Spooky games for the Fall Season

By Christopher DiBella 10/31/2019

With the Hallow’s Eve approaching tomorrow, I have decided to sit down and write out a list of recommendations for some of my favorite games to play during the fall season, and some scary stuff for Halloween.

Night in the Woods

For those less horror inclined, 2017’s Night in the Woods is a great pick for replicating the fall atmosphere. Set in a town in the rust belt, you play as Mae Borowski, a college drop out who reunites with her old friends, as a spooky mystery begins to unravel. Very few games nail the fall atmosphere quite like Night in the woods, with rustling leaves, scampering animals, and a slow temperature change from day to day. Very slice of life. Very funny, and very, very good.

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS.

Darkwood

Acid Wizard Studios’ Darkwood is a top down survival horror game that takes place in a supernatural forest which has taken over a large chunk of the Soviet Bloc. Tightly packed walls of trees, too thick to chop or burn have trapped the former residents inside and cutting off any outside contact or help. Those trapped inside have begun to shift and change, going crazy, or horribly mutating, or forming tightly knit, paranoid communities to avoid the previous two fates. Strange, hideously deformed and threatening animals and creatures have been seen roaming in the distance, stalking and killing anyone caught out at night. Resources are scare, and people are getting desperate.

This is where you enter, a random schmuck who may too, have been warped by the forest itself, no longer needing to eat food, drink water, or sleep. Your goal is simple: Get out of the woods. During the day you scavenge for supplies, and try to find clues toward finding a way out of the woods. At night, you barricade and defend your home from strange, unpredictable nightmarish threats which will try to break their way in and find you. Darkwood also boasts one of the best opening levels to a horror game in the past few years, and a solid combat system that rewards your own creativity.

Darkwood is the kind of horror game that rarely comes around. A game that is deeply inspired by the greats that came before it, with aspects of games of its time, mixed with its own unique ideas. It’s scary as hell, and worth playing during this fright-filled time of year. PLAY DARKWOOD

Available on: PC (Steam), macOS, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch

The Suffering (2004)

The Suffering is a gem of a horror game from the 2000’s. Set inside a prison, you play as Torque, a man on death row accused of killing his ex-wife and children. Toque’s amnesia makes whether or not this is true unclear, but the guilt and possibility of this haunts the player throughout the game. The island the prison is set on has a deep and dark history, which slowly unravels and awakens as the events of the game unfold. The Suffering’s Atmosphere, writing and sound design of the game are mind-blowing for the time, and the game’s down designed hadn’t been topped until 2011’s Dead Space. The story deals with themes of morality, what drives people to commit crimes, and methods of punishment, but what really seals its dealing of heavy themes is the amazing enemy design.

Every enemy on the island is based on a method of execution that has been used on the island at some point in history from lethal injection, firing squads to beheadings. The results of this choice are terrifying to look at, fun to fight, and psychologically probing. Don’t like needles? There’s an enemy with needles rammed through his eye sockets who will try to do the same to you.

Surprisingly, the game has a rather fun action based combat system, which can be played as a first or third person shooter. It it’s nearly as disempowering as other survival horror games, but that sense of fun is a large part of why the game fits so well into the October and Halloween spirit. Seriously, check it out. It’s awesome.

Available on: PC, Original Xbox and Playstation 2. Your best bet now is to grab a DRM free copy from GOG.com, as the publisher is largely defunct.

Silent Hill (Series)

If there was ever a series which has managed to generate an endearing love and respect from its fans, it would have to be Silent Hill. Rather than having the series take up a good chunk of the list I have elected to let it take up a single spot. For those not already in the know, Silent Hill was possibly the single smartest, most unique and interesting horror franchise ever brought to video games. The truly bizarre, surreal and terrifying atmosphere of these games is often imitated but never replicated.

Set in the foggy, possibly abandoned town of Silent Hill, each game focuses on a different, but equally troubled protagonist who makes their way to the strange, supernatural town. The town itself is the antagonist, frequently changing, actively probing at the character’s fears and past, and often forcing them to confront events in their pasts they would rather leave buried. Enemies will often represent aspects of the character’s psyche, or fears, melded and fused into disgusting fleshy monstrosities who will assault and hunt you over the course of the game.

Having a dream-like feel, the games will rarely give you all of the answers behind why the supernatural events are occurring, making what you witness and experience all the more unsettling. Don’t expect answers, expect terror. These are games that stick with you, imagery showing up in your nightmares and maybe even some of your own creative work.

Silent Hills 1 through 4 are considered the cream of the crop from the series, as they were made by the original developers Team Silent. However, all of the entries in the series are worth playing aside from the third party dungeon crawler Silent Hill: Book of Memories. Silent Hill 2 and 3 are series favorites, but I personally recommend Silent Hill 1, which can be bought from the playstation store on PS3 or PSP for $6. A Steal, I’d say.

Available on: Playstation 1, Playstation 2, PSP, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

The games are technically available on PC but aside from the less than well received Silent Hill: Homecoming, it’s difficult to obtain digital copies. Physical copies of many of the older games are highly sought after, and bought secondhand can often cost as much as a newer game.
Konami did release a Silent Hill HD collection of Silent Hill 2 and 3 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, but notoriously, these are incredibly buggy, and make numerous often negative changes to the original games. The HD collection should be your last resort when trying to play the series.

ZOMBIES AT MY NEIGHBORS (1994)

Zombies At my Neighbors is a classic top down horror themed shooter by the legendary LucasArts Interactive. It’s an incredibly fun romp with two player co-op and a lot of charm and creativity. Full of Jason Voorhees lookalikes, aliens, Evil dolls, pod people, giant worms, mummies, and of course, zombies! It’s a bit harder to find on digital playstores. Emulate it, or if you’ve got a copy, pop it back in for this Halloween season!

Available on: Sega GENESIS and Super Nintendo. However, if you don’t have one of those kicking around the game is also available on the Wii virtual console. Unfortunately, this service was shut down earlier this year, so emulation may be your best bet.

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 perfectly captures that autumn atmosphere with its de-saturated color palette, and horror overtones. Though it isn’t as much of a straight forward horror game as the previous entries it’s a beloved classic from the PS2/Gamecube era. It still does have its share of solid quality spooks, as who can forget any one of the many chainsaw wielding enemies, El Gigante, that amazing level where you are trapped inside a house under attack, The Regenerators, or even just that section where you are trapped underground with Lord Salazar’s “Right Hand” who cannot be killed, only frozen?
It’s a true classic, and available on almost every platform you can think of. Give yourself a treat, play it if you haven’t, and if you have, give it yet another go around!

Available On: Gamecube, Playstation 2, PC, Wii, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Resident Evil 7

The Resident Evil series is a great one for Halloween scares, but around the fifth installment the series had started to become self-parody, focusing more on action and camp factory. In came Resident Evil 7 with a brand new first person perspective, a stronger focus on atmosphere and puzzle solving, influence from films like the Texas Chainsaw massacre and a seriously scary group of antagonists in the Sawyer family.

For some strange reason the family has become crazy, but able to regenerate from most damage, leaving you at their mercy. The family will talk to you as they search and hunt for you, taunting you, mutating into horrible creatures and succeeding in being completely unpredictable. More than anything Resident Evil 7 succeeds in being able to repeatedly surprise you over and over, always having new tricks up it sleeve just when you think you’ve gotten the hang of things. The gut wrenching opening sequence alone deserves an award for how well it generates fear in such a short span of time.

Available On: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch (wow really?)

Team Fortress 2 (Scream Fortress Event)

Every year, the father of the class shooter Team Fortress 2 has its annual Halloween event, and regardless of my opinions of the game in its current state, I always have to check it out. Even when they don’t add new yearly activities, the activities from the previous years are all available, with new exclusive halloween costume themed items every year that can only be worn during the Scream Fortress event.

This aspect is what really makes Scream Fortress special: The costumes, and the fact that you can only wear them during the yearly event. Some of my favorite wearable items in the game are only usable during the Scream fortress event, and it’s always cool to see everyone running around, shooting, healing and just generally playing with each other in their own special costumes.

Available on: The event is exclusive to the PC version of the game, and ends  November 8th. However, Team Fortress 2 is free and available on steam at any time.