Summary
- Game settings are crucial for horror games to stand out and leave a lasting impact on players.
- Iconic horror game settings like Bright Falls, Ishimura, Yharnam, Rapture, and more are highlighted.
- Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil and Silent Hill Town are praised for their unique and memorable design.
A horror game is only as good as its setting. It's the set dressing that gives the scares their punch and defines a player's time in the game. Long after finishing the game, the setting will likely stick around in the player's head for days to come.
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Luckily, there are loads of great horror settings in video games tailor-made to be iconic, whether it's a send-up of old-school Americana or haunted mansions destined for infamy. This list is ranked purely by how iconic each setting is.
8 Bright Falls
Twin Peaks In Video Game Form
Alan Wake 2
- Released
- October 27, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The Alan Wake franchise is constantly the underdog, and for good reason. The games are just plain weird, and completely unapologetic about bucking trends and doing the obscure or confusing thing over the simple path, but that idiosyncrasy is exactly what makes its setting unique, particularly Bright Falls.
While in the first game, Bright Falls is a stand-in for Twin Peaks from the show of the same name, Alan Wake 2 fleshes out this weird town to explore its Finnish associations, its creepy woods, and how it functions. It's a really eerie place by the end, and very memorable for its players.
7 The Ishimura
Death In The Void
Dead Space
- Released
- January 27, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Rated M for Mature for Blood and Gore, Strong Language, and Intense Violence.
- Developer(s)
- EA Motive
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Space stations or spaceships are very common in video games. It's hard to stand out from the crowd without being strange, but the Ishimura does nothing like that. Instead, it's how realistic, mechanical, and industrialized the Ishimura is that makes it feel so lifelike and authentic.
As Isaac Clarke, players are tasked with putting their engineering skills to the test, fighting horrifying monsters through the cramped, steaming, and clanking corridors of a great steel husk and fixing it up. It's like a city-sized second-hand car, and that feeling of wear and tear is crucial for making the Ishimura feel so distinct.
6 Yharnam
Fear The Old Blood
Bloodborne
- Released
- March 24, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
FromSoftware is incredible at building worlds that feel like they've got a lot of history, but no world they've created is as visually stunning and iconic as Yharnam, the Gothic Lovecraftian hellscape infested by monsters and visitors from other worlds.
As a visual city, Yharnam is unsurpassed. It exaggerates its Gothic aesthetics to such an extent that it almost feels nightmarish, and each of its streets feels carefully thought out to maximise mood, and tons of hidden areas to explore. It's easily one of the best Gothic cities ever put to pixels, and remains FromSoftware's crowning achievement in visual world design.
5 Rapture
The Good Old Days
BioShock
- Released
- August 21, 2007
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Irrational Games
- Publisher(s)
- 2K Games
- Engine
- havok, unreal engine 2.5, unreal engine 3, vengeance engine
WHERE TO PLAY
More than any other franchise, the Bioshock franchise is singularly defined by its settings. Rapture, the libertarian city at the bottom of the sea, is the first and still most iconic vision of Bioshock's extended trips into alternative history sci-fi, and remains beloved by gamers to this day.
From the first moment players get a guided tour through Rapture's skyline to its gutted, horrific innards, Rapture is a constant delight to be within. Its vision of 1950s hedonism gone wrong is incredibly unique, easily making it one of the most iconic horror settings ever, with some arguing that the franchise should return for its newest entry.
4 Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
Pop In For A Pizza Pie
Five Nights at Freddy's
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 78 /100 Critics Rec: 71%
- Released
- August 8, 2014
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Scott Cawthon
- Publisher(s)
- Scott Cawthon, Clickteam LLC USA
WHERE TO PLAY
In the early 2010s, indie video games were having their moment, for the first time surpassing the popularity of big AAA studios, but no one could have predicted the frankly insane popularity of the cheap and cheerful horror game Five Nights at Freddy's that dominated horror gaming for that decade.
In the game, players control a security guard doing the night shift at the titular pizzeria, checking the cameras, testing lights, and trying not to get murdered by the animatronics. Though the player never leaves the security office, the setting has become indelible in horror gaming history, remaining one of the best entries in the whole franchise.
3 Raccoon City
The Doomed City
Resident Evil 3
- Released
- April 3, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Horror
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
When the original Resident Evil games were released, they were clearly inspired by American horror movies, but with a limited localisation staff, which led to some interesting American place names, most notably of all, the strangely named Raccoon City.
Yet, despite its weird name, Raccoon City's modern metropolis was a key part of making Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 click, seeing first-hand how a zombie apocalypse could cut through a populated city (and the many characters that never made it out). It's become a hallowed place in Resident Evil lore, and a fondly remembered nest of strangely anonymous roads to horror gamers.
2 Spencer Mansion
The Source of Evil
Resident Evil
- Released
- March 22, 1996
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation (Original), Sega Saturn, Nintendo DS, PC
While Raccoon City may be the best-known city in Resident Evil, no single setting can ever surpass Spencer Mansion in terms of being iconic. In many ways, the Spencer Mansion defined what horror gaming was for decades to follow, and many gamers still remember its exact layout today.
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Setting a horror game in a mansion wasn't new, but the team at Capcom filled every single room, corridor, and thoroughfare with as much personality as possible, with blind corners and tight spaces specifically designed to evoke as much fear as possible. It's a frankly weird mansion that makes little sense, but that idiosyncrasy is exactly what sticks in the minds of horror gamers.
1 Silent Hill
Psychological Made Manifest
Silent Hill
- Released
- January 31, 1999
WHERE TO PLAY
All horror games are made by their settings, but perhaps none more so than Silent Hill and its eponymous town. While the games share some interconnected lore, more than anything, they're united by this single fog-ridden location in one way or another.
Yet, despite that, Silent Hill is a very flexible setting. By its very nature, the streets, buildings, and tourist attractions warp to fit the tormented protagonist surviving its foggy streets. It's the ultimate outward expression of interior psychological dread, and with its endlessly eerie allies, monsters, and strange sounds in the fog, it's hard to imagine any more iconic setting in horror gaming.
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