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2024 is just barely underway, and already we horror gamers have been treated to the release of (emotional meat grinder that is) The Last of Us 2 Remastered, as well as creepypasta chiller SCP: Containment Breach, and that’s just the beginning. This year’s calendar of releases is shaping up to be a stellar year for games headed first for our PCs and consoles and then directly into our nightmares.
On offer are killer creatures, parasitic zoo animals, eldritch abominations, and psychological terrors that drill deep into our psyches and extract our deepest fears. Plus, there are multiple trips into the fog of Silent Hill and master of horror John Carpenter gets into the gaming business.
We said stellar, and we meant stellar.
Here we break down everything we know will drop in 2024 or are reasonably confident will head our way this year (sorry OD didn’t make the list; we love you Hideo Kojima, but you revel in making us wait, but we’ll see you on this list in 2025—we hope). So, get ready to add a whole lot of games to your wishlist.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Developer: Don’t Nod
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: February 13, 2024
This dark fantasy action RPG hails from the developers of Life is Strange and Vampyr and sees a pair of spirit hunters, aka Banishiers, tasked with lifting a curse. To do so, they have to battle the tormented spirits and demonic creatures plaguing New Eden and investigate a larger and darker mystery behind what has befallen the small community.
The Thaumaturge
Developer: Fool’s Theory
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: February 20, 2024
The Thaumaturge is a story-driven, turn-based RPG set in early 20th-century Warsaw, a tumultuous time when the Russian Empire annexed Poland, and tensions were running high between the Polish inhabitants, Russian soldiers, and Jewish merchants who made up its populace. The game follows Wiktor Szulski, the titular thaumaturge, which means he has a gift for not only sensing demonic forces called Salutors but also taming them and using their powers to his will. You know, like Pokèmon, but make it demonic. However, Wiktor’s gift doesn’t come without cost, and that way lies madness.
Pacific Drive
Developer: Ironwood Studios
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
Release date: February 22, 2024
Should the apocalypse come, I’m going full hermit. For the braver among us, Pacific Drive offers a much bolder alternative: Heading into the uncertain and hostile behind the wheel of your trusty station wagon. This game is all about exploration, resource gathering, untangling a mystery in the ‘Olympic Exclusion Zone,’ and driving like a bat out of Hell when the anomalous storms come chasing after you. Is it scary? Yes, but then, who doesn’t love a little apocalypse by the dashboard light?
Sons of the Forest
Developer: Endnight Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: February 22, 2024
At last, Sons of the Forest is getting a full non-early-access release. This sequel to the hit survival game The Forest sees another group crash landing on an island that’s far from uninhabited—although some of its residents can’t exactly be called human, either. There are horrifying mysteries to solve, terrifying landscapes to explore, grotesque monsters to defeat, and a multitude of resources and buildings to craft.
The Outlast Trials
Developer: Red Barrels
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: March 5, 2024
Set during the Cold War and a prequel to the previous Outlast games, the psychological horror survival title The Outlast Trials can be played solo or with a group of your bravest (or most twisted) friends. Taking its cues from the real-world horror of the CIA’s Project MKUltra, The Outlast Trials casts its players as involuntary recruits in a horrifying human experiment of brainwashing, mind control, and horrific violence. Oh yeah, we’re counting down the days until this little nightmare drops.
Reveil
Developer: Pixelsplit
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: March 6, 2024
There’s something intrinsically terrifying about clowns in a funhouse, which is why the hype is high for Reveil. A first-person puzzler and exploration ‘psycho-thriller’, it sees players delving deep into the memories and psyche of Walter Thompson, a man who wakes to find his wife and child have gone missing. Unable to remember the events of the previous night, he instead finds himself falling deeper into his memories of his time as a stage builder at the circus.
Alone in the Dark
Developer: Pieces Interactive
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: March 20, 2024
The classic 1992 survival horror game Alone in the Dark finally gets the reimagining—and all-star cast—it’s long deserved. In this new take on the original game’s story, Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer) and private investigator Edward Carnby (David Harbour) investigate the disappearance of Emily’s uncle and soon discover that cosmic horrors are afoot. A Lovecraftian noir? Oh yes, we’re in.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Developer: Ninja Theory
Platforms(s): Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: May 21, 2024
Picking up after the events of Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II sees its heroine traveling through Iceland on the trail of Vikings who have been raiding her village while continuing to battle her own demons and mental health issues. Like its predecessor, the game will feature both traditional combat and perception puzzles rooted in her breaks with reality. It will also include the music of the Scandinavian experimental folk band Heilung.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Developer: GSC Game World
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release Date: September 5, 2024
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Chornobyl — oh wait, it’s never safe, but it is a hell of a lot of fun. After many delays, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is finally seeing a release this fall, so get ready to head back into the Exclusion Zone to battle its sundry mutants and discover its strange phenomena.
RELEASE DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
A Feral Night
Developer: Dan McGrath
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Are you afraid of what goes bump in the night? Then A Feral Night belongs at the top of your most anticipated horror games this year. Coming from solo developer Dan McGrath (Incident at Grove Lake), the game takes place inside his childhood home, where a dark creature begins appearing at night, leaving you, the player, to confront it. It sounds like just the kind of nightmare fuel we can’t get enough of.
Autopsy Simulator
Developer: Woodland Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Driving sims are for normies, but Autopsy Simulator is for us. This first-person sim puts the player in the role of a pathologist trying to determine the cause of death. Even better, the developer worked with real-life forensic doctors, so the autopsies and dissections are anatomically accurate.
Beneath
Developer: Camel 101
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5
Release Date: TBA 2024
Cosmic horrors lurk in the depths of Beneath. The game follows Noah Quinn, who, despite being a veteran deep-sea diver, finds himself trapped in a nightmare beneath the surface of the ocean. At first, it may seem he’s found salvation when he discovers a strange and remote scientific research station, but his terror has just begun because the work being done there defies sanity.
Bye Sweet Carole
Developer: Little Sewing Machine, Meangrip
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Release Date: TBA 2024
We’re already obsessed with the art style of narrative-driven horror titles inspired by old-school cel animation. The game takes place in the early 1900s and is set against the rise of the early feminist movement. When Lana Benton’s friend Carole goes missing, she suspects foul play and begins her own investigation, and it doesn’t take long for things to take a spooky turn.
The Casting of Frank Stone
Developer: Supermassive Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
Release date: TBA 2024
The Casting of Frank Stone is a stand-alone mystery set in the Dead by Daylight universe. The town of Cedar Hills is still haunted by the horrors visited upon it by Frank Stone, a sadistic killer who left a blood-soaked trail in his path. The game is a collaboration with Supermassive Games (The Dark Pictures Anthology), so it leans heavily into a narrative, with consequences for every decision as you wind your way through the labyrinthian mystery.
Dark Fracture
Developer: Twisted II Studio
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: TBA 2024
Is there any place darker than the minds of men? In Dark Fracture, it seems that the answer to that question is no. Set in an isolated forest in the late ‘90s, the game casts the player as Edward, who’s working his day-to-day job at the body farm. Despite his traumatic past, the daily routine, and the medicine he takes, he manages to keep his mental health and personal life in check. However, when a chain of events disrupts all that, Edward begins to crack, and his world starts to spiral. Is what he’s experiencing real? Or is his mind finally breaking apart?
Dead Letter Dept.
Developer: Belief Engine
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Work is hell, especially when your day job involves receiving correspondence of the terrifying variety. In Dead Letter Dept., the player gets a new job working as a temp doing data entry, aka as a “Data Conversion Operator.” As if that weren’t enough existential horror all on its own, as you begin processing the letters and lost mail — some of which arrives having been through something that left it mangled — it begins to feel that perhaps those letters were meant for you.
Deathground
Developer: Jaw Drop Games
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Release Date: Early 2024
Humans are no longer the apex predator in Deathground, which sees deadly AI dinosaurs ascending to the top of the food chain. This survival horror game can be played solo or co-op and requires a mixture of stealth, teamwork, and combat to survive.
Digested
Developer: Karel
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: Early 2024
Ophidiophobics beware: There’s a snake on the loose in Digested, and it’s hungry. This bodycam-perspective horror survival game sees players on the run trying to avoid becoming dinner for a giant snake who’s determined to swallow you alive. Tools, strategies, and abilities will help you evade the ravenous reptile long enough for an extraction—if you’re lucky.
Hollowbody
Developer: Headware Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: Early 2024
Tech noir meets Silent Hill in this survival horror game. In Hollowbody, Mica is an unlicensed “shipper” who finds herself crash-landed and stranded in the dystopian ruins of a long-abandoned city. Surrounded by nothing but death and decay, there’s only one choice: Survive. To do so will mean fighting your way to safety, solving environmental puzzles, and carefully managing your resources.
ILL
Developer: Team Clout
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Gorehounds, this one’s for you. ILL is an ultra-gruesome survival horror game that sees players entering a settlement in search of answers to what’s creating mutilated and tentacled monsters. The name of the game here is dismemberment, but keep in mind ammo will be limited so you’ll have to be just as resourceful as you are ferocious.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando
Developer: Saber Interactive
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S
Release date: TBA 2024
This game from master of horror John Carpenter harkens back to his Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York heyday. The co-op shooter sees the player and their friends facing off with an eldritch horror known as the Sludge God, which, once re-awakened, has begun remaking the planet in his grotesque image and raising an army of the undead.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game
Developer: Teravision Games
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
While we may be waiting forever and ever for the sequel to Killer Klowns from Outer Space, players will get to return to Crescent Cove’s cotton candy and violence. In this asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, players can step into either the role of an invading extraterrestrial harvesting humans or as a human doing everything they can to save the future of humanity. Expect the action to be… wait for it… in tents.
Level Zero
Developer: DogHowl Games
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: TBA 2024
Only your teammates—and the thing killing you—can hear you screaming in space. And you’ll likely be doing a lot of screaming in Level Zero. This asymmetrical sci-fi horror game is set in 2058 and sees you as a member of a team of four scientists trying to stay alive by using UV light to avoid and outwit the vicious telepathic monsters hunting you. Or you can play as those creatures using your unique skills to hunt and kill those tasty scientists.
Little Nightmares 3
Developer: Supermassive Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release date: TBA 2024
Scurry back into the world of Little Nightmares with this latest entry in the charmingly creepy series. This time around, you’ll follow along on the journey of Low and Alone on their mission to find a way out of the Nowhere. To have any hope of success, a player and a friend will have to work together in this co-op game (or go solo with the assistance of an AI companion).
The Lost Wild
Developer: Great Ape Games
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Release Date: Late 2024/Early 2025
While dinosaurs have long popped up in video games, The Lost Wild takes a fresh new approach. Rather than the mindless monsters we know (and love TBH), the prehistoric creatures in this game behave more like wild animals—dangerous wild animals. So when the player finds themselves stranded in this prehistoric world, they will have to adapt to their environment, learn the animals’ behaviors, and do their best to stay out of their way. The only hope of survival is your wit and the mysterious voice on the other end of a radio.
LUTO
Developer: Broken Bird Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5
Release date: TBA 2024
Sometimes, the scariest monsters are the ones that you conjure from your own mind, creatures made of the pain and suffering you’re afraid to face. In LUTO, those monsters, made of grief, insecurity, anxiety, and depression, take on form. This psychological horror narrative game sees the player trapped in their own home, seeking a way to escape and having to face what they’d rather run from.
Paranormal Tales
Developer: Digital Cybercherries
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
For fans of The Blair Witch Project and Deadstream, Paranormal Tales is about to skip to the top of your most anticipated list. This found-footage style game makes use of multiple perspectives, including body cams, phones, and VHS cameras, as you explore the game’s various scenarios and unravel the tragic mysteries at the heart of each one.
Phasmophobia
Developer: Kinetic Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: Late 2024
Become a ghost hunter in Phasmophobia. While you won’t need a proton pack for this game, you and up to three friends will need to use a range of ghost-hunting equipment, including EMF readers, video cameras, thermometers, and motion detectors. They’re crucial for discovering what kind of ghost you’re dealing with so you can get out before it starts hunting and you join their spectral ranks.
Post Trauma
Developer: Red Soul Games
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
Release date: Spring 2024
This classic survival-horror-inspired game introduces players to Roman, a middle-aged train conductor who finds himself in the middle of a nightmare full of horrifying creatures and monstrous enemies, all hell-bent on keeping him from finding his way back to his family — and uncovering terrifying truths along the way.
The Retrieval
Developer: Two Crow Studios
Platform: PlayStation 5
Release Date: TBA 2024
The spaceship Prometheus has been missing for 200 years, and when it suddenly reemerges, it is mysteriously radio silent. What could possibly go wrong? In Retrieval, a horror puzzle game, the player is given the mission to attempt to connect with the crew, find out what happened to the ship all those years ago, and hopefully get out alive.
Routine
Developer: Lunar Software
Platform(s): Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Harkening back to the horror sci-fi of the ‘80s (aka the BEST era), Routine sees the player attempting to survive in a lunar base overrun with a threat that sees you as the threat and will stop at nothing to exterminate you. You can run and hide—and you should—and only defend yourself as a last resort because the only way to survive is to keep going.
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Developer: Bloober Team
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Silent Hill 2 finally gets the remake that fans have been clamoring for. Developed by Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, The Medium), it sends players back into the fog to discover the enhanced horrors that wait for them when James Sunderland is once again searching for clues after receiving a letter from his wife—his dead wife—that sends him to the haunted and haunting town of Silent Hill.
Silent Hill f
Developer: Neobards Entertainment
Platform(s): TBA
Release date: TBA 2024
Little is known about Silent Hill f, but let’s be honest, we’re already sold. Here’s what we do know: It’s being written by Ryukishi07 (When They Cry) and appears to be harkening back to the series’ survival horror roots. It also moves the setting from Silent Hill to rural Japan. Very mysterious and very intriguing.
Silent Hill Townfall
Developer: No Code
Platform(s): TBA
Release date: TBA 2024
Silent Hill fans have an embarrassment of horror riches coming their way this year. In addition to the Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f, this entry, developed by No Code and published by Annapurna Interactive and Konami Digital Entertainment, is being described as a spin-off of the franchise and is reportedly set to launch an anthology series. What that will look like, who knows, but we’ll be waiting to play it as the details continue emerging from the fog.
Slitterhead
Developer: Bokeh Game Studio
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
While plot details are scarce for the action survival horror Slitterhead, between the awesomely grotesque teaser trailer and the bona fides behind it, we’re ready to play this game on day one. The game is being developed by Bokeh Game Studio, which boasts the talents of Keiichiro Toyama (director of the first Silent Hill game, as well as some of the Siren titles) as well as concept artist Miki Takahashi (Siren) and character designer Kazunobu Sato (Siren and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City). Plus, Akira Yamoka (Silent Hill) will be composing the soundtrack.
Still Wakes the Deep
Developer: The Chinese Room
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Release date: Early 2024
Horror is best in an isolated setting, and it doesn’t get much more isolated than the middle of an ocean. In Still Wakes the Deep, the player will find them trapped on a collapsing oil right off the coast of Scotland. If that weren’t already horrifying enough, something paranormal is happening, pushing the edges of logic, reality, and sanity.
Terror: Endless Night
Developer: Unseen Silence
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
Terror: Endless Night explores real-life horrors by turning the true events of a 19th-century rescue mission in the Arctic into a morally tangled strategy game. The story sees the player onboard a sailing ship setting out to find and rescue two missing ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which were on a mission to find a path through the Arctic to East Asia—or at least discover their grisly end. However, when your ship also becomes trapped in the ice, it’s up to you to keep your crew alive and sane by any means necessary.
Tormented Souls 2
Developer: Dual Effect
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5
Release Date: TBA 2024
What would you do to save your cursed loved one? Would you cross every forbidden line? Would you take on demonic creatures with nothing but makeshift weapons? Caroline Walker would. The heroine of the first Tormented Souls game is back, and despite dreaming of a simple, normal life, she finds herself pulled back into the darkness while trying to save her sister from a curse in this survival horror sequel.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
Developer: Hardsuit Labs, Inc., The Chinese Room, Paradox Interactive
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Release date: Fall 2024
Being a vampire certainly has its perks; immortality, for instance, has always sounded pretty dope. However, even vampires can’t escape one thing: Politics. At least not in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. In this action role-playing game sequel, you take on the role of an elder vampire just trying to live your best undead life on the darkened streets of Seattle. However, the city is on the brink of war between rival undead factions. You’ll need to hunt for victims, lead your disciples, and choose sides if you want to survive and shape the future of vampire society (or tear it down entirely).
Zoochosis
Developer: Clapperheads
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release date: TBA 2024
In this bodycam-view horror simulator, players take on the role of a zookeeper setting out on his first night shift. After strapping on your trusty body cam, it’s time to make your rounds and take care of the animals. But something sinister is in the air, and the animals begin behaving strangely. Is it zoochosis (no, seriously, that’s a real thing)? Nope, it’s a parasite: one capable of transforming the beloved zoo animals into grotesque, bloodthirsty monsters. It’s your job to discover which of the animals have been infected, craft vaccines, and save them before it’s too late.
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