Summary
- Lethal Company has opened up the co-op horror genre, offering a unique and comedic gameplay experience worth playing with friends.
- Underrated horror games like SCP: Secret Laboratory and Escape The Backrooms provide engaging co-op experiences with voice proximity and scary monsters.
- Secret Neighbor and Barotrauma stand out in the horror genre with their unique premises, requiring players to scavenge, rescue, and survive in challenging multiplayer settings.
With Lethal Company becoming one of the most popular games of 2023, it has opened up the co-op horror genre to many players. The unique gameplay and art style make Lethal Company an experience worth playing among friends for horror and comedic purposes. Although its success has been unrivaled for an indie horror game, many underrated horror gems play similarly to Lethal Company.
Best Horror Co-Op Games To Play With Friends
Be it on Halloween or in the middle of Summer, it is always the right time for a fun co-op horror game.
Horror games that have proven successful in recent years have used similar gameplay and esthetics, although Lethal Company puts its unique spin on the horror and extraction genre. Such games have incorporated features such as co-op, audio elements like voice proximity, and various monsters similar to that of Lethal Company, leading to an engaging experience within the horror genre.
7 SCP: Secret Laboratory
Mass Multiplayer Factions
SCP: Secret Laboratory is one of the best free horror games available on Steam due to its unique premise and reliance on large co-op groups. SCP: Secret Laboratory requires a minimum of ten players in a lobby to proceed, with voice chat proximity playing a significant role as players are placed in different groups. The game features several classes for players to be assigned, with each type having different objectives, such as the SCP aliens who aim to kill everyone. At the same time, the Scientists and Class D seek to escape the facility unharmed.
In SCP: Secret Laboratory, long dark hallways make up much of the surroundings, as players are unaware of what danger lurks around the corner, making the game wholly unique, especially with its high player requirement.
6 Escape The Backrooms
An Endless Maze With Scary Monsters
Escape the Backrooms
Escape The Backrooms is a multiplayer horror game that puts players in a never-ending maze that develops as players progress further. During the game, monsters lurk around every corner as players go through each stage, aiming to avoid getting caught. The game provides a frightening co-op experience with voice proximity enabled, making the gameplay experience even scarier if players inevitably get split up.
Escape The Backrooms may not have the replayability of many co-op horrors, but it certainly provides a unique horror experience worth trying out.
5 Secret Neighbor
Scavenge And Rescue
Secret Neighbor is one of the best multiplayer games on Steam with its unique premise and art style, particularly for a game in the horror genre. Secret Neighbor requires a group of players to rescue a friend stuck in the neighbor's basement, with one of the players being the neighbor in disguise, hoping to catch the intruders.
26 Best Horror Games On Steam
Steams offers countless horror games that fans of the genre are sure to love. Here are some of the best ones available on the platform.
The game requires players to find key cards to open doors within the map, with scavenging items being the primary way to succeed. Secret Neighbor stands out due to its atmosphere and style, providing players with a fun but frightening time.
4 Barotrauma
A Submarine Horror Experience
Barotrauma
Within the 2D horror space, Barotrauma stands out through its chaotic multiplayer experience of being submerged in water alongside scary monsters. Barotrauma requires groups of players to ensure the submarine reaches the end of a level while dealing with issues such as scary monsters, power failure, and all the specific systems in the submarine. While these issues occur, players must complete a set of objectives to succeed.
The amount of duties makes for a fun and challenging experience when accompanied by friends. The multitude of tasks can create pure chaos for a party while fending off the extreme dangers from underwater.
3 Devour
Co-Op Survival Mayhem
Devour
- Released
- January 28, 2021
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Developer
- Joe Fender, Luke Fanning
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
Chaos, death, and betrayal are all constants throughout the co-op game Devour, which sees players seeking to destroy the ghost who aims to hunt them down. Players are tasked with collecting ritual items in order to destroy the spirit, which changes depending on the multitude of maps in the game.
As more items are used for the rituals, madness ensues as the ghost's activity increases, leading to chaotic moments involving doors, player blocking, and jump scares that will surely indulge horror fans seeking multiplayer experiences.
2 Labyrinthine
Never-Ending Haunted Maze
Among co-op horror games that offer exclusive gameplay features, Labyrinthine excels through its puzzle-based premise. Labyrinthine requires players to traverse a maze filled with lurking monsters while completing thought-provoking puzzles. Along the way, players can find helpful items to aid progression, such as an energy drink that increases speed or a flare gun that can send signals.
8 Horror Games That Explore Unique Phobias
These horror games explore strange and specific fears that can cause some players to find them even more terrifying.
While Labyrinthine provides players with challenging puzzles and tasks, it still offers scary moments to frighten players, creating a fun and engaging multiplayer experience.
1 Phasmophobia
Ghost Hunting With Friends
Phasmophobia
- Released
- October 29, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Kinetic Games
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror, Puzzle
Since its launch, Phasmophobia has become one of the most popular horror games due to its distinct gameplay, allowing for ghost hunting with friends through its exceptional detail and range of tools that can aid players. Phasmophobia leads players to try to identify an unknown ghost in a house using devices such as flashlights and motion sensors.
Phasmophobia's range of available equipment enables players to meticulously plan their course of action in identifying the ghost. In-game voice chat plays a significant role, with players being able to call out the ghost's name to bring them forth, a feature that is engaging and rare in the horror genre.