Halloween night is upon us again – time for fake spiderwebs, pumpkin carving, spooky stories, and a handful of classic horror-themed iOS games.
If you don’t have a party to go to tonight, pour yourself a hot cocoa and grab one or two of the titles on this list. All four offer some level of strategy with an atmospheric twist, and they comprise some of our absolute favorite horror games of the past few years.
Alien Blackout ($1/£1)
All in all, the various components of Alien: Blackout tie together into an effectively tense – if limited – stealth strategy game. Play it at night with headphones on, and we guarantee your heart rate will speed up like the motion tracker from Aliens.
Catching the alien on camera is always a thrill
The Room: Old Sins ($2/£2)
The Room series to date is made up of three exquisitely made locked box puzzlers, each saturated with a deeply creepy “Victorian horror” atmosphere. While The Room: Old Sins might lack the freshness factor of the first couple of games, series veterans are getting arguably the finest entry of the four. Newcomers are free to start here without prior knowledge of the series, and may well find that they’ve discovered their new favorite game.
All of the game’s puzzles are set within the rooms of a creepy dollhouse
Slayaway Camp ($1/£1)
In this gory puzzle game, you play Skullface, a psychotic killer at Slayaway Camp that slashes and maims his way through the camp. It all sounds quite violent. And as a base concept, it is. But despite the game obviously receiving Apple’s 17+ rating, the violence is so cartoonish, over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek that it’s hard to take any of it seriously.
The board can get pretty bloody. Be sure to avoid the watchful eye of the cops!
Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 ($3/£3)
This series is not so much ‘fun’ in the conventional sense – some will find themselves in an uncomfortable state somewhere between fear, confusion and boredom – but if you like tension, atmosphere and the occasional big fright, it’s definitely worth a shot. For our money, this third instalment is the best of the bunch.
Track creepy animatronics via the security system