Darkwood (Switch eShop)

Darkwood is, thankfully, rather unlike any other horror game on Switch. Those with a taste for survival games will appreciate the constant pressure to salvage parts and craft new items while a clock ticks down in the background, while those with a love for all things sinister will really appreciate some of the truly disturbing moments. Despite the occasional technical flaw, the result is a purposefully slow experience that rewards multiple playthroughs with a storyline that branches depending on just how far into madness you’re willing to tread.

Amnesia: Collection (Switch eShop)

Despite being a set that includes three entries in the same series, the Amnesia: Collection actually offers three very distinct experiences. The Dark Descent is a milestone for the genre that belies its own mechanical issues by offering some good, old-fashioned scares. Justine is a brief but experimental foray into gruesome puzzle-solving that’s well worth the detour, and A Machine for Pigs takes a more stripped-down approach to the original’s systems, but introduces a much more immersive story as a result. It’s a proper little time capsule that’s perfect for those who’ve already exhausted their fear glands with Outlast and Layers of Fear and want another means to chill their blood on a cold, dark winter night.

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Stories Untold (Switch eShop)

Stories Untold is a chilling adventure that manages to draw us right into its world through the ingenious use of its UI and perfectly realised lo-fi aesthetic. Through the walls of old technology and complicated machinery, it creates a uniquely strong bond between player and narrative, giving you a real sense of place within its world as it slowly corrupts and twists from the comfortingly familiar to something else entirely. It's one of the best interactive horror stories we've ever played and a perfect fit for enjoying alone in the dark on Switch.

Mundaun (Switch eShop)

Hurt only by the Switch's take on its visuals, Mundaun delivers above and beyond its appearances and offers a robust, constantly compelling first-person horror game. It's not the scariest game on this list, but it is rich in atmosphere and hosts plenty of gameplay variety and good ideas. Despite combat being discouraged (you can beat the game without really fighting anything), you can upgrade your health, marksmanship and – ooer – sanity, an effect we’re loath to spoil but may seem familiar to fans of Eternal Darkness and Amnesia. The game never compromises its tone or falls foul of gameplay glitches, although as mentioned the visuals aren't quite up to snuff. It's a minor thing, though, as Mundaun should keep your attention from beginning to, well, one or more of its multiple endings.

Alien: Isolation (Switch eShop)

Alien: Isolation is a survival horror masterpiece and straight-up one of the very best horror video games ever released. It's a nerve-wracking affair – a slow, methodical game of cat and mouse against a brilliantly clever recreation of one of cinema's most infamous killers – but if you're up to the task you'll find one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in the genre; a brilliant and beautiful homage to one of the greatest Sci-Fi movies of all time. Feral Interactive has done a stellar job with this Switch port and the excellent motion controls and inclusion of all previously-released DLC only go to sweeten the deal. This is essential stuff for survival horror fans.

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Switch eShop)

Featuring the absolutely terrifying Weeping Angels – best known for the episode “Blink”, to which this game is a direct sequel – Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins is very probably the best Doctor Who game ever made. While you may not put the iconic (and occasionally janky) British sci-fi show in the horror genre, the pervasive influence of the aforementioned villainous statues and some quite frankly excellent writing make this 'found phone' game genuinely frightening in places. Perhaps not enough to make you weep, but certainly sufficient to have you drop your Switch due to a jump scare. Be careful!

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (Switch eShop)

Whether you played this back in 2012, or are completely new to the series, Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season is a masterpiece of video game storytelling. It features some of the best voice-over performances you’ll find on any gaming platform and sets the stage for a grand, multi-season odyssey of tragic proportions. However, this is also a satisfying and poignant collection even if you never play the subsequent episodes. Even if you lost patience with Rick Grimes and TV series adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic books, this remains an incredible interactive adaptation of Kirkman's world of walkers.

Carrion (Switch eShop)

Carrion is a special thing in many ways — a game which puts you in the shoes (or slithering eldritch tentacles) of the game's 'boss' — but its actual meat-and-potatoes structure is as formulaic as the genre gets. Thankfully, its core gameplay of tearing room after room of people into wet chunks of corpse never ever gets old and sustains the experience throughout. It looks superb, sounds great, and is plenty of fun to play, despite some minor issues which just hold Carrion back from the absolute upper echelons of the Switch library. Still, if you're after a horrific Metroidvania with a twist, this one is disgustingly intriguing.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Switch eShop)

There's a lot to like about Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (known as Project Zero in Europe). While we didn't find it overly scary, it is very good indeed at being eerie. You'll see ghosts out of the corner of your eye and when you check, they'll be gone. It's oddly cosy and non-stressful for a horror game, because your camera is such an efficient weapon and the combat it propagates is too action-packed to really let any dread sink in. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though we found the earlier PlayStation 2 instalments of the series were more interested in actively frightening the player. Get absorbed in the storyline — which is easy to do as the episodic structure makes "just one more area" a compelling prospect — and you'll find this game's a real winner and worth snapping up if you're a horror fan who missed it on Wii U.

Dying Light Platinum Edition (Switch)

While there are some undeniable hardware limitations, Dying Light Platinum Edition nonetheless translates the full survival horror experience in all its undead glory to the Switch with impressive results and stands as quite a remarkable achievement. Its ambitious open world full of zombies is unlike anything else in the Switch’s library and, between the core campaign and six years of constant DLC updates, there’s potentially hundreds of hours of enjoyment to be had here. Granted, all of this comes at the cost of performance that can be middling compared to other platforms, but this is neatly balanced out by the convenience of playing in handheld mode. If you like your scares diluted with a healthy dose of open-world action, this is the game for you.