Whenever I’m playing a horror game and I’m forced to make an unreasonable decision for example like: seeing open doors to your apartment and instead of calling the police you have to enter and investigate, I get really angry at my character and I can’t feel scared because instead I just feel rage.

Firstly do you also feel this way ? And do you have some game recommendations where every decision make sense ?

I've been getting way more into single-player story games and I've remembered this game I played a while back called Spec Ops: The Line where the story it had just played with you on so many levels making you think you're doing all you can and making good choices while in fact, you were basically the villain of the story and I want something not like that but it just fucks with you mentally (also preferably not that heavy of a game since I'm on holiday and just have my laptop on me)

Not all horror games scare the same way. Some do me in with just the right jumpscare, others just for the gore, but the ones that really get under my skin are the ones that feel like they’re digging around in your head. It’s the ones I actually like the most since they feel more personal. The ones where the monsters aren’t just there to be scary, they mean something. They represent grief, trauma, guilt... stuff you might not even realize you’re carrying until the game holds up a mirror.

• The first time I felt that was with American McGee’s Alice. I remember being totally mesmerised by it  not just because it was twisted and weird (which it was), but because it felt personal. That whole world was a representation of her trauma, her guilt and grief, all of it was turned into grotesque characters and broken landscapes. And you, the player, were basically walking through her pain.
• Years later, I finally played Silent Hill 2, and that one just wrecked me. It didn’t even try to hide what it was doing. Everything in that game was soaked in symbolism that was masking the PTSD of the protagonist. The way the town twisted itself to reflect what was inside the characters was honestly genius. It was the game I didn’t play, it was the game I was feeling. And that’s kind of become my favorite flavor of horror, the introspective kind. The games that mess with your emotions, not just your reflexes weather you are going to react fast on the upcoming jumpscare.
• I was scrolling Steam recently and came across an upcoming game called Endless Night: The Darkness Within. No demo yet, but it caught my eye immediately because it looks like it’s going for that same psychological horror vibe. From what I could gather, it’s centered around trauma and the blurring of reality with nightmare. It reminded me a bit of both Alice and Silent Hill, and the tone in the trailer was more this is what it feels like to fall apart.

I think we need more games like that and it’s the main reason so many people praise SOMA for example. Ones that treat horror not just as spectacle, but as a lens into the human mind. American McGee’s Alice showed me that madness could be beautiful and tragic. Silent Hill 2 proved that horror can be devastating in a quiet way.

Horror games that mess with your mind and surrounds, does anyone have any suggestions? I’d be grateful! Edit: Preferably for Xbox One and PS4

Please, does anyone have horror game recs of games with a subject that just hits? I need something that will give me a sense of paranoia even after finishing the game, or something shocking but handled well. I need a game that will make me feel depressed and/or anxious

There are horror games that make you jump and then there are those that get under your skin, burrow into your brain, and stay there long after you've closed the game. Darkwood is the latter. A survival horror that doesn’t rely on cheap jumpscares—because it doesn’t need to.

https://preview.redd.it/op9m22rki2qe1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3953093b6a5860ffe59ea947ba28c60016e05977

You wake up in a rotting, abandoned world, trapped in a twisted forest that hates you. Every night, the horrors lurking in the dark grow closer, whispering just outside your barricaded doors, testing your defenses. You can never be sure if they’ll stay outside… or if they’re already in the room with you.

https://preview.redd.it/ymyushnli2qe1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1db4b9714552b9c1ca178176100da5103eef6b55

But Darkwood isn’t just about surviving the night. It’s about losing your sanity bit by bit. The more you explore, the more you realize this world isn’t just dangerous—it’s sick. People don’t live here; they decay, mutate, become something else. The game’s grotesque inhabitants tell half-truths, their faces warped into expressions of pain, madness or something worse. Every decision you make shapes the world, but you’re never sure if you’re doing the right thing—or if there even is a right thing.

https://preview.redd.it/fpgl81wmi2qe1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54d75d89e27d6b146bdf6d8047ced08d7c55c47c

Darkwood is loneliness, dread and paranoia turned into a game. It’s a nightmare you survive, but never truly escape.

Have you ever played a horror game that really stuck with you? Tell us about your experiences in this cursed place—after all, everyone has their own unique story ang gameplay, they rarely repeat.

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It’s one of the main reasons that made the first Amnesia game so fun for me, and the title didn’t lie – it was and I reckon still is one of the better uses of the amnesiac protagonist trope. A bit contrived, the whole deal of “needing to forget in order to be able to achieve a certain goal” but in this case, it just works pretty well. And it makes the creeping reveal of how Daniel was himself involved in the experiments that much more poignant. A Machine for Pigs was also interesting though in retrospect — for more obvious and in-your-face about the implications of what you did, as well as the whole “kill your kids to spare them from WW1”.

SOMA was in my view the “truer” sequel to the original tension of Amnesia, but with upped stakes and much more anxiety floating in the air bubbles (Yeah, excuse the pun). Something about the deep waters is just so Lovecraftian - not the least because, from my understanding, basically up until the 18th century and the whole “leisure” culture of the upper class, the seas were always seen as something dark, foreboding and not made for humans. The game isn’t about that, but it simulates that atmosphere about being in this dark space, with so much weighing on your shoulders (well, the future of mankind no less - at least it isn’t in-your-face about this immediately)... it’s just phenomenal in simulating that dread of being in a truly unenviable position, a brain taken to the future to another body — and at the end, literally disembodied, uploaded into a simulation while the real you is left in the darkness of the deeps. Scary stuff, but a not-in-your-face scary that only gets scarier the more you think about it before going to bed. Also, great story in general.

In all honesty, even non horror games that include amnesia, mental shock or some sort of impactful trauma have this effect on me, a kind of feeling of starting from scratch but also carrying this unknown burden that you can’t measure from the start. Disco Elysium is a nice example of what I mean. But also some unexpected games where I have to withhold judgement until they see the light of release, like Endless Night: The Darkness Within, particularly cuz it’s a metroidvania overlaid with psychological, dark themes and trauma metaphors representing bosses and enemies taken straight from your sick brain. I mean, I like the premise and wish more platformers did more subtle horror like this (haven’t seen many attempts at horror at all in the platforming subgenre ever since Carrion)

Sorry if this came out jumbled, but I just wanted to air out my thoughts here on this. What psychological shattering (amnesia, trauma-based quirks, personality changes) did you find the most compelling in the games you played? I just went off what I came across, played or replayed lately

I’m a horror connoisseur, it’s hard for me to get scared. Movies don’t do it, jump scares in games rarely get me. I want a game that will psychologically mess with me. I want the rush of horror that I felt as a kid. Not just cheap jump scares and half assed creepy settings. Outlast was pretty decent, but didn’t really mess with me. Gore and stuff like that doesn’t really get to me. Any good suggestions? Paranormal kind of stuff preferred, but if there’s something outside of that subject I’m 100% ok with trying it out.

I'm not interested in jumpscare horror like Resident Evil or Outlast, or stuff like Dead Space. I'm looking for games that scare you by being deeply disturbing due to the themes and how they're told. It can be any type of psychological horror but I'm primarily interested in ones that focus on mental health.

It doesn't have to be horror, it could be something that is just disturbing in a less horror-adjacent way.

I've been playing the Silent Hill games, so that's the sort of stuff I'd be more interested in. Pretty low on jumpscares but they disturb you by putting you in a really uncomfortable headspace, so stuff like that.

Thanks :)