PopHorror Let's Get Scared
There are a ton of great horror games on the PlayStation VR, with the majority of them focused on putting the player into a terrifying sensory world like never before. While this is a great experience, typically far more terrifying than regular horror games, it can make them difficult to enjoy it in a group setting.
Luckily, there are some exceptions that are great for a VR Horror Party. So, if you want to have some friends over, introduce them to VR while scaring them in a fun, hilarious group setting, the games below work great! With each one, I will say how many players can join in along with the full effect of the scares, but trust me, everyone else will be entertained, laughing at the player’s reactions and watching what they see on the TV.
The Bellows
The Bellows would make a great warm up game to set the mood for your VR Horror Party, and is even a solid choice to include non-gamers. It’s essentially the VR version of a haunted attraction with two different playthrough locations.
The first location is a haunted mansion with great atmosphere and plenty of jump scares. This one is particularly great for a non-gamer, because it has no interactive elements. You simply walk through and experience it like you would most haunts.
The second one is at a hospital where all hell has broken loose. It’s a little more intense and has some extremely light puzzle elements to it. This is nothing you would notice as a gamer, but for someone who’s never held a controller before and can’t see the buttons due to the headset, they need to learn the basics of the controller layout first.
Neither location is very long, and you can choose them individually, so it’s good for two players to try without spoilers from watching someone else play ahead of time. It was an early VR game and hasn’t aged all that well, so it is rough looking, but it’s great for people new to the system. It also comes at an extremely low price.
Affected The Manor
Affected The Manor is another virtual haunt. There are two paths, each having two different endings. It’s far more polished than The Bellows, but that doesn’t mean both shouldn’t be included in your VR Horror Party. You won’t find any game mechanics outside of walking in this, so it’s another great one for non-gamers. Two people could play it spoiler free while still watching each other to see if they pick different paths. Each choice has two endings, so four could play, but the paths are the same up until the final few minutes until you get to the different endings.
Resident Evil 7: The Kitchen Demo
The Kitchen Demo is short and sweet and doesn’t even require a controller, so it’s the best choice of all for a non-gamer. I won’t detail this one so I don’t ruin it, but it’s good for one person to do… and it’s also free.
Dying Reborn
Dying Reborn consists of a series of escape rooms with a horror theme. The VR version is not the full game, and it’s not a great game, but it is one that can involve everyone at once, making it perfect for your VR Horror Party. Players could pass the headset as they go room to room, helping them try to solve the puzzles and move on to the next section. It’s not particularly scary, but it does pull off a pretty effective creepy atmosphere.
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
First off, Rush of Blood is a fantastic game in general.
Now that we’ve established that, let me explain that Rush of Blood is a spin-off from the Until Dawn franchise, but players don’t need to be familiar with the other games to enjoy it. It is, literally, a rail shooter. You ride a roller coaster through fantastic horror environments fending off various enemies, from murderous clowns to Wendigos. Each track has branching paths, and they are all short enough to be able to pass the headset and either progress or try to beat each other’s scores. It’s another easy one for someone not familiar with gaming. You use the Move Controllers and just have to point, shoot and reload.
The Brookhaven Experiment
The Brookhaven Experiment is a horror wave shooter with both a progressive story mode and a survival mode. With a group of VR Horror Party people, you will probably want to focus on survival mode and compete to outlast each other against waves of mutants. There are multiple maps, including one based on the mansion from the first Resident Evil, complete with potted red and green herbs. The game is quite intense and difficult with shopping between rounds to improve your loadout, heal up and restock.
Wraith
Wraith is a horror wave shooter with a handful of environments and no story mode. You pick an environment and have to survive for as long as you can. The game becomes increasingly difficult as it grows darker. As you progress, the wraiths come at you silently. It features an on the fly shop mechanic that requires you to restock ammo, armor, flashlight batteries, and purchase new weapons while enemies are still active. This is a fun addition, but if you are including players not familiar with gaming, this can be quite problematic for them. Your progress is tracked in rounds, so competing to outlast the previous player is easy to keep track of.
The Exorcist: Legion VR
The Exorcist: Legion strikes gold in the horror department. It is probably the most terrifying game I’ve played in VR, if not ever. Where it misses is, as a game in general, the controls are extremely hard to get comfortable with, and it can be glitchy. This one is only for the veteran gamers of the VR Horror Party group as you pass the headset between the six cases. It is worth overcoming the controls for the horror. I have seen a new but experienced player stop playing before he even saw anything because the atmosphere and the sounds were to much for him to handle. You will hear more people tell you that Resident Evil 7 is the best horror game on PSVR, and it is a better game than this, but its NOT a scarier one.
The Nun: Escape The Abbey 360
Beyond games, there are several horror shorts with movie tie-ins that are available for free. They are short but thrilling, and could compliment the list above.
So, if you needed an excuse to invite your friends to a VR Horror Party, gamers or not, this is a great way to do it. Have the player wear a good set of headphones to truly immerse them into the short for the best reactions… and so your laughing doesn’t pull them out of the experience too much. In the end, you’re guaranteed a good time.
