Dead Island 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Outlast Trials, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Bramble: The Mountain King, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Hell is Others, Sanctus... Why are we just listing games here? Because there will be so many potentially high-profile horror games coming out in 2023 that we couldn't even begin to put them in this top 12. So the ones just mentioned are missing from the following list - but we wanted to mention them anyway and make them tasty for you. Now let's go! Because 2023 will probably be the best horror year in gaming history.
12th place: Dead Space
The remake of the first Dead Space will scare you, we commit ourselves. Thanks to a completely new technology, the fight for survival on the spaceship USG Ishimura looks incredibly scary. Design, lighting, and acoustics are a real test for your nerves. With engineer Isaac Clarke, you'll use repurposed tools like a plasma cutter to dismember the hideously disfigured necromorphs in order to stop the deadly monsters. Various puzzles and trips into space are also part of your mission, which becomes more disturbing by almost every minute. What happened on the Ishimura? Where are the Necromorphs from? What's with all the bizarre messages? You can find out from January 27th.
11th place: Ad Infinitum
War is terrible enough. If horror elements are added, it gets really nasty - just like in Ad Infinitum. The effects of post-traumatic stress and family drama are the central themes of the game. As a German soldier in World War I, you will experience how the lines between nightmare and reality become increasingly blurred. Are the monsters and deadly traps you fear real? Or is the cruelty of war slowly destroying your sanity? The fight for salvation leads, among other things, through dark trenches, abandoned houses, and cellars reminiscent of torture chambers. This is already extremely unpleasant when you look at the trailer …
10th place: Holstein
Holstin is set in a remote small town in 1990s Poland. Because contact with a good friend suddenly breaks off, you travel to the backwater and do some research. In doing so, she discovers an uncanny power that is slowly devouring people, animals, and buildings. In a hand-drawn pixel look you experience an adventure process with conversations, puzzles, and the search for objects. But fights against nasty monsters should also get your pulse racing. In January 2023 you can try Holstin in a PC demo; the finished game will appear later this year.
9th place: Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Even more dramatic than their games are the regular dev diaries by the Ukrainian developers of Frogwares, in which they describe their experiences with the war on their own doorstep. Despite all the adversities, her next adventure should appear soon. This is a remake of their original 2006 crossover between Sherlock Holmes and HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu universe. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is getting a complete graphical overhaul and already looks absolutely fantastic in the first trailer. In addition, the developers link the game content with their last year's prequel Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One to the youthful edition of the ingenious master detective.
8th place: Directive 8020 - The Dark Pictures Anthology
After The Devil in Me recently concluded the first season of Supermassive Games' Dark Pictures Anthology, Directive 8020 will launch the interactive horror story series into the next-gen season next year. Apart from the traditional teaser after the credits, there was nothing to see, but this already reveals the genre - and that alone makes us excited for it. After the ghost ship, witch village, and murder hotel, the fifth part takes place in deep space and seems to bow to space horror films like Alien and Event Horizon. Also: With Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, an offshoot of the series will be released in February at the start of Playstation VR2 as a virtual reality railshooter.
7th place: Layers of Fears
After a strong debut and a mixed sequel, Layers of Fears is part three of the series. Once again, you dive into the minds of artists consumed by madness. You try to find out the reasons for this in adventure style: explore the surreal locations, read numerous clues and collect helpful items. However, your whims and delusions ensure that the environment sometimes changes every second: you suddenly find a door where there used to be a staircase. The game, developed with the Unreal Engine 5, also wants to open a gripping new chapter in the series visually with a 4K resolution and ray tracing effects.
6th place: Paranormal Tales
If you abbreviate Paranormal Tales, you get PT. And that makes sense since Hideo Kojima's legendary Playable teaser inspired the makers of this horror game. There is also a pinch of Blair Witch, after all, you experience Paranormal Tales in the form of slightly blurred hand-held camera recordings. This is associated with different stories and places: you roam through dark forests or explore a remote hut that only seems deserted at first glance. As befits found footage horror, nasty ghostly women appear out of nowhere. To increase your panic, Paranormal Tales uses a realistic graphics style based on Unreal Engine 5.
5th place: Sons of the Forest
Sons of the Forest takes you to a beautiful island. But instead of a dream holiday on a sandy beach, the follow-up to the survival hit The Forest is about a tough fight for survival. With the resources you collect, you build a rudimentary shelter or carve simple spears to hunt your dinner with. The real horror, however, lurks in the woods and caves: bizarre creatures roam there, craving human flesh. Alone or cooperatively, you try to assert yourself against the deadly pack. At the same time, you continue to pursue your mission to find a missing billionaire. Apart from that, however, there are no specifications in Sons of the Forest. How you deal with the horrors and challenges on the island is entirely your choice.
4th place: Amnesia: The Bunker
In the fourth part of the groundbreaking horror series, the developers at Frictional Games are breaking new ground. Amnesia: The Bunker is set for the first time in a semi-open world that combines different game genres: the constant ammo shortage of survival horror games, the momentous decisions of interactive films, dynamically generated sandbox stages, but of course again the terrifying experience, and the constant feeling of being at the mercy. This time you play as a French soldier who is being hunted by demonic creatures in a World War I bunker and is rapidly losing his mind.
3rd place: Slitterhead
Behind Slitterhead are people who understand playable horror like few others. Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of Silent Hill, is the creative director. And just like back then, composer Akira Yamaoka provides the appropriate background music. The first trailer shows hideous monsters whose design was influenced by insects, among other things. Nevertheless, Slitterhead should not become a new Silent Hill. In fact, Toyama and his team also want to incorporate elements from other genres. This in turn should appeal to players who have had little contact with the subject of horror before. Specific information about a game reads differently. But just the fact that the creator of Silent Hill is back at work makes Slitterhead extremely curious.
2nd place: Silent Hill 2, Alone in the Dark & Fatal Frame
We already had two remakes on this list with Dead Space and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. But there are so many more remakes of great horror classics coming out in 2023 that we've given them this collection point. The most prominent is undoubtedly Silent Hill 2, which will be released exclusively for the PS5. Developer Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, The Medium) wants to take the legendary psychological horror to a whole new level thanks to the Unreal Engine. As one of the genre's forefathers, Alone in the Dark is also getting its overhaul. On a trip through an old mansion, however, the focus is not on action, but on atmospheric horror. Fatal Frame: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the remake of the 2008 Wii game of the same name. Today, as then, you snap away evil spirits with the magical Camera Obscura and explore a mysterious island. And if that wasn't enough, we have another remake for you in the next slot...
1st place: Resident Evil 4
The remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 have already proven that Capcom knows how to modernize its legendary horror series. After several ports of the original, the long overdue general overhaul of Resident Evil 4 will be released on March 24. 18 years after the original, Leon S. Kennedy travels again to the Spanish village to save the US President's daughter from the clutches of the Los Illuminados sect to free. It quickly becomes a deadly gauntlet as the ex-cop has to contend with insane residents, giant mutants, and other horrors. This looks extremely impressive in the remake: Thanks to fine textures and extremely harmonious lighting, fear will be your constant companion.
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