It takes bravery to discover an unknown world, and whereas there are a ton of video games that do that in pretty protected, non-hostile environments the place nothing can hurt you, there are loads extra the place the world overtly needs to kill you. One thing like Inexperienced Hell will make gamers really feel like they’re an unwelcome visitor that may hardly catch a break from the wilderness round them, whereas Minecraft, even with hostile mobs, is usually danger-free overground through the day. Often, you will have a reasonably good thought throughout the first couple of minutes what sort of time you are going to have exploring—however not all the time.
Best Open-World Games For Nature Exploration
Open-world video games put nice emphasis on environments. These video games specifically are glorious for exploring the good open air.
One of the intriguing kinds of exploration video games are ones the place you are not likely certain from the get-go when you’re in a horror recreation or not. Issues are ambiguous. On one hand, the world seems to be pleasant sufficient, and there is perhaps a light-hearted story or tune, or the graphics do not appear notably darkish. However alternatively, you may’t assist however shake off the sensation that one thing may be very mistaken. It could possibly be a sudden shift within the general tone, a rising dread, or one thing you see within the distance. A lot of these video games are inclined to have layers to them, and particularly when you play them blind, you will reside in an uncomfortable state of not understanding whether or not to be afraid or brush off your individual paranoia. From mysterious walking simulators to fishing video games with a weird Lovecraftian twist, listed below are the video games the place dread will finally creep up on you.
Discover all 10 pairs
Discover all 10 pairs
Dredge
Turn out to be A Boat Captain In A Lovecraftian Fishing Journey
At first look, you would possibly suppose Dredge is only a easy fishing recreation the place you handle a cute little trawler, fish, and collect treasure from the depths, after which unload your catch with the intention to improve your boat with the intention to go additional and quicker. That is not true. This recreation is far, a lot deeper (pun meant), with a surprisingly terrifying aptitude of horror that lurks underwater, notably after darkish or when the notorious fog makes its arrival. Three phrases: eldritch sea serpent.
All of it begins off fairly tame, however as the sport goes on, you will journey additional into its world from island to island, finishing more and more tougher quests to amass even weirder and rarer fish and trinkets. General, it is not an action-packed recreation, and a few gamers would possibly even discover it enjoyable to get into, however it does have a slight undercurrent of dread the extra you dig into it. Good for anybody who’s a fan of Name of Cthulhu and cosmic, eldritch horrors of all kinds.
The Stanley Parable
Issues Are Not Fairly As The Narrator Says—Or Are They?
Strolling simulators are, in my view, essentially the most fertile floor to start out injecting a way of unease, making you doubt and query the whole lot on a deep, philosophical stage. That is what The Stanley Parable does, at the very least. On this recreation, you might be Stanley (or are you?), an worker at an organization that makes you consider one thing straight out of the world of Severance, along with your solely job being urgent buttons in response to instructions on a pc display screen. At some point, the instructions cease, and also you resolve to stand up and examine… or do you?
The 86 Best Free-to-Play Horror Games on Steam (2025)
These searching for the final word low cost thrill have come to the appropriate place. Here is a take a look at among the absolute best free-to-play horror video games on Steam.
This can be a recreation that challenges you to query the whole lot. Will you hearken to what the narrator tells you to do? Or will you select to stay the place you might be, indefinitely? Will you are taking one other path and go down an odd rabbit gap to find one thing you by no means anticipated to seek out within the first place? With a number of endings accessible and a weirdly unsettling, empty liminal area as your surroundings, it is exhausting to not really feel like there’s one thing very, very mistaken on the planet of this recreation. Not simply visually, but in a philosophical, at occasions darkly humorous manner.
Outer Wilds
One thing Is not Proper In The Photo voltaic System You are Despatched To Discover
Outer Wilds is usually praised for the unbelievable expertise it drops you into whenever you step into the sport blind. With no notion of what is ready for you, aside from the truth that you are an astronaut about to move into area for the primary time in your species, it instantly slams you headfirst right into a thriller that turns into your obsession to decrypt. One thing may be very, very mistaken with the world you might be in, and that is as a result of the photo voltaic system you inhabit is, in actual fact, caught on a time loop, which lasts about 22 minutes, or a full day. By the top of it, the solar scorches all, and also you’re despatched again to the start.
Why is that this taking place? Fly over to the planets and different factors of curiosity across the system, and see how they modify throughout a single loop. You will not be capable to resolve all of it in a single 22-minute session, however as an alternative, the sport encourages you to return in time and again. Every loop, you study one thing new, which leads you to the following clue, some darker and spookier than others. One factor’s for certain: watching a planet utterly crumble within that loop time and again is unsettling in a manner you would not anticipate to see in a non-horror recreation.
Firewatch
In The Wilderness With Minimal Contact, Your Thoughts Will Begin To Spiral
I’ve to preface this by saying that Firewatch is on no account a full-on, correct horror recreation (even when it does have the Horror tag on Steam), however there are positively moments that play into that sensation of one thing being off. After a tragedy hits you, you are despatched off to man a firewatch tower in the midst of the forest, your solely contact a lady referred to as Delilah. On daily basis, you will discover one thing new and unusual within the wilderness, which slowly unravels the thriller of the small, weird happenings across the space.
10 Best Open-World Games If You Want To Live Off The Land
Survival mechanics in open-world video games could be hit and miss, however for many who need to reside off the land, these open-world video games will scratch that itch.
A darkish determine, trying down at you from a cliff. A fenced-off space. A wierd, creepy outdated cavern that holds extra secrets and techniques than you may think about. These all begin to play along with your creativeness, and it does not precisely assist that Delilah appears simply as a lot within the unknown as you. There’s an emotional depth and lightness to the story, however it could be false to say there aren’t moments whenever you really feel such as you’re not alone, and that one thing may be very, very mistaken on the market. It is positively a recreation I anticipated to show into one thing creepy. As an alternative, it was fairly healthful and leans extra right into a thriller above all else.
Subnautica
A Great Aquatic Journey That Hides A Darkness Beneath Its Floor
In contrast to Firewatch, Subnautica really deserves its horror tag on Steam. That also hasn’t stopped many unwitting gamers from leaping into this recreation, pondering it could be a enjoyable, cozy underwater open-world survival crafting game, just for the reality to be unveiled. Initially, when you’re in any respect afraid of the depths, Subnautica will make you’re feeling uneasy from the get-go. You’ve got crash-landed on an alien planet and have to discover a strategy to depart the ocean world. To take action, you will have to assemble all of the sources you may, whereas exploring the treacherous depths, together with the underground Lava Lakes and Misplaced River that require you to go far beneath the floor.
Your beginning location could have you awwing and sighing in surprise at the fantastic thing about the world round you, from attractive unique fish to vibrant coral reefs, however when you dare stray previous the crashed ship and discover places you are not prepared for, you’ll encounter some really monstrous creatures which can be hostile on sight. Play this recreation blind, and you will be in for a dreadful shock, because the leviathan enemies are inclined to announce themselves vocally first earlier than really displaying up. Good luck to anybody who occurs to have thalassophobia as effectively.
13 Best Horror Games Set In A Forest
There’s nothing creepier than a forest, particularly when one thing supernatural and monstrous lurks from inside, stalking gamers among the many timber.
