Games are scarier when you know they're listening.

There are fewer reactions as natural as a frightened scream. Whether it's a jump scare or a chase by a terrifying creature, to let out a panicked shout is not only normal but downright expected. To take that response and weaponize it against you is one of the most devious tricks in the world of horror.

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That is exactly what these games do. Each one checks for a microphone to listen to and uses the audio input in new and creative ways. Whether it’s casting magical incantations or communicating with ghosts, each one is worth being given a shout-out.

Of all the games on this list, this one has arguably the strangest origin. Based on a Spanish creepypasta, it’s inspired by an unsettling animatronic based on Micheal Jackson. The name Ayuowki is just a verbalization of “are you ok?”, a phrase sung in Jackson’s Smooth Criminal, after all.

Not that the lore matters much in gameplay. Mechanically, you’re tasked with roaming a spooky mansion while avoiding the monster that can hear you speak through the microphone. As such, you need to be quiet to avoid detection.

The internet is dangerous, especially when you start diving into the deeper, darker corners. Welcome To The Game is a mystery horror game where your task is to discover the secret access pathway for a specific site on the deep web. But as you search, you expose yourself to hackers, kidnappers, killers, and countless unsettling websites.

In the first game, you run the risk of being discovered by a kidnapper. When you suspect he is coming, you have to turn the lights off and hide. While hiding, the game will listen to your mic for noise, triggering the kidnapper's attention.

The second game, Welcome To The Game II, works in much the same way. The only notable change is that an assassin named Lucas replaces the kidnapper. Both games are known for their above-average difficulty and lack of checkpoints, so be prepared for a challenge should you try this one out.

One day you’re just out skateboarding with the bros when you accidentally wipe out, gnarly style. But instead of eating pavement, you continue to fall. Finally, you land somewhere else, somewhere wrong. The carpeted floor is slightly damp, the walls covered in an off-yellow wallpaper, and old fluorescent lights buzz above you. Welcome to the Backrooms.

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All in all, The Backrooms 1998 is your standard indie horror experience. You’re in a weird place, walking around looking for items and avoiding the big, scary monster. As you might expect, certain hiding sequences will reference your microphone, forcing you to stay quiet to avoid detection.

This is one of many indie games inspired by The Backrooms, an online anthology of creepypasta/horror stories based on a fictional universe between realities.

On the surface, In Silence is just another horror game with multiplayer voice chat. It's ever so slightly more than that, though. The game's main mechanic is based on the poor visibility of the monster player. Instead, they rely on audio queues to navigate. Because of this, the monster is more likely to hear the survivors talking to each other than to see them visually.

Being a cooperative 1v4 horror game, cooperation among the survivors is necessary to succeed. Knowing that too much talking will reveal their location to the monster adds an air of danger and fear, especially since it’s another person and not an AI.

The second episode of a five-part anthology, Norwood Hitchhike is about a young woman named Holly as she’s on a long road trip. Stopping at a motel for the night, a few suspicious locals appear to be watching her.

Eventually, someone attempts to break into her room. To survive, you have to hide in the hall closet. During this segment, the game activates your mic, and any noise will reveal your location to the intruder. That scene is the only time the mic is referenced, with little to no allusion to the feature beforehand. What makes this a bit more frightening than your standard 'hide and don't make noise' mechanic is how unprepared most players will be for it.

One fun thing about this era of indie game development is how it's easier than ever to produce and publish your own game. This, in turn, means that more silly ideas get brought to fruition. Take Tonsil Terror, for example.

You don’t have a traditional first-person perspective. Instead, your view takes place within your own mouth. When in silence, the mouth is almost completely closed, blocking a majority of your view with teeth, gums, and uvula. You can, however, open the mouth and increase visibility by (you guessed it) screaming. Aside from eventual throat stress, doing this will also attract the attention of the game’s resident monster ghost things.

For the more soft-spoken, the mechanic is entirely optional. Pressing the space bar will emulate a scream.

Not to be confused with Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space, a sci-fi shooter game, this Albedo has you casting magical spells to aid a trapped supernatural entity. With their guidance, you traverse an eerie mansion, evading the owner and collecting gemstones.

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Albedo deserves recognition if only for not going for the ‘don't speak or the monster will find you’ cliché. Instead, the microphone mechanic is the magic. You cast each magical spell that you learn by reciting its trigger word. To enable a light, you speak “Luxo” out loud, for example.

Outside of that, it’s your fairly bog-standard horror game where you collect things and hide, but the unique approach to the microphone functionality gives it enough novelty to stand out.

As far as creativity is concerned, Stifled takes the biggest cake. This game is not a wholly original concept; it's a spiritual successor to an indie title called Lurking. Primarily played in darkness, sound waves reveal the world to you. Each sound highlights the world around you, whether from a nearby phone, your footsteps, or even your microphone input.

But their ambition also proved to be their downfall. Enemies can locate you with sound as well. So to stay hidden during the stealth segments, you must remain silent. Except you need sound to see where you’re going. See the problem? There’s not much fun to be had fumbling around in the dark.

Stifled also boasts a VR mode, though we don’t recommend trying it out. It only introduces a clunkier interface to an already imperfect experience. But if you can see past the rough edges, this is one of the more creative ways a game has used the microphone input.

Take the best of every entry before this, combine them, and you get Phasmophobia. This ghost investigation game has you and up to three others walking through a haunted location with a variety of tools, attempting to identify what type of ghost you're dealing with.

The microphone plays an important role in several aspects of the investigation. The ghost can find you if you speak while hiding, provoke the spirit by calling its name, and attempt to communicate by asking it questions through the spirit box (which it will respond to accurately).

You don’t actually need a microphone to use the spirit box. Holding down the voice chat key for a few seconds will register as an input for the equipment, which will respond accordingly.

Beyond that, it's also the best implementation of proximity-based voice chat we've ever seen. Not only will voices grow quiet with distance, but everything from the room size to whether they're behind a door will distort the effect, giving a tremendously authentic experience.

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Branden is an Evergreen Editor for TheGamer. Taking a more casual approach to gaming, he will always choose co-op over competitive. When not glasses deep into another management game, he's probably talking himself blue about the current trends in VR.