If, like many of us, you’re still craving that survival horror fix after completing Resident Evil Requiem, your first instinct might be to dive back into other entries in the Resident Evil series – or explore other AAA survival horror games such as Evil Within, Dead Space, or Silent Hill.
But if you’re looking to delve into something a little different, then this list of indie horror game recommendations might just be for you.
Crow Country
The indie horror scene is rapidly filling with games that pay homage to 1990s survival horror, each making various attempts to stand out. While its gameplay and atmosphere are reminiscent of PlayStation 1 classics such as Silent Hill, SFB Games’ Crow Country‘s plastic-like soft, rounded graphics and sense of humour are anything but.
Crow Country follows investigator Mara Forest, who travels to the titular theme park to search for clues for its missing owner, Edward Crow, who disappeared over two years earlier. The game features all the genre staples of a retro-style survival horror game with its tank controls, punishing combat, challenging resource management, puzzles, and an abundance of lore for those willing to explore and find it – while offering enough personality and originality to leave a lasting impression.
Among Ashes
Continuing 2024’s supply of fantastic indie horror titles is Rat Cliff Game’s Among Ashes, a psychological horror game that puts players into the shoes of… themselves, with the game even pulling the player’s name from their Steam account to increase the immersion.
Among Ashes begins with the player sitting in their room playing a video game when a friend sends a link to a horror forum where a video game developer has uploaded a free horror game called Night Call, a PlayStation 1-style horror game inspired by horror classics from that era, such as Resident Devil and… Silent Mill?
From there, Among Ashes is split into two gameplay states, with the player alternating between exploring their apartment as unsettling events start to take place after downloading Night Call, and the in-game perspective of Night Call, where we take on the role of a detective investigating a mansion following reports of screams. While our now haunted apartment comes to life around us, we face off against monsters and uncover an evil scientist’s plot in our game within a game.
You Will Die Here Tonight
Spiral Bound Interactive’s You Will Die Here Tonight is probably the closest title we have on this list to actually resembling a Resident Evil game. From its mansion setting, healing herbs, and smashing vases and boxes for loot, this survival horror takes clear-cut inspiration from the first Resident Evil game. However, You Will Die Here Tonight also brings its own added flair that makes it stand out, and it’s not just its combination of top-down exploration camera and arcade-style first-person combat.
Players take control of the Aries Division, an elite squad dispatched to investigate Breckenridge Hall, which we discover is infested with zombies (sound familiar?). Rather than following a single protagonist, players control all six members of the squad. You’ll choose who to begin with, but when that character dies (and they will), you continue the mission as one of their teammates. There’s no checkpoints, no respawning, just six soldiers investigating a mansion, and not all of them will make it out alive. In fact, death is part of some puzzles and narrative progression, ensuring You Will Die Here Tonight lives up to its title.
Heartworm
Similar to You Will Die Here Tonight, Heartworm is another entry in this list that wears its inspiration from old school Resident Evil and Silent Hill entries on its sleeve. Its themes and setting are reminiscent of Silent Hill, however its inventory management system, map design, and door opening animation come straight from Resident Evil.
Heartworm follows Sam, who is grieving the death of her grandfather, when she hears of an abandoned house that is rumoured to have a room leading to the afterlife. Willing to do anything to reunite with him, Sam travels to the house to investigate and ends up in a strange dimension, filled with monsters and locations that are all too familiar to her.
Heartworm is a visual treat, opting for gorgeous scenery over the dark and dingy settings characteristic of horror games, which makes its dream-like world feel ever more surreal. It caters to both genre newcomers and veterans by offering both tank and modern controls, and the ability to switch combat camera position to whatever the player feels most comfortable with – and all the available options work well.
Hollowbody
Back to the gloom, Hollowbody is set in the UK. This survival horror game from Headware Games takes place sixty years after a presumed terrorist bio-attack wipes out an entire city, now abandoned and cordoned off from the rest of the world. We play as Mica, who decides to travel into the Exclusion Zone in search of her missing partner – a scientist who was investigating the source of the incident.
While a lot of the other entries on this list lean closer to Resident Evil, Hollowbody fully embodies Silent Hill with its bleak, decaying town setting, grotesque creatures, and eerily quiet ambience. Much of the game is spent exploring the abandoned town and finding out more about its inhabitants, who were walled inside when the incident happened and left to starve.
Signalis
If the previous suggestions were too down-to-Earth, rose-engine’s Signalis might scratch that cosmic itch. This psychological survival horror game takes place on a strange planet, where protagonist, Elster, awakens from cryostasis after crash-landing. In this dystopian future, humanity has colonized the solar system and controls it via a totalitarian regime. Elster, a Replika (android), is searching for her missing partner and also her lost dreams.
Signalis, while throwing back to classic survival horror games through its combat and mechanics, also makes its own stamp in the genre with its critically acclaimed storyline, atmosphere, exploration, and lore to create an experience that is both familiar to genre fans and also strikingly original.
Amnesia: The Bunker
Each Amnesia game has dipped its toe into various mechanics of the horror genre. Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Bunker tries its hand at having a singular, stalker enemy, similar to Alien Isolation, and completely hits the ball out of the park in the process.
French World War I soldier Henri Clément is trapped in a bunker with only one bullet remaining. But he’s not alone, as a creature prowls the bunker with him. By scavenging and crafting supplies, Henri must survive against the being that endlessly hunts him down and find a way out of this hellhole.
Tormented Souls
For a return to traditional survival horror, along the lines of Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, is Dual Effect and Abstract Digital’s Tormented Souls. While investigating the disappearance of twin girls at Winterlake mansion, Caroline is kidnapped and experimented on by the culprit. Upon waking up and with no idea what’s been done to her and why, besides her eye being removed, she realises she’s locked inside the mansion with its aggressive test subjects.
Like Heartworm, Tormented Souls offers the choice between a modern and classic control scheme, and will also satisfy anyone looking for that strong mix of puzzles and combat. With an in-depth mansion layout to work around so that Caroline can solve the mystery and make her escape, and a strong variety of enemy types, Tormented Souls and its sequel are strong recommendations for those looking for a traditional survival horror experience.
What games would you suggest for this list? Let us know in the comments, and keep checking GameObserver for more horror game news!
