I’m sure I don’t need to inform you of this, but it’s almost Halloween. You could probably tell from the excessive number of cobwebs on peoples houses, large swashes placed on doorsteps and the slight spooky chill in the air, but there are some of you that will have forgotten all about the festivities.
Whatever shall you do! It’s almost Halloween and you’ve not yet got a costume and you need nay, require, a costume for the parties and trick or treating.
That’s where I come in. Here are some absolute banger costumes you can put together this Halloween that are conveniently gaming related and hopefully easy to put together.
Control’s Jesse Faden
This is yet another; you have the components in your home to make this outfit work; sort of costume. Jesse, the protagonist of Control is dressed as a more or less ordinarily stylish woman with a black leather jacket, black jeans, and boots. Really, anyone can dress like Jesse, but her main identifying feature is her red hair, and telekinetic abilities. So maybe get a cheap red wig, if your hair isn’t already of that colour, and for the abilities that’s easy. Simply attach a piece of string to an empty water bottle and your wrist. No one will know how you’re levitating that bottle, ooOOoooOO spooky stuff. A costume and a party trick in one.
Resident Evil’s Jill Valentine and Ethan Winters.
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Resident Evil features quite a number of characters you could cosplay easily but I’ll highlight the classic Jill Valentine and the more recent Ethan Winters. For the former, there are two options of costume, the original Valentine boots, mini skirt, white top draped around the waist and blue top. Splash a little blood on your hands and your face and boom you’re classic Jill Valentine. What might be easier for others might be the more recent interpretation of Jill where she’s wearing black jeans, combat books, and two tank tops. If that’s not enough, I’d recommend cutting up an old back top to make some straps around your leg or arm, or even some string for her leather necklace. Add that additional fake blood (which you can find a few recipes for here (opens in new tab)) and you’re set.
Now for Ethan Winters. Ethan dresses like a bloke you’d see on the street so it’s not too hard to find something appropriate. I’m going for Resident Evil Village Ethan with this list of items. You need dark blue jeans, brown shoes a black or grey t-shirt under a grey hoodie that looks appropriate for hiking. And if you have it a yellow-green outdoor coat, which admittedly, might be a little niche. But if you don’t have that, I hope instead you accept a paper bag or cardboard box. Ethan’s face isn’t revealed in either Resident Evil Village or 7, so to compensate, why not hide your face too? Placing a paper bag over your head with some eyeholes is a great way to reference his obscurity and add a little fun to your costume to people who don’t know much about the Resident Evil series. And with Ethan’s incredible healing abilities, you might not even need any fake blood.
Trombone Champ
Trombone Champ’s videos have been a blessing since its release. Just yesterday I chuckled at a rendition of In The End by Linkin Park on Twitter (opens in new tab). It’s really good, trust me. What’s great about Trombone Champ is that the musician just kind of looks wide-eyed with some back concert dress on. Just dress in all black and you’re kind of set, maybe even add a blazer.
The important part is obviously the trombone. I own a trombone, a strange flex, but I don’t expect everyone to. Instead I suggest printing off a picture of a trombone and finding some sort of instrument in your house that can sound appropriately terrible. Maybe a kazoo, that recorder you had as a kid, or maybe even a harmonica. Be the champ of any instrument you like and toot your little heart out. Don’t forget to make it sound terrible for accuracy.
Team Fortress 2’s Scout
Scout is among the easiest and most recognisable FPS characters you can dress up as this Halloween. A red t-shirt, rolled up grey sweatpants, long white socks, black trainers and a baseball cap gets you very close to the character’s get up. Then to accessorise you can add some bandages to the hands (perhaps a ripped up white t-shirt), a sling backpack or bum bag around your torso, and a headset and you are set. Really these are quite common things you might have already and, even when missing the bag or the headset, your costume would be pretty convincing. And hey if you’ve got a baseball bat lying around, you’ve got the full set.
Stray’s cat
Okay, okay, let’s go with something a little more classical Halloween. No I don’t mean Nightmare on Elm Street, I mean witch, devil and of course cat costumes. Many of us have worn cat ears at some point on Halloween. It’s low effort and makes you look good for the crowds you meet. But rather than just putting on cat ears, why not add a little backpack and be the cat from Stray? You can carry all your necessities as well as look cute. Bonus points if you can find some glow sticks to add to the back of the backpack to add some of that neon flair the game has in oodles.
Disco Elysium’s Kim Kitsuragi
Kim might not be the easiest person to cosplay for Halloween, but hey at least you’d look stylish. What helps here is that Kim has a variation you might be able to pull off easier. If you’re playing on hardcore mode Kim actually wears a black version of his bomber jacket, an item of clothing that’s pretty common. Then you just need some reading glasses, black shoes, and green trousers to complete the outfit. If you want to style the bomber jacket a little more, feel free to add a sticker or two to the jacket to make it look like an official aerostatic joint.
Phasmophobia’s Ghost Hunters
The highlight of Phasmophobia are the ghosts themselves, but when there are a load of ghosts about at Halloween, why not pretend to be a ghost hunter instead? The ghost enthusiasts in Phasmophobia are pretty plain (opens in new tab) truth be told but that means really you can wear whatever you like: what’s important is the gear you take. There’s a full list (opens in new tab) of possible accessories you take with you as a ghost hunter and they vary from flashlights to books to cameras to glowsticks. You can even take a salt shaker. There is such a variety of stuff you can use to ham up your costume and be accurate to the game that your home must contain a few pieces of crucial ghost hunting equipment. This costume is even better if you have a friend or two make up the other hunters on your team so you can all fight evil together. And squat in corners screaming when it doesn’t go quite to plan.
The Sims
If you’re really desperate and you need something by this evening, there might be no easier costume than becoming a Sim. It might require just a little DIY, but as my colleague Mollie Taylor exclaimed, “the classic make a plumbob and hot glue it to a headband to be a Sim never fails”. There are a few tutorials on how you could make one at home on the internet but the simplest answer might be to draw one on each side of a piece of card and attach it with a stick to an alice band. If you’re going to a party, make sure to put on the Simlish version of the Black Eyed Peas’ Simlish banger Friddy Dope (opens in new tab) on and you’re set.