Hell opened its doors on October 8. Four days later, the rest of the month is lining up behind it.
October is the one month where horror gets a proper release calendar instead of a scattered handful of indies. This year we have a Cenobite-filled licensed shooter, a Napoleon soulslike, a Lynchian Metroidvania and the final chapter of a stealth series that refuses to die. Some of it is already out and reviewed. Some of it isn’t, so I’ll be upfront about which is which.
Everything below comes from published announcements, previews and reviews. Where nobody has reviewed a game yet, I say so.
Already out: three games, three very different moods
End of Abyss (October 1). This one flew in quietly. Section 9 Interactive’s sci-fi horror game launched on PC through the Epic Games Store, plus PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, for $29.99. You play Cel, a combat technician poking around a vast facility with a scanner and a pistol.
Critics split on whether it’s actually scary. Shacknews gave it an 8 and called it a tight, well-paced debut with great sound design. The Outerhaven liked the art direction but said the horror felt “lightly sprinkled on top,” and it flagged bugs that halted progress. Pick your reviewer.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival (October 8). Saber Interactive’s first-person horror game puts you in the shoes of Aidan, who cracks open the Genesis Configuration to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from the Labyrinth. Doug Bradley is back as Pinhead. It runs on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S for $39.99.
Launch reviews are all over the map. Scores run from a 9 down to a 4.5. Metacritic sits at 69 on PS5 and 74 on PC and Xbox, based on early numbers. Reviewers agree on the good stuff: the visuals, the sound, the body horror and the way it respects the source material. They also agree on the bad stuff. Dread Central called out slow Labyrinth chases, bloated enemy health pools, melee weapons that break fast and audio that cut out in boss fights.
That’s a faithful adaptation with rough edges. For a first-ever Hellraiser game, I’ll take it, but I wouldn’t pay full price blind.
Silver Pines (October 8). Swedish studio Wych Elm and publisher Team17 built a hand-painted, rotoscoped survival horror Metroidvania set in a 1990s small town. You’re private investigator Red Walker, and a mysterious call told you to “Find Eddie Velvet.” Fangoria pitched it to fans of David Lynch and Silent Hill.
It hit PC, PS5, Xbox Series and Switch, and it passed 300,000 wishlists before launch. I haven’t found a batch of full reviews yet. A Steam demo exists if you want to test the weirdness first.
October 13: Valor Mortis wants you to die. A lot.
One More Level made Ghostrunner. Now the Polish studio is trading neon katanas for a cutlass and a flintlock pistol. Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike set in an alternate 19th-century Europe, where Napoleon’s endless war has spawned a supernatural plague. You’re William, a British soldier in the Grande Armée whom Napoleon himself resurrected.
Vincent Cassel plays Napoleon, and the trailer has him asking what you’d sacrifice for power. Combat leans on stamina, parries and dodges. Ammo is scarce. Die, and you lose your Catalysts at the spot where you fell, because of course you do.
It launches October 13 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S at $39.99. PlayNews reports it hits Xbox Game Pass on day one, citing the official account. The game slid from September 24 to dodge a crowded release window. A Steam demo with two chapters is live now.
Is it horror? GamesRadar tags it as a game with “elements of horror and the supernatural” rather than a pure horror release. Fair. Undead soldiers and a plague still qualify as dread in my book.
October 14: Nowhere is the one I’d watch
Midnight Forge’s Nowhere is a detective horror game with Norse myth in its bones. You investigate what happened to missing researchers, piecing the story together from notes, polaroids, a journal and a bulletin board. GamesRadar lists it for PC.
CGM got hands-on with a preview build, and the writer sounded rattled. They praised the fog, the low light and the sound design, and said the game made them feel “like you aren’t alone in the forest.” The monster stays mostly out of sight. There’s no map and no trail marker.
The preview’s one real complaint: walking is slow. That’s a design choice, and it might grate over a full campaign. We’ll find out on release.
October 16: the pixel-and-VHS pileup
Friday the 16th is stacked, and the timing feels deliberate.
Tenebris Somnia comes from Saibot Studios and publisher New Blood Interactive. It’s a 2D, 90s-style pixel survival horror game in the Resident Evil and Silent Hill mold. You play Julia, a young Argentine woman trapped in a nightmare of monsters. Then the pixels vanish and the cutscenes go live-action. Director Andrés Borghi has visual effects credits on When Evil Lurks, and Faith creator Airdorf is executive producer. GamesRadar lists it at $24.99. Engadget says it’s coming to PC and consoles, including Switch and Switch 2.
Dreadline Express is a PC “metroidbrainia” on a spooky train, where a card mechanic lets you keep or discard pieces of the story. It’s a solo-developer project by David Konecny, and I’m curious how those cards work in practice.
October 21: Stupid Never Dies, and it isn’t scary
I’m including it because GamesRadar did, and then said it plainly: it’s not especially frightening. Stupid Never Dies is a colorful zombie action RPG from GPTRACK50 where you absorb enemy abilities. It lands on PC and PS5.
If you want zombies without the sweaty palms, here you go. Everyone else can skip ahead.
October 27: Remothered closes the book
Stormind Games ends its trilogy with Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy. Thirteen months after six girls vanish in Sicily, a recording suggests Susan’s daughter is still alive. Susan goes back to a decaying noble residence on Mount Etna. Expect third-person stealth, stalkers you hide from and the occasional chance to fight back.
The new hook is hypnosis. Susan can read objects to reveal memories and hidden paths. Cissy Jones and Maggie Robertson provide voices, and Akira Yamaoka, the Silent Hill composer, wrote the soundtrack. The game passed 100,000 Steam wishlists.
It lands October 27 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2, just days before Halloween. Stormind announced the date in August with a release trailer.
One more thing: Neverway’s demo
Coldblood Inc.’s Neverway mixes top-down farming with horror. You play Fiona, who becomes the immortal herald of a dead god. A free prologue demo is due in October. The full game arrives in 2027, per ComicBook.com.
The calendar
| Date | Game | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | End of Abyss | PC (Epic), PS5, Xbox Series |
| Oct 8 | Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival | PC, PS5, Xbox Series |
| Oct 8 | Silver Pines | PC, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch |
| Oct 13 | Valor Mortis | PC, PS5, Xbox Series |
| Oct 14 | Nowhere | PC |
| Oct 16 | Tenebris Somnia | PC and consoles |
| Oct 16 | Dreadline Express | PC |
| Oct 21 | Stupid Never Dies | PC, PS5 |
| Oct 27 | Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy | PC, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 |
Silent Hill: Townfall dropped September 24, just before the window. It’s Screen Burn’s first-person take on the series, set on a Scottish island, and its Steam reception currently reads Mixed.
