Games
The 5 Best Horror Games To Play This Fall
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for all year: Halloween Season!
There’s a magic in the air that you can only feel during the fall. It’s by far the best season, full of treats, coziness, and, of course, HALLOWEEN!
My favorite fall self-care ritual is popping a giant bowl of popcorn, lighting a concerning amount of candles, and cuddling underneath three blankets to unwind with a good horror movie or video game.
A video game with the right amount of creepy imagery and soundscape can definitely elevate the #vibes and get you excited for the season ahead.
Here are five of my favorite video games to get you in the Halloween Season Spirit:
Animal Crossing (Nintendo Switch)
How long do you think you’d have to be away from your island for your villagers to organize a search party? It might be time to clear the weeds on your island and get rid of the cockroaches in your house, babes. Unless that’s the kind of Beetlejuice vibe you’re going for, of course!
Animal Crossing is still one of the best games to get you excited for any season, and Halloween Season is no exception. The new update included over 9,000 new items, which includes a ton of new seasonal decor items, limitless Halloween costume possibilities, and fun ways to interact with your villagers. And now that your villagers can visit your place, it’s a great time to turn it into a haunted house!
Night in the Woods (Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox, Windows, iOS)
When I first started playing Night in the Woods, I figured it would trigger repressed memories of growing up in a smaller town. But I was quickly immersed in the game’s idyllic fall scenery elevated by its buoyant and melodic soundtrack.
You play as Mae, a recent college dropout who returns to her small hometown to reconnect with her friends. The town is surrounded by thick and treacherous woods, and most of her neighbors wish she had stayed away (and do not hesitate to tell her as much). Mae quickly discovers a dark secret about the town and how it relates to her missing friend Casey. Mae also has some secrets of her own, and her unreliable narration will have you rushing toward the end in search of more.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo Switch)
Poor Luigi. Always playing second controller behind his more popular and beloved Mario, he’s now forced to explore a haunted mansion to rescue his brother and their friends after King Boo snatches them.
While Luigi’s Mansion 3 is light on the horror, you’ll still have a lot of fun sucking up ghosts and other malevolent spirits with Luigi’s vacuum. Luigi’s trembles and whines throughout the game will also get you in the right creepy mood for this season. This game is a lot of fun as couch co-op as well. A second player can control Gooigi, Luigi’s slimy clone companion, and Professor E. Gadd’s latest invention.
What Remains of Edith Finch (Nintendo Switch, Windows, iOS, Playstation, Xbox)
This beautiful and chilling game follows Edith Finch as she explores her childhood home in Washington state. The gothic Victorian home is perpetually shrouded in fog and has sprawling additions much like the Winchester Mystery House in San Francisco. Edith believes her family is cursed in a way that only leaves one member of each generation alive, and the bedrooms of the deceased are sealed off and treated as shrines.
Each Finch passed away in a peculiar way, and Edith’s tour of the house allows you to explore each family member’s room. You play as Edith, crawling through hidden corridors and trapdoors into each family member’s room, and also as the deceased during their final moments. There are also some fun easter eggs for horror enthusiasts. The game is endearing, eerie, and at times tragic.
Death’s Door (Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox, Playstation)
Work is hell, right? In Death’s Door, you play as a plucky crow and a harbinger of death tasked to bring back souls to the bureaucratic Reaping Commission. You’re also obligated to bring back larger souls that have outstayed their welcome in the world of the living.
Adorable isn’t really a word you’d find often on this site, but Death’s Door has such an adorably moody aesthetic that’s elevated by the indelible soundtrack. If you couldn’t tell, I love a good game soundtrack! And out of all the games listed, Death’s Door has my favorite one. It’s the perfect backdrop to exploring overgrown ruins, lush cemeteries, and long-forgotten fortresses in search of lost souls.
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These games are sure to get you ready for the Halloween Season ahead! Each game is perfect for curling up on the couch and recharging from inevitable Halloween candy sugar crashes. All that’s left to decide is which one you’ll play first.
Just a few days ago, the highly anticipated Saw: Genesis made a reveal that I don’t think anyone was prepared for: it will be a post-WW1 asymm. Much of that is confounding and beyond frustrating. While that news fell flat for many fans who have been waiting for a single-player Saw game in the style of its aught predecessors, we do have a light at the end of the tunnel. Though that light exists in a different tunnel. Following in the footsteps of games like Evil Dead: The Game, Halloween: The Game will contain more than its asymmetrical multiplayer.
The upcoming Halloween: The Game, developed and published by IllFonic and co-published by Gun Interactive, will drop players into Haddonfield for a six-chapter single-player story mode. Full of cinematic cut scenes with a [hopefully] fully realized story, the single player mode will offer players more than just an exciting story that builds on the Haddonfield we came to know and love from the original film. Players will fully inhabit The Shape as you slash and crash your way through Haddonfield, with story beats narrated by Dr. Loomis.
Play as Michael Myers in a Sandbox Horror Experience
Halloween: The Game‘s story mode takes a sandbox approach to its gameplay. Players can tinker with multiple ways to find, stalk, and kill victims. Whether you decide to silently stalk your victims to dispatch them one by one, or toying with them until you take them out with raw disregard…the choice is yours! Terrorizing the denizens of Haddonfield isn’t the only thing Story Mode will have to offer.
Each chapter will contain secondary challenges and collectibles (and hopefully a few trophies for those plat hunters like myself). Collectibles and successful challenge completions will result in new executions, scenarios, and lore, as well as unlocking exclusive story mode collectibles for multiplayer.
Halloween: The Game Release Date, Editions, and Platforms
Halloween: The Game is available now for digital pre-order. Set at $39.99 for the Standard Edition and $59.99 for the Deluxe Edition (which includes an exclusive Michael Myers skin, 2 exclusive civilians, and more), this game is set to slash its way onto PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on September 8, 2026.
Do you plan on taking a trip to Haddonfield, or does a six-chapter story mode not make up for the game’s asymm focus? If you’re on the fence, would a declaration that servers would be online for at least a year or two push you one way or another? I know it would for me.
Sex, bloody torture, gore, cosmic terror, and whole lot of BDSM demons. The iconic Hellraiser franchise, known for its queer subtext and dark fantasy-terror, is fucking back…but maybe not the way you might expect. Saber Interactive, the company behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has unleashed the iconic franchise into the video game world with one terrifying trailer. This is Hellraiser: Revival.
The official blurb of the game introduces the story. Protagonist Aidan, who’s Girlfriend is taken into Hell after the Genesis Configuration (a puzzle box seemingly quite similar to the iconic Lament Configuration). He must use and unlock the secrets of the configuration to battle countless demons, Pinhead worshippers, and the Cenobites themselves to save her.
That’s not all for the story, though. Living legend Clive Barker, creator of The Hellbound Heart, and Director of the original film, reportedly helped on the story of the game, returning to the iconic franchise he created decades ago. He is quoted as saying, “Working on the first true Hellraiser game has been a venture deep into the recesses of my darkest imaginings.” With this in mind, one can it expect it to stay true to the roots of the series.
Graphic both in sex and violence, the trailer promises the look and feel of the classic film. It filled to the brim with cenobites, horrendous torture methods, and some deviously designed demons. The color palette is drenched in dark shadows and a menacing Hellscape.
