Fixed camera angles helped define early 3D survival horror, trapping players in narrow, pre-determined perspectives that build tension within the surrounding dread. It can feel both as a physical and psychological constraint when the mind screams for escape.
This genre began with Alone in the Dark, also among the first games to channel Lovecraftian influences, later carried forward by Resident Evil, a series that put story and atmosphere in equal importance to raw reflexes. A few of these titles directly note the two games as influences.
In these 10 disturbing horror games, we never quite see through the protagonists’ eyes, and maybe that’s for the best. These stories are all the less disturbing when the fright feels like it’s happening to someone else and not directly to us… at least, that’s what we can tell ourselves as we lie awake at night from sheer terror long after game credits roll.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS4/PS5)
Loerelei begins with nothing more than car keys and a tampon. Other essentials here are pen and paper. No, really. The game manual highly suggests taking down notes.
Published by Annapurna Interactive of Stray, this moody film noir blends gun-to-your-head tension with puzzles that bend like E.C. Escher’s physically impossible designs.
Loerelei herself is dressed like she belongs in the conundrum: short double-breasted trench coat, dark trousers, and, despite the darkness, wayfarer style sunglasses. Will her eyes ever make an appearance? Do her eyes even exist?
Every corridor, painting, riddle, and film reel can be a layer to the descending labyrinth. Reality shifts beneath the floorboards in a glitched-out fracture that makes the entire ordeal a relentless challenge.
Psychological terror, style, and substance that demands unblinking concentration.
Tormented Souls
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
A classic survival horror where, as Caroline, you find yourself suddenly trapped in an abandoned mansion that once served as the city hospital. Its former inhabitants are long gone, yet the halls still echo with the shuffle of sinister, human-like creatures.
Survival means making do with whatever remnants the haunted abode provides: a modified nail gun, and other desperate tools cobbled together in the dark. You can try to avoid any lurking threats, though the monsters often opt for violence.
Fans of the classic modes of the genre will find comfort in its option for tank controls, while another title, Murder House, gives you no such option other than tank (mentioned thrice in its Steam page).
A true homage that takes on a new twist and its own warning: Do not let shadows embrace you.
Song of Horror
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, PS4, Xbox One)
An editor at Wake Publishing sends his assistant to investigate the sudden disappearance of their client, a renowned and eccentric writer. The inquiry thickens into dread when the assistant also disappears without a trace.
This title places you in the shoes of a shifting cast of characters, each bound to the mystery of the two lost individuals. Every choice carries consequences. Death does not end the story, but instead passes the burden onto another.
As something ancient and merciless lurks in the shadows, every survivor brings their own light, literal and symbolic, as they struggle against an all-consuming darkness.
Attempts to stave off evil entities are futile: you can only evade, hide, or try to hold the door shut long enough before it can force its way inside.
Alisa
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
As the titular character, you wake up in a wicked, dreamlike place while taking on an investigation in the outskirts of town.
In the unknown place resides strange, whimsical characters, to which you have to ask the first thing you can converse with, a puppet through a hole in the wall (who is also the merchant): why am I wearing this dress?
Among the many questions that hang in the silence is a solitary answer. The place is known only as The Doll House. A place unnerving even when brightly-lit.
Don’t be fooled by the familiar jittery low-poly: the title has some difficulty that the devs peg as Soulsborne-like. Playing in this doll house is not a walk in the park. The title can also be a mixed bag with camp and secret agent lore running together.
Successfully battle sentient playthings, or risk being wound up with the rest of the puppets.
10 Dead Doves
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck)
It opens with all the makings of horror tropes: lighthearted tomfoolery between two close friends who are backpacking through a forest in search of an urban legend, all made exciting with a sprinkle of trespassing.
Their path leads them into one of the most storied landscapes IRL: the ancient, massive Appalachian mountains. So begins the narrative low-poly horror that resists one defining moment.
Its cinematography and frequent cuts imbue the exploration with an unsettling rhythm, making the quietest passage through the woods more ominous. There is a great amount of walking and parsing through objects that leave a trail of truth.
A surreal, cerebral, and ambitious expedition into unfamiliar territory where the duo don’t end up where they thought they would be…
Homebody
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X/S)
Emily hasn’t left her apartment in weeks. When her friend Laura asks what she’s afraid of, the answer feels obvious to every seasoned shut-in: the outside world is scary, and people can be complicated. The confines of a home should mean safety… right? RIGHT?!
She almost bails on the reunion even when already en route. That tug to keep going isn’t exactly social eagerness, it’s more like a sunken cost. The cabin is a ways away and turning back isn’t an option anymore.
All awkward pleasantries between the friends abruptly end when the light shuts off in their abode in the woods, and in the dark a slasher emerges.
Death is imminent. It is an important mechanic where your friends come alive again, completely oblivious, while your insights remain. Which choices will be made this time?
The more you die, the less frightening other prospects seem to be. Maybe getting out of the house is not so scary then.
A puzzle horror feature from the makers of Dream Daddy where there won’t be any cuddles in this one.
The Medium
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)
A recurring dream of a girl running through the woods is shattered by a gunshot. Marianne, the dreamer, attempts to retrace the dream’s origin, who the girl is, and why she is running.
Developed by Bloober Team, a AA studio that focuses on immersive horror titles, this narrative-driven horror is visually stunning as it is sonically unnerving.
Its art direction draws directly from the nightmarish surrealism of Zdzislaw Beksinski, whose orange-tinted visions blend apocalyptic decay with the eerily familiar. The soundtrack is co-composed by Akira Yamaoka, best known for shaping the haunting soundscape of Silent Hill.
The gameplay unfolds through a dual-reality perspective that fits the theme of a medium, treading between the living and the dead. Its split-screen feature reveals two overlapping worlds at once, where puzzles are solved and buried truths claw their way to the surface.
Hollowbody
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck)
A horror set in a derelict, dystopian wasteland where broken promises have left the city and its people to rot.
Humanoid creatures stalk the wreckage, with their twisted reflections of inhabitants that once made the place home. The remaining humankind are themselves only an echo of their presence, full of regrets and sadness.
Mica is in search of her missing partner in these ruins. Her survival is dependent on exploring the cruel remnants of a future that none hoped for. At one point, even an electric guitar becomes a weapon, as an act of the continuing despair.
Moving like its lone protagonist, this title is the work of a single developer. Headware Games handled all art, design, sound, programming, and writing, not buckling under the sheer weight of creation it seems. Not bad, Nathan.
Heartworm
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck)
Another throwback to the era of chunky polygons. This title wanders straight into an uncanny world where Sam, struck with grief from the death of her grandfather, longs for more than just revisiting memories.
An enigmatic place is discovered, known only through rumors, where there are whispers that time may be just a fluid concept and there may finally be answers to the questions about the afterlife.
Instead of a proper weapon, Sam is equipped with a camera. Though the latest title in this list, it takes from games like Resident Evil as well as Fatal Frame, both released at least two decades ago. Like in the latter title, the camera also holds supernatural powers beyond capturing reality.
Every frame Sam captures only deepens the sense that memory can also conceal rather than reveal, and that the past may be a thing already standing in the same room.
Murder House
Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck, Switch 1/2, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
A survival-horror slasher with a mood reminiscent of old VHS tapes loaded into big-backed television screens of the past, and the cheap, grainy tapes of videos not meant for all eyes to see.
Live an unnamed child’s worst nightmares, among them finding yourself locked inside a dark mall, alone. The walls are plastered with missing persons posters, all showing the face of lost children. This is when the Easter Bunny appears, though nothing quite like how you first saw it…
In the present, being 1987, a news team visits the crumbling residence of the mascot fiend, already known then as the Easter Ripper. This time, play as Emma, an intern desperate to prove herself, and who only wants to make the best of the worst possible circumstances.
The most graphic title in this list, with dire implications in real-world settings that can be deeply upsetting.
A short, incredibly tense, and bloody experience. Keep your eyes peeled and look very, very closely.
These 10 disturbing game titles are told through fixed perspectives. But really, how safe can it truly feel when the camera refuses to follow, lingering instead like a watchful eye, waiting and plotting all along–long before you even arrive at the scene?
