Horror AudioGames to Play with the Lights Off

Guides

Sep 28

Horror works better in audio than almost any other genre. What you cannot see, you imagine, and what you imagine is always worse. In a horror AudioGame the voice in your ear describes the dark, the sound design fills it, and then the story asks you what to do next. Run or hide, open the door or leave it closed: the decision, and the consequences, are yours.

Put on headphones, lower the lights and try one of these.

Survival horror

Blood's Bane (16+, 4 chapters, about 43 min). After a Halloween party you would rather forget, you wake up in a pit in the woods next to ten people in costume, all dead. You are the only survivor, and nobody seems to know what happened.
After the Light (16+, 5 chapters, about 52 min). A global event called the Light has turned people into ravenous creatures. You are one of the last scientists, locked in an underground lab, close to a cure.
The Deadly Draw (16+, about 15 min). You wake up in the Structure, an underground building with no exit, where each prisoner has a Tarot card and a series of deadly trials to survive.

Ghosts, séances and the paranormal

The Hidden Legacy (12+, about 22 min). You move into your old family home and strange things start at once. The only way to understand them is to hold séances.
Fare well (16+, 4 chapters, about 33 min). You wake up in a Paris cemetery with no memory of who you are or how you died.

Cosmic horror

Elder Mythos (16+, 2 chapters). Created with Mana Project Studio. For once you are not the victim: you are an ancient entity, slipping into human minds without driving them to madness. Not too soon, at least.

Dark classics

Dante: The Divine Comedy (12+, 3 chapters). You are Dante, lost in the dark forest, and the way home goes through Hell.

How to get the most out of a horror AudioGame

Headphones, always. Many scenes place sounds behind or beside you.
Play at night, alone, at least once.
Watch your health. Wounds and bad decisions add up, and some doors only open if you are still standing.
Don't skip details. A name in a letter or an object in a room can be the only way out later.