Summary
- Asymmetrical horror multiplayer games face high competition and quick decline due to unmet potential.
- Dead by Daylight stands out as successful, while other titles like Texas Chainsaw Massacre struggle.
- Popular horror game titles like V/H/S, Evil Dead, and Friday the 13th faced premature demise.
The asymmetrical multiplayer horror community is maybe the most vicious in all of gaming. Not only are those that play highly competitive gamers who spend thousands of hours honing their skills to absolutely stomp every game they are in, it seems most games are doomed to die just as surely as the characters within them.
The Best Asymmetrical Multiplayer Games
Asymmetrical multiplayer games have become quite popular in recent years, and here are the best of them.
Dead by Daylight is the one game that seems to have dodged the call of the reaper, and indeed its success may be the reason for other titles' spectacular failures. Most of the games were toted as the "DbD Killer" only to meet the fate foretold for Dead by Daylight. They enjoy a successful weeks that showcase great potential and countless fun, but in the end, they join the graveyard of other failed multiplayer horror titles.
8 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Proved Itself to be the Scariest Horror Multiplayer
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
- Released: August 18th, 2023
- Developers: Sumo Digital Ltd
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game held great promise, its trailer showcasing tense moments of real dread, and cooperative killer gameplay as friends could play together as the survivors or the family. Many horror fans eagerly anticipated its release, and it raked in an impressive player pool who stated this was now their favorite asymmetrical horror game as they snuck around the family estate in hopes of escape, or hunted down the survivors as Bubba or another member of the Sawyer family.
But, its player has dwindled over the years and continues to show signs of decline. The game took on a play to win mode as the DLC prices drove many players off, and now the game is seeing the treatment of most of its predecessors, as it is for all intents and purposes on life support, and seems unlikely to receive a second wind. It is a true shame, as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the scariest multiplayer horror games to date.
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6 Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
Take on the Role of a Ghostbuster
- Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
- Release Date: October 18, 2022
- Developers: Illfonic
Ghostbusters is a beloved classic movie all about a squad of busters hunting down pesky ghosts that are bothering the denizens of New York City, using their Proton's Packs that have become an iconic fictional gadget, to capture these spirits. With four Busters always teaming up to take down the ghosts, it was ripe for an asymmetrical multiplayer game, which came in the form of Spirits Unleashed.
Players are free to customize their ghostbusting avatar to take down the ghosts in style, cooperating with teammates across a variety of maps, while a fifth player controls a ghost, who must complete their haunt of the location. It was fun, never took itself too seriously, and was perfect to drop in and out for casual gameplay. Unfortunately, overtime more players have been dropping out than in, whether it was to try other games, or maybe the novelty wore off. There is no real reason for the game to join the legions of the other dead multiplayer games, but it did deserve a bit longer in the land of the living.
5 Last Year: The New Nightmare
Work Together to Survive the Nightmare
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: October 26th, 2020
- Developers: Elastic Games
Last Year: The Nightmare seemed like it was on track to be a fun and thriving multiplayer horror game, popularized by certain YouTubers at the time of its release, inspiring others to pick up the game and try it for themselves. What they would have found is fun 4v1 gameplay where 4 players control the teens who are trying to survive, choosing a role out of assault, technician, scout, and medic. Their aim is to complete various objectives and make their escape, and it is the Killers job to stop them.
Multiple maps, integrated classes, and plenty of interactions both sides could have, there was variety and fun to enjoy with Last Year: The Nightmare, but due to bankruptcy, it was removed across all platforms, and no one that owned it could launch it. Though the game was repackaged for free as Last Year in 2023, the player base sadly never really revived, and now it would seem the games fate is sealed.
4 Propnight
A Horrific Take on the Classic Prop Hunt Game
- Platforms: PC
- Released: November 30th, 2021
- Developers: Fntastic
Prop Hunt is a fun little game that is the ultimate game of hide and seek. A group of players will hide by copying the forms of objects found scattered across the map while the hunters will need to try and find them, looking for props they swear they saw move just now or that look out of place. This can lead to hilarious moments as a player flees from a stream of bullets while disguised as an empty soup can.
Propnight took this formula and put an asymmetrical horror twist on it, having one player control a scary character as they hunt the characters. The survivors must repair machines in hopes of their escape, looking out for the killer as they work and hopefully disguising themselves before they are caught. Unfortunately, the servers were shut down January 22nd 2024 as it was struggling with a declining player base despite being so much fun while it lasted.
3 V/H/S
Immaculate 80s Vibes and the Power to Fight Back
- Platforms: PC
- Released: July 18th, 2022
- Developers: Hellbent Games
Not to be confused with the movie series, V/H/S, or Video Horror Society, pitted 4 teens up against 1 monster pulled straight from the tape of a horror movie found at a rental shop. The aesthetics were carried faithfully throughout the game, with tape used when a teen was injured, and each one decked in outfits straight from the decade. Teens had to find and prepare weapons to banish the monster as it mercilessly hunted them down across maps.
The Best Video Games Set In The '80s
Plenty of games take on a more modern setting, but these games went and captured the uniqueness of the '80s for their settings.
The game was great fun, and there were quick queues for monsters, and therein lay the problem. It was far more fun to play from the teen's side, leaving too few players taking on the role of the monster. Queue times continually got longer as the playerbase dwindled, unsatisfied with the direction the game was heading. September 8th 2023 marked the day it would be taken down from stores, and the servers were unfortunately shut down. With the right balance tweaks and updates, V/H/S could have been great.
2 Evil Dead: The Game
Based on the Popular Movie Franchise
Evil Dead: The Game
The ultimate Evil Dead multiplayer experience is here… and it’s groovy!
Step into the shoes of Ash Williams or his friends from the iconic Evil Dead franchise and work together in a game loaded with over-the-top co-op and PVP multiplayer action! Play as a team of four survivors, exploring, looting, managing your fear, and finding key items to seal the breach between worlds in a game inspired by all three original Evil Dead films as well as the STARZ original Ash vs Evil Dead television series.
Iconic Characters - Play as characters from throughout the Evil Dead universe, including Ash, Scotty, Lord Arthur, Kelly Maxwell, & more, with new dialogue performed by Bruce Campbell & others!
Play As Good or Evil - Fight for the forces of good or take control of the Kandarian Demon to hunt Ash & others while possessing Deadites, the environmental objects & more as you seek to swallow their souls!
Off-the-Wall Visuals - Whether you’re tearing a Deadite in 2 with Ash's chainsaw hand or flying across the map as the Kandarian Demon, realistic visuals & physics-based gore brings the horror to life!
This...Is My Boomstick - Brandish your double barrel shotgun, chainsaw, cleavers and more to do some delightfully gruesome violence against the armies of darkness.
Splatter Royale - Choose Deadite versions of any Survivors and Demons from the game in this battle royale–style game mode. Use your wits and weapons to duke it out to the last person standing in fast-paced, cutthroat action for up to 40 players!
- Released
- May 13, 2022
- Developer(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Fighting, Shooter
An asymmetrical horror game based on a popular franchise with no licensing issues? Surely, nothing could go wrong...and for a time, this was an accurate statement. Players flocked to the servers to play as Ash and co, or a demon to take down the other side before they could banish them with their array of weapons. Multiple patches and additions were released for the game, and so everything seemed to be going well, and that it might stick around for a long time, to the joy of players across the road.
That was until September 19th 2023, when Saber Interactive announced while the servers would remain up, they were effectively abandoning the game. No further updates, no patches, nothing. While people can still play the game, it's only a matter of time before it is kill-switched for good, and it only averages around 11 players on Steam. At this point, there would be little rhyme or reason to play this now defunct game, which once thrived and provided ample fun.
1 Friday the 13th: The Game
Copyright Battles Led to This Game's Premature Demise
Friday the 13th: The Game
- Released
- September 4, 2018
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Developer
- Gun Media, Nighthawk Interactive, IllFonic, Black Tower Studios
- Genre(s)
- Action
Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic slasher movie franchises of all time, seeing Jason terrorize camp counselors and unruly teens movie after movie, some entries even seeing him continue his reign of terror in space or facing off against iconic nightmare demon Freddy Krueger. Its only natural developers would try their hand at a multiplayer game when the asymmetrical horror game industry was blooming into its most successful years of business.
It proved to be a phenomenal game with genuine scares and getting as close to experiencing the movies in video game format as one possible could. Players controlled one of the unlucky counselors or Jason himself, the roles selected randomly to add an element of surprise. The game seemed like it was destined for success until licensing issues struck, leading to the servers being shut down in 2020. Although peer-to-peer matchmaking is available, it is not a very viable way to play the game, and the end of 2024 will see the end of Friday the 13th: The Game.