The best ghost games 2023
What are the best ghost games? We can all agree that ghost games are better played together, right? That way, you can work together with your pals online and if things go south, sacrifice them and run away to safety.
However, some ghost games like Phasmophobia, aren’t just about spirits, they can also be detective games and survival games, so it begs the question – are there other ghost games like Phasmophobia? There’s a lot to love in this horror game, whether that’s the online co-op, the old-school investigative work, or the increasingly angry ghosts who don’t want you messing with their haunt.
Here are the best ghost games on PC:
Phasmophobia
Pacify
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Midnight Ghost Hunt
The Blackout Club
GTFO
Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor
Dead by Daylight
Man of Medan
Friday the 13th
Hunt: Showdown
Ghost games: Preparing to leave the command station in PhasmophobiaPhasmophobia
If you’ve always loved paranormal investigation shows and movies then Phasmophobia is probably your best bet at experiencing the thrill of ghost-hunting first-hand. There’s a range of spirits and ghosts to produce evidence for and each one requires a totally distinct approach from your multiplayer crew of investigators. Be warned though, this is a very scary game, so if you’re not great with jumpscares then you may want to avoid it. We do have some guides on the various Phasmophobia ghost types and spirit box commands to help you get started.
Best ghost games: dark room, creepy girl standing in the corner, creeiper doll standing on a table.Pacify
The premise of Pacify is very similar to Phasmophobia. You’re working for the PAH Inc. (Paranormal Activity Helpers) and it’s your job to enter the haunted house and bring back evidence to the company. It’s definitely not as twee as Phasmophobia, doubling down on the jumpscares, and focusing on outright horror rather than paranormal investigation.
You can, however, play online with friends and inspect the house together, either working together or turning on each other to escape alive. You need to collect a series of key items, pacify the ghost, and ultimately cleanse the building of the ghostly presence so you can be on your way. The ghost switches temperaments constantly and reacts to your progress, similar to Phasmophobia’s sanity levels and hunt mode, progressively getting smarter and faster as the game continues. The key difference between the two, however, is that Pacify is a relatively short endeavor that can be completed in a couple of hours, with little reason to revisit it – and that’s fine given it only costs a few bucks.
Ghost games: A slender spirit stands under an umbrella in Ghostwire TokyoGhostwire: Tokyo
Playing as Akito, you ally with a powerful spectral entity to uncover the dark truth behind the sudden disappearance of Tokyo’s population, and the replacement of ordinary people with terrifying, deadly, and occasionally playful spirits. To do this, you explore an incredibly detailed recreation of Tokyo’s Shibuya shopping district using light parkour abilities and your own suite of supernatural powers, take on the area’s hostile ghosts, and work with the friendly ones to learn more about what happened.
It might fall prey to some of the more rote elements of open-world game design, but Ghostwire: Tokyo more than makes up for it with its spectacular art direction and unique combat mechanics. So if you can deal with repetitive side missions and scaling buildings to uncover new landmarks, then there’s a big, warm beating heart here, and a rarely told story about metropolitan isolation and uncanny modernity. Check out our Ghostwire: Tokyo review for our complete verdict.
Midnight Ghost Hunt
Prop hunt has made its way into countless multiplayer games as a side amusement, but Midnight Ghost Hunt expands the simplistic mode into a complete game, dressing the player-controlled props up as possessed objects.
You play as either a Hunter, who can use a range of specter-scanning devices to find and eliminate poltergeists, or a Ghost, who can hide inside ordinary pieces of furniture or detritus and launch attacks when hunters aren’t watching. Hunters only have a limited amount of time to work with though, as when the clock strikes midnight the Ghosts become more powerful and it’s up to the Hunters to seek cover. It’s still in early access, but Midnight Ghost Hunt is already a ton of fun and is set to improve over the coming months.
Best ghost games: dark cave with an eerie red light coming fron an opening on the right side.The Blackout Club
The Blackout Club’s stealthy suburban teamwork falls somewhere between Deus Ex and Stranger Things, combining a Stephen King novel’s worth of plucky 80’s teen tropes with the reactive inventory of a classic immersive sim.
Missions involve tracking down objectives throughout the twilight streets and eldritch complex beneath, and getting out of Dodge before the team is kidnapped by sleepwalking suburbanite soccer moms and a terrifying entity known only as ‘The Shape’. Commit too many ‘sins’ – being seen, trespassing, breaking things – and The Shape will relentlessly hunt the offending player down.
It’s equal parts campy and genuinely terrifying and inspires some real camaraderie when you need to rescue each other, even when matchmaking with strangers. There’s also some great lore and backstory to the horrors plaguing the town, parcelled out gradually through environmental cues and other secrets. If you’re looking for team-oriented social horror like Phasmophobia then The Blackout Club is your best bet.
Best ghost games: a hectic scene, several soldiers fight off aliens with high-powered assault rifles.GTFO
GTFO certainly captures the claustrophobia and tension that Phasmophobia delivers so well, as you and up to three friends explore a terrifying web of compact corridors trying to evade and survive prowling monsters. If this sounds at all like the hordes of xenomorphs that harangue the protagonists of Aliens then that’s because this is almost exactly what GTFO is like – in a good way. You’ll need to be patient and determined when working with your pals to make it out alive.
Unlike in Phasmophobia, you’re not powerless. Instead, you have an array of monster-slaying guns and melee weapons to equip, so no more flailing around in the dark with a crucifix. Communicating efficiently with your team is key to survival as you’re plunged down into the horrifying depths to do your captor’s dirty work, but by completing missions and delivering loot, you get to do it all over again – lucky you.
This is definitely a lot more action-oriented than Phasmophobia, but it’s one of the best co-op horror first-person shooters since Left 4 Dead 2, so it’s worth checking out.
Best ghost games: a bloated-looking man holding a hammer stands in a dark room, lit only by a small flashlight.Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor
For those that have played the kitschy indie horror, Hello Neighbor, with its frankly terrifying mustachioed villain – you can now team up with friends online to infiltrate Mr Petersons’ house as a group of kids.
Although this game is ghoul-free, it isn’t without its scares and what makes it most like Phasmophobia is the teamwork and investigative skills you undertake. You need to solve puzzles and progress to different areas by finding keys, and working towards the locked basement where your friend is being held captive. Each kid has special skills and abilities such as Leadership, who has a blinding ability, and Brave, who is able to escape the neighbor’s grip.
Okay, so you’re not all in this together, as one of the players is working with the neighbor, disguised as a kid with their own special skills and the objective to make sure your ‘teammates’ don’t succeed. But, even without the ghosts, the Halloween-themed house complete with stretched cobwebs and dark corners makes this eerie game of cat and mouse a sufficiently spoopy ride.
Dead by Daylight
Dead by Daylight isn’t necessarily a ghost game – it really depends on the killers you’re up against. In this asymmetric multiplayer horror game, you either take on the role of a killer or one of a group of survivors, the latter working against the clock to get generators up and running before they can exit the map, while the former hunts them down and offers them up to an almighty Entity.
What makes Dead by Daylight so special in the multiplayer horror genre is its expansive roster of 20 playable killers, each one offering a distinct playing style. Every horror trope imaginable is present on the roster of Dead by Daylight killers, and for ghost games fans there are several malevolent spirits to choose from.
Horror aficionados will no doubt get a kick out of the several official movie tie-ins, allowing you to slay Michael Myers, Freddie Kruger, Leatherface, Ghost Face, and many more. Dead by Daylight has a surprisingly high skill ceiling and a constantly evolving meta, but it’s well worth sticking with.
Best ghost games: a group of young adults sit on the edge of a dock in the night.Man of Medan
Man of Medan is filled to the gills with ghosties and delivers jumpscares and sweat-inducing action sequences that will leave you shivering in a corner. Your aim is to get all five of your characters out alive. Easy, eh? Well, when you’re sailing out to rough seas and you’re stranded on a ghost ship, nothing but the wind howling through the creaky cabin doors and the unknown lurking below, it’s not actually that easy.
Expect to make a lot of poor, anxiety-induced decisions as you stumble around the haunted ship, desperately trying to get action cues right to keep a character alive, not realizing that you’re actually steering them toward certain death. All your actions and choices reverberate through Man of Medan’s confined setting, so one seemingly insignificant choice you make early on might come back to bite you hours later, exposing your deepest darkest fears in the process. You can play it solo, but if your favorite thing about Phasmophobia is the co-op multiplayer thrills, you can enjoy them here in online two-player co-op, or with up to five of you in couch play.
Best ghost games: a dark scene, someone repairs a piece of machinery, lit only by a small red light.Friday the 13th
We came for the memes but we stayed for Jason. This asymmetric online multiplayer game requires you to sharpen your survival skills to take on and run away from the one and only Jason Voorhees. True to the films, the game takes place on an isolated campsite, where a group of teens and counselors are hanging out for the summer. Naturally, those teens come under attack from Jason, so it’s up to your team to work together and escape the haunted campsite with as few casualties as possible. If teamwork isn’t your cup of the proverbial, then you’ll be thrilled to hear that you can play as the Crystal Lake Killer instead.
Friday the 13th definitely has its bugs and quirks – but much like the slasher subgenre, it’s silly horror at its finest. You’re placed in a lobby of eight or can team up with friends online, all playing as teen counselors with an array of abilities and unique skills depending on the character.
You can collect weapons and strategize, teaming up with other players to ambush Jason, or pool together and batter the brute with saucepans if one of your group is grabbed. Friday the 13th is at its best and most horrifying when you find yourself running along a dirt road in the dark, knowing Jason is out there somewhere, watching, waiting to strike. Like Phasmophobia, there’s true horror here, but the emphasis is definitely on teamwork.
Best ghost games: a hand holding a revolver, another human wearing a cloak takes aim at a being standing about 20 meters away on a dock.Hunt: Showdown
This is a bit of a stretch, as it doesn’t exactly have ghosts, but this game sits in a genreless state, flinging horror, action, and PvP at us like a rabid ghoul. In the deep dark, misty depths of the Louisiana bayou, between rundown barns and abandoned factories, your online bounty-hunting duo sets out to slay monsters and extract as much money as possible.
Initially, it seems like your average, run-of-the-mill, online multiplayer shootout, but as you tread further into the dark corners of the map, there are plenty of other nasties aside from other people to take on, like zombies, mutated spiders, and fully fledged monsters that also want you dead. No investigative skills are required, instead, grab a gun, hunt for resources, and weather it out.
