Looking for something spooky to play on your Steam Deck? Here's our list of the top horror experiences worth playing for halloween.
Whether you’re looking to get into the Halloween mood or just hoping to get your fix of fright, you might be on the look out for a spooky addition to your Steam Deck library. Well, we’re here to help you on your hunt for horror!
From creeping psychological horror to outright jump-scare fests, we’ve compiled a list of the best scary games on Steam Deck.
✨ These are some of the very best scary games for your Steam Deck
Dredge
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Are you familiar with thalassophobia? It’s the fear of deep bodies of water: a pretty reasonable fear considering much of the ocean remains unexplored. We truly have no idea what lurks below the surface.
Dredge is a fishing adventure game that plays on this exact fear. As with any good piece of Lovecraftian horror media, Dredge is subtle and slow-burning; so much so that you’ll even feel put at ease by its gorgeous, low-poly visuals and captivating gameplay loop. Well, that is until you’re reminded of just how vulnerable you and your little fishing boat are.
Little Nightmares
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Blending child-like whimsy and atmospheric horror, Little Nightmares is a uniquely charming puzzle platformer. In it, you play as one of the many children taken to feed the monstrous patrons of a resort called The Maw. Each bizarre area of The Maw dwarves the tiny protagonist, and she certainly doesn’t stand a chance at defending herself.
So, a deadly game of hide and seek is her only chance at survival. Thankfully, Little Nightmares’ strange and intricately designed levels provide the perfect playground.
↳ Little Nightmares on Steam Deck
Fear & Hunger
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
2018's Fear & Hunger delivers a multilayered horror experience. Of course, there’s the horror of the game’s content. Its grimdark dungeons mercilessly wear away at your Body, Mind, and Hunger stats, pushing you and your party towards death … and outcomes worse than death. However, the game is also actively hostile to you as a player. Avoiding torturous demise in Fear and Hunger is often determined by a coin flip. Even saving your game is a struggle.
The whole affair feels hopeless and unfair in a way that will be offputting to a lot of players. But like some complicated culinary delicacy, once you develop a palate for it, you’ll want to indulge more and more.
Alan Wake
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
This eerie and atmospheric offering features a tortured soul searching for his missing wife in a sleepy town… okay, so maybe we’re just really hyped for Silent Hill 2 to come to Steam Deck. Still, Alan Wake is a superb cinematic horror game in its own right.
A little heavier on the action than most entries on this list, Alan Wake’s gameplay requires a something of a mastery of the pistol (and the flashlight) to maintain its protagonist safety and sanity. While tonally quite dark, the game is also unafraid of delving into the realm of the quirky and the surreal, as evidenced by its faux tv-series presentation. A perfect pick up before jumping into the new sequel?
Detention
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Detention is a chilling side-scrolling ghost story set in Taiwan during 1960s martial law. It offers a tragic, adroitly told story and a unique art style that is equal parts unsettling and entrancing.
As well as that, the game’s references to East Asian cultural mythology and the use of traditional instrumentation gives an additional layer of narrative and sensorial richness.
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a 1995 point-and-click based on the dystopian short story of the same name. A misanthropic and sadistic supercomputer eliminates all but five human beings on Earth, keeping the remaining victims trapped in a state of artificial life.
After 109 years of torture, they’re finally presented with an opportunity to overthrow their captor. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream achieves what good horror does best — it effectively tackles themes of morality and trauma while pertinently analysing humanity in ways that are engaging, engrossing, and wholly disturbing.
↳ I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream on Steam Deck
Phasmophobia
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
It’s a whole lot easier to handle what goes bump in the night when you have some pals by your side. So, assemble three of your most fearless friends for a round of Phasmophobia. As a paranormal investigator, you’ll employ a host of different tools to help you survive and document terrifying hauntings. To complicate things, each spirit leaves behind different kinds of evidence. So, you’ll need to properly coordinate your team to make it out and make some bank.
At the time of writing, Phasmophobia is still in early access. However, with 24 ghost types and 12 locations, there’s enough content to keep you coming back for more scares.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
It was a tough challenge to improve on what is widely considered a perfect game but the Resident Evil 4 remake did it with a style and finesse that won’t be matched any time soon. Taking the classic 2005 Resi game and putting it through 2023 vision shows that good game design and quality scares shine through, regardless of age.
Running buttery smooth on the mighty little handheld PC, you can admire Leon’s boyband haircut and the blood of a recently decapitated biter on the go. With the addition of the Separate Ways DLC, now is the perfect time to play one of the best zombie games ever made.
↳ Resident Evil 4 Remake on Steam Deck
Faith: The Unholy Trinity
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Despite — or perhaps because of — its simple 8-bit graphics, Faith: The Unholy Trinity manages to effectively evoke feelings of terror.
Combining retro visuals with a sicky atmosphere and anxiety-inducing soundtrack, Faith: The Unholy Trinity is distinct yet familiar — a nightmare that gets more terrifying as you begin to understand what is really going on.
In line with the 1980s-inspired visuals, the game plays on the themes of satanic panic, having you hoist a crucifix up high to sanctify demons overwhelming a cult. Playing a priest, you are antagonised and toyed with by demons who are having far too much fun watching you squirm.
↳ Faith: The Unholy Trinity on Steam Deck
World of Horror
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Aesthetically, World of Horror is a marriage between Junji Ito and Lovecraft. Whereas mechanically, it’s a turn-based text adventure tinged with a roguelite sensibility. Of course, it’s also so much more than the tags you can find on its Store page.
World of Horror is a game that gets a kick not only out of scaring you but fully overwhelming you. Graphic yet nuanced, violent yet pensive, it’s one of those games you can’t get out of your head even weeks after putting it down,
With the return of the old gods, you are tasked with controlling 14 playable characters and studying 20 investigations. Its rogue-lite turn-based structure makes every poor decision feel even more cutting — mistakes gnawing at you until are fully bested by a world that is so desperate to eat you whole.
↳ World of Horror on Steam Deck
Soma
🎮 Steam Deck Verified
Set in a deep sea research centre, this exploration-heavy sci-fi horror sees you encounter robots that would make Turing do a double take.
During your time playing Soma, you’re never quite sure who is human. Beyond that, you might not even be sure what being human means anymore. Come for the scares, and stay for the existential crisis.
That’s all for our picks! This is just a selection of the best scary games worth playing on Steam Deck. Tell us which of your horror favourites we missed out in the comments below!
