The Best Horror Games That Are Too Short

While games such as Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil: Village fill their horror adventures with over ten hours worth of content, others settle for being short but effective horror games. This has allowed many independent and big-budget developers to rise to fame in the gaming world and go on to bigger and better things.

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Sometimes, a short horror game can be just as memorable, even if it leaves the player wanting more afterward. In a way, it's a testament to how good the games can be when the credits start rolling and the player is disappointed that the experience is already over and done.

8 Resident Evil 3 Remake - 6 Hours

Nemesis Makes Up For The Short Story

Where Resident Evil 2 tormented players for nine to eleven hours, the remake of Resident Evil 3 was far shorter, at only six hours. In that short time, Capcom still manages to fill the game with dread and tension thanks to the constant presence of the monster known as Nemesis, one of the most iconic villains from the Resident Evil franchise.

Focusing on Jill Valentine, Resident Evil 3 takes place on the same unfortunate day as Resident Evil 2, showing the horrors that others dealt with during the fall of Raccoon City. Resident Evil 3 is still a worthwhile sequel, but some may find its shorter story disappointing compared to its predecessor.

7 Outlast - 5 Hours

A Mad Night At Mount Massive Asylum

Playing a game set inside an asylum has never been more terrifying than in Outlast. Taking a similar approach to many first-person horror games at the time, Outlast focuses on traversing through Mount Massive Asylum and using stealth to avoid being killed by the twisted inmates now running the place.

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From the mutant-like brute that will pummel the player to the deranged surgeon, Outlast never ceases to terrify. All five hours of gameplay are nothing but stress, terror, and, in a few instances, disgust. It is a short indie game, but it spawned an even more terrifying DLC as well as a longer sequel and a multiplayer spinoff.

6 Still Wakes The Deep - 4.5 Hours

Harking Back To Classic Horror Movies

Multiple horror games have earned their accolades by being inspired by classic horror movies of the past, and such is the case with Still Wakes The Deep. This gem surprised gamers with its body horror, akin to John Carpenter's The Thing, mixed with Deep Rising, with a unique setting on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean.

Isolation and simply knowing that something is stalking the halls makes Still Wakes The Deep a terrifying experience. However, gamers found that Still Wakes The Deep ends too quickly, despite plenty of chilling moments and an intriguing plot.

5 Carrion - 4 Hours

Four Hours Of Fear... For The NPCs

What helps Carrion stand out is that it is essentially a reverse-horror game where the main protagonist is a bloodthirsty monster. Carrion plays out like a Metroidvania, with non-linear levels that require exploration and accomplishing certain goals to progress.

The player devours their foes and, akin to The Blob, the monster, which is a red pile of flesh, continues to get bigger. Mixed with its pixelated art style, Carrion features puzzles and traversal which are addictive, leading to a short but sweet experience.

4 The Mortuary Assistant - 2 Hours

Creepy Night Shifts Made Worse By Demons

Working in a mortuary is already eerie, so a game set in a haunted mortuary is bound to be terrifying, but The Mortuary Assistant brings an investigative element to the table. As the player inspects different cadavers, they must uncover the truth about the entity haunting the building every night.

While very short at only two hours long, The Mortuary Assistant features randomized cadavers to make sure that every playthrough is different, earning it loads of praise as an indie survival horror game. As a bonus, there are six different endings to the game, inviting gamers to play multiple times to get 100% completion.

3 Slender: The Arrival - 2 Hours

When Slender Man Ruled The Internet

For a few years, Slender Man was an icon of horror on the Internet, particularly in the indie gaming world, starting with the very short Slender: The Eight Pages. Slender Man was then given a chance to go bigger and better with Slender: The Arrival, which showcased Slender Man's potential as a physical and psychological villain.

Fans were surprised just how short Slender: The Arrival was given how much hype the game generated, but in the two hours, it throws everything at the player to terrify them. The titular villain was present, but so were his deadly acolytes, a non-linear level structure, more lore to explore, and a foreboding atmosphere that was all given a remaster ten years later.

2 Oakwood - 1.5 Hours

The World Needs More Dinosaur Horror

In gaming, most things are better with dinosaurs, and that can be said for both survival horror and a lesser-known game called Oakwood. It's a very simple premise, with someone exploring Oakwood forest only to discover that dinosaurs are on the prowl.

In many ways, Oakwood is not that different from Slender: The Arrival or Outlast in terms of gameplay, but it shows the potential for what fans want to see with Jurassic Park: Survival. Being chased by a Dilophosaurus through the sewers, or outrunning the stomps of a T-Rex, fills the player with fear and, with the game only being just over an hour long, it never feels dull or redundant.

1 Iron Lung - 1 Hour

Sixty Minutes Of Claustrophobic Tension

Tension is the key aspect in Iron Lung, as a submersible travels through an alien planet that only features a sea of blood. From beginning to end, Iron Lung was praised for being eerie and unnerving due to its setting, entirely taking place inside a submarine. If players want to see outside, the only way to do so is by taking pictures and using sonar.

With Iron Lung, one hour of gameplay had players cringing and preparing themselves for jump scares or some monster attack. Instead, it just keeps going with the tension. Sound design and pacing go a long way, making Iron Lung a horror game so memorable that a famous YouTuber known as Markiplier is adapting it into a live-action movie.

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