The horror genre has had a particularly successful year both on console format and for the PC, we’ve seen big-name hits like Resident Evil 7 and the continuing innovation of the Outlast series, now onto it’s second installment.  I personally enjoyed Little Nightmares, a dark whimsical narrative which stylishly attempts to play on our childhood fears.  On the horizon, it looks like 2018 and 2019 will repeat the genre’s success in 2017, there’s an incredible amount of potentially jaw dropping and pant wetting  horror games which promise innovative fun and shocking narrative.

Agony

 When it comes to Horror, there’s no more effective environments that setting your game in Hell itself, rather than being a place where semi-cute demons tote pitchforks to prod you with, Agony depicts a truly nightmarish vision of the Inferno.  It’s a Survival horror game currently in development by Madmind Studio where the player begins their journey as a tortured soul with no personal memories.  As they wander through the corridors of Hell, they find that they have the ability to possess demons and control other NPCs in their path.

The game looks visually stunning with highly detailed and imaginative depictions of the cruelty of the Abyss, the monsters look visually intimidating and it’s shaping up to be a powerful contender to take the crown of Outlast as a genuine First Person Nightmare.

It’s planned to be released on March 30th 2018 on Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One

Blasphemous

A dark, gory, brooding 2d Side Scrolling action platformer, with a beautiful pixel art style and a chilling environment which seems ripped from a Heavy Metal front cover, this seems to be a form of spiritual successor to Slain mixed with Dark Souls.  In development by The Game Kitchen studios, this blood soaked game promises to deliver some epic boss battles and the most brutal violence ever to have been depicted by pixels.  Can it live up to those epic claims? Find out in Q1 2019

Currently planned for release on Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One

Call of Cthulhu

If you want to base your horror game on a literary franchise, there’s none better than the mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft.  This is based on the popular table top RPG game and places you into the role of a private investigator Edward Pierce as he investigates the death of an entire family on Darkwater Island.  The player will be exploring this environment from a chilling and immersive first person perspective, the developers Cyanide Studios have revealed that this would be a semi-open world investigative RPG with gameplay having a mix of stealth and intense psychological horror.  It looks beautiful and I’m excited to see how this classic horror tale has been adapted.

Currently planned for release next year and for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Days Gone

This is the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, while not an original narrative context, SIE Bend Studio (who brought us the Syphon Filter series) promise to deliver an interesting protagonist for the player to experience a vast open world environment through.  Deacon St John is a bounty hunter an a drifter, he prefers the open roads to safer survivor camps, the zombies of the story are called ‘Freakers’ and are evolving at a rapid rate.  One unique feature which should set it aside from comparisons to The Last of Us, is how the real time day to night environmental system changes the AI of the zombies, there’s a crafting element promised and a myriad of different vehicles to drive to get to important destinations in the open world.

This is rumored to be released next year, but no official announcement as yet, it will be available on Playstation 4

Hello Neighbor

This is a horror game which is unlike any others on this list, it’s an upcoming stealth survival horror game being developed by Dynamic Pixels.  Your neighbour is hiding a horrible secret which you must uncover by successfully sneaking into his basement.  There’s an incredible AI system promised, with the neighbor’s behaviour being modified based on the players past actions.  This was demonstrated in a recent build of the game where the Neighbor set traps along a path that the player had previous followed.

You don’t have to wait to long for this to be released – 8th December 2017 and it will be available on Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Xbox One.