Welcome to Culture of Gaming. For this list, we’ll look at games whose settings seriously unnerved us. So which video game world gave you the heebie-jeebies? Let us know in the comments below.
10. Darkwood, Forest
Forests are national settings for creepy stories, but one constantly expanding and brings a plague with it – now that’s downright terrifying.
Darkwood follows the stranger as he scroungers for resources and searches for a way to escape the mysterious woods. But the game’s roguelike elements change the layout of the forest, which turns its victims into monsters. The ever-evolving nature of the game is enough to make you feel like you’re lost in the woods, and you’ll need to summon every ounce of determination if you wish to survive the beasts that come hunting for you in the night.
9. Outlast, Mount Massive Asylum
Another setting that commonly brings tales of horror with it is the psychiatric hospital. Indeed, Outlast’s ‘Mount Massive Asylum’ is one for the ages.
The Survival Horror Game sees investigative journalists Miles Upshur break into Mount Massive after hearing the staff is performing experiments on their patients. Corpses of the staff litter the building, and patients wander its halls, offering plenty of jump scares and other unsettling encounters.
Every room features something that will make your skin crawl, which is made even worse because there is no way to defend yourself with gruesome imagery around every corner.
And a cult that follows is something not of this world. Mount Massive asylum has its fair share of scares.
8. American McGee’s Alice, Wonderland
While Wonderland is again created in this reimagining, it’s far from the wacky and lovely world presented in the source material.
With her family dead from a fire, Alice’s damaged mental state is reflected in the magical land. Everything you once thought was charming or whimsical is turned into a twisted, nightmarish version of itself, including the characters.
Areas once thought to be bursting with color are now drab and lifeless. And the less said about the queen of heart’s hellish palace, the better. The game’s version of Wonderland is a terrifically bio adaptation, which is both commendable and upsetting.
7. Dark Souls, Lordran
Dark Souls was not the FromSoftware’s first ultra-difficult game, though it did popularize the formula. And a big part of what made the first entry so grueling and stressful was its setting.
Lordran is overflowing with deadly creatures that want nothing more than to decimate you viciously, but it’s also shrouded in mystery.
As the player (a human with an undead curse), you must piece together the history of this dark place. Even if you have no interest in lore, Lordran has plenty to make you panic. Claustrophobic castles hide monstrous baddies around every turn, and offshoots like the toxic blight town and the pitch-black tomb of the giants will make you wish you never left the Undead Asylum.
6. Little Nightmares, The Maw
In this puzzle, platformer players control a young girl as she attempts to escape a mostly submerged vessel called the Maw. Part of what makes this metal structure so insanely creepy is that signs of electricity are few and far between.
The players only light source for most of the game is a lighter. And tip-toeing around the dank and darkened Maw will make every noise and movement much more sinister. The oversized misshapen inhabitants that attempt to capture you will really get under your skin.
Art direction can go a long way to defining a world. And the Maw is certainly well-defined.
5. Bioshock, Rapture
The first time Rapture is revealed in Bioshock, it is awe-inspiring, but as soon as we got into the city, we wanted nothing more than to leave. Designed as an underwater utopia, Rapture descended into madness long before you arrived.
Civil war, rampant crime, and psychotic citizens addicted to gene-altering Adam have turned the once-prosperous city into a nightmare.
The previously mentioned citizens don disturbing animal masks and mumble to themselves before they lash out.
Imposing big daddies and their genuinely disturbing little sisters will make you nope out of any room. Every area you come across is more upsetting than the last. From Dr. Steinman’s blood-soaked surgical suite to Ford Frolic with its human art projects, and somehow, the game’s fifties-era makes everything creepier.
4. Pathologic, The Town
It may not have a flashy name, but the town in this cult classic survival horror game deserves some recognition.
Players control one of three healers who arrive in a town struck by another worldly disease called the sad plague. Helping its citizens is much easier said than done as you must also balance your resources to make it through the games 12 days.
A certain sense of dread and foreboding hangs over the town, adding to its creep factor tenfold. The citizens know their town is dying, and as you explore the town through the heavy fog, you’ll begin to find your resolve being tested.
3. Bloodborne, Yharnam
Lordran is certainly creepy, but Yharnam is on another level. FromSoftware heavily leaned on gothic and Victorian architecture for inspiration, and it absolutely shows. The city’s sprawling design could be breathtaking in any other game.
Still, here all it does is invoke tales of werewolves and Jack the ripper hit by a mysterious plague. The streets of Yharnam are swarming with horrific creatures and mad mobs of citizens attempting to murder anyone or anything that doesn’t belong. And it’s up to you to make it through all of it and find the source of the plague.
2. Resident Evil Series, Racoon City
Whether you’re exploring the Spencer Mansion in the first game, or surviving the streets in the second game, Raccoon City will surely put you through the wringer.
The city is ground zero for zombie outbreaks and has been scaring gamers for decades. It’s all because the umbrella corporation began experimenting with a highly contagious T virus. Worse than just creating regular human zombies, the T virus infects and mutates all walks of life.
As a result, horrific death can come from anything. The hordes of the undead ravage the city to the point of destruction while creating one of the most iconic locations in video games.
1. Silent Hill, Silent Hill
While Resident Evil has proved itself the more enduring franchise, there’s just something special and terrible about Silent Hill.
The titular town is a masterclass in showcasing dreadful creature design. With big monsters lumbering out of the shadows to perform unspeakable acts on the player. Although the distance fog of the first game is incredibly dated now, the series built that technological limitation into its world, and it was all the better for it.
Every spooky aspect of the series is successful because of its world. Its monsters, usually revolting mirrors of humanity’s most vile aspects, will forever creep into the minds of players who experience the franchise’s true terror in the mood.
