Summary
Horror has long proved to be one of the most popular genres for exploring important topics, including PTSD, guilt, grief, and abuse, to name a few. Horror games urge players to confront their fears, and in a world of conflict and nuclear threat, military scenarios are becoming increasingly popular backdrops.
Likewise, many gamers simply prefer the action aspect of horror in more grounded scenarios, rather than the slow, creeping stealth elements that many games in the genre employ. From tactical take-down operations to guns-blazing frontline combat, these are some of thebest military horror gamesthat delve into past, present, future, and fictional conflicts.
TheResident Evilfranchise has produced some of thebest survival horror games of all time. One of the less-discussed titles, however, isOperation Raccoon City.Although deviating both style and canon-wise from other entries in the series, it still stands as an interesting spin-off.
InResident Evil: Operation Raccoon City,players can run through the Umbrella Security campaign to prevent research on the T-virus from reaching the US military, or the Spec Ops campaign, where they are investigating the cause of the outbreak. Either way, there are plenty of undead action-packed scares to be had.
World War 2 has inspired a number of re-imagined horror narratives in fictional media, with video games being no exception.Return to Castle Wolfensteinhas the player take on the role of William Blazkowicz, an Army Ranger assigned to investigate the movements of Germany’s “Paranormal Division.”
The deeper into the game the player gets, the darker the secrets they will uncover while encountering dangerous soldiers and unnatural creatures along the way.Return to Castle Wolfensteinset the standard for 3Dfirst-person shooters, particularly in the horror genre, with its incorporation of military roleplay.
F.E.A.R.— or “First Encounter Assault Recon” — is an army unit tasked with protecting the United States from paranormal dangers. The player controls a Sergeant known only as “Point Man” on a mission to shut down the covert military company Armacham Technology Corporation.
As the ATC’s disturbing and unethical experiments come to light, the player will begin to wonder what is real and who to trust. An interesting take on psychological horror,F.E.A.R.is definitely worth a play for horror FPS fans, or for those who enjoy narratives that explore the risks of biotechnology.
State of Decayis a third-personzombie survival horrorgame. The player must navigate a zombie-ridden world, surviving by base-building, fighting, and scavenging. In the story mode, they must additionally determine the motives of the military’s presence in the valley.
The DLCLifelineallows players to play from the point of view of the military, with new playable characters, maps, and weapons. For an open-world game,State of Decayhas some genuinely terrifying moments and zombie designs, despite its occasional jankiness.
When discussing horror games, it is easy to think of traditional gimmicks like spooky ghosts and evil demons. However, a game does not necessarily need all of these elements; its context alone is enough to evoke that same sense of dread and unease.Spec Ops: The Line,is one such game.
Set in present-day and sandstorm-decimated Dubai, the player is tasked with carrying out recon to locate any survivors. The horror inThe Linecomes from the storytelling, as the player is forced to make horrific moral decisions that are never rewarded. While on the surface this is a standard military shooter, it is also ahaunting psychological horrorthat explores the dark realities of war.
TheAmnesiafranchise is well known for taking players on atmospheric journeys through psychological horror narratives.Amnesia: The Bunkeris the fifth entry, following French soldier Henri trying to escape a sealed-up WW1 bunker.
As the player explores, they will discover the truth about the bunker’s origins, and about what horrors really lurk in the darkness. Unlike otherAmnesiagames,The Bunkerhas a degree of combat and leaves behind the sanity mechanic. That being said, this is still a hair-raising game that requires both courage and resourcefulness to complete.
A sequel to the original 1994 title,System Shock 2throws the player into the shoes of a member of the military group “Unified National Nominate.” Awakening from a cryogenic sleep on theVon Braun, they must explore the spaceship and destroy mutant aliens while uncovering the disturbing fate of the rest of the crew via audio logs.
System Shock 2incorporates various types of gameplay, including character customization, combat, and survival horror (such as inventory management). With a horribly tense atmosphere, this is a must-play for fans ofhorror games set in space.
InS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl,the player takes control of Ukrainian marine, Skif, who finds his home destroyed by a rogue anomaly after returning from war. To earn money to afford a new place to live, he ventures into the nuclear disaster site called “The Zone” to find valuable artifacts.
Not only must players face disturbing, mutated creatures in The Zone, they must also face hostile factions, including the International Perimeter Security Force — a branch of the Ukrainian military acting as border control to The Zone. One of manyhorror games loosely based on real events,Heart of Chornobylis extra scary because of its not-so-impossible events.
Metro 2033takes place in a post-apocalyptic Moscow 20 years after a catastrophic nuclear war. With the above ground being dangerously irradiated and stalked by deadly mutants, survivors are forced to take refuge in the underground metro system.
Amid a torn political landscape — divided between Stalinists and Nazis — the player must venture beyond the metro, navigating environmental and human threats to save what is left of humanity.Metro 2033has an unnerving dystopian atmosphere, balancing combat and tension building for a truly frightening experience.
House of Ashesis the third game in the interactive horror seriesThe Dark Pictures Anthology.The game follows five playable characters, all members of the armed forces, who have fallen into an underground temple while planning a raid. The player will gradually uncover the history of the temple, and the fate of those who preceded them.
House of Ashesexcels at interweaving plots, focusing not just on the overarching conflict and survival, but also on the characters' relationships with each other and their personal struggles. The player’s decisions throughout the game influence the way the story progresses, including whether the characters survive and which ending they get. Overall, this is a great military horror for players who prefernarrative-driven games.
