The best horror games about Cryptids

Important takeaways

• Cryptid horror games offer immersive gaming experiences.
• Games like RAKE and The Wendigo offer unique scenarios for scrambling.
• From folklore creatures like Bigfoot to werewolves, cryptids enhance horror game narratives.

Cryptids are monsters that have been claimed to exist but have not yet been definitively proven to exist. They differ from mythical or fictional creatures due to their alleged basis in reality, which is often circulated by folklore and creepypastas. Such creatures have gradually clawed their way into popular culture to appear in both literature, movies and games.

Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas have cryptids as Easter eggs only, but some developers have committed to giving them a more prominent role. From co-op cryptic hunts to sinister adventures cut off by hostile beasts, these horror game about cryptids put the beasts in the spotlight.

9 RAKE

A basic but fun cryptid hunting game

• Platform: Windows
• Drop: July 13, 2015
• Developer: Consortium

IN RAKE, the player follows the scientist and explorer Gordon Davis, devoted to investigating legends. This time he's on the hunt for the Rake: a tall, lean, unnaturally fast humanoid cryptid that thrives on flesh and blood. Unfortunately, this includes humans, and the player must face Rake's hostile advances throughout the game via a combination of gunplay, trap setting, and camera surveillance.

RAKE admittedly got some slack for inconsistent AI and essentially ineffective mechanics, but what the game offers is a classic fun little horror experience. A grotesque creature lunging at you from the darkness is a trope that apparently never gets old.

8 The Goatman

Save a village terrorized by the goat man

• Platform: Windows
• Drop: June 15, 2017
• Developer: MC game

Goatman is a part-human, part-goat South American cryptid with a penchant for killing dogs (and sometimes people), according to alleged sightings. Its gaming equivalent The Goatman is a co-op cryptic hunting game.

The player, with up to two others, responds to a call for help in the village of Greenfield. As one of three different soldiers in a military research team (each with their own skills), they must set out to capture this demonic biped. With plenty of land to explore and a range of equipment – traps, drones, explosives – The Goatman is equal parts engaging and terrifying.

7 Seeking Evil: The Wendigo

End the Wendigo's Curse and liberate the forest

• Platform: Windows
• Drop: September 11, 2017
• Developer: Copybug paste

The legend of the Wendigo originated in North America, where this tall horned horned creature is believed to possess humans and drive them to cannibalism. Unfortunately, the Wendigo is never satisfied and constantly seeks new victims.

IN Seeking Evil: The Wendigo, the player is thrown into a forest, surrounded by the remains of the Crypt Age's latest victim. To escape, they must find totems and burn them to break the curse gripping the land. However, the beast becomes more vicious the closer the player gets to victory, and speed is not always the best course of action.

6 Fear the moon

A PS1-style horror game set under a full moon

• Platform: Windows
• Drop: May 7, 2024
• Developer: Jonny's game

Fear the moon is a story-based survival horror set in the Midwest. When a group of old friends decide to go camping, it becomes apparent that one of the members had his own motive when choosing the location. When the sun goes down, the journey turns into a fight for survival.

The player plays as Jane and must solve puzzles and piece together the werewolf's secrets. While it doesn't offer a new gameplay formula, the story and atmosphere do a good job Fear the moon a fun horror experience. The sound design and PS1 graphics make for some truly creepy moments.

5 Folklore hunter

Make a career out of hunting cryptids

• Platform: Windows
• Drop: February 24, 2020
• Developer: Liquid Donkey Games

Folklore hunter is a hunting-based co-op horror game set in a world where supernatural monsters are all too real. When taking on contracts, the player must collect and use resources to take down beasts such as Wendigo and Strigoi.

While the hunt is the main drive of this game, there are also some story elements to uncover that build the world even more. The eerie silence of the forest punctuated by inhuman screams makes the experience all the more terrifying, especially as night falls. For fans of Monster Hunter or The Witcher looking for a scarier experience, Folklore hunter is a good place to start.

4 are you copying?

A room, a radio, several terrifying results

• Platform: Windows, macOS
• Drop: 2017
• Developer: Space Octopus Studios

are you copying? is a short interactive story that can be played for free. When the player, a park ranger stationed in a watch tower, receives a call from someone claiming to be lost and being chased, they must guide them through the forest using the map, searchlight, and radio.

For a game that is exclusively in a single room, are you copying? does well to build a sense of paranoia. Surrounded by a vast dark forest all alone, the fear in this game comes from the isolation and the pair of glowing eyes that always seem to be watching. Depending on the player's actions and choices, there are six possible endings, not all of them good.

Have fun wreaking havoc as a sasquatch

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is perhaps the most famous cryptid of all. An enormous ape-like creature with reported sightings across America, and the subject of numerous hoaxes, it's no wonder Bigfoot has garnered attention from the gaming world.

IN BIGFOOT, the player takes on the role of a bigfoot hunter and tries to prove that the creature exists. The many locations based on real US National Parks in the Unreal Engine make the tracking and strategic gameplay extremely immersive. Players can ease some of the tension by playing in co-op mode, or even play as Sasquatch himself to beat the others at their own game.

2 The quarry

An immersive interpretation of the werewolf's curse

Whether or not werewolves are cryptids is largely debated, as most sightings and experiences have either been debunked or rationalized. Yet these hairy beasts are regularly lumped into the Crypt era due to the lack of definitive proof (or disproof).

The quarry is one of many games that explores the werewolf myth. Stranded at Hackett's Quarry summer camp, seven counselors discover that monsters lurk in the woods and infect their victims with lycanthropy. The player, alternating between characters, must find a way to stop the curse and escape. But they must tread carefully because every decision can have dire consequences.

1 Until Dawn

Decide who will make it off the mountain alive

Until Dawn is another game by Supermassive that centralizes cryptids, this time with the Wendigo. When eight young adults reunite in a lodge where twins Beth and Hannah disappeared a year earlier, they are met with answers far darker than they could have imagined.

When prospectors broke into the sacred Blackwood Mountain, the Wendigo curse was unleashed. Players must navigate both human and supernatural threats to escape the mountain alive. What serves Until Dawn The top spot on this list is the encryption design; their superhuman strength, pale skin and sheer size make them a formidable foe. The atmospheric settings and interweaving of stories make it one of the best cryptic horror games to date.