Silent Hill sends Harry Mason into a foggy American town to look for his missing daughter, Cheryl. Harry's flashlight is the only light for most of the game, and it reaches only a short way. Fog and darkness keep you from seeing far, so you hear the monsters before you see them. The team built it around a fear of the unknown, as a psychological type of horror.
Many games went after that same dread. These are the 22 games players recommend most to Silent Hill fans, ranked by how many different people named each one.
22 Games Like Silent Hill Where the Horror Gets Under Your Skin
Vampire Hunter D (1999)
Vampire Hunter D turns the books and films of the same name into one of the few survival horror games about vampires. Nearly all of it happens inside Camila's castle, and the plot tracks the film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. You search the castle room by room for items and keys, with puzzles in the way. It is a gloomy, lonely place to wander, much like Harry's town.
The big difference is that D hunts back. He takes on monsters and bosses with his sword and sub-weapons, and his Left Hand can swallow weakened enemies or heal him. Reviews were mostly unfavourable, so come for the gothic mood more than the polish. Three endings depend on how you play. Play it on PS1.
Galerians (1999)
Galerians plays like the PlayStation horror of its day, with tank controls and items and clues that open new areas. Rion wakes up in a 26th-century hospital with no memory and soon learns he has psychic powers. The hospital has been running human experiments to unlock that kind of power. Piecing together who he is pulls you along the way Harry's search for Cheryl does.
The big difference is that you carry no guns. Rion fights with psychic powers fed by drugs called PPECs. Enemies drop no items or experience, so slipping past them usually pays. Let his AP meter fill and he loses control, killing ordinary enemies in one blow. Play it on PS1.
Extermination (2001)
Extermination is considered the first survival horror release on PS2. You play Sergeant Dennis Riley, a Force Recon marine sent to Fort Stewart, a secret American research base in Antarctica, after a distress call. Ammunition is short and the bigger enemies soak up a lot of damage. Running is often the better choice, just as it is on Silent Hill's streets.
The big difference is infection. Enemies raise Dennis's Infection Rate as they hurt him. Once it hits 100%, his maximum health drops to 60% and keeps draining. A rare vaccine and an MTS Bed cure it. His SPR-4 rifle takes add-ons that turn it into a flamethrower or a shotgun. Players who ask for more PS2 horror name it again and again. Play it on PS2.
Clock Tower 3 (2002)
Clock Tower 3 is a survival horror game from Capcom and Sunsoft, seen from a fixed third-person camera. You play Alyssa Hamilton, a 14-year-old girl from a family line of women who travel through time to fight evil spirits. Her trips run from 2003 London back to the 1940s and 1960s. It is the only game ever directed by film director Kinji Fukasaku.
The big difference is that Alyssa has no weapon for most of the game. Killers called Subordinates chase her, and you hide or slip away. If fear pushes her into Panic mode, one hit kills her. Only at the end of a level does her holy water turn into a longbow for the fight. Critics praised the cutscenes and felt it was too short. Play it on PS2.
Martian Gothic: Unification (2000)
Martian Gothic is set in 2019 at Vita-01, a research station on Mars, where the crew has died and come back as zombies. The base also throws ghosts and floating corpses at you. It came from the team behind Dreamweb, and it puts writing and puzzles ahead of combat. That suits a Silent Hill fan who enjoys a strange riddle.
The big difference is how close it sticks to old Resident Evil, with fixed camera angles and tank controls. A countdown timer runs at the climax. Reviews were mixed, and players call it a rough, low-budget Resident Evil on Mars. That rough edge is part of its charm. Play it on PS1.
Rule of Rose (2006)
Rule of Rose is one of the PS2's strangest horror stories. It is set in Britain in 1930. Jennifer, nineteen, is trapped in a world ruled by young girls who call themselves the Red Crayon Aristocrats. Every chapter starts with a homemade storybook tied to what comes next. Like Silent Hill, its worst horrors live in the story.
The big difference is that Jennifer is no fighter. Almost every weapon is melee, things like kitchen knives and pipes, and dodging enemies often works better than fighting them. Her dog Brown sniffs out items and growls to distract enemies. It is a name PS2 horror fans keep bringing up. Play it on PS2.
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001)
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is built around your flashlight, the same small circle of light Harry Mason depends on. The developers made an unusual engine so the light could fall across pre-rendered rooms and cast shadows. Its monsters hate light. The flashlight pushes some of them back, and magnesium bullets and phosphorus shells finish them.
The big difference is that you pick a hero. Edward Carnby fights with a double-barrelled revolver. Aline's half of the story is mostly puzzles. Horror fans still name it among the classics of the era. Play it on PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP or Game Boy Color, though the PS2 version only came out in Europe.
Hellnight (1998)
Hellnight takes place in the subway tunnels and sewers under Tokyo at the end of the millennium. You see it in first person, much like a shooter, except you have nothing to shoot. A single monster, the Hybrid, hunts you through the maze, and running is the only way to live. Silent Hill fans who loved being chased through dark corridors will feel the same panic here.
The big difference is your companions. You recruit people along the way, like Naomi, a 17-year-old schoolgirl. Most of the others can stun the monster for a moment. Who walks with you changes the story and the ending. Puzzles happen in 2D rooms where the monster almost never attacks. It came out in Japan and most of Europe. Play it on PS1.
Kuon (2004)
Kuon is a FromSoftware survival horror game set in Japan's Heian period. Three characters explore Fujiwara Manor in Kyoto during an outbreak of monsters. Its creator wanted a dark story built on Japanese kaidan ghost stories. You walk slowly unless you choose to run, and running brings more risk, since many enemies follow noise. Critics praised its atmosphere.
The big difference is magic. Each hero fights with a blade or a fan, and spell cards either fire an attack or call up a creature to fight beside you for a while. The camera looks down on the characters from fixed overhead angles. Critics faulted the controls. Play it on PS2.
Alien: Isolation (2014)
Alien: Isolation is set 15 years after the 1979 film. Amanda Ripley searches for the truth about her missing mother aboard the space station Sevastopol, run down by years of neglect and stalked by an alien. The game is built on stealth: you avoid it, outsmart it and fight it only when you must. Like Harry, Amanda is never the strongest thing in the room.
The big difference is the view. The developers moved it to first person to make it more intense. Your motion tracker shows where the Alien is, but its sound can draw the creature to you. Fire makes it back off for a while. Critics praised the sound design and the AI, and it sold over two million copies by May 2015. Play it on PS3, PS4 or Switch.
Haunting Ground (2005)
Haunting Ground comes from Capcom and is often called a spiritual successor to Clock Tower. Fiona Belli wakes in a castle dungeon after a car accident. A White Shepherd named Hewie becomes her friend, and together they hunt for a way out and for the truth about the castle. It shares Silent Hill's feeling of being trapped somewhere that wants you gone.
The big difference is that you mostly run and hide. Fiona can kick and tackle, but hiding spots and Hewie are what keep her alive. Pet and feed him to win his trust, because you need him to survive. Critics praised the presentation and called the gameplay repetitive. Horror fans asking for PS2 picks name it often. Play it on PS2 or PS3.
Nightmare Creatures (1997)
Nightmare Creatures sets its horror in London, where a devil-worshiping cult called the Brotherhood of Hecate has made grotesque monsters. The dead are climbing out of their graves as well. You play Ignatius, a priest and occult expert, or Nadia. Critics praised the monster designs, and the creatures are the reason Silent Hill fans end up here.
The big difference is that it plays like an action game. You fight with your main weapon plus pistols, mines, fire bombs and spells. An adrenaline bar drains your health when it runs out, so you have to keep winning fights. Critics agreed it is extremely difficult. The N64 version lets you switch the adrenaline meter off. Play it on PS1, N64, PS3 or PSP.
SOMA (2015)
SOMA builds on the earlier horror games of Frictional Games, notably Amnesia: The Dark Descent. You play Simon Jarrett, who wakes on PATHOS-II a year after a comet devastated the Earth and left the station as the last known outpost of humanity. Parts of it have you walking on the ocean floor. Its underlying theme is consciousness, and its questions linger the way Silent Hill's endings do.
The big difference is that sneaking away from threats matters more than fighting them, alongside puzzle-solving. Players say the story is the best part. Polygon's Philip Kollar gave it a 9/10. Play it on PS4 or Switch.
The Suffering (2004)
The Suffering casts you as Torque, a prisoner on death row for murdering his ex-wife and two children, a crime he cannot remember. Most of the monsters stand for the execution methods once used on Carnate Island, where the prison sits. Guilt, memory and monsters shaped by a place's past are close to Silent Hill's home ground.
The big difference is firepower. Its designer, Richard Rouse III, calls it action horror, and the guns run all the way to an improvised flamethrower. As Torque kills, an insanity meter fills on screen. Three endings each show a different version of the murder, based on your choices. PS2 horror fans bring it up often. Play it on PS2.
Obscure (2004)
Obscure follows five students at Leafmore High School as they dig into strange happenings on campus. The monsters there are sensitive to light. Flashlights weaken them, and direct sunlight kills them. You can tape a flashlight to any gun, and you combine items to survive. Its dark school halls will feel familiar to Silent Hill fans.
The big difference is the team. You control one student at a time while the computer or a second player runs the others, so two friends can play the whole story together. If someone dies, you carry on with the ones left. Reviews were mixed, and players keep pointing horror fans to the first Obscure. Play it on PS2.
The Evil Within (2014)
The Evil Within pulls Sebastian Castellanos through a distorted world full of nightmarish places and horrid creatures. The world changes during scripted events and as you act, opening new paths or teleporting you somewhere else. That sense of reality coming apart is close to Silent Hill's Otherworld, and players tell Silent Hill fans to play it.
The big difference is that it was directed by Shinji Mikami, who created Resident Evil, so the fights lean his way. You battle with guns and melee weapons, and ammunition is very scarce. Your safe house is a mental hospital with a save point. Green Gel upgrades Sebastian's abilities, such as more ammunition and extra health. Play it on PS3 or PS4.
Dino Crisis (1999)
Dino Crisis comes from the Resident Evil team and director Shinji Mikami. Special operations agent Regina is sent to a secluded island research facility and finds it overrun with dinosaurs. You fight through it and solve puzzles to learn its secrets and get out alive. Like Silent Hill, it uses real-time 3D rooms in place of pre-rendered backgrounds.
The big difference is speed. Capcom called it panic horror instead of survival horror because its dinosaurs are so quick and clever. The PlayStation version sold more than 2.4 million copies. Play it on PS1, PS3 or PSP.
Outlast (2013)
Outlast sends Miles Upshur, a freelance investigative journalist, into Mount Massive Asylum, a remote psychiatric hospital in the mountains of Colorado. Its halls are ransacked and littered with the staff's bodies. Like Harry Mason, Miles is not a cop or a soldier. As a reporter, he has few skills to fend off the brutes and stalkers who roam the halls.
The big difference is your camcorder. Its night vision mode lets you see your surroundings and enemies in the dark. It was Red Barrels' first game, from a team that had worked on Prince of Persia. Critics praised the atmosphere and horror. PS4 horror fans name it again and again. Play it on PS4 or Switch.
Siren (2003)
Siren is the closest relative of Silent Hill on this list. Project Siren, the team at Sony Computer Entertainment Japan that made it, had people who worked on the original Silent Hill. Director Keiichiro Toyama has said that making Silent Hill woke his interest in horror. The game follows a supernatural disaster in the rural Japanese village of Hanuda in 2003, where deadly zombie-like creatures called shibito fill each stage.
The big difference is that you can borrow the enemy's eyes. Your characters see and hear what a nearby shibito sees and hears, which shows you where it is, but you cannot move while you do it. You hide in cupboards and lock doors, and the game wants you to avoid the shibito, not fight them. Critics praised the story and atmosphere, and the gameplay drew criticism. Horror fans often name it in the same breath as Fatal Frame. Play it on PS2, or later on PS3 and PS4.
Parasite Eve (1998)
Parasite Eve follows New York City police officer Aya Brea over six days in 1997. She tries to stop Eve, a woman who plans to wipe out the human race through spontaneous human combustion. A city turning on its own people gives it the same creeping wrongness that Silent Hill fans love.
The big difference is that it is an RPG. PlayStation Magazine called it a hybrid of Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil, and director Takashi Tokita called it a cinematic RPG. Enemies appear on the same screen you walk around. Fights run in real time with a pause and an Active Time Bar. While you wait for your turn, you move Aya out of harm's way. Play it on PS1, PS3 or PSP.
Cold Fear (2005)
Cold Fear puts you aboard a Russian whaler in the Bering Strait as Tom Hansen, a US Coast Guard guardsman. A mysterious parasite has turned the crew into zombie-like creatures. A ship lost in a storm is as lonely as Silent Hill's empty streets, and only one game on this list is named by more players.
The big difference is the sea. On deck the ship sways from side to side, which makes aiming harder unless Tom grabs a ledge to steady himself. Infected enemies keep coming back until you destroy the brain, with a headshot or a stomp. You can play from a fixed camera or over the shoulder. Critics compared it unfavourably to Resident Evil 4, out the same year. Play it on PS2.
Fatal Frame (2001)
Fatal Frame sends Miku Hinasaki into the haunted Himuro Mansion to look for her brother, Mafuyu. Its makers took a cue from the Silent Hill series, whose polygon characters had been well received, and went a step further to give you the sense of seeing things off-screen. Director Makoto Shibata set out to make the scariest game he could. In North America it was even sold as based on a true story.
The big difference is your only weapon, the Camera Obscura, an antique camera that captures ghosts. Raising it switches you to a first-person view, and the damage you deal turns into points that upgrade the camera. Critics praised the atmosphere and the camera idea. Players who love Silent Hill tell each other to try it, more than any other game. The sequel, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, came out in 2003. Play it on PS2 or PS3.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of games like Silent Hill. A few chase its fog and dread closely, and others borrow only the feeling of being alone with something wrong.
If you want ghosts and a slow chill, start with Fatal Frame or Siren. If the story is what stayed with you, play Rule of Rose or SOMA. For more fighting, go for Cold Fear or The Evil Within. If you would rather hide than fight, try Haunting Ground or Outlast. And if you want a strange PS1 game few people played, Hellnight and Galerians are waiting.
