Transcending jump scares, gore effects, oppressive music, and affecting monster designs, the best horror games are the ones that are scary even when nothing is happening. Go back to the classic, 1998 Resident Evil 2 and take a walk around the first floor of the police station. The whole place just makes your blood tingle. Likewise, that long, winding walk at the start of Silent Hill 2. Nothing is happening – but every part of you is on high alert. Released to well-deserved acclaim in 2022, The Mortuary Assistant is a masterclass in mundane fear. One of the tensest, most terrifying games I’ve played in years, it’s now, somehow, even scarier.
As you’d expect, in The Mortuary Assistant you play a young woman who’s just started on the graveyard shift at a local funeral parlor. But this is no ordinary undertaker. Your boss explains that, on occasion, demons will possess the bodies of the dead, and that it is your job to determine which of the corpses currently in storage is possessed and burn it before daybreak.
For the majority of the game, your job is to fastidiously, forensically prepare the deceased for their big send offs – wire their jaws, cap their eyes, pump them full of embalming fluid, and take note of any abrasions or identifying marks. But this is a horror game, and while you try to determine which of the bodies is home to the demon, it will try to confuse, confound, and terrify you with some of the nastiest scares I’ve suffered in my gaming life.
And now it’s even better – or worse, depending on your perspective. Available right now, The Mortuary Assistant Definitive Edition is a relaunched version of one of the scariest games ever. There are new haunting events – that is, new ways for the flesh-imprisoned demon to make you exit your skin – as well as new bodies to work on, expanded lore, and a peaceful ‘endless embalming’ mode where you can just work on the cadavers for as long as you want without any phantasmic interruption. What a perfect way to unwind after work.
If you haven’t played The Mortuary Assistant before, or you want to try the new Definitive Edition, it’s out now on Steam. It’s also just landed on the Nintendo Switch and PS4 and PS5, with Xbox One, Series S, and Series X versions arriving next week. Check it out here.
Otherwise, try some of the best survival games, or maybe the best new PC games available right now.
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