Silent Hill is, without a doubt, Konami‘s most iconic horror franchise. It’s unique, bizzare, terrifying and full of complex lore. With the recent release of the Silent Hill 2 Remake, it’s creating an itch that many players are looking to scratch.
As Halloween draws closer, it’s a great time to explore underrated horror gems, including games. Here are some indie games that could use more love.
Fans of Silent Hill find themselves looking for more games with a similar vibe, style, or related mechanics. Thankfully, there are many games that share similarities in one way or another — whether fog is included or not.
One thing is for sure about these horror games, though: they’ll terrify players in ways they never thought imaginable.
10 Deadly Premonition
Camp & Creepy In Equal Measure
Released
February 23, 2010
Engine
Proprietary Engine
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes
Deadly Premonition is a surprising horror game that centres on the human psyche — it controls similarly to classic Silent Hill games, which can be clunky in comparison to modern releases.
Despite it being badly rated, the game is actually great. The rating comes from the plethora of ideas and concepts explored in a way that’s at times convoluted, but that falls similarly in line with Silent Hill’s complicated lore.
The game has a similar vibe to old detective films and shows, such as Twin Peaks, with a mysterious open world to follow suit.
Playing as a detective to solve a newly developing murder case, Deadly Premonition offers grotesque scares and often-welcomed humour. It can borderline on being campy, but Silent Hill’s joke endings are no stranger to camp.
True to its name, the protagonist, Daniel, wakes up with amnesia, but he distinctly knows that he’s being hunted. Having to escape a creepy castle with even more terrifying monsters, this game is full of suspense and horror, with a sanity meter to provide an extra challenge.
8 Cry of Fear
The Most Infamous Half-Life Mod
Systems
Released
February 22, 2012
Developer(s)
Team Psykskallar
Publisher(s)
Team Psykskallar
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op
Engine
GoldSrc
ESRB
m
How Long To Beat
8 Hours
Number of Players
1-4
Originally, Cry of Fear was simply a mod for the first Half-Life game, but later was fleshed out into a full game. Thank goodness for that, too, since it ended up being an intriguing game with lots of terror driving the story.
Disgruntled gamers performed an organized guerrilla attack on the page against exhausted Wiki editors.
The endings tend to be what a lot of people remember from the game, especially considering the jarring twist that the Bad Ending provides.
Some of the levels and monsters seem to be inspired by Silent Hill, especially when combined with the atmosphere.
The world and levels within switch at certain story beats. One minute, it’s a normal city, and the next, it enters a hellish landscape, descending into the nightmare world the same as Silent Hill’sOtherworld.
7 Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Preparation for Silent Hill F
Franchise
Fatal Frame
Released
December 10, 2003
Engine
unity
ESRB
M
How Long To Beat
10 Hours
Fatal Frame is an absolutely terrifying series, especially during its heyday in the era of the PlayStation 2. Fans tend to debate on which game is the best in the series, but often it’s credited to Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, with some of the scariest levels in all of gaming.
Silent Hill F will be written by the Higurashi When They Cry author, Ryukishi07. The horrifying trailer is practically nostalgic for the horror Fatal Frame provides, and builds the hype all at the same time.
Taking place during the White Terror in 1960s Taiwan, the game follows two students, Wei and Ray, being trapped in their old high school. The game is a 2D platformer, taking the already nostalgic genre and flipping it onto a terrifying head.
Detention is a modern horror story through a traditional lens, incorporating folklore, mythology, and ancient religion into its atmosphere. It brings about an odd, uncanny nostalgia — the exact kind of horror that Silent Hill thrives on.
Oh, and of course, the monsters are absolutely freaky.
5 Siren
Terrifying, Notalgic PS2 Horror
Systems
Released
April 20, 2004
Developer(s)
Japan Studio
Developer
Publisher(s)
Sony Computer Entertainment
Publisher
ESRB
m
How Long To Beat
Siren (called Forbidden Siren in the PAL region) is a brutal and unforgiving horror game with puzzles that rival even Silent Hill’s toughest. It was a classic PS2 horror title with an absolutely chilling atmosphere.
Siren offers a multitude of experiences through the various characters that can be played, but the difficulty of the game can make it tough to soak it all in. However, that makes the successes all the more rewarding.
Even though a video game’s genre isn’t horror, that doesn’t mean it can’t scare you. These are some of the scariest moments in non-horror games.
It’s no small feat beating Siren, it’s genuinely got that amount of difficulty — but the fear-soaked ambience definitely makes up for it. It’s creepy, unsettling, and makes players actually dread moving their character forward.
The story alone is wonderful, so a genuinely good horror experience on top of that makes the tough gameplay completely worth it.
Visage took the ashes of Silent Hills and filled the void with a genuinely creepy horror game. It’s tense, atmospheric, and has nearly all the characteristics that players loved about P.T. in the first place.
In true Silent Hill fashion, Visage has multiple endings based on the player’s actions and is layered with endless clues and puzzles that need to be solved in order to understand the full picture. The mystery is dark, and once it’s unveiled, the horrors just compound from there.
3 Alan Wake 2
Horror With Endless Imagery
Released
October 27, 2023
Engine
Northlight Engine
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language
How Long To Beat
17 Hours
Metascore
90
PS Plus Availability
N/A
The first Alan Wake game was a unique and intriguing survival horror experience, but its sequel, Alan Wake 2, is a significant improvement in every way. It took everything that made the first game scary and fun, then expanded on it, improving the gameplay, the story, and, of course — the scares.
It’s dark, moody, cryptic, and full of imagery and questions that need to be answered. One glance at the game’s title screen, and players have a distinct idea of what they’re getting into.
The story and characters are immensely memorable, with the experience provided being akin to a shadowy, cinematic fantasia. Fans of Silent Hill would be thrilled with the Alan Wake series, but most especially with its far-more-terrifying sequel.
2 The Evil Within
From the Creator of Resident Evil
Third-Person Shooter
Survival Horror
Released
October 14, 2014
Engine
id Tech 5
ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
While it plays like a Resident Evil game, The Evil Within shares a lot of imagery and monster design that rivals Silent Hill’s. Most notably, its use of barbed wire and the design of The Keeper.
With so many games getting remakes and remasters, it feels like no stone should be left unturned.
The game’s sequel, The Evil Within 2, plays more like an action game, while the first installment is pure, unflinching survival horror. It’s bloody, it’s unsettling, it’s uncanny — it feels like trying to survive a literal nightmare.
M For Mature 17+ due to Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence
How Long To Beat
14 Hours
There is nothing more terrifying than going completely mad. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem seems to agree, by focusing the game’s central themes and gameplay mechanics around sanity. Most notably, this is done with a Sanity Meter.
Released as a Nintendo-exclusive horror game for the GameCube, Eternal Darkness became a cult classic among players. It was a bold game that took many risks, breaking the fourth wall and challenging players in ways that had never really been explored up to that point.
The horrors in this game are unmatched, with an immensely complicated story to follow suit. It’s an excellent experience for fans of Silent Hill, one that they’ll find themselves thinking about long after they finish the game.
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