Horror games are topical all year round; don't let anyone tell you different. Just as you can be entertained any day of the week, you can be terrified, too. And 2022 looks to be a fantastic year when it comes to getting terrified. A clutch of horror titles is set to release next year that will (hopefully) get hearts pounding, palms sweating, and spines tingling.

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Understandably, horror isn't for everyone. We get that. But when the scares look this good, and certain horror classics are getting a swanky, new remake, how can you say no? So grab onto your zombie apocalypses and hold on to your ghost-filled nightmares; we're going to take you through our most anticipated horror games coming out in 2022.

Dying Light 2

By George Foster

Dying Light 2 New Episode Coming Soon
Dying Light 2 New Episode Coming Soon

Although most people will know Dying Light as the premier zombie dropkicking simulator — as they should — there’s one thing that a lot of people forget about it; it’s pretty dang scary. The original had more than its fair share of frightening moments thanks to how beefed up the zombies became during the night. Dying Light 2 looks to do more of the same, with even scarier zombies, which will hopefully mean even stronger dropkicks to take them out with.

Evil Dead

By James Troughton

Evil ash evil dead the game copy

Back 4 Blood is fun, sure, but it's Left 4 Dead with a confusing card system. I'd rather just play Left 4 Dead, but I still have that itch for a new, co-op horror game, and no matter where I look, it isn't being scratched.

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Dead Rising hits another niche, World War Z was frantic and fun for a month, but my love quickly dwindled. I'm itching for that experience, desperate for it even, and Evil Dead seems to be the best one to put stock in. I'm cautiously optimistic, a little worried, but excited nonetheless.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

By Stacey Henley

Ghostwire Tokyo Delayed
Ghostwire Tokyo promotional art.

Ghostwire: Tokyo looks like an eerie slice of Japanese horror, recalling the likes of Teketeke, Tag, and Dark Water with a splash of technological horror in there too. I secretly hate Ghostwire: Tokyo, because I got it mixed up with Scarlet Nexus and ended up dropping full price at launch for it. That’s a real horror story for you. Anyway, Ghostwire: Tokyo looks as scary as paying full price for an average weeb game that comes to Game Pass a few months later. Spooky.

The Callisto Protocol

By Amanda Hurych

Callisto Protocol split image

I perk up at the mention of a new horror game, especially when even the trailer has the capacity to freak me out. However, trailers have burned me before. Why is this game any different? Because The Callisto Protocol is being marketed as a "Story-Driven, Single-Player Survival Horror Game from the Creators of Dead Space."

You had me at hello.

Resident Evil Re:Verse

By James Troughton

Resident Evil Re:Verse shooting zombies

Resident Evil's multiplayer forays have been very 'eh' lately, to put it lightly. Despite having one of the best co-op games ever made with 5, Capcom doesn't know how to make Resident Evil work with co-op or PvP. Re-Verse could change that even if the delays spell trouble, but I'm not holding out hope. All the same, I'm very excited to try it. But a lot of that excitement is like watching a car crash - you can't take your eyes off it even if you want to.

The Outlast Trials

By Amanda Hurych

Outlast Trials volunteers feature image

The Outast Trials is one of my most anticipated games of 2022 period. So of course it's also going to be one of my most anticipated horror games of 2022. It's rather rare that we get to see an effective co-op horror experience. The most notable titles that lean on cooperative play often fall into an oops-this-is-now-less-scary-because-I'm-laughing-with-my-friends trap, which isn't always a bad thing. Horror and humor are ironically intertwined at times.

But it would be really nifty if we could see a terrifying multiplayer experience finally realized by Red Barrels. Outlast and Outlast 2 (not to mention that Whistleblower DLC) proved the developer knows how to cater to horror fans. Seriously, the Outlast series just excels at gruesome, disquieting moments of terror. So it would be fantastic if Red Barrels could capture everything that makes Outlast what it is and present it as a tenable experience for a group of friends.

Dead Space (2022)

By Damien Lykins

EA Motive Announced New Livestream For Dead Space Remake

I was admittedly very, very late to the Dead Space hype train. And now that I have played it, I'm more than a little miffed at how hard I slept on this horror gem. Horror and sci-fi go together like peanut butter and jelly (strawberry jelly, specifically, the only good jelly), and I was hooked further than the gills by the time I saw my first necromorph. Speaking of necromorphs, they're probably the absolute best iteration of an opposing force in a survival horror game since Silent Hill 2's bestiary — and that's high praise from me. Isaac Clarke's got a lot of high-powered weaponry at his disposal, which would normally detract from the experience for me. But the fact is that no matter how well-armed you are, you never quite feel safe knowing those abominations could pop up behind you as you're venturing down the Ishimura's sparsely lit corridors. Now that's a telltale sign of an effective horror baddie.

Anyway, now that I'm done screaming about the original Dead Space, let's move on to the fact that I am extremely hyped for the remake. Why, you ask? There are plenty of reasons, but one of the primary considerations is that Dead Space's zero-gravity sections sucked. I absolutely loathed them, and they wrecked the pacing for me every time I was confronted with them. They were clunky, they were stressful-in-a-bad-way, and the remake is fixing them. That's enough. That's all I need. Sold. Now hand me a Plasma Cutter.

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