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It’s one thing to watch someone try to survive a gauntlet of supernatural scares, but quite another to actually experience these horrors for yourself. This is precisely why video games are so effective at serving up genuine moments of terror, as the hands-on approach allows players to become fully immersed in these digital nightmares.
And when it comes to horror games, what better way of scaring players than trapping them in a good old-fashioned haunted house? From Luigi’s Mansion to Spooky’s Jump-Scare Mansion, countless developers have tried their hand at creating memorable haunting grounds, but not all haunted houses are created equal! That’s why we’ve decided to come up with this list highlighting six of the scariest haunted houses in gaming.
For the purposes of this article, we’ll be defining a haunted house as any vaguely domestic environment under siege by a paranormal force. Naturally, this excludes less-supernatural locations like Resident Evil’s iconic Spencer Mansion. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite haunts if you think we missed a particularly spooky one.
Now, onto the list of the scariest haunted houses in video games…
6. Mamiya’s Mansion – Sweet Home
One of the most important licensed games of all time, Capcom’s horror RPG Sweet Home is remembered for kicking off the Survival Horror genre by having players manage resources and solve puzzles as they explore a phantom-infested mansion. While the game takes several liberties with its source material, it still follows the same basic plot of a group of filmmakers becoming trapped in the decrepit home of a deceased painter.
Naturally, the titular home is the star of the show here, with the game allowing players to become lost in this labyrinthian world as they deal with turn-based monster encounters and uncover the tragedy that led to the mansion becoming haunted in the first place.
Not bad for a Famicon title.
5. Roivas Estate – Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
While the GameCube was often criticized for being more of a children’s toy than an adult-oriented gaming console, folks tend to forget that the device was home to several classic horror games. And while titles like Resident Evil 4 would eventually find their way onto other consoles, Silicon Knights’ Lovecraftian classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem still remains trapped on 20-year-old hardware.
Taking players on a non-linear ride through Ancient Persia all the way to modern-day Rhode Island, the game’s overarching plot sees a young woman on a quest to explore the long-abandoned Roivas Estate in an attempt to unravel the supernatural conspiracy behind her grandfather’s murder. Along the way, she discovers that the mansion houses eldritch secrets that would make the Necronomicon blush, which is why it makes it onto the list.
4. The Ocean House – Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
It’s hard to make players feel afraid when their characters are gifted with monstrous powers, but leave it to Troika Games to include a truly hair-raising haunted house story in the middle of their infamous horror RPG VTM – Bloodlines. Possibly inspired by Rhode Island’s real-life Ocean House, the haunted hotel featured in the game boasts an impressive collection of jump scares courtesy of its ghostly denizens – not to mention some excellent epistolary storytelling.
While the Ocean House is only the focus of a single quest here, it’s still one of the most memorable set-pieces in the entire game, reminding players that vampires aren’t the only things that go bump in the night in Santa Monica.
3. Himuro Mansion – Fatal Frame
Basically a collection of playable J-Horror films, Tecmo’s Fatal Frame series is one of the best franchises to come out of the survival horror boom of the 2000s, with the second installment often being regarded as one of the greatest horror games of all time. That being said, I still have a soft spot for the first entry, with its self-contained thrills introducing players to the eerie Himuro Mansion.
The claustrophobic hallways of this centuries-old Japanese building are perfect for the game’s terror-inducing combat, with your enemies not being bound to the physical limitations of the environment as you attempt to achieve the titular Fatal Frame and photograph them into oblivion.
2. The Blackwood Estate – Scratches
The first commercial horror game to come out of Argentina, Nucleosys’ Scratches also happens to be one of the most thrilling point-and-click adventure titles ever made. Telling a traditionally gothic tale about an author who purchases a secluded estate in an effort to isolate himself while writing a new book, this underrated title allows players to explore these gloomy hallways in a slow-burn dive into madness.
A decidedly lonely adventure, with the player character being accompanied only by the sound of their own footsteps as they solve puzzles and investigate the house’s disturbing history, what really makes the game stand out is its in-depth characterization of the Blackwood Estate itself as the main antagonist.
1. Derceto Mansion – Alone in the Dark
One of the very first haunted houses of the survival horror genre, the Derceto Mansion isn’t just a Poe-inspired nightmare, it’s also a technical marvel as the very first example of an iconic pre-rendered location in horror gaming. Built by an occultist pirate who intended to use the caverns beneath the house for Lovecraftian rituals, the mansion was originally supposed to be depicted by photographs of a real manor before developers decided on 3-dimensional graphics.
While the Alone in the Dark franchise has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the years, part of what makes the original game so memorable is the sinister architecture behind its original Louisiana setting, which is why the upcoming remake is already off to a good start.