Horror Games That Will Make You Cry

2 weeks ago 6

Horror Games That Will Make You Cry Silent Hill 2 Remake The Last of Us Devotion SOMA

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.

Normally, when you hop into a horror game, you're expecting to have the life scared out of you. You await atmosphere, puzzles, and whatever else you consider to be survival horror staples.

Sometimes, however, these games will do more than just scare you: they'll make you cry.

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You don't expect to dive into games that end up being intense emotional endeavors, but sometimes, that's exactly what you get, especially in the horror genre where commentary on trauma, mental health issues, and other depressing topics are prominent. By the time you reach the credits, you're sitting aghast at what you have just experienced.

Simply put, these are the saddest horror games on the market, and if you're someone like me who easily gets teary, then these games will definitely make you cry.

While I try to avoid spoilers, a few titles will still have some spoilers due to the age of the game.

10 Heavy Rain

Shaun! Shaun!!

Yeah, sure, Heavy Rain has become synonymous with its meme at this point — the glitch where you're aimlessly wandering and yelling "Shaun!" every time you press X — and as hilarious as it is at that moment, don't let that distract you from the fact that this game is actually really sad.

First things first: you're hunting a serial killer, which in and of itself is a path paved in blood. Plus, depending on the route that you take in this game, you could get a number of different endings with their own varying degrees of sadness. Even the "good" ending will leave players feeling pretty down after they're done — that's a David Cage game for you.

Even as you play through the game, there is an underlying current of melancholy in the game's atmosphere, with the titular rain only adding to this effect. For some people, rain depresses them, which only adds to the sad experience in Heavy Rain.

So yes, it's easy to remember this game because of its accidental humor, but once you beat the game, you won't be able to forget it for all the saddest reasons.

9 Detention

Injustice Just Hurts

Watching injustice happen in the world is enough to make anyone upset, especially if it's due to unfair, totalitarian government oppression. Cut to Detention, a game about these very injustices during the 1960s Taiwan — specifically, during the White Terror. This was a period of time marked with violence, brutality, and complete authoritarianism.

In Detention, you play Fang Ray Shin (referred to as just Ray), a teenage girl that's trapped in her school, Greenwood High School. Side note, as someone who grew up in a place called Greenwood in Indiana, I have to frequently remind myself it's not the same school as the one across town.

Ray had been through far too much at such a young age, but it seems that her situation would only get worse for her while at high school. And when things go from bad to worse, you're left in shock as reality begins to set in — and it's even more heartbreaking when you consider that these were likely very real stories (at least heavily inspired by these stories) from the era. It's tragic, it really is.

There's something unbelievably depressing about the loss of human rights, but the way it's presented in this game will have you reaching for tissues.

8 Silent Hill 2

James, You Made Me Happy

The Silent Hill games have always been about trauma — but Silent Hill 2 ended up making it the saddest in the franchise due to just how masterfully it approaches James Sunderland's trauma. While the Silent Hill 2 Remake was fantastic, many fans would point to the original game as being much sadder, all because of the voice acting.

The voice actress for Mary/Maria in the original really knew how to pack a punch with her line delivery. At the end of the game, when she reads her letter, the quote "James, you made me happy" ended up absolutely devastating countless players. The remake didn't have that same emotional impact, even though it's just as emotional.

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Silent Hill 2 is psychological horror at its finest, with countless other horror games being inspired by this title in the genre. But even then, among all the heavily-inspired games that came after, they weren't able to recreate the gut-punch that comes with reading Mary's Letter at the end of the game, especially after learning the truth of what happened.

Not just that, but other characters featured in the game have similarly depressing backstories (such as Angela), with even more hopeless outcomes that you can't shake away from your mind.

7 Omori

Depression. Just Depression

Sometimes, there's a distinct phenomenon in a culture that becomes a unique target of fascination — in the case of OMORI, it's a commentary on mental health and the Japanese hikikomori. Hikikomori are shut-ins to the extreme, refusing to leave their house under any circumstances, preferring to live in complete isolation.

Even though the game is deceptively cute, in OMORI, you play as a hikikomori named Sunny, dealing with so many mental health issues that it was actually controversial when the game came out. Yet, it's done in such a cute art style that you wouldn't even think that it's a horror game — until it starts to be one.

Plus, as you progress, you start to learn more about Sunny and his life, and why he is the way he is, and all of a sudden, you're feeling an incredible amount of sympathy and sadness. As his alter ego, the titular Omori, tries to help him overcome the obstacles in his life, things only seem to go wrong.

Just saying, you're not expecting the direction that this game goes in.

6 Signalis

Aftermath of Tragedy

SIGNALIS Level screen scifi space station

If you think Silent Hill 2 is sad, take a look at one of the best indie games that was directly inspired by it: Signalis.

In Signalis, you play as a Replika (essentially it's an android) named Elster, looking for your lost dreams and your wife. Yet, as you're making your way around the ship and its lack of inhabitants, you start to learn the truth of who you are and what happened in your life — and it's absolutely depressing.

Being a horror game inspired by the classics, there are a lot of staples that are easily met. Yet, what players don't anticipate is the absolute depression that will settle in once it's all said and done.

While it's easy for many of us to want sequels to fantastic titles, something tells me that Signalis wouldn't even need anything of the sort, since it's that well done on its own. Just be ready to feel a pang in your heart.

5 The Walking Dead

We Miss You, Lee

The Walking Dead, as a TV show, took the world by storm in ways that we can't really imagine in the era of streaming. Seriously, you just had to be there. So, when the comic's world was adapted into a video game by the same name, many were expecting to dive into the drama that we'd eat up every Sunday night.

However, this game will crush your heart way harder than any episode that came out after season one. Specifically, this is due to several loveable characters being infected and then killed off — including the main character, Lee.

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What makes matters worse is that the little girl you're protecting and looking after the whole game, Clementine, has to be the one to put you down after you've been bitten. It's a gut-wrenching scene even to the most stoic of players, and it's made all the more painful by how prominently Lee ends up haunting the narrative afterward.

Even as we end up playing as Clementine from then on, we keep thinking the same thought all throughout: we miss you, Lee.

4 The Last of Us

The Opening is Just a Taste

cropped-Best Selling PlayStation Exclusives Of All Time The Last of Us

While The Last of Us wasn't the first horror game to emphasize drama and heartbreak, it was definitely one of the most notable examples I played. To this day, I can't get through the opening sequence with Sarah's death without tearing up, especially now that I'm a high school teacher and a lot more sensitive to teen/child death.

It doesn't get any easier as you progress through the game, either, as The Last of Us will throw a mountain of angst your way and expect you to process it on your own. Whether it's in the entirety of the Winter chapter, the giraffe scene, or even the ending at the hospital, you're in for an incredibly emotional time.

While The Last of Us: Part II is supposed to be just as sad as the first game, it doesn't end up packing the same punch when your emotions are backed by anger and hatred instead of desperation and sadness.

Either way, this game has countless players cry — and if you're one of the few who don't, I'm just going to assume that you played muted and with your eyes closed.

3 Still Wakes the Deep

Desperation and Despair Reign

When you first boot up Still Wakes the Deep, you're immediately hit with the lingering hopelessness that our protagonist, Caz McCleary, finds himself lost in. He's already in a tough spot in his personal life, but everything gets so much worse after the oil rig that we're on drills through a Lovecraftian monster – and makes it angry.

From there, you have to desperately fight to survive the oil rig and find a way to get rid of The Shape, the monster mentioned earlier. Yet, it feels helpless from start to finish, a tragedy that could have been avoided but now must be played out.

By the end of the game, you're practically screaming at your screen for things to go one way, then they just ... don't. You're left in the aftermath, devastated, and trying to figure out if there's literally anything that could be done differently, just for something to end up differently; but alas, life is not fair.

You don't realise what kind of emotional journey you're going to be on in Still Wakes the Deep, so consider this your warning that things are going to get very depressing very quickly.

2 SOMA

What Makes Us Human?

Speaking of games that just leave you devastated, SOMA is an excellent entry. Not only is it just a masterpiece of a horror game, but its story is told in such a way that the ending will be all the more heartbreaking (and quite frankly, terrifying). SOMA really hones in on the themes of existentialism and what makes humanity, so expect the emotions to strike you similarly.

While it has been long enough to where spoiling SOMA won't be controversial, I personally would much rather players experience the twist entirely on their own. You might be able to predict it, but not to the degree you'd think.

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Seriously, you've never played a game quite like SOMA and probably won't ever again, especially with how it masterfully navigates these themes of identity. You'll be left in a daze, and when you hear the haunting melody of the credits, that daze will make you outright nauseous.

Either way, SOMA is devastating.

1 Devotion

Devastation That Lingers Still

God, to play this game for the first time again.

Devotion was created by Red Candle Games, the same studio behind Detention, and you can bet that this title is far more heartbreaking than anything Greenwood High School could manifest. In Devotion, you play as Du Feng Yu, the patriarch of the Du Family, dealing with the aftermath of a family tragedy in the 1980s Taiwan.

As the game unfolds, you learn exactly what this tragedy is, and it will leave you horrified and speechless. Yet, at the same time, you'll be utterly heartbroken by the events that you're witnessing, and it makes you feel horrible. Seriously, I have only played this game once, when it first came out seven years ago, and the ending is just as detailed and prominent in my mind as it was then – and I still feel a twisting pang in my heart every single time I remember it.

It's perhaps one of the saddest horror games to date, because by the end of it, you won't be remembering the game for the fear factor or other horror elements – you'll remember how it made you sob.