The Best Free Horror Games to Play on Steam This Spooky Season

Halloween or not, playing horror games alone or with your friends is exciting. All those jump scares, gut-wrenching scenes, and creepy adventures are something to look forward to. If you’re looking for games to fuel your nights with horror, try the following free horror games on Steam.

Poppy Playtime – One of the Best Free Horror Games with a Toy Factory Twist

Poppy Playtime was released in October 2021 by Mob Games and became popular because of its tricky gameplay. A game like Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF), there are scary toys waiting to devour your character in this game.

Poppy Playtime includes unique landscapes, where you’ll solve various puzzles to survive the night at a toy factory. In-game, your goal is to not get caught by Huggy Wuggy and other toys.

It seems like Poppy will “control” your player to free her out of the toy box. When she escapes, you’ll be led to the next chapter of the series. Unfortunately, Chapter 2 isn’t free and is priced at $9.99. If you like the game and want both Chapters 2 and 3, the DLC packs would cost you $24.98.

SCP: Secret Laboratory – Multiplayer Terror at Its Best Among Free Horror Games

If you and your friends have ever enjoyed reading about the iconic horror lore of the SCP Foundation, this is your chance to experience it first-hand. SCP: Secret Laboratory turns this eerie world into a multiplayer game. You and your friends can either become the escaped otherworldly creatures, or the guards and scientists trying to contain them. Every game feels different in this free multiplayer game, creating unpredictable and memorable rounds of horror.

SCP: Secret Laboratory’s best tool is the atmosphere of suspense and tension it creates. Players have to choose between working together or betraying each other to survive. This dynamic alone serves as a great replacement for a set storyline, as there is enough role-playing in the game to make it one of the best horror games you can play with friends.

AfterHours – Explore Dark, Abandoned Hallways

Developed by Runway Studios, AfterHours is a psychological horror game that you must try. It’s set in a dark, abandoned hospital with only furnished rooms with items you can use. Making great use of its atmosphere, AfterHours shows how you don’t have to spend top dollar on some of the best AAA titles to have fun.

In AfterHours, your in-game survival skills will be tested as you try to avoid being spotted by the mysterious creatures lurking inside the hospital. As you go deeper into the hospital, you’ll meet creatures that could pop out of nowhere. This title can only be played solo, making it even more thrilling.

Cry of Fear – a Classic Entry in Your Horror Games Library

If you’re looking for a psychological horror game, Cry of Fear is a must-try. Initially, this game was a mod for Half-Life but made its way to being an independent game.

Cry of Fear can be played solo or with a group of up to four members. After hitting eight hours of playtime, the game’s environment changes. The unsettling and unpredictable environment becomes harder to navigate, adding to the thrill. As you progress, you’ll chance upon unlockables that can be used when you replay the game. They include five alternate endings, which you achieve according to how you replay the story.

The game features many unique jump scares and soundtracks, making it highly immersive, whether you’re playing alone or with a team.

Dark Deception – Navigate Nightmarish Mazes in This Horror Arcade Experience

If you’re a fan of hide-and-seek-themed games, where hiding is key to accomplishment, Dark Deception is the perfect horror game for you. Dark Deception has creepy monkey bellhops and other monsters to waylay you.

One of your goals in this game is to collect the pink shards scattered around the area and various landscapes, such as the labyrinth, elementary school, and manor. It’s played as if you’re in a maze, so expect to not find hiding spots where you can hide for a long period. To survive, you’ll have to find multiple hiding spots to avoid getting caught by the game’s antagonists.

To enjoy Dark Deception properly, users would have require a mid-tier PC at least. While it’s not one of the most graphically-demanding games, users should still have an NVIDIA 20-series card or above to enjoy it.

Doki Doki Literature Club – A Psychological Horror Gem That Subverts Expectations

One of the most popular free horror games online, Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC) is known for its shocking plot twists. At first, DDLC looks like an innocent visual novel about high school romance. However, it soon reveals its true horrifying nature that leaves a lasting psychological impact. One of the best horror games out there for mature audiences, DDLC cleverly subverts the expectations of its genre, leaving players shaken by the time the credits roll.

In fact, Doki Doki Literature Club has become a cultural phenomenon over the years, thanks to how deeply engaging the narrative is. A standout in psychological horror, DDLC forces players to confront deeper fears, questioning their own decisions within the game. One of the best horror games in the genre, DDLC’s powerful storytelling leaves an unforgettable impression.

Dead Frontier 2 – A Gritty Zombie MMO with Intense Survival Mechanics

Dead Frontier 2, the zombie apocalypse-themed game, was released in 2019 by Creaky Corpse. It’s a multiplayer, open-world game where you can trade your resources with other players. The game’s key to success is teamwork, as you need to survive zombie hordes and attacks. As far as great open-world games go, Dead Frontier 2, with its $0 price tag, leaves no room for complaints.

Resources include food, water, weapons, ammo, and gear that your character will need to survive. In-game missions include quests from non-playable characters (NPCs), with rewards in the form of items you can use to upgrade your inventory.

If you’re looking for familiarity, Dead Frontier 2 is like the Resident Evil games. The only difference and advantage it has is its player-versus-player feature, which isn’t available in the Resident Evil series.

Deceit – A Suspense-Filled Multiplayer Game About Trust and Betrayal

If you’re a fan of Among Us, Deceit is a horror title on Steam that you should try. It’s a first-person battle of observation and instinct, as you track down which players in the lobby are infected by the zombie virus.

In Deceit, you and your teammates are placed in a room where all of you have designated roles. Some are not infected while others are. Similar to how you play Among Us, you need to find and eliminate the infected players to win. While you try to find the infected players, you need to be aware that they can eliminate you too.

If you’re infected, your goal is to attack and kill the uninfected players and win the game.

We Went Back – A Sci-Fi Addition to the Free Horror Games Collection

Developed by Dead Thread Games, We Went Back is a time-loop game where you wake up in a space station alone. As far as time-loop games go, We Went Back stands as a commendable entry in the list.

Your main task is to find an escape route while going in circles, encountering horrors in the space station. As you explore, you’ll also find clues and objects to interact with that may help your goal to escape. We Went Back is a single-player title, and its eerie environment will make for a good horror game night.

While the game looks beautiful and had a 2020 release date, you won’t require more than a GTX 960 card or above to enjoy this sci-fi horror adventure.

Backrooms: Found Footage – Explore a Terrifying and Endless Liminal Space

The Backrooms are one of the most popular internet creepypastas ever, and rightly so. The threat of isolation, otherworldly entities, and creepiness of liminal spaces all combine into one in the Backrooms. As such, Backrooms: Found Footage is a good place to start. This free, single-player horror adventure is one straight hour of terrifying exploration, where you’ll hold your breath, afraid of taking the next step.

Backrooms: Found Footage leans heavily on atmospheric horror, fostering a sense of dread with minimal jumpscares and maximum psychological tension. Every corner in the game feels unsafe, and a looming sense of isolation and helplessness only make things more terifying. There’s no conventional narrative in the game, and it relies only on your curiousity and paranoia to drive the exploration.

Plus, if you do like the experience of exploring these dreadful corridors, you can invest in the paid games Escape The Backrooms or Backrooms: Escape Together. While not free, these multiplayer games are great reimaginings of the Backrooms lore. They offer a memorable experience for you and your friends to explore, conquer, and escape the backrooms together.

Dagon: By H.P. Lovecraft – Dive Into a Lovecraftian Horror

What’s a list of the best horror games without some Lovecraftian lore? Dagon: By H.P. Lovecraft is an unsettling first-person journey, where players experience cosmic horror. The game’s dark and nihilistic themes are straight from Lovecraft’s writing. Players don the role of a war veteran, who goes through unspeakable ancient horrors.

Dagon cuts no corners in its experience, offering heightened tension in its atmosphere through its eerie ambient soundtrack and art style. Sure, the game is a little brief, like living a short story, but it leaves a profound impact. If you’re into existential dread and psychological horror, Dagon is definitely a game you should invest time in. The game’s themes of madness, despair, and cosmic insignificance hit right home, marking it as a great tribute to Lovecraft’s storytelling.

Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion – A Unique Blend of Jump Scares and Playful Horror

Do you have any idea what it looks like if you add cuteness to horror? Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion will give you a few. The jump scare mansion in the game contains a thousand rooms full of terror, offering jump scares that will give you feelings opposite to fear, as there is no overpowering appearance of horror.

The twist in this game is that as you proceed to the next room, it’ll be more difficult to progress, as there will be monsters who will come after you. There’ll also be obstacles that may slow you down and prevent you from proceeding to the next rooms and finishing the game.

Thanks to the game’s art style, Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion is going to be a breeze to play on low-tier PCs as well.

SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer – Face Escaping Anomalies in This Tense Co-Op Game

If you liked your time playing SCP: Secret Laboratory and are itching for more SCP shenanigans with friends, don’t worry. SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer throws you and your friends in a maze-like facility. Your only objective? Escape the facility while avoiding the horrors that lurk within. Fans of the original SCP: Containment Breach would appreciate playing the multiplayer version even more, going through the tense atmosphere and the horrors within it with friends.

Every corridor, hallway, room, and laboratory you come across makes you feel like something is always watching you. Without spoiling anything, players are in for a treat with some popular SCPs in their path. Fans of SCP lore will appreciate the game’s faithful adaptation to the lore, and each multiplayer run promises to be different, thanks to the game’s procedural generation. Furthermore, SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer even runs on the potato-est of PCs, owing to its minimal graphics requirements.

No More Room in Hell – A Realistic Zombie Apocalypse With Co-Op Survival

Released on the same day as Halloween of 2011, No More Room in Hell is one of those usual zombie games that you’ve played. The big difference it makes is the big team you can build, where you can include up to eight players.

This co-op game throws players in a zombie apocalypse, with the main objective being survival. If you get bit by a zombie, you can choose whether to hold on while looking for a cure or give your teammates a notice to kill you.

No More Room in Hell also has a proximity chat, so make sure to tag along with your teammates for better communication. Since you don’t die immediately after getting bit by a zombie in the game, there’s more immersion. You can tag along as an infected player slowing your team down or ask them to eliminate you to be out of the game. This element makes the game more strategic and fun to play.

Almost a decade-and-a-half old at this point, No More Room in Hell continues delivering oodles of fun for you and your teammates. Plus, its age does mean that even if you have a low-end PC, you could still enjoy this game to the fullest.

Ultimate Custom Night – Craft Your Own Horror in This Five Nights at Freddy’s Spin-Off

If you are looking for a free-to-play game but also want to experience the gameplay of FNAF, then Ultimate Custom Night is what you’re looking for.

Although it does not give you the exact gameplay of FNAF, you can customize the animatronics that you want to encounter, set their difficulty level, and wait for their attacks or the jump scare that they’ll give you.

Ultimate Custom Night offers 50 selectable animatronics to choose from. Moreover, you can also customize the office environment you are in as you face the horrors.

Bonus: Panicore (Demo) – Get a Sneak Peek at This Promising New Indie Horror

You’ve probably heard about Panicore, an up-and-coming indie horror game that promises psychological and survival horror elements. Panicore throws players into a world full of dangerous situations and horrifying entities. The minimalist design lends to the scare factor of the game, where you and your friends would be scurrying around looking for the next hiding place.

Panicore is all about puzzle-solving and exploration while the most terrifying creatures are out hunting for you. You and your friends have to piece together the story yourself while the world around you becomes increasingly deadly. While you would have to pay for the Panicore game, it does offer a free demo for you to get a sneak peek into a promising experience.

Panicore will easily run on older PCs as well, demanding only 4GB of VRAM from your graphics card.

Whether you’re looking for jump scares, psychological tension, or cooperative thrills, these horror games on Steam offer something for every kind of horror fan. Plus, the best part is that you wouldn’t have to spend a dime on them, as they are free. So this Halloween, go grab your friends or brace yourself solo- each title promises memorable scares and immersive gameplay that’ll keep you scared, tense, and hooked.

Image credit: A frightened man sits at his computer at night and covers his eye by DepositPhotos