More Horrific & Mysterious Games Lurk In The Shadows
The Silent Hill franchise delivers a gratifying and horrifying experience–no matter how many times you play either of its games. Each game is full of suspense and thrill in every corner. Silent Hill’s setting is full of grittiness and mystery and its protagonists and antagonist are remarkable.
If you’ve finished playing Silent Hill and are looking for alternatives – fret not! We’ve combed through the archives and saved you the hassle with our top 8 picks.
Of course, for all the games we’ve reviewed, we’ve also added a handy link, so you can check out our full thoughts on that and see if it’s something you want to invest your time with.
So without further ado, we present 8 games to check out if you’re looking for a game like Silent Hill.
The Medium
In need of another horrifying game composed by Silent Hill musician Akira Yamaoka, then The Medium has you covered. This third-person horror game contains enough thrills and chills to keep you on the edge of your seat.
The compositions from Yamaoka and Layers of Fear composer Arkadiusz Reikowski are mind-numbing and spooky. Their tracks help set the mood for a journey of bizarre and disturbing proportions that’ll make you think twice about venturing through its treacherous world.
Music aside, The Medium features wonderful gameplay. In this game, you’ll be bestowed with psychic abilities that’ll allow you to solve puzzles and uncover agonizing secrets about this game’s world and characters. As you traverse through the game, you’ll come across horrific sights and the game’s ferocious beast, The Maw.
Worried about not being able to fight back? Don’t fret! This game grants you the ability to create energy shields and fire deadly spirit blasts at enemies. You’ll be traversing through multiple realities, so it makes sense to have something to use to combat these deadly adversaries.
If you’re looking to embark on another spooky adventure, check out The Medium.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a game worth playing if you enjoyed the immersive and horrifying worlds of the Silent Hill franchise. This game features an engrossing tale that messes with your psychological state and makes you question the morality of its main character, Daniel.
The game’s combat is simple, though. You’ll mainly be traversing this game’s setting, finding clues and notes about Daniel’s past endeavors. The game features many puzzles for you to solve. Some are complex while others are straightforward.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s visuals aren’t too impressive. Some environments lack depth and polish. However, the game’s soundtrack is remarkable and wonderfully executed. The game builds tension wonderfully and there are many tracks that build upon the world’s tension.
There’s always this feeling that someone, human or non-human is watching you. This is because the game limits your access to light sources and forces you to traverse several dark environments to progress. It’s a heinous tactic with a thrilling payoff. If you’re looking for a horror game that’ll immerse and spook you, check out Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a stellar mystery thriller that’s sure to get your adrenaline going. This game has you control four protagonists. Each bearing a mysterious supernatural camera called the Camera Obscura.
You’ll lead these four characters through creepy environments in hopes of unraveling the truth behind a spooky mystery. This scary endeavor involves suicidal shrine maidens and a peculiar substance called the Black Water. The latter feeds into the game’s narrative and gameplay, respectively.
Scary maidens and the Black Water aren’t the only threats you’ll need to worry about in this game. This game features a plethora of individually designed ghosts, each of them having a desire to murder you. You’ll be tasked to take a snapshot of these ghosts to defeat them. Some will require one snapshot, while others require multiple shots.
The game offers different lenses and film types for you to experiment with, allowing the game to add a wonderful layer of strategy to its intriguing action. This game constantly has you shifting between third and first-person perspectives because of its game mechanics. This is never tiresome, and you’ll find the point-of-view shifts fun and exciting.
Until Dawn
Until Dawn is an interactive drama game with an intriguing premise and colorful cast. This game features an intriguing butterfly effect system that’s sure to keep you engaged with the story unfolding before your eyes. Like Silent Hill, you’ll walk away from Until Dawn feeling satisfied and terrified.
In this game, you take control of eight young adults who have decided to crash at an area in Blackwood Mountain. Although these characters indulge in fun and reckless activity, they’ll soon become aware of the danger that lurks within this mountainous landscape.
Until Dawn is a game that places you in the mindset of a godly figure. You’re given the opportunity to decide the fate of these eight protagonists. This aspect of the game forces players to pay attention to the narrative and how the characters act within it. It also features multiple different scenarios, allowing players to replay the title to experience something new.
Until Dawn is a spooky thriller with many twists and turns. If you’re looking for a game that blends the joy of horror films and games, I’d recommend playing through Until Dawn several times.
The Mortuary Assistant
Have you ever felt terrified during a night shift? If so, then you may want to stay clear of this horrific game. Like Silent Hill, The Mortuary Assistant features a chilling atmosphere and nightmarish imagery. This is a title that utilizes its jump-scares effectively and builds tension wonderfully.
In it, you take control of a character who has taken an apprenticeship at River Fields Mortuary. This character has worked at this establishment for numerous months, completing tasks for its Mortician and learning the ropes that come with the job.
One night, your boss calls you into work to handle some preserving issues. What starts off as a usual night on the job transforms itself into a heart-pounding thrill ride that you can’t escape from. The gameplay loop in this game is simple and not too impressive. You will find yourself performing doctor-like procedures on dead clients and searching for clues about the workplace.
Where this game shines is in its tension, sound design, and spooky imagery. The lack of background music makes walking through this mortuary a chilling experience through and through. The spooky individuals you encounter in this game look inhuman and nightmarish. These spooky apparitions animate in the most bizarre manners possible, making them feel evil and mysterious.
Visage
Like The Mortuary Assistant, Visage was another spooky first-person horror game many content creators played alongside their audience. The gameplay’s simple but the world is as mysterious and creepy as Silent Hill’s. With its simple puzzles, chilling imagery, and dark setting, Visage is a wonderful game for those looking to get spooked.
Visage takes place in a suburban home in the 1980s. In this home, players control a man named Dwayne Anderson, who finds himself trapped inside his house and tormented by supernatural entities of his past. You’re tasked with helping Dwayne uncover the cause of all the paranormal activity and escape.
This is a game that benefits greatly from its slow-paced gameplay and storytelling. The slow pacing allows the game to generate and maintain its dreadful atmosphere. This game will make you feel like someone is watching your every move with its spooky imagery and quiet environments. It features a nice mix of easy and difficult puzzles for you to solve.
Resident Evil Franchise
The Resident Evil franchise has made quite a comeback in recent years. With titles like Resident Evil VII: Biohazard bringing the series back to its terror roots, it’s safe to say that Resident Evil fans are being treated to a wonderful meal of superb spooky content.
Earlier games in this franchise presented gamers with a weird tank-control scheme. This control scheme made traversing its environments difficult but worked in the franchise’s favor where tension is concerned. You see, the game’s tank controls hampered your movement, making you feel vulnerable to enemy attacks. It was this franchise’s way of installing fear in its fans’ souls.
Furthermore, earlier games supplied players with small inventory space. While this sounds awful, in theory, this was a brilliant move on Capcom’s part. Like its tank movement controls, the limited space made players feel fragile and unsafe. This made traversing zombie-filled areas terrifying, as walking through a herd of them without a weapon is something no player would ever want to do.
Outlast I & II
Films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity opened the door for found footage media. These films went on to inspire many filmmakers and video game developers to create projects with a found footage aesthetic in mind.
Enter Outlast 1 and 2. These games blend found footage camera techniques with fire-person gameplay design relatively well. These games feature creepy-looking assailants, invisible health bars, and dark settings. The characters you control are rendered helpless in both entries, meaning you’ll be forced to dodge, hide, and sneak past your foes if you hope to survive.
Besides avoiding foes, you will need to search for various clues and solve simple puzzles to progress. Like Silent Hill, the clues you stumble across in Outlast 1 and 2 will help you piece together the history of each game’s landscape and inhabitants. Both Outlast titles feature great scares and nightmarish imagery that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.
If you’re looking for a psychological first-person horror game that utilizes found-footage camera techniques effectively, check out Outlast 1 and 2.
So there we have it, our 8 video game picks to keep you busy after playing Silent Hill.
What do you think of our picks? Do you agree? Are there any notable omissions? Let us know in the comments below!