One of the things that made me fall in love with horror games was their ability to build up to one massive twist as the story reaches its crescendo.It’s when every piece of the narrative puzzle finally clicks into place, and suddenly, everything you’ve experienced just makes sense.
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These horror games are almost perfect, but there’s this one little issue that holds them back.
These days, and for one reason or another, I rarely feel that thrill playing horror games. But if there’s one developer I can count on to deliver on this front, it’sFrictional Games. Plus, more than any of my simple desires, this team’s ludography is just filled with great games in general.
Of course, I find some of their games better than others. So, along with taking a stroll through its history, I want to share my ranking of every Frictional Games' title, from the rough gems to the very best of the genre.
The DNA for What Came After
Thomas Grip ran a one-man show under the company GripDesign before Frictional was even Frictional. After meeting Jens Nilsson, the two began work on Unbirth, a passion project that unfortunately didn’t go anywhere.
Although all we have left of the game is a non-updated website and dead download links, it is still wild how much of this game’s DNA made its way into Penumbra.
There was clearly a lot of ambition here, and I wish I could play this properly because it could’ve been something special. But now that I can’t, I can only place it at the bottom of the list.
11Energetic
A Detour into Edutainment
Before Grip and Nilsson fully embraced the horror genre, the two took a light dip into the edutainment space, of all things, with Energetic. Now, hearing its background, you might be inclined to give it a good old squint and pass, and honestly, I wouldn’t blame you either.
When looking into Frictional Games' history, I managed to track down a copy and went into it expecting one hilarious time.
To my surprise, it was not a half-bad experience. It’s a neat little platformer with some really charming art style, along with a surprisingly solid gameplay loop around energy consumption.
Obviously, it’s not scary or narratively deep, but I did enjoy my time with it, and it will not be amusing how this is the game they made before hitting it big with Penumbra.
A Lovecraftian Flash Game
All the way back in 2001, prior to the release of Energetic and Unbirth, we got Fiend, Thomas Grip’s first video game and first dive into the horror genre.
Firstly, I seriously respect him for taking on Lovecraftian horror for his first game. Second, he has even more of my respect for doing such a wonderful job at it.
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Now, yes, Fiend plays like one of those experiences you’d find on Newgrounds, with clunky combat and sluggish movement. But the atmosphere, especially for a top-down Flash game, is intense, and the density of lore here absolutely works.
It’s a slow and frankly exhausting play by today’s standards, but you can see Frictional’s love for lore and narrative texts here, and I love it for that.
9Penumbra: Requiem
Good Conclusion, Meh Video Game
Now that we’re entering the big leagues, I’ll start with the game I simultaneously care a lot and very little about. Penumbra: Requiem is a good conclusion to the Penumbra series, but it’s more of a puzzle-set expansion than an actual game.
There are no survival mechanics, no scares, and while you finally get the answer to what happened to Philip in the second game, there wasn’t much else here that grabbed me.
Completing it, I felt as though Frictional just needed closure on the trilogy before moving on to greener pastures, and that’s fair, but at the same time, Requiem could have been a lot more than what it currently is.
8Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
A Beautiful Mess
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigshas its ardent supporters, but I’ll admit that I’m on the fence with this one. On the one hand, I love the aesthetics and the sound design of this game, and the OST from Jessica Curry is on my playlist forever.
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But as a horror game, it doesn’t click with me. The scares didn’t land for me as well as I’d expected, and the story, while promising, didn’t land with the needed impact.
While I love the dynamic between Mandus and the Engineer, I could never understand how Mandus got amnesiac in this one or why the Engineer specifically decided to turn people into Manpigs. So, while I like the ideas behind the game, said ideas could have been executed better.
7Penumbra: Overture
The True Foundational Video Game
Penumbra: Overture - Episode 1
Penumbra: Overture was the first proper survival horror game from Frictional Games, and honestly, it’s incredible how many things they got right on the first try.
Sure, it hasaged like milk left out on a hot summer dayand the combat absolutely sucks. But when looking back on it these days, I find those imperfections endearing in a way.
Speaking more critically, the lack of a stalker enemy really hurts the tension and atmosphere created by the mine setting. It’s not a scary game after the first hour, period.
Not to mention, a couple of puzzles in the second half are too obtuse for my brain to handle on my own. At the end of the day, however, I think it’s a good introduction to the Penumbra games, and if nothing else, it’s proof of just how far Frictional Games has come.
6Amnesia: Rebirth
Lost in the Desert
Amnesia: Rebirth
Amnesia: Rebirth, for me, is the definition of a serviceable horror game. Before I say anything else, I admit that it expands the lore of Amnesia quite thoughtfully and amazingly. Not only that, but the environment is gorgeous, and the Empress is an awesome antagonist.
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My problem with it comes from how they handled Tasi’s story. I like her a lot, but her story, her parts with Amari, and the themes of motherhood could’ve been handled a lot better, in my opinion.
Couple that with how slow the game feels at times, draining the fear factor out in the process, along with how off the main endings felt, and the game just left me dissatisfied in the end.
5Amnesia: Justine
The One Nobody Ever Plays
I’m going to declare Amnesia: Justine as the single most overlooked expansion in the history of expansions. It’s simply baffling how little people talk about it. For me, it’s one of the best parts of revisiting the firstAmnesiagame.
The main reason why I adore it so much is the story, its main twist, and how tightly all of it is delivered in under an hour,unlike ninety percent of all the gamesout there.
Every test Justine puts you through another part of her psyche and shows how sociopathic she can be. She’s delightful as the narrator.
The puzzles are really engaging, and the chase sequences with the suitors are some of the very best in Frictional’s catalogue. If this had been a full and more fleshed-out game, it could’ve easily cracked my top three.
4Penumbra: Black Plague
A Classic That Was Quickly Overshadowed
Penumbra: Black Plague
I played Penumbra: Black Plague before anything else in the series and found it to be a fantastic experience.
It was only when I visited the other games, especially Overture, that I saw it as a massive step-up in every single way and arguably one of Frictional Games' very best works.
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For starters, they ditched the god-awful combat from the first game, tightened up the puzzles, and gave us a great antagonist in Clarence.
The environments are consistently stellar, the scripted scares work too well at times, and it’s just a fun time overall. Given how obtuse Overture can be, I’d be more than happy to recommend people start with Black Plague when diving into Penumbra.
3Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The Game That Changed Everything
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
I have a habit of ragging onAmnesia: The Dark Descentdue to how it overshadowed everything Frictional made before and after it. But I will never deny that it’s one of the best horror games ever made.
It started a whole sub-genre of horror games with anear-endless number of clonesthat couldn’t hope to compete with it and gave the indie horror scene a much-needed jolt of life during the 2010s.
All this while starting the careers of many let-players who’d scream into our ears and remember their god at the slightest appearance of a Grunt.
Everything about The Dark Descent just works. The scary bits work magically, Daniel’s slow descent into insanity is quite a sight to behold, Alexander is great as a villain, and the game’s big twist as to why Daniel was amnesiac at the start is still one of the best.
People love to debate over how well the sanity mechanic works, but it works beautifully with The Dark Descent in particular. It’s a great time, honestly, and I still revisit it sporadically to recapture the joy and terror of that first playthrough.
