I used to play quite a few of them in the ps1/ps2 era, but sort of dropped out after Resident Evil 4.
Now I’ve picked up Resident Evil 7 and it’s clear I’m about at endgame, and I’ve been enjoying it pretty well.
So aside from other RE games (I have Village ready to install when I finish 7), what are some more good ones from say the last 10 years-ish?
I find the superscience bullshit of RE is usually easier to follow than supernatural survival horror games, I prefer to have some combat and not be purely hiding like I think it’s Amnesia? And I enjoy RE7’s shift to first person. Tank controls are hard for me to go back to.
I would say Project Zomboid, but I think they’ve been working on that for more than a decade.
Vintage Story definitely has good survival elements, and shivers are straight horror, so Vintage Story?
It’s not exactly old (it came out this year) but you could give the new remake of Fatal Frame 2 a try. You could play the originals but they are very similar controls to the old Resident Evil games. It has combat where you go into first person and have to photograph “shoot” the ghost/wraiths.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3920610/FATAL_FRAME_II_Crimson_Butterfly_REMAKE/
Dead space and dead space 2
I’m guessing you wouldn’t like Alien: Isolation because it’s basically all hiding and strategically trying to outwit the alien… while hiding. But it’s fucking terrifying and very well-written.
Soma
RE7 and 8 were both awesome! Personally I enjoyed 8 a bit more than 7 but 7 was the scarier game by far.
The RE remakes from the past few years are pretty amazing especially if you enjoyed the originals. I just finished RE4 Remake and it’s probably the best action horror I have ever played.
The Dead Space remake is also incredible and I highly recommend it.
Some indie titles like Mouthwashing, and Security Booth are creepy, quick, and fun.
Most of these all go on sale every few weeks as well.
Signalis.
I really enjoyed SOMA during the past winter.
Sorry We‘re Closed, Crow Country, and Signalis (was already mentioned but is really really good). The last two have tank controls but are not nearly as clunky or difficult as RE1/2 because of that.
I can’t believe I didn’t mention Crow Country! It translates the original REs to modern audience in an elegant manner. It is a bit too easy on the default difficulty level though - classic RE players should start with Murder of Crows instead!
So to answer your question, I’m afraid resident evil has cornered the market. I think the evil within might be a close second.
However
Amnesia: The dark descent is the granddaddy of basically every indie horror game you see. Also, I believe, the best one.
I see you said you prefer combat, but if you ever get curious, take heed of the message before the game starts “don’t try to win, do your best to immerse yourself in the world” because if you do, you’ll be taken for a psychological terror-ride.
I’ve had Amnesia in my Steam library for ages, so I could definitely give it another go sometime. I think I got the Evil Within games free on Epic at some point too, so if those are roughly in the RE-style sphere, that might be good to check out next.
Seconding other’s comments for: Signalis and Soma
Some unorthodox / overlooked suggestions:
- Project Zomboid (PC).
- Imagine the Sims 1, but it’s during a zombie apocalypse with a GTA sized massive map. The situation is so dire that the game outright tells when you start that your character dies, and the actual gameplay is just you finding out how your character died.
- The survival: is needing to move to scavenge for resources and trying to build a safe place to sleep.
- The horror: is trying to escape the literal hordes of zombies.
- Sidenote: This is a great grindy multiplayer game.
- Metroid Fusion (GBA).
- It’s a platforming game, but it’s legitimately terrifying.
- The survival: revolves being trapped on a space station going around fighting and fleeing difficult enemies
- The horror: revolves around the antagonist: [redacted for story spoiler reasons]
- Sidenote: This is a great game to show people who haven’t yet realized that you can make horror without being an FPS.
- Frostpunk (PC).
- It’s a city-builder game with survival resource management gameplay and with non-lovecraftian cosmic horror themes.
- The survival: You are the last city on Earth. If you run out of resources: you die. There isn’t enough resources to save everyone and you have to make hard decisions. If the people lose hope from your decisions: you die.
- The horror: The world’s climate dropped another 3 degrees today. There are 100 of us left. Only 5 people from yesterday’s expedition made it back with food. We need to send 20 survivors out to look for scrap metal to repair the heating system or everyone will freeze. We need to put our children to work in the coal mine, it doesn’t matter how many die, if they don’t mine, we all die. The next day: things get worse. The day after: things get worse. etc… Will you survive?
- Sidenote: This has one of the best soundtracks in all of gaming. I’d put it up there with Halo, Skyrim, Homeworld.
- Project Zomboid (PC).
Outlast 2013 has no combat but it’s horrific all right. I enjoyed discovering the scenario progressively although it probably has some frustratingly dated mechanics (why closing doors sound so fucking loud damnit?!).
There are two more recent Outlast games I have not yet played.Does Rain World qualify?
Signalis. I can’t recommend it enough.
Cronos: The New Dawn, came out last year kinda flew under the radar, it’s pretty scary, has interesting lore, the ending didn’t quite please me but overall I would recommend it.
Has a RE vibe to it, limited inventory, lore through notes, and all that good stuff
