October is prime time for pulling out the scary games, and we've already been covering the best of the best when it comes to atmospheric horror or straight up jump scares. You don't need to shell any money out for a new horror game if your collection is a little sparse though!
There are tons of mods available for existing games that take them a genuinely scary direction, from old classics like Half-Life all the way up to newer Far Cry, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout entries.
These 11 excellent mods all take shooter, strategy, or crafting games and add in a terrifying spin.
Starcraft 2: Resident Overmind
A creative take on the RTS style of Starcraft 2, this custom map culls out all the base building elements and instead has you playing as one lone space marine. Our down-on-his-luck marine is headed to a military base strangely devoid of life... except for alien monstrosities that leap out of the darkness.
The camera angles are significantly modified from the base game, which coupled with the flickering darkness really changes the whole atmosphere and vibe of Starcraft to go in a survival horror direction.
Far Cry: Onirica
Completely changing the color palette and style of Far Cry, Onirica evokes the feel of some of those classic horror titles of the PS1 days, from Nightmare Creatures to Silent Hill.
Far Cry 4: Devil In The Swamp
There are a bunch of horror-focused custom maps that have now been made with the Far Cry 4 level editor, from basically unplayable movie demos to more objective-focused combat entries, and this visual feast is one of the more interesting ones to watch.
Completely different from the base game's style, Devil In The Swamp is thick on the atmosphere with creepy cabins, bone-strewn floors, bloody walls, and more.
Unreal Tournament 3: The Haunted
It's always interesting to see the level of work and detail modders are able to put into conversions like these, taking action-focused games and massively changing their style and even visuals. The Haunted turns Unreal Tournament 3 into a zombie apocalypse simulator with a serious Resident Evil 4 vibe.
Unreal Tournament 2004: Killing Floor
Tournament 2004 is easily my personal favorite of the Unreal games, with fantastically ridiculous fast-paced arena combat. There was nothing like the thrill of hearing that announcer yell "dominating!" when you got a wicked kill streak going.
Killing Floor is a total conversion that drastically shifts style into a single player, modern day experience set in London that strongly pulls from F.E.A.R.
Half-Life: Paranoia
The graphics are obviously quite dated at this point, but if you still enjoy playing the original Half-Life, Paranoia is an excellent mod to grab that offers a completely different experience, putting you in the role of a Russian soldier on a mission that will go very haywire.
Cry Of Fear
Originally a Half-Life mod, Cry Of Fear became popular enough it is now available as a free standalone release through Steam. This dark mod has you exploring a mostly-empty city in search of clues for what's going in, in a Silent Hill meets Condemned style.
Half-Life 2: Dear Esther
Both of the Half-Life games have some incredible horror mods, so its hard to pick which ones to list. For Half-Life 2 we'll have to go with Dear Esther, which has a hazy, dream-like quality just dripping with atmosphere. It's much more slow moving than many of the other zombie-focused mods, but well worth experiencing anyway.
Fallout New Vegas: Hell On Earth
The Fallout games already have some mild horror elements with those irradiated ghouls and man-eating deathclaws, but this mod cranks that up to 11. There's bits of Silent Hill (Pyramid Head even makes an appearance) and all sorts of other horror tropes as the Courier explores new mist-shrouded locations that really do turn the wasteland into hell on earth!
Skyrim: The Puppet King
So, we could easily write 10 lists all of just Skyrim horror mods. There's got to b e dozens or even hundreds of them readily available online. This relatively smaller mod is an interesting example that ramps up the creepy factor with all the animated dolls and a staff that lets you craft your own puppet automaton companion.
Minecraft: Resident Evil Mod
We'll finish this list off with a silly little entry that puts all sorts of Resident Evil characters into pixel format for Minecraft! Through this mod you can now interact with characters like Nemesis, craft classic RE items like green and red herbs, etc. It's just plain old goofy fun for a bloody twist on Minecraft world building mechanics.
You may have noticed while scrolling through this list that there was no Fallout 4 entry – that's because we have a whole article devoted just to mods that turn the Boston Commonwealth into a horrific nightmare!
Have you played any of our picks for the best horror mods, and what scary total conversions would you recommend we try out this Halloween?
Published: Oct 3, 2016 03:09 pm