There are certain established tropes within horror games that help to make them scary, such as a foreboding atmosphere, jump scares, or grotesque enemy designs. One such trope that appears from time to time involves a game introducing a particularly deadly enemy (or set of enemies) whose sole objective is to hunt you down throughout the whole game.
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No matter how fast you run or where you try to hide, they will chase you and likely find you, and fighting is often useless because it’s either incredibly difficult or just impossible to win. Here are some of the most standout examples within gaming.
Updated on October 21, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: You’ve just made a riveting horror game imbued with a stellar atmosphere, so what’s your next move? Probably to throw an enemy to hunt the players around the map. Horror game developers love keeping you on your toes throughout the experience and never making you feel safe from enemies. Thankfully, there are plenty more games that can deliver just that, like some of the ones below!
18 A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
- Released
- October 17, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Stormind Games
- Publisher(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
A Quiet Place is another blockbuster horror film series to receive a video game adaptation, and you’ll be pleased to know that it’s a first-person stealth horror game similar to Alien: Isolation, where you must be as quiet as possible while being stalked by the Death Angel aliens. Oh, and your microphone can also play a role in the gameplay, just so that it’s completely immersive to the ‘A Quiet Place’ experience.
If you make any sound, those Death Angels will be on you just as fast as they are in the films, the opening moments putting that on full display. The Road Ahead also doesn’t feature the Abbott family as the main characters, but instead, introduces you to a new protagonist named Alex Taylor, a survivor dealing with asthma in the alien-infested world.
17 The Medium
- Released
- January 28, 2021
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
The main enemy hunting you in The Medium is The Maw, a demonic entity born of trauma that haunts the spirit realm in the Niwa worker’s resort in ’90s Poland. You play Marianne, a character with the special ability to exist in two places at once – the spiritual plane and in the real world of each location – which is showcased through the split-screen gameplay.
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The Medium’s themes and horror atmosphere are inspired by Silent Hill, and this game also comes from Bloober Team, the studio that developed the remake of Silent Hill 2. The Maw will hunt Marianne through her spirit form in the Spirit Realm, which includes many suspenseful story moments in the game where you have to stealthily evade it, as well as figure out the truth behind the creature.
16 Supermassive’s Horror Anthology Games
- Released
- October 4, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Ballistic Moon
- Publisher(s)
- PlayStation PC LLC
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
The choice-driven cinematic horror games developed by Supermassive always entail new enemies hunting after your characters. In Until Dawn, whether the original or remake, you have The Psycho and the Wendigo creatures. The Quarry offers werewolves that hunt down camp counselors, and The Casting of Frank Stone builds suspense with the titular character chasing you around in the past and present.
Then, there’s The Dark Picture Anthology, featuring four games where characters will be hunted by ghosts, demons, alien vampires, and a copycat killer inspired by H.H. Holmes in their respective stories. Each of these titles is an interactive video game, where a character’s death might occur due to some poor decision you’ve made or a failed quick time event, and might be an excellent choice for couples.
15 Still Wakes The Deep
- Released
- June 18, 2024
- Developer(s)
- The Chinese Room
- Publisher(s)
- Secret Mode
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
Still Wakes the Deep presents you with an atmospheric horror journey set on an oil rig, where you’ll be hunted by Lovecraftian monstrosities that can only be dealt with through stealth. You’ll have to use hiding spots to sneak past them and toss objects in the other direction to get their attention away from where you need to go. And these creatures are absolutely terrifying in terms of body horror.
All of this is happening to an ordinary electrician named Cameron ‘Caz’ McLeary, who is working on the Beira D oil rig as a way of evading the law back home, but little does he know what kind of trouble awaits him here. To get back to his family and try to save his remaining friends and co-workers, he’ll have to navigate and survive the areas around the rig while trying not to get infected himself.
14 Amnesia: The Bunker
Amnesia: The Bunker
- Released
- May 16, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Frictional Games
- Publisher(s)
- Frictional Games
- Engine
- HPL Engine 3.5
Although you’re used to being hunted in Amnesia games, The Bunker throws one primary enemy at you – The Beast. Using Alien: Isolation’s same cat-and-mouse formula where the AI is just as effective, Amnesia: The Bunker manages to both capture and reinvigorate that intense and suspenseful atmosphere of the original game.
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The setting takes you beyond the 19th century but also before the events of Amnesia: Rebirth, with the backdrop being WW1. You play Henri Clément, a French soldier trapped in a ‘semi-open world’ bunker with The Beast, with only a few weapons to stun the creature with. There are lots of mysteries that connect to the Amnesia series within the bunker, but you ultimately might find the game’s narrative the least compelling.
13 The Five Nights At Freddy’s Series
- Released
- August 8, 2014
- Developer(s)
- Scott Cawthon
- Publisher(s)
- Scott Cawthon , Clickteam LLC USA
- Engine
- multimedia fusion
Generally, security jobs end up being pretty good gigs, even if they’re a bit boring on occasion. But hey, getting paid to sit around and take a few walks during the night shift isn’t a bad deal. On a related note, being a security guard who watches cameras is the basic premise of the FNAF series, but what’s so scary about that?
You’re working security for Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a restaurant franchise that invested in a bunch of animatronic characters. Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue, but these animatronics act differently at night; they want to tear you apart the second you lose focus or make a mistake. Make sure you keep track of where they are, or you’ll be toast.
12 The Dead Space Series
- Released
- January 27, 2023
- Developer(s)
- EA Motive
- Engine
- Frostbite
If being hunted really gets your blood pumping, the Dead Space series will give you all that and more; you’ll be hunted by literal armies of Necromorphs, deceased, mutated, and repurposed organic material designed to kill and create more Necromorphs.
In all the games in the series, you’ll play as Isaac Clarke, a systems engineer. Yet whether you’re investigating what went wrong on the USG Ishimura in the first game, locked up in a massive space station on Saturn’s largest moon in the second game, or exploring an abandoned off-world colony in the third game, Clarke can’t seem to catch a break from Necromorph outbreaks. The 2023 remake makes the visuals even more unnerving.
11 The Outlast Trials
- Released
- May 18, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Red Barrels
- Publisher(s)
- Red Barrels
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
Being the next entry in the Outlast series after Outlast 2, The Outlast Trials continues to build on the creepy, atmospheric psychological horror formula, all from a first-person perspective. Whether you decide to play solo or with up to three other friends in co-op, the ultimate goal is the same: survive.
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To give you a fighting chance as a human guinea pig tricked by the Murkoff Corporation, the game has multiple classes and skill trees to help you stun or delay enemies, stealthily navigate or hide in certain areas, or complete various tasks that contribute towards your escape.
10 Alien: Isolation
- Released
- October 7, 2014
- Engine
- Cathode
The Xenomorph is one of cinema’s greatest monsters and Alien: Isolation uses this fearsome creature to create one of the scariest horror games ever made. Stuck aboard the Sevastopol trading station, you must try to escape whilst the Xenomorph stalks you with frightening intelligence.
It knows to check hiding spots like lockers, it can ambush you from the vents, and it can’t be killed. The flamethrower may keep it at bay, but only if you have the fuel, and the Xenomorph can tell when that’s all gone too.
9 Resident Evil 3
- Released
- April 3, 2020
- Engine
- RE Engine
Resident Evil 2 may have introduced the series’ concept of ‘being chased by a sentient bioweapon that wants to kill you,’ but upped the ante with Nemesis in the sequel. Whether you’re playing the PS1 original or the 2020 remake, Nemesis is utterly relentless when hunting you.
He’ll just appear out of nowhere by smashing through a wall, he’s surprisingly fast given his stature, and it only takes a couple of swings for him to seriously injure Jill. Even if you manage to kill him, he’ll just come back later.
8 Silent Hill 2
- Released
- October 8, 2024
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
The strongest aspect of Silent Hill 2’s psychological horror is how it creates an air of unease, one which lingers throughout the story and digs into your mind. There’s always something lurking within the fog or around a corner that’s waiting to ambush you, and then you finally encounter Pyramid Head.
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This pyramid-helmet-wearing terror is disturbing just to look at, and you end up dreading all future gameplay sequences because you know that you’ll have to meet him again, and you don’t know what to expect when it happens. And the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 only makes Pyramid Head more intense and frightening than ever to encounter with the redesigned gameplay.
7 Slender: The Arrival
Slender: The Arrival
- Released
- March 26, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Blue Isle Studios , Parsec Productions
- Publisher(s)
- Midnight City , Blue Isle Studios
- Engine
- unity
The Slender games are not necessarily as complex as other horror titles, but they still manage to provide a scare that rivals them. Throughout each of the levels, you’re stalked by the titular Slenderman, with only a torch to help you find your way.
To make matters worse, if you look at him then he becomes more aggressive, and he also becomes more aggressive as you complete your objectives, so you spend the whole game knowing that he’s always just behind you, and the static as he approaches makes it all the more unnerving.
6 Outlast
- Released
- November 4, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Red Barrels
- Publisher(s)
- Red Barrels
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 3
Outlast puts you in a completely defenseless position, where you play as a journalist who’s trapped in an asylum where twisted experiments have been occurring. The only thing you have to hand is a video camera, and the only way to see is by using the camera’s night vision mode, which drains the camera’s battery.
Everything in Outlast wants to kill you and the only way to escape them is to run or hide – otherwise, a very gruesome death is in store if you’re caught.
5 Inside
- Released
- June 29, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Playdead
- Publisher(s)
- Playdead
- Engine
- Unity
In Inside, you play as a boy who is on the run from an oppressive regime in a world that seems to have fallen apart. The beginning alone provides plenty of tense moments as you barely escape guards and dogs, but halfway through is where things get really creepy.
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Not only do you have to navigate some collapsed buildings underwater, but a siren-like creature also stalks you with surprising strength and speed, with even the toughened glass of a submersible unable to stop her from getting to you.
4 Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- Released
- September 8, 2010
- Developer(s)
- Frictional Games
- Publisher(s)
- Frictional Games
- Engine
- HPL Engine, HPL 2 Engine
One of the most successful indie horror games of all time, Amnesia: The Dark Descent makes clever use of physics and sound to create an atmosphere of pure terror. In one location, you’ll have to navigate a corridor of water whilst a blind, invisible creature stalks you via your splashing around.
Other times, you’ll have to slam a door behind you in order to momentarily slow down the monster that’s chasing you, and this is much harder when your hand is shaking too much to move the mouse properly.
3 Metroid Fusion
Metroid Fusion
- Released
- November 17, 2002
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo R&D1
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo R&D1
- Engine
- wario land 4
Metroid Dread manages to be a very effective “horror” game thanks to the EMMI robots, but it’s important to remember that Fusion did it all the way back in 2002 via the SA-X. This parasitic clone of Samus has all of her abilities and weapons and spends its time wandering the game’s space station.
Its appearances may be scripted, but its intelligence is shown by how it kills Samus: freezing her and shooting her with a super missile, which is the same strategy Samus uses against regular Metroids.
2 Clock Tower Series
Clock Tower
- Released
- September 14, 1995
- Developer
- Human Entertainment
- Publisher
- Human Entertainment
- Engine
- Carbon
Clock Tower is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game that also manages to be a successful horror game. You play as Jennifer, an adopted orphan who’s constantly being chased by Scissorman, a petrifying figure who wields a giant pair of bloodied shears.
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Scissorman’s mere presence is often enough to cause Jennifer to stumble or trip if she sees him, and she can’t fight him either. She can only hide, and the restricted confines of a point-and-click adventure make that task far more stressful than in other games.
1 Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia provides a neat twist on the formula; you’re actively trying to cause a hunt to happen so you can determine what manner of paranormal presence is haunting the building you’ve been sent to investigate.
The game still manages to be eerie even if you’re playing in co-op because having more people creates more targets for the ghost to try and kill, and no one knows who, if, or when the ghost will decide to attack. You’ve just got to keep an eye out for the tell-tale signs and hope for the best.
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