Valve Corporation’s Steam, a video game digital distribution service and storefront, has a slew of fantastic games that players will love. It has to be since it brands itself as “the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games online.”
While Steam is generally a store where you can find and buy the world’s most in-demand games, it is also a platform where you can get started playing games for free, such as horror games. Feel the thrill – for free. Just in time for Halloween, here are some of Steam’s best free-to-play horror games.
1. ‘AfterHours’
If you want the feel of a survival horror game like that of “Resident Evil,” but without shelling out your money, “AfterHours” can do justice (well, sort of.) It leads this list of the best free-to-play horror games on Steam.
Like its predecessors, “AfterHours” takes place in an abandoned hospital. Players should escape this dilapidated facility. But here’s the twist. You can’t just escape easily. Mysterious creatures residing in the hospital will stalk you. If you want to survive and escape, you have to use the best strategies.
2. ‘Cry Of Fear’
That title sounds just as horrific as its gameplay. In this survival horror game, players control Simon Henriksson, a teenager who finds himself waking up in an alley shortly after being hit by a car. Players must explore the city, solve puzzles, and fight monsters to progress in the game.
“Cry of Fear” is from Team Psykskallar, an independent Swedish studio. Here’s a fun fact. Originally, “Cry of Fear” was a mod for the “Half-Life” video game in 2012, which you may be more familiar with. However, it was shortly released as a standalone product in 2013.
3. ‘Fears To Fathom – Home Alone’
“Home Alone” may remind you of the Christmas comedy movie, but this game is definitely far from that. “Fears to Fathom – Home Alone” is an episodic psychological horror game where each of those episodes unveil a short story narrated by the survivors. Survivors of what? Sounds creepy? It is up to you to find out.
For instance, in the very first episode of the game, players control Miles, a 14-year-old kid left alone inside their home while his parents are out of town for work. As the story unfolds, he soon finds himself in deep, deep trouble. Can he make it through the night? Can you make it through the name in the game?
4. ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator’
“Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator” may not sound like a real horror game at first glance, but it is. This point-and-click business simulation survival horror video game is interesting as it starts as a simulation game requiring players to manage their own pizzeria franchise.
But, as the game progresses, players must survive against hostile animatronic characters for multiple nights in a row. You can look at PVP Live’s previous story here, detailing every game in this franchise.
5. ‘Kessler Syndrome’
Going by the same name of an unpleasant phenomenon in space proposed by Donald Kessler, a NASA scientist, in 1978, “Kessler Syndrome” is actually also a slow-burn horror game developed by students at Champlain College as a capstone project.
In this game, players take the role of an astronaut alone in orbit with a corpse. Now, they must keep the defunct space station where they are at aloft. You will deal with the threats from space junk and navigate the dark halls of the universe in zero gravity. What’s more, systems are likely to fail daily, and the impending doom from the void draws closer. Feels scary? You can play the game today.
6. ‘My Friend Is A Raven’
It sounds like a horror-themed short story or poem, and sure, this game leaches some scary vibes. A downloadable game for Windows, “My Friend is a Raven” is known more as a game than literature where you play as Lutum, the last man alive after a devastating plague wreaked havoc across the planet.
But, the twist begins as you return to your old apartment one last time in search of a sickened raven. This raven holds the pieces of the puzzle that will tell you the cause behind this worldwide catastrophe. Your friend is a raven.
7. ‘No More Room In Hell’
It’s interesting to note that these free-to-play games on Steam make it a point to be catchy with their names, don’t they? Another fearsome free-to-play game on the platform is “No More Room in Hell.” Hell already sounds terrifying, and what if there’s no more room there?
The game is said to have been heavily inspired by George Romero’s “Living Dead” series, with its name being a reference to “Dawn of the Dead,” which carries the line, “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”
This co-operative first-person survival horror video game has players as one of the eight remaining survivors in its plot, focusing on co-operation and survival. You can play the game in two modes: Objective and Survival.
8. ‘Poppy Playtime’
Those who have been playing “Poppy Playtime” venerate Huggy Wuggy, the game’s antagonist, who has also quickly become a popular figure in the gaming world.
“Poppy Playtime” is Mob Entertainment’s episodic horror video game (Mob Entertainment is an American indie game developer), where players assume the role of one of Playtime Co.’s (a toy-making company) former employees who revisits the abandoned toy factory a decade after its staff disappeared.
Inviting? What’s more, the player navigates the game’s world through a first-person perspective as they solve puzzles and avoid various enemies to progress into the game.
Those are just some of the best free-to-play horror games on Steam right now. Other titles that deserve citing on this list are “Samsara Room,” “The Designer’s Curse,” and “Without a Voice,” among many others.
