The moment a horror games gives players too much power, something important disappears. Fear changes once you feel fully capable of fighting back. That doesn’t mean horror games can’t include combat. Some of them do it brilliantly. But the genre feels strongest when players remain uncertain about survival. Weak. Underprepared. Slightly uncomfortable all the time. Being defenseless...

Some horror games stop being scary the moment you turn them off. Others follow you around quietly for days. Not because they had the biggest jump scares or the most grotesque monsters, but because they unsettled something harder to shake. A thought. A feeling. An uncomfortable question that keeps resurfacing later when everything is quiet. That’s usually the difference between standard...