16 Horror Video Games You Must Play Before Halloween

4. System Shock 2

Although fans of bigger budgets or more modern production value will point to the likes of the Bioshock series as the best work creative director Ken Levine ever put out, it was with the nightmarish-space thriller System Shock that it all began. By throwing you onto a mysterious ship and pioneering the idea of locking away key story elements into audio diaries, you'll frantically be trying to listen whilst taking on any number of alien menaces, and there's also the omnipotent SHODAN A.I. that'll make your life a living hell in the process. The idea of a computer trying to outfox its human creators is something that goes as far back as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and although System Shock didn't receive the PR push it needed to become a widely-known classic, its meticulously-crafted mix of sci-fi horror and adventure tropes makes it exactly that upon reflection.