The best horror games in 2021 made living more bearable

2020 was the year that all of humanity crashed to its knees. Many people have lived in the same apartment, house or office for years in an endless loop. Those of us still here in 2021, having aged about a decade, endure constant instability — the Only constant being that the life we knew doesn’t exist anymore. At least, this nightmare is shared. Although we all have ghoulish chains to help us get through it, the chorus of our screams reminds us that even though the world has been ravaged by plagues, unprepared governments and powerful men, there is still hope. Manifesting our fears is one way we can collectively deal with them — that’s why horror games have been ideal for 2021.

Perhaps the most “2021” horror game is Refund. A time loop roguelike sets his sights on an alien, hostile planet. Selene, the protagonist, must escape while investigating and fighting the bizarre fauna and flora. Each time she dies, she’s returned to her downed ship, losing all progress, to try to get further next time. She must always start at the beginning, even though things may change in the world.

In 2021, the idea of our situation never changing — despite all our efforts — hits close to home. But Selene’s unrelenting drive to continue is inspiring. Selene is unstoppable despite being surrounded by monstrous beasts and the relentless pressure of trying to conquer the evils of this world. However, RefundHousemarque, a developer, was years in the making. Housemarque taps into the very kind of hero today: stuck in a grind and getting up when she falls.

Refund This isn’t the only time-loop video game in 2021. Deathloop, The Forgotten CityPlease see the following: Echoes of the Eye in the Outer Wilds The same concept was used by all. However, the mixture of horror and looping can be a powerful combination especially in an era when many feel trapped.

Image: Housemarque/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Many people had to leave their homes after the past two years to deal with the suffering. MundaunAnother 2021 release is called “What happens when you return home unexpectedly.” Curdin is the main character. He receives a note from his grandfather who was responsible for raising him. But the situation around the grandfather’s death is not what it appears — Curdin stumbles into a cosmically horrific nightmare scenario that shakes the world to its core.

MundaunIt is a survival-horror first-person game. The developers used a hand-pencilled style that they scanned from sketchbooks. It is deeply unsettling to be in this mostly monochrome world, as if I’d fallen into the brown sketch pad of a cult leader. Nothing is what I’d call Simply stunningAlthough it has been drawn, it is unique. Mundaun’sA drab, unsettling and unpleasant visual experience exemplifies what many people who have returned home without their consent feel. Our world has been altered slightly. Things have not been the safe place we hoped or expected. Instead, new creatures are emerging out of the familiar environment, ready to destroy us.

In the same way, we can also see that there is a constant danger of lethality in a once-sanitized world. Alan Wake: Remastered. The original was released in 2010 but this new 2021 version puts a whole new spin on an action-horror third-person title. Twin Peaks. Alan Wake gleefully sets about doing all it can to make its titular protagonist endure the worst holiday he’s ever had. His world is out to get him and 2020-2021 marks the beginning of an existential insecurity that many people have never experienced. yet unfamiliar It could be that we are left behind in dangerous places and end up dead or hurt. While we’re not running away from possessed townspeople or creepy creatures in the forest, we are now living with a constant heightened sense of anxiety. And, unlike Alan, we don’t have seemingly endless coffee thermoses to help us along. (See also Resident Evil: VillageAlthough it is my opinion that its predecessor was better Biohazard was a more Covid-focused game, given that you’re trapped in a house with a family whose life has been turned upside down by an infection.)

Photo: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games via Polygon

The MediumIt was a major next-gen exclusive and only recently came to PlayStation 5. Like many other 2021 horror games, it’s about being trapped in one location. The game uses an intriguing dual-world system that speaks to the collective mindset of 2021. That idea of a split self — of having to operate as if you’re in the normal world while simultaneously in a nightmare one — felt reminiscent of our everyday routine, where on the one hand, the world has seemingly ended but, on the other, we still have to pay rent.

Inscryption — Polygon’s Game of the Year — wonderfully captures 2021’s feeling of dreaded bewilderment. You begin as a deck-builder roguelike, but soon you find yourself playing against an unknown shadowed character in a creepy cabin. It’s a game that captures the notion of a nightmare very well; nightmares are not just another term for “scary,” but also, unrelenting dread and existential confusion from which you cannot escape. When we talk about 2020 and 2021, fewer terms properly capture it than “nightmare.” We are very much trapped in a dark place, at the mercy of forces and concepts we cannot control.

All of this demonstrates how horror taps into the ongoing feeling of fear, frustration and existential ennui. Since they are interactive by their nature, horror games have been the ideal medium. Horror, regardless of its medium, paints an image of our worst fears and how we hold them. These fears are magnified when we only experience and contain them. Horror allows us to externalize our fears and gives us something to point to. Sharing nightmares with others would make them less harmful. While 2020 and 2021 are difficult times, collective suffering has made them less severe. It’s telling that these horror games were never made with the idea of being released during a pandemic, yet here they are, speaking to the dread we feel. This demonstrates the importance of horror as a genre and shows its universality.

Horror detractors often wonder who would willingly choose to “put themselves through that” in terms of playing horror games. I have the ability to shut off horror games, so it’s not like the pandemic nightmare. I know there’s a win state, and I can always find ways to beat it. Horror games remind us that people aren’t passive when bad things happen. Even in the face of defeat and Sisyphean chores, they get up and reload and continue to march. They confront the horrors they see; they struggle and grieve, but they persevere.

I found hope in horror games, which gave me hope after so many other things had destroyed it. I was inspired by their determination. Stories are told because we sometimes want to escape from reality, inspire others, or scare ourselves. There’s a certain beauty in a dark world, and creators deliberately paint it darker so that when we erase it, our world is slightly brighter. It is our best hope to shine it whenever possible.