Pumpkin Spice 2021 | Slightly Scary Games To Mildly Mortify You

In the spirit of Halloween, many of us enjoy engulfing ourselves in horrors that cause shivers down the spine or goosebumps to appear all over the body. And while it can be fun to witness imagery that the majority of parents would never let their children see, in the hopes of bringing people closer together or overcoming fears through exposure, one thing that often gets overlooked in all the nervous excitement of the holiday is how uncomfortable it can be for some. 

Everybody has a different tolerance level when it comes to intense activities of any form and it’s important to acknowledge that some people feel uncomfortable playing the latest Resident Evil, no matter how big and strapping some of the antagonists may be. So for my Halloween article, I’m going to be treating you to something much scarier than any traditional horror game… a Watchmojo style listicle featuring games we can all appreciate during the late nights of October.

Monster Prom 

Scariness: 1/10 - Potential rejection is scary.

If you’re struggling to find a social activity that everyone can join in with at a Halloween party, Monster Prom trades the scares elicited from horror movies for laughs, in a unique breezy story-driven RPG. Players take turns donning the role of a colourful (and potentially very gay) monster roaming about the dark corridors of their school, making friendships with outrageous students/monsters through choices that encourage anyone reading the textboxes to put on a funny voice.

I mean if playing the field doesn’t terrify you, nothing will.

Monster Prom definitely leans on its silliness through playful archetypes and surprisingly funny YouTuber written dialogue but attaining a successful date will require a foolproof strategy. During the weeks (or in-game turns) leading up to the proposal, players can choose where to loiter, buy tactical items and ruin someone else’s date to help their monstrous ships become a reality, these gameplay elements are involved enough to be interesting while also being incredibly easy to grasp which makes both backseat viewing and participation captivating.

Hades 

Scariness: 2/10 - Losing progress can be scary.

What better world to spend some time in and celebrate the holiday built on fancy dress than the sexy underground dungeons of Hades, filled with hunky gods and goddesses watching you constantly fall into the molten hot lavas of hell. It’s unlikely you’ll finish this Greek-inspired rogue-lite before Halloween rolls around, but the fast paced action and morish upgrade systems are wrapped up in an ever progressing story that is suitable for any occasion… especially Valentine’s Day (so we’ll probably recommend it again then too)!

Ummm… I just realised there is something more scary than playing the field… Not playing the field.

Hades won both Geoff Keighley’s and (friend of the site) Ferdous Joy’s coveted game of the year awards last year, and with good reason. Hades has probably got the most satisfying combat system in the genre chock full of great game-feel, with tons of choices for disposing of famously fiendish foes using the best mechanics from Supergiant’s previous works, all tied together by a blood-pumping rock ballad from one of gaming’s greatest composers. If you prefer fighting back over being frightened, you could replay DOOM for the umpteenth time or replay Hades until the end of time.

Luigi’s Mansion (The First One)

Scariness: 2.5/10 - Listen, when he’s scared, I’m scared.

I like that it appears Luigi’s soul leaves his body in order to control Gooigi. Truly, nightmarish.

Luigi’s once admonished standalone franchise has recently spawned an adventure that surprisingly became one of the best selling games on the Switch by capturing the hearts of all ages in a silly physics-based adventure set in the Mushroom Kingdom’s equivalent of Fawlty Towers. While the latest game embraces the silliness of Gooigi and toilet plungers, the original has its roots deeply entrenched in the stylings of Capcom’s seminal PlayStation classic; Resident Evil. While you’re unlikely to see any twisting zombie heads or ravaged dogs jumping through unsuspecting windows, some of the game’s most iconic features can be experienced in a less scary manner.

WHERE’S WESKER!?

Luigi’s mansion itself is laid out in a similar fashion to the Spencer Mansion, which is essentially a maze of vast hallways and dimly lit rooms with potential scares around every corner. Simple details like the Resident Evil handshaking animations, decrepit decor and spindly trees with elongated shadows help give Luigi’s mansion a creepy atmosphere without being overly scary. Boss battles also take advantage of the ethereal side of ghost hunting featuring designs and situations akin to earthbound battles more than the cutesy Mario enemies we’re all used to.

The House/Typing of the Dead

Scariness: 3/10 - But plenty of blood and profanities.

I. DON’T. LIKE. THE. NEW. SINGLE.

So I’m gonna be talking about the Typing of the Dead games and the on-rails shooters that inspired them (House of the Dead 2 and Overkill) as other games in the series are a little scarier and darker by comparison. We all good?

The House of the Dead 2 and its Dreamcast counterpart Typing of the Dead are wonderfully silly games that have stood the test of time through surprisingly competent gameplay and utterly incredible voice acting. If you’ve never heard of these games before, and they can be hard to track down, it might be worth watching a compilation of cutscenes from the games to get an idea of what you’re in for, I don’t think my words can quite do it justice.

Fun fact: a Dreamcast shares 60% of its technology with Proton-packs.

However, the House (or Typing) of the Dead Overkill games are far easier to obtain. The Overkill games are incredibly violent, vulgar and raunchy, but this homage to 80s B-movie tropes has one of the most camp depictions of ‘horror’ that games have to offer. Each level is set in a different seedy movie genre full of zombies coming to eat what little brains the protagonists have. It’s pretty simple stuff, but the Overkill’s over the top nature includes porn-parody-esque writing and costume design, while the typing game can add Shakespearean quotes to the already silly gameplay.

Oxenfree

Scariness: 5/10 - Or as I like to call it, a “Stranger Things Season One/10.

There are a lot of adventure games with horror-themed twists designed to add impact to a climax, but Oxenfree is pretty upfront when it comes to presentation and theming which helps to tell a compelling story about personal demons without feeling too uncomfortable. This narrative-heavy game features a group of mature-ish teenagers going to an unexpectedly haunted island during their Spring Break. After messing around with some radios, the group slowly realises that they can communicate with spirits using radio frequencies and eventually have to try and escape the island with both their lives and friendship intact.

There is really only one correct dialogue choice here.

The main selling point of Oxenfree is its natural storytelling where characters will converse amongst one another until the player decides to interrupt with a choice remark. The interruption mechanic allows the player to listen to either a lot of information or very little before moving onto new sequences which can influence how surprising or scary the game’s heavy scenes can feel. Topics such as mental health issues and anxiety crop up in some of the scarier situations but are told in a respectful way that feels like an open discussion with friends and the story aims to patch any ill will between characters through shared experiences.

Psychonauts 1 & 2

Scariness: 5.5/10 - Don’t be fooled by its cartoony presentation.

The Psychonauts games take the term ‘inner fear’ about as literally as possible by letting players explore the minds of disturbed characters to get rid of evil thoughts (in a somewhat similar way to the persona games). Each stage in this 3D platformer is wrapped in a story surrounding traumatic events, allowing for a creative array of themes, platforming challenges and in the case of the sequel, art styles too. While the characters are colourful and cartoony, the dark themes are equally over the top which contrasts the outside world without sacrificing impact.

Are those teeth?

Right, Psychonauts is actually the most terrifying game… ever.

A whole heap of dark humour is utilised to somewhat mitigate the scare factor, which can be rather impactful given the fact that detailed personal tales take the shape of lavish environments, leaving nothing to the imagination. While Psychonauts isn't a horror in the traditional sense, the franchise manages to defy convention in almost every way it can, which adds to the absurdity of any given situation and allows fans of the platformer genre to experience scares in a wholly unique and accessible manner.