Exploration game where something feels very wrong

It takes bravery to explore an unknown world, and while there are plenty of games that do this in fairly safe, non-hostile environments where nothing can harm you, there are many more where the world openly wants to kill you. Something similar Green hell will make players feel like an unwelcome guest who can barely take a break from the wilderness around them, while Minecrafteven with hostile mobs, is mostly free overworld during the day. Usually you'll have a pretty good idea within the first few minutes what time you'll have to explore – but not always.

One of the most exciting types of exploration games are the ones where you're not really sure from the start if you're in a horror game or not. Things are ambiguous. On the one hand, the world looks friendly enough, and there may be a light story or melody, or the graphics don't seem very dark. But on the other hand, you can't help but shake off the feeling that something is very wrong. It could be a sudden change in overall tone, a rising fear, or something you see in the distance. These types of games tend to have layers to them, and especially if you play them blind, you'll live in an uncomfortable state of not knowing whether to be scared or brush off your own paranoia. From mysterious walking simulators to fishing games with a bizarre Lovecraftian twist, here are the games where fear will eventually creep up on you.

Dredge

Become a boat captain in a Lovecraftian fishing adventure

At first glance, one might think Dredge is just a simple fishing game where you manage a cute little trawler, fish and collect treasure from the deep, then sell your catch to upgrade your boat to go further and faster. That is not true. This game is much, much deeper (pun intended), with a surprisingly terrifying sense of dread lurking underwater, especially after dark or when the infamous fog arrives. Three words: eldrich sea serpent.

It all starts out pretty tame, but as the game progresses you'll travel further into its world from island to island, completing increasingly challenging quests to acquire even weirder and rarer fish and trinkets. Overall, it's not an action-packed game, and some players might even find it relaxing to get into, but it does have a slight undercurrent of horror the more you dig into it. Perfect for anyone who is a fan of Call of Cthulhu and cosmic, awesome horror of all kinds.

The Stanley Parable

Things are not quite as the narrator says – or are they?

Walking simulators are, in my opinion, the most fertile ground to start injecting a sense of discomfort, making you doubt and question everything on a deep, philosophical level. That's what The Stanley Parable at least do it. In this game you are Stanley (or are you?), an employee of a company that makes you think of something straight out of the world of Severance paywith your only job being to press buttons according to commands on a computer screen. One day the commands stop and you decide to go up and investigate… or do you?

This is a game that challenges you to question everything. Will you listen to what the narrator tells you to do? Or will you choose to stay where you are, indefinitely? Will you take a different path and go down a strange rabbit hole to discover something you never expected to find in the first place? With multiple endings available and a strangely unsettling, empty liminal space as your setting, it's hard not to feel like there's something very, very wrong in this game's world. Not just visually, but in a philosophical, sometimes darkly humorous way.

Outer Wilds

Something is not right in the solar system you are sent to explore

Outer Wilds is often praised for the incredible experience you get when you step into the game blind. With no idea what awaits you, other than the fact that you're an astronaut heading into space for the first time for your species, it immediately plunges you head first into a mystery that becomes your obsession to decipher. Something is very, very wrong with the world you're in, and it's because the solar system you live in is actually stuck in a time loop, which lasts about 22 minutes, or a full day. At the end of it, the sun burns everything, and you are sent back to the beginning.

Why is this happening? Fly over to the planets and other points of interest around the system and see how they change in a single loop. You won't be able to solve everything in a single 22-minute session, but instead the game encourages you to go back again and again. Each loop you learn something new, which leads you to the next clue, some darker and more ghostly than others. One thing's for sure: watching a planet completely fall apart in that loop over and over again is disturbing in a way you wouldn't expect to see in a non-horror game.

Firewatch

In the wilderness with minimal contact, your mind will begin to spiral

I have to preface this by saying that Firewatch is by no means a fully fledged, proper horror game (although it does have the horror tag on Steam), but there are definitely moments that play into the feeling that something is off. After tragedy strikes, you are sent off to man a fire watch tower in the middle of the forest, your only contact with a woman named Delilah. Every day you find something new and strange in the wilderness, slowly unraveling the mystery of the small, bizarre happenings around the area.

A dark figure looking down at you from a cliff. A fenced area. A strange, creepy old cave that holds more secrets than you can imagine. All of these begin to play with your imagination, and it doesn't exactly help that Delilah seems as much in the unknown as you. There is an emotional depth and lightness to the story, but it would be false to say that there aren't moments when you feel like you're not alone, and that something is very, very wrong out there. It's definitely a game I expected to turn into something scary. Instead, it was quite serviceable and leans more towards a thriller above all else.

Subnautica

A wonderful water adventure that hides a darkness beneath its surface

Unlike Firewatch, Subnautica actually deserves its horror tag on Steam. That still hasn't stopped many unsuspecting players from jumping into this game, thinking it would be a fun, cozy open-world underwater survival game, only for the truth to be revealed. First of all, if you are at all afraid of the deep, Subnautica will make you feel uneasy from the start. You have crash landed on an alien planet and need to find a way to leave the ocean world. To do so, you must collect all the resources you can, while exploring the treacherous depths, including the underground Lava Lakes and Lost River that require you to go far below the surface.

Your starting location will have you buzzing and sighing in wonder at the beauty of the world around you, from gorgeous exotic fish to vibrant coral reefs, but if you venture past the crashed ship and explore places you're not ready for, you'll encounter some truly monstrous creatures that are hostile on sight. Play this game blindly and you'll be in for a terrible surprise, as the leviathan enemies tend to announce themselves vocally first before actually appearing. Good luck to anyone who happens to have thalassophobia too.