Spooky Video Games To Play With Friends In Person, Ranked By Gamers

The two players in Resident Evil Revelations 2 have very different responsibilities. Namely, Claire Redfield handles firearms while Moira Burton supports her with a flashlight and crowbar. In the other half of the story, Barry Burton brings the firepower and Natalia uses her supernatural senses to locate enemies and hidden items. The campaign supports two-player local split-screen, letting you work through both partnerships as you explore an island filled with the results of human experimentation. Playing a support character in Resident Evil Revelations 2 still gives you plenty to do. Moira can blind enemies to create openings for Claire, while Natalia can identify threats Barry can't easily see. As it happens, calling out a monster's position is pretty important when your partner is the one holding the gun. The co-op mode is designed in such a way that neither player can do everything alone, even when one of them has a much larger arsenal than the other.

Obscure takes the setup of a teen horror movie and lets two people deal with its consequences together. A missing student leads a group of friends to search Leafmore High after hours, where the teenagers quickly become trapped while various creatures start roaming the halls. Local co-op lets a second player take control of your companion as you explore classrooms, collect supplies, and solve puzzles. The students have different strengths, so choosing who to bring along affects how your pair handles the school's obstacles. Light plays a major role in fighting the monsters in Obscure, and you can attach flashlights to weapons to help strip away their protective darkness. Characters can die permanently while the story continues with the remaining survivors, giving you a reason to look after more than just your own health bar. The fixed camera angles keep both players sharing a view, including during moments when that view doesn't reveal nearly as much of the room as you'd like.

Having somebody beside you doesn't make the creatures in Reanimal less disturbing, but it does give you somebody to panic with when they start chasing you. The game follows a brother and sister searching for their missing friends on a ruined island, with two-player local co-op letting you control one sibling each. Both characters stay within a shared camera view, so you're looking at the same stretch of darkness and discovering what's hiding there together. Similar to Little Nightmares, the popular series developed by the same studio, Reanimal keeps the children small against their surroundings to enhance the sense of helplessness. The siblings help each other through environmental obstacles while sneaking past threats, solving puzzles, and scrambling to escape pursuers. With both players watching the same screen, spotting an escape route and getting your partner moving toward it becomes especially important during the chases.

The survivors of Obscure don't get much of a fresh start when the sequel follows them into another outbreak, this time involving a college campus and a strange plant. Obscure II, also known as Obscure: The Aftermath, pairs returning characters with new students as a night of partying turns into a fight to stay alive. Two-player local co-op is available on the home-console and PC versions, with both players exploring and fighting together while sharing a single screen. Character abilities have a bigger role in Obscure II, with tasks that call for particular skills such as moving heavy objects or reaching otherwise inaccessible places. That gives each member of a pair something to contribute beyond carrying a different weapon. Much like in the original, the shared camera means you need to agree on where you're going, especially when one person wants to search a room and the other wants to leave.

If your friends spend horror movies explaining how they'd make better decisions than the characters, The Quarry gives them a chance to prove it. A group of camp counselors ends up stranded at Hackett's Quarry for one last night, with their farewell celebrations interrupted by something hunting in the woods. Local co-op supports up to eight players sharing a controller, with characters assigned to different people. You take over when your counselors appear, making decisions and handling the action sequences that determine whether they survive. Because everybody watches the same story, The Quarry gives the whole group reasons to get involved between turns. You can compare theories about the locals, argue over whether to investigate a noise, or watch somebody ignore the advice you just gave them. The relationships between the counselors also give you something to influence before the danger escalates, although keeping a romance intact becomes lower priority once people start disappearing.

American and Iraqi soldiers trapped beneath the desert have to decide whether they can trust each other before the creatures hunting them make the decision irrelevant. The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes drops its cast into a buried temple during the Iraq War, where firearms offer only a certain degree of protection. Movie Night supports up to five people on one device, assigning characters to players and prompting you to pass the controller when the perspective changes. The military setting gives House of Ashes more action than some of the other Dark Pictures games, with frantic encounters interrupting the exploration of its underground ruins. Despite the shared threat, your group still has to navigate personal grudges and decide when cooperation is worth the risk. Those choices become more entertaining when the person controlling a potential ally is sitting right beside you. Quick-time events can put several characters in danger during the same sequence, so a mistake on your turn can leave somebody else to deal with the consequences on their turn.

A documentary crew accepts an invitation to film a replica of H. H. Holmes's Murder Castle, which is the sort of assignment that deserves a little more background research. In The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, the titular hotel turns out to be a working death trap, with somebody watching the visitors and manipulating their surroundings. Up to five players can divide the crew between them in Movie Night, passing a single controller around as the story moves from one character to another. The Devil in Me incorporates involved exploration, with tools such as a directional microphone helping characters investigate the building. Looking for codes and working through environmental puzzles lets the people without the controller contribute observations between their turns. Meanwhile, the crew's existing tensions complicate attempts to keep everybody together, and saving your own character doesn't always mean you've made the best choice for the entire party.

A diving trip in the South Pacific takes a nasty turn when a group of tourists and their skipper ends up aboard an abandoned military ship. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan sends you through cramped corridors while the characters encounter things that make it difficult to trust what they're seeing. Movie Night accommodates up to five local players, each responsible for assigned characters, with the controller changing hands as their scenes come up. A lot of the fun in playing Man of Medan with friends comes from comparing your explanations for the ship's horrors. Everybody sees the local playthrough unfold, so you can discuss clues and question a character's reaction before the person holding the controller commits to a decision. The game’s relatively compact story makes it a good choice for a horror party night, while the branching outcomes give your group reasons to return for a second playthrough where you try to rescue anyone you lost the first time.

After a bus crash leaves four college students and their professor stranded near an abandoned town, a mysterious fog prevents them from simply walking away. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope follows their attempts to escape while visions of witch trials connect the group to people from the town's past. You can split the five main characters between up to five players in Movie Night, taking turns with one controller as you explore the streets and buildings. Compared with the military action of House of Ashes, Little Hope spends more time building unease through its deserted setting and the cast's attempts to understand what they're experiencing. The visions give everybody something to interpret, especially when figures from the past resemble people in the present. Demonic pursuers eventually make those discussions much more pressing, and timed decisions can force you to act before the whole group agrees on a plan.

Bringing a friend into Dead Space 3 gives Isaac Clarke somebody to help dismember Necromorphs, but it also introduces horror sequences built around the two players having different experiences. The second player controls John Carver, a soldier accompanying Isaac through derelict spacecraft and the frozen ruins of Tau Volantis. This one requires two devices and an online connection, since there's no local split-screen, making it a choice for a pair of friends who can bring their own setups into the same room. The co-op missions are the main reason to play Dead Space 3 in person. Carver experiences visions connected to his past that Isaac doesn't see, leaving one player dealing with disturbing imagery while the other tries to understand what's happening. Being able to glance at your friend's screen makes comparing those experiences especially interesting. The campaign is more action-heavy than its predecessors, but the co-op-specific content gives the second player a role beyond providing extra firepower.

An alien capable of imitating people is a pretty good reason to question your crewmates, even before your friends start offering conflicting advice. Directive 8020 follows the crew of the Cassiopeia as an expedition to find humanity a new home becomes a struggle against an organism that can hide among them. The Movie Night mode lets up to five people share a controller, with each player taking responsibility for members of the crew as their parts of the story unfold. The imitation threat gives Directive 8020 a different kind of tension compared to the developer’s Dark Pictures anthology's ghosts and killers. You'll have to consider whether somebody can be trusted while also handling stealth sequences and decisions with consequences for the rest of the ship. Groups that want a little forgiveness can use the Turning Points system in Explorer mode to revisit major choices and try a different outcome.

Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar are much better equipped than most horror protagonists, but Resident Evil 5 still finds plenty of ways to overwhelm them. Their investigation into a bioweapons deal sends them through settlements and research facilities filled with infected enemies, including some that require more cooperation than simply firing in the same direction. Two-player split-screen lets you take on the campaign together, sharing ammunition and healing supplies while covering each other during fights. Resident Evil 5 leans heavily toward action, making it a good fit for friends who want monsters and gruesome transformations without spending the entire play session dreading the next doorway. Dividing weapon types helps prevent arguments over ammunition, while coordinated melee attacks reward paying attention to what the other player is doing. For a more traditional haunted-building atmosphere, the Lost in Nightmares DLC takes Chris and Jill into a mansion where searching the dark corridors takes priority over fighting crowds of enemies.

Getting separated from your friends in Left 4 Dead 2 is usually the first step toward needing them to come rescue you. The game’s campaigns send four survivors through infected towns, swamps, and other locations on the way to an extraction point, with special infected designed to disrupt the group. Hunters can pin you down, Smokers can drag you away, and a badly timed Boomer encounter can bring a horde straight to your position. On Xbox, two people can play in split-screen while AI survivors fill the remaining spaces. The shifting encounters in Left 4 Dead 2 keep repeat sessions from following exactly the same pattern, and even an experienced pair can end up scrambling when several threats arrive together. Hearing a Witch nearby tends to produce a quick conversation about who is going first, while a Tank can send both players fleeing in opposite directions. Individual campaigns work well for a shorter get-together, and the Xbox version offers straightforward couch play. Split-screen on PC requires a bit of extra setup compared to the console version.

Project Zomboid can turn a trip to pick up groceries into an event that ruins hours of careful planning. Set in a zombie-infested Kentucky, the game asks you to manage hunger, injuries, exhaustion, and the practical work of keeping a shelter supplied. Up to four people can play in split-screen on one computer, with controllers needed for the additional players. You can divide jobs around a base or head out together, but having several people make noise during a supply run may attract more zombies than your group is prepared to fight. The horror in Project Zomboid comes from how quickly an ordinary mistake can become fatal. A house alarm can transform a run-of-the-mill search into a retreat while a bite can end a character you've spent days developing. Having friends nearby makes it easier to coordinate a rescue or argue over whether the supplies are worth another trip. The detailed survival systems take time to learn, so this is better suited to a group that wants an ongoing game they can play over weeks or months.

The storybook artwork in Don't Starve Together makes its wilderness look charming until night arrives and you realize nobody gathered enough fuel. Two players can share a screen in split-screen on the console versions, working together to establish a camp and survive in a world where hunger is only one of the things that can kill you. Gathering food, crafting equipment, and preparing for the seasons gives you plenty to divide between yourselves, while the characters' different abilities affect who is best suited to particular tasks. Don't Starve Together becomes especially creepy when dwindling sanity turns the shadows into a very direct threat. Meanwhile, Hound attacks can interrupt your plans, and venturing too far from camp without a light source is a mistake you're unlikely to repeat willingly. Cooperation helps you prepare for these dangers, albeit feeding two people also gives you more work to do. The console version is the only one with local split-screen, with the PC version only supporting online co-op.

Phasmophobia gives you and your friends a job that sounds manageable from the safety of the equipment van. Namely, identify the ghost haunting a building and then leave. Actually doing said job, however, involves entering dark rooms with investigation tools, comparing evidence, and staying long enough to rule out possible ghost types. The game supports up to four players online, but a two-person team works for an in-person session with two devices. There's no split-screen, so each active investigator needs their own setup even when you're sitting beside each other. Dividing equipment in Phasmophobia lets you investigate efficiently, while somebody can watch camera feeds from the van and help interpret what's happening inside. The temptation to leave that safer position to your friend gets stronger once the ghost starts hunting. During a hunt, gathering evidence gives way to hiding or escaping pursuit, and careless noise can expose your position.