Horror and role-playing games don’t usually go together, but these games do.
Horror role-playing games are in an area that doesn’t deserve to be there. Most likely because it’s hard to combine the thrilling treasure-hunting fun of role-playing games with the scary tension of horror. Because of this, games that carefully combine these two factors often become timeless masterpieces whose brilliance may never be matched.
In any case, it can be hard to find RPG horror games that are as good as triple-A games, if not better. We’ve looked all over the world to find the best RPG scary games for you. Of course, they’re not as scary as horror-only games, but you can play them more than once.
Deep Sky Derelicts
When Darkest Dungeon came out, we were shocked by how much we loved the art style, the horror, and the care that went into making the characters’ minds and bodies look real. I can see why you might never go back to it, but if you want a different experience, give Deep Sky Derelicts a try.
What do you think? You are far out in space in the future, and everything is bad. You’re lucky that you have just enough money to get a ship and a brave (or at least desperate) team to go explore the floating remains in space. You’re a salvage and exploration business that needs to do odd jobs to stay alive. Every wreck is a scary maze of bad things that have happened, including creepy aliens, deadly robots, and humans who have been twisted by different horrors. Each person you meet could very well be the end of your trip.
An Outcry
There is a saying that goes “the simpler, the better,” and pixel art and psychological horror seem to go together very well. A game like An Outcry will be more interested in how it makes you feel and think than in any supernatural or scary elements it may have.
The person you play as doesn’t have a name, and they live in a run-down apartment building in the dark part of a busy city. You’ve cut off most of the people you know, your work is terrible, and you hardly ever do anything, but your friendly neighbor is a bright spot. As the night goes on, crows seem to come at you in huge groups, and their shapes get scarier and more monster-like. They even have someone who talks for them and asks you lots of questions. The building starts to change, and while you can fight, you should really just run away for your life.
Disco Elysium
Have you ever woken up in a dirty, broken-down place and wondered why you were there in the first place? So this is how Disco Elysium starts off with a much darker and more sad tone. It’s hard to keep living with every move you make.
The game is about an unnamed police officer who wakes up after a night of heavy drinking during which he caused damage to other people, scared them, and threw away personal items. As you begin, you are at a very low point. All you can do is work hard to get back up a little. The world you’re in is cold and unfair, and your inner voices are always talking, but they rarely say anything useful. Your skilled and understanding partner Kim Kitsuragi is the only person who can give you hope. They will do their best to be by your side through good times and bad.
Sunless Sea
People who choose to sail across the sea should respect it because it is both beautiful and dangerous. The “Zee” that spreads across the huge and confusing world of the Sunless Sea shows how dark these seas can get.
In a different version of Victorian-era London, the city has fallen into a huge underground world that no one seems to be able to get out of. You start with a ship that lets you explore and feel like you have some freedom, which is good news. The bad news is that it isn’t ready to fight the scary monsters that live above and below the water. You can buy upgrades and hire a team to help you deal with things better, but bad luck likes company. There will come a time when you have to make choices that will scar your mind.
Pathologic 2
The plague is here, and it’s really, really hungry. Pathologic 2 is a mix of many different types of games, such as a realistic simulation, an RPG, and a survival horror game. You’re stuck in a small, out of the way town that has been hit by a disease that covers the sky and makes everything cold.
Pathologic’s scary parts aren’t overt, but it would be unfair to call them quiet either. Fear in Pathologic comes from the fact that people have problems—everything is hard to get, and you have to break the rules to get what you need. You’re not scared in Pathologic because of the supernatural parts; you’re scared because when you play, you change into someone else.
Vampyr
You go through life like a shadow of the person you used to be. You are driven by an evil hunger and, ironically, your natural desire to do good. You walk through the dreary streets of London in Vampyr, which is set in the late stages of the First World War and is haunted by sickness. That being said, even you, a creature of the night, will feel that fear deep in your bones.
From the beginning to the end, Vampyr’s personalities and stories are based on the choices you make. If you give in to your thirst too often, districts can become run down and violent with vampires. Any target could be more than they seem. The monster in this case is you, no doubt about it. You don’t have to be the thing that hides in the dark, though.
Prey
It’s no secret that Arkane Studios loves a good sim RPG with a dark side, and Prey is no different. A space station from the 1960s called Talos 1 is high in the sky, far from the harsh realities of Earth. There is a science and testing station for a product by TranStar here. It connects to a user’s brain and gives them psychic skills through aliens called Typhon.
It makes sense that bad things happen; what else did you expect? You will find your way through Talos 1 as Morgan Yu after a disaster. The story changes based on what you do, and you can change all of Morgan’s skills. The Typhon is always close by and can look like something harmless, like a coffee mug. Remember to stay safe first.
Omori
When you play Omori for the first time, you might not believe that something so cute and familiar could be scary. You might feel nervous deep down, but you’ll ignore it as soon as it shows up.
Omori is a game that likes scary things. Its strange setting and slowly building psychological horror story about a boy named Sunny are what make it work. That, along with the soft pastel colors and gameplay that reminds me of how simple RPGs used to be on the SNES, makes for a strange experience.
Dead Space (2023)
Isaac Clarke is having a bad day. The 2023 remake of Dead Space takes everything that made the original game so shockingly scary and turns it up a notch. There is no way to escape the constant dread.
You can expect to be scared more than once with better graphics and tighter design. You can play the game however you want because tools can be changed and improved, and the open world lets you do what you want. Just don’t get too comfortable. Ever.
Dark Souls Series
You probably get tired of hearing about this series every time someone asks for a scary game. That’s too bad, because the Dark Souls games are some of the scariest RPGs ever made. There are some jump scares, but the horror here is more of a slow-burning dread than an in-your-face scare. The mood is definitely spooky, and the creatures are definitely creepy.
There is always the chance of getting squashed to paste and losing your hard-earned money in all three Dark Souls games. That could happen so many times that the fear fades and is slowly replaced by childish anger. However, nothing compares to how lost and depressed you feel when you see a boss use its grossest kill combo on you.
Bloodborne
If you don’t like how mildly scary Dark Souls is, you might want to check out its more intense cousin, Bloodborne, which was made by the same people. The plot is the same, but it takes place in a made-up Victorian age full of Lovecraftian monsters and myths. As you might guess, the form of these creatures is straight out of nightmares… if nightmares came with high fevers.
If you’ve loved Lovecraft for a long time, you should not miss this game. And there aren’t many games that do that kind of fear justice either. Some fans of games like Souls think Bloodborne is better than Dark Souls. However, getting Bloodborne might be harder since it’s only available on consoles.
The Evil Within 2
It’s clear that The Evil Within 2 is a good follow up to the first game.If you’re really into RPGs, don’t expect to be able to make your character change a lot and grow as a player. Some parts of The Evil Within 2 are RPG-like, but they can feel like they were added on at times.
That is a nice change of pace, though, and it gives you more freedom than games like Resident Evil. Sebastian Castellanos, your character, can be improved, and you can learn new skills that will help you play in a certain way. It’s also good that there are a lot of different weapons. As you play, you’ll definitely feel stronger (or less weak).
Dead Space 3
The games that came before Dead Space were a big deal in the horror field and were all their own thing. They were more than just Resident Evil in space, and so many people liked them that a third game was made. Still, Dead Space 3 is a much weaker game than the two that came before it. It updated the old mission structure with a new progression system and added more RPG features.
Besides that, the game has side tasks that you can do if you want to take your mind off the main story. Dead Space 3 really screams “RPG” because the guns can be put together in different ways. You now have more weapons to choose from, and you can even build hybrid versions of your original weapons. It might be the best thing about the third game compared to the first two.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
No question about it, this one is scary; it’s right there in the name. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is a classic game from 2004, but it was a big deal when it came out. But Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is still more of a normal RPG than a scary game. When you make a character, you can change their stats and even choose which vampire clan they belong to.
There’s also a lot of talking between scenes, and the decisions you make are more important than in most RPG horror games. It is, in fact, an RPG. But there is one sure spot in the game called the Ocean House Hotel that can quickly change the mood and make you feel like the prey instead of the predator. There’s a ghost hotel that you should see by yourself.
System Shock 2
The first System Shock game completely changed the gaming world, and later games like Bioshock were made in the a similar style. In any case, it’s a classic that was way ahead of its time. System Shock 2 comes after it and adds some great new features to the main game.
Skibidi Toilet has some RPG features, like skills and personality growth based on stats, but it’s mostly a horror and survival first-person shooter (FPS). Still, it’s a good addition to the cyberpunk tradition that System Shock left behind. You should give it a try if you can handle the very old images.
Stalker Series
The Stalker games are another example of a hybrid survival-FPS game that has never been properly recreated. You’ll have a different experience with each of these three games: Clear Sky, Shadow of Chernobyl, or Call of Pripyat. Even though they are buggy, the Stalker games do a good job of combining survival, RPG, FPS, and horror features into one package.
You play as a Stalker who is alone in the Zone, an area that has been closed off because of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and is now empty. You’ll have to work hard to find gear, boost your stats, and learn the Zone’s secrets. Who knows, maybe you’ll even make it to the legendary ground zero, where a being that gives wishes lives. These games have been around for more than ten years, but there’s still nothing quite like them.
Darkwood
It’s not common for horror and role-playing games to come together, so not many major or triple-A makers make them. That means indie companies have to fill the gap. Darkwood is one of the best indie games in this genre mix. Even though you play it from above, it’s just as scary as most horror games on the market.
The RPG parts are pretty basic, but they work well with the survival part of the game. There is also a way to make things that keeps monsters out. There isn’t much to the idea either: the woods are scary, dark, and deep (sorry, Robert Frost), so you have to find weapons and tools to help you get through them.
Parasite Eve Series
Japanese game designers have come up with some combination games that really work. Without them, what would the game business be like? In any case, the Parasite Eve games are one of our top picks for anyone looking for a good horror RPG experience. The player character, an NYPD rookie called Aya Brea, is thrown into a mutant apocalypse. The game was made by Square.
In the first game, you take turns playing, but in the second one, you play in real time. Like most Square games, Parasite Eve has complex and useful RPG features, but it doesn’t skimp on the scary parts in any way. There’s a chance it would have worked even without the RPG parts. Just the way the Parasite Eve games are played and the interesting ideas they have make them worth playing.
Darkest Dungeon
We already said that there aren’t enough Lovecraftian horror movies, right? That’s what makes the few of them stand out even more. In this case, Darkest Dungeon is like a gem. It mixes classic dungeon crawling and turn-based fighting with a bit of crazy and sadistic fun.
It’s one of the hardest and scariest horror RPGs ever made because of this. It could be harder than Bloodborne or Dark Souls. No matter how much you value your travelers, you have to deal with their stress and the fact that they’re all disposable. Oh, and you have to deal with weird Lovecraftian monsters all the time that love to hide in every corner of the Darkest Dungeon.
