Despite substantial strides in the last decade, Apple products haven’t always been synonymous with gaming. While PC and Linux will always retain their chokehold on the medium, the number of horror games available on Mac computers has increased tenfold.
So, to spread more awareness about quality horror experiences that do not require extensive graphical and processing capabilities to run, here are five Mac-friendly horror games you can’t afford to miss.
Note: Please always consult your computer’s system specifications before purchasing games.
Dredge
Dredge is about as tranquil as a Lovecraftian-inspired fishing simulator could be, but that doesn’t make it any less of a must-play horror-adjacent experience. Tasked with operating a fishing vessel, the player’s time is spent exploring and angling the high seas of the Marrows. Various eccentric seafaring islanders will offer jobs in exchange for currency that can be used to upgrade the player’s boat’s performance and tools of the trade to make them more efficient fishermen.
So, where exactly is the horror in this calming and melodic fishing game? Why, in the denizens of the deep, players will be catching and fleeing.
As with real life, the freaks come out at night (complimentary). While most fish caught during the day reflect real marine organisms, things mutate at night. There is an increased chance of catching aquatic life with grotesque mutations, such as bulbous eyes, additional appendages, and even q strange luminescent glow. Then, there are the gargantuan aquatic guardians of the sea that patrol The Marrow, looking to make the player’s vessel their next tasty meal.
While Dredge may not keep you up at night, losing a haul of precious cargo is its own type of hellish horror.
Darkest Dungeon
On paper, Darkest Dungeon sounds like a routine dungeon crawler: A party of adventurers explores monster-infested dungeons in search of riches. However, the game’s punishing yet vastly rewarding strategic difficulty and phenomenal artwork by studio co-founder Chris Bourassa make it one of the most prominent and gorgeous horror RPGs ever made.
Darkest Dungeon is all about making the most of continually dire situations. The game’s notorious hardcore difficulty is not a simple case of even the weakest enemies dealing considerable damage (they do) or scarce resources (they are). The difficulty stems from the player having to manage the horrors of the dungeon that prey upon their party’s sanity.
Managing party stress is the meta brunt of the experience, as sanity is yet another stat for the player to watch as it follows party members even once combat has ended. Every harmful action taken against a party member can increase the stress of the entire party. Take on too much stress, and characters take on adverse penalties or afflictions.
Have you ever seen a plague doctor become masochistic? I have.
Darkest Dungeon is an easy recommendation for horror sickos that can stomach failure while learning from it, just be prepared for the punishing embrace of death.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Arguably, my most played game of all time, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, pairs religious allegory world-building with top-down action RPG mechanics steeped in horror. You play as the naked and afraid protagonist, Issac, who descends into the levels of his monster-infested basement to flee his murderous mother’s divine delusions. Various randomly generated dungeons are filled with increasingly bizarre monsters and cryptic loot, each ending with a unique and disgusting boss fight.
In true roguelike fashion, The Binding of Isaac is a horror game that thrives in trial and error, as knowledge is gained from every frequent failure. While the gameplay is simple—dodge enemy projectiles while firing Isaac’s tears in retaliation—the various discoverable loot and equipment lack context, indicating their abilities. The only way to learn how equipment and their inherent attributes affect the player is through experimentation. For instance, the Guillotine, a passive pickup, makes Isaac’s head detach and float above him, increasing his damage output but altering the trajectory of his tears.
After several DLCs containing hundreds of new items, enemies, and environments, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth’s staggering amount of content, paired with its randomly generated environments and sharp item-identifying learning curve, makes this one of the best forever games out there.
World of Horror
Developer Panstasz transports players back to the 90s era of gaming through a lo-fi cosmic horror lens of stomach-churning terror with World of Horror. Heavily inspired by the prolific works of manga artist Junji Ito, World of Horror is a hardcore turn-based RPG in which players solve a variety of hauntings and mysteries plaguing a seaside town. Each mystery, or mission, is tied to specific locations with a unique history and lore, guarded by monsters and a central chilling antagonist.
Much like Darkest Dungeon, players’ enjoyment of World of Horror is primarily based on their capacity for learning from failure. The turn-based and cryptic difficulty of combat can feel confounding. However, there is a method to the madness of World of Horror‘s intricate systems that rewards both experimentation and risk-taking. After all, learning through suffering is what horror is all about.
World of Horror‘s most significant, unique strength is the game’s black-and-white 1-bit art style. Whether you’re confronted with a gore-covered zombified student, deranged cultists, meat horror (??), or a writhing amorphous mass, the intricately detailed and varied monster designs are simply revolting and perfectly utilize the limitations of the Apple II era of design.
Stay Out of the House
Real genre sickos know that developer Puppet Combo is synonymous with lo-fi graphics that evoke 80s and 90s horror films through atmosphere, humor, and a general disregard for decency. Stay Out of the House is the culmination of what makes Puppet Combo’s aesthetic resonate with horror fans while delivering their most ambitious game yet.
The player finds themselves trapped within the homestead of a cannibalistic killer; failure to escape will undoubtedly result in their ending up on the proverbial chopping block.
Immersive sims are a genre seldom found within Horror. The genre thrives on player freedom and the versatility of gameplay mechanics, dropping the player into a sandbox world that encourages experimentation. Stay Out of the House expertly abides by these genre parameters, as the game rarely offers one solution to the end goal of escape. Does the player prioritize their escape over other victims found within the house? Will they sneak through vents and corridors meticulously or take a more offensive approach?
The enemy AI of the butcher is also more dynamic than anything I have experienced in previous Puppet Combo games, adding a new layer of terror to traversing the deranged backwoods world of Stay Out of the House.
Have you played any of these Mac-friendly horror games? Do you have a favorite not mentioned on this list? Let us know on Instagram, Facebook, or Bluesky @DreadCentral!
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