When it comes to new horror games, there are times of feast and famine, and this past year we gorged until our bellies bulged and our mouths dripped with gruesome grease. In 2024, we received a rich spread of dark experiences from solo creators, indie teams, AA developers and AAA studios in a vast array of genres and visual styles. There was a fantastic Silent Hill 2 remake and beefy updates to contemporary classics like Phasmophobia, Alan Wake 2 and The Outlast Trials, and there was also a steady cadence of brand-new horror franchises expanding the genre in unexpected ways. First, let's take a moment to celebrate a sampling of the year's fresh horror universes. This is not a comprehensive list of new horror franchises in 2024, but it's a suitable demonstration of how vast and varied the offerings were this year.

While nothing is stopping you from playing horror games at any time during the year, there's something extra special about scaring the pants off yourself during the month of October. Horror games are an equally fun alternative to cramming into an amusement park horror maze, and for the cost of a ticket, you can buy several games that provide many more hours of scares. Whether you like slashers, ghosts, psychological horror, or anything in between, these video games are sure to get you in the Halloween spirit. Alien: Isolation is the ultimate horror video game for the season. Set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film (1979), you assume the role of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, and quickly find yourself exploring an abandoned space station.

With each séance, things got spookier. The ghosts became angrier, soon transforming from green to red blobs that spewed fire from their mouths; they can set fire to homes and sims, making hauntings potentially lethal. My sims quickly became total wrecks, often exhausted from lack of sleep due to strange sounds and flickering lights, reminiscent of the terrors in "Phasmophobia." They weren't eating properly or showering, because all they could think about was fear. While scared, sims hide under covers, take "a panicked poop" in the bathroom and scream incoherently to one another.

Playing on professional is spooky, but the difficulty wanes the better you become at ghost hunting. So, throw in some alternative restraints: No sprinting (which you normally activate by pressing shift), including during hunts. No flashlights, meaning you need to use candles, glow-sticks, UV lights and the electrical lighting inside the building (these can shut off or flicker at any time). For the ultimate challenge and hilarity, try walking backward or crouching for the entirety for the match, even when a ghost is hunting you. Better yet, make it a rule that no one is allowed to leave the house upon entering.

It's been a year of surprises for us all. Not only did we kick off the spring with the coronavirus pandemic, but we've seen a series of anomalies throughout 2020 that have shocked and amazed. The realm of video games wasn't left untouched by the strangeness that permeated this year, though many of the surprises the industry brought have been much more exciting and positive than those meant to shake us to our core. From unsuspecting titles becoming veritable mobile phenomena to anime-centric free-to-play games taking the world by storm, our world was nearly turned on its head over the past 12 months. Now that the year is drawing to a close, let's rewind to look at the biggest surprises, upsets, and unexpected moments in the video game world.