Summary
- Found footage technique creates immersive horror experiences in video games like The Final Take and Simulacra.
- Games like The Riverside Incident and The Complex: Found Footage offer eerie environments and smart storytelling.
- Titles like Blair Witch and Outlast feature engaging gameplay with puzzles and exploration in terrifying settings.
In horror, the term "found footage" refers to video content that has been previously recorded and lost by the person recording, to later be picked up by someone else and presented to an audience. This technique has been widely used in film, notably The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise. More recently, video games have employed the technique to create immersive horror experiences.
The following games do not only use the video camera as a mechanic, but utilize found footage as an integral part of the plot or gameplay. This format allows the player either to experience the final moments of the camera-person by being placed in their shoes, or witness footage recorded by those who met an untimely death to uncover the truth of their demise. These are some of the best found footage horror games out there.
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10 The Final Take
Don't Accept Jobs Without Doing A Background Check
- Release: June 16, 2016
- Developer: HUSH Interactive
- Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Steam User Rating: 56%
The Final Take spans over four chapters in the form of VHS tapes labeled "evidence footage." The POV alternates between Sarah Evans and Adam Miller, both of whom have been deemed missing. Sarah is attending an interview at a private hospital after failing to kick-start her nursing career in the city, but when she arrives, the building is derelict. As the player delves deeper, they reveal the dark link between the two protagonists.
The Final Take received some criticism, mainly due to the lack of challenge with repeated "collect a number of items" puzzles. However, it still offers ample scares. For $2, the 80s VHS filter, abandoned hospital setting, and story offer a worthwhile experience in a short fusion of Outlast and Slenderman.
9 Slender: The Arrival
Fleshing Out The Lore Of A Beloved Creepyasta
Slender: The Arrival
While Slender: The Arrival was simple regarding gameplay and story upon its first release, the 2023 update fleshed out the Slender lore, weaving together multiple narratives. The game begins with the protagonist, Lauren, visiting her friend Kate's house. However, she finds the house empty and the walls covered in ominous scrawls. Hearing a scream in the forest, she feels compelled to investigate.
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In addition to the glitchy camera visuals throughout, there are also two tapes that reveal the fate of Kate and her friend Carl, and the mystery of what happened to the child on the missing poster, Charles Matheson. With familiar puzzles like finding the eight pages, new characters and environments, and a sophisticated sound design, Slender: The Arrival gives this creepypasta a new terrifying life that will leave players shaken.
8 Simulacra
Don't Snoop Through Other People's Phones
- Release: October 26, 2017
- Developer: Kaigan Games
- Platforms: Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
- Top Critic Rating: 67
Simulacra is a full motion video found footage mystery horror game. The player finds a phone belonging to Anna. After unlocking it and seeing a glitchy video in which Anna asks not to be found, the player must search the phone to figure out what happened. Sifting through her messages, photos, emails and even dating app, they will discover that the malfunctions are the result of something much more sinister.
The investigatory feel of Simulacra is engaging. Different puzzles include arranging the words of jumbled messages and fixing corrupted images, giving the player a manageable level of challenge. Interactions with Anna's relations can alter the progression of the story, with five possible endings.
7 Blair Witch
A Manhunt Reveals Something Much More Sinister
Blair Witch
- Released
- August 30, 2019
- Developer(s)
- Bloober Team
- Platform(s)
- PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Amazon Luna
In Blair Witch, the player takes on the role of a former police officer, Ellis, who has joined the search for a missing boy. They must search for clues with Ellis's dog Bullet in an increasingly formidable forest. Although the plot deviates from its film counterpart, Blair Witch's backdrop is in the same universe, featuring the Black Hills and the Griggs House.
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Throughout the game, the player can find tapes that manipulate the real world when scoured. These tapes can be used to find items or open doors, among other things. The footage on these tapes also reveal clues and backstory. Blair Witch does a great job of exploring how the past and present affect each other, touching on a multitude of psychological themes such as PTSD. It also features puzzles and combat to keep the experience engaging.
6 Amanda The Adventurer
This Children's Show Is Not What It Seems
- Release: April 25, 2024
- Developer: MANGLEDmaw Games
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows
- Top Critic Rating: 73
Amanda the Adventurer is a puzzle-based horror in which the player takes on the role of Riley, who has just inherited their Aunt Kate's house. In the attic, they find a VHS tape, and upon inserting one into the VCR, discover that they are recordings of an old children's TV show. But the more tapes Riley finds and watches, both of the animated show and behind-the-scenes footage, the more it appears as if Amanda the Adventurer is not simply an innocent cartoon.
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The 90s animation style and the way Amanda communicates to the viewer directly through the TV makes for an extremely uncanny feeling. With enjoyable puzzles and secret tapes, the story that unfolds via the recordings makes Amanda the Adventurer well worth a play.
5 Outlast
A Body Horror Survival Game With A Disturbing Plot
Outlast
- Released
- November 4, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Red Barrels
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Linux, macOS
Outlast is a first-person survival horror. The player takes on the role of Miles Upshur, an investigative journalist, who is breaking into Mount Massive Asylum after receiving an anonymous tip. He soon discovers, however, that the facility is a front for a much larger, much more disturbing operation. What begins as an investigation turns into a deadly endeavor to escape.
In Outlast, the player can utilize a camcorder, which has multiple functions. Not only does recording certain points of interest unlock journal entries, it also allows the player to see the dark areas with night vision, ultimately recording future found footage. Players must be careful not to run out of batteries, or they risk being plunged into the shadows they are trying to escape.
4 The Backrooms 1998
A Backrooms Horror Game Inspired By True Events
- Release: May 25, 2022
- Developer: Steelkrill Studio
- Platforms: Windows
- Steam User Rating: 84%
The Backrooms 1998 follows Paul, a skateboarding teen who no-clips into the Backrooms after a fall. Armed with only a spray can and a flashlight, the player must collect a series of items to escape. Inspired by the true case of Timothy King in 1977, this Backrooms game is both gorier and more touching than most.
The hostile roaming monster is sensitive to noise via the players' mic. But whether it’s the moving mannequins or the blood-spewing, tentacled creature stalking the halls that the player finds most disturbing, it is the truth about Paul that leaves them wondering whether the monster is really a monster at all.
3 September 1999
A Short But Impactful P.T. Style Horror Game
- Release: October 10, 2018
- Developer: 98DEMAKE
- Platforms: Windows, macOS
- Steam User Rating: 86%
September 1999 begins in a crudely furnished bedroom (a mattress on the floor surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol) and only expands into the main corridor of the apartment. The footage spans from September 18th to 30th, omitting some of the days in between. As time progresses, the two rooms undergo changes that become more and more distressing.
There are no interactive elements to the game, and the player is left to experience the story, the tape cutting off after five and a half minutes. The jumps in time leave it up to the player to piece together what has happened. Despite the limitations of game space and play time, September 1999 manages to tell a story with an uneasy atmosphere owing to the poor quality of the camera footage.
2 The Complex: Found Footage
Walking Simulator With Fantastically Eerie Environmental Design
- Release: August 18, 2022
- Developer: pgWave
- Platforms: Windows
- Steam User Rating: 93%
The Complex: Found Footage is an exploration game that begins in what appears to be a research facility, until the screen goes black and a VHS tape is heard being inserted into a player. The player then finds themselves in the Backrooms, an expanse of yellow walled rooms, and is led through a series of unsettlingly quiet levels from an empty mall to a pool to streets.
The Complex: Found Footage exceeds expectations for a free walking simulator. What it lacks in combat and survival mechanics it makes up for in setting, atmosphere, and tension, with the game’s uncanny liminality certain to leave the player on edge throughout.
1 The Riverside Incident
Offputting Visuals & Smart Storytelling
- Release: May 1, 2019
- Developer: Puppet Combo
- Platforms: Windows, macOS
In The Riverside Incident, the player is thrust into the shoes of the person who recorded the footage on a tape that was found and handed in to the police by a group of hikers. While at first it simply seems like an urban explorer filming an abandoned hospital, the true nature of the recording is revealed as satanic symbols and ritualistic items start to appear.
Although this is largely a walking simulator, the narrative is gripping with plenty of clues as to the reality of the situation to be discovered. The time jumps in the footage reflect the police's decision to withhold certain parts from the public, making the player feel as if they are truly partaking in piecing together public evidence.
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