The best horror games to play in 2025

c Still Wakes the Deephorror comes in many forms. Eldritch creatures stalk the Beira D oil rig on thin, overly long limbs that protrude from their bodies like snapping bungee cords. Human-sized pustules and ribbons of blood grow along the corridors, emitting a painful cosmic glow. The North Sea is an unrelenting menace, looming beneath every step. And then there’s the platform itself, a maze-like industrial platform supported by thin outstretched legs in the middle of a raging ocean, groaning as it’s torn apart from within.

Gameplay in Still Wakes the Deep is a traditional first-person horror game filled with elegance and expertise from The Chinese Room. Its action involves jumping across broken platforms, balancing on ledges, running down corridors, climbing stairs, swimming through claustrophobic holes and hiding from monsters in vents and lockers. There are no weapons in Beira D and the protagonist only has a screwdriver to help him break locks and metal panels, putting the focus on pure survival rather than combat. The game is fully voiced and its crew members – most of them Scottish – are incredibly charming, which only makes the carnage all the more disturbing once the monsters take to the platform.

Still Wakes the Deep is an instant horror classic. It’s filled with heart-wrenching horror and laugh-out-loud dialogue, and it all takes place in an environment rarely explored in interactive media. Among sneaking, swimming, running and climbing, Still Wakes the Deep succeeds in telling a heartfelt story about relationships and sacrifice. — JC