You can often make a horror game more manageable by using its content warnings, accessibility settings, or scene-skip options—but what is available depends on the game. Start with the game’s own documentation and menus, then choose the least disruptive option that helps you continue with the story.
Before you play, check content warnings
Read the game’s content information and accessibility documentation before starting. If the game offers warnings, enable them and use them to decide whether to continue, pause, or skip before a difficult scene. Warnings give you information; they do not change the scene itself.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Resident Evil Requiem Amazon Exclusive Edition - PlayStation 5 | $69.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Project Songbird - PlayStation 5 | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Cronos - PlayStation 5 | $28.15 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Resident Evil 4 - PS5 | $15.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Resident Evil 7 biohazard Gold Edition - PlayStation 5 | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guideline 123 recommends warnings before areas, cutscenes, or dialogue that could prompt an adverse emotional or psychological response. Microsoft explains that the goal is not to dictate artistic choices, but to let players know about content before they buy a game or encounter it.
Find the game’s accessibility and content settings
Open the game’s accessibility, content, or settings menus and look for controls that address the specific element you want to change. Labels differ between games, so also check the official help pages or accessibility guide if the setting is not obvious.
#1 Best Overall
- Amazon Exclusive - 2 sided poster included in every game!
- Grace Ashcroft, an FBI intelligence analyst who is introverted and easily scared, representing a new type of character for the Resident Evil series. Grace will experience horror from the same perspective as the player as she learns to overcome her fears throughout the course of the story.
- For the first time ever in Resident Evil history, players will be able to freely switch between both first- and third-person perspectives throughout the game.
- An Anniversary to Remember: With March 2026 marking the Resident Evil series’ 30-year anniversary, Resident Evil Requiem marks its own milestone in the franchise.
- Pre-orders for Resident Evil Requiem are now open, with the bonus of Grace’s costume: Apocalypse. Please note that the picture weapon does not come with the costume, but it can be obtained in-game.
- Fear-specific modes: A game may offer a named mode for a particular fear or stimulus.
- Visual substitutions or content filters: These may change or limit how particular content is presented.
- Gore or profanity controls: Look for them if those are the elements you want to reduce; their availability and effect are game-specific.
- Scene or mission controls: Check whether you can skip or bypass content rather than experience it.
Choose a setting based on what the game says it changes. Adjusting brightness or volume may change the general presentation, but do not assume it removes a trigger unless the game documents that effect.
Choose between warnings, presentation changes, and skips
These options serve different purposes. A warning helps you make an informed choice before exposure. A presentation setting changes how a stimulus appears or sounds. A skip or bypass option lets you avoid a scene or mission. The right choice depends on what you find difficult and whether you want to experience that part of the story.
Rank #2
- A dark, enthralling 4-5 hour narrative to keep you hooked and guessing until the end. Gorgeous visuals as you traverse numerous and diverse environments, presented with a cinematic, film-like aesthetic. Ranged and melee combat with upgradeable weapons to help you survive your nightmarish journey.
- A stellar voice cast, starring Valerie Rose Lohman (What Remains of Edith Finch, Wolfenstein: Youngblood), Jonah Scott (Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Date Everything), and Aleks Le (Persona 3: Reload, Marvel Rivals, Ghost of Yotei).
- A beautifully dynamic and haunting soundtrack composed and performed by Jacob Noska, and Jonah Henthorne: members of the band Auric Echoes.
- The puzzles you encounter are more than your standard key hunt. Project Songbird rewards those with an eye for detail, making each puzzle a challenge of creativity and wits.
- The combat of Project Songbird offers a variety of approaches inspired by the classics of the survival horror genre. Melee and gunplay is slow and weighty, and ammo is incredibly scarce. However, combat isn't your only option, as you have a multitude of tools at your disposal to aid in sneaking past any creatures that wish to do you harm.
Change one specific stimulus
Grounded offers a concrete example of a targeted visual adjustment: its Arachnophobia Safe Mode makes spiders look less spider-like. Microsoft says the mode is visual-only and does not affect gameplay or difficulty. This illustrates how a game can reduce one fear stimulus while preserving its mechanics; it does not mean other horror games have the same option.
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Microsoft’s guideline recommends giving players ways to skip or bypass emotionally challenging cutscenes or missions. It also recommends making those controls available after a scene has started, so a player can change their mind. If the game provides a skip option, check when and where it appears rather than assuming it is available only before the scene.
Rank #3
- Cronos: The New Dawn is a brutal third-person survival horror where you fight for the future by salvaging the past. Burn monsters before they merge. Extract souls from the living. Adapt or die.
- Set in a grim world where Eastern European brutalism meets retro-futurist technology, Cronos: The New Dawn lets you experience a gripping story that straddles the line between past and future.
- The enemies you’ll encounter are nightmarish creatures, born from the remnants of humanity – defeating them will require you to make full use of your arsenal.
- The creatures you kill won’t stay dead for long. Fallen enemies can be absorbed by others - through a grotesque process called Merging - to become faster, tougher, and far deadlier.
- This physical edition of Cronos: The New Dawn comes with bonus in-game content and a set of collectible stickers.
Keep the story accessible in Dead Space
Electronic Arts documents a content warning feature and an option to hide certain potentially sensitive content in Dead Space. Its PC initial-settings page also lists content-warning display and subtitles.
EA says Dead Space subtitles can be adjusted for font size, capitalization, text and background color treatment, opacity, and whether speaker names appear. Subtitle controls do not remove frightening content, but they can make dialogue easier to follow while you use other options to manage intensity.
Rank #4
- Reawaken a Classic – Resident Evil 4 preserves the essence of the original game, now reconstructed using Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine to deliver realistic visuals and additional narrative depth to the iconic story that was not possible at the time of the original release.
- Modernized Gameplay – The team from 2019’s Resident Evil 2 returns to build upon the series’ modern approach to survival horror. Engage in frenzied combat with the Ganados villagers, explore a European village gripped by madness, and solve puzzles to access new areas and collect useful items for Leon and Ashley’s constant struggle to survive.
- Overwhelming Hordes – Face hordes of rabid enemies that threaten to overwhelm Leon with even more diverse methods of attack than in the original release.
- Survive on a Knife’s Edge – Years of intense training have taught Leon new ways to use his knife, helping to even the odds against the unrelenting onslaught of enemies. By parrying enemy attacks, you can avoid debilitating damage and evade lunging enemies seeking to grab Leon and hold him in place. Make smart use of scavenged knives to deliver precise finishing moves on vulnerable enemies, and even use the element of surprise to quietly dispatch unsuspecting foes before they break.
- Survive on a Knife’s Edge – Years of intense training have taught Leon new ways to use his knife, helping to even the odds against the unrelenting onslaught of enemies. By parrying enemy attacks, you can avoid debilitating damage and evade lunging enemies seeking to grab Leon and hold him in place. Make smart use of scavenged knives to deliver precise finishing moves on vulnerable enemies, and even use the element of surprise to quietly dispatch unsuspecting foes before they break.
If you cannot find a setting for what bothers you
Not every game documents a fear-specific mode, content filter, or scene skip. If the official documentation and menus do not identify an option that addresses your concern, pause or take a break, and use the game’s content information to decide whether to continue. Do not assume a generic display or audio adjustment will remove a particular trigger.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchMicrosoft’s examples are guidance on features developers can provide, not a promise that every game has them. The available controls—and whether they preserve a scene, its narrative context, or only the gameplay—must be checked game by game.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- FEAR COMES HOME -- Fear, combat, exploration, and item management: these are the four pillars of survival horror, a genre that has never been more masterfully executed than in the gameplay of Resident Evil. The horror continues in the ground-breaking Resident Evil 7. Step into the new Isolated View and experience true survival horror in a world created by the all-new RE Engine.
- DEEP IN THE BAYOU - When Ethan Winters opened his inbox, the last thing he expected was to find an email from his wife; she had been missing for three years. The message was simple: "Come get me," and an address in Louisiana. This leads Ethan to a decrepit mansion in the heart of the bayou. The place has a seriously creepy vibe, but Ethan continues his search – until a stranger attacks him and knocks him unconscious. Ethan has no idea what awaits him when he wakes up...for he is now in the clutches of the Baker family.
- A NEW PERSPECTIVE -- In RESIDENT EVIL 7, we're changing the way you interact with the world. For this next major entry in the series, play from a first-person point of view, dramatically increasing your ability to become fully absorbed in the world we have created.
- NEW FOR PLAYSTATION5 – Upgraded features new to the PlayStation5 version of the game include a higher frame rate, 3D audio, added ray tracing, and engaging DualSense support for Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers.
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