Top 10 Hardest Horror Video Games

Nintendo doesn’t tend to publish too many M-Rated games itself, yet seemingly saw something special in “Eternal Darkness.” The GameCube exclusive follows several characters across different time periods dealing with the same evil entity. However, what makes the force you’re going up against truly evil is how it loves to mess with you, the player. Thanks to the game’s sanity meter, the less sound a character’s mind becomes, the more disturbing the outcome. Their head might fall off, or maybe it’ll trick you into thinking your save data has been deleted. Solutions to puzzles and obstacles are usually obtuse, but it’s also hard to know if you’re doing something correctly with so many things going wrong.

You’ll usually find your survival instincts more than tested when it comes to “Silent Hill.” But for our money, the third entry poses the biggest challenge. It features the imposing and formidable enemies the series is known for, as well as the severe lack of resources to deal with them. It also features the hardest puzzles, giving it the lead above other entries. One particular puzzle inspired by Shakespeare stopped most players in their tracks and left them utterly confused. “Silent Hill 3” is also the hardest in the series for players that actively seek out a challenge. If you beat it on ‘Hard Mode,’ you unlock the Extreme difficulty, which comes in 10 progressively tougher levels.

The original “Pathologic” was no walk in the park either, but developers Ice-Pick Lodge really outdid themselves with the sequel. Set in a dark town being ravaged by a plague, players must survive amongst its inhabitants while trying to solve a more personal mystery. Consisting of scarce resources, tough decisions that feel wrong no matter what, and elements of surrealism that make it hard to figure out just what in the Hell is happening, “Pathologic 2” is not for the faint of heart nor the impatient. The game’s high level of difficulty was actually a point of criticism upon release. This led the team to include difficulty sliders that allowed players to customize how hard they wanted their experience to be.

Simple in its design yet complex in its solutions, “Granny” is a brutal indie Horror game. Set in a derelict house across several days, you’re locked inside with a grandma who, for whatever reason, really doesn’t like your company. All you can do is collect resources that can lead to one of several ways to escape. But looking at these collectibles, you’d think that none of them could actually help you make it out. Other than Granny’s murderous intent, nothing is straightforward. If she catches you, it restarts your current day unless it’s the final one, in which case it’s Game Over. While you can knock her out or temporarily blind her, there’s no gaining the upper hand.

The high intelligence, and therefore difficulty, of the enemy AI was one of the highest points of praise when “Alien: Isolation” released. And it’s still just as impressive today. Set 15 years after the original film and aboard a new space station, players must run and hide from a deadly Xenomorph with little in terms of resources or back-up. The iconic alien is far smarter than the average player, which leads to multiple terrifying demises. Only with the utmost stealth and patience do you stand a chance against your foe, and even then it isn’t guaranteed. If the developers wanted to replicate the big-screen fear of these baddies, we’d say they succeeded.

Well, we never said a game had to be good to be considered. In this NES adaptation, players try to survive as six Camp Crystal Lake counselors while Jason hunts them. You never know when or where he’ll show up, or which counselor he’ll go after first. Making your campground travels harder are other enemies, like animals and even zombies. Much like many of publisher LJN’s licensed games of the time, “Friday the 13th” was lambasted on release, and time hasn’t been kind to it. Its high difficulty came from extremely frustrating controls, confusing level layouts, and, naturally, an over-powered antagonist that you have to defeat three times. Other horror movies got NES adaptations of similar quality, but this is the crème de la crap.

After finding himself trapped in a far more unsettling alternate world, Detective Sebastian Castellanos must fight his way to freedom. Clearly, that’s a lot easier said than done. “The Evil Within” features gruesome enemies and even gnarlier boss encounters. Add on the stressful stealth and resource management indicative of the survival horror genre, and you’ve got an especially tense experience that throws hordes of enemies at you even on easier difficulties. However, what earns it high placement probably won’t be experienced by most players. The highest difficulty is ‘AKUMU,’ which causes the player to die in a single hit, from the tiniest of scrapes to the heftiest of blows.

While it’s more a roguelike RPG than a traditional Horror game, “Darkest Dungeon” still has plenty of creepy elements. And it’s definitely more than hard enough to earn its spot. After inheriting a mansion, you and your team of heroes delve into the dungeons underneath it. You’ll never know which freakish enemies you’ll meet since they’re all procedurally generated. There’s also each character's stress levels to maintain; if they get too high, you’ll have to deal with some fairly negative side effects. The fact that one of the game’s biggest features is permadeath should only signal how badly the developers wanted to overwhelm us. With DLC and a sequel though, it seems players were definitely up for the challenge.

Based on the Japanese urban legend of the same name, “Aka Manto” brings new levels of fear to horror gamers. Like many others, it places you in a dark environment and with an unbeatable villain. But there are many elements that up the ante. For starters, its early 3D-inspired aesthetic would make things hard to see even if it wasn’t dark. For another, there are a ton of resources, but you can only hold three at a time, leading to a lot of trial and error for what you actually need to escape. However, by far the most difficult aspect comes from how many lives you have (one) and how many checkpoints you get (zero). Every time you die, it’s right back to the beginning.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

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We know we aren’t saying anything new by calling a FromSoftware game hard. And although “Bloodborne” has plenty of other genres mixed in, like fantasy and action RPG, all it takes is looking at a single enemy to know it's also a Horror game. As the nameless Hunter, you must survive citizens of Yharnam, inflicted with a devastating plague that turns them monstrous. Whether it be mounds of flesh brought to life, classic creatures of the night like werewolves, or other disgusting concoctions our imaginations were previously incapable of dreaming up, “Bloodborne” has some of the best and most sickening monster designs in gaming. And it uses those monsters to absolutely pummel the player.

Which of these Horror games gave you the greatest challenge? Is there something we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments!