Resident Evil 2 is the best-selling game of the franchise and quite often finds itself on lists of the best video games ever made. Resident Evil 2 has a pretty in-depth story and actually outshines the original game, improving nearly every aspect of it, including its atmosphere, setting, gameplay, and audio.
Resident Evil 2 is a survival horror game that takes place in Raccoon City during the zombie apocalypse brought on by the T-virus developed by the pharmaceutical company, Umbrella. The story follows two characters, Leon and Claire, who split off to do their own thing while attempting to escape Raccoon City and help those around them.
Honorable Mention - P.T.
P.T., the horrific horror game that created massive waves within the genre was little more than Layers of Fear, and Resident Evil 7.
Doki Doki Literature Club
To those who haven't played this game nor know nothing about it, this one may come as a surprise. Doki Doki Literature Club looks like a simple and cute visual novel that players can click through to pick their favorite waifu out of the four girls the main character interacts with. However, after about two hours of gameplay, the visual novel takes an incredibly dark turn and becomes a true horror game that will have the player questioning their own sanity. The twist in this game is by far one of the best twists in any horror game. It is best to go into this game blind, so if you know nothing about it, it is definitely worth the playthrough.
Outlast
Outlast is a horror survival game that was wildly popular around the same time P.T. was released. Miles Upshur, a freelance investigating journalists learns of a rumor about the Mount Massive Asylum, a psychiatric hospital known for incredibly inhumane experiments on its patients.
As Miles enters the facility, he is immediately greeted by a number of dead bodies and a dying guard who warns him that the patients (Variants) have gotten free and urges him to leave the hospital before he, too, becomes just another body. Miles soon learns that the way he came in has been blocked and he must press on through the building in order to escape.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Outlast was actually inspired by Amnesia: The Dark Descent in its production, along with found-footage horror films. Amnesia is a classic horror game, one that nearly every gamer at least knows of. It is one of the first survival horror games in which you cannot combat the evil entities, just hide and evade from them. The best part of Amnesia is the fact that the players learn of their past and how they got into this giant castle as the character does. Players get to watch the story slowly unfold bit by bit, while slowly going insane and hiding from the creatures that seem to lurk around every corner.
BioShock
Though many may not consider with its dystopian, underwater world. Players play as a character named Jack who finds himself in the underwater city of Rapture. Jack is ed and guided by a character named Atlas throughout the game who gives him tips and guides him through the city to safety. People in Rapture have become crazed, and they seemingly continuously pop out to murder and steal whatever and whoever they can while hiding from the Little Sisters and Big Daddys around the city. This game has a choice system and depending on what the player chooses different endings can occur. This game also has a massive twist that has made it one of the best stories in the horror genre.
Until Dawn
Until Dawn features a reunion of friends who are meeting again during the 1 year anniversary of two of their friends going missing. This game is about uncovering the mystery of what happened to them, and what exactly is lurking in the woods.
Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation is another horror/survival game much like Outlast and Amnesia, where the player cannot fight the aliens, they can only run away and hide from them. Alien: Isolation almost feels like a direct sequel to the original an Alien is loose in the ship she travels to.
Silent Hill
most famous horror game franchises there is, other than maybe Resident Evil itself. Silent Hill is based on a small northeastern American town that is incredibly haunted and plagued by evil. Each game follows a plethora of different characters with different objectives and affiliations to the town.
The first game focuses on a man and his daughter who begin to drive through the town while on vacation but end up getting into a car crash just as they enter. The man's daughter, Cheryl Mason, is film in 2006 was based on.
System Shock 2
And just like Outlast was inspired by Amnesia, Amnesia was inspired by a game that was heavily influenced by System Shock 2, a notorious horror-game known for its popular and horrific A.I, SHODAN, who has a similar twist to BioShock (which has been subbed its spiritual successor). System Shock 2 was named the second scariest game, behind Silent Hill 2, and has inspired a great number of other games in the horror genre.
The Last Of Us
for a super dark and epic finale.
