Players beware! These spooky mobile games are just in time for Halloween
Los Angeles, California - Some seriously scary games can fulfill your Halloween hunger for spooky suspense. TAG24 put itself through the ringer to let you in on the most terror-ific games out there.
'Tis the season to get scared – and you can be well on your way with some of the best mobile horror games, found directly in your app store.
Pick your poison: Jump-scare heavy games can reel you in with quiet moments and tension, while psychological horror games are all about the slow burn – built to make you grapple with big uncomfortable questions and a growing sense of unease.
And action horror titles tend to make use of both psychological spookiness and jump scares, but add some adrenaline to the mix as you mow down waves of zombies or run and jump your way to safety.
Then there are some games that can make you feel vulnerable by taking away gaming's staples like guns, ammo, abilities, or any sort of movement speed – leaving you left to creep around and hope nothing stabs you in the back.
Whatever flavor of spook you desire, mobile gaming is starting to deliver the chills and thrills that used to be reserved only for PC and console horror games. And gamers can't get enough.
Singleplayer games
Slender: The Arrival dropped on October 13, and if you want to search frantically for scraps of paper while being hunted by a creepy teleporting figure, this is the game for you.
The sound design is the highlight of the game, because your demise is always preceded by the sound of static growing louder before the Slenderman strikes.
Yikes!
The game has a free starting level, so you can give it a play test to see if you want to pay for the game to scare you.
Rest in Pieces is another new take on endless running games, making you swing a fragile porcelain figure back and forth at the end of a string to dodge obstacles. If you mess up and hit one, your figurine shatters, forcing you to revive and try again.
The whole game is set in nightmare sequences, in which you must reach three checkpoints to defeat fears, such as a fear of clowns or of giant sea monsters. It's easy to learn, hard to master, and free-to-play.
Eyes is another simple escape game that puts you in the shoes of a thief. The controls are simple and the interactions work well. Even though the sound design is minimalistic, the focus on building tension works.
Your goal is to snag 20 bags of "riches" from a dead man's mansion – but there is a catch, of course. The mansion is haunted.
The only way to stay safe and escape is to use eye symbols to keep track of other unwelcome guests in the mansion. For a free-to-play game, this title is a great way to give yourself a dose of spookiness.
There are plenty of other singleplayer games out there, including many titles that are free or have a free first level. But multiplayer games with co-op and PvP abound, too.
Multiplayer games
Multiplayer mobile horror games can be just as scary, because on top of the different ways game designers can scare you, other players are in the mix, too.
Dead by Daylight Mobile is an asymmetric survival horror game that pits you and three other players against a separate player who is trying to hunt everyone down.
The cast of playable characters is regularly updated as the game's developer team and adds classic baddies from games like Silent Hill and movies like Halloween. Yes, you can now transform into Michael Myers and hunt down survivors yourself.
The survivors need to work together to power up generators, which activate an escape door. Visual and audio cues help both the killer and the survivors to keep track of each other.
One excellent design decision is that the killer is in first-person mode, while the survivors have a third-person view. Overall, the controls are standard for a mobile port, but some inputs – especially for quick-time challenges and camera movement – can be hit-or-miss.
If you just want to work together with other players, Black Ops Zombies might be your cup of tea.
The mobile version of Call of Duty's famous zombie game pits you and three other players against endless hordes of the undead. Grab and upgrade weapons, unlock new areas in maps, and work as a team to last as long as possible before your brain gets taken to chow-town.
Another zombie shooter option is Dead Plague: Zombie Outbreak, which is free – so if the price tag for Black Ops Zombies is off-putting, you can still get in your multiplayer zombie-slaying with an isometric shooter.
But if you can spare the cash and your smartphone or tablet has the storage to spare, Black Ops Zombies is definitely the better of the two – with more polish, plenty of maps, and an additional game mode.
Whether going it alone or getting in on the hunt with friends, mobile games can deliver a heart-pounding scare this Halloween season. And these are just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many more horror-ific games that cost nothing except time to try out.
Cover photo: imago/Panthermedia