Halloween will soon be upon us, so now’s as good a time as any to try and catch up on an enormous backlog of amazing horror games for your PlayStation 4. While the genre has waned a bit in popularity in the past few years due to oversaturation in the market and the incredibly disappointing death of P.T., and by extension Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills, there are still a lot of horror games out there recently released that are deserving of fans’ attention.
To celebrate this upcoming season, here is a list of horror titles available to play right now on the PlayStation 4. These horror games have been released quite recently, and they are all distinct enough from each other to offer different kinds of experiences. There’s something for everyone on this list, so be sure to check it out below.
Without further ado, here are some of the best horror titles you can now purchased and play for the PlayStation 4.
With a sequel already on the way, this critically-acclaimed horror title from developer Kindly Beast is unique, visceral, and will forever change the way you look at old cartoons and animation. This first-person horror title blends in puzzle, action, and survival elements to create a tension-filled game like no other, and incredibly, it works under the guise of its seemingly innocent and child-centric animations. The console ports for Bendy and the Ink Machine were first released in November of last year, and now you can play all five episodes of this masterpiece in a physical release for the PlayStation 4.
Bendy and the Ink Machine tells the story of a retired animator named Henry Stein, who returns to his old animation studio called Joey Drew Studios. Set in the 1930s, during the heyday of rubber hose animation, Henry finds a veritable nightmare awaiting him in the studio, as it would appear that the titular Ink Machine has brought several cartoon characters to life – and they’re not as sweet as you’d come to expect. Bendy and the Ink Machine is also available on PC via Steam, Switch, and Xbox One.
One of the many disadvantages to having such an active imagination is that, sooner or later, you’re bound to overthink a lot of things and form theories in your head. For Nicky, it comes in the form of a secretive neighbor, and this sets about the events of Hello Neighbor, a very unconventional horror title that quickly garnered attention for its early access builds. After spending some time in the Early Access program and having been successfully funded on Kickstarter, plus a publishing deal with tinyBuild, Hello Neighbor is finally fully available to play.
Hello Neighbor follows the story of a kid named Nicky Roth. Roth notices something very unusual about his neighbor Mr. Peterson’s rather secretive behavior. After hearing screams coming from the neighbor’s house, Nicky tries to go in to investigate, all the while evading the watchful eyes of Mr. Peterson. What follows is a surreal and terrifying journey, that unfolds events of both the past and present. Hello Neighbor is also available on PC, Xbox One, Switch, and mobile devices.
Lovecraftian horror has always been one of the trickier genres to go into, mostly because of the fact that it needs to be both subtle, terrifying, maddening, and immersive all at the same time. For the most part, Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide has achieved this balance with Call of Cthulhu, turning the classic tale woven by H.P. Lovecraft into a role-playing survival horror title that makes you question your sanity, while at the same time immersing you into a deep and expansive world. The psychological horror title has been out since November of 2018, and if you want something that really cuts to your tolerance for madness, then this is the title for you.
Call of Cthulhu, in many ways, is both a loose adaptation of the 1981 role-playing title of the same name while still presenting a lot of elements from H.P. Lovecraft’s genre-defining short story “The Call of Cthulhu.” Call of Cthulhu follows the investigations of Edward Pierce, a war veteran turned PI who’s dealing with bizarre nightmares and a strange case on an even stranger island. What happens next is a terrifying turn of events that can end in a lot of ways, all depending on how you approach this investigation. Call of Cthulhu is also available on the PC and Xbox One, with an impending release for the Switch sometime later this year.
With a Lovecraftian horror game already on this list, how will another title set in the same genre – The Sinking City – set itself apart? Well, for one thing, Frogwares’ horror title takes on a more action-oriented approach, in addition to adding a rather huge and expansive open world to explore. There’s a ton of side content to experience on the island of Oakmont, and piercing the story together to create a clearer picture of its inner workings will require a lot of your time. If all of this sounds attractive to you, then this is a better pick over Call of Cthulhu.
The Sinking City sees you playing as another war veteran-turned PI, Charles Winfield Reed. This title, however, takes a much more personal approach, as Reed is investigating the sources of his nightmares and visions, all pointing towards a great and terrible evil that has flooded the town of Oakmont and filled it with seemingly otherworldly creatures. The Sinking City is also available on the PC and the Xbox One, and you can check out a Player.One review of the game here.
This last game is as much of a narrative-driven and emotionally-charged masterpiece as it is a horror title, and it’s also one of the best games released this year. A Plague Tale: Innocence takes the setting of the Hundred Years’ War and the early onset of the Black Death to create a harrowing, yet ultimately touching story about finding hope in even the most dire of situations, while still offering a very immersive gameplay experience tinged with horror that is sure to please a lot of fans of the genre.
A Plague Tale: Innocence tells the tale of Amicia, a young French girl who gets caught up in a fictionalized retelling of the Black Death that assaulted Europe. Along with her is his younger brother, Hugo, who holds a very important piece of this plague’s mystery. Together, they are trying to evade the efforts of an Inquisition sworn to hunt Hugo down, all the while meeting friends along the way to aid them on their quest. A Plague Tale: Innocence is also available on the PC and Xbox One, and you can check out a Player.One review of the game here.
So, what do you think? Which of these immersive horror titles for the PS4 will you be picking up? Let us know and stay tuned for more recommendations from us for the best deals on the best things in gaming, from peripherals and hardware, to toys and various accessories.
