Top three upcoming horror video games for 2023

Horror gamers have been looking forward big time to these three video games. That’s not only because all of them are from historic franchises but also for the unique gameplay that’s been baked in by the developers.

Whether it’s running after victims as Leatherface or surviving the Dark Place as Alan Wake, I look forward to playing all these games with bloody abandon soon!

All the games below will be available on next gen platforms like PS5, PC, or Steam.

Texan Family games to slay your friends with
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

What horror fan doesn’t love the Massacre franchise from 1974 and the intense, hair-raising suspense of the chase between the murderous Family and kinda sorta hapless victims?

Developers GUN and SUMO Digital–Nottingham have brought their signature asymmetric, third-person gameplay format to this bloody mythos and it looks like it’s a hell of a good time from my time on the demo.

Basically, what asymmetrical means is that players can get the chance to become either Family or the Victims. You can try to escape from the iconic redneck slaughter house or chase down folks with knife or chainsaw.

The asymmetry comes in because it’s a 4v3 or four versus three format—three for the poor Victims and four for the marauding Family. Of course you can play against bots but the unpredictability and intelligence of a multiplayer session where you are actually playing versus real people is where the meat of this classic IP comes in.

Every character on either side also has special powers or abilities. While the Victims really must use team tactics, communication, and brains over brawn in their goal to escape, it helps that characters have special abilities tailored for escape. Connie for one has a one-time ability to break a lock.

On the Family side, their powers are being freakishly strong and tailored to kill, not to mention there’s four of them versus the three Victims. You can choose to play as Leatherface with the insanely intimidating chainsaw or the other members like the Cook, who’s able to listen for noisy Victims or add locks to doors for the Family so the Victims have a harder time escaping.

If GUN’s other games, like Dead By Daylight, is any indication, then I’m going to have a great time slaying friends left and right come August.

Release target: 18 August 2023

Hollywood talent spices up nightmare games theme
Alone in the Dark 2023

A return to the roots of survival horror with Hollywood talent in the mix? Sign me up!

The original 1992 Alone in the Dark game set a precedent for survival horror, with players hoarding ammo and solving puzzles. It created such a strong impression that later games used it for their template (ahem Resident Evil).

For this remake of the original, THQ Nordic have enlisted the help of elite actors Jodie Comer from Killing Eve and David Harbour of Stranger Things to star as the game’s dual protagonists.

With this third person survival game, players can step into the shoes of Harbour, who plays Detective Edward Carnby, or Cormier, who is Emily Hartwood, as they explore the haunted town of Derceto.

As in the classic version, players will find clues and solve puzzles, make hairsbreadth escapes or duke it out in combat with limited ammo in the countryside hospital known as Derceto Manor.

The ammunition will in fact be so scarce that bad aim and a lack of bullets will result in players fighting the monsters and enemies with either throwable or melee weapons. With the haunting mood and oppressive atmosphere, it all just adds to the intense gameplay!

Release target: 25 October 2023

Games in the gloom, love from the Dark Place
Alan Wake II

The first Alan Wake released way back in May 2010 for the Xbox 360 cast such a big shadow in horror gaming, despite all its minor hiccups and blemishes.

Now that Remedy Entertainment has finally announced a release in 2023 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, horror gamers have been unsurprisingly pumped.

From the trailers and the gameplay previews it looks like this one is going to be quite an experience. Players can actually take the role of either two heroes.

The new playable protagonist is FBI Agent Saga Anderson, who is sent to Bright Falls with her partner Alex Casey to scope out what’s up with a string of ritualistic cult murders that have taken place in the towns of Bright Falls, Cauldron Lake, and Watery.

Alan Wake is of course the other playable character, and after 13 years trapped in the Dark Place, he’s obviously the worse for wear. Wake has now become known as the famed writer who has disappeared. But few know that he’s been imprisoned in a nightmare of his own design, in the Dark Place that more or less looks like a haunted and lightless New York City.

News from the studio also declares that Anderson and Wake’s stories will intersect and diverge at certain points, letting players take control of the non-main protagonist for short narrative bursts.

Using the proprietary game engine Northlight, developed in-house by Remedy Entertainment, has the game looking gorgeous so far. But since it was the same engine used for the studio’s other projects, like the groundbreaking Control the whole sequel looks very promising.

It would also be very cool if the story of Alan Wake II would intersect with the story of Jesse Faden in Control, seeing that there were moments in the Control DLC where Faden investigated the events in Bright Falls, the area where Alan Wake disappeared.

Am very much looking forward to this one and blasting away at the nightmarish creatures that inhabit the blackest corners of the Dark Place.

Release target: October 17, 2023