Part of what makes horror games so frightening is the sense of isolation they often manage to instill in the player. Whatever the player is alone with,it is often hunting them, and this pursuit is one of the most frightening things a video game can implement in the quest to evoke as much fear as possible.
Butsome multiplayer horror gamesneed a way to continue evoking this sense of horror, even when the players are all sharing a voice chat or even a room together. Proximity chat can be used to great effect here, multiplying the distance players feel from each other, and making each separation feel more decisively isolating.
Phasmophobiais one of those incredibly energetic multiplayer horror games that does an excellent job of building up a frightening atmosphere.Across all of its difficulty levels,Phasmophobiaplays on the fear-laden tension between all players. It’s one of those titles where one person reacting to a jump scare is enough to set off a reaction of everyone screaming (or nervous-laughing). Proximity chat is just an extra layer in this terrifying experience of ghosts and undead.
Players will have to spread out to effectively get readings in any location within a reasonable amount of time, introducing a need to separate, while instilling that sense of isolation, as especially loud screams or reactions to ghosts can be heard from afar, reminding players that, even isolated, they are not alone.
Pacifyrevels in classic horror tropes - a dark and stormy night, a group of investigators in a large, Gothic mansion, screaming witches and uncanny children trying to kill anyone in sight. It’s all here for some good, terror-inducing fun. Players will find that objectives are scattered high and low inPacify, and the steadily increasing aggression of the things that want to kill them means splitting up to find them is typically the best solution.
An atmospheric titlethat knows how to keep the player looking over their shoulder (both in-game and outside of it),Pacifyis a great multiplayer title strengthened by proximity chat.
Cooperation is the keybetween life and death inDevour. This game, still recieving updates in 2024, has a steadily increasing range of maps for players to undo rituals in, with each location having a specific twist on the formula and, to go along with this, some new and terrifying evil to confront. Players having to work together often means that, unlike other titles, this is one where people will want to huddle together, and be each other’s eyes.
But the horrors inDevourwill often forcibly separate players, meaning that proximity chat is a good way to know if they’re nearby, and to also hear someone’s panicked screams at 2am over voice chat as a grotesque demon spider tackles them from on top of a closet.
Anindie sci-fi horror darling,Lethal Companyhas an amazing brutalist atmosphere combined with some really engaging hard sci-fi worldbuilding and, of course, horror available in droves. It’s not a game with a particularly difficult premise. In fact, in early levels, players can more or less set the tone, having to meet relatively low quotas for scavenged goods, meaning it’s best to run in, grab whatever isn’t nailed down, and leave again.
Proximity chat is sometimes the only sound players will be able to hear in the still, abandoned factories or lifeless industrial villages that make up the majority ofLethal Company’s playable areas, but the most frightening thing is when players can no longer hear one another, that’s when they know something else is here with them on this abandoned moon…
Unlike a lot of titles in this list, which have to do with collecting tangible, physical objects, such as ancient relics, cursed dolls, or valuable scrap,Content Warningasks players to collect footage. The scarier and more difficult to obtain the footage (i.e. how close someone got to dying in it), the more views that video will achieve. It’s all about the money in this game. Andhaving the coolest face, obviously. Proximity chat is essential in this game, because players need to stay together, no matter what terrifying thing they encounter, if at least one person isn’t filming it, then it’s worth nothing at all.
Proximity chat is actually a twofold feature, since it isn’t just good for sticking together, but if players do split up, it’s a great way to alert everyone when an isolated player does find something worth filming. If the eerie silence of the old world is suddenly shattered by “GET THE CAMERA! GET THE CAMERA!”, then something profitable is about to happen.
