What Are Some Good Horror Puzzle Games?

Whether you’re into Mascot Horror, tried and true classics of the genre or just looking for something to help you sleep uncomfortably tonight. Here are 15 of the best horror puzzle games on PC

Animal Well

The blob just seems like another tasty snack for this ethereal cat

Animal Well is a modern take on a classic format. It’s clear that the developers took a lot of inspiration from Metroid and Castlevania, but instead of gothic castles and far off planets you’re instead traversing psychedelic ruins filled with a veritable cornucopia of animals.

Blobs must be quite tasty to the denizens of Animal Well because almost everything is out to eat you as the traverse the labyrinthine corridors. Using your skill and wits, frisbees and yo-yos in order to get out.

Animal Well captures that classic feeling of those 8-bit games of old, part metroidvania, part Zelda and all horror. It’s a fight for your life in a colourful world.

Buckshot Roulette

The Dealer sets up his monstrous game

This game almost needs no introduction, Buckshot Roulette quickly took streaming platforms by storm. It’s short and fast paced gameplay perfect for quick content. You’ve probably never played a real game of Russian Roulette but you get the gist.

The Dealer sits opposite you, a shotgun between you. Each round starts with the knowledge of how many live bullets and blanks are loaded but, in what order? Each round you must choose to shoot yourself or the Dealer, obviously you want the blanks to be used on yourself. Not only do you have the shotgun but there are an array of tools to make the gameplay more puzzling; you can cause the shotgun to do double damage for your turn, chain up your opponent to cause them to skip theirs and just smoke a cigarette to regain some life.

The beauty of Buckshot Roulette is how quick the 3 rounds go, giving you a quick and easy avenue into puzzle horror whenever your twisted little brain desires.

Stray

The Stray taking in a short moment of respite from the Zurk

Have you ever wanted to be a cat? In Stray you can be! In between napping and making a nuisance for the robot inhabitants of the city, you must find a way back to your feline family with the help of B-12, your robot companion. 

Set in an underground, dystopian, walled city, you must navigate run down shacks, seedy bars and precarious rooftops on a quest to help your mechanical companions overcome the bacteria like Zurk. As you progress, the denizens of the city will help you reach the surface in an effort to restore light to the ruins and eradicate the infection forever.

No other game puts you into the mind of a cat, it was even mo-capped to recreate their perfect movements! The puzzles are intuitive, feline parkour exquisite and the story engaging with a lovable cast of characters.

Poppy Playtime

Huggy Wuggy, the cuddly and deadly antagonist of Chapter 1

Poppy Playtime starts as a game about urban exploration in a run down toy factory, but navigating your way through the dark quickly brings you to a more sinister reality. Completing trials and puzzle sections to find codes and passwords, hoping the next door you enter is the exit.

The insidious Playtime Co. factory ranges from the production line all the way down to subterranean orphanages, from musical statues against a rather hungry caterpillar to a game of whack-a-mole against an army of tiny Huggy Wuggys. Every “game” rewards you with more clues to your past and just what went on in creating the perfect toy.

Poppy Playtime features intense parkour sections as well as a variety of tools, something you have to make full use of, to solve the mind bending number of puzzles. When you’re not solving something, you’re running away from one of its oddly lovable, and entirely nightmare inducing, cast.

Little Nightmares

Six running away from the nameless and monstrous guests

Little Nightmares features Six, a small girl you must help navigate a ship of unknown origin. The other children with you seem to vanish after being taken to the kitchen and you’d rather not be next on the menu, all the whilst dealing with your own insatiable hunger!

Being so small, you are generally helpless in every situation in Little Nightmares, instead you must rely on the environment and your quick thinking to outsmart the grotesque adults and monsters that inhabit the ship. Your only goal? Escape

A 2.5D puzzle platformer that sits somewhere between Tim Burton, Coraline and A Series of Unfortunate Events. It captures the helplessness of being so tiny whilst still delivering that sliver of hope to keep you playing.

Ghost Watchers

I think this ghost is about to start hunting… At the time of this article Ghost Watchers is in early access.

Ghost Watchers is a co-op online horror game in which you hunt ghosts (Shouldn’t it be called Ghost Hunters?) in a variety of locations; from abandoned houses to suburban homes.

The premise is simple, you stock your van up with your ghost hunting gear and set off with your intrepid comrades. From notebooks to UV you then whittle down the list of ghostly subjects, collecting evidence and hiding from their murderous rampages.a

Based on the success of your hunts you earn money that can be used to buy better gear, maybe you have your eye on that parabolic microphone?

Sally Face

Sal Fisher and his ragtag group of misfits.

In Sally Face you play as Sal, a young boy who lost his sister when he was younger. Set in Addison Apartments, Sal lives with his absent father.

Over the course of 6 chapters, you must uncover the mystery of the apartments, delving from themes of murder, suicide and the occult all the whilst wearing a creepy prosthetic mask. From murders called Charley Mansfield (bit on the nose) to demonic possession you go from worse to worse. It’s a good job you have a ragtag group of friends by your side.

Sally Face is a 2D sidecrolling game with a mix of varied mini games that help to break up the mystery and keep you guessing just what’s going to happen next.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

The eccentric cast and students of Hope’s Peak Academy

You may have already heard of Danganronpa, or at least it’s lovable villain Monakuma the evil, and somehow cute, monochromatic bear. Trigger Happy Havoc is the game that started it all; the TV shows, graphic novels, sequels and even a stage play.

You play as Makoto, a student of Hope’s Peak Academy in a world that stylistically echoes Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Bright, colourful characters with cell shaded and angular features looking like they jumped straight out of an anime. During the day you play in a first-person perspective, walking the corridors and collecting evidence as to who murdered one of your classmates. Once you have all the evidence the real fun begins. Puzzle games, shooting games and rhythms games all create elements of the “trial”, will you correctly find the culprit?

Danganropa: Trigger Happy Havoc is the first step into the crazy world of Danganropa. Whether you come for the murders and Battle Royale like story, or stay for the cute and lovable mascots. It’s sure to be a fun time.

Indigo Park

 “Mollie Macaw”, one of the insidious animatronics of Indigo Park, stalking the player

One of the newest titles on the list; Indigo Park pits you as an urban explorer revisiting a dilapidated theme park from your childhood. What started out as a fun night in the park quickly becomes a fight for your life after a rather unfortunate tunnel collapse.

From the main street to the backstage, the park covers everything you’d imagine it would; hot dog vendors and gift shops. Novelty train rides and abandoned play areas, there's even a toilet or two. Some of the highlights include a grand theatre and a run down aquarium, there’s even some 16-BIT fun to be had. After meeting the park’s enigmatic AI; Rambley. You must follow his advice and leadership to help him restore the place to it’s former glory, especially if you ever want to leave again.

Indigo Park only has Chapter 1 released but it sets some lofty expectations, whilst some gameplay or story may seem similar to others on this list. Its use of AI and ability to break the fourth wall.

Bendy and the Ink Machine

The titular Ink Machine and “Bendy the Dancing Demon”

Bendy and the Ink Machine is set in the fictional Joey Drew Studios. You play as retired animator Henry Stein, someone has invited you back…but who?

The titular Ink Machine has brought your old creations to life and they’re not happy. Henry must turn the machine off and stop his former creations from running amok, whether that be by axe, tommy gun or plunger?!?

A first person survival horror, complete with platforming sections, puzzles and fetch quests. Bendy is almost the prototype for lots of games on this list and is really responsible for the breadth of fun horror puzzle games today.

Firework

The solemn tones of Firework add to the creepiness of the mountain town

An accidental fire at a funeral home forces you to re-open a cold case. You play as Lin Lixun a police officer who, in the opening moments of the game, realises he can talk to the dead.

Whilst there are no monsters or clear “horror” elements, Firework gives a purveying sense of creepiness throughout your time. The music and sound design in perfect sync as you try to crack the massacre of the Tian family.

The puzzles in this 2D echo classic point and click, you need to cut something? You should find some scissors. You find a note that says something is in a pocket of jeans, didn’t you see some washing on a line a while back?

Fran Bow

A flash game not for the feint-hearted. Fran in the home of the sinister conjoined twins;Clara and Mia Buhalamet

Fran Bow released on mobile phones almost a decade ago but has recently crossed over to consoles. Set in the mid 20th Century, the titular Fran must escape a mental asylum, find her cat and defeat the shadow demon that killed her parents. Or did it?

Set in a colourful 2D world that echoes flash games of old, Fran Bow (the game, not the character) consists of classic point and click gameplay as you navigate an insane would and even insane-r? Characters. 

Don’t let its cute facade fall you, at it’s heart Fran Bow is pure psychological horror. Dealing with topics from the death of parents, abuse from adults and what happiness really looks like. Don’t be surprised if you finish this game in tears.

LIMBO

The spider and the boy. One of the games opening puzzles

You are an unnamed boy, working your way through the black and white world that would very much like to see you dead (literally, on all counts) in order to find your sister.

This 2D side scroller features endless puzzles to allow you to move deeper into the forest, and later a more factory-like setting, avoiding all manner of creatures. Climbing over and under things and outrunning traps. Your goal is to avoid anything that might hurt you, one touch and your boy is done.

The unique visuals to the game are so striking you can be lost in it for hours, on top of this almost every death is unique which is hours of fun by its own right. Who would’ve thought you could lose limbs in so many ways?

Platform 8

Before too long you’ll have memorised every part of this innocuous looking train car

Platform 8 is the sequel to Exit 8, a game where you must engage in a 3d game of spot the difference in order to progress to the next level.

Set on a subway train you must walk through a minimum of 8 carriages, working out what’s real and what isn't. Was that woman always sitting in that seat? Those lights weren’t flickering before were they? The rest is simple, if everything is normal then walk forward, if it’s wrong then walk backwards…easy, right?

At first glance some of the anomalies can be quite obvious; walls completely disappear or characters have heads on backwards. But the subtlety and intricacy can quickly turn this game into one that could do with several sets of eyes.

INDIKA

Just some of the gorgeous vistas that await you on your journey of faith

INDIKA is a Nun in the Russian Orthodox Church, set in an alternative Russia at the turn of the 19th Century, complete with your own sidekick; The Devil himself.

Blending 2D pixelated art and puzzles, chase sequences, walking simulators and RPG stat grinds. It’s almost impossible to sum this game up in a few sentences, from crises of faith to Frogger this game seems to have it all. And it’s set against a beautiful and ethereal backdrop.

Throughout this game you’ll constantly ask yourself what is happening? What is Indika’s goal? Sometimes it’s just learning who you really are.