Good non-action horror adventure games

[Arryosha]

By "non-action," I mean a game that depends in no way on coordination. So, Silent Hill and Amnesia would be out. I'm flexible on what counts as horror. Basically, I'm looking for disturbing without stress. It could be an f-ed up murder mystery, or just really weird, like Sanitarium. Not really looking for comedy, like Grim Fandango. Thanks!

 

[Boleskine]

Some that come to mind:

The Cat Lady (and Downfall + Lorelai)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
STASIS
The Black Mirror trilogy
Phantasmagoria 1 & 2
Harvester
Bad Mojo

Games not sold on digital storefronts:
Amber: Journeys Beyond
Blackstone Chronicles
Dark Seed

 

[Arryosha]

Some that come to mind:

The Cat Lady (and Downfall + Lorelai)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
STASIS
The Black Mirror trilogy
Phantasmagoria 1 & 2
Harvester
Bad Mojo

Games not sold on digital storefronts:
Amber: Journeys Beyond
Blackstone Chronicles
Dark Seed

These are just what I'm looking for, thanks.

I forgot about phantasmagoria. I bought that on release. It came on like 10 CDs. I remember playing a demo of bad mojo on one of those pc gamer CDs.

 

[Jermu]

devotion, detention, still life (not sure if this was horror)

from those already mentioned cat lady is my favorite

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Last Half of Darkness is a pretty nice little title, though a bit style over substance. You can find it on most shareware and abandonware websites.
...A Personal Nightmare is pretty good. That said, you should be warned the game is on a timer, a generous one, and there are situations in which you have to have type something while under the threat of death. That is...somewhat generous. Its definitely on the harder side though, but nothing unreasonable.

I'm not sure Harvester would qualify as non-action. Because I remember that Harvester has a lot of action scenes towards the end. For instance if you think Personal Nightmare is too much action, Harvester definitely is.

 

[warcrimes666]

This is one i picked up from another similar thread at one point that is definitely alright and it is still free on steam. Its called Alpha Polaris: A Horror Adventure Game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/405780/Alpha_Polaris__A_Horror_Adventure_Game/

 

[Nicebrain]

Maybe "Cognition An Erica Reed Thriller". The minigames do break the no action/coordination thing tho (they are not very hard).
Some parts better than others, good soundtrack, terribel minigames, but I hate minigames so...
Did finish it so cant be all that bad

 

[Parsifarka]

Avoiding those already mentioned, Dark Fall is one of the very best Myst-clones I have ever played, set in a haunted abandoned hotel; The Lost Crown by the same developer is an excellent adventure about murder mysteries and ghosts in a foggy British village, perhaps more dreamy than horror due to the main character being prone to take things lightly (not a comedian though) but the atmo is thick and deeply intriguing and the spooky moments rather thrilling anyways.
Dracula: Resurrection and its sequels are classic Cryo horror themed adventures, quite lovely though the third one really spikes up the challenge of the puzzles; Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness has those charming prerrendered visuals too but the gameplay maybe has more than the usual jank you would expect from Cryo and the Steam version is or at least used to be bugged requiring a fix some player uploaded.
This very weekend I finished Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder which is a gorgeous adventure inspired by Lovecraft, Machen and the like, and it has a sequel I haven't played yet.
Scratches is another stunning Myst-like set in an old manor house where something terrible has happened, with a touch of curses passed down by a violent ancient people living in the wilderness and worshipping terrible gods; nowadays it's regarded pretty much as freeware by the developers themselves so I provided a link to download.
I'm not sure if they meet the criteria as the supernatural is very subdued but they are really good and Frogware's Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened deals with Lovecraftian commonplaces and Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper offers a surprisingly dark and violent view of Whitechapel's smoggy streets.
There's also that very brief Dagon free "game" in Steam, which looks great and depicts what you would expect from the title; imagine it as a picture book in which every scene is rendered in 3D with full detail rather a proper adventure as there are no puzzles whatsoever.
There's probably more I've played as I have fallen in love with this niche, but right now the only other one that comes to my mind is Barrow Hill which I have in my library but haven't played yet, looks like another sweet, spooky Myst-clone.

 

[wishbonetail]

Some are horror themed, some are with action or stealth elements, some are just disturbing or weird:
Nightmare Frames
Penumbra 1,2
Jorry
Observer
SOMA
CAYNE
Charnel House Trilogy
Fran Bow
If on a Winter's Night Four Travellers
Land of Crows
Oxenfree
Saint Kotar
The Last Door
True Fear: Forsaken Souls
Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
Rusty Lake series
Little Kite
Sally Face
Football Game
Chronicle of Innsmouth
Blind Prophet

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

 

[Ivan]

+Devition / Detention

 

[ghostdog]

Shadow of the Comet
Clock Tower (snes)
5 Days a Stranger
Post Mortem
Gabriel Knight 1&2

From the ones already mentioned:

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Harvester
Downfall
Stasis
Tormentum: Dark Sorrow

 

[Zed]

I honestly don't know any titles but I know there's a bunch of japanese horror VNs. Added bonus they all have sexual content in addition to gore in them.
If you can stomach anlme art, maybe it's worth checking out.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Jorry

Shadow of the Comet
Clock Tower (snes)

I think all of these have pretty extensive action sequences. Jorry in particular has a ton of them, even a final boss fight. (which is irrespective of my opinion that its not a very good game)
Rusty Lake reminds me of two other nice flash game series, Don't Escape and Deep Sleep Trilogy.

 

[Arryosha]

Many great suggestions. Thanks. Now to figure out where to start.

 

[toughasnails]

Has the classic English ghost story feel, in fact if you ever read M.R. James there is one p involved segment where you'll p much feel like one of his scholarly protagonist, iirc you have to communicate with a ghost and in order to do so you'll have to dig through family genealogies, use zodiac and so on... In fact the game has some p demanding puzzles, it even gets arguably a bit too open and convoluted at one point.

 

[V_K]

Seconding Goetia, was one of the best and most memorable Adventures I've played. The sequel is, unfortunately, not as good - it's still a solid game with decent puzzles and beautiful art, but smaller and less open, with a worse story.

Depending on your definition of horror, The Council might qualify - it's more of an occult mystery without many visceral scares, but the atmosphere can be quite creepy.

 

[Jermu]

this was released yesterday, great game

 

[toughasnails]

Morpheus Kitami
You remember Daymare Town? It was easily my favorite of these flash horror adventure series back in the day, incredible atmosphere with p minimalistic visuals and ambient sound. I really wish the author bundled them up together on steam, like what was done with buncha these (Rusty Lake, Forgotten Hill etc). He is selling some sort of "HD" versions via his site, but they are 5 bucks per game.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Morpheus Kitami
You remember Daymare Town? It was easily my favorite of these flash horror adventure series back in the day, incredible atmosphere with p minimalistic visuals and ambient sound. I really wish the author bundled them up together on steam, like what was done with buncha these (Rusty Lake, Forgotten Hill etc). He is selling some sort of "HD" versions via his site, but they are 5 bucks per game.

Vaguely, but not as much as I remember the other series from the guy behind it, Submachine. Right now, it seems like he's working on a rerelease of that series on Steam, so perhaps he'll rerelease the Daymare games later. In the meantime you could play them on Kongregate. Since they have a flash emulator for all this stuff and it seems to be working fine.

 

[Darkozric]

There's probably more I've played as I have fallen in love with this niche, but right now the only other one that comes to my mind is Barrow Hill which I have in my library but haven't played yet, looks like another sweet, spooky Myst-clone.

Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle was good. It takes place somewhere deep within the woods of Cornwall. I remember it being quite atmo with a few good puzzles.
There's also a sequel but I haven't played it. Both games are available on GOG.