survival horror games

Survival Horror is video game genre that emphasizes scarcity of resources in a dangerous setting, they generally involve players exploring and traversing through labyrinth like environments finding items or solving puzzles to progress through the game.

If you're looking to get into the genre, I compiled this list of 35 games. I avoided adding whole franchises or else this list would be even longer. This list on Backloggd.

Silent Hill (1999)

While driving to the sleepy resort town of Silent Hill with his daughter, Cheryl, father Harry Mason swerves to avoid a young girl in the road and crashes his car. Waking up to find Cheryl missing, Harry sets out into the mysterious, fog-covered town and battles twisted nightmares to find his daughter.

Fatal Frame (2001)

Set in 1986, the story of Fatal Frame begins with Mafuyu Hinasaki, an aspiring folklorist who decides to investigate the allegedly haunted Himuro Mansion one night in search of renowned folklorist Junsei Takamine.

Silent Hill 2 (2001)

Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland, a man who receives a letter, seemingly sent by his three-years-deceased wife Mary, in which he is beckoned to the fog-ridden town of Silent Hill at the same time as numerous other people troubled by their past.

Clock Tower 3 (2002)

The story follows 14-year-old Alyssa Hamilton who is part of a family lineage of female warriors who travel through time to defeat evil spirits. Alyssa travels from her time in 2003 London to the 1940s and 1960s in order to defeat these "Entities" and bring peace to troubled souls.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)

In a rural Japanese setting, twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura find themselves drawn into a ghostly village after following a crimson butterfly. Trapped by a sinister curse, the girls must navigate the spectral environment, armed only with an antique camera that has the power to capture spirits. As they delve deeper into the village's dark history, they unravel the chilling tale of a tragic ritual and its spectral aftermath.

Silent Hill 3 (2003)

A teenage girl named Heather is suddenly thrust into a strange alternate reality filled with demonic imagery and twisted monsters. She quickly comes to find that the events unfolding around her have something to do with her past.

Siren (2003)

The Japanese village of Hanuda teeters between two worlds - the world of the living and a nightmarish world where the buildings have been ruined, the land has been distorted, and the mountains have been replaced by an unending sea of red. The survivors of the disaster must struggle to escape the village and to do that they must work together and resist the call of the siren.

Kuon (2004)

Kuon is a horror game set in Heian period (12th century) in Japan. You control three protagonists in the game. The story revolves around a man named Doman, an exorcist who was summoned by one of the noblemen to investigate a cursed manor. His daughter Utsuki is out to search for him when he doesn't return, and her sister is charmed by demons inhabiting a mysterious castle, turning into a demon herself.

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (2005)

Rei Kurosawa suffers a strange dream each night, since she took a photo of her dead boyfriend in an abandoned old mansion. Every night the dream will take her deeper and deeper in an old mansion, when she will have to find out what is going on.

Haunting Ground (2005)

The story follows Fiona Belli, a young girl who the player must guide through Belli Castle and its immediate environments in an effort to escape. Along the way, players must solve puzzles, unlock doors and evade, hide or attempt to fight against the castle's inhabitants. Fiona is accompanied by Hewie, a White Shepherd and the two must work as a team to solve certain puzzles and outwit their pursuers.

Forbidden Siren 2 (2006)

The game tells the story of several characters who become trapped on Yamijima Island. On August 3, 1976, an underwater cable was cut, and all power to the island was lost, all of the islanders disappeared and the island became deserted. Twenty-nine years later, a magazine editor called Mamoru Itsuki is visiting the island to conduct research for an article when the ferry he and a small group of other passengers are on capsizes, after it is hit by a red tidal wave. They must all find ways to survive the island's "monsters", the shibito.

Rule of Rose (2006)

Nineteen-year-old Jennifer finds herself at the whims of a group of cruel young girls known as the Red Crayon Aristocrats. With her canine companion, Brown, she must collect gifts for the Aristocrats and uncover the secrets of the society.

Cryostasis (2009)

Year 1968. Arctic Circle, Russian North Pole station "Pole 21". The main hero Alexander Nesterov is a meteorologist accidentally caught inside an old nuclear ice-breaker North Wind, frozen in the ice desert many years ago. This steel creature once fought for its life and freedom, but it has fallen into an ice trap and all the creatures on its board lost not only their natural look, but a right to die.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)

On 19 August 1839, a young man awakens in the dark and empty halls of Brennenburg Castle in Prussia with no memory about himself or his past.

Metro 2033 (2010)

The survivors of a nuclear war have etched out an existence in Moscow's metro tunnels for the past twenty years, but a new threat has emerged from somewhere up above. It is up to Artyom to investigate the source of this threat and discover its true nature.

Outlast (2013)

Miles Upshur, a freelance investigative journalist who is always willing to risk digging into the stories no other would dare investigate, seeks out a dark secret at the heart of Mount Massive Asylum. His ambition earns him an intimate tour of Hell on Earth.

Alien: Isolation (2014)

As Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, you will navigate through an increasingly volatile world as you find yourself confronted on all sides by a panicked population and an unpredictable Alien. You must scavenge resources, improvise solutions and use your wits, not just to succeed in your mission but to simply stay alive.

The Evil Within (2014)

While investigating the scene of a gruesome mass murder, Detective Sebastian Castellanos and his partners encounter a mysterious and powerful force. After seeing the slaughter of fellow officers, Sebastian is ambushed and knocked unconscious. When he awakens, he finds himself in a deranged world where hideous creatures wander among the dead.

Soma (2015)

Waking up in a under-sea world, Simon must trek past abyssal corridors and dreadful monsters to discover the truth about this world and what it means to be human.

Darkwood (2017)

The fear of unknown is powerful. Your senses will be deceived by Darkwood's surreal terrors. No answer will be given to you for free, yet somewhere in the woods lies the truth, an explanation to what has happened in this godforsaken place.

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Claire Redfield stumbles upon a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City and must cooperate with Leon S. Kennedy, a police officer on his way to his first day of duty. However, their attempts at survival takes a dramatic turn when they uncover a nefarious plot by local pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation, resulting them in being stalked by Umbrella's mysterious coated enforcer Mr. X.

Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Jill Valentine is trapped inside Raccoon City as the quarantine order is derailed by the mass zombification of its inhabitants. Teaming up with a mercenary named Carlos Oliveira and his squad, Jill must make her escape from the city while being relentlessly pursued by one of Umbrella's prime bioweapons, codenamed 'Nemesis'.

Alisa (2021)

Alisa is a classic late-90s style horror-themed action adventure game set in a fantasy universe inspired on the 1920s. You play as an Elite Royal Agent called Alisa. While she is chasing a wanted criminal, she ends up in an old victorian mansion. She tries to find a way out while being haunted by materialized/mechanized doll-like humanoids. Can you survive the Dollhouse?

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (2021)

The main adventure consists of three interconnected stories which lead the player to uncover the horrifying truth behind a string of recent tragic deaths taking place in a forest with an infamous history. The story will take you on a frightening adventure through the ruins of an eerie inn, a shrine filled with life-size dolls, and a lake full of dead priestesses.

Resident Evil Village (2021)

Ethan Winters and his family has moved to rural Romania to start anew and raise their newborn daughter, Rosemary. But when an old friend makes an unexpected return and threw their lives into turmoil once more, Ethan must find a way to rescue his daughter, who has apparently been kidnapped by a clan of mysterious nobles who rules over a village.

Fear & Hunger 2: Termina (2022)

Fear & Hunger 2: Termina is oppressive, relentless and hopeless. A mix of jRPG and Survival Horror. Turn-based combat meets resource management. 3 days to explore the wicked town of Prehevil and find out about its dark secrets. 3 days until the pale and sickly green moon rises at its apex.

Signalis (2022)

Signalis is a classic survival horror experience with a unique aesthetic, full of melancholic mystery. Investigate a dark secret, solve puzzles, fight off nightmarish creatures and navigate dystopian, surreal retrotech worlds as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost dreams.

The Callisto Protocol (2022)

In this narrative-driven, third-person survival horror game set 300 years in the future, the player will take on the role of Jacob Lee━a victim of fate thrown into Black Iron Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary located on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. When inmates begin to transform into monstrous creatures, the prison is thrown into chaos.

Alan Wake II (2023)

Alan Wake 2 marks Remedy Entertainment’s first foray into the survival horror genre. Ritualistic murders in a small town. A writer trapped in a nightmare. An FBI agent looking for answers. Two realities. Two hero characters. One horror story that wants them dead.

Dead Space (2023)

Isaac Clarke arrives on the mining ship Ishimura to look for his missing girlfriend. To his surprise, the Ishimura has been infected by a deadly disease that turns people into grotesque monsters. Issac must discover the source of this infection to save what remains of the crew━and himself.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (2023)

When the protagonists were children, they visited the isolated island of "Rogetsu Isle" to celebrate the Rogetsu Festival. In the midst of the celebrations, they suddenly disappeared. The game begins when the girls decide to go back and visit the island again in search of their lost memories of that day.

Resident Evil 4 (2023)

Government agent Leon S. Kennedy is tasked with rescuing the kidnapped daughter of the US President, Ashley Graham, from a remote village in Europe. Upon arriving, Leon discovers that the villagers are controlled by a parasitic cult called Los Illuminados. As he battles wave after wave of infected enemies, Leon uncovers a dark conspiracy involving biological weapons, an ancient parasite called Las Plagas, and a power-hungry leader bent on world domination.

Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Silent Hill 2 Remake is a ground-up reimagining of the 2001 psychological horror game. It follows James Sunderland as he searches for his deceased wife in the fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill.

Cronos: The New Dawn (2025)

Cronos: The New Dawn is a pulse-pounding, third-person survival horror game that throws you into the heart of a deadly struggle against overwhelming foes, all while uncovering the mysteries of a twisted time travel story.

Silent Hill f (2025)

Hinako's hometown is engulfed in fog, driving her to fight grotesque monsters and solve eerie puzzles. Uncover the disturbing beauty hidden in terror. Silent Hill f is set in 1960s Japan featuring a beautiful, yet horrifying world.