Horror games with possession mechanics

Key points

• Video games allow for unique experiences by playing different characters, offering a different perspective.
• Successful horror games often use eerie atmospheres to generate terror effectively.
• Some titles, for example
  Beyond: Two dishonored souls,
  AND
  In
  they allow players to possess entities or objects within the game.

One of the interesting things about video games is that they allow players to inhabit the bodies of other beings. This takes them through myriad experiences with different characters, seeing the world from a unique point of view.

Some video games take this a step further by allowing player-controlled characters to inhabit the bodies of entities or objects within the game itself. Horror gameswith their focus on supernatural and science fiction themes, they are ripe for these types of experiences. With this in mind, here are a few titles that allow players to use player characters to take possession of other entities in the game.

9 Beyond: two souls

A psychic bond with a powerful entity

Beyond: two souls is the sequel to Quantic Dream's narrative adventure game Heavy rain. This title follows the protagonist Jodie, played by Elliot Page, who has a psychic connection with an entity called Aiden.

From a young age, Jodie is subjected to experiments that test her psychic abilities and even ends up working for the CIA. At an early stage, he can send Aiden to possess a security guard who is monitoring the cameras and even kill him if the player wishes.

8 Disgraced

Help from outside

Disgraced sees Corvo Attano, the bodyguard of the royal family of Dunwall, framed for the murder of the queen and the kidnapping of her daughter Emily. This leads Corvo to seek revenge against those who harmed him. During his journey, he joins a resistance group that claims to be fighting Dunwall's new totalitarian government. He also receives supernatural abilities from an extra-dimensional being known as The Outsider.

One of the abilities Corvo can unlock is possession. This allows him to control smaller animals first, such as rats, and eventually move on to controlling other people. He can use this power to bypass guards or sneak into tight spaces, surprising his targets.

7 In

Mind control

In follows a boy through a dark, dystopian, totalitarian city in a 2D puzzle-solving platformer. Using a restrained use of color, this title creates a tense atmosphere, with implied danger around every corner. Many residents were forcibly subjected to mind control, making them nothing more than puppets.

The boy will have to use an apparatus placed on his head to manipulate these human drones and make them solve rudimentary puzzles. This may involve standing on platforms or pushing boxes to allow access to high places.

6 Siren

Zombie vision

silent Hill fans should pay attention to this overlooked survival horror title. Set in the supernatural village of Hanuda, Siren follows multiple characters from different time periods as they explore this remote place and try to survive its zombied residents.

To do this, characters use an ability known as “sightjacking.” This allows them to see through the eyes of their enemies, indicating their location and activities in the game world. Sightjacking is essential for avoiding encounters, as a single hit from an enemy can mean instant death.

5 Murdered: suspicious soul

Solve your own murder

Murdered: suspicious soul is a suitably disturbing story, set in Salem, Massachusetts, known for the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Detective Ronan O'Connor, a former criminal, has just been murdered and, as a ghost, must find the one who killed him, discovering the perpetrator's motives in the process.

Having just died, Ronan has new abilities that allow him to ferret out information, improving his detective skills. One of these abilities is jumping into the bodies of the living. This allows him to see through their eyes, listen to their conversations and influence their behavior.

4 Midnight ghost hunt

Do not cross streams

Midnight ghost hunt here's what would happen if the video game hide and seek Hunt for objects fused with Ghostbusters. It's a 4v4 game where a team of ghost hunters must track down and destroy a team of ghosts in spooky locations.

Ghosts can possess multiple items in the game world, allowing them to use their attributes to attack hunters or at least scare them. Such “possible” items include stone gargoyles, which allow ghosts to briefly glide, or armor that can be used to strike enemies.

3 Surprises the zombie in Rebel Without A Pulse

Using a helping hand

In a retro-futuristic city, a body in a beautiful brown dress and hat is disturbed by radioactive materials. Coming out of the grave, the zombie sees a woman on television and immediately falls in love with her. To get to her, it will eat anyone and anything that gets in its way.

Being a zombie has its advantages. One of these is to detach a hand and control it remotely as if it were a Thing The Addams Family. Stubbs can then hook his hand to the head of an unsuspecting human. It works like an antenna, allowing it to control the human for a short period of time. Some enemies have firearms, so they can be possessed and then used to mow down enemies until they are eliminated themselves.

2 The possession experiment

Check the controller Check the controlled

An employee finds himself in a paranormal research laboratory in isolation, while entities wander the corridors. Almost all of them are dead. As one of the last survivors, unable to leave the room he is trapped in, he must use test subjects in the laboratory to escape.

The possession experiment It advertises itself as a “second person” game. The character behind the computer is controlled from a first-person perspective. From there, test subjects are screened through specialized masks and navigated through the facility's halls. They are monitored via security cameras, which emulate the fixed angles of the initial footage Resident Evil games. Dangerous entities can attack at any time and will even pass in front of the controller window.

1 Geist

A ghost in the shell

Geist is a GameCube-exclusive first-person adventure game published by Nintendo. It takes silent protagonist John Raimi into the heart of the Volks Corporation. After one of his comrades goes mad and kills him, an experiment rips John's soul from his body. As a spirit, he must explore the Volks Corporation to recover his body, as well as uncover the past of both its leader and a young girl whose spirit wanders its halls.

Most of Geist Gameplay involves using John's ghostly possession abilities, which allow him to control humans, animals, and other objects to solve puzzles. Living entities can only be possessed if they are scared, which makes them vulnerable enough to be controlled, which adds an interesting twist to the gameplay.