Best Indie Horror Games of 2024

2024 has been a decent year for indie horror games. From abandoned theme parks full of monsters to Eldritch beings at sea, there has been something for everyone’s tastes. So if you’re looking for a smaller horror game to sink your teeth into this Halloween, these six games have you covered.

Hollowbody

While the Silent Hill 2 remake has proven to be remarkably successful at capturing the feeling of the PS2 original, for those looking for a more accurate gameplay experience it may be a letdown. This is where Hollowbody comes in, which sticks more closely to the fixed camera angles and awkward combat of PS2-era survival horror.

Set in a dilapidated Britain in a vaguely cyberpunk near-future, you play as a black-market smuggler whose partner has disappeared into an exclusion zone. You’ll be exploring the ruins of an abandoned town, complete with monsters around every corner. However, there’s a creeping dread that even beyond the beasts, this is not a pleasant place to be. Hollowbody does have some noticeable flaws, but it’s one of the best indie horror games to recreate that early 2000s feel.

Hollowbody is available for PC.

Conscript

War is a common setting for video games. Whether it’s dense strategy games recreating historical battles or gung-ho shooters about fighting for freedom, it’s been heavily covered. Where war doesn’t feature that often is horror, which is a surprise when the setting is so ripe for it. War is a miserable, terrifying experience for those who fight in it, after all.

This is where Conscript comes in. It uses the damp, rat-infested trenches of World War I as its setting and it’s incredibly effective. The tight spaces and poor lighting make it hard to see threats around each corner, while damaged supply lines force item management to the forefront. It’s very Resident Evil in its structure, but the horrors here are much more human. By marrying the mechanics of horror games to the harsh realities of combat, Conscript is an effective reminder that war is hell.

Conscript is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Pacific Drive

While not strictly a horror game in many people’s definitions, Pacific Drive meets the criteria of being one of the best indie horror games of 2024 in many ways. Supernatural threats you’re mostly powerless against? Check. A tense, foreboding atmosphere that persists everywhere you explore? Check. Jump scares? If mannequins appearing ominously behind you without you noticing count, then absolutely check.

Pacific Drive sends you out into an exclusion zone in America’s spookiest region (the Pacific Northwest) where science has unleashed horrors upon the landscape. Also your only protection is a beaten-up 1970s station wagon. Half survival roguelike, half car maintenance simulator, Pacific Drive manages to evoke horror through the random nature of its anomalous threats and with a landscape that becomes increasingly alien as you progress through the game.

Pacific Drive is available for PC and PS5.

Still Wakes the Deep

Isolated locations are the perfect locations for horror, and where is more isolated than an oil rig in the middle of the ocean? Still Wakes the Deep sees you playing as a rig worker as the crew drills into something terrible in the ocean that should have been left alone. The game that follows is a desperate rush to escape from this unknowable horror while trapped by your surroundings.

Developed by The Chinese Room, Still Wakes the Deep evokes the same horror as their previous work Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Plenty of tense atmosphere, a monster that could be anywhere as it cracks and breaks the rig around itself, and a cast of excellent voice actors that sell the terror make the game one of the best indie horror games of 2024.

Still Wakes the Deep is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Mouthwashing

Mouthwashing is a game that seemingly came out of nowhere this year, and quickly shot right to the top of many players’ lists. The premise is that a spaceship crew is stranded following a crash that may have been caused by the captain. As the game progresses, the truth is revealed through a series of surreal flashbacks told out of order, revealing a rapid decline in sanity across the whole crew.

Mouthwashing uses low poly aesthetics to great effect, crafting a cast of characters who are generally unpleasant to look at and an environment that’s oppressive even before things begin to collapse. It’s a game that’s left a huge impression on its players, one that’s unlikely to be shaken any time soon.

Mouthwashing is available for PC.

Crow Country

The low-poly PS1 aesthetic works wonders for horror. The shifting textures, static faces and awkward shapes and movements add an uncanny pleasantness that can be put to great work when it comes to making people uneasy. Crow Country embraces the PS1 horror aesthetic to its fullest, in a way you’d likely not expect from the developers of Snipperclips.

You play as Mara Forest, a special agent investigating Crow Country, an abandoned theme park, whose owner has disappeared. The game is a classic survival horror game, with limited resources, obtuse puzzles and an array of creepy monsters wandering around. However, while the gameplay evokes Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the visuals owe a greater debt to Final Fantasy VII, right down to the chibi character models.

Crow Country is a fantastic horror game all round. The story is a true mystery, full of twists and turns. The gameplay is full of inventive puzzles. And the theme park is dripping with atmosphere, with the feeling that more horrors are lurking around the corners you can’t see. It’s an essential game for any horror fan, and easily one of the best indie horrors of 2024.

Crow Country is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Let us know what your favorite indie horror game of 2024 is in the comments below!

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