The 12 Best Horror Games On Xbox Series X|S

In the past few years, horror culture in the creative arts has skyrocketed. Fans of numerous iconic series across film, TV, and gaming have been treated immensely with new content, reboots, remasters, and more. With more powerful consoles and updates constantly being made, the gaming industry is inundated with fresh horror projects to keep players occupied and terrified.

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While the line between console exclusives and multi-platform titles thins, it’s a great time to be an Xbox gamer. The continuous reprisal of classics getting the remaster treatment, the influx of new and innovative indie projects, and the ongoing evolution of respected series make horror gaming an exciting genre to keep an eye on.

Updated March 4, 2023, By Branden Lizardi: Horror continues to be a rather overlooked genre of games on the Xbox Series S and X consoles. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking; it’s just hard to find. The Marketplace doesn’t even have horror as a search option. You may not know about some of the best horror games on Xbox right now. To ensure you don’t miss out on some of the scariest Xbox games, we’ve updated this list with only the best entries.

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12

Resident Evil 2

The original Resident Evil 2 was one of the most iconic horror games ever. And the 2019 version, which has since been released on Xbox Series X/S, is a complete remake of that original title. It shares some similarities to the original as it still stars Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, who find themselves amid a zombie apocalypse in Racoon City.

The visuals, gameplay, and camera have all been improved, though. Plus, now the intimidating Mr. X appears in all playthroughs and perpetually stalks you around the Police Station. So, it makes playing through the game a terrifying experience.

11

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

Along with being a horror game, Dying Light 2 is also an open-world action title. In it, you play as a man named Aiden Caldwell. He lives in a world mostly taken over by zombies. Yet, that doesn’t stop him from going on an adventure to find his sister. While making your way through the city, you must face off against both deadly humans and even deadlier infected.

You can utilize the game’s first-person combat to take them out. Alternatively, you can avoid facing them in the first place by using your expert parkour skills. Another important gameplay feature is an almost ever-depleting meter at the top of the screen that shows how close you’re to joining the infected horde. You need to stop it from completely depleting by spending time in UV light, which adds an extra layer of tension to your experience.

10

Dead By Daylight

Most of the scariest video games are single-player adventures. However, Dead By Daylight proves that multiplayer games can be terrifying, too. In this online asymmetric multiplayer title, one player controls a ruthless killer while everyone else plays as survivors.

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The goal of the killer is to just live up to their moniker by wiping out all the humans. The humans need to avoid that by activating generators and escaping from the area. SI’s a simple concept, but it’s a lot of fun due in part to all the different killers you can choose to control.

9

Little Nightmares 2

With Little Nightmares 2 on the Xbox Series X/S, this side-scrolling puzzle sequel looks and plays better than ever. This short but sweet journey is set in the gorgeously crafted vision of a bleak world called the Pale City.

As with its predecessor, players control pint-sized characters by the names of Mono and Six as they explore the unaccommodatingly nightmarish city and try to survive. Fans of slow-burning horror and frantic boss set pieces that require perfectly executed jumps and many leaps of faith will find plenty to love about this deceptively frightening horror.

8

Resident Evil Village

The eighth official entry into the adored and influential series, Resident Evil Village makes the series remain firmly at the top of the mainstream horror gaming hierarchy. As if things weren’t wild enough for poor Ethan Winters, the protagonist of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, now he must find his missing daughter, Rosemary.

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Set in a starkly different environment from any other game in the series, players explore a Victorian-style land filled with fantastical beasts of mythical legend. Unusual memes aside regarding the game’s domineering antagonist Lady Dimitrescu, this ever-present villain is far from being as receptive as many would’ve liked.

7

Inside

Long-time indie horror fans will recognize the developers of Inside as the same people that made Limbo. The overall experience, mechanically speaking, plays very similarly, too. You control a young boy who has snuck into some sort of secret facility. Moving along the 2D plane, you platform and solve puzzles, slowly unraveling the ominous mysteries that lurk inside.

This game is a culmination of everything the studio is good for: using minimal graphical styles to tell a dialogue-free narrative that’s a slow crawl of unsettling ideas and circumstances. You won’t ever be frightened, but you’ll feel the unease and dread as you get deeper. It even has a secret alternate ending for those wanting more from the story.

6

Dark Pictures Anthology: House Of Ashes

Though many horror games evoke terror by giving players control over their every move, House of Ashes makes you dread the outcome of each decision. In the subgenre of interactive cinematic games, this follow-up to titles Man of Medan and Little Hope hits a high point in the mini-series.

Players are taken to Iraq during its 2003 invasion and are focused on teaming up despite indifference, as a number of soldiers became lost in a vampire-infested temple. Like similar titles such as Until Dawn and Heavy Rain, House of Ashes has multiple playable characters and over thirty potential endings, implemented by your decisions in combat and moral dilemma.

5

The Medium

By far one of the eeriest games on this Xbox Series X/S, The Medium is a truly singular experience. Though there is a blatant stylistic influence in the mechanics of the slow-and-steady moving, third-person Silent Hill series, The Medium is still massively original. Set in Poland in the late ’90s, players control Marianne, a woman who can communicate with spirits.

It’s up to her to investigate one of her visions, which involves the killing of a young girl. The gameplay mixes traditional horror exploration with a dynamic twist of puzzles, often relying on players to control mirrored split-screen gameplay to advance and escape antagonists.

4

Simulacra

The most life-ruining kind of horror is the type that makes everyday appliances appear scary. In the case of Simulacra, you’ll be reluctant to use your mobile phone in the unfortunate event that a demonic, cult-built AI begins to stalk you. This one-of-a-kind game sees players play through a smartphone interface, the phone being a lost item you have discovered.

The more you investigate, firstly discovering that the phone belongs to a woman called Anna, the more the narrative takes eery turns for the worst. With creative jump-scares, effective pacing, and plausible dialogue from an array of characters, Simulacra is an essential horror experience for those that love to be surprised.

3

A Plague Tale: Innocence

Though A Plague Tale: Innocence consists of each of the elements of outright horror – namely rats, disease, widespread death, and intimidating, forceful antagonists – this first chapter wasn’t marketed solely as a horror game, but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its moments.

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Playing as 15-year-old Amicia, players are tasked with sustaining the safety of her sick brother, evading soldiers and plague-infected rats on their escape. Though not overtly focused on scaring players with conventional, unexpected jumps, the detailed immersion of a 14th-century France rife with disease is enough to give anyone a classic survival horror experience.

2

Outlast

A true modern classic in the horror genre of gaming, Outlast is unapologetically ruthless and relentless in the trauma that it invokes. Set in an abandoned mental asylum, players are tasked with investigating the disused center to unearth mysterious rumors regarding the state of the institution.

Armed with nothing but your wits and a battery-reliant night vision camera, Outlast plunges you into horrifying encounters with mutated human experiments, roaming cannibals, violent murderers, and everybody else that you wouldn’t want to bump into in a dark alleyway. A ground-breaking, sophisticated horror masterpiece with near flawless execution, it’s probably the scariest game on Xbox.

1

Alien: Isolation

In space, no one can hear you scream… but your neighbors sure can if you’re playing alone at home. This 2014 adaptation of the classic movie series is just as filled to the brim with terrifying content as its source material.

Whether it’s pacing the suspiciously empty corridors of the Sevastopol space station or hiding, breath-held in a locker from the predatory expert Xenomorph, Alien: Isolation puts a firm grip on you and doesn’t let go. Critically acclaimed and continuously reprised for new consoles since its seventh generation release, this survival horror is one of the essential cinematic horror gaming experiences. In the end, this is the best horror game on Xbox.

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