10 Unsettling Horror Games With TERRIFYING Sound Design

In horror, sound design in an intrinsic component in generating the overall fear factor. If you've ever found yourself covering your ears or preemptively lowering the volume whilst watching a scary film, you'll already be aware of just how affecting sound can be. Whether it's a soundtrack that drenches the experience in atmospheric tension, the squelching foley of gore, or the hundreds of other touches that are used to send a shiver down our spines, the sounds of horror are engineered to terrify.

Likewise, horror video games deploy similar tactics with their sound design to make them as scary to play as possible. Unlike cinema, though, sound design in games can be a lot more effective as players are immersed in and interacting with the gameworld via the game character instead of watching actors on a screen.

Some games are a lot more successful at this than others. And when a horror game gets its soundscape right, the thought of even moving forward into that darkened corridor can be an unbearable one.

Ranging from subtle warning systems to all-out sonic atmospheres of suffocating dread, here are the video games that made sound scary.

Winning numerous awards and frequently topping plenty scariest games of all time lists, Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation is a masterclass in crafting survival horror.

Playing as Amanda Ripley (the daughter of Alien's Ellen Ripley), Isolation sees players make their way through the gore-splattered Savastopol space station while being continuously and ruthlessly hunted by a Xenomorph.

In addition to the clever AI driving the alien alongside the claustrophobic level design, a major part of what makes this game so nerve-racking is its sound design that keeps players on constant alert. While being pursued, the small sounds of clanging pipes and the grinding noise of a vent opening could all be a sign that the titular alien is lurking nearby. However, it's the electronic beeping of the motion detector that will have your heart pounding the most.

A device used to help players locate the alien, this clunky piece of technology will emit a beeping noise every time it detects something moving nearby. As the dot gets closer, the heartbeat-style beeping gets more intense (a common horror trick). Hearing this noise is a sign that it's time to hide. But, in a cruel trick, it could all just be a false alarm.