Summary

• The PlayStation 4 still holds its ground in the gaming industry, with a library of scary games that offer a frightful experience.
• The scarcity of PlayStation 5 consoles has kept many players using the PS4, proving its lasting relevance.
• Scary games like The Quarry, Little Nightmares, and Until Dawn provide tense and terrifying experiences on the PS4.

Despite debuting over a decade ago, the PlayStation 4 still manages to hold its ground in the gaming industry - especially in the horror genre. Naturally, the PS4 misses out on some newer titles, which are solely made available for the current-gen PlayStation 5, but the former has still accrued an impressive game library over the years. And even several years into the PS5's release, many games are still available via cross-generational release. From modern masterpieces to timeless classics, the scariest games for the PS4 let players experience the fright of their lives nonetheless.

Much of the reason behind the PS4's lasting popularity lies in the PS5's conversely rocky lifespan. Launching during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the console faced a number of problems, including chip shortages, general supply chain issues, and scalpers. As a result, the PlayStation 5 became notoriously difficult to obtain, leaving many players stuck with the last-gen console. The PS5 shortage is finally dwindling, which means more users will be able to get their hands on the newest hardware - but the PlayStation 4's scariest games prove that its predecessor is still relevant.

15 The Quarry Is An Interactive Slasher Movie

Supermassive Games, 2022

Supermassive Games is best known for revolutionizing the choice-based horror genre, and The Quarry certainly doesn't disappoint on this account. Inspired by slasher classics like Friday the 13th, it follows a group of counselors who find themselves stranded at a summer camp for a night. Their wholesome bonding experience quickly turns into a pandemonium of violence, dark family secrets, and even lycanthropy.

Players will need to use their own best judgment to make it through the night, and the fate of the counselors is entirely in their control. The Quarry has 186 endings, depending on who lives, who dies, and who's infected. Something as small as the wrong dialogue option can lead to a gruesome, brutal death, making The Quarry a perpetually tense and terrifying experience.

14 Little Nightmares Is An Atmospheric, Dreamlike Odyssey

Tarsier Studios, 2017

2017's Little Nightmares takes heavy inspiration from classic side-scrolling games such as Limbo to weave a dark and foreboding narrative. The creep factor is cranked up to the max, with eerie visuals and ominous creatures haunting every corner. There's no combat in Little Nightmares, forcing the player to rely on stealth and silence in order to survive the fever-dreamlike experience.

As they control Six, a raincoat-clad girl, players must stay alive by solving complex puzzles and avoiding the horrors around every corner. So, while its art style is tame and somewhat misleading, it still manages to evoke the unmatched level of dread brought on by the player's worst childhood fears, mixing helplessness with surreality to create a pervasive sense of dread. All that makes Little Nightmares one of the scariest games for the PS4 - the only thing that can compare is its sequel, Little Nightmares 2, and the upcoming third game Little Nightmares 3.

13 Until Dawn Puts A Psychological Twist On The Quarry

Supermassive Games, 2015

Although The Quarry is sure to get the blood pumping, it could never live up to its blueprint, Until Dawn. Similarly, this title tests the player's decision-making skills and reflexes as they're tasked with saving a group of teenagers, whose snowy spring break getaway is terrorized by a maniacal killer, supernatural beings, and haunting events of the past.

What makes Until Dawn even scarier than its successor is the element of psychological horror, which turns the game from a mere murder mystery to one that tackles complex themes of mental health. Between memorable sessions with the in-game psychologist and a masterful plot twist, this title is one that will likely remain on the minds of players long after they're done.

12 Alan Wake Remastered Revives A Survival Classic

Remedy Entertainment, 2021

Alan Wake Remastered is an intact revival of the original game, a surreal journey into the mind of the eponymous writer. It tells a brain-melting story that challenges the player's mechanical skill and mental fortitude alike. Suffering from seemingly incurable writer's block, Alan, along with his wife Alice, flees big-city pressure on a trip to the isolated town of Bright Falls, Washington. However, no sooner have they settled into their cabin on the idyllic Cauldron Lake than the power goes out, Alice vanishes, and Alan wakes up in a crashed vehicle with a week's worth of missing time.

Oh, and terrifying creatures roam the night, appearing to be made of darkness itself. Every bullet, flashlight battery, and cup of coffee counts as Alan tries to find his wife before Bright Falls swallows him whole. Dredging up childhood traumas, the consequences of fame, and the nature of fiction and reality themselves, Alan Wake weaves a memorable narrative without compromising on its stunningly difficult gameplay. It's only elevated by its respective spin-off and sequel, Alan Wake's American Nightmare and Remedy's magnum opus Alan Wake 2, but neither of those are on PS4.

11 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Is A Realistically Dark Tragedy

Ninja Theory, 2017

Though not a horror game by definition, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is one of the darkest and most disturbing games of recent years. It's a trip into the broken psyche of Senua, a Celtic warrior on a quest to battle the Norse Gods for the return of her beloved. She'll have to overcome ordeal after ordeal as she descends deeper into her own personal hell.

In fact, Hellblade was co-created with the support of actual mental health experts. Players will be forced to contend with a barrage of voices in their head, not to mention illusions that distort what's real, and what is a figment of Senua's mind. As such, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is one of the scariest games for the PS4, but it simultaneously tells a tragic love story that somehow makes it even more impactful.

10 The Last Of Us: Part 2 Is A Divisive, But Terrifying Sequel