The 12 best horror games to play with the lights off

Some horror games are spooky. Others make you pause mid-corridor, listen for footsteps and quietly consider going to bed. This list is the second kind.

A good pick for a lights-off session leans on sound, patience and dread rather than cheap jump scares. Think creatures that hunt you, rooms that feel wrong, and friends yelling over voice chat when the ghost finally shows up.

You’ll find survival horror, psychological horror and co-op picks here, with the scariest near the top. Headphones recommended, a nightlight entirely optional.

1. Alien: Isolation

The creature stalking this space station can’t be killed, and it doesn’t follow a script. It hunts you by sound and instinct, so the second you hear it scuttling in the vents, your heart sinks. Crouching in a locker while it prowls past, watching the motion tracker ping closer, is one of the great modern horror moments. It’s slow, tense and deeply unfair in the best way.

Play it if: you want a monster that makes you hold your breath for real.)

2. Resident Evil 2

Raccoon City’s police station is a masterclass in pressure. Ammo is tight, zombies take more bullets than you’d like, and then Mr. X starts following you from room to room with heavy, unhurried footsteps. Hearing them through a wall is the scariest sound in the game. Puzzles keep the pace steady between scares, so it never turns into pure panic.

Play it if: you like horror that’s tense and tactical, with a stalker you can never quite shake.

3. Silent Hill 2

This one gets under your skin rather than in your face. You wander through fog-choked streets and rusted, grimy hallways, guided by a letter from a wife who shouldn’t be alive. Pyramid Head appears sparingly, which makes him worse. The sound design is superb in a dark room, all radio static and distant clanging, and the story lingers long after you’ve put the controller down.

Play it if: you want unease, grief and symbolism more than jump scares.

4. Phasmophobia

You and your friends investigate haunted houses with flashlights, thermometers and a lot of nervous chatter. The twist is that the ghost listens to your voice, so asking it a question out loud in a quiet, dark room feels properly dangerous. Nothing beats the moment the lights die and nobody speaks. It’s also hilarious right up until it very much isn’t.

Play it if: you want co-op horror where the best scares come from your own team.

5. Dead Space

Isaac Clarke is stuck on a wrecked mining ship, and the things infesting it need to be cut apart limb by limb. That makes every fight feel clumsy and desperate. The ship itself is the other big threat, with flickering lights, whispering vents and zero-gravity sections where silence suddenly takes over. Sound is a huge part of the dread here, so crank the volume.

Play it if: you want sci-fi survival horror with gory, tense combat.

6. Outlast

You’re a journalist with a camcorder, an asylum full of very bad people and no way to fight back. The only choice is to run, hide and peek through the night-vision lens, watching the battery tick down. Seeing the world through that green glow makes everything feel worse. It’s relentless, grim and built for those moments when you freeze in a locker and pray.

Play it if: you’d rather be completely helpless than armed to the teeth.

7. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

A rotting Louisiana farmhouse, a family that won’t leave you alone and a first-person view that keeps everything uncomfortably close. The Baker house is full of grimy corners and awful dinner invitations. The scares come in waves: a quiet stretch of exploring, then someone with a chainsaw laughs behind you. It’s more intimate and nastier than most of the series.

Play it if: you want a haunted-house feeling with real survival tension.

8. SOMA

Deep under the ocean, a research facility has gone very wrong. The monsters are scary, sure, but the questions the story asks about what makes you you are worse. You can’t fight anything, so you creep past it and hope it doesn’t notice. Groaning machinery and the dark water outside make the whole place feel claustrophobic.

Play it if: you like horror that messes with your head as much as your nerves.

9. Lethal Company

You and your crewmates scavenge scrap from abandoned moons to meet a quota, and the places you visit are full of things that want you gone. The proximity voice chat is what makes it special: teammates fade out as they wander off, and a scream that cuts short says everything. It’s funny and frightening in equal measure, usually within the same minute.

Play it if: you’ve got friends who’ll laugh with you, then abandon you in the dark.

10. Until Dawn

A group of friends, a snowed-in mountain lodge and a night that goes sideways fast. Every choice can change who makes it to morning, and the tense quiet-button moments, where you have to hold perfectly still, are brilliantly nerve-wracking. It plays like a slasher film you control, with twists that keep you guessing. Great for sharing the controller with a friend.

Play it if: you love horror movies and want to decide who survives.

11. Signalis

A repair android wakes up in a bleak, snowbound mining facility, and nothing about it feels safe. The old-school look and tight inventory take you back to classic survival horror, while the creeping weirdness leans into dreamlike cosmic dread. Lights hum, static crackles and the story pulls you deeper into something you can’t quite explain. It’s compact, eerie and surprisingly moving.

Play it if: you want old-school survival horror with a strange, haunting heart.

12. Darkwood

By day you scavenge a twisted forest for supplies. By night you barricade yourself in a shack and listen to something scratch at the walls. The top-down view limits what you can see, so every dark corner is a gamble. It’s unsettling, strange and very good at making you dread sunset. The oppressive soundscape is perfect for a dark room.

Play it if: you want grim survival horror where preparation is half the fear.