A let's play of Fausts Alptraum by ManlyBadassHero appeared on Youtube and it caught my attention with its distinct art. It was those games that showed me that small developers can produce elegant stories rarely seen in big-budget, mass-media games. I never saw games like those, and combined with let's player commentary, they had me wanting to see more. They are all 2D horror games with charming, anime character designs that contrasts with the horror while telling emotionally impactful stories.
Ib and Witch's House got me into watching let's plays years ago. Episode 2 is out now and Episode 3 is supposed to release before September is up.A horror-exploration and challenging puzzle game about family tragedy and self-identity.
ELISABETH FROM FAUSTS ALPTRAUM FREE
This one really blew up earlier this year, it's an episodic game with the first episode free to play. Meanwhile, the animation staff have formed a cult and covered their bodies in ink and Bendy masks, mad as can be.
The studio seems in ruin, and soon you activate an ink machine which seems to be trying to bring their mascot cartoon character, Bendy, into the real world. You play as Henry, someone who used to work at an old animation studio who is called back by staff who work there 30 years later. Indie horror games get their own popular hits which strike it big within communities who follow indie horror games, the popular indie horror hits of the last year have been. Without further to do, here's a list of horror games worth checking out in 2017, split into several different categories and put in alphabetical order in each category. There are a variety of tastes represented here, this list isn't made to be liked by everyone, but every game on this list was recommended either by me, a fellow enthusiast, or tried to contain the most popular hits of the year and only games with a Positive Review Average or higher (not that we included every positively reviewed game, but we tried not to include anything with Mostly Positive Reviews or Below with one exception which is for a good reason, which means almost everything on this list has been rated positive by at least 80% of the people who've played it). Or things by Devolver Digital and smaller/niche things. They aren't technically indie but are cult classic games that were basically the most indie the industry got back when the indie scene wasn't a very big scene at all. There are a few games I included which aren't technically indie but were definitely created with the indie spirit, such as The Silver Case and D: The Game, which are under the cult tab. I will be excluding demos, as there's a high tendency for demos to never turn out finished games. I may mention certain games again in the future if they got sizable updates to experience, came out of Early Access with something worth checking out, got a port/remaster which adds new stuff worth checking out, is an episodic game which released new episodes worth checking out, released a piece of DLC worth checking out, but those will be very specific exceptions.
ELISABETH FROM FAUSTS ALPTRAUM PC
I'll mention any console exclusive horror games worth mentioning, but not if a port of a game that released previously on PC finally came to consoles (like SOMA is coming onto Xbox One soon, but first released in 2015). Likewise, I am focused on the PC scene more than consoles. This will be indie focused, for example Resident Evil 7 was obviously a pretty big deal and well received game earlier this year but I think most interested in horror already will know about it. Measuring from September 26th, 2016 - September 25th, 2017, maybe giving you a catalog of titles to check just in time for Halloween or October. I want to bring up what's been very popular, overlooked, and very enjoyable within this last year in the indie horror scene, with a cut-off date for September 26th the previous year (so indie horrors coming out in October will be counted for next year, for those curious). The indie horror boom has really done a lot for the horror genre, as horror games have been indie dominated since even before the boom occurred (and some of the first big indie boom games came in the form of horror or horror-ish games like LIMBO and Amnesia: the Dark Descent). Horror games are going through a second golden age right now, but one that likely won't be fully appreciated until years down the line when people can more look back at the scene rather than the ocean of games releasing almost daily it is right now. So I had decided I'd do this earlier this year.