Horror films have remained a consistent October convention throughout Halloween history, but video games are now joining the tradition as a similarly popular outlet for fear-inducing experiences. It is always difficult to pick the best, but these five games all share the ability to inspire chills in any gamer.

“Amnesia: The Dark Descent”

Released in: 2010

Platform: PC

“Amnesia: The Dark Descent,” an indie title from developer Frictional Games, is the pinnacle of the survival horror genre. Casting each player as Daniel, a character who has awoken in a Prussian castle with no memory of his past, the game has you slowly explore your dark descent into madness.

Spread throughout the game are journal entries and letters Daniel wrote over the past three years. Slowly, you piece together elements of the dark tale that brought you to a haunted castle in the German wilderness.

“Amnesia” is successful for many reasons. Foremost, the game is truly frightening. As you explore Brennenburg Castle, you encounter disturbing scenes, dismembered corpses, spooky lighting and other common tropes of horror. The sublime sound design haunts the player with the cries of Brennenburg Castle’s victims. When Daniel witnesses these frightening scenes, he loses sanity. As a result, the player’s perception of the game world begins to change: the camera shakes, Daniel’s breathing grows strained and his vision blurs.

But this is to say nothing of the monsters. These monsters are unarguably terrifying, but what will haunt you is your defense against them, which is essentially no defense at all. Unlike other survival horror games, “Amnesia” does not provide any way to defend yourself from attacks. The player’s only option is a fearful flight from the villainous monsters.

“Amnesia” embodies all that is great about indie and horror gaming. It is an original, creative, frightening adventure that will make your computer a house of horror.

“F.E.A.R.”

Released in: 2005

Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Despite its age, “F.E.A.R.” can still chill the most seasoned gamer.

Cast as a special operator in the U.S. military, the character fights to stop a lunatic from unlocking an army of super soldiers throughout the game. The source of these super soldiers — a secret government project known as Origin — revolves around a small girl known as Alma.

Hallucinations disallusion you throughout the game — walls bleed, ghostly visions appear and Alma haunts your every move. While the game is certainly frightening, “F.E.A.R.” stays true to its first-person shooter origins.

“F.E.A.R.” maintains a frenetic pace, which keeps the player shooting from terrifying start to jaw-dropping finish.

“Doom 3”

Released in: 2004

Platform: PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3

While the original “Doom” marks the beginning of first-person shooting in video games, “Doom 3” presented a scary step forward for gaming upon its release in 2004.

“Doom 3” takes place in a research colony located on Mars. When teleportation experiments go horribly awry, a portal to hell opens and monsters pour through.

One of the first video games to use unified lighting and shadowing, “Doom 3” capitalizes on its graphics to produce creepy shadows throughout the science labs of Mars. Couple this with fantastic monster design and a October 2012 HD re-release, and “Doom 3” is bound to provide a terrifyingly frantic fight for survival for years to come.

“Dead Space”

Released in: 2008

Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Set in the distant future, “Dead Space” is the frightening tale of Isaac Clarke, an engineer stranded on the planetary mining vessel “Ishimura,” which is infested with zombie arachnids known as Necromorphs. From the opening scene onward, “Dead Space” is an engaging video game that draws the player into Clarke’s quest to find his lost love, whom he believes to be hidden somewhere on the mining ship.

“Dead Space” uses a tight third-person camera, placing the player’s viewing angle directly on Isaac’s shoulder and drawing the player closer the gruesome action. Although the setting of “Dead Space” feels bland and unoriginal — the story relies on typical conventions of horror films and games — it still provides limitless scares as Necromorphs tend to surprise you while the eerie “Ishimura” creaks at all the right times.

“Metro 2033”

Released in: 2010

Platform: PC

“Metro 2033” represents a different sort of terror. Developed by the Ukrainian company 4A Games, “Metro 2033” achieved modest commercial and critical success.

“Metro 2033” takes place 23 years after a nuclear holocaust. As Moscow’s inhabitants take shelter in the subway system underneath the city, fear and regret mingle with post-nuclear phenomena to create seemingly supernatural visions of ghosts. Furthermore, humanity is pitted against strange, werewolf-like monsters known as Dark Ones, who develop from mutated survivors of the nuclear attack.

As the player fights across Moscow’s underground, he is pitted against both Dark Ones and fellow humans in a struggle for survival throughout a brilliantly realized post-apocalyptic world.