10 Most Difficult Survival Horror Games, Ranked

Most video games offer various ranges of difficulty, including several horror games. However, just because a game may be on “Easy” mode doesn’t mean that it’s an easy game in the slightest — in fact, these horror games are notoriously difficult, even on easier settings.

That is, if there’s an option to change the difficulty at all. Some games have one mode and that’s it; and if it’s too hard, you’re out of luck until you get good.

These survival horror games are particularly difficult. Either with puzzles, the gameplay, or some other reason entirely, these are horror games that often require a tutorial in one way or another, and plenty of practice with a little trial and error, too.

There’s no shame if you need a guide for any of these games. They’re just that hard.

10 Cry of Fear

Cosplaying as a Platformer

At first glance, Cry of Fear plays like any other Half-Life 2 mod, just a bit more difficult than horror game standards. That is, until you get to the platforming levels (nightmare sequences), and all gameplay praise will be thrown out the window.

Not only will you be platforming through a first-person perspective like one of those Minecraft brainrot videos, but you won’t have much of a guide to follow. Even then, you’re going to fall off the guide to your death multiple times, rendering it practically useless in the long run.

The difficulty during combat is one thing, but it’s another when you have to sprint-jump through multiple turns and corners over and over again until you make it to the other side. It’s a nightmare sequence that feels genuinely nightmarish, but not due to any of the fear factor. Instead, the levels are the culprits behind the worst difficulty curves.

The fights here are difficult, yes, but the platforming ended up making the game outright enraging.

9 Darkwood

One Mistake Costs Your Life

Let me hand you some basic tools and then send you out into the hostile wilderness at nighttime with only one objective: survival. Obviously, that’s going to be a tough prospect — and that’s before monsters get involved.

In Darkwood, you have to stay alive in harsh, unforgiving conditions, forcing you to be smart with your inventory and resources. One wrong move could get you lost, one mismanagement could cost your life. All the while, everything that goes bump in the night is crawling out of the woodworks to come for you.

It seems simple on the surface, but you have to be cautious in every step you take and with every resource you use up. You don’t know when you’ll run into it again, if at all, so each choice and action has to be deliberate and carefully planned.

There’s no way to approach this game without a strategy in mind; going into the game blind is potentially the worst thing you could do for your playthrough, just as going into the forest unprepared would be the worst choice you could make while camping.

8 Silent Hill 4: The Room

Ghosts … Why Did it Have to be Ghosts?

The Silent Hill franchise as a whole is known for being pretty ruthless when it comes to puzzles and monsters — yet none are anywhere near as difficult as Silent Hill 4: The Room. While Silent Hill 3 had the hardest puzzles, every other “most difficult” trophy belongs to The Room, especially once Eileen gets involved in the mix.

Not only do you have to keep her alive, but you have to keep her undamaged if you want her to walk slowly during the ending, which is the only way to keep her alive. On paper, this doesn’t sound too difficult, until you begin to experience these monsters firsthand.

Plus, as you’re going back through certain areas, you end up being chased by Ghosts, a different enemy type that literally cannot be killed. At most, they can be slowed down with a sword, but if you’re needing that sword to get around somewhere else, you’re going to have to deal with avoiding all other Ghosts until you can take the sword there.

Without a doubt, Silent Hill 4 ended up taking home the cake as the most difficult game in the franchise, and you can thank the monsters (or even just the Ghosts) for being 99 percent of the reason behind that.

7 Pathologic 2

Will You Join the Mass Grave?

Racing against the clock isn’t a new mechanic in video games, but Pathologic 2 (which plays almost the same as the first game) has you racing against time … and yourself.

You’re working to find a cure to a plague that’s been devastating your town, all while managing your needs and keeping yourself healthy. That is, unless you become infected as well; Then you have to hurry up to discover the cure or else you’ll end up joining the other bodies in a mass grave.

The difficulty in this game comes from the sheer amount of multi-management you have to do. Sure, there are your needs and the towns’ needs that must be taken care of, but there are still enemies in the game that are actively hostile to you and threaten your chances of succeeding.

Basically, you have to be faster than the Grim Reaper, and that’s where the real challenge lies.

6 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

An Absolute Terror

I used to think all the Resident Evil games were easy — I literally grew up playing the games over and over again since I was seven, after all. It couldn’t have been too difficult if a child could handle it. That was my belief until I played Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Not only does this game fully dive right back into its survival horror roots, they up the ante by raising the overall difficulty. The Bakers are absolutely ruthless in their pursuit, with each encounter leaving you more banged up than the last. It’s a genuinely terrifying game, but it’s also difficult from the very start.

Normally, resource management has always been easy in this franchise, but this is the game that really makes you think about if you should just run instead of wasting any ammo. This doesn’t even consider unique puzzles that have definitely taken inspiration from the Silent Hill franchise in how convoluted they can get.

This game not only brought Resident Evil back to its roots, but gave it a solid challenge when it was otherwise mostly nonexistent.

5 The Evil Within

All Chapters Are Brutal

The first Evil Within game is not only the scariest of the two titles, but it’s also significantly harder. Each chapter is more brutal than the last, and this isn’t even considering if you’re playing the game in Akumu mode.

Every single thing in this game is hostile to you, including the puzzles you have to solve; you read that correctly, the puzzles hurt you if you don’t answer the riddle correctly.

The Evil Within is a game where you genuinely feel like you have to earn your right to survive. You go through all kinds of nightmares and monsters to make it through the other side, but you’re not going to get there in fewer than ten tries. It’s almost deceiving in that regard.

To this day, it’s still one of the most difficult horror games to platinum, if that provides any indication.

4 Visage

Just a Crumb of a Hint, I’m Begging

Visage is deceptively difficult – going in, it seems like just another walking simulator, that is, until you’re faced with the most head-scratching puzzles that are nearly impossible to figure out.

The thing is, I don’t mind puzzles, but for a good puzzle to work, there has got to be some context. Visage doesn’t give you any, instead just throwing you into the game and expecting you to just figure it out. No hints, no suggestions, nothing.

Because of this, it’s not uncommon to see players aimlessly wandering around in the game until they go mad trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the walkthroughs for Visage were some of the most viewed in the horror genre.

Either way, you’re going to be left stumped for a long while, until you either finally figure something out or you just give in and head to Google.

3 Alien: Isolation

The Xenomorph is an Apex Predator

The best part about the challenge that Alien: Isolation provides to players isn’t from any clunky gameplay or overly obtuse puzzles. Instead, you’re running away from a Xenomorph, with quite literally the smartest A.I. in horror gaming – perhaps even gaming as a whole.

The Xenomorph learns based on your gameplay, forcing you to get creative in how you navigate the ship without being caught and killed. This game doesn’t hesitate to punish predictable gameplay, either, so it’s not like you have much of a choice.

With this in mind, you have to keep this up for nearly 20 hours, with an A.I. that’s constantly learning from you. There’s no way that this will be done easily, unless you’ve already beaten the game before.

Even then, you’re still in for a tough time.

2 Bloodborne

A Horror Souls Game? Time to Cry (and Die)

Before there are any objections: I’m well aware that Bloodborne isn’t officially tagged as a survival horror game. But let’s face it: it is one, just with a Lovecraftian twist to things.

And of course, since Bloodborne is an official FromSoftware-made Soulsborne game, it’s hard as hell. Plus, if you die, you just have to do it all over again with even fewer resources. It’s the perfect recipe to make you bang your head against the wall.

Players are going to be struggling throughout this game from start to finish. Each boss and even basic enemies are going to prove a challenge, making it impossible to beat without fighting tooth and nail for it.

That is, unless you’re my fiancé who has somehow beaten the game dozens of times. Maybe they just really vibe with European folklore.

1 Siren

Easily the Hardest

Ask any survival horror fan what the hardest game in the genre they’ve ever played is, and nine times out of ten, the answer is going to be Siren (or Forbidden Siren, depending on the region that player is in). Made by the same director as the first Silent Hill game, Siren ends up carrying a lot of those same vibes (and confusion).

Not only do you have to work around classic tank controls that are notoriously difficult, but you’re also going to be dealing with some incredibly tough enemies and puzzles you don’t know where to even begin with.

Even Sight Jacking, one of the coolest mechanics in a horror game, has a learning curve to it in order to work well in the game. To put it in simple terms: the game is very hard. Even in modern ports of the game, you’re going to run into a couple walls, to put it lightly.

Siren takes the survival horror genre by the scruff and asks, “How can I make this experience harder for players?” and then takes every answer to heart.