The best way for any gamer to celebrate Halloween is with a spooky game. Fortunately, the horror genre usually never disappoints around this time of year, and gamers almost always have a nice selection of scary games to choose from. This year, gamers can select from the rat-infested horrors of A Plague Tale: Requiem, or the terrors of Scorn. Resident Evil Village also brings a new expansion that makes it worth revisiting, and Cthulhu: Books of Ancients arrives at Halloween to satisfy Lovecraft fans.
This marks the start of a series of months that will bring some of the biggest titles of the year. After October's jam-packed release calendar, gamers can look forward to another good month with November where highly anticipated titles like God of War: Ragnarok and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will be released. December also appears to be filling up nicely, with titles like Need for Speed: Unbound scheduled for the holiday season. However, gamers shouldn't overlook all the horror titles debuting this month.
Scorn
One of the most intriguing releases this October is Scorn. Developed by Ebb Software, Scorn takes gamers to a strange biopunk world where machines and flesh have blended. The hellish environment is as mesmerizing as it is terrifying, and there is a sense of impending danger lurking around every dark corner. Though players will have weapons, the game is not a shooter, and players will have to use their brains to survive. The game lacks dialogue, forcing players to rely on clues in the environment to figure out their next move. Scorn appears to be a creepy, gruesome survival horror game with an unsettling soundtrack to match. It launches on October 21 on Xbox Series X/S and PC.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
In A Plague Tale: Innocence, gamers were introduced to Hugo and Amicia. Although the siblings occasionally bicker, they love each other dearly and stick side by side as they face life-threatening situations. As they escape the Inquisition and flee from terrifying rat swarms, they learn more about Hugo and make a few friends along the way. The sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, will continue their story, but the stakes have ramped up.
Thanks to the power of current-generation consoles, Requiem will render 300,000 rats at once. Trailers have shown the rat tsunamis that Hugo and Amicia will have to escape from, and they are nothing to be scoffed at. Fortunately, it appears Amicia has more tools to play with, which should help her with both rat and human enemies. In addition to a new crossbow, she will also be able to creep up on enemies and stab them with a knife.
It appears that the upcoming story will be even darker. In Innocence, gamers saw Hugo and Amicia have their childhoods snatched away from them as they are forced to witness and do heinous things to survive. In a PlayStation blog post, Asobo Studio lead writer Sebastien Renard hinted that Amicia's trauma may be a focus in the upcoming game. With Amicia and her brother facing bigger rat swarms than ever, they may find themselves having to commit increasingly violent acts to stay alive. A Plague Tale: Requiem may be the scariest game for horror fans this Halloween. The game hits stores on October 18 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch via cloud.
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition
Resident Evil Village is receiving a re-release through the Gold Edition, which bundles the game with the Winters' Expansion. This gives gamers access to a third-person mode, which should drastically transform how the game feels. For gamers who have already played Resident Evil Village, this is more than enough reason to jump into the adventure again. For newcomers who may have preferred the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, this mode gives a gameplay experience more similar to that.
The expansion also brings the Shadows of Rose DLC. It is played in third-person mode, and it focuses on Rosemary Winters, who is Ethan's daughters. The campaign may answer many lingering questions fans have regarding the Winters family, or it may raise several more. Either way, it appears gamers are in for a terrifying experience. Lastly, the Winters Expansion brings with it The Mercenaries, an arcade game mode which has gamers blasting away a certain number of enemies in an area before time's up. The difficulty ramps up with every stage, so players have to ensure their strategies are top-notch. The upcoming expansion is massive, making Resident Evil Village Gold Edition one of best games for this Halloween. It releases on October 28 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Cthulhu: Books of Ancients
Lovecraftian horror has had a foothold in gaming for decades, and games inspired by the macabre writer are almost too numerous to name. Whether it be the Gothic streets of Yharnam in Bloodborrne, the deterioration of insanity in Amnesia: Dark Descent, or more direct influences found in titles such as Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft's touch can be found everywhere. Gamers looking for some cosmic horror this Halloween should turn to SimFabric's Cthulhu: Books of Ancients.
Book of Ancients is a first-person horror game that has gamers taking the role of a detective looking for six missing children. Things seem normal until a note leads players to the University of Miskatonic, where they find the pieces to solve the murder puzzle. For a Lovecraft-inspired horror experience, as well as a murder mystery, Cthulhu: Books of Ancients seems to be a good bet. The game launches on Halloween on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
Gamers looking for a spooky Halloween are spoiled for choice. However, there are plenty of games that aren't scary releasing in October, too. This includes the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection which makes its debut on PC. The forecast for the next few months looks good, and gamers of all sorts should find something to suit their tastes.