Until Dawn (2015)
© Supermassive Games
Until Dawn reminds us a lot of those Goosebumps books where you could choose your own path and be an active participant in the story rather than a spectator. The goal is to choose the best course of action and get the best possible outcome. We love Until Dawn because it does this in a way no other horror game (outside of the studio’s newer title, Man of Medan) has managed to match.
You can get your characters killed in brutal ways and there are multiple different endings based on the choices you make. It’s scary to play not only because of the Wendigo, but also because of the distrust you feel with some of the characters. You always feel on edge, and even when you dislike a character, you feel motivated to keep them alive so they can, in turn, help keep you alive.
In the next decade, we hope to see more games like Until Dawn that challenge the genre and offer more strategic choice-based gameplay.
Dead Space 2 (2011)
© Visceral Games
The original Dead Space missed the decade by a few years, releasing in 2008. As much as we love Dead Space, many acknowledge Dead Space 2 to be the better game, offering more polish and scenes that are sure to leave you permanently traumatized. Yes, Dead Space 2 had that eyeball scene that’s best left in a mental file cabinet of things to avoid thinking about.
After Dead Space 2, Visceral Games offered fans even more content to play with the lights on in Dead Space 3. While Dead Space 3 isn’t as great as the first two, it’s still a fantastic horror offering as a whole, and we couldn’t imagine the Dead Space series without it. If you’re looking to torture yourself over the holidays, we highly recommend playing Dead Space 1-3.
The games remain some of the best (if not the all-time best) horror games of the decade that incorporate the sci-fi genre and you can’t convince us otherwise. They’re just that good.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), Resident Evil 2 remake (2019)
© Capcom
We love the Resident Evil franchise and were fortunate enough to see several outstanding entries release this decade. However, of the games released during the 2010s, our favorite has to be Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. It may not feel like a traditional Resident Evil game, but as a horror game, it’s pure nightmare fuel (especially when paired with PS VR).
Following the events of Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil 7 offers first-person survival horror and jump scares guaranteed to make you pee yourself a little. Overall, Resident Evil 7 demonstrates the best way to build upon an established franchise and do things a bit differently. Meanwhile, the traditional games were honored with a surprisingly good remake this decade with Resident Evil 2.
Given that it’s a remake of a game that originally released in 1998, we have to give the prize to Resident Evil 7. However, it’s worth mentioning as one of the decade’s best remakes and one of the best games of 2019.
