Best Free Horror Games to play in 2021

November 24, 2022

Horror is a genre that has managed to consistently capture the attention of many avid gamers who enjoy a jump-scare or two. However, not everyone has the means to purchase every title that releases. From the classic Slender games to the short but terrifying Reminiscence, we’ve compiled a list of the best free-to-play horror games of 2021.

Halloween is drawing closer, and that means the hunt for horror games is on. While there are plenty of premium horror titles that are worth your time. This list aims to look at some free-to-play experiences that may have flown under the radar over the years.

These are the best free Horror games on the internet in 2021.

Best Free Horror Games

Port of Call

This boat holds the key to finding out who you are. Will you explore it long enough to find out?

Port of Call dumps you right into the middle of a story, a feature that is seemingly meant to keep players off-balance for the entire experience. The player wakes up suffering from amnesia, and the only helpful soul around is the captain of a ferry boat.

He enlists your help, and once you’re on board, you start investigating the other occupants of the ship. Pretty quickly you discover that these people know more about you than they’re letting on.

While the premise is fairly basic, Port of Call excels as a part of interactive media. You’ll begin to piece together the mystery right on time, and the game leaves you with the impression that there’s much more to know about the world around you. The game achieves everything that it sets out to in a bite-sized thirty-minute runtime.

You can download Port of Call on Steam

Slender: The Eight Pages

The titular Slender Man is a terrifying suited creature that has a penchant for stealing children

The Slender series has reached cult classic status among the Horror community. Even if you haven’t played it for yourself, you’ve likely seen the game elsewhere on the internet, thanks to names like Pewdiepie and Markiplier.

The main mission of Slender: The Eight Pages is for players hunt down eight notes that are scattered throughout a dark forest. It won’t take long for you to notice the horrifying presence of the Slender Man, a being of folklore that is said to have a special connection with abducting children.

While the gameplay and premise are both simple, the execution is perfect. Slender: The Eight Pages creates a haunting environment, and never lets your heart rest for too long. After the game saw viral success in the mid-2010s, a sequel was released called Slender: The Arrival, which builds on the minimalistic concepts of the original.

If you’re interested in playing, you can download Slender: The Eight Pages here

The Static Speaks My Name

The shrimp tank is one of the only fun things about the static speaks my name. The rest of the game is chilling and disturbing in every sense.

The gameplay in this one is pretty disturbing and we don’t recommend playing it if you’re sensitive to death.

You play as Jacob Ernholtz, a man who is obsessed with a particular painting from an artist named Jason Malone. Most of the story revolves around Ernholtz’s relationship to the painting and to the man who painted it.

This one is extremely short, with the average playtime being around fifteen minutes, but it uses every minute to craft a terrifying narrative and leaves you with more questions than answers. While psychological horror may not be for everyone, if you’re a fan of the genre then this one is a must-play.

You can down download The Static Speaks My Name here.

Reminiscence

The time traversal in Reminiscence is as cool as it is horrifying.

The horror genre is rife with overly long games that sacrifice a fulfilled narrative in favor of keeping you in the creepy environment for as long as possible. That’s not the case with Reminiscence. The entire game can be played in thirty minutes. That short time span packs a punch though, and you’ll be thinking about long after it ends.

Set in the 1950’s, you play as a time-traveler who has to explore two versions of his house to find his missing wife and child. The first version of the house is the platonic ideal of a family home. It features all of the things that one would expect from a happy household.

The other version is the complete opposite of that. Set in the modern-day, the house has now become completely unrecognizable. This alternate reality holds the key to solving the mystery, but there’s so much more than meets the eye in this alternate reality.

You can play Reminiscence on Steam

Cry of Fear

Cry of Fear might be the most expansive free-to-play game ever. It features an eight-hour campaign, four-person multiplayer, and a second campaign after you beat the game.

Sitnikov Valeriy made one of the internet’s most beloved free-to-play titles of all time with 2013’s Call of Fear. You play as a young man exploring a mystery inside an old Scandinavian town. As the story progresses, both the protagonist and the mystery begin to unravel.

While the premise is similar to Silent Hill, Cry of Fear relies far more on gunplay and shooting your way out of each bad situation. Despite being free-to-play, Call of Fear showcases so many trademarks of premium games – the campaign is around eight hours long and has multiple endings, so you’ll never feel like your journey wasn’t worth it.

Though it was originally designed as a mod for Half-Life, Cry of Fear is now a standalone product and can be downloaded via Steam.

That’s all for our list of the best free horror games. If you’re looking for a more communal experience, check out our list of best Horror games to play with your friends.

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