Best horror games on Xbox Game Pass to play right now

By Joe Julians

Published: Monday, 05 December 2022 at 12:00 am

As the nights draw in and the weather gets increasingly bleak outside, there’s never been a better time to sit back, turn the lights off and play through a horror game or two. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass, you can now do exactly that without spending anything extra.

There are plenty of horror titles to try out on Game Pass right now, from classics to new games you might not have heard of. It can be tricky deciding which game to start with but we’re here to help you make your mind up.

If you haven’t already signed up to this scare-tastic subscription service, you’ll find some Xbox Game Pass deals at CDKeys, which will make it even more affordable to try out all these fun horror games.

Read on below for our list of the best horror games on Xbox Game Pass. It’s scary how we always have some good recommendations, isn’t it?

Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight is an online multiplayer game that feels like you’re actually in a horror movie. In it, one player is a slasher up against four survivors. You have to find and kill the four survivors when playing as the slasher, or survive long enough to win as a survivor.

It’s a fun game with some genuinely tense moments when playing as either slasher or victim. Now get out there and survive the night.

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Alien Isolation

After Aliens: Colonial Marines came out and disappointed almost every gamer on the planet who had been looking forward to playing it, many thought we would never see a genuinely great game from the hit franchise – that one didn’t even do justice to AvP Requiem let alone the original Alien movie.

Thank goodness for Alien Isolation then, a game that harkens back to the catastrophic feel of the 1979 film and sees you working your way around a deserted space station while an alien hunts you down. Stealth and staying quiet is key in this game and while the scares do calm down after a while, it remains a tense and nerve-wracking game to play.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem

This sequel is something of a masterpiece that’s as horrific as it is breathtaking. It’s a brutal tale of a young boy, a young girl and millions of rats that isn’t to be missed.

The first A Plague Tale was good, but Requiem is even better and is definitely worth a download and play if you like your horror swarming with rats and the brutal realities of medieval Europe.

Dead Space

We will always remember our first time playing the original Dead Space and assuming that the game would ease us in gently before the terrifying carnage began to unfold. We were wrong. The frights start with a heart-pounding chase sequence almost immediately after you gain control of Isaac and it rarely lets up from that point onwards.

This a genuinely chilling game with numerous moments that shocked us and the same can be said for all three games in the franchise. And they are all available now as part of Games Pass thanks to the recent addition of all the EA Play titles to the catalogue.

Doom Eternal

If you love horror but you prefer it with a huge dose of gore and carnage then the Doom franchise will likely be right up your street – with the latest game, Doom Eternal, proving to be a hit with gamers and a game that we keep finding ourselves drawn back to.

In this one, you are on a mission to “end Hell’s consumption of Earth and foil the alien Maykr’s plans to exterminate humanity”. So the stakes and the scares are high, and the gore and ultra-violence are even higher. There are several Doom games on Games Pass now that range from this one to Doom 64!

The Evil Within

If survival horror is your thing then you will definitely want to spend some time with The Evil Within, a game that follows the adventures of Sebastian Castellanos – someone who gets caught up in a distorted world that is filled with horrific creatures who do not wish good things upon the player.

The horror elements of the game were highly praised when the game was released and it is every bit as scary as you would have been led to believe. Get through the first and you’ll get to do it all over again with the sequel too – which is also available to play on Game Pass.

Prey

Prey, released in 2017, takes place in an alternate timeline where humans have made their way into space and gone a lot further than we have in the real world. But the game does make a case for us sticking to Earth’s soil as humanity is up against the Typhon – a race of aliens with great powers that include shapeshifting into inanimate objects – which means we need to be wary of almost everything in the game.

While Prey is not quite as scary as some of the other games on the list, and it would be a great game to play if you wanted to nervously enter the horror gaming world for the first time, it remains a tense experience throughout and it fully deserves all the praise it got upon release.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead

This is a very different game from the others on the list as Telltale made games that were more a click and point type adventure than a game where you spend a lot of time in the action. Its key selling point is the story and it is one that will draw you in and have you feeling way more invested in the characters than you were expecting.

Lee and Clem are two great leads and they are backed up by a whole host of characters – some you can trust, and some you should be wary of. And all this is going on in the midst of the zombie apocalypse and many people you will grow to love will not make it out alive.

As of writing, you can play all of Telltale’s The Walking Dead on Xbox Game Pass. They are all worth playing if you want to experience the complete story.