OPINION: Reader suggestions for best Halloween games

Last week we listed eight of the best games to play this Halloween, but there are plenty more we didn’t choose, so we asked YOU (yes, you!) to tell us what you think deserves to be featured. We loved your suggestions, so as promised, here are even more great spooky Xbox games to play!

Emily Wants to Play
Suggested by @lightning46 on Twitter

If you’ve ever worked a job where you have to visit people’s homes, then you know that you see some really weird stuff going on. You’ve probably not seen anything as weird however, as a CREEPY DEMON GIRL THAT TRAPS YOU IN HER HOUSE AND MURDERS YOU. She doesn’t even pay for the pizza, and she ordered extra anchovies. That’s just messed up.

She does give you a good scare before all that though. As you explore the house, presumably looking for a tip, you encounter not only Emily herself but her dolls too. Failing to properly deal with each new problem before the morning comes will, of course, lead to Emily going full demon face on you. This is definitely a game to play with the volume up if you really want to ruin your underwear.

F.E.A.R. (series, Xbox 360)
Suggested by @XBot448 on Twitter

While many horror games forgo action entirely or minimise the use of weapons, the FEAR series embraces it, interweaving horror where appropriate. None of the games in the trilogy have yet come to backwards compatibility, but they’re still available on Xbox 360, and they will almost certainly come to Xbox One in the future.

In the first game, you are part of the First Encounter Assault Recon, responsible for dealing with paranormal activity before it has the chance to cause mass hysteria. Unfortunately for you, a creepy girl with psychic powers called Alma Wade has other ideas, mainly scaring the bejeezus out of you.

But you’ve got some skills of your own, including the ability to slow down time, thanks to the character’s super fast reflexes. The controls are a bit janky and things aren’t quite as scary as they could be, but if you’ve still got your Xbox 360 laying around, this a pretty good trilogy to power through.

Hopefully they’ll be available on backward compatibility soon as rumors circulating around a few months ago.

Layers of Fear
Suggested by anonymous reader

If you’re the kind of player that likes your horror hames to be more about existential dread than running away from monsters, it’s probably about time you played Layers of Fear. The game has you play the role of a highly-disturbed painter, being haunted by horrifying memories and hallucinations, as he explores his spooky Victorian mansion.

There are some light puzzles and its fair share of jumpscares, but it’s the creepy things you see and hear around the house that really make the game worth playing. The more obvious attempts at scares don’t have much edge to them, but the quiet parts in-between deliver some of the more creative and unsettling moments we’ve seen this generation.

State of Decay
Suggested by @ziplobthud on Twitter

Although there have been hundreds of zombie games over the years, there are only a precious few that could claim to really nail the feeling of being in a post-apocalyptic world; State of Decay is certainly one of those. Not only do you have to scavenge for supplies and fight off hordes of the undead, but you also have to keep your group of survivors alive and happy, while building and maintaining a base to house them.

It’s hard to be truly scared of zombies these days, but the constant pressure to succeed leads to some incredibly tense situations. It’s less scary and more scarily stressful. Despite how immersive it is though, the scariest thing of all might be the technical quality of the game, which can be quite underwhelming. But if zombies are your thing, this is still a great pick this Halloween.

The Evil Within
Suggested by @CorpRoberts on Twitter

Both Silent Hill and Resident Evil may have failed to live up to their reputations over the last few years, but thankfully for survival horror fans, the creator of the latter series took matters into his own hands and created The Evil Within.

The game stays more or less true to the fundamentals of the genre, with a third-person perspective and mechanics based around scavenging for supplies while a bunch of nightmarish monsters try to murder you. More controversially, the game also retains the somewhat clunky, unpolished feel of older titles; something that will delight fans but repel newcomers.

If you aren’t put off by the technical issues though, then there’s a lot to like. The design of the world and the monsters are strikingly classic, with some deeply disturbing themes that make it feel like much more of pure horror experience than most modern games in the genre.

So that’s it for our second Halloween list. Thank you for all of your suggestions, and please feel free to recommend any more games you think should be here. Once again, thank you for reading and have a spooky Halloween!