The epitome of what I’m trying to refer to is the Playdead games (Limbo and Inside). Dark Souls and BioShock both hit on this idea but not quite so directly. The game BADLAND is also a great example of this, too. The mobile game The Silent Age also did this exceptionally well. Never quite knowing what’s going on, and maybe some tension without release, but again not straight up horror. A feeling of uneasiness is what I’m looking for.
When playing through Inside, there’s never any moments where you’re scared, but you’re never sure what’s going on and there’s always a level of unease. What are all the mindless zombie-like people? Why is everyone hunting the player? What happened to this city? What’s the goal of the character the player controls? What exactly is going on here? That’s what I’m looking for. If you know of any other games which do this, I’d greatly appreciate hearing about them. It’s a very specific niche so I’m not sure how many games do this, but the games that I’ve seen do this tend to be some form of post-disaster or dystopia. I’ve seen some great artwork do this too. Zdzisław Beksiński had done some stuff like this. Some great dystopian novels also do this quite well.
I also like how much freedom you get in Morrowind. The game just lets you do whatever you want. It invites you to break it apart more than any game I’ve ever seen. And then on top of that, the environment is just spectacular. I really Souls sink some time into it. I really want to 100% the Dark Souls trilogy before I do much else though, and I only just got to Anor Londo in Dark Souls 1 so I’ve got a ways to go yet. Plus a ton of suggestions on here, and Starfield in September, and I’ll be jumping back into Elden Ring for the DLC whenever that drops. But Morrowind needs to happen. If only I had more time.