Summary
These days,horror gamesare among the most popular games around, often pushing mechanics and stories to their experimental limits. The problem is that some gamers just don’t enjoy being scared that much or have a horror threshold that’s a bit lower than fans of the genre.
Luckily, there are plenty ofhorror games out there that are either designed for gamers who scare easilyorhorror games that are a lot less intense than the rest of their genre.This list is ranked both by the quality of the game and how well it mitigates its scares to be accessible to all kinds of gamers.
Associating Nintendo and horror just feels wrong. Nintendo may well be the pre-eminent family game provider, but they rarely delve into adult content because they don’t need to. So, what to do with a character like Luigi who is famously a massive scaredy-cat?
Well, theLuigi’s Mansionseries answers that question. These games are light on the spooky scale, but still deliver those horror aesthetics fans love. It’s a great entry point into the horror genre for beginners, andLuigi’s Mansion 3is the most refined version of the formula yet, delivering light scaresand spooky bossesfor horror beginners to enjoy.
Most people think of horror as a purely adult genre of storytelling, but the truth is that kids are often introduced to horror at a relatively young age, courtesy of ghost stories, watching movies they shouldn’t, and cartoon shows likeScooby-Doo!that are explicitly about fear, ghosts, and ghouls.
That means thatScooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frightsis also a perfect horror game for gamers with low fear thresholds. It still delivers spooky vibes and ghoulish monsters, but all in the safe and comforting guise of a familiar cartoon show. It’s also a criminally underrated game, for what it’s worth.
Often in horror gaming, the player is the prey, avoiding a horrifying monster and usually failing. So, the question is, would a horror game be less scary if the player were to embody the predator, rather than the prey?
Carrionanswers that question with aplomb. Players embody a horrific genetic experiment that breaks free from an underground secret laboratory and wreaks havoc. By being the horror monster, the player rarely feels too scared while still being able to explore the trappings of the genre, just from the other perspective,making it ideal even for hardcore horror fans.
There are a few sci-fi/horror short stories that transcend their medium due to their sheer imaginative power, andI Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, originally written by Harlan Ellison, is the pre-eminent example. That’s why it’s so weird that it became a video game, and a great one at that.
InI Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, players take control of five tortured humans in a dismal future where a supercomputer has become a sadistic God. The point-and-click adventure genre trappings keep all the horror intellectual, and there are few ‘scares’ so to speak, meaning that players can take their time going through the game without fear of jump scares.
Famously, when the firstResident Evilgame was released in the 90s, players were terrified of a dog crashing through a window. These days, the scene appears quite archaic and not all that scary. For gamers looking to experience horror games but don’t want to be too scared, this difference in reception is a great advantage.
The simple fact is that some older horror games aren’t that scary today, and the originalResident Evil, while undoubtedly a masterpiece, is probablyone of the least scary games in the whole series. The 2002 remake strikes a happy middle ground between graphical fidelity and maintaining a low scare factor.
Indie games have always been where gaming pushes the limits of what’s possible. Sometimes, that results in some of the scariest games ever made, but other times, horror aesthetics are simply a way to express safer game mechanics, as seen inCult of the Lamb.
Although explicitly dealing with cults, sacrifice,adorable animal followers, and eldritch gods,Cult of the Lambkeeps a cutesy, adorable visual style and never gets too intense with its horror elements, opting for the joke over the scare. It’s a great gateway to horror gaming that deserves to be played by more people, even non-horror fans.
Lovecraftian horror is a firm favorite among horror fans due to its subtlety, intellectual heft, and unique existential dread. Best of all, for gamers with a low scare threshold, it rarely relies on simple jump scares, instead relying on slow and creeping dread.
Darkest Dungeonis one of the best expressions of this modern Lovecraftian cosmic horror. As a dungeon-crawler, players can take as long as they like battling horrific monsters, and there are very few out-and-out scares in the game, making it perfect for horror beginners. It is a difficult game though, so be prepared for a challenge.
There’s a fine line between horror games that imply horrific monsters exist and whether they truly do or not.Dredge, the hit indie game from 2023, is a master at this tension, where players take control of a small shipping boat trying to find answers ina sea full of terrifying beasties.
Rest assured, the amount of straightforward scares inDredgeis very low. Instead, it’s often the implication of what lies in the sea below that is scary, rather than what’s actually seen. It’s a great entry point into horror gaming; just frightening enough to provide the thrills, but not so scary as to ward off beginners.
