PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which helpsupport our testing.
Pick up a controller and enter a world of high tension and cold sweats induced by these top PC horror titles.
ByJordan Minor
Jordan Minor
Senior Analyst, Software
My Experience
In 2013, I started my Ziff Davis career as an intern on PCMag's Software team. Now, I’m an Analyst on the Apps and Gaming team, and I really just want to use my fancy Northwestern University journalism degree to write about video games. I host The Pop-Off, PCMag's video game show. I was previously the Senior Editor for Geek.com. I’ve also written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I’m the author of a video game history book, Video Game of the Year, and the reason why everything you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
Read Full Bio
UpdatedJuly 10, 2024
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS:HOW WE TEST
65EXPERTS
42YEARS
40,000+REVIEWS
Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
65EXPERTS
42YEARS
40,000+REVIEWS
Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
- RELATED:
- Best PC Games
- Best Free PC Games
- Best Indie Games
(Credit: René Ramos; Motive Studios, Capcom)
Table of Contents
You could argue that horror video games are scarier than horror movies. At least with movies, you can close your eyes to stop watching if things get too intense. But when you play an unpredictable horror game, you must participate. Horror games come in all gruesome shapes and sizes, ranging from action-packed shooters to immersive psychological VR nightmares that leave YouTubers shrieking. The PCMag staff has reviewed games for more than 20 years, so check out our top horror game picks below.
Recommended by Our Editors
10 Horror Games That Would Make Great Movies
The 7 Best RPG Maker Horror Games to Play this Halloween
The 25 Best Horror Movies and How to Watch Them
Alan Wake II: Night Springs
Alan Wake II is a survival horror masterpiece. But if you’ve already exited the Dark Place, the Night Springs DLC gives Alan Wake II owners a new set of paranormal rabbit holes to explore. This expansion includes three episodic adventures with their own twists on spooky third-person shooting, presented as a Twilight Zone-esque anthology show. More than just goofy fun, Night Springs teases a mind-blowing future for Remedy’s Connected Universe.
Alan Wake II: Night Springs Review
Alien: Isolation
4.5
Alien: Isolation may be the bestAlien-based game ever made. Instead of using James Cameron's action-focusedAliensas its foundation, as so many video game developers have done in the past, Creative Assembly looked at Sir Ridley Scott's original 1979 film for inspiration. And it pays off. Rather than focusing on running and gunning, Alien: Isolation is all about evasion and subterfuge. Though you gain some assistance via radio, you, as the daughter of Ellen Ripley, must navigate a world of survival horror on your own, dodging the alien stalker using your wits, the environment, and the tools you craft. Alien: Isolation is smart, dark, and oppressive in all the right ways.
Alien: Isolation (for PC) Review
Dead Island
3.5
When Techland's Dead Island trailer debuted, it featured one of the most moving video game sequences ever produced: a small child and her family being slaughtered by zombies against the backdrop of a soft, haunting Giles Lamb musical score. Dead Island's gameplay doesn't quite match the trailer's promise, but the open-world action-RPG offers a very solid zombie-slaying good time as you craft weapons and try to stay alive in an island paradise gone wrong.
Dead Island (PC) Review
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record
3.5
Frank West returns to zombie-slaying action in Dead Rising 2: Off The Record. Capcom's reimagining of Dead Rising 2 sees the gruff photojournalist facing off against a wider array of monsters, building new weapons, snapping photos, and best of all, mixing it up in a new open-world sandbox mode. Stomping the undead is fun, though bugs and repetitive gameplay keep Dead Rising 2 from achieving true greatness.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (PC) Review
Dead Space (2023)
4.0
Inspired by the Resident Evil games and the film Event Horizon, the original Dead Space was a potent mix of dreary locations and tense, sci-fi frights. Now, more than a decade after its original release, publisher Electronic Arts has resurrected the game for contemporary PCs. This Dead Space features impressive lighting effects, excellent graphics enhancements, and surprising gameplay improvements that make it the definitive survival-horror game set in space.
Dead Space (Remake) Review
Narcosis
3.5
Some of the scariest video game moments are derived from developers preying on your simplest fears. Sometimes it's what loneliness does to the human psyche as you struggle to retain your sanity. And sometimes it's helplessly running from danger while watching your last drops of breathable air trickle away. This is the terror that Narcosis forOculus Riftforces you to deal with in a dread-filled undersea environment. It's a frightening game, if a bit too linear.
Narcosis (for Oculus Rift) Review
Resident Evil HD Remaster
3.5
Nearly 20 years after its debut, Resident Evil returns in remastered form. The game has the same frights and camp as the original, even if the backgrounds suffer from uneven graphics quality. Don't let that deter you, though. Resident Evil HD Remaster is still a great zombie-blasting game, especially if you enjoyed its previous releases.
Resident Evil HD Remaster (for PC) Review
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
4.5
Resident Evil 2 is back! Sure, the classic PlayStation game has received numerous ports and rereleases over the years, but this new version, simply titled Resident Evil 2, rebuilds the survivor-horror game from the ground up. You once again play as Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop, and Claire Redfield, a woman searching for her brother after the events of the first Resident Evil. Though this remake treads familiar zombie-shooting ground, it tosses in new enemies and puzzles to freshen things up.
Resident Evil 2 (for PC) Review
Resident Evil 3 (2020)
4.5
Like 2019’s impressive Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 is a phenomenal remake of a classic game. Despite its modernized graphics and gameplay, Resident Evil 3 contains the elements that made the original a classic: nightmarish environments, horrifying enemies, tense boss battles, and an overall emphasis on action. Even divorced from its first incarnation, Resident Evil 3 stands as a stellar title that has mass appeal to action and horror gaming fans alike.
Resident Evil 3 (for PC) Review
Resident Evil 4 (2023)
5.0
How does a company remake what many people consider a perfect game? Capcom found a way by updating the graphics, modernizing the control scheme (Leon's can parry attacks with his knife!), and streamlining the overall experience. Although this new Resident Evil doesn't redefine shooters as the original did way back in 2005, it’s just as fun to play, if not more.
Resident Evil 4 (Remake) Review
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
4.0
If you thought the Resident Evil series lost its way when it shifted to gunplay, youmustpick up Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. By slowing down the action and changing the perspective, developer Capcom has created a Resident Evil game that captures the dread that filled the original game. The excellent pacing, thoughtful action, and amazing atmosphere—you explore a depraved family's home in the Louisiana bayou—result in the best horror game to come along in some time.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (for PC) Review
Resident Evil Village
4.0
Resident Evil Village is a direct Resident Evil 7 follow-up that continues Ethan Winters’s story by dropping him in a new locale, the eponymous village in a fictional Eastern European country. Although Resident Evil 7's first-person camera remains, Capcom mixes older flavors into the pot. Village walks like a remix of Resident Evil 4, with gameplay that hews closer to RE2 or Code Veronica. It's bigger and weirder than its grounded predecessor, but it doesn’t go into full action hero mode like Resident Evil 5 or 6. Village is an excellent survival-horror game that shouldn't be missed.
Resident Evil Village Review
Why You Should Game on a PC
Play More PC Games
The Best PC RPGs
The Best Free PC Games
The Best Free Steam Games
The Best PC Fighting Games
Like What You're Reading?
Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
In 2013, I started my Ziff Davis career as an intern on PCMag's Software team. Now, I’m an Analyst on the Apps and Gaming team, and I really just want to use my fancy Northwestern University journalism degree to write about video games. I host The Pop-Off, PCMag's video game show. I was previously the Senior Editor for Geek.com. I’ve also written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I’m the author of a video game history book, Video Game of the Year, and the reason why everything you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
Read Jordan's full bio
Read the latest from Jordan Minor
- The Best NHL Streaming Services for 2024
- The Best NBA Streaming Services for 2024
- The Best Sports Streaming Services for 2024
- The Best Website Builders for 2024
- The Best Free Website Builders for 2024
- More from Jordan Minor
Further Reading
The Best Shmups for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson
The Best Battle Royale Games for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson&Jordan Minor
The Best Action Games for 2024
ByJordan Minor&Gabriel Zamora
The Best Adventure Games for 2024
ByJordan Minor
The Best Fighting Games for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson
The Best PC Games for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson&Jordan Minor
The Best Free Steam Games for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson&Gabriel Zamora
The Absolute Best Steam Games for 2024
ByJeffrey L. Wilson&Jordan Minor