Best 21 XSX|S Horror Games All Time

When it comes to horror games, viewing them on a console that can render every horrifying detail is a plus. So if you have an Xbox Series X/S, check these titles out.

#21 Alan Wake 2

Platform : PC PS5 XSX|S
Release Date: October 27, 2023

Epic | PlayStation | Xbox

Whether you’re looking for something to play during the year’s spooky season or just need a thrilling horror gameplay experience, Alan Wake II might intrigue you. Now, before you strike this one off the list, Alan Wake II might be a sequel, but it’s developed to be a standalone experience. So you can go into this thrilling horror experience without knowledge from the first game. With that said, Alan Wake II does follow Alan once again. We know he’s trapped in the Dark Place and striving for a means of escape.

Meanwhile, this game will introduce a secondary protagonist to take control of named Saga Anderson. Saga is an FBI agent sent to Bright Falls, Washington, to solve a series of ritualistic murders. If you’ve played the first game installment, you know there was always a horror element attached. However, with Alan Wake II, Remedy Entertainment focused strictly on horror. We’re getting a survival horror gameplay experience, which means being careful with your resources and preparing to take in the eerie atmosphere.

#20 Dredge

Platform: PC PS4 Xbox One PS5 XSX|S Switch 
Release Date: March 30, 2023

Steam | Playstation | Xbox | Nintendo

For ages, sailors would tell tales of the high seas and the dangers that lurked beneath the waves. But many of these tales were far-fetched, exaggerated, or simply not true. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t monsters of the deep, and in Dredge, you will get up close and personal with many of them.

Your journey will start as a simple fisherman trying to make their way and learn the truth about the islands they fish within. But once you dare to brave the darkened waters at night, you’ll see just how many “bigger fish” there are out there and how small your boat feels in comparison.

So you best start believing in monster fish stories. You’re in one.

#19 Dying Light 2: Stay Human

We’ll start with a game that isn’t so much about horror as it is about being in a horrifying circumstance.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human puts you in the position of a person who is stuck in a city that happens to be full of zombies. Furthermore, you’ve been bitten by these zombies and are slowly turning into them. To get what you need, you’ll do jobs around the city and help various factions while keeping your “condition” under control.

You’ll need to fight to survive or do everything you can to escape with your life. Just remember, you need to stay human.

#18 Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!

If you don’t know about Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, you weren’t on the internet when it came out. The title looks like a “cutesy anime title,” but it’s anything but. We won’t dive too much into things because it’s a bit too dark at points, but we’ll tell you it’s not for the faint at heart.

You’ll be a student who joins four girls as part of their literature club. It’s all nice and happy until things don’t go that way. You will have to endure the story and figure out what is happening with these girls.

Sometimes it’s the cute games that terrify you the most.

#17 Prey

When will people learn that experimenting on humans with unknown substances or entities never ends well?

In the 2017 reboot of Prey, you are someone who is stationed on the orbiting moon base known as Talos 1. Your “role” was to be experimented on so that “humanity could evolve.” But, as we said, when will people ever learn?

After you awaken from your “procedure,” you find that aliens have overrun the station! Now you must go through the station, unlock the powers that now reside within you, and learn the truth about the station, the aliens, and what’s really going on.

#16 The Callisto Protocol

It might seem odd that we’re putting a more recent game so low on this list. But if you recall, when The Callisto Protocol arrived in late 2022, it had a lot of hype until the game was released. Once people played it, they realized it was less about the horror and more about getting killed in “horrifying ways.”

You play as a prisoner in a space colony when things go horribly wrong. A recurring phrase you’ll hear throughout this list. Now you must fight for survival against numerous enemies, each of whom will brutally kill you if you let them. So don’t let them!

#15 Scorn

Scorn got many people curious when it was first announced. The reason for that is no one was sure what it was outside a horror title.

Sure enough, the game throws you into the deep end and wants you to figure out the truth for yourself. You’ll enter a world of nightmarish designs and figures, and you must weave your way through the world and unlock the story and history of this world as you travel.

The game’s visuals and world are meant to creep you out and disgust you. So if you have a weak stomach, this may be a title you steer away from.

#14 Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

What happens when the enemy you’ve been fighting for so long is now your reluctant ally against a greater threat?

You’ll find out in Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes. The title puts you as soldiers in the Middle East trying to find WMDs. However, you instead find a temple, one that has monsters hidden within.

Trapped underground, you must fight through the monsters while working alongside a faction of rival soldiers from the surface.

Only through teamwork will you survive, but can you forge trust that quickly? Or will you succumb to petty grudges and get picked off one by one?

#13 Simulacra

What would you do if you found someone’s phone and they weren’t around? You’d try and give it back to them, right? In Simulacra, you play someone who attempts to find a missing woman named Anna. Unfortunately, her friends and family don’t know where she is; the only clues are on her phone.

Using an interface resembling a phone, you’ll work through pictures, apps, messages, and more to unearth the truth about where Anna is so you can find her. Don’t be afraid to dive deep and fix data so you can get more clues!

Anna’s life is in your hands. Will you be able to find her in time?

#12 The Medium

Have you ever felt that another world was out there beyond our own? That the fabric of reality is much thinner than people want to believe, and if you had the right “vision,” you could see it? The Medium taps into that idea and delivers a unique gameplay experience for you to enjoy.

In the game, you are a psychic who can see two different worlds simultaneously. To solve a dark mystery, she must solve puzzles from both sides of the “veil” and fight off monsters that try to stop her.

What is happening within the resort you’re sent to? Jump into the game and find out.

#11 Resident Evil Village

We’ll have multiple entries from this series on our list, so let’s start with Resident Evil Village.

The second game featuring Ethan Winters has you trying to save his daughter after Chris Redfield kidnaps her. But considering that his child is given to a series of nightmarish monsters, that won’t be easy.

The game puts Ethan through the wringer, and you’ll be seeing all manner of horror within the game. Frights, jump scares, body mutilation, it’s all there, and you have to endure every bit of it. Plus, with the recent DLC, the story gets expanded, and this chapter of the franchise gets brought to a close.

#10 Evil Within Series

When you have a game series headed up by one of the “authors of horror,” you can expect a scary title. The Evil Within Series is two games that try to put you in the “ultimate survival experience.” All the while trying to freak you out at every twist and turn.

You play Detective Sebastian Castellanos, an officer who, across the two games, gets wrapped up in a supernatural series of events that takes him to warped worlds of nightmarish design.

To survive, he must get the tools to fight back against terrifying monsters or ensure they never find him.

Both titles have a dark and twisted story, so play them at your own risk.

#9 Little Nightmares 2

Sometimes scary games can come in “small” packages. Such is the case with Little Nightmares 2. You play as a boy named Mono. Mono is stuck in a world of nightmarish design due to a signal being broadcast from a tower.

After meeting the girl known as Six, he must weave his way through the world, solve puzzles, and battle some monsters within to reach the tower and stop the madness.

Each level of the game has a unique and fun design, and plenty of surprises keep you on your toes as you play. What will you find at the end of your journey?

#8 A Plague Tale: Requiem

The original game starring Amicia and Hugo was a major hit, so it was inevitable that a sequel would occur. A Plague Tale: Requiem continues their quest to survive their world and to keep the dark powers within Hugo in check.

You’ll start the game in a refuge that you think is safe, but events quickly conspire against you, and you’ll need to flee to an island where a rumored cure resides.

But there will be plenty of obstacles for you to face on your journey, and the duo will be tested like never before. So how far are you willing to go to keep Hugo alive?

#7 Outlast

If you’re setting a horror game in an asylum? You better deliver on the scares. Thankfully, Outlast does a great job of not only making a scary game but weaving a compelling narrative into it.

You play as a journalist who learned that a re-opened asylum in Colorado is doing much more than it should be. But, as you breach its walls, you learn the horrifying truth about experiments and the lengths the ones involved are willing to go to keep their project going.

Once you arrive, the only way out is through. So dive into the depths of the darkness within this place, and see if you can withstand the tortures that await.

#6 Alien: Isolation

The Xenomorphs are iconic villains in the movie universe because, in the original movies they starred in, you never know where they were until it was too late.

In Alien: Isolation, you play the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who goes to a space station to learn about her mother’s fate. Instead, she learns about the creature that haunted Ellen to her grave. Trapped onboard with a Xenomorph, you must get the station back in functional order quickly because the Xenomorph is roaming the halls trying to find you!

You can’t fight it and win. So run, hide, and do what needs to be done to get out alive!

#5 Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

Our second entry from the series, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, was the title that, in many ways, revitalized the brand. Previous entries tried to “recapture” the horror element the early games did but failed more times than not.

But with Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, they succeeded because they went back to their roots and ground it in horror versus being an action game. Moreover, they shifted the perspective to first-person so you could “feel” the horror more than ever.

You play Ethan Winters, a man determined to save his wife from the monsters holding her captive. Will you be able to save her and make it out alive?

#4 Dead by Daylight

In most horror movies, the biggest dread is knowing that a monster is after you and you need to get out alive at all costs.

In Dead by Daylight, they apply that feeling in a multiplayer game that has survived much longer than people expected.

The 4v1 title puts four gamers as “survivors” who must leave an area alive. The fifth player is the killer, who must use their abilities to hunt down the other players before they escape.

The title has numerous killers for you to play as, and the survivors have abilities to use to their advantage. Thanks to that, each game can be fun and unique.

#3 Alan Wake Remastered

With a sequel on the way, it’s appropriate we talk about Alan Wake Remastered. The original game surprised many people with its take on the horror genre. You play the titular character trying to locate his wife in Bright Falls.

But things aren’t what they appear to be. This is proven in spades via a book that Alan has apparently written but he doesn’t remember making. You’ll find these pages and slowly learn the truth of what’s going on in this area.

Additionally, you’ll have little to protect yourself from the darkness outside of a flashlight. So you must be careful and pay attention to what’s around you.

#2 Resident Evil 2 Remake

Our final entry from the scary Capcom franchise, Resident Evil 2 Remake, was a trendsetter for what Capcom would do in its future.

You’ll play Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy on one of the worst days of their lives. They’re trapped in Raccoon City when a zombie outbreak occurs. Now they’re fighting for their lives and attempting to escape the horrors coming for them.

The game was completely remade to look and feel like a modern title while not abandoning the classic story and characters of the original. As a result, the title is both beloved and scary, and that’s quite a combo.

#1 The Quarry

We’ve shown you many different examples of horror throughout this list. But what makes The Quarry the best is that it balances all those styles of horror with the ultimate horror of everything happening is your fault.

By that, we mean the game is about choices. You control a group of camp counselors who stay a day after camp lets out, and that was a bad choice. Various groups and monsters are descending on the camp, and you must guide these counselors to safety or their doom.

Every choice will have ripple effects that can lead to death. You can undo them if you pay attention, but it’s never guaranteed. When you never know what a choice will lead to? That’s true horror.