2026’s Best Horror Game Isn’t Even A Horror Game

By almost every account, playing Big Walk with your friends is a charming, sweet, and borderline magical experience. It’s a game about exploring, communicating, and collaborating, and it eschews traditional systems familiar in other games. For example, there is nothing in this open-world puzzle-adventure game designed to harm you--no health bars, stamina meters, or any sort of fail state. So why was I scared while playing Big Walk? The most obvious source for that fear is the dark. Big Wal...