These horror games are set outside the US, and that’s infinitely more interesting

Some of my favorite horror games are set in familiar places: coastal towns, sleepy suburban streets, a quiet family home. Many classics pull on the American zeitgeist, which provides a level of stability and security before the horror kicks in. In recent years, I’ve been delving more into horror games set in different parts of the world, and I’ve fallen in love with these textured, detailed games that are all the more unsettling due to their distance.

Still Wakes the Deep begins on a crumbling Scottish oil rig, with protagonist Caz McLeary exchanging small talk with his colleagues. The Chinese Room, the game’s developer, ensured the accents and slang were on point. There were times I had to rely on subtitles to figure out exactly what these characters were talking about, but before long, I adapted. Just when I started feeling comfortable, the oil rig drilled a little too deep and unleashed some unknowable horror. It doesn’t matter how much I initially related to Caz; soon, I’m in his shoes, dealing with very primal fears like drowning, cosmic corruption, and death.

Mundaun is another excellent example, drawing off Swiss folklore and interpreting the old tales through hand-drawn art. The game, depicted as if it were drawn in pencil, has a heavy and ominous air over every scene. Curdin, a young man, is returning to the Alps to investigate his grandfather’s death in a tragic barn fire. There are few allies in this abandoned village, and I’m forced to rely on friends like a decapitated, screaming goat head or a distant veteran embroiled in despair.

Red Candle Games has earned critical acclaim and a fan following based on the strength of Detention and Devotion, two games that are set in Taiwan and tie into the history and religion of the region. Detention is set during the White Terror, a decades-long period of martial law, which factors heavily into the story. Devotion, on the other hand, draws inspiration from Taiwanese cults and family dysfunction to tell a gripping yet haunting tale.

Finnish Cottage 8 is a recent indie horror game from Savukivi Games, released in March. The game takes place in a mökki, a summer cabin used for vacationing. Unfortunately, this mökki is a mess, and there are anomalies infesting the mundane world. The cabin is empty, but there’s an ominous drip drip drip of blood from the ceiling. Instead of lumber, the fireplace is roaring over a pile of bones. A naked, faceless man hovers next to the sauna, and I don’t like that at all. This is a simple game that I beat in under half an hour, but the cottage itself feels lifelike. I can imagine this as a cozy summer retreat, and that makes the emergence of a screaming face in the cabinet door more alarming.

I found myself enjoying these games so much that I went back to older titles that I missed growing up, like Siren, a game deeply rooted in Japanese folk horror. Siren was published in 2003, and it shows its age — the core “sightjacking” mechanic that lets you see through monsters’ eyes is very cool, but it’s also quite janky. There are also some puzzles that are beyond bewildering, especially since the story is told through the eyes of 10 characters across a three-day period. Thanks to a handy guide, I was able to bypass the worst of these difficulties, and became totally immersed in the bizarre history of the isolated village of Hanuda.

While I enjoyed the recent Bloober Team remake of Silent Hill 2, these new-to-me games have made me far more interested in Silent Hill F, which is set in 1960s Japan. We’ve seen tortured white men struggle through quiet American towns plenty of times, so I’m very intrigued by the idea of exploring the series’ trademark psychological horror through a new lens. Protagonist Shimizu Hinako lives in the secluded town of Ebisugaoka, and a thick wall of fog rolls in. The monster designs we’ve seen so far are wildly different from other enemies in previous Silent Hill games, and based on previous games, we can expect them to link back to the protagonist in unnerving ways.

We’re enjoying a golden age of horror games, with smaller studios creating wildly ambitious stories packed with scares. As I delve further into the genre, I find myself enjoying the games set in different cultures and regions. It gives the entire game an eerie air of unfamiliarity, and I’m less likely to run into the same cliches and tropes. Sometimes, it’s fun to go on a field trip to an entirely new place — and as an added bonus, the scares feel fresh.