Summary
Having more than one campaign can provide a game with a ton of replay value, incentivizing players to jump into the experience after their original playthrough to discover what extra content is available for them to see. Horror games are most commonly the genre that will experiment with this the most, usually showing ahorrific adventurethrough multiple perspectives, or sometimes, keeping the same characters but having multiple entirely different narratives to follow.
Either way, having more than one campaign isn’t exactly anything new in the horror genre, but it’s still always an exciting addition that ensures players will have plenty to get through when booting up the game. Here are the very best horror games that incorporate multiple campaigns and stories as part of their package. Before jumping in, this list will be ranking each of these games according to both their overall quality, and how well they manage to incorporate their multiple campaigns, depending on the content they offer, and their relevance to the wider plot.
In classicHouse of the Deadfashion,the remakeof the very first game has several branching paths that players can navigate their way through by making specific choices in the gameplay. As a result, players can essentially create their own adventure with new scenes and enemies in each playthrough, making for a fresh experience every time.
Survivors being rescued, along with key items being retrieved and secret passageways being opened up, can all impact which path the player takes, and what their latest adventure will look like. Though the game therefore doesn’t explicitly say it, it essentially offers numerous campaigns all wrapped into one.
When loading up theAlone in the Darkremake for the first time, players will be given a choice between either Emily or Edward to play as. Admittedly, while the two will follow the same story for a few hours of the game, it’s in Chapter 4 where their paths, and the cutscenes, really start to diverge.
Both private investigators have different reactions to their surroundings and the events that take place in the game, making it well worth jumping in fora second playthroughto get the full picture. There are also different collectibles for the two of them, so anyone looking to reach that 100% completion will need to see both campaigns through to the end, especially since there are also two secret endings up for grabs.
TheLeft 4 Dead gameshave always been pretty unique, primarily because they don’t technically feature a story. Instead,Left 4 Dead, along with its sequel, provides players with multiple campaigns to embark on, all of which feature 3 to 5 rigorous levels that are all filled with not just regular zombies, but alsothe deadly Special Infected.
Considering each campaign only lasts for an hour or two, it means players can jump straight into a quick session and have a blast with their friends without needing to commit to a long co-op story mode. This is a big reason whyLeft 4 Dead 2has maintained such a strong player base on Steam many years after its release because there’s just so much content to enjoy through its multiple campaigns.
While everyone is already aware ofSilent Hill 2’smain campaign, which sees James embarking on a nightmarish adventure through Silent Hill in the hopes of reuniting with his late wife, many are unaware of other smaller stories that are featured in a few of the ports. This campaign is called “Born From a Wish” and was first made available on the Xbox version ofSilent Hill 2before then being added to the Greatest Hits PS2 version, it puts players in the shoes of Maria as she finds herself stuck in the middle of the monster-infested town.
Though much of Maria’s character and origins are shrouded in mystery for the main game, this additional story does at least help to give some clarity to this suspicious seductress. Despite being automatically featured in most versions ofSilent Hill 2, the remake decided to leave it out, though many fans are hoping this extra campaign willshow up as DLCin the future.
The originalLast of Usgame allowed players to enjoy Joel and Ellie’s epic journey across America as they tried to find the Fireflies, a group who could potentially find a cure for the infection that has destroyed the world. Throughout the base story, Ellie mentions a few times that she once had a close friend called Riley, who was sadly taken from her when she was still young.
This part of Ellie’s life was the core focus of the DLC, Left Behind, which would become a part of the base game with the remaster, and the remake later down the line. Left Behind is a little less combat-focused than the original campaign, being more centered around character development, especially for Ellie, who is forced to accept the untimely fate of her closest friend.
Arguably the game that put the idea of multiple campaigns on the map, the originalResident Evil 2is pretty clever in how it jams two stories into the same adventure. While Leon and Claire both find themselves trapped inRaccoon Cityduring a zombie outbreak, once they leave the RPD, their personal journeys and goals become vastly different.
While Leon becomes concerned with protecting Ada and getting to the bottom of the outbreak’s origins, Claire is more concerned with finding a safe way out for Sherry, a young girl who she stumbles across early in the game. Though the environments are largely the same for both characters, there are a few cutscenes, weapons, and items that have been altered and changed around to help make them both feel as unique as possible, with the trend being continued in the remake that would arrive in 2019.
For the first few hours ofAlan Wake 2, players will be restricted to controlling Saga, a new face for the series who works as anFBI agenthot on the trail of a serial killer. However, upon meeting Alan, the game will then give players the option to choose which protagonist to control, with the two having different levels and mechanics baked into their respective campaigns.
Alan, for example, must use his writing skills to re-arrange environments so that he can progress. Meanwhile, Saga’s story plays more like a traditional survival horror game, but to spice things up, she can also enter the “Mind Place” which allows Saga to piece together clues and even read people’s minds. Having two campaigns as part of the same narrative adds tons of variation toAlan Wake 2, and ensures players never get bored, since with the press of a button, they can always jump over to the other character to see what they’re up to.
