One of my favorite things to do in VRChat is to play through some of the wide range of impressive horror maps. If your idea of entertainment is to experience the fear and adrenaline rush of a good horror game, you’re in for a treat. I’ve spent many, many hours playing every scary VRChat world I can find and I’m sharing some of my favorites in this article.
If you want to access any of these VRChat worlds, simply type the exact title I have listed into the in-game search box. All of these worlds require a PC-tethered VR headset, or you can play them in desktop mode. If you use a standalone headset, you can use a link cable to connect to a VR-ready PC and enjoy them. At present, there are very few VRChat horror maps that are compatible with standalone VR headsets, but hopefully, this will change in the future.
Noir – Nocturne
Noir Nocturne feels like a fully-fledged horror game and I was so impressed during my playthrough of this VRChat horror world. Developed by Blake Cash (Centauri), along with a small team of artists, audio, and video designers, this is a brilliant, story-driven horror game set in the underground city of Nocturne.
You have been hired by an unknown agent to explore the dark secrets of this mysterious city-state. You can play solo, or with up to 3 other players and it will take between 1 and 3 hours to complete a playthrough.
Noir Nocturne is fully voiced and the 3D animation, graphics, design, and sound is very impressive for such a small team. Noir Nocturne was a Winner of the VRChat Spookality 2021 event, and thoroughly deserving of the award.
Silent Hill PT
Silent Hill PT is a VRChat remake of the playable teaser for a canceled Silent Hills PS4 Game. You are tasked with exploring a haunted house, exploring a set of corridors and adjacent rooms repeatedly to investigate a tragic event that took place in the house.
You play repeated loops through corridors, which change as the story progresses. The graphics, voice acting, and storytelling are fantastic, and there is a great mix of building suspense and occasional jump scares.
Silent Hill PT is such a high-quality experience, and although fairly short, it is one of my favorite VRChat horror maps and should be high on your list to check out if you like scary experiences in VRChat.
Project Alice
Project Alice consists of three separate VRChat horror maps that start with you playing the role of a journalist sent to investigate the questionable treatments performed at the White Rabbit Hospital. After being offered a refreshing drink, you wake with a throbbing headache and a feeling that something has gone horribly wrong.
Your task is to investigate the halls of the hospital to work out what has happened. This horror experience is seriously creepy, and the suspense builds and builds as you explore the halls, trying to complete a series of puzzles to progress through the story. Episodes 2 and 3 continue the story, and I found it entertaining from start to finish.
The graphical quality of Project Alice takes a back seat to the gameplay, but this doesn’t detract from an excellent VRChat horror experience, You can play solo or in a group, but I think it is best played with others, as group fear runs out of control.
The Devouring
The Devouring is a VRChat horror map created by CyanLaser, Fionna, and Legends for up to four people on PC VR headsets. It is an incredible 5-6 hour long horror experience that has the quality of a standalone game.
This is, without doubt, one of the best horror games in VRChat and even one of the best horror games I have ever played. It starts with you setting off on a road trip with your friends, which unfortunately goes wrong, and you find yourself in the guest room of a haunted house, where you find a note that warns you not to leave.
From here, you are guided on a story-driven, suspenseful horror experience, full of terror, suspense, puzzles to solve, fantastic audio, and some unique and interesting gameplay mechanics. It’s hard to believe that such a high-quality horror map is available within VRChat, so I strongly recommend you give this one a go.
WDKS Horror Experience
WDKS Horror Experience is a really professional horror map that features a series of four environments that aim to provide differing horror experiences. After an initial introduction, you work your way through four environments including the haunted and creepy halls of a hospital, a haunted house, Mount Everstone, and a haunted school.
Each part of the WDKS horror experience is filled with trepidation and suspense that challenges your courage and has you constantly on edge, as you anticipate the next sudden moment of terror. There are some really nice plot twists and gameplay mechanics that make this scary VRChat world quite unique and delightfully unpredictable.
WDKS can be quite graphically demanding at times, particularly in the Mount Everstone section. You are generally best to lower the graphical settings to maintain a healthy frame rate and reduce the risk of VRChat crashing, as you don’t want to break the immersion of this great experience.
Huggi Dungeon Series
The Huggi Dungeon Series consists of several story-driven VRChat horror maps that make a fantastically scary VRChat experience. Each of these experiences is best experienced in a group of 2-3 people, but it is also excellent when played solo. The Huggi Dungeon series is split into four main parts:
- Big Sister’s Dungeon (Part 1)
- Big Brother’s Hideout (Part 2)
- Project Rebirth Chapter 1 (Part 3)
- Project Rebirth Chapter 2 (Part 4)
The Huggi Dungeon series is a terrific horror experience, with a great mix of looming trepidation and jumpscares. The environments are well made and the sound design and voice acting really increase the level of immersion.
Big Sister’s Dungeon is a relatively short introduction, where you must work through a series of challenges set by the spirit of Lisa Evergreen, to escape her dungeon. The challenges are appropriately difficult, with plenty of jump scares to keep your nerves on edge.
The series is consistently excellent and there is a deep storyline and lore surrounding this series of VRChat horror maps, so you are best to start with part 1 and work through the story in order.
Xenu’s Horror Escape
This is a fairly short escape room horror scenario that is full of tension and a few jump scares. It only took me about 15 minutes to complete, but I found it genuinely scary. This is a high-quality VRChat horror map, and I enjoyed the challenge of working through the scenario.
This map can be played solo or as part of a group. The tension builds as you work your way through the scenario, and the pacing felt just right.
Bear in mind that a lot of these VRChat maps work best if you use an avatar of normal height, and avoid avatars with lighting effects that will detract from the dark and creepy environment. See my article about avatar worlds if you’re struggling to find a suitable avatar.
Shadowed Halls
Shadowed Halls is a VRChat horror map with a dark and foreboding atmosphere that will have you quaking in your shoes. It feels really claustrophobic due to the setting and dim lighting, and you often have to use one of the flashlights provided to help you navigate and work your way through the puzzles that present themselves.
This is an escape room style horror map and it had my heart pounding as I expected the worst around every corner. It was fairly challenging to work through, and it took me quite a while to work out how to get past some points, but I never felt frustrated.
Shadowed Halls is best played alone, as the feeling of isolation and helplessness is amplified, but is also fun in a group. You should use a normal-sized avatar to make sure you can reach all of the things you will need to interact with.
Horror Darkness Escape
Horror Darkness Escape is a really enjoyable VRChat horror map. You must make your way through a series of puzzles in an escape room type experience. The setting, along with the suspenseful sound effects, and intermittent jump scares made this the perfect level of scary that kept my heart racing but left me wanting to carry on.
This world is really dark and you never know what is coming next. I played this map solo, but you can team up with some friends if desired. The puzzles were tricky and needed some thought to get the right answer, but were also forgiving enough if you got something wrong.
This is another PC VR-only map, which seems to be the case for a lot of the best VRChat horror maps. Don’t forget though, that if you have a Quest 2 you can link it up to a VR-capable PC to experience these maps.
Obsession
Obsession is a PC-only VRChat horror world that has been built to a really professional standard. It is a story-based horror game for 1-4 players set in a fully 3D-modelled house that you must explore to progress a high tension plot while completing a number of puzzles.
Obsession is not natively in English, but there are accurate English subtitles that did not detract from the quality of this experience. After some brief instructions, you haul back a heavy cover from a deep well and plunge downward to find yourself in a dark and spooky haunted house and begin an adventure that immediately got my pulse racing.
There is a great mix of storytelling, puzzles, lingering dread, and intermittent jump scares, just to make sure you can never relax. It’s hard to express my admiration for the makers of this VRChat horror world, but they have created a fantastic experience. Definitely, not one to play alone late at night or you’ll be too scared to go to sleep.
Fever Dream V2
Fever Dream is a surreal set of subterranean dungeons using progressively more creepy imagery of characters from a number of popular films and TV shows. Mickey mouse features heavily, and there is a loose narrative as you progress through this VRChat world.
Fever Dream is quite rough around the edges but uses atmosphere, imagery, and sound to make a great VRChat horror map. It didn’t take more than about 30 minutes to play through this map, and I felt the length was pretty good. It’s not a map that I would want to spend hours in but was quite a unique map that I’m glad I visited.
Last Word
I’m aware that there are many other excellent VRChat horror maps available, so if you’ve enjoyed these ones, start exploring and ask other players about their favorites, as you are bound to find more you will enjoy. A huge congratulations to the creators of these excellent VRChat horror worlds, which no doubt have taken enormous amounts of time and effort to create.