7 Best Sci-Fi Survival Games, Ranked

Highlights

• Survival games focus on exploration, gathering resources, and crafting amidst challenging conditions for players.
• Sci-fi survival games offer unique twists, taking players to distant planets and introducing fantastical elements.
• Games like
  Ark
  ,
  Surviving Mars
  , and
  Subnautica
  provide immersive survival experiences filled with challenges and surprises.

The survival genre has gone from a curiosity to a huge part of the gaming industry, as a vast number of releases have breathed life into the idea that simple survival in certain conditions can be enough of a challenge without any other concerns for players. Survival games often prioritize exploration, material gathering, and crafting over other concerns.

However, over the years, survival games have had to adapt in order to stay fresh, and they’re now more popular than ever. Going from the original idea of surviving on tropical islands or frozen wastes to eventually introducing more far-fetched ideas that include sci-fi elements. From games set on other planets or in space to ones that simply include far-fetched science fiction ideas, sci-fi survival games have turned into their own fantastical genre.

7 Ark: Survival Evolved

Metascore: 70

As one of the most debated games in recent years, fans and critics are constantly arguing over the merits and problems with Ark: Survival Evolved. This survival game is set on what initially appears to be a large island, but the twists and turns the story takes are mind-blowing and have shocked many players, as the game becomes a sci-fi/fantasy blending of genres.

Players are tasked with surviving in a hostile environment, taking on or taming dinosaurs while trying to avoid other players. Ark: Survival Evolved is considered by most to be a grueling survival experience. Players truly must grind to achieve a lot and will experience a lot of difficulty in leveling up at first. Despite this, the popularity of the game has been enough to earn an upcoming animated series with a star-studded cast.

6 Surviving Mars

Metascore: 76

City-building games are all about going from nothing to something huge and thriving, so blending one with outright survival game mechanics is a fantastic idea that Surviving Mars brings to fruition in a highly satisfying way. While it is a patience-requiring grind, Surviving Mars gives players a somewhat realistic idea of how challenging it would be to colonize the red planet.

Involving mysterious elements as well as fun random events throughout the game, Surviving Mars keeps players on their toes, and will almost always make them regret not planning more at the very beginning. A survivalist dreamscape filled with intrigue, Surviving Mars will surely be indicative of a style that many games will follow in the future.

5 Pacific Drive

Metascore: 78

One of the strangest and most intriguing games of 2024, Pacific Drive is a unique experience that takes place in an alternate 1998 where the player is attempting to drive through the Pacific Northwest, avoiding huge storms, and metal creatures and using energy cores to open gateways to assist them on their journey, making for a darker sort of road trip game.

Having to drive and repair a station wagon to escape the zone they’re trapped in, players are constantly under pressure in this completely different survival experience. With all sorts of problems that the car can develop and a variety of ways to fix them, players must face challenges head-on to survive this sci-fi experience that could end up being one of the best new releases of 2024.

4 Subnautica: Below Zero

Metascore: 82

The sequel to the huge survival hit Subnautica once again sets players down on an alien planet with the primary goal of survival, but a lot more story is introduced this time as the player character while searching for the cause of her sister’s death, becomes imbued with the consciousness of an alien architect. In seeking to help this presence create a new body, and seeking the cure to the virus that inhabits the planet, Robin also runs into many dangers during her stay.

Below Zero kept much of the same gameplay as the first Subnautica, but gave players some new mechanics, such as land vehicles and having to deal with the freezing conditions that are a serious problem across much of the map. This made the game feel a little more challenging to survive, while also giving players a larger amount of time spent on land while keeping a lot of time in the open water. Below Zero very much felt like a sequel, but it was also a great addition to the burgeoning franchise.

3 No Man’s Sky Beyond

Metascore: 83

One of the best examples of a game that came through strongly after a rocky release, No Man’s Sky Beyond is the final, perfected version of the great survival and exploration experience that thrilled players by allowing them to explore literally millions of planets in a single playthrough, probably never seeing the same one twice.

With plenty of survival elements in a reasonably relaxed fashion, No Man’s Sky is about the grind of exploration as players attempt to find all sorts of flora and fauna to earn credits, upgrade their equipment, and keep advancing. A beautiful game that has improved over and over since release, No Man’s Sky Beyond is the true final form of a defining survival experience.

2 Oxygen Not Included

Metascore: 86

Survival simulation games are severely underrated, and Oxygen Not Included is a great example of just such a game where players take control of a group of colonists who find themselves on an asteroid without any knowledge about how they ended up there. Going from having tiny pockets of breathable atmosphere to living in a fully functional space colony is quite a challenging survival task.

But players have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Oxygen Not Included, the procedural generation of the world, giving the game a large replayable factor. Extreme temperatures and even sickness can play a big role in surprise factors that players have to handle, as they attempt to care for each of their duplicants while also directing them to work and gather materials, so they can continue to grow and thrive. As with many survival games, it also has a great modding community.

1 Subnautica

Metascore: 87

One of the very best games ever seen in the survival genre, the first Subnautica is a triumph of what video games can do. Players begin by crash landing, not just on a remote island, but on a desolate planet that has been quarantined by artificial intelligence due to a disease spreading across many of the lifeforms living in the depths of the mostly oceanic world.

Players have to scavenge what they can from the crashed ship, search for other survivors, and learn to live underwater as they try to go deeper into the oceans in which they find themselves. Subnautica is a complete survival experience, forcing players to fight for oxygen, food, and water, as well as contending with the larger creatures lurking in the ocean’s depths as they head towards the deepest territories themselves. The best blending of sci-fi and survival to date, Subnautica is one of the few survival games that has become successful enough to be a franchise.