When it comes to horror, there are two things that are particularly terrifying: monsters, and the endless void of space where nobody can hear you scream. It goes without saying that combining these two things will always result in a truly scary experience.
Horror games set in space are a bit of a niche, and there are surprisingly few that are worth playing. Of course there are some gems out there, and they never fail to leave you feeling that particular kind of fear that only the darkness of the universe can instill. The following 10 horror games set in space are sure to leave you feeling on edge.
Doom 3
Set on Mars in the year 2145, Doom 3 is technically a reboot of the series and ignores all of the events from prior games. It’s semi-linear, and you don’t just encounter the usual horrors, but also a number of useful and friendly NPCs as well.
Possibly the scariest thing about Doom 3 is how utterly dark it is, leaving you in a huge amount of suspense while expecting pretty much anything to jump out at you from around every corner. Originally, you’d need to choose between holding a weapon or holding the flashlight, but the BFG editions put an end to this by making the Duct Tape Mod a standard feature.
Alien: Isolation
As if trying to survive in space against a veritable army of murderous aliens wasn’t enough, Alien: Isolation added the horrifying gameplay aspect of mic detection. I will never forget the late nights I spent holding in sneezes to avoid getting devoured (it never worked, and I woke up my family a lot), or equally the fun times running into a room while my friend played and shouting before quickly running away again while they died yelling obscenities.
Sadly, this was only a feature on consoles, but the horror experience somehow managed to not be cheapened on PC either. Even if they can’t hear you, the aliens of Alien are truly scary to witness and trying to run away from them is something every gamer should experience at least once.
Prey
Morgan Yu is the player controlled character in Prey, stuck aboard the Talos after the Typhon escape and wreak havoc in the confined space that only a spaceship can truly have. You need to survive encounters with various types of aliens, including those that can shapeshift into a clone of inanimate objects, which is enough to make you distrustful of literally everything around you.
On the plus side, Morgan can learn the different abilities of the aliens in order to help her survive, which makes things slightly more tolerable. There are multiple endings, and which one you get depends on the choices you make throughout the main story, so this one is worth playing more than once to see all of them.
Dead Space 2
It’s hard to decide between Dead Space and Dead Space 2 for a place on this list, because they’re both classics in the genre, but Dead Space 2 thanks to one particular scene involving eye surgery, and a dark take on an old children’s rhyme. I will never not be uncomfortable when thinking about that scene, especially when it goes wrong.
Outside of that one scene, Dead Space 2 has you playing as Isaac Clarke while trying to fight against not only a disastrous outbreak of Necromorphs, but also his own deteriorating mental health. There are puzzles to solve, and of course many heart-in-your-throat moments where screaming feels like the only option.
Moons of Madness
Moons of Madness is described as a “story-driven cosmic horror game where the scientific exploration of Mars meets the supernatural dread of Lovecraft” on the Steam page, but it somehow manages to be even more traumatizing than Lovecraft, thanks to the deep psychological horror elements that are found in-game.
You’re stuck on Mars and becoming more isolated and paranoid by the day, with little hope of being rescued any time soon. The paranoia you feel is worsened by the demons and spectres that appear before you, making you question what’s real and what’s not. Once you’ve repaired the base, you’ll need to venture out into a landscape that’s somehow even darker, and I don’t just mean literally.
Observation
Unlike other games on this list that have you playing as a human stuck in space, Observation places you in the middle of the story as a Space Station AI called SAM. While operating SAM, you’ll need to figure out what happened to the crew, and why some of them have suddenly disappeared.
To begin, your FOV is limited to what’s in front of you wherever the crew have placed you, but eventually SAM begins to gain some sentient control by using camera systems on the Space Station, and through the use of small orbs that can move more freely. There’s also Emma, one of the crew members who remains, who works with SAM to figure out what’s going on.
We Went Back
As if being stuck on a space station completely alone wasn’t scary enough, We Went Back throws a time-loop mechanic into the mix. It’s a short game and can be completed in just under an hour, but environments are ever changing, and the experience is something like an escape room.
While there aren’t any aliens to fight or jump scares in We Went Back, the horror aspect is provided more by the total isolation and uncertainty. Even though you know there isn’t anything hell-bent on killing you, the fact that this is a dark and creepy space station is enough to make you wonder “but what if there was?”.
POLLEN
In the same vein of complete isolation games as We Went Back, POLLEN also sees you entirely alone as you try to figure out what happened to the previous occupants of a research station on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
Again, you’re not going to get any jump scares or screams out of POLLEN, but it will give you that knot-in-your-stomach feeling that any good psychological horror can provide. It’s almost as though you gain a sense of paranoia, wondering what could be around the next corner, rather than what is. POLLEN can also be played using a VR headset, which I think would be enough to make me jumpy for a week.
The Callisto Protocol
Okay look, I know that The Callisto Protocol got off to a rough start and the initial reception wasn’t great, thanks to many performance issues and slightly janky combat. However, there have been updates since then and if you don’t mind the linear gameplay experience, then it’s definitely worth a shot if you want a space themed horror game to play.
One thing that I particularly love about The Callisto Protocol is that it throws the old “remove the head and it’ll die” trope out of the window, with enemies continuing to rush you even without anything attached above the shoulders.
Iron Lung
Iron Lung is a 2022 submarine simulation game developed and published by the brilliant David Szymanski, and honestly works a little like a more terrifying version of Subnautica. I mean, you’re exploring an ocean of actual human blood, so if that’s not enough to make you feel at least a little uneasy, I’m not sure what else to tell you.
As you explore the blood ocean, you can take photos of significant things that you encounter, with things taking a dark turn as you start to capture images of giant skeletons, rock formations that shouldn’t exist in the same realm as physics, and artificial structures that look like buildings. It’s creepy, even if you don’t have to fight anything, and definitely worth experiencing.
Published: Nov 9, 2024 09:23 am