8 Terrifying Horror Games Set In Space

Settings are one of the most essential ingredients in game design. They can help set the tone for the entire game, or even be used for environmental storytelling. All good horror games make excellent use of their settings, creating a sense of dread and terror about what may lie around the next dark corner.

Most horror games are set firmly on Earth in the eeriest and most dilapidated buildings, but there are a few that are far less grounded, taking place in the final frontier: space. Old space stations, alien planets, and the vast, empty vacuum all serve to create horror sci-fi excellence.

8 Moons Of Madness

Lovecraft Meets Sci-Fi Horror

• Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Released: October 22nd, 2019
• Developer(s): Rock Pocket Games, Dreamloop Games

In this Lovecraft-inspired sci-fi title, humanity has received signs that intelligent life may be hiding on Mars after all. A scientist is sent to the station located on the Red Planet with no knowledge of the signal that was heard, tasked only with keeping everything running smoothly.

The isolation and silence of the station is more eerie than tranquil, but soon the player will learn they are not as alone as they think when peculiar occurrences keep happening that will throw the sanity of protagonist Shane Neweheart into question. Are these strange creatures and events real, or is life on the empty planet taking its toll? Even with the question that everything could be overwrought imaginings, it does not make this game any less terrifying.

7 Signalis

A Small Indie Title Packed With Horror And Mystery

In Signalis, advanced technology sees humanity taking off into space and successfully creating androids, known as Replikas, which are used for labor and military purposes. One of these replikas awakens on an alien planet, her partner missing, leaving only cryptic clues to "find her" and "wake up".

While on the hunt for Ariadne, players encounter countless mindless replikas that have fallen into states of hostility, forcing the player to gun down these terrifying lifeforms before they are torn apart by them. Even with its block pixel artwork and lower budget compared to AAA titles, Signalis delivers a frightening and immersive experience with a surprising amount of depth. Players need to pay close attention to their resources, solve puzzles, and use precise actions throughout to determine which ending they will achieve out of the multiple possible conclusions.

6 Lethal Company

The Many Planets Are Home To Dangerous And Terrifying Creatures

Though many gamers might not think this simple multiplayer game has the potential to be terrifying, they would be in for one scary surprise. Players take on the roles of grunts working for The Company, traveling to alien planets to recover items to sell in order to meet their quota. This sounds like a simple enough premise, but there are plenty of threats that could easily cut any player's run short.

Environmental threats such as weather and long falls, alogn with horrific monsters, pose dangers to the players, and they will need to sneak or flee whenever a monster draws near to their position. It's a tough task to avoid panicking and fleeing for the nearest exit, even if that is not ever a smart move.

5 Observation

Witness Horror Through The Lens Of An AI

As the name suggests, players will mostly be acting as an observer through this sci-fi horror experience. Rather than taking on the role of a human protagonist, they will instead act as S.A.M., the AI onboard a spaceship trying to uncover what happened to the crew that once was onboard.

Players can cycle through the various cameras to observe different parts of the station, and guide Emma through it all to aid her in lifting the veil on the mystery here. Observation is vastly different from other games in the genre, but it's this uniqueness that makes this one of the best sci-fi horror games out there.

4 Prey

Threats Could Be Anywhere, Or Anything

In an alternate timeline, humanity has advanced in space travel more quickly, resulting in the creation of Talos I, a space station orbiting around the moon. As is quite common in sci-fi stories, mankind has been dabbling with things that should be left well alone, in this case, a shapeshifting alien life-form called Typhon.

Prey features some RPG elements, as players can unlock attributes for Morgan Yu, the player character, but make no mistake: this game is terrifying. Trapped aboard a spaceship with a creature that can assume the form of anything, even something unassuming as a coffee mug, makes every object suspicious, and every second of exploration rife with tension. This is Prop Hunt meets Alien: Isolation.

3 Alien: Isolation

The Xenomorph Might Be The Most Terrifying Stalker Enemy

Based on the popular movie franchise created by Ridely Scott, Alien: Isolation takes place between the first and second movies, following the journey of Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda. After being told the flight recorder of the Nostromo has been located, Amanda sets off in hopes of finding out for herself what exactly happened to her mother, coming face to face with the same alien species that almost killed her.

Throughout her journey in Sevastopol Station, Amanda will be pushed to her limits, as she not only learns to survive against the hostile humans and androids onboard, but the Xenomorph that presents the largest threat, and this threat looms heavy throughout the entire game. With very sophisticated AI at the time of its release, the Xenomorph remains one of the most terrifying stalker enemies in any horror game, and with players unable to truly escape because of the space station setting, the fear that it strikes is only amplified.

2 System Shock

Players Are Pitted Against A Dangerous Rogue AI

Set in the not-so-distant future, System Shock follows a nameless hacker is caught while trying to gain access to files about a space station known as Citadel Station. He is then taken to that very station, and offered a clean slate in exchange for a small favor: hack into SHODAN, the AI that controls the station. The hacker sees further opportunities for himself, along with his freedom, and agrees, but after the events that follow, he probably wishes he had just served time instead.

After SHODAN is freed from its ethical constraints, it commandeers control of Citadel Station. The protagonist awakens after a six-month long coma to see the station has completely fallen under SHODAN's control, and everyone who was once alive is now dead, or mutated into murderous monsters, turning the station into a living nightmare.

1 Dead Space

The Most Famous Sci-Fi Horror Game Boasts Blood-Chilling Terror

There likely isn't a gamer alive who hasn't heard the name Dead Space, and even those who have not played it know all about the terrifying Necromorphs that infest the mining ship USG Ishimura. Players are forced to confront these creatures while investigating a distress signal, and must use whatever tools are at their disposal in the hopes they can survive these terrors.

The Ishimura is an appropirately eerie setting, with its vacant corridors, ransacked rooms, and lack of living beings other than the terrifying creatures made of mutated corpses. Dead Space set the bar for sci-fi horror video games, and any developer hoping to create the next space-faring horror hit should look to this game for the boundless inspiration it can offer.