Resident Evil Director compromised on Claire Redfield/10 Single Building Horror Games

10 Horror Games Where You’re Trapped in a Single Building

ByDanielle Porter

Gaming has no shortage of games with jumpscares and traumatic backstories. However, the beauty of horror games is that the games give players the feeling of confinement. Whether it’s an abandoned spaceship like Dead Space or post-WW2 Japan in Silent Hill f, horror games bring that fear of the unknown to the forefront of our minds. These 10 games take place in a single building, which makes that confined feeling even more claustrophobic.

1. Sweet Home

Sweet Home is an NES game developed and published by Capcom. This 1989 horror game takes place inside a mansion, and the five playable characters are trapped inside by the ghost of a mother mourning her young son. The game is based on the 1989 movie of the same name, and the game was directed by Ghosts ‘n Goblins director Tokuro Fujiwara. The Sweet Home movie director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, also had creative input for the game’s production.

2. Clock Tower

Clock Tower is a 1995 point-and-click game released on PC and the SNES. There is also the remake, Clock Tower Rewind, released in 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, PC and Xbox X|S. The game follows Jessica Simspon, an orphan adopted into the Barrows family. Shortly after her arrival, an orphan is killed by a stalker named Scissorman. The player must help Jessica escape the Barrows manor while evading Scissorman.

3. DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Panic

Danganronpa: Trigger Hapy Havoc
Image of Danganronpa: Trigger Hapy Havoc, Courtesy of Spike Chunsoft Co, Ltd.

This first installment of the popular DanganRonpa series focuses on a class of high school students scrambling to investigate a series of murders. The students debate the killer’s identity in a series of trials where the student, if found guilty, is brutally executed by the headmaster Monokuma. This horror game takes place in a locked academy, and the students struggle to find a way to escape. DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Panic came out on November 25, 2010 and is available on PS4, PSP, PS Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android and iOS.

4. Luigi’s Mansion

A break from the psychological gloom and doom of neglectful adults comes Luigi’s Mansion, also known as Luigi’s time to shine from Mario’s shadow. This 2001 GameCube horror game takes place inside a mansion, where Luigi uses a vacuum to get rid of pesky ghosts. The game also had a 3DS release in 2018.

5. Resident Evil

Leon Kennedy Rumors resolved in Resident Evil Requiem
Image of Leon Kennedy, Courtesy of CAPCOM

One of the perennial entries into the world of survival horror is the first Resident Evil game. Originally released in 1996 for the PlayStation, followed by subsequent entries for the Sega Saturn, GameCube, PC and Wii, Resident Evil brings players to a mansion in the outskirts of Raccoon City. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine must work together to evade zombies, solve puzzles and find rescuers.

6. ECHO

ECHO is a 2017 Steam game where instead of zombies, mutants or ghosts, the enemies are berserk AI units that adapt to your gameplay. En, a genetically enhanced human, wakes up out of stasis to her destination – a Palace awaiting human occupants. Nothing is what it seems, as En explores the Palace and adopts new technologies to help her survive. The game currently has Mostly Positive reviews on Steam.

7. Half-Life

Half-Life Single Building Horror Action Game
Image of Half-Life, Courtesy of Valve

Valve’s debut title, released on PC in 1998, confines Gordon Freeman to the Black Mesa Research Facility. Gordon Freeman must kill aliens that escaped from an experiment that totally succeeded (the experiments went awry). The lovechild of DOOM and Quake also had a release on the PlayStation 2, macOS and Linux.

8. White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School originally released on PC in 2001. The game was remade for mobile devices in 2015 and was released on PS4 and Steam in 2017. White Day: A Labyrinth Named School has a health monitor for the player character, a compass and a square showing the currently equipped item. The player character must evade the Janitors and assist other students trapped in the school.

9. Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares Single Building Horror game
Image of Little Nightmares, Courtesy of BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment

Little Nightmares is a 2017 game released on various platforms. Players take the role of Six, a young girl evading giant adult monsters in The Maw. She has debilitating bouts of hunger and must find food. The game currently has Very Positive reviews on Steam, has a sequel (Little Nightmares II) and a third game (Little Nightmares III) in the works.

10. The Coma

The Coma: Cutting Class is a 2015 side-scrolling horror game originally released for PC. The remastered version, The Coma: Recut, was released on PC and consoles in 2017. The game does not have combat, so players must hide to evade enemies to avoid getting killed. The game currently has Very Positive reviews on Steam, and has two sequels: Vicious Sisters and Bloodlines. Bloodlines has an expected release date of 2026.

Single Building Horror Games Increase The Fear

Horror games are often a dime a dozen, but games offering a sense of true dread, paranoia and fear leave a more lasting effect. These horror games, restricted to a single building, are meant to scare even after the credits roll. How many horror games have caused you to leave your nightlight on?

Danielle Porter is a writer for Total Apex Media’s Gaming Section. She is a graduate of both Louisiana State University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Her favorite games are Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi and Brigador. She currently resides in Louisiana.

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