Summary

Horroras a genre is associated with running, screaming, and generally high-key emotional experiences. But what about a sense of horror that creeps slowly in? What about a sense of dread that builds up from a hundred small details that don’t quite fit? What about horror that, no matter how intense, doesn’t interfere with the same mundane tasks you know you have to keep performing?

In these games, the everyday tasks that come with having a job, having routines, or simply having interests — in other words, being human — are set against the backdrop of horror. After all, even when something horrific happens, you can’t afford to simply give up. You’ll have to keep moving.

Someone runs towards you on a dark gold course, the screen reads “don’t look too long."

yatoimtop

Platforms

PC (free on itcho.io)

The premise of Greener Grass Awaits is simple: you want to play golf. So you break onto the course, you set up the ball, you put your bag down, you pick out a club, you hit the ball, you pick your bag back up, and then you do that again. And again.

Red-eyed birds attack the ship in Dredge.

At some point, it turns out that you’re not alone on the course. There are also people who want to kill you that will charge you both when you’re not looking and when you’re looking for too long. Does that mean you give up on golfing and run? No. The horror elements are just added stress to the golfing experience; you’re expected to keep golfing.

June 17, 2025

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X/S

Paying homage to one of the oldest professions in the world, Dredge is a game all about fishing. However, unlike other fishing games, it isn’t focused on the peace and tranquility of the activity. The more you play, the more your sense of paranoia, measured at the top of the screen, is justified.

Interior of a train bathed in red light.

However, the only way you encounter aberrations, strange hooded figures, monsters in the dark, and concerning lore is to keep fishing. The game never ceases to revolve around that core mechanic. Youarea fisherman, aren’t you? It’s best you hold on to that.

PC

You play as a normal person, an insurance manager in his 40s, going about his normal commute. Except each time you take that commute, it’s a little less normal. Are you losing your mind as you attempt to hold on to the normalcy of your routine, or is something much darker coming for you?

This is one of many short horror games by Chilla’s Art, andif you enjoy J-horror,a VHS aesthetic, and scary games about performing mundane tasks, we recommend that you go ahead and buy one of their bundles. They’ve also made games about a night delivery service, finding missing children, and a convenience store that follows this same format.

A clipboard of tasks held in front of a corpse in a morgue.

Nintendo Switch, PC

As an apprentice at a mortuary, you get used to the daily tasks that come with preparing and embalming bodies. Though it might seem like a morbid one, it’s still just a day job. Everything is going smoothly until you’re called in late one night, and the bodies are no longer as still as you’d like them to be.

This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for doing your job. In fact, the doors have locked, so it looks like you have no other choice. Now, occult rituals and demonic entities are just two more things on your to-do list, which still includes all of your normal work-related tasks.

Interior of a radio station in Killer Frequency.

Jul 30, 2025

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X/S, GeForce Now, Meta Quest 2

You play as the DJ of a late-night radio show in a small town. When you start your graveyard shift, your biggest concern is wallowing over your demotion from your former big-city job. By the time the police chief is killed, and you’re the only person who has a working phone line for people to send their 911 calls to, you have other concerns.

Mae and Gregg talk outside of a store.

Release Date

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, PC, GeForce Now

Even if Night in the Woods isn’t outright a horror game,at its heart is eldritch horror,and the entire game has a pervasive, spooky atmosphere, which underlines the game’s main themes. You play as a college dropout who has returned to her small town. Every day, you follow more or less the same routine: talk to people, practice with your band, have strange, repetitive dreams.

The catalouge entry for Metamorphosis in Home Saftey Hotline.

This repetition builds over time. Nothing changes, and nothing is likely to change. The systems and the problems that spawn from them are slowly swallowing your friends and town, and they are too big for you to change, and the growth and adaptations that you’ll have to do will be around them. No one is coming to save you, and all you have is each other. So you might as well keep going to band practice.

For some of us, making phone calls is scary even without anything supernatural afoot, but for the rest of us, there’s the analog horror game Home Safety Hotline. You play as an employee of a call center, which shares the game’s title, and give callers feedback on the problems they’re experiencing. You listen to their complaints, read through a catalog, and then try to find them the solution that matches their problem.

A garbage can with feet visible sticking out of it.

As if customer service wasn’t already horrific enough,if you guess wrong, then the caller suffers the consequences. This is a game that will have you rethinking the way that you look at your house.

This bite-sized horror game puts you in the shoes of a garbage collector, which should be a pretty straightforward job. You drive your truck, and you pick up garbage. There’s just one small problem: are those bodies left in the trash? In fact, there are a lot of things off about this town, and you’re now stuck in it at night.

Brian from Yuppie Pyscho holding a knife.

As you keep picking up trash, you’ll unravel the game’s secrets, finally reaching the twist at the end. Though small, it’s a satisfying game for the creepy atmosphere paired with the mundane nature of the job.

Jul 25, 2025

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X/S, GeForce Now

If you’ve ever worked in a toxic workplace, you’ll sympathize with Brian Pasternack, the character you play in Yuppie Psycho. He’s just started at a massive corporation and has been tasked with killing the witch that made its success possible, but who is now tormenting all the employees. Standard office work.

The fact that you’re not being paid nearly enough for the work you’re putting in is the least of your problems as you perform your daily office tasks while dodging death. It’s a top-down, pixel game with multiple endings, so the way that you complete your tasks does matter in this game.