Gaming
With horror video games becoming a major part of the gaming world, we’re counting down some of the ones that have incorporated actual horrific locations and/or events that have occurred into their virtual realms to make the gaming experience a bit (or a lot) more terrifying!
So stick around and read through our countdown of games that will ensure heart-pounding jump scares and full-body chills.
#5 Kholat (Inspired By The Dyatlov Pass Incident)
This eerie game, released on Steam back in 2015, is based in Russia on the Ural Mountain and draws inspiration from the 1959 Dyatlov Pass tragedy that happened at the same location. The incident involved the disappearance of 9 students from the Ural institute and were never found since. If that isn’t creepy, we don’t know what is!
#4 The Town Of Light (Based On The Volterra Psychiatric Asylum)
Another great horror game choice is The Town of Light which sonically and visually might give you the heebie jeebies. The story follows the tragedies of the patients of the Volterra Psychiatric Asylum, who had faced getting poisoned or electrocuted as part of their treatments.
Ambient sounds of little ghostly children and disembodied dark noises add more intensity to this 2017 video game, aligned with some freakishly accurate visuals of the real-life asylum, which ran in the 50s and 60s and catered to more than 5,000 patients.
#3 RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE (BASED ON PELES CASTLE)
A relatively new release makes it to our top 5 list with the 2021 video game “Resident Evil Village”.
As all of us know, the franchise is about surviving zombies, but what some of the video game’s fans might not know is that the 2021 installment references a real-life location: the Peles Castle in Transylvania. Fans from nearby areas have traveled to the castle just to take pictures at this iconic chilling venue. Would you travel to check out the Peles Castle just for its reference in a game?
#2 SILENT HILL (INSPIRED BY CENTRALIA, PENNSYLVANIA)
Silent Hill is never a pleasant place, nor an easy video game. It’s always been famous for its jump scares and spine-chilling experience, and with a new real-life location reference comes a new territory of fear! The inspiration is Centralia, in Pennsylvania. The tragedy that took place in this small town was of a fire breaking out at one of its mines. The people couldn’t contain it and the vicious fire led to multiple sinkholes which, in turn, resulted in the town’s population plummeting to a dismal “0”. And if that doesn’t make you feel a little bit nervous of the game, then we’re sure the next section will do the trick.
#1 CHERNOBYLITE (BASED ON THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER)
A lot of video games have been inspired by the infamous Chernobyl disaster and this 2019 game is no different. “Chernobylite” is the latest video game that focuses on a sci-fi survival gaming mode in order to run to a safer zone.
The game might not be considered a “horror game” per se, but as most if not all of us are familiar with the resulting tragedy of the 1986 disaster that rippled throughout time and into the present, we definitely think it deserves the number one spot on our list.
Do you know other horror video games with “real life” locations and/or events? Let us know in the comments on our socials.