In the past few years, horror culture in the creative arts has skyrocketed. Fans of numerous iconic series across film, TV, and gaming have been treated immensely with new content, reboots, remasters, and more. With more powerful consoles and updates constantly being made, the gaming industry is inundated with fresh horror projects to keep you occupied and terrified.
While the line between console exclusives and multi-platform titles thins, it’s a great time to be an Xbox gamer. The continuous reprisal of classics getting the remaster treatment, the influx of new and innovative indie projects, and the ongoing evolution of respected series make horror gaming an exciting genre to keep an eye on.
Updated on June 26, 2023, by Dennis Moiseyev: The recent wave of horror content across Indie titles and AAA gaming has been impeccable, and a lot of this variety is available on the Xbox Series X|S. Whether you're looking for a more narrative-driven horror experience, something that will make you want to sleep with your lights on, or a little of both, the Xbox horror library is happy to oblige such a terrifying request.
17 Killer Frequency
1980 was an excellent decade for horror movies, gifting classics like The Thing, the Friday the 13th sequels, The Evil Dead, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. And this is precisely the atmosphere Killer Frequency takes you back to. Set in 1987, you play a radio DJ of a station that now acts as an impromptu 911 call center for Gallows Creek while an eerie slasher known as the Whistling Man is on the loose.
Part radio station simulator, part puzzle game, part slasher suspense, and complete with a talented voice cast and witty writing, Killer Frequency is a compelling horror mystery where you try to keep all your callers alive. And the game is filled with references and homages to the genre greats that inspired it.
16 Diablo 4
This may not be the horror you are used to when it comes to seeing this genre in games. Though leaning more toward ARPG, Diablo 4's themes quickly turn creepy and dark. At its core, this game has a rich Gothic horror atmosphere with exceptional cinematic quality and an intriguing narrative that does result in a lot of blood and gore.
Choosing your preferred class, you're pulled straight into the story and sent immediately roaming through hellish dungeons and fighting many grotesque enemies in a top-down style, with the ultimate enemy being Lilith. The overall aesthetic is very Bloodborne-esque and a perfect substitute for Xbox.
15 Resident Evil 2 (2019)
The original Resident Evil 2 was one of the most iconic horror games ever. And the 2019 version, which has since been released on Xbox Series X|S, is a complete remake of that original title. It shares some similarities to the original as it still stars Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, who find themselves amid a zombie apocalypse in Raccoon City.
The visuals, gameplay, and camera have all been improved, though. Plus, now the intimidating Mr. X appears in all playthroughs and perpetually stalks you around the Police Station. So, it makes playing through the game a terrifying experience.
14 Dying Light 2: Stay Human
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Along with being a horror game, Dying Light 2 is also an open-world action title. In it, you play as a man named Aiden Caldwell. He lives in a world mostly taken over by zombies. Yet, that doesn't stop him from going on an adventure to find his sister. While making your way through the city, you must face off against both deadly humans and even deadlier infected.
You can utilize the game's first-person combat to take them out. Alternatively, you can avoid facing them in the first place by using your expert parkour skills. Another important gameplay feature is an almost ever-depleting meter at the top of the screen that shows how close you're to joining the infected horde. You need to stop it from completely depleting by spending time in UV light, which adds an extra layer of tension to your experience.
13 Dead By Daylight
Most of the scariest video games are single-player adventures. However, Dead By Daylight proves that multiplayer games can be terrifying, too. In this online asymmetric multiplayer title, one player controls a ruthless killer while everyone else plays as a survivor.
The goal of the killer is to just live up to their moniker by wiping out all the humans, but the humans need to avoid that by activating generators and escaping from the area. Dead By Daylight may seem a simple concept, but it's a lot of fun due in part to all the different killers you can choose to control.
12 Little Nightmares 2
With Little Nightmares 2 on the Xbox Series X|S, this side-scrolling puzzle sequel looks and plays better than ever. This short but sweet journey is set in the gorgeously crafted vision of a bleak world called the Pale City.
As with its predecessor, you control pint-sized characters by the names of Mono and Six as they explore the unaccommodatingly nightmarish city and try to survive. Fans of slow-burning horror and frantic boss set pieces that require perfectly executed jumps and many leaps of faith will find plenty to love about this deceptively frightening horror.
11 Resident Evil Village
The eighth official entry into the adored and influential series, Resident Evil Village makes the series remain firmly at the top of the mainstream horror gaming hierarchy. As if things weren’t wild enough for poor Ethan Winters, the protagonist of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, now he must find his missing daughter, Rosemary.
Set in a starkly different environment from any other game in the series, you explore a Victorian-style land filled with fantastical beasts of mythical legend. Unusual memes aside regarding the game's domineering antagonist Lady Dimitrescu, this ever-present villain is far from being as receptive as many would’ve liked.
10 Inside
Long-time indie horror fans will recognize the developers of Inside as the same people that made Limbo. The overall experience, mechanically speaking, plays very similarly, too. You control a young boy who has snuck into some sort of secret facility. Moving along the 2D plane, you platform and solve puzzles, slowly unraveling the ominous mysteries that lurk inside.
This game is a culmination of everything the studio is known for, like using minimal graphical styles to tell a dialogue-free narrative presenting a slow crawl of unsettling ideas and circumstances. You won't ever be frightened, but you'll feel the unease and dread as you get deeper. It even has a secret alternate ending for those wanting more from the story.
9 Dark Pictures Anthology: House Of Ashes
Though many horror games evoke terror by giving you control over your every move, House of Ashes makes you dread the outcome of each decision. Falling within the subgenre of interactive story games, this follow-up to Dark Pictures: Man of Medan and Little Hope hits a high point in the series.
You're taken to Iraq during its 2003 invasion and are focused on teaming up despite indifference, as a number of soldiers became lost in a vampire-infested temple. Like similar titles such as Until Dawn and Heavy Rain, House of Ashes has multiple playable characters and over 30 potential endings, implemented by your decisions in combat and moral dilemma.
8 Resident Evil 4 Remake
Proving an even more amazing Resident Evil title than the remake of Resident Evil 2 and Village combined is 2023's Resident Evil 4. Leon S. Kennedy is back with a new next-gen character model and putting on a more professional face when rescuing Ashley Graham, the president's daughter, from the Los Iluminados and their Las Plagas monstrosities. Though, bingo is still on.
The new character designs on enemies, bosses, and the beloved cast are astonishing, as well as the new look of familiar environments. Some sections have been expanded for more exploration, including the lake region, Leon's knife allows for new stealth gameplay and parrying attacks, and some story beats have been changed to improve the overall narrative.
7 The Medium
By far one of the eeriest games on Xbox Series X|S, The Medium is a truly singular experience. Though there is a stylistic influence in the mechanics from the Silent Hill series, The Medium is still massively original. Set in Poland in the late '90s, you control Marianne, a woman who can communicate with spirits and is caught between their dimension.
It’s up to her to investigate one of her visions, the killing of a young girl. The gameplay mixes traditional horror exploration with a dynamic twist of puzzles, often relying on you to switch between mirrored split-screen gameplay to advance and escape antagonists. It feels different but yet an all too familiar style from Bloober Team.
6 Simulacra
The most life-ruining kind of horror is the type that makes everyday appliances appear scary. In the case of Simulacra, you’ll be reluctant to use your mobile phone in the unfortunate event that a demonic, cult-built AI begins to stalk you. This one-of-a-kind FMV game sees you play through a smartphone interface, the phone being a lost item belonging to a woman called Anna.
The more you investigate, the more the narrative takes eerie turns for the worst. With creative jump-scares, effective pacing, and plausible dialogue from an array of characters, Simulacra is an essential horror experience for those that love to be surprised.
5 A Plague Tale: Innocence And Requiem
A Plague Tale: Innocence consists of elements of outright horror - namely rats, disease, widespread death, and intimidating antagonists - though not overtly focused on scaring you with conventional, unexpected jumps. Playing as 15-year-old Amicia, you're tasked with sustaining the safety of your sick younger brother Hugo, evading soldiers and plague-infected rats as you escape.
The sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, has even more visually stunning environments and expands the gameplay with new weapons and mechanics. You continue as Amicia in getting your brother to safety, but this time with your companion Lucas, and you meet new characters that help you along the way during your harrowing journey.
4 Layers Of Fear (2023)
The horror developers at Bloober Team have done it again with the 2023 reimagining of Layers of Fear. This game sets out to tell an anthology of stories, carrying over the second game and all DLC from the first, along with some original content. Layers of Fear (2023) is now a cohesive narrative connecting the Painter, the Actor, and the Musician through the new Writer protagonist.
It expertly builds an unsettling horror atmosphere with jump scares, set pieces, sound cues, and a constantly shifting environment as seamless and effective as a horror film made by James Wan. But as disturbing and dark as the layers of each story may be, this version is quite photo-realistic, and every room you find yourself in is a wonder to take in, thanks to Unreal Engine 5.
3 Amnesia: The Bunker
The follow-up to Amnesia: Rebirth will take the terror back a little earlier to the year 1916 in the middle of WWI, where a giant monster lurks in the narrow corners of a military bunker. Amnesia: The Bunker has you play as Henri Clément, a soldier separated from the battlefield and his comrade Augustin Lambert and now caught in a whole other nightmare within the bunker.
The Amnesia series had some incredibly frightening monsters in past installments, but nothing comes as close to the Beast in The Bunker. It can pop up anywhere and at any time, using the openings around the bunker to stalk you. Unlike previous titles, Henri can have weapons such as a revolver, a shotgun, and even grenades, but ammo is scarce, and light is still your best friend.
2 Outlast
A true modern classic in the horror genre of gaming, Outlast is unapologetically ruthless and relentless in the trauma that it invokes. Set in an abandoned mental asylum, you're tasked with investigating the disused center to unearth mysterious rumors regarding the state of the institution.
Armed with nothing but your wits and a battery-reliant night vision camera, Outlast plunges you into horrifying encounters with mutated human experiments, roaming cannibals, violent murderers, and everybody else that you wouldn't want to bump into in a dark alleyway. A ground-breaking, sophisticated horror masterpiece with near flawless execution, it's probably the scariest game on any platform.
1 Alien: Isolation
In space, no one can hear you scream… but your neighbors sure can if you’re playing this alone at home. The 2014 adaptation of the classic movie series is just as filled to the brim with terrifying content and brilliant sound design as its source material.
Whether pacing the suspiciously empty corridors of the Sevastopol Station or hiding in a locker with your breath held from the predatory Xenomorph, Alien: Isolation puts a firm grip on you and doesn’t let go. Critically acclaimed and continuously reprised for new consoles since its launch, this survival horror is one of the essential cinematic horror gaming experiences.