With Halloween fast approaching, this is the perfect time to pick up a few previously untouched horror games designed to give a good scare. While the genre is far from lacking in representatives, genuinely great horror titles are few and far between. For every intense and atmospheric masterpiece, there are equally as many uninspired trend chasers devoid of even the most primal of thrills.
Like horror films, games belonging to this genre tend to run the gamut in terms of quality. Using Metacritic as a reference, this list focuses on the bottom of the barrel horror games, where the only scary factor is that these atrocities managed to sneak their way onto console or PC stores.
10 Don’t Knock Twice (Nintendo Switch) - 39
As a VR first-person horror game, Don't Knock Twice is just about serviceable on the PSVR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are pretty forgettable, but the worst version is undoubtedly the Nintendo Switch port.
As one of the few and earliest horror titles on the largely family-friendly console, Don't Knock Twice earns points for trying to cater to a somewhat neglected audience; unfortunately, a variety of disappointing technical issues ruin what could otherwise have been a mediocre experience.
9 Ju-On: The Grudge (Wii) - 39
Ju-On is a franchise that refuses to die. Taking both the Japanese and American movies into account, the franchise has spawned 12 releases, plus The Grudge is set to drop in 2020. While some of the sequels are rather dire, Ju-On's crowning jewel of awfulness is 2009's video game adaptation.
Released solely on the Wii, Ju-On: The Grudge was meant as a celebration of the franchise as a whole. While it may be cool to step into this universe, this dreadful horror game fails to do anything right. The stiff controls make navigating the ugly environments a chore, while the visuals look terrible even for the Wii.
8 Escape From Bug Island (Wii) – 37
With zombies and dinosaurs already covered by Capcom, Spike turned to the next best thing when crafting a Wii-only survival horror game: Bugs. Released in a post-Resident Evil 4 world, Escape From Bug Island would have been outdated even in the era of the GameCube. Any of the game's potential scares are zapped to oblivion thanks to the janky controls and hilariously bad graphics.
Escape From Bug Island has promise, as the premise sounds ideal for some B-movie fun. If the gameplay was just average, this game could have been worth a rental.
7 Agony (Xbox One) – 34
Funded through a Kickstarter that wisely highlighted the grotesque but rather impressive character designs, Agony promised a dark and gruesome trip through Hell. An irreverent experience that cares not for good taste.
In theory, an over-the-top horror game targetting a mature audience sounds enticing, but the core mechanics still have to be decent to warrant a playthrough. Agony relies solely on its unsettling visuals to paper over the boring gameplay in a surprisingly long campaign. After a time, one becomes numb to the imagery, leaving only an awful stealth horror game with no other redeeming factors.
6 Weeping Doll (PS4) – 32
Virtual Reality seems designed for horror. Although any genre benefits from increased immersion, horror is an inherently personal experience, as the goal is to frighten the audience just as much as the characters.
Weeping Doll is little more than a sample of what the future holds for VR. Sony's affordable hardware has its fair share of decent horror games, but 2016's Weeping Doll is too short to amount to anything more than a possibly interesting concept.
5 Land Of The Dead: Road To Fiddler's Green (Xbox) – 32
Admittedly, this is more of an action-shooter than a traditional horror title; however, considering it is linked to George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Road to Fiddler's Green is fair game.
Set prior to the events of the movie, Road to Fiddler's Green chronicles the onset of the zombie pandemic, a concept that has already been well-covered by a myriad of horror gaming franchises. Unfortunately, 2005's FPS does not even work as a pulpy shooter that expands Romero's universe, with the unresponsive and boring gameplay only being the cherry on top of this rotten sundae.
4 ShellShock 2: Blood Trails (Xbox 360) – 30
A military shooter that tries to capture the psychological horror of the Vietnam War, ShellShock 2: Blood Trails deserves an ounce of respect for showing more ambition than most of its contemporaries. It is just a shame that the final product fails to deliver so spectacularly.
As a shooter, Blood Trails lacks the sharpness and fluidity that define most modern FPS titles, even one released in 2009. As a horror game, the awful level design and weak implementation of zombies into the plot ruin any potential ShellShock 2 may have once possessed.
3 Vampire Rain: Altered Species (Ps3) – 30
For the PlayStation 3 port, Vampire Rain was rebranded as Vampire Rain: Altered Species, perhaps to try and separate itself from the poorly-received Xbox 360 version. Considering Altered Species garnered even worse reviews, this clearly did not work.
Trying desperately to be a horror version of Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, Vampire Rain is not completely devoid of interesting concepts. On paper, the idea of wandering the streets while trying to remain hidden from disguised vampires sounds pretty neat, but Vampire Rain fails to even remotely work on a technical level. A stealth game with braindead AI is a recipe for disaster, and that is hardly Vampire Rain's only flaw.
2 Amy (Xbox 360) – 25
Amy is notoriously awful. The whole campaign is an extended escort mission, with players controlling Lana as she tries to lead the titular Amy through an infested town. Despite coming out in 2012, Amy feels like it should have hit the bargain bin around the time the PlayStation 2 was creeping towards its close.
Even when compared to games released a decade prior, some of which Amy borrows heavily from, 2012's title falls short of even some of the most mediocre entries of that period.
1 Alone In The Dark: Illumination (PC) - 19
Once upon a time, Alone in the Dark's name was held in reverence. 1992's PC original remains one of the best horror titles of its era, one rightfully hailed as a crucial milestone in the industry's history. While the franchise had been floundering for quite a while, including 2008's awful reboot, Alone in the Dark would have to wait until 2015's Illumination to truly become a joke.
A PC-exclusive, Illumination is a co-op survival horror game where the goal is to find a selection of items to light up the level, allowing for the monsters to be damaged. The similarities to Alone in the Dark end with that tiny gimmick, because the rest of Illumination is a mishmash of first-draft ideas that are neither interesting in concept or well-executed.