ) starring Norman Reedus ( The Walking Dead ). The game is essentially one hallway, on loop, a simple premise but so scary, that people are finding new stuff even today long after Konami pulled the game off the store.
Andre Rodrigues is a product designer frequently found playing video games with his daughter
