4 Horror Video Games That Aren’t Too Scary

The much-anticipated Resident Evil 4 remake hits shelves today but, no matter how much the reviews try and sell me on it, the whole RE franchise is just too scary for me. Horror games are often a no-go genre for scaredy cats like me, which is a shame, because some of the best games are in the horror genre. That being said, there is a wealth of video games out there that manage to walk the line of being scary, without being too scary.

Here are some of the best lite horror games out there for those who want a mildly scary experience.

Horror games that aren’t too scary

The Last of Us

You’ve no doubt seen The Last of Us everywhere since the release of the TV series, but if you’re worried that the game will be too scary to play, don’t be.

Make no mistake, The Last of Us games draw a lot from the horror genre. The design of the infected is gruesome and there are a lot of tense moments as you’re forced to creep up on them, but the game is imbued with lighter moments that help to distract from all of that.

Some moments will always be terrifying (looking at you, hotel basement), but The Last of Us’ genuinely great story makes enduring those scary sections worthwhile.

The Quarry

Supermassive’s interactive game The Quarry plays out more like a movie than a traditional horror game. In fact, you can play it entirely as a movie if you want! It draws on familiar tropes within the horror movie genre to create a new supernatural mystery that gives off very Friday the 13th vibes.

In The Quarry, you as the player are forced to make choices for your characters (which rarely involve more than a press of a button) in the hopes that you’ll get as many of them to survive as possible at the end. It’s kind of like one of those choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps books from back in the day.

There are infinite possibilities, but The Quarry’s interactive movie nature makes it a less intense horror experience and a particularly fun one to play with a group.

BioShock

BioShock has been a pivotal video game franchise thanks to its inventive retrofuturistic world, superpowers mechanics and intriguing story. It plays out like a first-person action shooter, however, there are horror elements to the game.

In the world of Rapture, your character is constantly attacked by Splicers, who will often come at you from unexpected places, as well as the more terrifying boss-level Big Daddies. However, in my time with BioShock, I never found these interactions to be scary enough to turn me off the game. It’s creepy, to be sure, but still worth persevering with.

Alan Wake

Alan Wake is definitely all about atmospheric horror. The story is episodic in nature and follows a novelist as he investigates the disappearance of his wife in the strange town of Bright Falls.

While there are a few jump scares throughout, Alan Wake focuses more on providing a foreboding and ominous vibe to play out its mystery. It is definitely a worthwhile story for any psychological thriller fans.

Thankfully, it seems there are more than enough mild horror games out there for us of the faint of heart. However, if they ever get too scary you can always fall back on the golden rule: play during the daytime.