Xbox Game Pass continues to be a great deal for players looking for variety in their game libraries, and even offers plenty of seasonal horror titles to play. Hundreds of games are available for Xbox and Windows PC through the service, spanning all sorts of genres and audiences. Game Pass has an especially great selection of horror games, including some of the best sci-fi horror games of all time, perfect for those who want a fright during Halloween.
Not to mention, tons of new titles come to Game Pass every month, and the rotating selection of games makes Game Pass all the more appealing for players. While some games do leave the service, there are always more great options to replace them. Microsoft has made a serious push to get games on Game Pass early and often, and nowadays more and more titles are playable through Game Pass as soon as they launch. Microsoft has been keen to release its own studios’ works on Game Pass day one, which has added plenty of additional value to the service which already offers a variety of high-profile third-party games.
October’s Game Pass additions include a number of horror titles perfect for the season, from incredible classics like Telltale’s The Walking Dead to new releases like Signalis. Between new arrivals and those that have already been available for some time, here’s every horror title on Game Pass available for Halloween 2022.
Signalis Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass
A highly stylized survival horror game from indie developer duo rose-engine, Signalis arrives on Game Pass on October 27, just in time for Halloween. Set within the dark, cold corridors of a dystopian future government facility, Signalis blends puzzles, action, and exploration in a mix of top-down gameplay and first-person scenes on a canvas of beautifully detailed pixel art. The game focuses on building an atmosphere of melancholy and delving into psychological horror, and will certainly have plenty of mysteries to unravel when it finally launches.
Dead By Daylight Has Multiplayer Horror On Xbox Game Pass
Behaviour Interactive’s one-versus-four asymmetrical multiplayer horror game is arguably a party game – good for a fun evening to mess around with a group of friends. Dedicated Dead By Daylight players, however, have found a deep competitive experience at the higher levels of play, congregating in communities to discuss strategy and game balance akin to those seen in MOBAs and competitive shooters. Much of this can be attributed to the game’s snowballing success; while it launched with only a handful of playable characters, the developers have added dozens of killers and survivors over the past six years. This support has layered more and more complexity onto a solid core experience in the form of unique abilities, perks, and strategies. Dead By Daylight and its community are also a goldmine of memes and in-jokes, so much so that Behaviour developed the standalone dating sim game Hooked On You, where players can pursue romance with four of Dead By Daylight‘s killers. Regardless, if players are looking to share a great multiplayer experience with friends this Halloween, Dead By Daylight is an excellent choice.
Amnesia Collection & Amnesia Rebirth Are On Game Pass
One of the most influential horror games since the likes of Silent Hill 2, Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent set the tone for many horror games moving forward. In contrast to a growing emphasis on action seen in a number of its contemporaries, The Dark Descent‘s gameplay focuses on survival, inventory management, and solving puzzles. When faced with enemies, the player has no real means to fight back – instead they must run, hide, and hope to not be found. This paradigm eventually returned to the gameplay of the survival horror subgenre, with entries like Outlast and Alien: Isolation clearly drawing inspiration. The original Amnesia also had a larger impact on gaming culture – arguably it was the first viral hit horror game, paving the way for titles like Slender: The Eight Pages and Five Nights at Freddy’s to take the internet by storm.
The later Amnesia games don’t quite live up to this lofty history, but are still worth experiencing nonetheless. The Justine expansion, along with loose sequels A Machine For Pigs and Rebirth, are all newly available through Games Pass, making them more widely available than ever before. Last year, Rebirth even added an adventure mode to scale back the level of horror for players who wouldn’t approach the game otherwise.
SOMA Brings Its Sci-Fi Horror To Game Pass
Another title from Frictional Games, SOMA, follows protagonist Simon – or, more accurately, a copy of his brain, memories, and personality – through a deep-sea geothermal facility stalked by hostile robots. SOMA places a greater emphasis on narrative than The Dark Descent, and covers sci-fi themes around consciousness and psychological horror rather than traditional scares. Enemies still abound, and the game is genuinely scary, if a fair bit more cerebral than Frictional Games’ other entries. SOMA also has an adventure mode, so players of all kinds should consider playing it on Game Pass.
Inside’s Side-Scrolling Horror Is On Xbox Game Pass
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The second of developer Playdead’s dark, side-scrolling puzzle platformers, 2016’s Inside is very much a spiritual successor to Limbo, released half a decade prior. Playdead has another project in the works, but their existing games are phenomenal. Much like Limbo, Inside sees the player guiding a lone boy through a dark, brutal environment to evade guards, traps, and worse. While pushing ever onwards to an unknown goal, Inside perfectly balances a setting that’s immediately tense, the draw of what mysteries lie ahead, and the gratifying moments of solving each puzzle – and eventually resolves in a shocking, unexpected climax and some complex emotions. The experience is never a traditional horror game, but its gruesome content and chilling tone is perfectly unsettling for Halloween. Players with Xbox Game Pass should definitely give it a shot; the game is only a few hours long, but will likely stick with them for quite some time.
Game Pass Offers The Classic Dead Space Trilogy
While EA Motive’s faithful remake of the original Dead Space won’t be out until 2023, the entire series is available through Xbox Game Pass. Compared to the games above which are quieter and often thoughtful, Dead Space is the opposite side of the horror game coin. Players seeking tense, gorey, and sometimes bombastic space horror need look no further. Exploring the Ishimura, the Sprawl, and Tau Volantis as Isaac Clarke and facing down gruesome hordes of Necromorphs provides an experience largely unparalleled in games.
At times, the franchise might veer a bit too close to full-on action for some horror fans, but there is plenty of body horror, jump scares, and other genre staples in Dead Space. The second game’s infamous eyeball scene is one of the most memorable horror moments in games ever, and despite the escalating scale as the series grew, the quieter moments that horror thrives on are never fully absent. The original Dead Space is a horror classic, and absolutely worth playing, even with the remake on the horizon.
Beacon Pines’ Storybook Horror Is On Xbox Game Pass
Sticking on the cuter side of spooky, Beacon Pines is a newer title from developer Hiding Spot. Set within the pages of a storybook, the game sees the player unraveling a mysterious plot involving a cast of colorful characters in the eponymous town of Beacon Pines. The developers have described the game as “Winnie the Pooh meets Twin Peaks,” a perhaps uncanny collision that’s sure to spark some interest. The indie title released back in September, and players with Game Pass should definitely check it out. It may not be traditional horror or Halloween fare, but Beacon Pines is a masterfully told story that perfectly fits the season’s tone.
Scorn’s Biomechanical Horror Came To Game Pass Day One
Another newer title, Scorn was developed by Serbian team Ebb Software. This non-linear first-person horror game is inspired by the art of H.R. Geiger and Zdzisław Beksiński, and sees the player exploring and fighting through wastelands, ruined temples, and other strange settings while combating an invasive parasite. The combat can be clunky and tedious at times, but the game’s environments are perfectly eerie and surreal, and Scorn is worth experiencing for the macabre tone it manages to deliver.
A Plague Tale: Requiem Deals With Humanitarian Horrors
A sequel to 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence, Requiem picks up six months after the events of its predecessor. Set in a plague-ridden medieval France, the game continues the story of the player-controlled Amicia and her young brother Hugo. Requiem finds success in its story of love, family, brutality, and desperation. Additionally, it features strong stealth and puzzle gameplay, as well as improvements on the original game’s combat.
It’s a deeper experience than many horror games nowadays, and comes far closer to the massive AAA titles that Sony and Ubisoft routinely release (without reaching their sprawling scales). Still, Requiem manages to unsettle, disturb, and gross-out consistently, and never threatens to become too bombastic. While Innocence isn’t on Game Pass, Requiem has been since its launch earlier in October, and players seeking a more serious story this Halloween should consider playing it.
Alien: Isolation Brings The Iconic Xenomorph To Game Pass
While watching gun-toting badass marines mowing down waves of Xenomorphs is certainly entertaining, Aliens is a far less horrifying experience than the original Alien. Most games in the franchise opt for the plural, but Alien: Isolation reveals the power the lone Xenomorph holds. While the Alien: Isolation developer is working on a shooter, Creative Assembly’s 2014 offering is still one of its greatest games to date, and perhaps one of the greatest horror games of all time.
Alien: Isolation is slow, but that’s far from a complaint. Much like the original film, the titular alien doesn’t make an appearance until a good hour or more into the experience (though it’s hardly as gorey as the film’s chest-bursting scene once it does), and the creature is shown sparingly despite ostensibly being the star. Instead, quiet moments of uncertain tension occupy the majority of the game’s playtime, and while hostile androids eventually appear as foes, the player is rarely shooting their way to victory. The masterful execution of pacing and tension on display in Isolation are, by far, the main reasons to play it this Halloween season.
The Evil Within Is On Xbox Game Pass
Developed in part by Shinji Mikami, creator of the Silent Hill franchise – which has new games coming – The Evil Within plays in a similar space as its creator’s prior work by blending psychological horror with a plenty of scares and a healthy dose of gore. Where the 2014 original falters at times, The Evil Within 2 improves greatly on many of the original’s flaws and manages to deliver a much more personal story. Both are available through Xbox Game Pass.
