10 Horror Games Without Enemies

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Horror Games with No Enemies Fears to Fathom The Convenience Store Fingerbones Scratches The Exit 8

Published Apr 14, 2026, 5:24 PM EDT

Elena Chapella (She/Her) is a current Writer for DualShockers, formerly an award-winning journalist for local news stations and newspapers in central Indiana.

Elena is passionate about writing, playing Dungeons & Dragons with her friends, and, of course, playing video games.

When she's not writing, Elena is actually a high school teacher by day. She teaches students essential life skills for adulthood, including job readiness, financial literacy, and college preparation.

Every game genre has its own staples, and that includes your favourite horror titles. Horror games, in particular, love to make you feel as powerless and helpless as possible, with a barrage of enemies thrown your way to help reinforce that. While having enemies isn't exclusive to horror games (after all, enemies are in practically every video game, ever), it's the way enemies are incorporated into the game that really reinforces the terror players are meant to feel.

So that raises the question: would horror still be effective if there weren't any enemies to deal with?

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The answer is as simple as it echoes: absolutely. There are plenty of horror games that don't have enemies included, but still manage to terrify you to your core. It's all about the dread that's created in the atmosphere, keeping the players held in a suspended tension that never gets released. This isn't the same as horror games with a peaceful mode, as that is a toggle — these games have no enemies, period.

So if you're trying to get your horror fix without having to worry about enemies hindering your progress, there's plenty to choose from.

10 Security Booth

Small-Scaled Papers, Please

Developer

Release Date

Platform(s)

Kyle Horwood

August 19, 2022

PC, Xbox Series X/S

If you loved Papers, Please, where you work as a border patrol officer determining who can and can't enter the country, you'll have just as much fun with Security Booth. Security Booth follows a similar premise, but with a more supernatural shift: you determine who is allowed to enter the lab that you're guarding (called Nova Nexus), but things get a little bit ... quirky.

You run into supernatural entities that will want in for one reason or another, and it's your responsibility to turn them away lest they cause a catastrophic event. Yet, when you take peeks into Nova Nexus, it seems they already have a catastrophe brewing on their own.

The game, at its core, is all about the spooky puzzles and trying to solve them, which will take up a good chunk of your time. The puzzles you solve and the choices you make only add to the tense atmosphere, especially as the night goes on.

The Director's Cut has seven different endings, each based on the choices you made throughout the game and how well of a job you did keeping unauthorized personnel out. With those multiple endings, not only do you have a wide variety of scares, but now you also have solid replayability for those scares.

9 Fingerbones

Humans are More of a Monster, After All

Developer

Release Date

Platform(s)

David Szymanski

March 20, 2014

PC, Mac

Before David Szymanski created his best-known work, Iron Lung, he had worked on a collection of other horror games that are just as, if not scarier, than his Magnum Opus. The most messed-up of his games, however, is easily Fingerbones.

In Fingerbones, you're going through the remains of an abandoned building, finding and reading the various letters that were left behind there — however, as you read, you'll feel your skin start to crawl. The picture that these papers paint is nothing short of disgusting and disturbing, and really emphasizes how humans are more likely to behave monstrously than any fictional enemy could.

There are no enemies in this game at all, with players having to rely on the environmental storytelling and puzzles to get the full scope of what happened to cause such a tragedy. Yet, once they get the full story, players are going to have to sit and stew in a multitude of negative emotions, enough to make you want to angry cry.

There are no enemies in this game for a simple reason: nothing can be as horrific as a human can be.

8 Layers of Fear (2016)

Classic Walking Sim Horror

Walking simulators are a classic way to experience horror games without having to worry about a sharp learning curve for the gameplay; all you have to do is move forward, and the story unfolds right in front of you. Layers of Fear is the game that popularized walking simulator horror games, and thankfully, there are no enemies in it either (at least in the original, in the sequel and 2023 remake, there's a stalker enemy).

In the original release of Layers of Fear, you are simply trying to uncover the truth of yourself (an artist) trying to paint your Magnum Opus, but you run into barriers that you put up yourself in a very Silent Hill-esque way.

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There's a charm that the original Layers of Fear has that the sequel and remake are lacking, and I think that's in part due to the lack of enemies — the game uses your own paranoia against you, and that's incredibly fitting considering the game's themes.

There's no shame if you want to play the sequel or the remake, since the stories are pretty much the same, it's just a matter if you want to deal with an enemy constantly harassing you or not.

7 Scratches

Old School Computer Games are Still Creepy

If you've never heard of Scratches, it's likely because it's a title from the early 2000s, one that would have stayed stuck on older systems had the Director's Cut not been ported to Steam.

Scratches is a point-and-click horror game that focuses on the player exploring the map and solving puzzles along the way, and there are no enemies that you have to fight off in the meantime. In fact, there isn't really a way to "die" in the game, but that doesn't mean that the stakes are low.

The atmosphere in Scratches is otherworldly, especially for a simple PC game from 2006, and the Director's Cut only adds to the entire experience (without adding any enemies, either). It's practically a hidden gem at this point in the horror genre, one that many horror fans (especially fans of PS1-style games) will get behind and enjoy.

6 Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout

True Story, Bro

Fears to Fathom is a unique horror gaming experience for a few reasons: not only is it episodic in nature, but each episode is someone's true story that was adapted into a nightmare we can walk through. As of current, there are five different episodes/stories that players can play through.

Episode 4 in particular, Ironbark Lookout, doesn't have enemies in the traditional sense like the other episodes do. Instead, the primary antagonist is a cult, one that you have to uncover the truth about. Remember, having enemies in a game isn't the same as simply having an antagonist.

And yet, in spite of lacking enemies, Ironbark Lookout manages to maintain tension thick enough to cut with a butter knife. It's the kind of ambience that lingers around, enough for players to genuinely doubt their own safety, but you're so deeply engrossed into the story that you can't help but crave to know what happens next. Plus, as you have dialogue choices, you're given a good amount of replayability to keep your protagonist alive.

Since Fears to Fathom is episodic, each episode offers something unique and distinctly terrifying, without any overarching connection between any of them; that way, you can just jump right in wherever you want.

5 Stories Untold

Retro Horror Without the Fight

A retro-styled computer on a desk in Stories Untold

If you're a fan of the retro, 80s-themed media that's been coming out lately (either because you grew up with it or you just enjoy the aesthetic), you're going to love Stories Untold just as much. Stories Untold is another episodic game, but this time, none of the episodes feature any enemies or combat, relying on atmosphere and puzzles to terrify you.

And let me tell you, Stories Untold just oozes the '80s, from the old-fashioned graphics to the synthwave soundtrack and everything in-between. Not to mention, Jon McKellan acts as the head of the dev team (No Code), who was responsible for Alien: Isolation, so you know that the aesthetic and tension are going to be killer.

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Stories Untold is short and easy to digest in one sitting, even when being a completionist about it, making it so players can enjoy a horrifying experience that doesn't overstay its welcome. Plus, with the lack of enemies, players are more likely to actually finish the game all at once.

If you're looking for a good game that plays like an interactive novel rather than your traditional video game with combat, you're in for a treat with Stories Untold.

4 Doki Doki Literature Club

Having an Antagonist ≠ Having Enemies

As stated prior, just because a game has a clear antagonist doesn't mean that the game has enemies necessarily, especially for games like Doki Doki Literature Club, where you're more or less powerless to everything that's happening to you and around you. DDLC's antagonist is Monika, who should set off every red flag on your radar, but you won't know why until you make it to the end.

By the time you get to the end, you've gone through hell and back with all the characters, and now you've ended up in a meta narrative that's packed with more secrets than scares. This isn't even including the secret scares (some scares have only a particular percentage of showing up in-game).

Because there are no enemies, the fear factor comes from everything you have to endure before you figure out how to get Monika to leave you alone (in a unique mechanic that has yet to be replicated in other horror games). That is, if you want her gone.

Doki Doki Literature Club shows the horrors of obsession in place of love, the cost of control, and other themes surrounding mental health and disarray. Either way, the scares that you'll encounter will burn itself into your eyes, to where you see them even when they're closed.

3 Iron Lung

Just Keep Swimming

Iron Lung was an underrated indie horror gem when it first came out, but thanks to the recently-released movie directed by Mark Fishbach (primarily known by his YouTuber alias, Markiplier), it's recently exploded in popularity. For those who have yet to see the movie, it's best to play through the game first — it's quick, simple, and genuinely nerve-wracking, despite the complete lack of enemies.

While there is The Frog, which is the main creature that we see in the blood ocean with us, it doesn't act as an enemy, rather as a courier of anxiety while players are traversing. We don't actually fight or deal with The Frog, nor does it jump out and kill us whenever it feels like it in the middle of the game — every single time The Frog appears, it's during a scripted event, one that doesn't require any interaction with the player.

For the most part, the game involves an eerie quiet, with only the hum of blood rushing around us as we traverse. Each picture you take within that blood ocean builds atmosphere, tension, and even lore with the newer updates, without any enemies to get in your way. In fact, the only way you can truly fail at your objective is if you take your submarine and drive it directly into a wall.

So long as you're able to read coordinates, you shouldn't have to worry about rocks taking the place of enemies in this game.

2 The Convenience Store

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

Chilla's Art games do a fantastic job at showing horror within the mundane, scaring players with their own paranoia of our ordinary lives taking a terrifying (often supernatural) turn for the worse. The Convenience Store does this best, with players working a late shift at a convenience store and dealing with hauntings while you're there.

These ghosts aren't really enemies, as they don't attack you, they just exist to scare the daylights out of you while you're playing alone and in the dark. In fact, the paranormal events that you're dealing with are actually the result of a haunted VHS tape, in classic J-Horror fashion.

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Because there are no enemies that you have to fight against, the hauntings that you do end up experiencing feel all the more dreamlike and terrifying, especially as you get to the end of the day. It's up to you to figure out the story behind these hauntings, and what you'll do with that VHS tape as a result.

Either way, you're going to be scared of the simplest things after playing any Chilla's Art game, because they're that good at finding horror within the ordinary.

1 The Exit 8

Spot the Difference

If you were to ask me personally what horror game I'd recommend that doesn't have any enemies while still being absolutely terrifying from start to finish, without missing a beat, I would say The Exit 8.

In The Exit 8, you're trapped in a looping corridor that you can escape from unless you're able to successfully find the anomalies preventing you from progressing to the eighth exit. If you find an anomaly, turn back, and you'll be able to make it to the next floor, but if the room is normal, continue as normal, and you'll be able to progress as normal. If you move forward when you should turn back and vice versa, you'll be reset to Exit 0.

The tension in this game is unreal, to where you'll feel your blood run cold when you notice an anomaly (many of which are so subtle, you wouldn't even notice something is out of place). Get used to goosebumps, especially for those particular anomalies that will scare you worse than any jumpscare could.

Plus, it was recently adapted into a movie that was met with thunderous applause from fans of the game — and as someone who loved the game, I can't wait until the movie comes to streaming.