Summary

  • Horror games tap into our deepest fears, providing a fight-or-flight experience that is both thrilling and terrifying.
  • Games like Stray and Animal Well prove that cute aesthetics can mask deeply unsettling and creepy gameplay.
  • Unique experiences like playing as a cat in a cyberpunk world or exploring a haunted animal town offer a blend of cozy and creepy vibes.

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. Some people are afraid of things like spiders, while others are afraid of concepts like loneliness. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Horror games play on those fears and transport players into a world where they're fඣorced into a fight-or-flight situation. Usually, you can tell a horror game just by looking at it, though with others it's harder to know.

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Quite a few games on this list contain dark subjects and aren't for the faint of heart. But,🍌 for those willing and wanting a good fright with memorable visuals, these games are a good place to start.

Updated on July 14, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: Terrifying games can often masquerade as something more sweet and wholesome, which somehow manages to make them even that much scarier and unsettling. Developers know that, by playing with both of these styles, a more unique and memorable horror game experience will come out because of it. And below you now have a few more cute-and-creepy games to check out!

30 Stray

A Cyberpunk Cat Dystopia Reminiscent Of BioShock's Rapture

stray dead end doc and cat

Released
July 19🧔, 2022 ౠ
Developer(s)
༺ ꧙BlueTwelve Studio
Platform(s)
PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Make a PS5 next-gen platformer game about a cat, they say. Get to play as an orange tabby 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:and have♕ fun mimicking the cat's behaviors, they say. But whꦇat the devs totally don't warn you about is the unsettling enemies and storyline you're in for. Make no mistake, Stray is absolutely a horror game from the point of view of the sweetest protagonist in ಞgaming.

The cover will fool you if you think this is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:just a cozy little cat game. In the opening sequence, your cat goes through a traumatizing separation from the rest of its group and gets chased and attacked by creepy one-eyed blobs called Zurks that look like the enemies from The Thing video game. Then later, your cat meets one of the most gro🥂tesque robots called Doc. Seriously, it feels like Stღray's devs borrowed some assets from The Last of Us.

29 🐲 Animal Well 🧸

The Animals Might Be Doing Well, But You Sure Won't

A ghost cat approaching the blob from Animal Well.

You might be thinking – oh look, there's finally a metroidvania title centered around animals. Surely, there won't be any horrifying elements like in Blasphemous, Moonscars, or Hollow Knight. Unfortunately, this is 1♕68澳洲幸运♌5开奖网:one of the creepier metroidvanias you can play, si൲nce the pets and other animals here can be the most disturbing aspect.

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9

The world is very dark and atmospheric, and there's always this feeling of unease following you in every area you're in. While some animals might seem more chill and minding their own business in the background, others appear as ominous statues and silhouettes. A pixelated dog will even maul you here, and there are suspenseful sections with an ostrich 𓆏also ou♏t to get you.

28 🌜 🧸 Beacon Pines

Thimbleweed Park Meets Night In The Woods

Luka listens to a partially inaudible transmission from the walktie talkie

Released
൲ September 22, 2022
Developer
Hiding Spoಞt

Can a video game be both cozy and creepy at the same time? Beacon Pin🍬es says yes to that. The concept 🤪is that you're seeing the world from the pages of a storybook, as a mystery involving beautifully illustrated anthropomorphic animal characters takes some dark turns, and you have the power to alter the course of the narrative at certain 'turning points' through the charms you collect.

The main story follows a young deer character named Luka, who bands together with his friends to do some investigating in Beacon Pines, which gets the whole heaping pile of sci-fi horror thrown into your world. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bu๊t you'd never 𓆏suspect anything like that, because the art style is simply gorgeous and even more remarkable 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:that it's all done by hand.

27 Sheepy: A ꦛShort Adventure 🌌

Even Counting Sheep Won't Help With Sleep After Playing This

Sheepy A Short Adventure Main Cute Sheepy Protagonist Standing Before An Eerie Mineshaft Elevator With Weird Creatures Floating Around
Sheepy: A Short Adventure
Platformer

Released
Feb🌱ruary 6, 2024
Developer(s)
𒆙 MrSuicideS🐠heep
Platform(s)
PC

As the title suggests, Sheepy is a short game that's also free to play and puts you in the shoes of an adorable pixelated sheep. However, the title is misleading in making it sound like a cozy adventure game, which it's entirely not. What you're in for with this game 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:is quite a harrowing platforming jou꧃rney involving enemies l๊ike reanimated stuffed bears with knives lodged in their heads.

For a very short and linear experience, everything is masterfully crafted, from the level de💧sign to the audio. There's also this powerful malevolent force that can break through platforms and environmental structures throughout the first section in an intense chase sequence. ꦡOverall, the atmosphere is very much a combination of Inside, Little Nightmares, Limbo, and Animal Well.

26 R💖ain World

Slugcat Survival Horror

Rain World Steam The Cat Slug Hides From A Bird Monster
Rain World
Adventure

Released
🍰March 28, 2017 💜
Developer
Videocult

In Rain World (yet another metroidvania game falling under the cute and creepy catalog), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:you play the most adorable slugcat. However, similar to the cat pr✤otagonist in Stray, you'll be in a fight for this slugcat's life in a post-apocalyptic 2D world filled with chilling enemy variety and moody wasteland environments.

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Underneath the surface of its cute and simplistic aesthetics, Rain World proves to be one of the most challenging survival horror platformers ever created. This game is not for the faint of heart, both mechanically and in terms of d𒉰ifficulty. The same goes for its horror content.

25 The Witch's House MV

Not The Welcome Home Party You're Expecting

 Viola in a forest next to a bench with a black cat from The Witch's House MV.

Perhaps one of the most underrated RPG🐼 Maker games, The Witch's House will get you the most with its shocking horror and disturbing content. There are some major twists and scripted event𓂃s that you won't expect from a game that starts innocently enough with you wandering through a serene forest and meeting a blᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚack cat.

But it is called The Witch's Hous🍸e, aftওer all, and once you go inside the home, there will be haunted rooms, eerie chase sequences, jumpscares, puzzles, and plenty of graphic material that needs a ton of trigger warnings. The MV version of the 2012 game is a remake with heightened pixel graphics and new difficulty modes, so the horror will be even more pronounced.

24 Bulb Boy

Don't Turn Off The Light

Bulb Boy The Boy Tries To Push A Button Amidst Horrible Hands

There's a noticeable trend of putting innocent children with big heads into horrifying situations. The size of the head may be what g🍷ives them the best chance of survival, but it's an absolute necessity in the cartoon indie game that is Bulb Boy.

Yo🌜u play as the eponymous character living a simple but happy life in a small house with his grandfather. Things quickly go wrong when a twisted nightmare basing its form on one of the boy's toys appears and tak🎶es away Grandpa to try and snuff out his light.

It's up to you to guide Bulb Boy through this 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:point-and-click adventure game as you use his head to light up the darkness. Wander the haunting halls to collect items in order to find objects that can 🌺chase away the nightmare.

23 Undertale

Try To Meet Monsters Without Becoming One

Image of Frisk from Undertale in a bed of flowers underground.

Released
𝕴 September 15, 🅘2015
Developer(s)
Toby Fox
Platform(s)
PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Some people make games with the intent of becoming successful while others make them just because they wanted to 🌠or thought it would be fun. It's unlikely that Toby Fox ever expected Undertale to blow up the way it did, but won many over with its charming appearance yet serious and scary themes.

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As a child who falls into an un🐻derground world of monsters, it becomes clear that things are never as cute or harmless as they appear. You're left with the only goal of trying to leave this place, but there will be tons of monsters standing in your way.

Depending on how you deal with them, you'll learn more about the underground world and about yourself. Even in a place as dark as the underground, there's ev♔en greater darkness that scares even monsters, and it may lurk within the child.

22 Happy🎐 Game ꦑ

Do Worry If You Want To Be Happy

Happy Game The Kid Visits Three Happy Beings Eating A Head

Happiness is both hard to attain and something that you can give🌊 yourself, but this isn't always easy. Sometimes you may feel envious of children to whom happiness seems to come naturally, but this isn't the case for the child in Happy Game.

At first, the game seems harmless enough and even a little sweet as you see a kid playing happily in their room. This takes an ominous turn as the kid goes to bed and a nightmare seems to take form around them. It steals beloved items and even 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a beloved pet into its world of darkness and horror. The kid has no choice, but to enter the realm itself and watch all the things that t🐲hey love and enjoy take on new twisted forms bent on the kid's demise.

21 ꦕ Smile🔯 For Me

Enter A Facility For Happiness And Terror

Smile For Me The Characters Gather Across The Hills

The reason treatment and🧸 wellness facilities make such great locations for horror storie𓄧s is because their nature is to lower your guard. When this happens, anything can come at you, and you won't always be prepared — which is the case in Smile For Me.

You've ended up in a facility called the Habitat, where people come when they aren't happy. You'll walk around and meet other guests to learn why they aren't happy, all while under the watchful monitoring of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:disturbing Doctor Habit. If you don✱'t follow facility rules, you'll quickly fin﷽d yourself in danger, so always have a clear path back to your room.

The colorful cuto🥀ut style can cheer you up as you try to cheer up the various characters and uncover the darkness of the Habitat.