The witching season is upon us and so it is time to celebrate the darker side of our grass roots industry. Now, in no particular order, let’s take a look at the best options to scare yourself silly during the coming Halloween festivities.
Outlast 1 & 2
Outlast is possibly one of the most high profile indie horror games of all time. It has been featured all across the internet with it’s night vision camera visuals and oppressive atmosphere. That’s not even mentioning the full frontal male nudity, possibly the scariest element of all.
Outlast features a creepy asylum, first-person scares and a whole hell of a lot of night vision green. It takes the player on a terrifying romp through many tight and creepy corridors, as well as forcing them to hide under their bed like they’re still 7-year-old. If you’re up for having a face full of todger (wang) and crapping your undies then Outlast is a top choice, assuming you’re not one of the millions of people who’ve already played it of course.
Killing Floor 1 & 2
If you’re in the mood for more action this October then you should try out the Killing Floor games. Killing Floor started life as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 but after the team behind the game, now called Tripwire Interactive, decided to create a retail release of their own in 2009 the game became much loved on Steam for it’s gory shooting action.
Killing Floor puts you in the boots of a random British person, usually from either the military or the police force, and then throws a whole bunch of zombies and monsters at you. As you take on wave after wave of undead horror you gain money which you spend between rounds to upgrade and buy new equipment. Killing Floor 2 will also be featuring a Halloween update this year, in the form of Halloween Horrors: Monster Masquerades. What more could you ask for?
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Another horror game that was on everyone’s lips when it came out, Amnesia: The Dark Descent can possibly be named as the cause of the YouTube horror game trend. When it was first released it was picked up by a couple of up-and-coming YouTubers and their massive overreactions launched the game, and themselves, into internet stardom.
Amnesia had a lot going for it. As well as featuring an interesting and involving story which had allusions to the writing of H. P. Lovecraft, it’s gameplay was top notch as well. It had a sanity meter which relied on how light your area was, it had first person puzzle solving in terrifying environments and forced the player to flee instead of fight the monsters, adding to the feeling of helplessness. To this day the game is still as creepy as you could hope and you can get it really cheap.
The Organ Trail: Director’s Cut
This is a bit of a strange one. The Organ Trail is a game based on one of the biggest phenomenons in edutainment history. Children across the world, particularly in America, played The Oregon Trail in their school computer labs and on their home computers while they were growing up. Learning all about the dangerous journey of the American settlers without being bored to death was no small feat.
The Organ Trail is the same thing, except that you’re going across the US to escape the zombie apocalypse, not to learn. You get to name your party, you get to make hard choices and hell if it isn’t just fun as anything to try and survive the hardships you face. While the game isn’t exactly scary it is very ‘Halloween’, and you can even unlock a pumpkin themed Halloween mode for hardened players who like pumpkins a lot.
Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion
Now we’re getting into some slightly more obscure territory. Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion is a free horror game made by Lag Studios, and might not look exactly like what you’d expect from a horror game. Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion is bright, colourful and filled with pixels a mile wide, none of which will seem that scary…at first. As time goes by in SJM you start to get the impression that things are just off, and it doesn’t take long for the feeling to be validated.
Your main goal is to make it through 1000 doorways in the mansion without stopping, and on the way to find out why it is that Spooky herself is a creepy floating ghost instead of a normal long-dead pre-teen girl. It’s hard to go into too much detail without completely destroying what makes the game fun so all we can do is recommend the game wholeheartedly for those looking for a slightly different Halloween experience.
What are your favorite indie games to play during the Halloween season?
