Scare yourself silly this Spooktober with the best horror games to play before you cancel Game Pass.
Halloween has always meant horror games. You could be playing alone in the dark, or with a backseat gamer yelling directions at you from the couch, but there’s just no better time of the year to feel that delicious chill down your spine. For the longest time, Microsoft’s Game Pass has been one of the best ways to play those AAA horror titles without breaking the bank. But with the recent price hikes across all tiers — which have not been met kindly — a lot of players are understandably pulling the plug on their subscriptions.
So, if this is going to be your final month with Game Pass, you might as well make it count. Download these eight terrifying, unforgettable horror games to get one last bout of terrors and frights from your Game Pass, because after that, the only scary thing left would be the subscription fees.
Now is the time to play The Evil Within if you haven’t
An underrated Shinji Mikami masterpiece
When The Evil Within came out back in 2024, it was essentially Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil 4, showing the world how survival horror could still be brutal, punishing, and deeply psychological. After the disappointment of Dead Space 3 being more action-oriented and geared towards co-op, the gaming space definitely needed something like The Evil Within, where every bullet counts, every shadow hides a threat, and every corridor makes you feel like something is watching you from behind.
The game forces you to conserve ammo, master stealth, and survive some truly grotesque encounters. Even after all these years, The Evil Within’s twisted environments, gruesome enemy designs, and the feeling of helplessness it instilled in you, hit just as hard. The thing is — The Evil Within games are always in a grey, murky area where players hesitate to purchase them even when they are on massive discounted sales. So, there’s nothing better than your Game Pass subscription to experience some truly spine-chilling horror where you’ll likely stop for a breather every fifteen minutes.
Still Wakes the Deep is the best AA horror game
You’re alone on a deep-sea oil rig. or are you?
Perhaps the best AA horror game the world has seen in ages, Still Wakes the Deep is one of 2024’s most atmospheric horror releases. The game drops you into an oil rig in the North Sea, and it quickly goes from mundane to monstrous. It’s a first-person horror experience that leans hard into isolation and environmental storytelling, taking notes from other horror classics like SOMA and Amnesia, all while giving it that gritty British realism we just don’t see enough of.
There’s no combat in Still Wakes the Deep. In fact, it’s just you, the creaking metal of the rig, and something unspeakable lurking in the fog. Every step feels heavier, and every sound turns sharper, getting deeper under your skin. It’s a short experience, yes, but an absolutely haunting one. If you’re into immersive, slow-burn horror that gets under your skin without over-relying on cheap jump scares, Still Wakes the Deep is one you’ll want to experience before losing your Game Pass privileges if you’re thinking of unsubscribing.
Dead Space 2023 is the perfect remake
This is the only way you should experience Isaac Clarke’s story
2008’s Dead Space was a revival of the survival-horror genre at the time, and boy did it really get the ball going.
