Video games might just be the best way to experience horror. It’s not you watching a character in a movie or TV show go into a haunted mansion or hide from a maniacal murderer; it’s you who has to put that ghost to rest or escape the clutches of a serial killer. Here are seven of the latest video games to play for fun, fright-filled nights this Halloween!

Outlast 2

During your coverage of a grisly murder of an unidentified pregnant woman, you and your fellow journalist/wife get entangled in the deranged rituals of a religious death cult. Find out what’s really happening in the eerie town of Temple Gate, and confront the disturbing truths when faith gets twisted to exploit people in Outlast 2. As a standalone sequel to the surprise indie horror hit Outlast, it improves on some of the core exploration and hide-and-seek mechanics of the first, throwing intense moment-to-moment thrills right at your face.

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Little Nightmares

Trapped inside a ship, you’re a small, helpless child that needs to escape by solving environmental puzzles and evading capture from creepy creatures in Little Nightmares. It’s a 3D side-scrolling adventure with a surreal art style that’s both awesome and unsettling. Like the worst of bad dreams, the visuals straddle that line of looking just real enough that when you notice oddities intrude the space, you get that skin-crawling feeling of knowing something’s not quite right, and you just want to get away as soon as possible, hoping to wake up any second now.

Available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows

The Evil Within 2

Fight and sneak your way through the monster-infested simulated suburbia of Union to rescue your daughter in the action horror game The Evil Within 2. You’ll be doing battle with beasts and your own brain, as the very space you’re traversing can shift radically at a moment’s notice. The game follows the open-world structure, so you have the option to explore and tackle side quests, revealing answers and sometimes even more questions about the nature of the narrative.

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Observer

There are many reasons to fear the future, but have you ever considered how much scarier it could be if the gadgets we relied on to connect to reality got tampered with to literally change what we see with our own eyes? In Observer, you’re a mind-hacking cyborg detective who has to solve gruesome crimes in a seedy, claustrophobic tenement. It’s Blade Runner as survival horror, with psychedelic imagery that will make you scrutinize your sanity and a story that will have you doubting technology.

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Resident Evil 7

Unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of your wife you once thought dead while trying to survive inside the ramshackle residence of a cannibalistic clan. It’s the newest installment in the storied Resident Evil franchise, and it captures the essence of what made the first game so memorable. You’re stuck in a horror house with very few resources, plenty of puzzles, and grotesque dangers waiting around every corner. It’s playable with a VR headset, so put one on for a freak show you literally can’t look away from.

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Friday the 13th: The Game

If you’ve ever shouted at the teens in the Friday the 13th films for doing the dumbest things that lead to their demise, try putting yourself in their shoes in this online multiplayer game with the official movie license! See if you can stop yourself from panicking when another player stalks you down as the unstoppable hockey-masked murdering monstrosity that is Jason. The fun part though is when you get to play as Jason and have to systematically hunt down other players!

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Detention

The all-too-real terror inflicted by an oppressive government on its people reinforces the supernatural dread that the ghost story of Detention tells. You are Ray, a student of Greenwood High School; after a series of unfortunate events, you wake up to a nightmarish version of the campus, surrounded by malevolent spirits with no easy way out. Slink past spectral threats and collect clues in ever-changing 2D levels to uncover the grim secrets of the school and learn about Taiwan’s true history of martial law. It’s a chilling reminder of how politics always impacts personal lives, and sometimes to the most tragic and terrifying extents.

Available on Windows, PlayStation 4, and macOS

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