2025 has been a stellar year for horror games.
From the spectacular enemy and sound design in Silent Hill f, to the haunting characters in No, I’m Not a Human, both indie and AAA horror games have thrived this year.
But, of course, there can only be one winner of JumpScared’s highly coveted and prestigious horror game of the year title. We know you’re holding your breath. So, without further ado, the winner is … R.E.P.O.
Game of the Year: R.E.P.O.
Multiplayer horror games have always had a soft spot with us, with Dead by Daylight – despite its ups and downs (which there have been a lot of this year) – always staying in rotation, and The Outlast Trials bringing us back with new updates, such as the recent Season 5.
However, R.E.P.O. took its place as my most played horror game this year, playing both solo and with various groups of friends. I spent countless hours exploring R.E.P.O.’s randomized levels in search of high value items to meet my quotas, and probably destroyed millions of dollars worth of valuables when they fell out the cart because I greedily filled it too high.
Going into R.E.P.O., I was really unsure about the game. Get the pitchforks out, but I’m not afraid to say that I never really got into Lethal Company and found it fairly dull whenever my friend group would hop on together. And when I first saw R.E.P.O., I was worried that it would just be a clone of Lethal Company with nothing new to add. I was ready to write R.E.P.O. off as another ‘friendslop’ game, doomed to be played for a single, awkward session before we all returned to the misery of Dead by Daylight.
Plus, I don’t know if you remember R.E.P.O.’s initial cover art on Steam (which has thankfully been improved now), but I genuinely doubted the quality of the game when I added it to my cart.
However, once we started playing, wow, I really was blown away with how fun R.E.P.O. was. What sets R.E.P.O. apart from other Lethal Company “clones” (and for the record, R.E.P.O. is most certainly not a clone) is the physics system, which creates an infinite number of hilarious moments and makes the game super replayable. The amount of chaos that this creates is just ingenious, and the way that all the items, players, enemies and environments interact with each other is just the cherry on top. It’s no wonder that R.E.P.O. became so viral online, as it’s almost difficult to not create a hilarious moment when playing, especially in a group.
R.E.P.O. is so good because the developers have loosened the restraints and leaned into the chaos. Adding in weapons which can accidentally destroy the high-value items that you’re trying to collect, or enemies that can knock into you and plunge you down a pit of death, is just the devs’ way of leaning into this fun. In many ways, it reminds me a lot of one of my all time favorite games – Spelunky 2 – because despite how careful you are, there’s always something random that can pop out of nowhere and ruin your day. And I love it.
I mean, what’s a better example of the devs wanting the players to have fun than a mini-game that immediately follows your failed run, where you get to fight your friends to the death in a battle royale-style arena?
And it’s not all chaos and flying carts.
I think R.E.P.O. does an excellent job at maintaining the horror amongst the randomness. The sheer tension that creeps in when you realize all your friends have been brutally killed, and you, the sole survivor, still need to meet the quota and drag their severed heads back to the truck is genuinely anxiety-inducing. Or take the classic moment when you’re yapping to your friends over the comms about how terrible your day was, and then suddenly, BAM, they get blown up by the Huntsman that heard every word you just said. It’s that constant, unpredictable danger (often caused by your own recklessness) that keeps the adrenaline high.
Plus, R.E.P.O. has only gotten better as the year has progressed. The game had an absolutely mega launch, entering into Steam’s top 10 and becoming one of the best selling games of the year. Since then, there’s also a new museum map, the Monster Update – which added 10 new monsters – and an upcoming update next year is going to add vehicles and free cosmetics.
The Runners-Up
So, why have we chosen R.E.P.O. over contenders such as Silent Hill f and No, I’m Not a Human, which were our two other favorite horror games of the year?
Silent Hill f was a really enjoyable experience, with the story and symbolism setting a fantastic example of the level of detail psychological horrors should go into to get investment from its players. The sound and enemy design were also highlights, which I can’t praise enough. However, the combat – which you have to do a lot of – just ended up being repetitive, clunky, and honestly I dreaded whenever I had to do a section of combat against three or four enemies. And since it’s such a large portion of the game, it really held Silent Hill f back from topping my rankings this year.
No, I’m Not a Human also was in the running, with its gorgeous analog visuals, creepy ambiance and complex characters being an absolute stand-out. However, I couldn’t get past some gameplay flaws, in which most of the dialogue that the characters say to you doesn’t actually matter, since whether a character is a visitor or not is up to chance, rather than their suspicious or weird behaviour. I’d have preferred if their dialogue very subtly changed to hint whether they were a visitor or not, rather than it being completely random.
So, what do you think about our choice of Horror Game of the Year? And what’s your personal choice – are you taking R.E.P.O., Silent Hill f, or are you going a different direction with Dying Light: The Beast, FNAF: Secret of the Mimic, Cloverpit or something else?
A Thank You
Thank you for your support at JumpScared! this year. It’s been a crazy year for the team – we underwent a website migration and name change, and completely overhauled our theme. We’ve poured our hearts into the website this year, and we’re going to try even harder next year as well. For those of you who have been with us on the way, we really appreciate your support, and for those of you who have just found us, we hope you stay for the ride and stay tuned!
