Halloween is now knocking on our doors and tonight the world will be filled with masked children ready to ask for trick or treat everywhere. For all those who, however, have now hung the vampire dress on the nail, what are the options to have a nice evening? Go out for a pizza? Hiding in the house with the lights out hoping no kid will come and play you while you're enjoying your favorite Netflix series? Or maybe enjoy a nice horror-themed videogame experience with which to spend the evening between jumpscare and very unmanly screams? Well, we are gamers and as such it is obvious that the eye can only fall back on that last option, but we want to aim even higher, we want to experience a horror evening immersed in video games but still in the company of some friend. So, to respond to such an urgent need, we have decided to create a list of five experiences with a (almost always) distinctly horror taste with which you can pass a warm and overwhelming Halloween night with your most trusted drinking companions.
Man of Medan: narrative horror
- Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC
- Players: from 1 to 5
- modality: Each player controls one of the 5 characters and will have to try to keep him alive until the end of the adventure
Well yes, the eye immediately moved towards The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, the new creature from Supermassive Games that following in the footsteps of what has already been done with Until Dawn, aims to want us to live a new teen horror movie in videogame sauce, where our choices can lead to the death of the entire group or the survival of all. However, the game is also characterized by an unprecedented mode, a sort ofco-op experience where a maximum of five players will go to impersonate one of the five protagonists, all with the one and only task of bringing the leather back home between a QTE and a jump from the chair. If you are looking for a fiction-based horror production, you have just found bread for your teeth
Resident Evil 6: adrenaline-fueled horror
- Platforms: Playstation 3, Plastation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
- Players: up to 2
- modality: all three champagnes that can be played are fully playable in the company of a friend
Yes, we know what you might say, after all we would too. Resident Evil 6 has very little of horror and even less of Resident Evil, so why put it in it. Because in spite of everything, this sixth chapter still succeeds to be appreciated by those looking for a more adrenaline-pumping experience than usual. On closer inspection, the title looks almost like a Call of Duty with zombies, including explosions, monsters as tall as buildings and daring car escapes while shooting left and right. Ok, it's true, it is annoying to see that such a game carries the name Resident Evil on the cover, but in case you manage to go beyond the title, you will find in your hands a production that will make you pump your adrenaline to levels never seen before, an endless combination of situations in which to get caught up in the excitement that you can live entirely in co-op with your trusted friend.
Outlast 2: the horror of jumpscare
- Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC
- Players: from 1 to 4
- modality: lights off and loud volume just right, with only the screen to give a little color to the room. Fight and resist as much as you can, but when a game-over or your scream arrives, the pad passes to your partner.
Horror has always made extensive use of easy jumpscare to corner the user on duty, propitious opportunities to explode all the anxiety accumulated up to that moment in degrees of pure terror that will echo forever in your home. In this sense, Outlast 2 represents one of the most striking examples, a combination of anxiety and terror followed by countless phases designed solely to make you jump out of your chair. But why experience all the pleasure of heart attack alone when you can share those moments with your best friends. After all, since the dawn of time we have been inventing ways to play alongside other people with experiences designed to be enjoyed mostly alone. Outlast 2 can therefore be just the right opportunity to get involved with a good challenge where the defeat does not derive only from the accumulated deaths, but also from the splitting screams that will escape you.
Dying Light: horror parkour
- Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC
- Players: from 1 to 4
- modality: together with three other friends you can launch yourself in the main campaign, enjoying it entirely in the company of some other player
Dying Light is characterized by a particular playful structure that makes extensive use of a parkour-based movement system where even just moving from one point to another on the map will prove to be an incredibly rewarding experience, especially when you have then unlocked the best skills that will allow you, for example, to jump on the head of some walking corpse. The game, however, also showcases what is in effect a tasty horror experience, with really successful moments alongside the day / night cycle that becomes an integral part of the gameplay, with enemies that in the light of the Moon will become real and their own demons ready to do anything to tear you apart; predators by day, prey by night. But if all of this is not enough for you, know that the whole adventure can be tackled in the company of three other friends, a nice plus that greatly increases the pleasure of playing.
The Forest: online horror
- Platforms: Playstation 4, PC
- Players: up to 2
- modality: a distinctly survival experience to live with a friend. Collaborating to survive will be the basis of the work
If you can't invite anyone to your house for the big Halloween night, don't despair; The Forest has come to your rescue. The work is in fact configured as a distinctly survival experience where it will be necessary to fight tooth and nail inside a gigantic forest while trying to discover its mysteries. If the idea of living this long journey alone does not excite you too much, know that the entire production can be played in the company of another player connected online. Gathering food, building a safe home and trying to survive the strange creatures that populate the area will have a whole new flavor if you have a friend at your side to share joys and sorrows with.
