Most Resident Evil fans consider Resident Evil 7 the triumphant moment Capcom turned things around with a full-throated embrace of the series' single-player, survival horror roots after the highly divisive turn toward multiplayer action horror with Resident Evil 5 and 6. However, according to former Capcom manager Miguel Corti, there's a direct precursor to the dark period of action-heavy Resident Evil games, and it's actually one of the most beloved games in the entire series.

While Resident Evil: Code Veronica was universally acclaimed when it released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast, its legacy has wavered in the decades since due to what I consider straight-up dated game design that can come across as unnecessarily punishing these days. I'm confident the recently revealed remake will fix most of those problems, but it's safe to say the original release is among the most divisive games in the series, and for Corti, it's single-handedly to blame for what are undoubtedly the most hated Resident Evil games in 5 and 6.

In an exhaustive series of since-deleted Bluesky posts, Corti shared an enormous level of insight into Resident Evil 7's development as well as various tidbits on other games in the series. According to official Capcom materials, Corti joined the studio in 2007 and worked his way up to senior manager, so he's definitely someone who can speak on the series with some authority. In one of his Bluesky posts, he suggested there wouldn't be a Resident Evil 5 and 6 if it weren't for Code Veronica setting the stage first.

"Everyone always mentions the first 3 RE games and they seem to forget about Code Veronica," said Corti. "There is a direct line from CV to RE 5 and 6; CV is the game where the series went off the rails by trying to cram as many locales and plots as a Dreamcast disc could hold." The "real problem" with Code Veronica, in Corti's view, is that "many of the devs consider CV the best of the pre-RE4 titles," even though he "would argue constantly that RE2 is much better."

Is this even a debate? Resident Evil 2 is a universally beloved and iconic pillar of the survival horror genre, while one would be forgiven for calling Code Veronica a cult classic. Corti also points out that Code Veronica's opening cinematic is "a straight-up Die Hard/John Woo pastiche and there's nothing horror about it," which does in retrospect seem to be a tonal setup for Resident Evil 5 and 6. While the rest of the game definitely leans further into traditional survival horror, you wouldn't know it going off the very beginning.

"No shade on CV fans, but seeing how it had a direct, negative development on the franchise means I am pretty biased against it," Corti said. "Take my bias with a grain of salt."

Honestly, this is all water under the bridge for me. Resident Evil 5 and 6 weren't so bad that they permanently stained the franchise. Capcom has been dropping back-to-back survival horror bangers for almost 10 years at this point, and Zach Cregger's awesome Resident Evil movie proves the brand is healthier than ever on the film side, too. I'd say that more than makes up for a couple of so-so action games from 20 years ago, whether or not Code Veronica had anything to do with them.

Resident Evil 7 dev says a lot of the horror game's flaws were "vividly present" during development – "and roundly ignored"

The concept of overwhelming pleasure has always fascinated me. Craving sensation is primal and civilization has built much to better that, from fine dining to VR gaming. This deeply human pursuit is a core part of both Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, and my favorite Warhammer 40,000 faction.

Thrill seekers

Saber Interactive's new horror game explores sensation from the off, beginning with a BDSM-tinged sex scene before introducing the franchise's iconic Hell Priest Pinhead and his cohort of fellow Cenobites, who tear the protagonist's partner Sunny to shreds. The violence is gruesome, but the recipient doesn't seem to object, even if our protagonist Aidan does.

Aidan soon finds himself breaking free from a torture den before arriving at a sex club, both of which belong to a Cenobite-worshipping cult called the Scarlet Church. As our hero is about to leave this world behind, the disembodied voice of Sunny calls out, luring Aidan back in the name of liberating her. Here, I start to see connections to Warhammer 40K.

The Emperor's Children legion are a group of Space Marines – enhanced human beings who are now full-time thrill seekers in the name of the Chaos deity Slaanesh, pursuing pleasure and sensation above all else, and their origins may sound familiar.

The superhuman soldiers found themselves in a temple of hedonism, surrounded by creatures known as the Laer in the throes of ecstasy, when a siren song called to their hearts. Much like Aidan, they responded with violence as a natural instinct, while the whisperer in their ears pulled them further along the pathway to something beyond their comprehension.

Stepping into Hellraiser: Revival's Labyrinth, Aidan could just as easily be one of the Emperor's Children. The otherworldly sights before me are fear-inducing but also alluring. The leather-wrapped enemies that lash out when I interrupt their enjoyment respond just as the Laer might, using violence as both a defense mechanism and conduit to sensation.

Even back in the human realm, the home of Scarlet Church feels ripped from the pages of Warhammer 40,000's grimdark universe. Mutilated corpses hang from ceilings and painted canvases stand proudly upon easels, matching the imagery from the Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim and its Emperor's Children spaceship featuring similar levels of violence and artistry. We even see an apparently high-ranking member of Revival's cult carrying out a sort of surgery on a living person, much like the Emperor's Children character Fabius Bile is infamous for.

It's impossible for me to delve into Hellraiser without thinking of Warhammer. Both the Cenobites and worshippers of Slaanesh represent an obsession that has seen them go beyond the accepted limits of society, and the result is as harrowing as it is intoxicating. I turn the corners of Revival's in-game world with the same cautious curiosity as I do the pages of Fulgrim, enraptured by the sights both stories have to show me.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival review: "Pinhead's return is glorious – this is a true love letter to the original movies"

The CEO of Silent Hill 2 Remake developer Bloober Team has spoken out on his commitment to physical games media as PlayStation pledges to cease disc production by 2028.

"If we are able to produce a [physical] retail version of our games, we would like to make them for as long as possible," Piotr Babieno tells GamesRadar+ in an interview. Joined by Tymon Smektala, Broken Mirror Games' new executive director and former Dying Light franchise director, the duo take a moment to appreciate the roots of their passion for games as the Bloober publishing subsidiary embarks on a journey to discover "the next Kojima" of horror.

"Both me and Piotr, we are from the era where being a gamer meant you are a collector of stuff," Smektala says, gesturing to the room behind him during the video call. "Like, if I could unblur my screen, you would see lots of stuff behind me and I have lots of stuff that's not even in the camera, so this is what gaming is to us. This is the gaming I know, and this is the gaming I expect. And as long as it will be possible, and as long as the big decision makers will allow us to have that, then of course I'll be into that."

The topic came up when asked about Onyx: The Dark Grip, an upcoming horror game developed by Bloober Team and published by its in-house horror subsidiary Broken Mirror Games. It'll be one of the first Switch 2-exclusive third-party horror games ever, and the very first to be built entirely for the console's handheld mode. In the age of DLSS-5 and the worrying encroachment of generative AI in game development, Babieno considers where consoles have left to go.

"We have reached a moment where you can't really do much more in that direction [of visual and auditory fidelity]. Like, okay, the game can have a slightly higher resolution and maybe better lighting and whatever, but will it make it a more engaging game? I don't think so."

Whether players even know or care about these minute changes to the lifelikeness of a game is a question unto itself. "If you even look at the stats, a majority of players are playing on hardware which is five, seven years old, if not older, so they don't even get to experience those high-level settings at all," Babieno muses. "But are they less interested in games because of that? I don't think so.

"I think, especially in the age of AI, it's actually quite interesting to start thinking about other senses." This is one of Onyx's core motivations in being a Switch 2 handheld-only game – it's "putting horror back in your hands" in a physical sense, says Babieno, using the device as a conduit for the game itself as part of the experience. "As humans, we have four other senses, and AI can deliver something for what you see, for what you hear, but why not touch? I think the physical element of gaming will always, always be there."

And what of physical games themselves – discs, cartridges, not just consoles? From a business standpoint, Babieno understands why publishers like Sony are going digital – "we do know how P&L works and that digital distribution is much easier, much cheaper, and will be more profitable for everyone," he says. But, echoing Smektala, there's another side to that coin.

"Collecting games also [made] an emotional connection between the game and me, between the studio which produced the game and me," Babieno says. "This little emotional touch is so important that, I think in some way, we would lose the opportunity of being closer with our fans [without it]. So, if we are able to produce a [physical] retail version of our games, we would like to make them for as long as possible."

Check out the other upcoming Switch 2 game while you wait for Broken Mirror's Onyx: The Dark Grip.

After 13 years on Dying Light, Tymon Smektala is keen to spot the freshest talent in horror as Broken Mirror Games' new executive director – perhaps even "the next Kojima", he says.

"I will feel satisfied and I will feel fulfilled when we will actually find a creator like that," Smektala tells GamesRadar+ in an interview joined by Piotr Babieno, CEO of Silent Hill 2 Remake developer Bloober Team. "I can easily imagine that we will find a creator that – a game creator working on a smaller project, but we would see the strength of the vision there, and with our help, this developer would get bigger, would get better, would get access to our DNA as well, because we have lots of expertise in making horror games. This creator could become the next Kojima, even. Like, why not?"

Those might sound like big words, but Smektala's done it before. He served as franchise director for three of his 13 years working on Dying Light at developer Techland, where the series rose to the ranks of the best zombie games of all time due to its pioneering of day/night time cycles that posed new challenges to open-world survival horror. Plus, the Bloober Team publishing subsidiary is already hard at work on a number of upcoming horror games.

From Saw: Genesis' more involved approach to the asymmetrical multiplayer to Switch 2-exclusive Onyx's focus on "putting fear back into your hands" (in a literal sense), Smektala is excited to continue the search for novel approaches to the big, bad world of horror.

"What we are trying to do is get the next Obsession, the next Backrooms, the next Weapons," he says, citing some of the biggest horror movies of the year – including one dreamed up by a content creator – that offer "A new take on horror, something that adds to the genre and is unique. That's kind of the top-level ambition: to find the next creators of horror gaming that can complete and add to what we are bringing to the table as Broken Mirror."

"It's not just pure entertainment, and it's not just about uniqueness. It's about something behind it all," says Babieno. "The best horrors are, in some way, answering the questions which are arising in society because we are afraid about something. That's why I believe that there are a lot of content creators who are able to touch [upon] horror from different perspectives, and we would like to be there."

Broken Mirror's Onyx: The Dark Grip is an upcoming Switch 2 game that was made for the handheld experience, and there's many more Nintendo-exclusives besides...

Broken Mirror Games is barely a year old, but the Bloober Team publishing division has already managed the once unthinkable. Onyx: The Dark Grip is set to be one of the first Nintendo-exclusive horror games in over a decade, proving that the Nintendo Switch 2 really is a console for all - even us horror hounds.

Sitting down with Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno and Broken Mirror's new executive director Tymon Smektała, I have just one question. How on Earth did they pull off getting a game like this past Nintendo?

Through the fog

Smektała might be new to Broken Mirror, but after 13 years at Techland and having gotten to know him well over his last three as Dying Light franchise director, take it from me: the guy really knows, loves, lives, and breathes his horror. Which means he's keenly aware that Onyx: The Dark Grip being a Switch 2-exclusive, handheld-only experience is a very, very big deal.

"Nintendo doesn't work with just anyone," Smektała says. "Generally, Japanese companies are companies that you have to build trust with, and you have to prove that you are worthy of that trust. The fact that we have managed to convince Nintendo to to support a game like this – to feature it in a Nintendo Direct and allow us to make that game for Nintendo Switch as an exclusive – speaks of the fact that Bloober Team is being noticed and realized and validated as the people to go to when it comes to horror."

He's right on the money. Few studios have pulled off a reputational 180 as well as Bloober Team. The studio had been around for years, but Silent Hill 2 Remake was the catalyst for that success. The gorgeously faithful yet beautifully modernized survival horror was met with staggering praise, impressing even those who balked when Konami first revealed the Polish studio's involvement, to become one of the most important remakes in the genre to-date. For all the studio's slip ups in the past, the proof was there on-screen: Konami was right to trust Bloober Team, and now, so do we all.

But Konami's seal of approval seemed to extend beyond the publisher, bleeding into the Japanese market itself. Onyx: The Dark Grip is to be one of the first third-party Nintendo-exclusive horror games since 2014, hot on the heels of this month's asymmetrical co-op Beyond the Dark: Nightwatch.

Developed by Broken Mirror, published in-house under Bloober Team, and built entirely for the Switch 2's handheld mode, stunning 2.5D psych-horror Onyx casts the player as both a God and the person possessed by it. "The reason we are doing this for Nintendo is because I'm a Nintendo fan," Babieno grins, "so I'm making my dreams come true in some way."

But Sincere as Babieno is about his love for Nintendo systems, I suspect there's more to the deal than that. Smektała reaffirms my hunch when I ask about which horror niches the pair would like to see make a resurgence. Another Broken Mirror game, Saw: Genesis, fulfils one of them – social horror in the vein of Repo and Lethal Company, harnessing "the power of technology, the power of online, the power of connecting people" to deliver "a game experience that will try to play with social interactions." The other element is the interactive experience of a game itself.

"I think it would be very very interesting to find ways to trick the player, make him doubt what he's seeing on screen, make him doubt how he interacts with the device as we do with Onyx: The Dark Grip," says Smektała. "Kind of by accident, the games that we have already announced [at Broken Mirror Games] are doing that already."

Feel the fear

Onyx: The Dark Grip is Broken Mirror's chance to "put horror literally back into players' hands", according to Babieno, reinforcing how integral the hardware itself is to the experience. "I think that breaking the fourth wall is very important because new hardware, new opportunities, are giving us something we didn't have before."

With stricter ratings boards in Japan compared to those in the West and an image built around fun for all ages, Nintendo's relationship with horror games is infamously complicated. There has not been a true third-party Nintendo-exclusive horror game since 2014's Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on the Wii U (until it got remastered onto other platforms). Getting an upcoming horror game like Onyx, even one built so intrinsically around Nintendo hardware, is monumental to say the least.

"It wasn't easy for Nintendo to deal with horror," admits Babieno. But the family friendliness ascribed to Nintendo consoles has, historically, had some wiggle room. "Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 4 were very important to me," Babieno reflects on how instrumental Nintendo consoles have been to horror in the past.

"I would like to bring those amazing times of GameCube back, but in a new way – and I believe that Nintendo fans always like to play something exclusive to them."

Western developer, Eastern sensibilities

But did Bloober Team's success with Konami have a role to play here, too? "Definitely," agrees Babieno, and it's all to do with how Bloober conducts itself as a business.

"For us, it was never a one-shot. It was never that we would like to create a game, and that's it. It's [about] the long run, and so we would like to build not just the next successful title, but a successful and very stable company."

Putting stability and reliability above one-and-done projects speaks to a business mindset that Babieno describes as more of "a Japanese approach than a Western approach," an alignment of values in terms of how Bloober Team grows and sustains its business not around the bottom line, but around a healthy, robust image. Beliefs that Bloober, and Broken Mirror, in turn, share with Japanese companies like Nintendo and Konami.

"We are a publicly traded company, so business is very important," he says. "But I think that even more important is to keep knowledge inside of the company. If we would like to build the company for decades, not just for the next few years, we need to build the DNA of the company and the team.

"So we always are making decisions by thinking, 'okay, are we able to do this without cutting staff in the future?' Because if we need to cut anyone, maybe it doesn't make sense. Maybe we are able to do this in a different way. Maybe we don't need to make this particular title. It's always the question of how it will impact the whole team."

As Smektała and Babieno join forces to chart the future of Bloober and Broken Mirror, the pair exude a comforting confidence. It extends to protecting not only their image and those of the companies they work with, but the people involved in creating the games themselves. "We are not just responsible for those 200, almost 270 people inside of the company, but also their families," says Babieno.

"And I really like what Satoru Iwata said years ago: that if we let go 5% of our team, 95% will live with the fear that it could happen to them in the future. So we are never thinking about how to make our financial parameters a little bit better, but how to create a better future. I think that this is much more important."

Check out all the other upcoming Switch 2 games you need to keep an eye on in 2026 and beyond

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is exactly what the witch doctor ordered this spooky season. It's gory to an extreme, the scent of blood and latex almost palpable as I guide protagonist Aiden Lynch through a kinky pansexual death cult's hideout, into a pulse-pounding BDSM club, before evading The Chatterer in The Labyrinth's chambers of torment. Peppered with nods to survival horror titans and off-kilter Xbox 360 games like Condemned alike, I think our Hellraiser Revival review score is fair: This might not the freshest kill on the chopping block, but it's definitely a delight for genre sickos (and sickos in general, ya sadists). That said, I cannot get on board with its first-person perspective. Like, at all.

I can tell what developer Saber Interactive was gunning for. Much like Silent Hill Townfall, the new game takes notes from the first-person terrors of Resident Evil 7 to create an oppressive, immersive environment that implicates you, The Player, as its main character. However, it doesn't succeed. I think Hellraiser Revival would have been a better third-person action game than a first person one, and it all starts with one simple question.

Who are you?

A smart survival horror game understands the importance of perspective. It's what makes Resident Evil's Ethan Winters such a powerful everyman figure, his face always obscured in gameplay, cutscenes, and promotional materials (until the third-person Resident Evil Village update) to reinforce the notion that who he is doesn't matter as much as what he thinks, feels, and does.

It allowed Capcom to distance us, for a moment, from its emblematic heroes – Leon, Chris, Claire, Jill – whose image had long become synonymous with the survival horror franchise. Even with first-person available in Resident Evil Requiem, playing a first-person game as Leon S. Kennedy feels illegal. I want to see and play as him, not myself, because I am already invested in the character. Ethan's story is no less important than Leon's, but it serves a different purpose.

While the vagaries of Ethan's backstory allow us to imprint ourselves upon his character, Hellraiser Revival's Aiden Lynch has plenty going for him already. We see him in third-person cutscenes right from the jump, catching glimpses of his personal tastes and indulgences (to be SFW about it) before we're dropped into the action from a first-person view. Already, it's discombobulating. Am I supposed to feel like the everyman here, or is Aiden a fully-formed character whose journey, backstory, and personal stakes I'll be exploring?

Four hours in, I can't figure out whether Aiden is a Leon or an Ethan. And, look, I really like the dude. Aiden clawed himself back from addiction and jail stints by finding a new obsession in his girlfriend, Sunny; who am I to judge his new drug-of-choice?

I respect the guy for heading into BDSM hell to save her soul. I am always pro-Wife Guys in video games, and Aiden is no exception. But he's definitely not got the combat chops of either Leon or Ethan going for him – even if one of them is a bioterror vet and the other is literally made of mould.

Fighting chance

To be as blunt as the weapons Aiden wields, melee combat in first-person categorically sucks. It always sucks, in my opinion, with the exception of one-man tank Kyle Crane bashing zombie skulls in with electrified crowbars in Dying Light.

There needs to be a weightiness to it to keep me locked in, and with no way to block attacks or do anything but duck out of the way, getting into brawls as Aiden is perhaps fittingly awkward. Plus, he's stark naked for a good chunk of the opening hour. In his position, I guess I'd be a bit too preoccupied by a cold breeze in the nether regions to worry about my technique.

But I don't want to let Hellraiser Revival off that easy. How much of this airy, weightless fumbling would feel more grounded if it was made with typical third-person combat manoeuvres in mind? How much more like an actual Hellraiser movie would it look if we could see the hero's face for the majority of the journey instead of his blood-slicked palms swinging a machete through thin air? Is trading good combat for a front-row seat to see gore really necessary when this is, first and foremost, a survival horror action game?

I can tell that Saber understands this to an extent. We see quite a lot of Aiden in third-person cutscenes when the cenobites are in play, while others (like the ones in cult HQ) are in first – which makes the inconsistency all the more frustrating. I'd have liked to see Hellraiser commit to one or the other.

Alternatively, it could have gone full Dying Light: The Beast, with a strong visual hero persona built through third-person cinematics while first-person gameplay dials up the immersion. But chopping and changing between the two perspectives feels ultimately confused in Hellraiser, with the purpose of those third-person cutscenes reading as opportunities to show off the cenobites rather than build on Aiden's character.

Maybe such is the way of licensed games. We're here to see Pinhead et al, not necessarily Aiden and Sunny. But in its attempt to align itself with the latest trend in survival horror, Hellraiser Revival misses Resident Evil's most important lesson: some heroes need to be seen to be believed.

Explore some of the best horror games to keep you company this Halloween...

As a massive horror fan, I was on the hunt for Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival Easter Eggs as soon as I loaded up the game. And, to my Cenobite-obsessed delight, I've found 13 references that made me do a double-take while messing about with the Lament Configuration.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is, of course, set in the Hellraiser universe, which has given us some of the best horror movies of all time and is a staple in '80s horror media, period. So of course there were always going to be nods to the iconic franchise for us to dig into here. However, in between my time gushing over Pinhead voice actor Doug Bradley's being in this title and wincing at all the virtual gore on my screen, I was shocked to find obscure nods to other '80s horror movies, the Hellraiser comics getting some love, and even tributes to iconic metal bands as well.

Some of the easter eggs I found are really hidden, and some aren't so cut and dry. I'm sure I may have missed a few as well, so feel free to share any you may have found in the comments below. But for now, here are all the spooky references and easter eggs that are in the new game, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival. Warning: spoilers ahead!

1. Mattress with chains at the beginning of the game

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of moment, at the very start of the game when you enter Hell for the first time, a mattress is quickly thrown in front of you before it is pulled away with chains. Now, this moment is way too much of a curveball not to be a shout-out to the first two Hellraiser movies. Mattresses being like a gateway to hell are massive things in the franchise in general, but seeing one so soon and without context has to be an easter egg in my opinion. In Hellraiser 2 specifically, Julia is resurrected via a mattress (which the game later replicates with Sunny), so that just further cements my thoughts on this one. Is this Julia's mattress? We don't know, but it is definitely a movie nod if ever there was one.

2. A man with wires on his face like the Doctor in Hellraiser 2

When you first escape Bruno, near the place where you get a gun for the first time in the game, in the hallway you will find the dead body of a detective whose death has some very similar characteristics to Dr. Philip Channard's fate when he is taken over by Leviathan in Hellraiser 2. In the movie, before he's turned into a Cenobite, one of the most memorable moments is seeing wires cut into his face. In the game, the dead body has a contraption on his head with wires cutting into his face in the exact same manner. We do see this model used again later in the game, so it isn't limited to this one scene, but it is a clear homage to one of the best practical-effects moments in an '80s movie. It is also one of the only nods to Channard, who personally would have loved all of Bruno's gruesome handiwork.

3. Shopkeeper being an Eremite

When you meet the shopkeeper for the second time, you will find a document next to her that reveals that she is an eremite. Eremites are basically demons who guard all the puzzle boxes that lead to Hell, and they are also beings who try to entice souls into Leviathan's domain. Eremites are half-human, half-Cenobite beings who can look human at first, but their true form tends to be a bit more horrific. We saw that back in the first Hellraiser movie, with the homeless figure turning into a skeletal winged monster to get the Lament Configuration at the end of that film. We did only get a name for these creatures in the Hellraiser comics, though, so this is a nice nod to that side of the franchise as well. I will say that the shopkeeper behaves quite odd for an Eremite since they don't seem to be operating under Leviathan's will, but they do enjoy messing with Aiden's head about his relationship with Sunny and his true desires, so the essence of the original source material is still there.

4. Orno is mentioned

In the same note that reveals that the shopkeeper is an Eremite, we also get mention of the Cenobite Orno. Now, Orno is basically all of the Eremites' parent and is the Cenobite who is tasked with creating new puzzles in Hell. It's a bit complicated, but in order to reproduce with humans and make Eremites, Orno embeds his essence into his "Raw Material", a tortured human husk he uses to create the insides of the puzzle boxes, which he then returns to the real world in order to act as a surrogate to impregnate people with his own Cenobite genes…delightful. Only years later when they've grown does he send them a puzzle box, activating them like sleeper agents. Orno doesn't turn up in the Hellraiser movies and is really only a figure in Epic Comics, but seeing his name pop up is a neat little easter egg for longtime fans of the franchise.

5. Ozzy Osborne's grave

In the graveyard section of the game, after you escape the club, you can stumble upon a gravestone that reads "Here lies our prince of darkness who raised hell then went back to his mother". Under the tombstone, you will see Ozzy's iconic glasses as well as two bat statues, and for some extra flair, candles sporting the iconic Black Sabbath purple color decorate the grave as well. Ozzy Osbourne died in 2025, so seeing this very sweet homage to him in the game was surprisingly touching. Also, a fun fact: Ozzy wrote a song called Hellraiser with Zakk Wylde and Lemmy Kilmister back in the '90s, so he has got ties to the franchise directly. Basically, this is a top-tier tribute and Easter egg, friends.

6. Motörhead's Lemmy's hat

Next to Ozzy's gravestone, you will also see Motörhead bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister's iconic cowboy hat. As I mentioned in the Ozzy Osbourne Easter Egg, Lemmy co-wrote the Hellraiser song. However, Motörhead did do a version of the song for the movie Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth. Lemmy also played poker with Pinhead in that song's music video, and it was directed by Clive Barker too, which is just the cherry on top of the cool horror cake. So yeah, finding a version of Lemmy's hat next to the Ozzy easter egg is very cool, and one I highly suggest all fans keep an eye out for when they are in the graveyard sections of the game.

7. The occult magazine, Damballa

When you return to the club after acquiring the Hell chain ability, you will see a magazine on a chair called Damballa. Now, I will say a lot of books and magazines in this game are just stock assets; however, in the realm of '80s horror movie lore, this find made me do a double take. Damballa is a voodoo spirit that, in the horror movie Child's Play, is the reason why Chucky was able to transfer his soul into a doll. Damballa doesn't have any Hellraiser ties directly, but the game offers an '80s movie mode, and since Hellraiser 2 came out in 1988 (the same year as Child's Play), I'm pretty sure this is a fun easter egg paying homage to horror movies in general of that time. Later on in the game, we see a cabin that looks kind of similar to Evil Dead, and a boat on a lake that may be a Friday the 13th nod, but those are all very vague "could be" references. The Damballa mention is the best case for an '80s horror movie easter egg out of the whole bunch.

8. Cultist note called 'Hell on Earth'

In the game, you will find a note called "Hell on Earth", which discusses the cult's plans to bring the Cenobites to Earth. In the note, the writer does complain that they want to descend into Hell instead of bringing it to Earth, simply because they want to "bathe in Leviathan's shadow". Pretty standard bad guy stuff, but the Easter Egg here lies in the note's name, which is the same as the third Hellraiser movie, Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth. It's not a deep Easter egg that needs lore unpacking to get the most out of it, but it is a fun little nod.

9. Yellow floating balloon

OK, so I will admit that whether this is an easter egg or not is probably a stretch, but considering all the other subtle nods to '80s horror media that isn't purely Hellraiser-related, I do think it is worth highlighting a potential IT reference I found. In the swamp section, when you are approaching the cabin after the graveyard section in the game, you will be able to spot a very out-of-place yellow balloon. If you are a long-time Stephen King fan like myself, then you know that the balloon that Pennywise gives Georgie is actually yellow in the '90s IT miniseries. The red balloon for the IT franchise was only made popular after the recent movies; before then, Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise holding up that yellow balloon in the gutter haunted my nightmares. There are no other IT signifiers in the game, but a random balloon in a swamp is a suspicious choice to include; also, considering we have had a Chucky reference and that IT was written in 1986, this may be another '80s horror homage.

10. All the Steam achievements are references

Almost all the Steam achievements are references to something. Be that Hellraiser quotes spanning from all the movies, other horror movie nods, Resident Evil 4 references, and there is even an achievement named after a line from Lord of the Rings. I'd be here for ages listing them all, so I highly recommend checking them out for yourself. However, I will share some of my personal favorite Easter eggs that I found:

• The achievement "Only Nightmares Last Forever," which is a line from the more obscure and straight-to-video Hellraiser: Deader movie
• The achievement "A waste of good suffering," a classic line from the first Hellraiser movie
• The two achievements "What Are You Selling?" and "What are you buying?" which are nods to the merchant in Resident Evil 4
• The achievement "What's in the Box," which is a line from the iconic thriller movie Seven
• The achievement "No life in the void, only death," which is a line Sauron says during The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The achievement "Burn, oh such a limited imagination," which is a line from Hellraiser 3
• The achievement "Unlimited Power," which is, of course, a reference to the Star Wars line said by Palpatine in Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

11. Blade tentacles from Hellraiser 2

The general aesthetic of the Labyrinth takes cues from all the Hellraiser movies, so there aren't a lot of Easter Eggs to be spotted in Hell. However, in some sections you will encounter hallways filled with tentacles with surgical blades coming out of them, which is very clear Hellraiser 2 imagery. When Channard turns into the Cenobite "the Doctor" in that movie, he sports said tentacles with blades, and it is very specific to his character. While the other Cenobites tend to stick to hooks and chains, these blades do make Channard stand out in the franchise, so seeing the blade tentacles in the game is clearly a nod to that iconic villain. Even though The Doctor perished at the end of Hellraiser 2, it's nice to see that some twisted part of him stuck around in Hell to make it a more terrifying and horrific place…right?

12. Red Dragon painting

In Marlowe's mansion, there is a very clear interpretation of the Red Dragon painting by William Blake. If you are a Silence of the Lambs fan, chances are you know about this painting through the prequel. The 1981 novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris often references the painting directly. In the book, the main villain (who isn't Hannibal but a serial killer nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy") believes that each person he murders will bring him closer to ascending into the red dragon, which is very similar to Marlowe's train of thought, if you ask me. Marlowe's crusade is to kill and mutilate his followers for Leviathan, so that he may eventually walk among the Cenobites. The painting that we see in the game isn't an exact replica of the Red Dragon, but it is very clearly a version of the painting that stood out enough for me to do a double take. Also, thematically, the story of the Red Dragon and Marlowe's own wishes are pretty undeniable. On another note, it's very cool to see another '80s horror nod with this one too.

13. Jesus Wept reference from Hellraiser 1

Probably the most iconic scene and line from the first Hellraiser movie is at the end of said film, where Frank Cotton's body is pulled by Pinhead's chains, and his entire skin is stretched out. In that gruesome moment, he says the line "Jesus Wept". In the game, depending on what choice you make, you will see a scene that is pretty similar to this moment. However, I will say Aiden doesn't say the iconic line and isn't as stretched as Frank is. It isn't an exact one-to-one replica of the scene, but it is a very clear nod toward it that will make film fans crack a smile at the very least.

Next read our Hellraiser: Revival review for more details on this new horror.

Early on in Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, as I try to escape a torture dungeon full of mangled victims with only a plank of wood for protection, a huge man in tough leather stomps towards me, calling me "vanilla" as he shrugs off my hits. In a way, he's not wrong. While the violent adventure protagonist Aiden Lynch is thrust into is filled with extreme gore and upsetting imagery, its core combat is fairly basic. Enemies take hits until eventually keeling over on the spot, and guns I pick up later feel like peashooters.

Then I get my hands back on the Genesis Configuration, the mysterious puzzle box that led to me being kidnapped in the first place (after my girlfriend Sunny is summoned through an impossible gateway in our bedroom mid-coitus), and the whirring mechanism that is Hellraiser: Revival begins to reshape, shift, and slot into place.

Such sights

With Cenobite Hell Priest 'Pinhead' (voiced by original actor Doug Bradley) and his crew's pain-dimension antics serving as an enigmatic third-party, and themes that revolve around the arrogance of humans and boundary pushing without demonizing fetishes, Revival feels true to the spirit of Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart novella, and the original Hellraiser movies. Ditching the direct-to-video sequels that turned the Cenobites into simplistic slasher villains, it's great to see the nuance and complexity of their torturous machinations return. This isn't just a great Hellraiser game, but a great continuation of Hellraiser across any medium.

Even so, there's no escaping it – Hellraiser: Revival is still a horror-themed action game that has to take Aiden through a sequence of bloodsoaked combat rooms. Yet, an increasing number of toys, from propelling flames towards enemies or flinging metal saws across the room to decapitate foes Gravity Gun-style, keep action interesting. There's a Condemned: Criminal Origins-like grottiness and emphasis on melee combat. If an Xbox 360 crackled with the blue electrical energy that marks a Cenobite visitation, this would be the result.

While fights could use more impact, and finisher animations are somewhat limited, there are still moments that impress, whether that's cutting off the limb of a human enemy and having them begin to bleed out before instantly collapsing, or switching to a baseball bat to batter armor away, exposing flesh to damage. Eventual supernatural threats, the shambling Unworthy, even offer Doom-like health restoration if you get close enough to finish them off with your Genesis cube once they're staggered.

Gore in combat is one thing – who hasn't lopped off limbs in a game before? – even if the occasional opportunity to command the Hellraiser series' iconic hook-chains is a novelty. But, Hellraiser: Revival ratchets up to another level in set-dressing and cutscenes. This is undoubtedly one of the most explicit games I've ever played, with scenes ranging from flaying to body-ripping and stomach-churning flesh statues. One primary antagonist has shades of Bioshock's Sander Cohen about him, but here his flesh artistry is truly sickening to observe.

Many moments are direct callbacks to the original Hellraiser movies as well, though arguably have more impact as, here, completely digital, there's no blurred line between real and practical effect. Hellraiser: Revival has plenty of new sights to show you as well. It's almost the game's mission to ensure you find something stomach churning. (I'm avoiding showing too much in the screenshots here).

After fighting my way through this cult's basement, solving the odd puzzle to progress, I emerge into a thriving sex nightclub that serves as the organization's front. The standard club goers here are innocents, just looking for a place to have a good time, while the Cenobite-worshipping cult are essentially posers who use the guise of BDSM to prey on the vulnerable, who mask their sex club in positive, consent-forward posters until one step into the VIP section they're replaced with banners hailing their prophet.

As always with Hellraiser, villainous depravity is dialed up to 11, but there's truth in how Hellraiser: Revival tackles the subculture its themes are rooted in, and how bad actors can hide their own selfish abuse behind rhetoric. Count yourself lucky if you've never crossed paths with someone like that.

Thankfully, Pinhead has just as little time for the cult as Aiden does – though more out of a bored apathy that its leaders think they can match the Cenobites' freak – sending you on a collision course to take out them out in exchange for favors from Leviathan's labyrinthine realm.

While, as a game rooted in combat sequences, the focus is often on meting out ironic punishment against enactors of abuse, there are some surprising moments of sweetness. One early, short scene has Aiden talking frankly about consent boundaries with a patron at the club as he searches for a keycard. Likewise, on his quest to revive Sunny from the Hell-like Labyrinth, Pinhead emphasizes to Aiden that she entered the pain dimension of her own consensual volition and that, if resurrected, she has just as much free will to leave Aiden again if she wishes.

Demons to some

Plumbing the cult's base of operations for clues, and exploring the Labyrinth and its nightmarish reflections on reality, Hellraiser: Revival effectively explores objectification, control, and consent in relationships more responsibly than a lot of other games would dream of. For all its shocking violent imagery, Hellraiser: Revival can also be thematically mature. It's clear Saber Interactive really understands what sets Hellraiser's original entries apart from the horror competition. The story itself has been worked on collaboratively with Hellraiser's creator Clive Barker, and it shows. In that respect, this a much better resurrection of the Cenobites than the flashy but shallow Brucker-directed 2022 Hellraiser reboot.

This sense of purpose helps make the gore that litters the cult's compound feel more than pure shock value – though in Hellraiser the shock is part of the point too. Exploring denser, lively environments is where Hellraiser: Revival shines, such as poking around a deranged artist's workshop (and occasionally bopping enemies that emerge from Iron Maidens), or tracking down a ticket to gain entry to a peep show. Detours through sewers and woods are less interesting, though, thankfully, don't overstay their welcome.

Between gunning through these locations, Aiden finds himself intermittently visiting the Labyrinth realm from which the Cenobites hail. Filled with tight, claustrophobic tunnels, and clever use of quick-loads to create impossible geometry and decoy dead ends, these excursions feel true to the movies – Hellraiser 2 especially – while also making creative use of the digital medium.

No combat ever occurs in the Labyrinth, but there is danger. Sequences where Chatterer – the teeth-chattering, mouth-flayed creature – pursues you by walking menacingly towards you and teleporting around are nice and tense without being too demanding, the slight increase in pressure amplifying the disorientation of the maze to great effect. Sliding under hallway block death-chains to get away feels humorously like Call of Duty's omnimovement, and it's not long before I'm taking my traversal skills outside the Labyrinth to stunt on shotgun-wielding enemies back in the real world.

Light puzzling also exists here, but is thankfully not obtrusive. When it's revealed that the Genesis Configuration can move platforms at a distance and transfer fire between sconces, I worried that these would get in the way – the last thing I want is Pinhead tutorializing me on environmental puzzles – but they don't appear too often.

Snappy as good horror should be, Hellraiser: Revival took me just under 9 hours to beat, and never kept me in one place for too long. Despite some maps and number pad puzzles that give the impression of Resident Evil-like spaces, this is much more linear and keeps moving rapidly, always changing up the types of spaces and action you're doing even if combat does loom larger than I'd like, and I spend a touch too long juggling my limited inventory space between bullets and bandages.

Only during some so-so boss battles and fiddly insta-fail stealth sections do I start to get restless, but even these are infrequent. I even find myself invested in the narrative right up until the credits drop (which feature an unmissable, diabolical, and utterly iconic music remix I won't spoil here but had me cheering out loud). My horror gaming besties know that's a rare treat indeed, and it's a game I'm still turning in my (pin)head even now.

Rarely subtle, Hellraiser: Revival's rawness is truly shocking, but what's stuck with me more than the sights of sculpted, twisted muscles are the stories behind them. For a game based on Clive Barker's work (seriously, read the Books of Blood if you haven't), that's the right place to land. This is a pain that lingers.

Cliver Barker's Hellraiser: Revival was reviewed on PC, with code provided by the publisher.

Want to raise more hell? Check out our best horror games ranking, and keep an eye on our upcoming horror games list for more.

Solving the Hellraiser Revival Leviathan statuette puzzle is one of the first head-scratchers in the game, testing you with a gold, diamond-shaped ornament with a labyrinth design which is missing its tip. Your instinct may be to hunt high and low for the missing piece in the red hallway that the statuette is in, but you can't solve this Hellraiser Revival puzzle right away – though you can find one of the Hellraiser Revival codes for the red hallway’s locked cupboard nearby

Instead, you must further explore the cultist’s compound to find the Leviathan tip first, then return to the red hallway, reattach it, and line up the labyrinth pattern on its surface to claim the (bizarre) reward inside. Below, I've explained where you find the Leviathan statuette tip, how to solve the Leviathan statuette’s labyrinth puzzle, and what reward lies inside.

How to find the Leviathan statuette tip in Hellraiser Revival

Before solving the Leviathan statuette puzzle, you need to find the Leviathan tip. Continue to the end of the red hallway, then navigate through the cultist compound as normal. Don’t worry, you can return to the red hallway later.

Eventually, you’ll fall through the ceiling and land in a chapel-like room that features display cases, pews, and a large shrine in the middle. Clear out the cultists, grab any resources you can, take the room’s east door (check your map), and continue forward until you reach the office with a computer in it. The Leviathan tip is on the computer desk. There's also an Inventory Upgrade in this room on the metal shelving near the door you entered through, next to the tape recorder.

Head back to the chapel room and open the room’s west golden double doors to return to the red hallway. Interact with the Leviathan statuette and select the Leviathan tip to reattach it.

How to solve the Leviathan statuette labyrinth puzzle in Hellraiser revival

To solve the Leviathan statuette puzzle, rotate the statue’s movable segments until the labyrinth paths in its design line up. The final design should look like the image above. Once the design is complete, the Leviathan statuette will open to reveal an S&M Duckie inside.

This rubber duckie opens the duckie door next to the office where you found the Leviathan tip. Head back there – be aware that a cultist will jump out of a chapel iron maiden – then interact with the duckie door, and select the S&M Duckie to open it and continue forward.

Before moving on, gather any resources and collectibles you can from the chapel (including upstairs), the red hallway, the study, and the now-vacant room Bruno and Charlotte previously occupied.

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The Hellraiser Revival Private Rooms door block puzzle is probably the raunchiest head-scratcher Aiden Lynch comes across in. This puzzle is found at the end of the club foyer during the ‘Hunt Marlowe’ objective, not far from the Hellraiser Revival Voyeur Room door puzzle. However, like the Hellraiser Revival Leviathan statuette puzzle earlier in the game, you cannot solve it as soon as you find it. Instead, you first need to find the embossed block that fits the door. Below, I explain where to find the embossed block and break down the solution to the Private Rooms sex position door puzzle.

Private Rooms embossed block location in Hellraiser Revival

The Private Rooms door puzzle is story-critical in Hellraiser Revival, so you can’t miss it. However, you can’t solve it until after you unlock the Hell Chains ability. After leaving the labyrinth, you reemerge in the club and slaughter a heap of cultists with your brutal new ability.

Look toward the room’s double gold doors, but instead of going out of them and back to the foyer, take the door to the left. In the bloody hallway, take the second door on the left, and you’ll find an ear statue on a white dresser in the room. Inspect the ear, pull out the pins, and take the embossed block. Leave the hallway, go out the gold double doors, down the stairs, and to the red double doors at the end of the foyer. Interact with the door and select the block to add it to the lock.

Private Rooms sex positions door puzzle solution in Hellraiser Revival

The Private Rooms door lock now consists of four embossed blocks, each depicting a different sex position. Like the well block puzzle [link], each block can be rotated to display a different image; you just need to know which images it should show and in what order.

Exit from the lock view, take a few steps back, and look up. If you look to the left of the Private Rooms door, you’ll see two large banners displaying sex acts/positions. The first shows one we’ll call ‘upside down’; the second we’ll call ‘knee up.’ Next, look to the right of the door, and you’ll see two more banners; we’ll call the first act ‘leg up’ and the second ‘tied up.’ Sorry, mum.

Now rotate the door lock blocks so they display the positions on the banners, in the same order as the banners, from left to right. So, the block images, in order, should be upside down, knee up, leg up, then tied up. You can see the solution in the images above.

The door will automatically open when the blocks are correct, giving you access to the cultist club’s private play area.

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In Hellraiser Revival, you must solve a picture block puzzle to open the well containing the Tongue piece needed to open the final statue gate - behind which Charlotte awaits. To solve the well block puzzle, Aidan must find three missing puzzle blocks, insert them into the well slot, and then adjust each block so that it displays the correct image. Below, we break down the three puzzle block locations and the correct image each should display to solve the well puzzle.

Well puzzle block locations in Hellraiser Revival

After solving the Hellraiser Revival Genesis configurations for the Head statue, go through the now-open gate and proceed forward until you reach a well. On the well rim, you’ll find a crumpled ball of paper next to a gold slot with a labyrinth-picture block inside it, and space for three blocks next to it (one to the left and two to the right). Interact with the paper ball to uncrumple it and reveal three individual pieces of paper with labyrinth sketches on them. To solve this puzzle, you first need to find these puzzle blocks.

Turn 180 degrees from facing the well and take the path leading left, up a hill to a wooden gazebo. Inside the gazebo, you’ll find a suspended cultist with a puzzle block in his hand. Grab the block and prepare for several bloated blue exploding Unworthy to run up the hill at you.

Head down the hill and straight forward, past the well, until you reach a small pier. Go to the end of the pier and look out to the water; you'll see a small boat with the second puzzle block on it. Interact with the mooring bollard to pull the boat in, allowing you to grab the block. As soon as you do, more Unworthy will show up, so take care of them before following the right path to the children's play park.

In the park, you can find the final puzzle block in the hand of a cultist on the merry-go-round. As soon as you grab it, more Unworthy will emerge, so use your new fire ability to deal with them before heading back to the well.

How to solve the well labyrinth block puzzle in Hellraiser Revival

With all three puzzle blocks in hand, interact with the gold slot and select each to automatically place them in their correct order. Like the block that was already inserted, each block has an image of a labyrinth section on it. By rotating the block, you can change the image on it to a similar, but slightly different, variation of that section. For example, the first block may display three labyrinth paths and two sets of ruins, but turning the block changes the image to a different path layout and two tower-like structures instead.

To solve the puzzle, you need to rotate each puzzle block to display the correct image so that, together, all four blocks reflect the labyrinth image that's sketched across the three pieces of paper you uncrumpled earlier.

Here are the key elements each puzzle block image should display (which you can also see in the images above):

• Puzzle block 1: Smoke-like clouds in the sky; two box-like buildings underneath.
• Puzzle block 2: Smoke-like clouds in the sky, one small box-like building in the distance, and the path in the forefront should be shaped like an 'H.'
• Puzzle block 3: Smoke-like clouds in the sky with a large 'V' shape cutting through them.
• Puzzle block 4: Smoke-like clouds in the sky; two, tall tower-like buildings to the right.

Once you have the image correct, the well opens, letting you use the ladder to climb into it and collect the Tongue statue piece. Just be prepared to deal with some Unworthy first.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Throughout Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Revival, Aidan Lynch finds cupboards, doors, safes, and lockers that require a four-digit keypad code to unlock, which you can decipher through environmental clues. Behind each locked door are vital (and often scarce) resources, including ammo, weapon upgrades, melee weapons, crafting materials, and health items. In addition, if you open five of these keypad locks, you're awarded the Codebreaker trophy.

However, figuring out these keypad codes can be challenging; you can easily waste valuable time trying to crack them, especially if you’re looking for the wrong clues. So, below, we’ve put together a list of every keypad door code, its location, and contents in Hellraiser Revival, in the order you’ll find them, with minimal spoilers.

All codes in Hellraiser Revival

If you just want a quick list, here are all the Hellraiser Revival codes:

• Red Hallway cupboard code: 0199/9901
• Medical room locker code: 9891
• Graveyard house safe code: 9606
• Bruno's music room cupboard code: 1966
• Snake room cupboard code: 1952
• Private rooms bathroom cupboard code: 1923
• Factory blue door code: 1362
• Laundry room locker code: 8571
• Break room locker code: 2342

Below I'll work though every keypad code needed to unlock the lockers, doors, cupboards, and safes in Hellraiser Revival, in the order you'll encounter them, including their locations and contents (on Normal difficulty).

Red Hallway cupboard code

Code: Code: 0199 or 9901

Location: Escape the cult; in the red hallway with the Hellraiser Revival Leviathan statuette.

Contents: x1 Gunpowder, x1 Coil, x1 Bandage

Medical room locker code

Code: 9891

Location: Shortly after obtaining the knife; in the medical room with a bloody bathtub.

Contents: x1 Gunpowder, x27 Coins, x1 Sawblade

Graveyard house safe code

Code: 9606

Location: Sean's house in the graveyard, under the vinyl print in the kitchen.

Contents: Pistol: Oversized Magazine Release upgrade, x3 Pistol Ammo

Bruno's music room cupboard code

Code: 1966

Location: Music room upstairs in Bruno's house.

Contents: x2 Pistol Ammo, x2 Gunpowder, x1 Chemicals

Snake room cupboard code

Code: 1952

Location: Snake room in the club.

Contents: x12 Revolver Ammo, SMG: Laser Pointer upgrade

Private rooms bathroom cupboard code

Code: 1923

Location: Private rooms bathroom; through the door on your right, after solving the Hellraiser Revival Private Rooms door puzzle.

Contents: x7 SMG Ammo, Revolver: Hollow Point Rounds upgrade, x1 Machete, x1 Gunpowder

Factory blue door code

Code: 1362

Location: 'Use the elevator' objective; through a hole in the wall outside the factory, straight ahead of the gate that requires the heart inset key.

Contents: x1 Bear Trap, x52 Coins, x1 Labyrinth Remnant, x6 Assault Rifle Ammo, Assault Rifle: Heavy Lower Handguard upgrade

Laundry room locker code

Code: 8571

Location: Head into the room south of the library, then take the door east into the laundry room.

Contents: x1 Skullcrusher, x2 Bandages, x30 Assault Rifle Ammo, Revolver: Overpressure Ammunition upgrade, x1 Gunpowder

Break room locker code

Code: 2342

Location: Follow Marlowe's path of destruction to the break room with the ladder and TV screen.

Contents: x6 Revolver Ammo, x21 Assault Rifle Ammo, x28 SMG Ammo, x12 Revolver Ammo

Sewer lever room locker code

Code: 1512

Location: During 'Hunt Marlowe,' upstairs in the room with the bridge requiring a lever.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

In Hellraiser Revival, the Genesis Configuration is as essential to gameplay as it is to the story, granting Aidan Lynch supernatural powers to combat the violent cultists and Unworthy. But the Cenobite’s otherworldly puzzle box also has another purpose: it acts as the key to supernatural locks.

On a handful of occasions, you’re presented with a slot that the Genesis Configuration must be adjusted to fit in order to progress the story. These puzzles require you to tweak each half of the box individually, cycling through different configurations (shapes) and rotating as needed, until the final overall box shape perfectly fits the slot. Below, we’ve laid out the solutions for all Genesis Configuration puzzles in Hellraiser Revival, showing you what each half of the box should look like.

How to solve Genesis Configurations puzzles in Hellraiser Revival

Hellraiser Revival features five Genesis Configuration puzzles. These puzzles are unmissable and must be solved to progress the game’s story. Unlike Hellraiser Revival codes, solving these puzzles doesn’t reward you with resources. Below, we’ve listed every Genesis Configuration puzzle location and what shape each box half should be to fit its respective slot.

Sunny's pillar

Location: 'Free Sunny's Soul' objective, found after navigating the labyrinth ruins.

Side 1: Square-shaped configuration, rotated to look like a diamond.

Side 2: Configuration resembles two parallel bridges, rotated so one is on the left and one the right with the bridge 'legs' pointed inward.

Hand statue

Location: Available after getting the Hand statue piece from Bruno's house.

Side 1: Two boulder-looking shapes (flat bottom, slightly curved top) sitting parallel to one another. Rotate so that one is on the top and one on the bottom.

Side 2: The same shape as the first side, but rotated 90-degrees. One shape on the left and one on the right.

Head statue

Location: Available after getting Head statue piece from Hand statue unlocked area.

Side 1: Should be a square, the correct way up.

Side 2: Adjust to be the border-like configuration, with a space out of two sides and a star-shaped space in the middle. Rotate so the gaps are on the left and right.

Tongue statue

Tongue statue

Location: Available after getting the Tongue statue piece after solving the Hellraiser Revival Well puzzle in the Head statue unlocked area.

Side 1: Standard square, rotated to resemble a diamond.

Side 2: Configure the pattern that shows a block in each of the four corners. Each block looks a little bit like a petal.

Factory shrine

Location: On the shrine inside the factory where the elevator to Marlowe and Bruno is.

Side 1: Standard square, rotated to resemble a diamond (same as Side 1 of Tongue statue).

Side 2: The border-like configuration with a gap in either side (same as Side 2 of Head statue).

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To open the Voyeur Room in Hellraiser Revival you need to solve the Peephole puzzle door in the Fetish Rooms section of the cultist club. That means finding the Peephole Inset and solve a perplexing and rather saucy diamond-shaped puzzle to open the door and access the main chamber beyond. Below, I'll break down where to find the Peephole Inset and how to solve the Voyeur Room door puzzle.

There will be some spoilers ahead.

How to get the Peephole Inset in Hellraiser Revival

After defeating Charlotte and being tasked by Sunny with bringing her yet another heart, Aidan finds himself back in the cultist club during the ‘Hunt Marlowe’ objective. Once you get the ticket for the Cum and See machine, head down the stairs, and you’ll find the Peephole door on your left - but you won't be able to open it yet. Continue through this level as normal until you encounter a many-armed blob creature lurking in the basement. Once you’ve killed it by attacking the arms, enter the previously chained-off room with the yellow ladder, where you’ll find the Peephole Inset at the foot of the ladder, next to a dead cultist.

Climb up the ladder and go back to the Peephole door, taking the route through the Changing Rooms to your right, as the previous path is now blocked. If you haven’t found it yet, you can also find one of the Hellraiser Revival codes for the Snake room taped to a locker door in this area. Deal with the bloated, exploding Unworthy that ambushes you on the stairs, then interact with the Peephole puzzle door and select the Peephole Inset to insert it.

How to open the voyeur door in Hellraiser Revival

After you place the Inset, you'll be able to highlight one of the four Peepholes, and when you select a Peephole eye it opens, while the others remain closed. Each Peephole controls a selection of the four segments of the diamond-shaped image of a woman in the middle of the door (indicated by blue highlight). Here’s what each eye controls:

• Top-left eye: Controls the outermost segment.
• Top-right eye: Controls all four segments.
• Bottom-left eye: Controls the two outer segments.
• Bottom-right eye: Controls the three outer segments, not the middle.

To solve the puzzle, you must rotate the segments so the image is legible and in the correct position. To do this, correctly align the segments starting from the middle and working outward. So, start with the eye that covers the most segments first: the top-right. This is the order you should align the image in:

1. Top-right eye: Rotate until the center segment is accurate; the knee and fingers should be pointing right.
2. Bottom-right eye: Rotate until the second segment (from the center) aligns with the middle; the top point of the center segment should point to the woman’s left eye.
3. Bottom-left eye: Rotate until the third segment (second from the outside) aligns with the middle two; the woman’s hair should be above the top point of the previous segment (and her breast to the top-left of the diamond shape).
4. Top-left eye: Rotate the outermost segment until it aligns with the inner three; connect the hair or the foot on the right to her leg.
5. Top-right eye: Turn the complete image one rotation counter-clockwise so the woman’s left foot points straight up.

The door will swing open when the puzzle is complete, granting you access to the voyeur area's main chamber - but be prepared for a fight ahead.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

We've taken the first few steps into October, which means spooky season is officially here and Halloween is just a few weeks away. And you know what else is here? Amazon's Prime Big Day Deals, which means plenty of purchases from the website will now save you a little bit of money.

This, of course, includes Blu-rays, and plenty of horrors are discounted to varying degrees. To help you prepare your next month of movie nights, we've rounded up a range of discounted horror Blu-rays; there will be some older classics and b-movies, then newer releases worth owning, and finally a few box sets which are reduced on Amazon too.

20th century movies

21st century movies

Box sets

You'll also want to peruse our list of the best collector's edition box sets, and all the upcoming horror movies worth knowing about.

The Dead by Daylight Haunted by Daylight Halloween event is back, and I for one can't wait. There are always some changes when recurring events roll around, as well as fresh new rewards, so I'll take a look at everything coming to this year's event below.

There's loads of stuff happening in Dead by Daylight in October, including an awesome new Rift and more cool cosmetic collections coming to the Shop, but if you're most looking forward to the event, then here's when DBD Haunted by Daylight takes place, and the rest of the gory details.

DBD Haunted by Daylight launch date and time

The DBD Haunted by Daylight event takes place until Tuesday, November 3, 2026, at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT.

The event shares a lot of the mechanics from previous years, but some things have changed, including how it looks and the removal of the Void dimension. There are also a load of cool new rewards to grab by completing quests, all of which I'll detail below.

DBD Haunted by Daylight details

The biggest thing to note this year is that there is no Void dimension, so there'll be no disappearing into portals and running around the extra location, which feedback showed left players feeling like gameplay was a little disjointed.

Instead, Void rifts still appear, but now transport players across the map quickly, which can be used to everyone's advantage - but especially chased survivors.

The most important thing to discuss though is the cool rewards that we can earn by completing event quests, so here's the lowdown. You'll be able to unlock the following free cosmetics:

• Shane Zombie, Esq outfit
  • Complete 12 event quests
• Hillbilly Sugar Rush outfit
  • Complete 12 event quests
• Survivor shirts for Adam, Sable, and Jeff
  • 15 Dark Trinkets each
• Killer masks for The Singularity, The Trapper, and The Unknown
  • 150 Dark Trinkets each
• Badges, Banners, and Charms
  • Unlock through quests and with Dark Trinkets

These rewards look super cool, and you can see the incredible Hillbilly skin at the top of the page. I particularly love Shane's zombified outfit though, and The Singularity's kitsch alien mask. Jump into the game to check them all out for yourself. There are additional outfits to purchase from the in-game store during the event too, but at least there's plenty of cool free stuff to be had.

For more freebies, check out the latest DBD codes for free in-game items and currency, and you should also take a look at the DBD 2026 roadmap to see what else is in store before the end of the year.

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While your instincts may tell you to escape, the main objective as a civilian player in Halloween the Game is to detain Michael. To do this, though, you need to meet some specific requirements and get dangerously close to the killer himself.

It won't be easy to detain Michael, and it certainly helps to have a team of friends playing together, for which you might need my Halloween the Game crossplay guide. However, you can utilize proximity chat if you need to (just don't forget Michael is also listening!) and, if everyone knows what they're doing, it is possible to detain Michael in Halloween the Game in a random lobby, as long as you follow these instructions.

Player characters who die or escape have the option to return as a police officer, provided the level of police presence is high enough. Before you escape, then, make sure you call the police as much as possible, and ask NPC residents to do the same. Then, after you have escaped, complete the mini-games for a chance to return to the game. Once complete, you'll be shown three perk cards, one of which can be the Police Reinforcements card, which instantly respawns you into the game as an officer. However, this isn't guaranteed, so just keep trying until you get lucky. And keep an eye at the top of the screen to ensure that police reinforcements are available.

Before taking on your role as Loomis or law enforcement, or if you're helping them out as a resident, you should make sure you're equipped with one of the best Halloween the Game civilian characters. And, for some other, less specific, advice, check out my Halloween the Game tips.

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Hideo Kojima says development on his mysterious horror game OD is "progressing smoothly," and he can't wait to tell us more about it.

During an Xbox broadcast at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Kojima provides some quick updates on OD and Physint, which are now both being published by Xbox Game Studios.

On OD, he says: "Performance capture and ADR recording, which had been paused during the SAG strike, resumed this year, and production is proceeding on schedule. Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and the team have delivered intense and outstanding performances, which I can't wait for you all to see.

"OD is a completely new kind of game that tests the thresholds of fear," he continues. "Through constant experimentation and iteration, the project is steadily taking shape. We look forward to sharing more information later down the line."

There's still plenty we don't know about OD – its release window, for a start, is still a complete mystery. Kojima previously said that he'd like to "scan a ghost" into the game, which could take time. Then again, he also suggests that there could have been a ghost accidentally recorded into it already, so he might have ticked that box without even knowing it for sure. Don't worry, though – "that's why we went to the shrine together with Microsoft to make sure that we have a safe build of the game," he said at the time. That's reassuring… I think.

At Tokyo Game Show, Kojima also revealed that John Wick 4 and Nosferatu actor Bill Skarsgård will be Physint's lead actor, with him and the star both being "long-time fans of each others' work."

Physint goes from PlayStation to Xbox as Sony "unexpectedly" drops Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor.

While the ranks of the best GameCube games are dominated by the family-friendly titles Nintendo is best known for, Nintendo's purple square was also quietly a killer horror machine. Sure, that's mostly down to the mostly exclusive Resident Evil games Capcom was pumping out for the system, but there's one other horror titan on the system, and it was published by Nintendo itself. That is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

But unlike those classic Resident Evil games, Eternal Darkness never got a second chance on another platform, and it's never been remastered or made available on modern machines. 24 years after launch, however, there's finally reason to hope. Stephen Kick, studio head for the remaster specialists at Nightdive Studios, was recently asked by a fan if the horror game could make a comeback.

"Eternal Darkness is one of my all-time favorites and it deserves the treatment I know Nightdive Studio is capable of," Kick says on Twitter (via IGN). "Keep your eye on our Deep Dives," he adds, pointing to the studio's YouTube channel.

That's obviously several steps shy of actually confirming an Eternal Darkness remaster, but it's the biggest sign of life the game's had in years. Originally released in 2002, Eternal Darkness was developed by Silicon Knights, a company that went bankrupt a decade ago, and published by Nintendo, a company that's notoriously protective of even its most neglected properties. The rights situation around Eternal Darkness has never been entirely clear, but it's been murky enough that no one's been willing or able to navigate it yet.

That's despite the game's monumental reputation among horror aficionados. Eternal Darkness takes place across four different time periods with various protagonists, telling a Lovecraftian tale that spans centuries. Arguably the game's biggest claim to fame are its Sanity effects. There's a meter that shows your character's mental stability, and as it empties, things start getting weird – the game world might start suddenly bleeding, or you might see the fourth wall break with faux CRT TV glitches and similar effects.

There's still little else like Eternal Darkness, despite an ultimately failed attempt from many of the original developers to Kickstart a spiritual successor in 2013. Here's hoping we can at least get a fresh taste of the original soon enough.

Over 27 years later, Thief: The Dark Project is getting a remaster from retro revival specialist Nightdive Studios this winter.

If you're wondering how Halloween the Game crossplay works or whether you can save your progress across platforms, I've got all the answers for you right here. If you get a little confused between these terms, you're not alone, as they sound similar while meaning quite different things.

While crossplay refers to your ability to play with others on different platforms to yourself, cross-progression is to do with your own progress, and whether that carries across if you own a game on multiple platforms. With Halloween the Game available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, both are fair questions, but only one has a good answer, as you'll see below.

Halloween the Game crossplay

Halloween the Game does have crossplay, enabling you to play with others on different platforms to yourself, be they friends or strangers. Therefore, there are two elements to crossplay, and I'll explain below both how to turn crossplay matchmaking on and off in Halloween the Game, as well as how to add friends on other platforms.

If you want to toggle crossplay on or off, head to the Multiplayer Tab, then press Tab on keyboard or the Menu button on any controller, before selecting the Settings option. In Settings, tab across to General, then toggle cross-play matchmaking on or off as you wish.

To add crossplay friends, meanwhile, head to the Multiplayer Tab, then press Tab on keyboard or the Menu button on any controller, before selecting the Friends icon, indicated by three silhouettes of people. Here, you'll see only friends on the same platform as you, whether they own the game or not, so you need to tab across to the Crossplay menu, the second tab on the menu bar, where you'll find your friend code and a box to enter others' codes. On this page, you can either reveal your own unchanging code to send to others, or enter someone else's to send them a friend request.

Halloween the Game cross-progression

Unfortunately, unlike crossplay, there is no cross-progression in Halloween the Game. That means that, if you're playing the game across multiple platforms yourself, your progress, including unlocked customization items, does not carry across. You'll need to complete challenges on all platforms to unlock items on each, and your player level also increases separately.

This also means that any Halloween the Game codes you redeem should be claimed on all platforms separately as well.

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Silent Hill 2 Remake studio and Cronos: The New Dawn creator Bloober Team has officially announced Onyx: The Dark Grip for Switch 2 – formerly known as Project M – at Nintendo Direct September 2026.

Earlier this year, fans had passed whispers about how the developer applied to trademark the title in 2024.

But no one dared to start a rumor ambitious enough to explain how unusual Onyx: The Dark Grip really is – the psychological horror game steeped in fluffy mist is playable exclusively in Switch 2 handheld mode.

The Dark Grip initially looks like a 2.5D Silent Hill game in its Nintendo Direct trailer. Protagonist Holden seems like a tired and unremarkable man, with his face peppered in 8 o'clock shadow and a sensible suede coat on his back, but even mundane aspects of his life are being manipulated by a supernatural force slowly eating all his sanity.

This sounds like it could be Silent Hill 2 and its unhelpful hero James Sunderland all over again – but, this time, the player is that supernatural force. That's right, we've all been offered a new job as Pyramid Head without abs.

"Survive as a vessel and interfere as a god," instructs a Nintendo press release. Onyx: The Dark Grip's trailer disclaims that the game can only be played in the Switch 2's handheld mode, since players will have to use the console's touch screen to perform interventions like unlocking doors, reading NPC minds, and moving objects.

But when you interfere with Holden's reality, he perceives you as a poltergeist, and the world starts to fuzz in shades of gray as he goes fully crazy.

"Play as the mysterious Entity," Nintendo continues, "guiding the actions of a lone traveler who arrives in a desolate ghost town. Manipulate the environment with your supernatural powers, solve puzzles, confront terrifying creatures and don't let your puppet descend into the depths of madness. Blur the line between the game world and reality."

Bloober is good at that – from its 2016 breakout game Layers of Fear to its work on the Silent Hill franchise, the developer favors horror narratives that grab a candlestick to melt the line between art and real, deep-breathing life.

And, while The Dark Grip will be the first Nintendo exclusive for the developer, Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno is a noted fan of Nintendo's few horror games.

"This is a vision that could only exist on Nintendo hardware," Babieno said about Onyx: The Dark Grip in 2025, when the game was known as Project M. He also assured fans of games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and 2002 GameCube exclusive Eternal Darkness that they "will immediately feel at home" playing Onyx: The Dark Grip.

Well, let me start packing my things.

Prepare yourself for even more upcoming horror games in 2026 and beyond.

Halloween the Game codes do exist, but at the moment they're restricted to two promos in conjunction with the Regal Theatre chain in the US and the New Belgium Brewing Company, also in the US. There is a promo code redemption box in-game, which is how you can redeem one of these codes if you're lucky enough to have one, but hopefully this means there'll be more Halloween the Game codes in the future - for all of us.

Halloween the Game codes

As I've mentioned above, the only Halloween the Game redemption codes at the moment are part of two collaborations in the United States.

The first is with Regal Theatres, and anyone who is part of the Regal Crown Club and sees any movie from the Halloween Series in one of their theaters automatically gets sent a redemption code for a 3D Glasses cosmetic item for civilians. You'll receive the code to your inbox at the email address associated with your Regal Crown Club account.

You'll also be in with a chance of winning a code for the actual game, if you don't already own it. If you're lucky enough to win and do, you can always get it on a different platform - but be aware that there's no cross-platform saves if you have access to multiple versions.

The second is a collaboration with the New Belgium Brewing Company, and residents of the US can enter here for a chance to win a code for a golden glasses cosmetic for all civilians, as well as a full outfit for both Rachel and Eric.

How to redeem Halloween the Game codes

To redeem Halloween the Game codes, head to the Graveyard tab at the top of the screen, then scroll down to Extras, indicated by three horizontal dots. Here, you'll find the Redeem Codes button where you can open the redemption box, enter your code, and redeem your reward.

If you don't see your rewards after redeeming your code, restart the game, and this should trigger the reward to unlock!

So, it's not great news for everyone yet, but hopefully there will be more Halloween the Game codes added in the future, perhaps in a similar fashion to DBD codes.

With or without 3D Glasses, you'll want to check out my tier list of the best Halloween the Game civilians, as well as my top Halloween the Game tips.

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As an asymmetrical multiplayer game, there's a lot to think about when diving into Halloween The Game, not least which side to play on. Playing as Michael pits you against a team of four players all on your own, while playing as a civilian leaves you vulnerable to a deadly killer - and the relative skill of your teammates.

With that in mind, I've collated the main tips I wish I'd known when I first started playing Halloween The Game to help you get a head start no matter which team you play for.

Tips for playing Halloween the Game as a civilian

As survivor, your basic goal is to escape with your life, and if you can take some other Haddonfield residents with you, all the better. However, the best outcome it to detain Michael in Halloween the Game, so whichever ending you're after, here are my top tips for playing as a civilian.

1. Utilize Residents to do things for you

Alongside the four-man civilian team, there are a few NPC residents dotted around Haddonfield - and even more when the police start to arrive. Don't underestimate these NPCs as they are incredibly useful to you. By triggering and completing a conversation with them, you can ask them to call the police, follow you, or head to an exit if there's one available.

The latter will only increase your points at the end of the game. However, getting NPCs to call the police gets them to arrive much faster, and also helps if you're playing a civilian with a low personality trait, including some of those who rank highly on my Halloween the Game civilian tier list. You can also hand them weapons, and they'll fight back against Michael if it comes to it.

The best option, though, is to get them to follow you, as they will do all of this off their own back. They're rummage through storage, pick up weapons, and call the police. Just beware that the more people you have with you, the more detectable you'll be to Michael.

2. Call for backup from police and Loomis

As I've mentioned above, calling the police is useful, and you, your teammates, and NPCs call all do so from the many phones found around Haddonfield. You need to pass skill checks while you're own the phone, and the better you do, the more convincing your call will be, but the more calls placed means more police presence - and, eventually, a new exit option.

However, help also comes in the form of Sam Loomis, a character as iconic as Michael and Laurie. Like Tommy from Friday the 13th, if you ever played it, Loomis is a player character, enabling one killed player to return to the game. To call Loomis, keep an eye on the top of the screen for the 'Reinforcements in...' countdown to appear. Once it reaches zero, it will say 'Reinforcements Available', and the message 'CB Radio Activated' also briefly appears on-screen. Now you must find a CB radio somewhere on the map - it'll be highlighted once you're near - from which you can call Loomis. The first player to have died will return immediately unless no one has died at this point. In this case, the first player to die from then will respawn as Loomis. Players who escaped successfully do not respawn.

One more thing, be sure to pay attention to your map as a civilian. If you do respawn as Loomis, your map markers will reset, but you do spawn in with a gun and 12 bullets, so that's something.

Explore the whole map to reveal locations

Rather than staying where you spawned and meticulously searching every nook and cranny for items, it's best to try and quickly explore as much of the map as possible, as finding important locations, including all of the Halloween the Game escape methods like the car and hatches, will then cause them to show on your map. This way, when you do find the items you need to open the various exits, you'll know where to go. This is much better than getting your hopes up when you find a gas can, only to never find the car. Of course you should still have a bit of a look around as you go, but don't waste too much time opening every drawer.

But do look for a weapon early

While I've said don't take too much time to look around at first, you should keep your eye out for a weapon as soon as possible. If (and when) Michael does find you, you can try and wiggle free once you know how to complete the skill check, but you're guaranteed an extra chance at life if you're carrying a small weapon like a pocket or butterfly knife. You can use it when grabbed by Michael to briefly stun him. They also only take up on small inventory slot.

Meanwhile, larger weapons like guns and axes take up their own slot, and can be used to fight back before Michael even grabs you. You can even down him with enough hits - but he won't stay down for long. Down him enough times with enough manpower to support you, and you can detain him for good. Well, until the next time he breaks out.

Tips for playing Halloween the Game as Michael

As Michael, your main goal of course is to kill everyone, which includes three 'special targets', five NPC residents, and the four player civilians. There are the policemen that are called to the scene, as well as Sam Loomis, if he's called in, but you don't have to kill them. Interestingly, though, and fairly faithful to Halloween lore, once you've killed the 12 main victims, Michael can escape. So, if you're picking up the mantle of the infamous fictional killer, here are my top tips.

1. Play single-player

One of the greatest advantages you have as a Michael player is the single-player mode where you can home your skills against NPCs while completing various chapters based on the franchise's iconic movies.

Here, you'll learn how to kill, how to use your skills, how Michael moves, and most other factors about the character that you can take into the multiplayer mode.

2. Use your skills well

Naturally, Michael's powerful skills each have a cooldown, so you should get used to using them at the right time. For example, you might want to save his something ability for when you find a resident or are near police, as knocking out nearby lights will prevent you from being seen. Similarly, the something ability, which allows you to briefly reveal the location of civilians, wears off fast, so pair this with the something skill to get sneak up on players and NPCs quickly and efficiently. Remember, they'll be warned when they've been detected, so they'll move out of the area hastily.

3. Don't waste time on one civilian

Speaking of civilians moving hastily, don't ever waste your time chasing one who's running away from you well. You can dedicate a bit of time to chasing them, but if it's clear they're giving you the run around, it's worth moving on. All the time you're chasing them, someone else is likely already opening another exit, so trigger that something skill and move out of the area, keeping the pressure up on the entire map instead of one localized zone.

4. Concentrate on kill skill checks and don't look for special kills

When you have a victim in your grasp, you can find special environmental kills around you that trigger a unique kill animation. However, to do so, you'll have to be able to carry the writhing character to the marked destination.

Trust me, I know it's tempting to try and find as many cool kills as you can, and you're more free to do so when killing an NPC, but if you've a player character at your mercy, concentrate on killing them as soon as possible with regular skill checks or a held weapon. Carried civilians are given skill checks when you have a hold of them, and they can wiggle free quickly if you give them the chance - so don't.

With all of this in mind, you should have a slightly easier time getting to grips with Halloween the Game, allowing you to just enjoy the carnage and the recognizable locations a bit more.

While you're here, check out the latest news on Halloween the Game codes and what they award you with.

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As a civilian, knowing all the ways to escape in Halloween the Game is the only way you're going to stand a chance to get away from Haddonfield before Michael Myers gets his hands on you.

There are a few different Halloween the Game exits, and you need to find different elements to open them, so knowing which exits require which items and tools and how to find them is necessary to getting out alive.

All Halloween the Game escapes

There are four main ways to escape Haddonfield on any of the Halloween the Game maps. They are:

• Cellar hatches
• The Sedan
• Gate exit
• Police escort

The easiest of these is the cellar hatch, as even the most difficult can be opened with the fewest items, followed by the powered gate. Getting away in the car, meanwhile, requires a few more things to come together in your favor, but is certainly possible, especially if you're working as a team. Finally, there's the police exit, which is simple in itself, but doesn't activate until later in the game. Here's each of them explained in more detail:

Cellar hatch escape

This is the easiest way to escape and, if you're lucky, you can even make it happen quite quickly. There are usually a couple of different hatches on each map, and they each have various requirements. While they're all locked, one might be covered with leaves while another can be blocked with wood you need to cut through. If you're really lucky, you may find a hatch that's only locked with no other requirements, and this is obviously the quickest and easiest escape of all.

What's even better is that you can open the padlock with either a key or boltcutters, so the odds are really in your favor, as long as you can find the hatch itself.

Sedan car escape

To get out alive in the sedan car, you need to find a total of four things: the sedan key, a gas can, a repair kit, and the car itself, which is a big ask. As I've mentioned in my Halloween The Game tips guide, it's best to check out as much of the map as possible as quickly as possible, and the main reason for this is the car. At least once you've found it, if you are lucky enough to find all three of the other items, you'll know where to head with them.

Gate escape

On the outskirts of the town, you're able to find a powered gate, which lets you out once you have two things: a bolt cutter or exit key and a fuse. This was one of the hardest escapes due to the rarity of fuses, but they seem to be more common now. There is also a chance you'll need a hatchet to destroy boards blocking the gate, making this exit slightly more troublesome.

Police escape

There are a couple of ways to escape via the police, but the main one is to make enough successful calls to the cops that a police wagon turns up. Once on the map, you can simply head into the back of the van for a safe exit. This requires an additional phone call to the police once the full three-star alert level has been reached.

The other method can be done much sooner but isn't as easy. You can escape in any of the police cars that appear throughout the match, but you'll need a police person's car key to do so, which can be found on a dead cop's corpse. Eek.

Something that plays heavily into getting out alive is which character you choose to play, so take a look at my Halloween civilian tier list if you want to pick the best.

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"This is Agnes." I'm gawking at the most beautifully horrifying hand-painted statue I've ever seen in my life as James Macleod, Ritual Tides creative director and CEO of developer studio Vertpaint, beams with pride. Agnes looks like a cross between a humanoid centipede, a fleshy slug with a burst rear end, and the giant baby monster from Resident Evil Village. In short, she's gorgeous. .

But even without Agnes' beady yellow eyes watching expectantly from the table, Ritual Tides has been among my most-wanted upcoming horror games for years. All I know going into this preview is what was given up in its brief 2024 teaser trailer – a title, a genre, and some cryptic ink-on-paper artwork – so I'm desperate to find out what kind of nightmare awaits.

Then Macleod throws a curveball: Gamescom chaos has descended and the demo build is fundamentally broken. Luckily, he has a backup plan in the form of a level design build, so I can at least get a feel for what the ex-Rockstar developer has been cooking up since shipping GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

"So," Macleod begins. "Are you a Resident Evil or Silent Hill fan?"

Strange shores

Macleod opens the level build to pan across a gritty grey coastal landscape, my first introduction to the fictional town of Hortus, and I lean closer to the screen instinctively.

I spot flavors of the two survival horror franchises he mentioned in each frame, because yes, I am a huge fan of both. Ritual Tides has the heavy fog-blanketed gloom of Silent Hill, the visceral, first-person immersion of Resident Evil 7 and Village, and a "super dark" narrative that had Macleod drop everything to write it.

"Getting a publisher for this is really tricky – the subject matter is so bad," he tells me. "You play this woman who wakes up on a beach, and you're uncovering her past and this mysterious island history. But the more you learn, it's a horrific history – especially if you're a woman."

From Silent Hill f's powerful abstraction of a woman's coming-of-age to satirical splatter flicks like The Substance, female-centric body horror is having a well-earned moment. I recall my Agnes statue in all her bloated, man-eating, afterbirth-like glory, and sense its presence in Ritual Tides, too.

Having grown up with five sisters, Macleod explains how the game helped him occupy a different perspective when considering what horror, danger, and safety feels like to different people – specifically, to women versus men. "Me and my sister were walking back from the pub, and she was saying 'I can't go down that [dark alley] route'," he recalls. "And I was like, 'What do you mean?' I just walk around like a complete idiot. They were talking to me about this, and I thought, 'I've got such a lovely concept for a game here'."

It's the little things

Ritual Tides sounds like a horror game from a place of kinship, exploring the harsh reality shared by billions of people who don't have the luxury of feeling safe in the shadows. But in true survival horror spirit, when it comes to combat, its amnesiac heroine keeps it old-school.

Macleod hands the controller to me as he steers the character onto a beach, warning me that some extra enemies might accidentally spawn into this rougher demo build. Luckily, I have a trusty melee weapon at hand – though Macleod mentions that there is indeed a durability system in this game, so my weapon won't last forever.

"Running away is the call, really," Macleod says between laughs as I beat a giant hideous bug – imagine if a facehugger and a scorpion hooked up – to death with my bat. "She's not a military expert. If she's picking up a really heavy nine-pound gun, just like I would, she's not doing it with one hand." I get to experiment a little with the game's weighty weapons system in a nearby cave, and can attest to the palpable recoil of each and every shot – though I spend so much time chatting with Macleod that my session ends soon after.

Getting into that cave was most interesting to me, though. Ritual Tides features a super precise climbing mechanic involving holding down the left or right triggers to grab or let go of a handhold, adding to the oppressive, visceral gloom that punctuates each moment and makes it feel like a battle.

The sparse HUD deepens that sense of immersion as Ritual Tides finds innovative ways out of some of survival horror's biggest clichés; a chalky residue left by sea salt, presumably, leaves white tips on stones and boulders as the game's answer to yellow paint. These markings indicate rocky surfaces that can be mantled up or across, but still belong to the world itself. Paired with the stunning photorealistic environmental textures, Ritual Tides might be the most painstakingly detailed horror game I've seen in years.

I might not have experienced as much hands-on time with Ritual Tides as other lucky Gamescom attendees, but vibes are all I needed. Macleod's vision shines, even in a rough build that was never intended for the media's eyes. I'm eagerly awaiting the day Vertpaint see fit to unleash its final form – though as level design builds go, this one was pretty spectacular.

Silent Hill Townfall's atmosphere is spot-on, but slow-burn terrors leave a tepid first impression

"The 8 years I spent developing Silent Hill 1, 2 & 3 at Konami, I gave up on getting a girlfriend," reads a new tweet from Masahiro Ito, the legendary Team Silent artist best known for designing Silent Hill 2 antagonist Pyramid Head. The tweet largely echoes something Ito said back in 2024 about not having the time for a girlfriend when he was working at Konami, but now he straight-up suggests he regrets sacrificing his love life for the his work.

"Never even went on a single date w/ a lady," he says. "I sacrificed my days off & slept on cardboards spread out on the floor, but I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd end up like this on X."

That is... incredibly sad. Ito is a horror icon and should be eternally proud of the work he's done for its unparalleled influence on the genre. That said, as a married man who wouldn't trade my family for the world, it's fair for him to long for love.

"To be honest, lately, I've been thinking that if I hadn't sacrificed my personal life, found a girlfriend, and gotten married early on, I probably would have been happier."

Ito's comments section is filled with encouraging words from his adoring fans, so he doesn't need my advice, but I agree with one commenter that "hindsight is a bitch." Not much is known about Ito's personal life, but professionally he's had an undeniably successful career. If he had never worked on Silent Hill and instead chose to pursue a wife and family, who knows how that would've turned out? One thing's for sure, horror would've lost one of its all-time great bad guys, and I'm selfishly glad he stuck to games.

Silent Hill Townfall's atmosphere is spot-on, but slow-burn terrors leave a tepid first impression

With a number of Halloween The Game civilians to choose from, each with their own set of stats and skills, who you choose to play as can make all the difference to your success. Of course, each has their own benefits but some are clearly better than others in the right ways, so my Halloween The Game civilian tier list can help you choose wisely.

Of course, there is only one killer to choose from in this horror game, and while Michael Myers does have a selection of options you can change, the survivor options are much broader, as you'll see below.

Halloween civilian tier list

These are all of the Halloween The Game civilians ranked:

To get to this conclusion, I rated civilians separately by their stats and by their skillset, and then averaged the findings, leaving Tanya and Marcus at the top. When looking at stats, I put the most weighting on Athleticism and Resourcefulness, followed by Personality and Capability. While it's important than conversations happen quickly, it's more important to be able to get away from Michael in a hurry and use items and open exits fast. However, skills are also important, and while Jennifer, for example, has some of the best all-round stats, her skills are among the least useful, leaving her nearer the bottom of the tier list than you may expect.

Marcus sits at the very top of the list because of his ability to unlock doors with his own unique lockpick option. As a civilian, you'll find that a lot of houses are locked with no way in, which not only leaves you out in the open for longer, but also slows you down when looking for crucial items to aid in your escape. He also has excellent Resourcefulness and decent Athleticism, so his good skill is backed up by solid stats. His fairly low personality means skill checks are harder when calling the police, but you can combat this by asking residents to do it for you.

Tanya is also a great option because, while her Resourcefulness isn't great, her Personality and Athleticism make up for it. The best thing about Tanya, though, is her Hi-Fi ability, which allows you to somewhat track Michael's location by turning on noise-makers like TVs and stereos.

Meanwhile, Eric and Laurie both have excellent aura reading abilities, being able to see exits when in a calm state, which is why they sit in the A+ tier.

For more help getting out alive, check out my Halloween the Game tips and all of the civilian escape options in the Halloween game, and don't forget to take a look at how to add your Halloween the Game crossplay friends so you can detain Michael down together.

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My half hour with Alien Isolation 2 wasn't supposed to end like this. I've spent the last few minutes crouch-walking through a wrecked spaceship. It's dark in here – too dark to see more than an arm's length ahead. A storm buffets the vessel, the yawning groan of metal sheets slowly being pulled from the ship's carcass by strong winds – or straining beneath heavy, unnatural footsteps – setting my teeth on edge. Electrical sparks land in pools of stagnant water. Nearby, a control panel flickers weakly, just long enough for me to spy a slippery onyx-black tail slither out of the room just behind it.

My mission is to reroute the ship's power while avoiding a sinister presence stalking my every move. Sensing an opportunity, I make a break for a newly-unlocked door and promptly get a tail between the ribs. The music stops – wait, there was music too? – as my character gurgles a surprised gasp, staring down at the barbed and bloodied thing that's erupted from her chest. She falls to the ground. Blackout. Game over.

It's a shocking moment, pulled off with the kind of cinematic flair I've only seen in the original Alien Isolation. With a dangerous outdoor environment as well as the nerve-shredding sci-fi interiors we all know and fear, developer Creative Assembly is widening the playing field while bringing back some of its favorite toys for Alien Isolation 2. Including, apparently, all the colourful ways you can die at the many pointy ends of a xenomorph.

I hate the great outdoors

I was wondering how Alien Isolation, a series known for heaping near-constant pressure upon the player as you're pursued through the winding metal interiors of a contained spaceship, might fare in open terrain come the sequel. I needn't have worried – the upcoming horror game doesn't have a release date yet, but it's already an expert at making open spaces feel suffocating.

As soon as I land on the alien planet, the sensory onslaught is brutal. Rain roars down in heavy, angry sheets as protagonist Blake and her crewmates emerge from their pod to find a wild world determined to wash them away. It's disorienting, to say the least, but the game makes its point known: you might be able to flee to the great outdoors in Alien Isolation 2, but don't expect a walk in the park.

Every element has been cleverly placed to amp up the feeling of overwhelm, but special props go to Creative Assembly's sound designers and engineers. From foraging for abandoned flare guns left by the unfortunate crash-landers before us to following sparks in the rain-soaked gloom, trudging across rocky terrain only to find more rocks and burning foliage around the wreck site – I've never been more thankful or more terrified to enter a xenomorph's domain if it means escaping the assault on my senses.

It's tight, linear, and incredibly effective, telegraphing the cinematic underpinnings of the Alien IP itself. The only aspect that pulls me out of the immersion is how one of Blake's co-workers is ever so slightly overanimated compared to his colleagues, gesticulating with wild abandon as if larger movements will make me hear him better.

By the time we reach the wrecked spaceship, I'm grateful. Picking through techie detritus on a hunt for electrical parts with which to repair a nearby fusebox is positively meditative in comparison to weathering the storm outside. Powering up the generators to open a sealed inner chamber will definitely lead me straight to the survivors who definitely survived the crash and who haven't been offed by some other entity, after all. Instead, it all goes to hell.

The horror icon makes its entrance in a manner befitting its caliber: with broken glass, gnashing teeth, and fear in its wake. Blake's breathing immediately goes shaky, and paired with the first-person perspective, evokes hints of Resident Evil Requiem's Grace Ashcroft. Tense, I wait for a moment to step out from my hiding place beneath a desk, picking up bottles with which to distract the enemy and an assortment of items I hope might come in useful – if I survive long enough to use them.

I try three times to escape the xenomorph before my time with Alien Isolation 2 runs out, and fail all of them. I really messed up by trying to make a run for it, I'm told in an interview after the fact.

The game's lethal pursuer is every bit as clever as it was in the first game, always listening to your echoing footsteps somewhere in the darkness. Its AI pathing is even more attuned this time around, too, and the xenomorph will pay special attention to patterns in your movements, behavior, and strategies. Counter it one way, and it'll be ready to Uno-reverse it later on, for example. Rain might make it easy to hide, but robs you from hearing it coming at all. Hiding inside the ship might feel safer for a time, but there are only so many places to hide in a shredded tin can. Whether inside or out, it is hellbent on hunting you down.

I love it. I am terrified of it. I cannot wait to play Alien Isolation 2. I only hope the devs were sincere in telling me they don't want to give anyone a heart attack – even if they're more than happy to bring us dangerously close for a while.

12 years later, Alien Isolation 2 leads want better tech and more space to sear the horror sequel into your memory

Saw: Genesis is not scary. Call it an occupational hazard, but few asymmetrical horror games are these days. Texas Chain Saw Massacre is probably the most terrifying, lore-accurate depiction of the source movie's tone and tension.

Meanwhile, Dead by Daylight's Survivors-versus-Killers framework speaks for itself, hinging upon hooking or avoiding being hooked. It's a simple structure, sometimes earning it accusations of being boring. But Saw: Genesis suffers the opposite problem. The success of a horror asym is tied to how well a game can sustain player engagement, and this one in its current state proves why a simple onboarding process is the best way to ensnare a player's attention off the bat.

Jigsaw puzzle

I can totally see the vision here. As a precursor murder mastermind to Saw's infamous Jigsaw killer, The Judge's job is to punish captive victims by putting them through horrific trials, involving everything from self-mutilation to sacrificing a limb to save another. The victims' job is to work together to solve the challenges before time runs out and your head explodes — and staying alive that long is challenging in itself. As it stands, there's almost too much to do in the upcoming horror game to make it intuitive. Case in point: the skill entry level to playing as the Judge is so high, the developers insist we play our whole hands-on demo as Victims.

Loading into my first match, I realize too late that I've not got any perks equipped. No matter, I tell myself; I'm sure my sunken-eyed little boy character, fresh out of a Tim Burton movie, will have some kind of a trick up his sleeve?

Not quite. My other teammates' characters are armed with bonesaws and bandages, perfect for inflicting and relieving pain in equal measure, and I am left defenceless against the Judge's first devious set of traps and puzzles.

Challenges play out through various mini games. A series of quick time events, not dissimilar to Dead by Daylight's skill checks, pop up as I try to disarm a trip wire. I'm ready and waiting for the same when I find another trap, but fail abysmally when a series of directional arrows appears on screen instead. The trap explodes in a cloud of noxious green gas, poisoning my character immediately.

This whole mishap demonstrates the high mental load placed upon the player from the get-go. Sure, it adds pressure to a situation and leaves me always on my toes, but not knowing which minigame will pop up when makes it all the harder to get invested in the experience — especially when I’m barking orders and taking them from my fellow demoists in a comically friendslop-adjacent way.

Saw Genesis feels like it wants to be the PvPvE answer to something like Outlast Trials, but right now, it lacks discipline and polish. Sure, it really is refreshing to have more to do in an asymmetrical horror game than smash gens and loop a killer around a pallet, but I do feel some iteration needs to take place before all of these systems and ideas feel truly fluid. Less is more, in my opinion, so I hope to see Broken Mirror reassess aspects of the game with approachability in mind over a high skill ceiling.

Looking for more future scares? Check out our roundup of all of the upcoming horror games that await you.

Few things linger in your subconscious longer than memories of being frightened as a child. Some of my strongest are moments from video games I was probably way too young to be playing, like the gas station scene from the original Resident Evil 2, Scissorman from Clock Tower, and maybe a little more niche, mutated kids from the 1998 point-and-click psychological horror game, Sanitarium. That's why, when a co-worker asked if I'd seen the newly announced Sanitarium Enhanced, a "modernized" version and the first official launch on consoles, I had a visceral reaction.

It's been almost 30 years since I've played Sanitarium, and to be frank I'd mostly forgotten about it until today, but watching the trailer for Enhanced brought back some powerful memories. I specifically remember the inmates of the asylum banging their heads against the stone walls and the splatter of blood left behind.

Sanitarium places you in the shoes of an unfortunate man who wakes up in a ruined asylum, disfigured and without any memory of his previous life. Once you get out of there it's like a horrible amusement park full of genuinely disturbing attractions, from the aforementioned village of deformed children to the town crawling with giant, mutant insects, to the circus level with squid man and dog man. As you point and click through the world, you'll uncover the likely horrific truth of your past.

Sanitarium Enhanced includes various modern features like full controller support for consoles and Steam Deck, widescreen display, "never-before-seen bonus material," and "other quality-of-life improvements." Crucially, there are also "fixes to legacy bugs and issues" and an optional hint system to help you find interactables. In my research, two of the most common pain points about the original game is that it's pretty buggy and its interactable objects can be hard to separate from environments due to the dated visuals.

The game comes out in 2026 for Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch 1 and 2. I can't wait to revisit those very same nightmares some 28 years later.

Here are the best horror games to play in 2026.

I haven't played flash player horror games for 15 years, but I think about Hotel 626 often. The live-action horror walking sim was only accessible in your web browser between six PM and six AM – from six to six, if you will – and it was the coolest thing 13-year-old me had ever seen.

Hotel 626 "hacked" your webcam to snap pictures of your face during its most terrifying jumpscares. It sent cryptic texts to your mobile phone. If supplied with your landline number, it would call your house in the dead of night. The browser game was a school-wide phenomenon, dominating hallway chit-chat for weeks, which is strange considering Hotel 626 was actually a Doritos ad.

Commemorating nacho chip flavors being brought "back from the dead" for Halloween 2008, a sneaky logo on the endgame splash page was the only indication that the whole thing was a marketing campaign by US ad agency Wolfgang LA. Somehow, that knowledge only made Hotel 626 cooler. I remember eating a lot of Doritos that year.

Both Hotel 626 and its sister campaign Asylum 626 are officially no more, enshrined among gaming's most ephemeral lost pieces of media since 2011. Now, only memories and a handful of Let's Plays prove it ever existed. But it was just one of many terrifying flash games that gripped young teens by their blazer lapels and drew them into one of the quirkiest, most irreplicable moments in online gaming history.

After catching up with two indie game devs making some of the most exciting upcoming horror games around, it's clear this obsession reached far beyond my secondary school. Browser horror didn't die with Adobe Flash Player; it continues to inspire developers to this day.

Tall tales

Browser games edified my earliest online gaming experiences. I got my first laptop at the (arguably too-young) age of 12 as part of my school's Macbook program. Just like all of my peers, I abused that privilege to play browser games wherever I had an internet connection – and almost all of them were horror games.

Escape from Elm Street was my home turf. Slender: The Eight Pages was the sleepover tradition me and my friends held to for years, screaming with glee each time we got caught in the pixelated forest. And Hotel 626 isn't the only clever marketing ploy I was obsessed with. 2005's Hide and Seek is the first gamified movie website I remember visiting on my grandpa's clunky MacIntosh computer, while Keep Her Awake was a particularly alarming site launched in tandem with the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake that offered razor blades among the items at your disposal to keep sleep (and Freddy Krueger) at bay.

I'm convinced that every thirty-or-forty-something who had internet access in the early 2000s has one browser game experience that stayed with them. My theory is reinforced, at least in part, by Chantal Ryan and Luke Dodds.

For Ryan, creator of narrative roguelike browser-framed horror game darkwebSTREAMER, her flash player love was visual point-and-click novel Arcane: Online Mystery Serial. "It was available, I think, on the Warner Bros website, and was an incredibly well made game – hand-animated in a bizarro Don Bluth style, great voice acting and music, and a truly oppressive Victorian Gothic atmosphere. I've rarely seen dread done so well in a game," she says.

The two-game narrative adventure was in the works between 1999 and 2001 before being discontinued, to the dismay of its passionate fanbase.

It was a simple yet effective experience in terms of mechanics. "Every time you clicked the mouse, the gaze of the Lovecraftian being focused closer in on you and brought you closer to your death," explains Ryan. "You played multiple characters racing to figure out how to stop this being."

Ryan can still remember the "skin crawling on the back of my neck" as she tried in vain to solve puzzles before an unseen force ensnared the player, echoing my own experiences playing other browser games. "I remember trying to program my own flash games as a kid because I was so inspired," she goes on. "Low key, they don't make 'em like they used to."

Flash player horror had a unique physical and emotional affect, capable of chilling and thrilling with no fancy tech required. It's one of the things Luke Dodds, solo developer of Norse myth-infused "hardcore detective" horror Nowhere, appreciates about the browser game era, too.

"What I still admire about those early horror games is how much they could achieve with so little," says Dodds. "They did not need huge budgets or complex systems to be memorable. A creepy room, a sudden scare, or an unsettling visual was enough to stick with you."

But what was his personal flash player game of choice? "Exmortis is probably the big one for me. It is one of those series I can look back on and see a clear line between playing strange Flash horror games as a kid and eventually wanting to make horror games myself. I was around 10 when I played the first one, arguably too young too, so they may have definitely left an impression!"

Exmortis, and sequel Exmortis 2, are point-and-click horror games you can still play today on Newgrounds. The first strands you in the woods with no recollection of how you got there – think gritty, low-rez photorealistic graphics and an oppressively eerie atmosphere that was both a consequence and advantage of its low-budget development. "I think that early browser horror era was really formative for me. It eventually fed into my love for games like Penumbra, Slender, and Amnesia, and it just grew exponentially from there."

Lessons learned

Comparing the look and feel of Exmortis and Nowhere – which also sees the player character exploring a creepy woodland to uncover the mysteries therein – the throughline makes a lot of sense. But Ryan's inspirations for darkwebSTREAMER spiral out even further, into a realm beyond horror games – though still very much of the flash player era

"Funnily, hentai dating sim games were also a huge inspiration for me," she says of unsavory Newgrounds discoveries of a different kind. "I didn't much care for the porn – the women were generally wildly objectified and silly – but I did love the RPG-sim mechanics! Ganguro Girl is one that sticks out, a sort of ridiculous satire on Japanese ganguro culture, as being particularly well done." I really wish I could Google this one for you on my office WiFi, dear reader, but I'd best not chance it.

She riffs off some of these mechanics in darkwebSTREAMER, where you step into the pixelated desktop of an occult webstreamer in the 90s. "I think it's kind of poetic, given it's a game based around the internet," Ryan muses.

The heyday of Newgrounds, Addictinggames, and other flash player game sites was fascinating, predicating the likes of itch.io and Roblox as free-to-play, community-made PC gaming platforms. True, some can still be played in 2026, but they're such products of a specific time period that it doesn't quite feel the same.

And yet, their ghosts live on. "Flash games left an indelible imprint on me as a person and a designer," Ryan tells me of their enduring magic. "There's something to the ephemeral, often-scrappy nature of them that haunts. Games that live on the internet. Little portals to strange worlds you had to literally dial into. I'm constantly striving to capture that sort of eerily ethereal nature in my own work – something strange, surprising, sometimes rough around the edges, and feeling wholly belonging to another world."

We've hailed the AAA horror renaissance, but it owes itself to the indie horror boom

Euphoria star Hunter Schafer has revealed she's recently performed in mocap for Hideo Kojima's upcoming horror game OD.

Despite knowing about the upcoming Hideo Kojima games for a while now, we really don't know all that much about either of them. We do know that horror title OD will be first up to the plate, with the game being announced at The Game Awards 2023, but – despite a very naked gameplay leak a year before the game was announced – Kojima claimed his studio was just beginning to work on OD last year. We did get our second trailer last year, while Kojima is hyping it up as a game that goes "beyond the limit of 'scariness."

Well, we now have a slight update on the production of OD, as Schafer – when speaking to IGN at SDCC 2026 – says working OD "was a lot of fun" and that she "just did mocap not too long ago."

Schafer also says "that was my first experience doing motion capture," adding that she loves "how much imagination is involved in filming something like that." She notes: "I just think Hideo's a genius and so lovely to work with"

Beyond that, Schafer speaks about the games she's been playing, calling The Last of Us Part 2 "life-changing," and revealing she has recently played Journey, which she describes as "really simple and gorgeous."

For comparison, Death Stranding 2 motion capture was completed in May 2024, and took just over a year to release from that point. So, come time for The Game Awards this year, I'd suspect (or hope) we might find out a bit more about OD, and have a better idea of what it is and when it's releasing.

Hideo Kojima isn't planning to blast off to space yet because he doesn't want to rush to his "ultimate dream," so he'll "keep on making games" for now.

DBD Chaos Shuffle, along with 2v8, is one of the most prominent limited-time modes added to the horror game. It only comes around occasionally, so I for one am always looking forward to the next iteration of the LTM.

By randomizing your perk loadout in every match, you never know what's going to happen - especially since the other four players also have random perks, too. Not only is this just a recipe for fun, but it's also a great way to learn some of the more obscure perks you might not use much or even own, so here's when DBD Chaos Shuffle returns next.

When is DBD Chaos Shuffle back?

Since Chaos Shuffle last returned between July 28 and August 4, 2026, as part of the Summer Screams event, we don't currently know when it'll be back.

DBD 2v8 mode is instead making more regular appearances, closing out Summer Screams and returning again in September, so hopefully Chaos Shuffle fans won't have to wait too much longer.

As I've mentioned above, Chaos Shuffle randomly selects your four perks, but you can still choose your item, add-ons, and Offering. You won't know what your perks are until you load into the game, so I recommend using the first few seconds of the match, before play begins, to read your perk descriptions. You can do this by entering the menu and hovering your mouse or controller cursor over each perk. You can look at these at any time, but you will be out of commission while you do so.

This latest Chaos Shuffle event comes ahead of the next DBD update, which is coming soon, boasting heaps of thrilling new content, so redeem the latest DBD codes to ensure you're stocked up on Bloodpoints to spend on the next new character.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

It still feels unreal, but Alien: Isolation 2 exists and is coming out sooner rather than later. Creative Assembly is back to take another big swing – or at least that's what we got from the first preview. But of course, everyone's wondering about Alien: Isolation star Amanda Ripley. Where is she? What is her potential role in this new story?

Shockingly, it seems we'll be strictly following a new protagonist, Blake, on a colony planet haunted by the Xenomorph. We've yet to learn much about the story and where Blake's journey might go, but Alien: Isolation 2 is trying not to retread too much of the 2014 original. That said, longtime fans remember the first game ended on a cliffhanger that was quite divisive, so surely Ellen Ripley's daughter has to be involved somehow, right?

Well, not really. While it seems Alien: Isolation 2 happens shortly after the events that destroyed the Sevastopol Station, Amanda Ripley has already continued her adventures elsewhere. More specifically, she was at the center of a comic book run by Dark Horse. It remains to be seen whether the leads at Creative Assembly will ignore them or play along by focusing on a different character and storyline, but here's the rundown on what happened and how it all could be tied together.

Spoilers ahead. If you'd like to keep Amanda Ripley's fate a mystery and stick to the games' narrative, turn around now.

The Corporation always wins

Alien: Isolation's final cutscene shows Amanda floating adrift in space until she's seemingly found by a ship. Three days had passed, but she survives and is taken to the Mendel Station... where another Xenomorph outbreak awaits. The immediate sequel to the original game was Alien: Blackout, a mobile-only game that has more in common with off-beat horror titles like Five Nights at Freddy's. It wasn't very good or inspired, and the plot was mostly a retread of Isolation's ideas through different mechanics and systems. You only need to know Amanda managed to escape alongside other survivors and set course to Earth.

Past this point, you should read Brian Wood's Aliens: Resistance and Rescue, two limited four-issue comic book series that directly follow Amanda Ripley as she tries to expose the Weyland-Yutani Corporation after returning to Earth and being silenced by the powers that be. Tonally, they're more in line with James Cameron's Aliens, so we get to see Amanda gunning down plenty of Xenomorphs as opposed to playing things smart with almost no resources.

Without getting into specifics, these stories also introduce the ex-Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks, who was introduced in Aliens: Defiance, also written by Brian Wood. They make for a fun duo of protagonists even if Resistance and Rescue mostly boil down to uncovering and putting an end to more of Weyland-Yutani's experiments. As Alien: Romulus (which also happens between Alien and Aliens) revealed, the Company was busy while Ellen Ripley slept for decades. We know Amanda could've kept fighting the good fight after Rescue's ending, but ultimately, she settles down years later and lives a normal life as revealed by Aliens. The sad thing is she never saw her mother again.

The fight against Weyland-Yutani might be far from over though. Another overlooked fact is Alien: Rogue Incursion – a VR game later adapted for regular screens – briefly mentions Amanda's post-Rescue exploits as Zula Hendricks continues her war against corporate evil in deep space. With developer Survios gutted earlier this year, however, the game's planned second part might never happen.

Ripley's legacy

Alien: Isolation 2 might orbit the Romulus timeline – though we don't know specifics yet – and both Ripley and Hendricks are still active, so there's a solid chance the game won't be as standalone as it looked at first. 20th Century Studios, Creative Assembly, and Sega are keeping their cards close to their chests (as they should), so it's smart to expect the unexpected.

LV-921 provides a new playground for the developers that should keep veteran players on their toes – especially if the Xenomorph's AI has evolved as much as the graphics – but I have no doubt that it's only the first step of a bigger and more terrifying journey. Who could've expected the original game to shake things up past a certain point with several Xenomorphs after just one had already made survival almost impossible? It's why I'm prepared for a wilder, more brutal ride. Sorry, Blake, it's looking bad for you.

In any case, both Ellen and Amanda Ripley's legacy is this huge shadow that seems to cover the entire Alien franchise after the Nostromo incident. One way or another, they changed Weyland-Yutani's course and gave it something it desperately wanted. So it makes sense it's up to them to make sure toying with the universe's deadliest species doesn't end humanity. As we know, they manage to at least hold the horrors at bay if you're okay with keeping Alien 3 and Resurrection in the canon. What about unsung heroes like Hendricks, Blake, or Rain Carradine though? Well, it's their turn to shine.

Alien: Isolation is still one of the best horror games ever made - but if its sequel's setup is still confusing you, here's how to watch all of the Alien films in order.

Halloween: The Game just revealed a special Limited Collector's Edition with an exclusive, and chilling, Michael Myers action figure by Trick or Treat Studios.

This special edition is crammed with goodies like a trick or treat bag of candy. Aside from the game itself, it features in-game skins and cosmetics, an exclusive poster, lenticular art, and "more surprises" still to come. However, all eyes are likely to be on the exclusive Scream Great Shape Jump Michael Myers 8-inch variant action figure. This gives the villain an ethereal, ghostly glow that really helps it pop. Personally, I love that it comes with a teeny pumpkin given the same finish. That alone gets it my vote as one of the best toys I've seen this week.

In terms of the team behind that action figure, it's being made by Trick or Treat Studios – an outfit known for its masks, yes, but also its highly detailed action figures. That includes everything from Terrifier toys to Mr. Myers himself, but they're perhaps best known for their 1:1 scale Chucky Doll (which you can see here at Mad About Horror, because it needs to be witnessed). That kind of reputation makes me sit up and pay attention to this little Michael Myers, even if he is admittedly a fraction of the size of that Chucky masterpiece.

Halloween: The Game and its Limited Collector's Edition will land on October 6, 2026.

Want collectibles that are a little less creepy? It's worth dropping in on the best Lego sets. If you're still in a spooky mood, though, here's how, after 47 years, Halloween: The Game answers "burning questions" about John Carpenter's 1978 classic.

A bloodied Ada Wong screams as a meat hook pierces her shoulder – for the third time this match – and she’s pulled skyward. The Entity, Dead By Daylight's villain above villains, draws her into its claws before she wakes by the bonfire again, ready to start the process over.

In the real world, as the one controlling Ada, I push my chair away from my desk and put my head in my hands, despairing at yet another team letting me down, another killer tunneling me out, my own poor judgement. I stand up to walk out the room – but not before hitting the button to ready up and start the process over.

Little do I know that, not only is Ada’s tragic and repetitive death feeding The Entity, but so am I.

Mixed Emotions

We don’t know much about Dead by Daylight’s mysterious Entity, the ultimate evil presiding over the whole affair, drawing killers and their victims into a sick, cyclical game. In a blog post for the game’s tenth anniversary, though, developer Behaviour Interactive gave fans a bit more insight. It turns out that what feeds The Entity in DBD isn’t death itself, or the dead, but rather the emotions felt by each character, both killer and survivor, during a match.

“Consider the various emotions each victim must experience over the course of a Trial,” the blog reads, “The thrill of the hunt. The highs of escape. A fleeting hope like a surge of electricity. The sick satisfaction whenever the light leaves a Survivor’s eyes. It’s speculated that everything [characters] feel over the course of a Trial somehow sustains The Entity.”

Reading this, it occurs to me that this mirror’s the player’s experience, too.

Whether it’s loading into a killer lobby with a tightness in my chest, anxious about going up against a good team or being abused in the post-game chat, or the buzz of getting a four-man escape from a seemingly impossible situation, the DBD player experience is as much of a rollercoaster of emotions as that of the in-game characters. In fact, playing Dead by Daylight is almost exclusively about highs and lows.

As a solo-queue survivor, these feelings are especially elevated. While it feels good as a killer to outplay a sweaty swf (survive with friends) team, it’s even sweeter when a solo-queue survivor squad beats the odds to get every man out. Especially since there are no comms. When wordless communication, excellent game sense, and solid understanding of the HUD come together to result in a narrow escape from a decent killer, the fleeting high is enough to see me through the devastating lows of the other 90% of the trials. The ones when I’m hooked for the first time and see my three team mates creeping around the edge of the map or hiding in a locker, making no effort to rescue me. The ones where I’m intentionally tunneled out at five gens or slugged until I bleed to death.

Meanwhile, when I’m playing as a killer and can feel my heart in my stomach for the entire trial, it’s worth it for those few occasions that I win or even draw. Even then, I just get a “ggwp” in the post-game chat instead of a “ggez”. So every time I’m teabagged at the exit gates, I still ready up again, masochistically putting myself through the ringer once more in the hopes of a close, fun, but wholesome and friendly match.

In doing so, I'm feeding The Entity as much as Ada and the others. By coming back time and time again, struggling and succeeding, lamenting and celebrating, I keep this deadly power alive. Perhaps this was The Entity’s plan all along.

If you're logging back into the action, make sure you've redeemed the latest DBD codes for free rewards.

There's customer service, and then there's customer blessing, and indie game creator Luka Hizo Algo is now adept at the latter. The benevolent horror dev recently released an update for liminal space horror game Buenos Aires Mirror Line just because one guy wanted him to.

Earlier this month, Algo and co-developer Rafael Di Carlo shared a minor fix for Buenos Aires Mirror Line, an hour-long horror experience about being trapped in a time loop in a grungy edition of Argentina. But Steam user MadMcMan didn't care. MadMcMan needed to invert their mouse, and so Buenos Aires Mirror Line devs fell to the floor and obliged.

"An update with no invert mouse, literally the worst," scoffed Steam user MadMcMan on June 18, reacting to Algo and Di Carlo's small update. By June 21, Algo got to say, "You're welcome." He had – as he put it in a Steam announcement post – "added Invert Y option specifically for MadMcMan."

"You could say I'm a people pleaser," Algo continues in the post.

MadMcMan eventually admitted the new feature was "nice" in the comments of Algo's announcement, and they completed a Buenos Aires Mirror Line playthrough on June 27. This all culminated in the Steam user's glowing review of the horror game: "Its good."

I can't think of a better ending for a heartwarming tale about inverting the Y-axis in a game, which I didn't realize anyone actually did. According to visual science research (thanks, The Guardian), people who invert their controls may have developed a preference for it by playing games like Microsoft Flight Simulator through the '80s, though they aren't necessarily predisposed to it. So MadMcMan likely would have thought "its good" about Buenos Aires Mirror Line had they given its default controls a chance, but it's important to be adamant about what you want.

I've been playing Steam Next Fest demos for over 5 years, and here are the 12 demos you shouldn't miss during the June event.

Hideo Kojima says he was called "crazy" while pitching the concept for his upcoming horror game OD, and only former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer understood what he was trying to do.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kojima explains that he had trouble getting OD picked up by any publisher since "I pitched to many people, to the big companies, and also to the up-and-coming companies. All of them said the same thing."

Kojima continues, "They said that I'm crazy, and that they really don't understand the concept – that they will not be able to do it."

First unveiled during The Game Awards 2023 (following leaks the prior year as Overdose), OD claims it's going to be a horror experience "no one has ever seen before," and it's being made in collaboration with the likes of horror director Jordan Peele and a larger group of collaborators Kojima is calling his "Avengers." OD's concept (and namesake) is for the player to "overdose" on horror, with Kojima hyping it up as a game that goes "beyond the limit of 'scariness.'"

The idea ultimately appealed to Phil Spencer, who understood the concept and took it on board. Current Xbox CEO Asha Sharma also calls the project a "deeply moving game." She adds, "I've got great artists and creatives that can pick a great game better than I can, and so I want to give it space, but most importantly, I think it just represents another kind of game."

OD currently doesn't have a release date, and outside of a very naked leak and a couple of quick trailers, we really don't know too much about what it has to offer. It seems like the studio was waiting until Death Stranding 2 launched before going all-in on development, as Kojima said his studio was just beginning to work on OD last year. Both OD and Kojima's upcoming stealth game Physint were impacted by the SAG-Aftra strike in 2024, so it'll probably be The Game Awards at the earliest before we see another glimpse of them.

Hideo Kojima recommended Norman Reedus his "favorite" anime, and it sounds like The Walking Dead actor wants to turn it into a live-action movie.

If video game royalty Hideo Kojima is to be believed, Kojima Productions' upcoming single-player horror game OD is going to scare you so much that you'll contemplate quitting, but the game is designed in such a way to help you persevere.

If that all sounds incredibly vague and confusing, don't blame me. Kojima tiptoed around the topic of OD in an interview with Entertainment Weekly for Xbox's 25th anniversary. He's been tightlipped about the project since its reveal back in 2023, and it doesn't help that he's previously described it as "a new form of media" that "explores the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to OD on fear." What exactly that means still isn't clear, but Kojima says there's a whole new system that'll help you navigate the horror if OD happens to go beyond your threshold for fear.

"I wanted to go beyond the limit of the 'scariness' that other games had reached," he says. "It's a single-player game, and I wanted to make it as scary as possible.

"But for those that might stop playing when it gets too scary, I have thought of a system that will allow them to keep going. I can't say much more, because it'll give too much of a hint on the system, and I could get in trouble for saying too much!"

As a self-professed scaredy cat, who just happens to love horror games much to the detriment of my blood pressure, I'm cautiously reassured by this. Kojima is responsible for one of the scariest games I've ever played in PT, and if that "playable teaser" was any longer than an hour or so, there's no way I would've been able to beat it in one sitting. I'm relieved to hear Kojima and co. are considering wimps like me while developing OD, but it's hard to feel completely comfortable until we know the details of this new system.

Capcom tackled the issue of fear thresholds masterfully in Resident Evil Requiem, which frequently bounces between the unbearably tense Grace Ashcroft sections and the cathartic, action-packed Leon Kennedy sequences, offering much-needed breaks from the tension that you don't get in Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, which director Koshi Nakanishi has admitted was "possibly too scary." Hopefully we'll learn more soon about Kojima's plans to keep sissies like me from tapping out while playing OD.

Hideo Kojima recommended Norman Reedus his "favorite" anime, and it sounds like The Walking Dead actor wants to turn it into a live-action movie.

Slimy tentacles slithering out of a decapitated skull. Flies descending on a corpse, grey and mottled beneath a waxy sheen of rot. Watching the latest ILL trailer shown during Summer Game Fest, every frame feels meticulously crafted to make your skin crawl.

"We have our own vision of how horror should work," studio co-founder and ILL's creative director Max Verehin tells me. While the game is inspired by survival horror games like Resident Evil – specifically the "resource scarcity and management, exploration, and the level design" elements – Team Clout aims to "lean towards the physics-based action gameplay."

The heft of each movement, be it the weight of a gun in the protagonist's hand as the trigger is pulled or the feeling of prising a pipe out of a wall by force, are paramount in creating a "fun playground for players to play with these characters". A distinct physicality sits at the heart of ILL's design ethos, from its anatomically-precise dismemberment system to the weapons used to defend yourself.

Having worked as an artist for IT: Welcome to Derry and various other Universal and Sony productions, it's clear Verehin lives and breathes the horror genre. This cinematic edge can be keenly felt in ILL, as Team Clout approaches its upcoming horror game with the creative techniques of filmmaking to make each gory scream off the screen.

Knifemare

Body horror is a huge hook in ILL. It's also one of Verehin's fascinations when it comes to what makes the genre tick in film, especially in terms of practical effects, with ILL recapturing "the feeling of making a shot" by taking the theory of cinematic mise en scene – the composition of a camera shot, from framing to characters, items, lighting, and more – and applying it to a video game.

"ILL is definitely a cinematic experience by its nature," says verehin. "When we started to grow the project and decided that there was going to be a story with [cinematic] cutscenes, we used our experience in how movie production works – how they make their animation drafts, and how they turn into the final results that you see on screen.

"I had the opportunity to see very early drafts of the scenes from Welcome to Derry, for example, and we are actually trying to make it the same [way] in ILL," Verehin says of the draft animation to final-product pipeline. Team Clout also storyboards each scene shot for shot, bringing the frames to life in steps. "Of course, there is the limitation of not being able to reproduce super photo-real visuals, but [we are] aiming in that regard to the fidelity of what you see visually in the movies, and using camera tricks to make it cinematic as well."

Along with a visceral dismemberment system and gnarly weighted weapon impact, striking a cinematic tone is "our main goal," he says. "We are trying to stay true to [a cinematic feel] and make it feel as immersive as possible, but we are never aiming for super realism," Verehin clarifies. "It is not a simulator game. We are trying to exaggerate things, so it feels cooler."

That means certain video game rules still apply – all melee weapons are breakable, though can be upgraded to enhance their hardiness. Bullets are in short supply, too, though the core combat function is more heavily weighted toward gunplay, though we can expect some scenes where the protagonist (voiced by Resident Evil Requiem and Remakes' actor, Nick Apostolides) finds himself totally defenceless.

Camera tricks come into play in all of the cutscenes we've seen so far, especially in the latest trailer, which is the first piece of story exposition we've been treated to. "We are trying to stick to the first person [perspective], but we allowed ourselves to be more real here, and we actually sometimes bring the camera away from the protagonist."

Verehin knows that some FPS fans might find that a bit immersion-breaking, but hey – they did it in Dying Light: The Beast, and no one batted an eye. "You cannot really create a cinematic experience if you're not playing with FOV or zoom effects, so we're playing a lot with this and having some fun around that."

One key difference between Dying Light hero Kyle and Nick Apostolides' character in ILL is the fact that we don't actually get to see his face. Shades of Resident Evil 7 again, right? Kind of – keeping the character's face a mystery is not only helpful for creating a similar "everyman" feeling to that of Ethan Winters' character, but it helps avoid "a lot of [development] headaches," Verehin laughs. "There are a lot of headaches. This is one of them."

Slay and pray

Seeing the world through the eyes of our as-yet nameless hero, woken from a coma to nightmarish horrors overtaking the research facility, is a sight to behold. I pick up on strange bits of retro tech in certain frames, old computers and typing equipment that would seem more at home in the 80s rather than the 2020s. "We are trying to create this feeling of analog sci-fi horror," Verehin says, channeling the retro '80s sci-fi movies that inspired him in the first place in a style similar to that of Alien: Romulus. "The game is set in the '80s too, but I'm not going to spoil exactly when."

One thing's for sure, though: ILL is not a zombie game. "We're actually trying to get away from the feeling that we have zombies in our game," Verehin says. The game's official Steam page describes the humanoid monsters as "aberrations" with violent tendencies and "unique behavioral abilities," though where they came from and what exactly happened at the facility is yet to be revealed.

There also seems to be a degree of unpredictability as to when and where Aberrations might show up. "They might appear in really funny and surprising circumstances, animation-wise," Verehin says. "You might walk around, see a fridge, and there is an enemy in the fridge who just slams open the door and takes you into the fridge. This is a random situation. This is not from the game, I'm just making it up," he says, but the point is that the enemies don't always do "bad" things – they get a little weird, too.

In a trailer filled with blasted-off limbs, grinning naked men inching toward you with a weapon, and a gigantic toothsome head crashing through a solid concrete wall to take a side-swipe at you, being yanked into a refrigerator sounds quite relaxing. ILL's penchant for cinematic oddity seems tapped from an endless well of grotesque, delightful weirdness, and I can't wait to experience the ghoulish torment for myself when I finally get my hands on it in 2027.

With over 41 DBD killers in the game now, it can be hard to know who to play and which ones to unlock first, especially when some of them require real-world money to unlock.

My DBD killer tier list below ranks characters on their overall ability and average difficulty, but I'll go into a bit more detail too, so hopefully I can help you decide which killers are right for you. Just don't forget it's not always about which are the most prolific killers, but sometimes more about which are the most fun to play.

All DBD killers ranked

As I've mentioned above, my DBD killer tier list bases killers on their average performance, so this might not be totally accurate for, say, someone playing in the top or bottom MMR. It also doesn't take the likes of perks and add-ons into consideration either.

Instead, this is a rough guide to generally playability, killer power, how easy they are to counter, and how much success you're likely to have at mid-level. I'll also pick out a few special mentions and go into more detail on them below. Honestly, though, all the killers below can be fun to play, and The Dredge is my personal favorite, despite being in the bottom tier, so you do you!

The best DBD killers to unlock first

The above tier list might help you choose which killers to try first, but their are other things to consider than just their performance. A big one is their unique perks, meaning some of the worst killers might actually be some of the best to buy. So, whether you're looking to spend Iridescent Shards on original characters or real money or licenced ones, here are some of the best killers to consider first:

• The Slasher
• The Clown
• The Artist
• The Trapper
• The Wraith
• The Huntress
• The Hag

The Slasher

The Slasher is a new DBD killer, and is immediately one of the best, both in terms of power and fun. Like The Huntress, who I go into more detail about below, The Slasher, AKA Jason Vorhees, is a projectile killer, meaning he can throw objects at survivors in order to injure or down them at range.

While this does mean you need good aim, learning to play as Jason is incredibly fun, and once you've mastered him, he's one of the most deadly DBD killers to date. Whether he's nerfed in the near future I don't know, but until then, he's an essential if you're willing to part with real-life money.

The Clown

The Clown, meanwhile, is an original killer, meaning you can unlock him with free in-game currency called Iridescent Shards. He's highly cited as being the most important original killer to unlock thanks to his unique Perk Pop Goes the Weasel, which causes massive regression on kicked gens. So, even if you're terrified of clowns, he's still worth buying.

Speaking of Coulrophobia, that's another of his Perks, and significantly slows down survivors' healing speed when they're near you. Finally, there's Bamboozle, another hugely popular killer Perk, temporarily blocking windows whenever you use them yourself.

The Artist

The Artist can be an incredibly dominant force, but she's also very hard to play well, hence her position in my tier list. That said, she's another original character that it's worth unlocking for her Perks, even if you want to work your way up to playing her, or don't like her at all.

All three of The Artist's Perks are fantastic, but you'll likely hear of Pain Resonance and Pentimento the most, two of the best killer Perks.

The Trapper

The Trapper is a base game killer, so you don't need to unlock him, but he's getting a mention here since the OG, the iconic face of DBD, sometimes gets a bad wrap, and you'll likely have seen him far lower down other tier lists than he is on mine above.

In my opinion, this is because most of the tier lists you see are made by people in the very highest MMR, but if you're a more casual player, and the survivors you play against are too, The Trapper can actually be an incredible force. The key is not to spend too much time placing traps at the start of a match, and make sure when you do place them that they're in good positions, particularly in doorways and near pallets that can't be avoided in chase.

The Huntress

Default killers like The Wraith, The Trapper, and The Huntress each offer very different playstyles, but they're all good for beginners, with The Huntress being a great choice for FPS experts.

If you're a fan of shooters, you'll likely find DBD's projectile killers slightly easier, since you'll have a natural feel for angles and distance. Like The Trapper, you won't actually have to unlock The Huntress either, so she's an honorable mention here just to say that it's worth giving her a try if you haven't already. Then, if you like her, you could consider moving on to the likes of Springtrap and Jason.

The Hag

You might be wondering why The Hag is the bottom of the tier list, but on this list. Well, this comes down to her having two of the game's most devastating killer Perks: Ruin and Devour Hope. Both are Hex perks, with Ruin causing generators to regress immediately whenever a survivor lets go, giving you great gen control. Meanwhile, Devour Hope increases in value the more survivors you hook, eventually allowing you to instantly down and kill them.

While you can buy Perks in the weekly rotating Shrine of Secrets, you'll still have to part with Iridescent Shards, so you may as well spend a few more to unlock the killer herself. You can do it any time, you've got the killer unlocked for good, and you've got her other perk, too, all for just 2,500 Iri Shards.

Finally, if you're wondering which killer to get next, you might just want to consider your favorite horror franchises. With the likes of SAW, Resident Evil, Friday the 13th, FNAF, Silent Hill, and so many more all on the DBD killer roster, pick the killers you'll enjoy most - that's what it's all about, after all.

Once you've chosen, be sure to redeem the latest DBD codes for Bloodpoints to level up your new character. Then, take a look at the most recent DBD roadmap to see who's going to be added to this list next!

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It looks as though it's gonna be "game over, man" for a whole new crew of Colonial Marines, because the Alien RPG is getting an all-new campaign that's shoving them through the meatgrinder. I'm sure they'll be fine, and their mission will go exactly to plan with no issues whatsoever.

Following the launch of its new version earlier this year (Alien RPG Evolved Edition, which we gave four and a half stars in our review), Operation Leading Edge is a standalone adventure designed for three to five players. It'll launch in Q4 2026, and is up for pre-order via publisher Free League's store now.

While it can be played as a one-off, publisher Free League says that Operation Leading Edge is actually part two of the Jeremiah Saga trilogy (following on from Rapture Protocol, launched around the same time as Alien's Evolved Edition). With the exception of the core rules, it contains everything you need to run the campaign; you're getting the adventure itself, double-sided battlemaps, five pregenerated characters, playing cards with info on character agendas, tokens, and handouts. In terms of the story, it apparently "lets the players take the roles of a team of Colonial Marines sent to secure a rich mineral deposit on the remote moon Jeremiah VI. Just a routine drop n’ stop mission. What could possibly go wrong?" What indeed.

Judging by our experience with the Alien RPG, the answer is "a lot." We've long held this up as one of the best tabletop RPGs around, and I honestly think you'd struggle to find a more tense experience. The way it builds up and ekes out anxiety is masterful, and it's a struggle not to be perched on the edge of your seat. I played through the Alien RPG Evolved Edition Starter Set a few months ago, and it was perfectly unsettling – it absolutely nails the sense of desperate dread the movies are known for.

This was just one announcement of many, though; Free League also showed off Evolved Edition versions for previous releases, including the Chariot of the Angels cinematic adventure, the Colonial Marines sourcebook, and the Building Better Worlds book. While the previous versions were technically compatible with Evolved Edition, these reprints bring everything up to date.

For more recommendations on what to play next, why not check out the best board games?

In what is quite possibly the most stacked DBD roadmap to date, the game's 11th year has so much in store, with a lot of it announced during the tenth anniversary celebrations, and much more still to come.

Through the rest of 2026 and into 2027, there are new licensed crossovers, fantastic new events, stunning new Rifts, and even a new map, all of which I'm super stoked for. If you are too, here's all that and everything else revealed in the latest DBD roadmap.

DBD roadmap 2026

I mean, just look at it!! The DBD roadmap above takes us all the way through to April 2027, and features an incredible amount of content. Let me break it down for you:

• June 2026
  • New original survivor, Shane Wiigwaas
  • The Black Banquet anniversary event
  • Ice Nine Kills collab
• July 2026
  • Sunflesh Rift
  • Limited time modes
• August 2026
  • Chorus of Sin Chapter
• September 2026
  • 2v8 returns!
• October 2026
  • New Rift
  • Haunted by Daylight is back!
  • Diablo IV x Dead by Daylight
• November 2026
  • Art the Clown comes to town
• December 2026
  • New original map
  • Bone Chill returns
  • Scooby-Doo!
• January 2027
  • New Rift
• March 2027
  • The Casting of Frank Stone finally comes to DBD
• April 2027
  • A new survivor enters the Fog
• and beyond!
  • Graphical update!
  • More INK!
  • DBD in real life!
  • More Silent Hill!

Just look at that jam-packed line up! Aside from the obvious things, like the Scooby-Doo and INK collaborations and Frank Stone finally coming home, I'm particularly excited about the graphical update coming in the future. Sadly, this isn't included in the roadmap as it's over a year away, but some details were revealed during the tenth anniversary broadcast and it looks amazing. Especially that dynamic weather.

Another high point for the future of DBD falls in December this year, when a long-awaited new original map arrives: The Mall! This has been a fan-requested map destination for a long time, and we're finally seeing it come to fruition, along with some much-needed Dwight lore.

Then, there's the events and modes we love to see year after year. When the latest iteration of DBD 2v8 ends, Haunted by Daylight returns for Halloween, and Bone Chill follows in December. We've also got the next DBD update to look forward to, when Art the Clown enters the Fog in November.

With all that and more coming to Dead by Daylight, keep an eye on GamesRadar+ for the latest details! And don't forget to check out my list of the latest DBD codes for free cosmetics and Bloodpoints.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Black Banquet is a new DBD event, replacing the old Twisted Masquerade as the annual anniversary celebration. The opulence and decor you remember remains in the new setting, but the mechanics are entirely new, as you prepare or corrupt a lavish feast.

Of course, there are also heaps of new rewards to collect this year, as well as a new store collection, so here are the details of the DBD Black Banquet event, when it starts, and the rewards and outfits available.

DBD Black Banquet release date

The DBD Black Banquet event takes place from June 25, 2026 at 8am PT, 11am ET, 4pm BST, and runs until July 16.

Thanks to the latest patch notes, we now know a bit more about The Black Banquet ahead of its release. For a start, we know that, obviously, food is involved. This year, instead of picking up invitations or waiting for Trixie to trigger in-match events, survivors will be gathering ingredients for some disgusting corpse-based meals, unleashing more modifiers as you build out a great feast. All the while, killers will try and taint the food to turn things in their favor. with poison bottles that can also be thrown at survivors.

Meals are split into just two courses (which doesn't feel very opulent, but it is less complex): Main Course and Dessert. Main Course affects the majority of the game, until either four generators are completed or one survivor remains, whichever comes first. Then, Dessert effects are triggered.

There are then three types of effect: one that takes place throughout the entire match, one granted to survivors when they interact with food, and one that impacts survivors greatly when enough food is placed on Banquet Tables. These effects will all be based on one of three Menus of the Day, determining which game mechanic is effected. For more details, you can check out the patch notes, or wait until the begins!

We also know about some of the outfits, cosmetics, and other rewards that will be available during the new event. These are based on the opulence of the banquet setting combined with some horrifying masks, and are available for The Legion, The Doctor, Kate, Claudette, The Trapper, The Oni, and The Trapper. Unfortunately, these are all only available for purchase, but, as ever, killer weapons, character masks, and player badges and banners will all be available for free for completing event quests.

For other free rewards, be sure to check out my list of the latest DBD codes, and take a look at what else is coming once the Banquet ends in the most recent DBD roadmap.

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There's something familiar about ILL. From a voice that sounds suspiciously like Resident Evil Requiem's Leon S. Kennedy (aka Nick Apostolides) to the gory first-person melee and shooter action, I watched the latest trailer of the upcoming horror game with rapt intrigue. It came out of nowhere during June's Playstation State of Play showcase, brushing the cobwebs off of a new game I've had my eye on for years and treating us the most violent display of the evening. It even gives Marvel's Wolverine a run for its money, and if you've seen Logan's brutality for yourself already, you'll know that's a bold (but fair) statement.

ILL, developed by Team Clout, looks like a hodgepodge of all my favorite horror games in one. It also seems to be taking from one of the best zombie games of the last five years when it comes to making a statement.

Gunslinger

Dead Island 2 totally changed the game when it comes to anatomical realism in horror games. Dambuster had its work cut out for it, inheriting the project from Dying Light studio Techland after a lengthy period of developmental hell, and it paid off in bloody spades.

Shortly before launch, I spoke with game director David Stenton about the dynamic FLESH system introduced in Dead Island 2. Each hack and slash has accurate anatomical payoff; you can melt away flesh to expose the bubbling yellow fat beneath, see the grey matter glisten on your knuckles after punching a hole through a zombie's head, and lay down the machete whacks with near surgical precision to lop off specific parts of a limb.

It was a new frontier for the physicality of zombie-slayage, refining the logic behind Capcom's precise gunshots and the force with which they knock zombies back in in Resident Evil 2 Remake.

I see shades of this technology throughout ILL as a decapitated head, pinned to a wall by a knife, sprouts tentacles out of the hole where its neck should be. A few seconds later, the protagonist punches what looks like a botchling from The Witcher 3 over and over again in its grotesque bloated head. A bullet rips through an eye socket, cheek tendons dangling from the wound like half-cooked strands of pici pasta. It's glorious, frankly, and I love trying to connect the dots in theorizing what drove Team Clout to go so hard on the gore.

Dead Island 2 is my first theory, so it's no surprise that, as the original Dead Island developer, I'm also getting echoes of Techland's Dying Light games. There's a shared sense of urgency as pockets of survivor militias pop up in the wake of a zombie-like emergency; ILL's protagonist has woken from a coma to find the hospital overrun by humanoid horrors, while Kyle Crane has pretty much the same experience in Dying Light: The Beast.

There are shades of Resident Evil 7, too – close-quarters scares in tight, dark passages as the protagonist seems to grapple with a firearm for the first time in his life – but I'll be honest that I might just feel that way because Nick Apostolides almost definitely voices the protagonist and I am deeply fond of his work as Leon S. Kennedy over the last 7 years.

It's heartening to see flavors of the games and horror series I love given a fresh coat of red paint. ILL is doing everything I think all the best survival horror games should do by not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, Team Clout takes inspiration where it's due and runs with it, and the result looks like a thrilling new idea encased in familiar parameters for the perfect blend of novelty and nostalgia. Now if you don't mind, I'm off to squeal over the trailer one more time and start preparing my stomach for 2027.

Xenomorphs are making a comeback with Alien Isolation 2, and now we finally have some more details about the upcoming horror game.

After seeing a brief teaser for the highly anticipated sequel featuring Amanda Ripley's showdown with the perfect predator shown during Alien Day, the Summer Game Fest 2026 schedule just gave us a new trailer and a bunch of small details. And, like any fan of the best horror games, I'm ready to untangle all of the extraterrestrial webs.

Below I've gathered all the latest information and insights about Alien Isolation 2, looking at the new trailers, and story clues from a comic series that may shock you. I've also looked at the Alien movies in order to find easter eggs and clues. So scroll on for a complete overview of one of the most exciting new games on the horizon! Here's everything you need to know about Alien Isolation 2.

Alien Isolation 2 release date speculation

Currently there's no release date for Alien Isolation 2. However, I'm guessing a 2028 release, considering how little we've seen so far.

Considering that the game is still in early development, we'll be in for quite a wait. So, buckle-in folks. We will keep you posted as more news heads our way and if any delays happen. But, while we wait for more news you can read our Alien Isolation review if you want a refresher on the sci-fi horror story.

Alien Isolation 2 platforms

Alien Isolation 2 will be heading to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S once it releases. This news came our way during the Summer Game Fest schedule.

This does mean that only the latest-gen consoles will be getting the spooky outing, so sorry, PS4 and Xbox One owners. Considering how the new Switch console can handle big titles, it's also great to see it coming to that console.

Alien Isolation 2 trailer

We got our first teaser for Alien Isolation 2 during Alien Day (aka April 26, 2026). In the clip, we see a shot of a ruined world as a spaceship door opens, as well as a shot of an emergency telephone booth. Intriguing.

During Summer Game Fest, we also finally got our first trailer, and it's a bit more beefy than the first teaser, thankfully. In that one, we see that we are on a colony and are being hunted out in the open...spooky.

Alien Isolation 2 story and setting

Currently, we don't know the full story of Alien Isolation 2. However, thanks to the brief teaser we got back in April 2026, there are some clues that we can start unpacking already. In the clip, we see what looks to be a crashed spaceship open its doors to reveal an Earth colony in ruins during a dark and rainy night.

Now this has been confirmed to be a Weyland-Yutani-style outpost called the Kurasaki Station, instead of Earth (as confirmed by the most recent teaser in Summer Game Fest Live), similar to Hadley's Hope (which was a human terraforming, research, and mining colony before a Xenomorph infestation caused havoc). And while Amanda Ripley wasn't shown in this teaser, I'm also fairly confident that she will be back, given how she was still technically alive at the end of Alien Isolation.

For more clues in terms of the potential story of the game and what we can likely expect from Amanda if she does return, we can look at the comic series Aliens: Resistance and Alien: Rescue, which consider the Alien Isolation timeline as canon to its story. The comic follows on from the events of Isolation, starting with Amanda being picked up safely and having to deal with some more Xenomorph-related nonsense.

The comic then goes into a story of Amanda and her comrade Zula setting out on a new planet in order to investigate a testing facility for the Weyland-Yutani bio-weapons program. Now, there is no confirmation if Alien Isolation 2 will draw on the comic for its story, but it does seem like there is at least some kind of connection, as the teaser states we won't be stuck in a space station this time around, but we will be exploring (and likely being hunted) out in the open. This is similar to at least a part of the comic's storyline.

Stay tuned for updates!

Alien Isolation 2 gameplay

Just like the previous game, Alien Isolation 2 is a survival horror game that incorporates stealth mechanics as you try to avoid becoming Xenomorph food.

However, unlike having to navigate a contained small space like we were in the first game, we'll be out in the open, navigating a planet's surface. Even with this new open setting, you'll need to sneak around and use the environment as cover to avoid being killed. In order to progress the story you'll also need to complete mission objectives. These will likely vary, but we are waiting to learn more about the details in general.

I'm also wondering if the gameplay for Alien Isolation 2 will be more action focused like James Cameron's movie Aliens. It will be interesting to see if we have more opportunities to actually fight Xenomorphs, as opposed to trying to outsmart and avoid them this time round. It's all very exciting and I'm keen to discover which direction the franchise will be going down, especially if the story does take some queues from Aliens which also has some Xenomorph infestations mentioned too.

Alien Isolation 2 development

Alien Isolation 2 is being developed by Creative Assembly. Now, considering how Creative Assembly developed the first game as well, I'd say we are in pretty good hands here, folks.

What we do know is that while Alien: Isolation used the Cathode Engine, there has been a sneaky confirmation that the sequel is an Unreal Engine affair. This news came our way thanks to spotting a past job listing on Creative Assembly's website.

"This is an excellent opportunity for a talented senior development manager to join the sequel to Alien: Isolation being built in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)," read the post on the company's site.

This post is no longer available on the company's site. So we are still waiting for more details from the studio. Fans are concerned that shifting engines will result in a different feel and texture from the masterpiece that was Isolation. There have also been concerns about how the shift to UE5 will result in performance issues, but we'll just have to wait and see for ourselves. We'll keep you posted as soon as we receive comments and more information around the matter.

Love sci-fi? Check out our list of the best Alien movies of all time next, or for scares, we also have a ranking of the best horror games for you to play right now as well.

A24's Backrooms is such a monstrous hit at the box office that it's giving two co-op horror games, also set in the Backrooms, a massive bump in player numbers.

In what's proving to be an already historic year for horror movies, Backrooms recently set box office records with a worldwide opening-weekend haul of $118 million. The liminal-space horror put up A24's largest debut weekend of all time and made YouTube native Kane Parsons (AKA Kane Pixels) the youngest director ever to top the box office.

Together with the endless online theories and countless memes, the Backrooms movie led to a surge in player numbers for Escape the Backrooms and Backrooms: Escape Together - both of which also riff and expand on the viral 4Chan creepypasta that inspired a shared internet urban myth.

According to SteamDB, Backrooms: Escape Together hit an all-time concurrent player peak with almost 9,000 people logging in at the same time yesterday. The procedurally generated game first hit early access in 2022, but its renewed interested is in part due to an official in-game collaboration with A24 that lets players unlock a clip from the film.

2025's Escape the Backrooms is enjoying a similar resurgence, too. While it hasn't beaten its all-time player peak of 48,879, the game currently hovers around daily peaks of 16,000 players, way up from its average a few months ago.

Escape the Backrooms also stealth dropped into Xbox Game Pass with less notice than a barbed wire shadow monster, mere hours before the movie's release. TrueAchievements reports it's the subscription service's seventh-biggest game launch of the year - above mammoths such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Hades 2, and below the likes of Forza Horizon 6 and Subnautica 2.

I dabbled in as much of Escape the Backrooms as my fragile little heart could manage and thought it recreated its source material's winding, nonsensical, hauntingly mundane corridors really well. Proper scary stuff... until you see the monster goofily chasing whoever you're playing with, all while ignoring you, up to the point it tires and clips out of existence. Still, it's a more than serviceable co-op thrill.

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Of all the games I did not expect among everything announced at June 2026's State of Play showcase, Until Dawn 2 was perhaps furthest from my imagination. More intriguing still is the fact that it's not being handled by the original developer, but a brand new one.

Supermassive Games' 2015 cinematic epic still stands out as one of the best horror games ever made, but with a Rotten Tomato-voted movie adaptation and a similarly mixed response to Ballistic Moon's 2024 remake, I assumed the IP would accept its fate and slink back into the shadows. But Until Dawn 2 is on the way from a different British dev team – Liverpool-based Firesprite – and that one announcement trailer has given me confidence that the upcoming horror game is about to fill the boogeyman-shaped hole Supermassive left behind.

Breaking dawn

With its mysterious setting on an abandoned island, misfit ensemble of young wannabe ghost hunters, and plenty of terrified screaming for good measure, Until Dawn 2 is what campy B-movie slasher flicks are made of. It's the DNA that made Until Dawn such a thrilling joyride over a decade ago, old-school and slightly simplistic though the premise might be, and I for one find it incredibly refreshing.

Part of that is down to Supermassive's latest endeavor, Directive 8020. The developer takes a knife to its tried-and-true formula here to carve up something a little more serious: its first ever "corporate horror" game featuring a cast of actual adults. The sci-fi terror has nary a werewolf, cryptid, or serial killer in sight as it experiments with cat-and-mouse survival horror – another first for Supermassive – with a greater emphasis put on co-worker paranoia than who's crushing on who's boyfriend.

Directive 8020 sloughs off teenage viscera to reveal a fresh new face, and while it certainly kicks off the second season of the Dark Pictures Anthology with a commendable evolution, I couldn't help but miss the schlock of past terrors like The Quarry, The Devil in Me, and of course, Until Dawn.

But I also don't want to see a developer stuck in its past when it wants to move on, which is why I'm grateful for Firesprite.

From what little we've seen of Until Dawn 2, it manages to hit all the right notes. Young people getting themselves stranded on purpose in decidedly dangerous territory. Risky revels in the dead of night. Romantic entanglements that break the cardinal rule of horror movies as laid out by Scream. Oh, and someone gets their guts spilled over their shoes in the first minute. It's cheesy, it's silly, it's everything I've been longing for since rolling credits on Directive 8020's sobering deep space terror, and it's just become my most wanted upcoming PS5 game.

I also love that it's truly leaning into the cinematic feel with the help of some familiar faces. Baldur's Gate 3 fan favorite actor Neil Newbon co-stars as one of the few discernible adults in town, something that made me audibly whoop at my TV while watching State of Play last night, and I can't wait to see how his character maybe-definitely turns out to be a bad guy (listen, after seeing him in Detroit Become Human, the guy plays bad so good).

He's joined in the Until Dawn 2 cast by Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery, who you also might recognize from 2017's Power Rangers movie and the unforgettable Elvis biopic. This game only has one trailer, and it's already my favorite horror movie that doesn't exist.

That really says it all. The astonished grin that spread over my face while watching it is proof that you really can't go wrong with good, old-fashioned slasher horror. There's a unique charm about stripping back the complexities of what the genre has become – the societal commentaries of Jordan Peele, the high-brow esoteric indies of A24 – to expose the bone and muscle of the thing itself. There's a mindless purity in screechy body horror, a thoughtless glee cementing that it's just as fun to run screaming from cannibals as it is to analyze the symbolism of zombies in The Last of Us. Until Dawn 2 will ensure that I'll always have something to reach for when I'm hankering for the former – and here's to many more to come.

Want more interactive horror movie thrills? Check out these games like Until Dawn and fight to stay alive.

10 long years later, Until Dawn 2 has been revealed, but if you were hoping for a direct continuation of the first game from OG studio Supermassive Games, you'll be disappointed on both counts. Until Dawn 2 seems to revolve around an entirely new cast of characters, and it's in development at Firesprite, the first-party PlayStation developer behind Horizon Call of the Mountain and a handful of other VR-first titles.

PlayStation dropped the announcement trailer for Until Dawn 2 during today's State of Play showcase, revealing a group of ghost hunters who don't know they're about to become the hunted. The trailer shows the young fools partying it up at an exotic and seemingly abandoned tropical destination called Akashima Island, which of course is said to be haunted. Then Baldur's Gate 3 star Neil Newbon shows up and belly flops into a pool. "Who's the buff idiot," one ghost hunter asks. "Does no one know this guy?" another asks, possibly a wink at Newbon's household status.

From there, things take a dark turn. Notably, I didn't see any mention or sighting of a Wendigo, the former humans-turned-monsters that serve as the main bad guys of the first Until Dawn. Instead, the only antagonists shown in the reveal trailer are some masked, machete-wielding hunters, which whack off one of the characters' legs.

Assuredly, this is still an Until Dawn game. We see one extremely critical quick time event toward the end of the trailer that results in a lad named Luke falling off a cliff to his bloody death, and the trailer closes out with the reveal that the psychiatrist character from the first game is back. "Can you do what needs to be done?" he asks ominously as a 2027 release window is shown.

I'm conflicted about this one. I have extremely fond memories of the first Until Dawn and have played it and re-played it at least a dozen times, but there's no denying Supermassive quality is inconsistent at best these days. That said, Firesprite hasn't proven itself as the lead developer on a non-VR, non-mobile first-party PlayStation game, so we'll have to wait and see how that shakes out. So far, I'm liking what I see.

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There are two Directive 8020 endings. This is, after all, a choose-your-own-adventure game, so your decisions have an impact on the outcome, something we have seen in previous Supermassive Games.

While you can kill each and every one of the Directive 8020 characters, and make what seem like significant decisions about the future of Earth itself, a major twist means that none of it really means anything, and your two potential Directive 8020 endings are just a slightly different monologue. Still, if you want to know more, here's how to get each one.

Warning: the following guide contains major spoilers for Directive 8020.

How to get different Directive 8020 endings

The Directive 8020 ending takes place after the credits, so be sure to stick through them, as the scene prior doesn't tell you how things wrap up.

There are two Directive 8020 endings: Scientist and Humanitarian. Here's how to get each one:

• Scientist: Increase Eisele's Rational Trait
• Humanitarian: Increase Eisele's Sympathetic Trait

You'll be able to change Eisele's traits throughout the game, by making certain decisions, like whether she shows empathy to her crew mates or sticks to her rigid science-first persona.

Directive 8020 endings explained

As you reach the Directive 8020 ending, you'll find out that your crew have been clones all along, and this isn't the first time they've been sent to their doom. The ever-suspicious Williams has always known about the aliens, and has been intentionally sending unwitting clone crews out to discover it to see how they react and what they can do with it, with each mission getting further than the one before.

With this in mind, the Directive 8020 ending becomes about whether the lives of clones should be considered as valuable as the original humans they were borne from, and your choice, though you don't know it, is whether the program should continue or be stopped.

Once you've listened through the crew's interviews during the credits, you'll meet the real Eisele, back on Earth, where she's been all along. There will be slight variation here, as Eisele confirms how many crew members survived your adventure, so check out my guide on how to save everyone in Directive 8020 if you want the whole crew to make it.

Then, Young - the real one - is being reprimanded for her interference in Cycle 13, and Eisele steps forward to make a statement to the panel. Really, though, it's to the player. What she says next depends on which of the above endings you reach, and determines whether you stop the program or let it go on:

• Scientist ending: Eisele will choose to continue the program, with hopes of using the alien matter to save humanity.
• Humanitarian ending: During the final cutscene, Eisele will decide to shutdown the program, sending no more clones to their demise.

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