10 Horror Games Where Everything Goes Wrong

Murphy's Law is iconic for those of us with bad luck, a mantra that serves as a reminder to optimists worldwide: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

In video gaming, this law becomes all the clearer as developers will throw players into insane circumstances that only seem to get worse as you progress onward. Just when you think you're safe, the game will drop something in your lap that you can't shake away, dramatically changing the experience to be ten times more stressful — and horror games are the biggest perpetrators of this.

Horror games love to yank the rug out from under you; while you're fighting for your life and finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, the horror genre makes sure to remind you that the light is actually a freight train coming your way. You simply cannot catch a break in these games; the wave after wave of difficulty is unrelenting to players, especially if it's their first playthrough of these games.

If you are playing any of these games for the first time, just keep in mind: Murphy's Law is all but coded in.

10 The Mortuary Assistant

Demons Mess Everything Up

It's hard to get your work done when literal demons keep getting in your way, and that's exactly the situation you find yourself in while playing The Mortuary Assistant. You play as Rebecca, an intern at a funeral home tasked with getting cadavers ready for cremation, but demons have already latched onto you, and so you have to fight off the possession while you're on the clock.

These demons will stop at nothing until they've got a firm grasp on you, dragging you under and taking everyone else with you. If that means making you vividly hallucinate so you can't get your work done, then so be it.

Not to mention, the possession becomes more intense as you continue to get closer to finding the right body to burn — things are not going to work out easily, nor will they work out as planned. You have to be ready to completely improvise when things go wrong (and believe me, everything is going to go wrong).

What started as clocking in for a normal shift turns into a field trip to hell, and you're going to drive through every single pot hole while you're on the way there.

9 Silent Hill 2

Either the Remake or the Original

The Silent Hill games are notorious for implementing Murphy's Law, and Silent Hill 2 (as well as the immensely faithful Silent Hill 2 Remake) is one of the best examples of this. What starts as a simple trip born from grief turns into the pinnacle of psychological horror, and it only continues to spiral as players progress onward.

In fact, as players work to uncover the truth, they end up getting far more honesty than what they bargained for, making an experience that's equal parts horrific as it is outright depressing. The whole point of coming to the iconic town of Silent Hill takes on a completely new meaning once we get much-needed context to James and his situation, and it's the literal worst-case-scenario. Even if you know the spoilers.

For James, everything just continues to go from bad to worse, and that's not even introducing the Otherworld into the mix of things spiraling out of control. Seriously, anything with the Otherworld is bound to have players stuck in a monstrous web, one that only continues to tangle them when trying to escape.

Whether you're playing the remake or the original, just expect to go through hell and back, and then back to hell again.

8 The Last of Us

"But it Grows All Over the Brain"

Watching an apocalypse unfold in and of itself is watching Murphy's Law in effect, but The Last of Us takes it one step further by showing you just how awful things can get in the new world that follows. You play as Joel, taking place 20 years after the Cordyceps rampaged through humanity; you'll see that there aren't any remnants of actual humanity left, despite the large number of survivors.

In fact, once you're given the task of escorting an immune 14-year-old named Ellie across the country, things only go downhill for everyone. You're about to see tragedy and bad luck in ways you never thought possible.

It's even built into the game's atmosphere, there's an air of hopelessness that permeates throughout the entire story, and it rarely shifts from those oppressive emotions. It doesn't help when things constantly go from bad to worse for the duo as the seasons pass.

And even better, the story and acting are so phenomenal, you feel every single gut-punch.

7 Doki Doki Literature Club

Everything is Fine ... Until it's Not

The insane thing about Doki Doki Literature Club is the fact that it starts completely normal; unless players know they're playing a horror game, they'd actually think they're playing any other anime dating sim. That is, until you get to Act 2 — the point of no return, if you will.

From that point on, things just go absolutely insane.

DDLC is full of percentage-based scares (meaning that you won't experience all the same horrors in repeat playthroughs), all uncomfortable and unsettling, and they spiral more out of control just as the rest of the characters do. Right when you think the girls couldn't get any crazier, they do.

This isn't even touching on the meta-narrative that you have to follow along with. Either way, you're in for a ride.

6 Still Wakes the Deep

The Cost of Capitalistic Greed

One small decision can lead to catastrophic consequences, especially when there are external factors involved. Still Wakes the Deep shows the price that everyday people pay in the name of corporate greed, but with Lovecraftian abominations beyond human comprehension.

Spoiler alert: it leads to the worst workplace accidents, ever.

The entire game has resonating feelings of hopelessness from start to finish, and for the doomed workers of the Beira D. Oil Rig, the glimmering rays of hope are just the beautiful, twisting membrane of The Shape.

It's maritime horror at its best, because everything goes wrong when the ocean is involved.

5 Dead Space

Can't Repair These Issues

Little do you know that when you arrive on the Ishimura in Dead Space, things had already gone into worst-case scenario — and unfortunately for Isaac, the situation isn't done unfolding now that new flesh is around.

Not even taking the pre-game events and the lore around The Marker into account, you're playing as an engineer in a ship that's falling apart. That in and of itself is a nightmare scenario; blue-collar players can (painfully) sympathise.

Despite it all, Isaac will endure the terrible day ahead of him if it means finding his girlfriend, Nicole, even as things never go exactly how they're supposed to. Knowing the spoilers or not, the events of the game are just one after another.

Just a word of advice: don't underestimate the enemies.

4 Resident Evil 3

Nemesis is Relentless

When I first booted up the Resident Evil 3 Remake, watching Nemesis burst into Jill's apartment, I was so excited for the terror I was about to experience ... however, the cutscenes are about the extent of Nemesis's ruthless nature. He doesn't stalk you in the remake anywhere near as much as he did in the original Resident Evil 3, where every single plan Jill tries is thwarted by Nemesis.

Seriously, the original Nemesis was an absolute nightmare to try and escape from, because he was literally so relentless that it was impossible to shake him off. He literally hangs right outside the save room in the original, knowing that all it takes is one slight misinput from your controller for him to kill you.

This is a common complaint in the fandom, too: Nemesis is nowhere near as aggressive in the remake as he is in the OG. In the original game, you simply cannot catch a break, because he's around to put a wrench into any plan that would have worked out for you — new players don't realise just how lucky they are.

Nemesis himself is Murphy's Law, and it's a shame that this didn't transfer into the remake. Could you imagine just how terrifying that remake would be if we had lore-accurate Nemesis? It would be nearly impossible to beat the game, just as it was insanely difficult to get through the events of the original.

3 Alien: Isolation

The Xenomorph Learns You

While trying to survive the Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation, there are several different tactics that you're able to employ, and it actually works well for you, giving you a calming sense of hope ... that is, until the alien learns your tricks.

You cannot get too comfortable while playing (or more accurately, hiding) in this game, regardless of what difficulty you're playing on. The Xenomorph will figure out how to find you, and you cannot be caught at any cost. Even when things start to look up, you cannot let out that sigh of relief until you know for a fact that you're safe, because there are several moments where the rug will be pulled out from under you, and it's riveting all the while.

Now that the teaser for the sequel is out, now is as good a time as ever to get the hype going.

2 Resident Evil Requiem

Grace's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Before Resident Evil Requiem came out, people were trying to dunk on Grace Ashcroft for (realistically) displaying fear, but after the game had come out and players got to see exactly what she endured the entire time, they can't blame her anymore. This is only exacerbated by Angela Sant'Albano's GOTY-worthy performance.

Grace, to put it simply, is having the worst day ever, and it continues to get worse as the night goes on ... for two nights in a row.

You can try to play as carefully as you can, but things are going to constantly go off-the-wall for Grace, with situations going from bad to worse to even worse. It's dizzying just how bad situations get.

This isn't even mentioning Leon's equally terrible time, but this is his career, so he's treating it like it's any other Thursday.

1 Silent Hill f

Just Take a Capsule

Listen, Hinako goes through so much in Silent Hill f that it'll make you borderline nauseous. Even McDonald's tweeted about it, saying, "Hinako can have as many hotcakes as she wants after what she’s been thru." Which, seeing that right after finishing the game, is hilariously bizarre in its own right.

Sure, it's metaphorical for fears of marriage/conformity and the loss of identity/childhood that come with it, but these metaphors are gruesome, and that metaphor doesn't really click for players until a good way through. For some, it could take a repeat playthrough before it truly settles in, especially as NG+ continues the story.

Like many in the horror genre, the game starts normally — tense and strained, but still normal — but that normalcy crumbles around you so fast, you won't be able to keep up. This just gets more insane when the Otherworld (which, in this game, is called The Dark Shrine) is involved, in true Silent Hill fashion.

This game, simply put, is a masterpiece, and my personal favourite of all time; it also just so happens to, coincidentally, perfectly demonstrate Murphy's Law.