9 Best Atmospheric Survival Games, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Survival games excel in creating immersive experiences that appeal to our innate desire to stay alive despite challenges.
• Atmosphere in survival games is key, driving gameplay through elements like setting, sound design, and enemy encounters.
• The top survival games on this list achieve atmospheric excellence through detailed settings and immersive gameplay experiences.

Few gaming genres are quite as addictive as the survival genre. They tend to be a singularly focused experience that boils down to one deceptively simple task: staying alive. When survival games are done right, they can be a uniquely immersive experience that appeals to some deep-down part of us which longs for a time before the trappings of modern life.

The truly great survival games, however, go beyond this simple goal to hook their players. For example, the best survival horror games use our fight or flight response and fear of things that go bump in the night to keep us playing. The same part of our brain that makes us watch movies that scare us to death. All that truly great survival games need, though, is a really atmospheric setting. Rather than relying on a good story, realistic systems, or scares in these games, it is the setting itself that drives the survival experience. All the games on this list are primarily survival games, although they might dip their toes into other genres. They’ve been ranked on a combination of their overall quality as well as how atmospheric their settings are.

9 DayZ

A Tense Atmosphere Generated By Other Players

Looking at DayZ’s screenshots, one could be forgiven for thinking it doesn’t look terribly atmospheric. It’s never been the prettiest game, and its Eastern-European Chernarus map doesn’t look much different from the maps of countless other copycat games. Newcomers can expect plenty of open fields, dense woodlands, and spartan towns filled with scare-free zombies (this is a rare zombie game that isn’t horror). Yet it can still be an incredibly atmospheric game.

DayZ gets this atmosphere from its PVP element. One moment things are nice and quiet, and the next players are ducking for cover as an unseen enemy starts taking potshots from afar. Hiding in an abandoned building and listening to a squad of potentially hostile players loot the surrounding area can feel downright oppressive. The game’s zombies can also be pretty creepy. Sure, they’re little more than a nuisance for experienced players, but they’re an ever-present threat capable of finishing off an unprepared wanderer. On the downside, extended periods with no enemy player interactions can sap the game’s atmosphere, making it a drag. That and the fact that, even after all these years, DayZ still feels unfinished, lands it in the bottom ranking here.

8 Pathologic 2

Tough As Nails And Relentlessly Bleak

Pathologic 2 is a survival game like no other. Technically a psychological survival horror, it features enough emphasis on traditional survival elements to earn a spot on this list. More structured than most survival games, Pathologic 2 is a story-focused experience that is made up of four acts that are spread over 12 in-game days. Players must juggle thirst, hunger, infection, and exhaustion stats while trying to make sense of a story that is so complex it feels designed to invoke migraines (in the best way possible).

Pathologic 2’s survival mechanics are unforgiving, and the game is designed in such a way that making the “right” moral decision often comes at the cost of making survival even harder. What truly makes Pathologic 2 so special, though, is the setting. Described by one of its creators as a “pain simulator,” Pathologic 2 constantly generates a sense of dread and helplessness. The game is set in a bleak, decaying town in the middle of nowhere that is being torn apart by a mysterious plague. The town itself is twisted and unsettling in design, while many of the NPCs who inhabit it are exceedingly odd. The game’s sound design adds to this crushingly disconcerting atmosphere, using strange ambient noises and weird music to add to the psychological torment. This all adds up to a unique survival experience that is arguably an undiscovered masterpiece. This being said, its brutal difficulty and unending misery aren’t for everyone, and its brilliant use of atmosphere will likely be too much for some players. For these reasons alone, Pathologic 2 gets a lower ranking than some may think it deserves.

7 We Happy Few

A Dystopian Alternate History Where Joy Comes In Pill Form

It’s hard to come up with a survival game with a more interesting setting. We Happy Few takes place in an alternate history (1960s) England, where an authoritarian government has seized control and keeps the population passive using a drug called Joy. It’s one of the best story-driven survival games ever made, featuring three protagonists, each of whom has a distinct but interconnected narrative. In a cool twist, each protagonist also comes with slightly adjusted survival mechanics that reflect their respective narratives. The first, Arthur Hastings, is the most vanilla, but his gameplay focuses on the repercussions of giving up Joy. The next protagonist, Sally Boyle, must look after herself while also caring for her newborn child. The most difficult is arguably the final character, Ollie Starkley, who is great in a fight, but his diabetes makes controlling his hunger meter a nightmare.

The game received mixed reviews, but most critics praised its 1984-flavored atmosphere of all-consuming paranoia. The NPCs of We Happy Few are relentlessly paranoid, and the player is always being watched — either by civilians, the police, or CCTV cameras that can detect Joy. Of the game’s three main settings, the Village of Hamlyn is easily the most atmospheric. Inhabited by joy-addicted Wellies, it appears bright and cheerful on the surface, but there’s no ignoring its rotten core. The Garden District, on the other hand, reveals the game’s biggest weakness. Placed on the outskirts of Hamlyn, it’s where the poor and rejected live and is in a constant state of disrepair. It could have been deeply atmospheric, but the game’s use of procedural generation means the area is often empty, forcing the player to trek miles from one interesting place to the next. This over-reliance on wonky procedural generation, and the fact the DLCs abandoned the survival element altogether, mean We Happy Few receives a lower ranking.

6 The Forest & Sons Of The Forest

Replicates The Feeling Of Being Watched

• 	The Forest	Sons of the Forest
  System	PC, PlayStation	PC
  Platform(s)	PS4, PC	PC
  Released	2018-04-30	2023-02-23
  Developer(s)	Endnight Games	Endnight Games
  OpenCritic Page	https://opencritic.com/game/6029/the-forest	https://opencritic.com/game/14371/sons-of-the-forest
  OpenCritic Rating	Strong	Strong
  Top Critic Rating	81	78
  Critics Recommend %	69	86

Both The Forest and Sons of the Forest are similarly atmospheric, so we’ve included them as one entry. Both feature similar settings that don’t look all that atmospheric at first glance. The coastlines, forests, and snowy mountains of both games look much the same as many other survival titles. In the opening hours, these games can almost feel relaxing as the player takes in their seemingly idyllic surroundings, focusing on the usual busy work of finding food and water and building a simple base. Then the enemies start showing up.

Both games excel at mimicking the feeling of being watched. Initially, enemies don’t just turn up and attack. The player will start spotting scouts in their peripheral vision, watching from a distance. Then those scouts call in friends, and before the player knows it, they’re slowly being surrounded. Both games’ cannibal monsters are pretty much always hunting the player, and use some impressive AI to do so. This constant sense of unease is reinforced with some impressive environmental storytelling and gloriously unsettling interior environments. Both islands feature labyrinth networks of caves full of not just cannibals, but also their leftovers. With limited light sources and scarce resources, each cave dive is a journey into the terrifying unknown. Unfortunately, both games in the series fail to keep their use of atmosphere going. These might be some of the best cannibal horror games early on, but it doesn’t take long for the player to start feeling empowered. Once that happens, the cannibals stop being scary, and much of the atmosphere starts to fall away.

5 Grounded

It’s Honey I Shrunk The Kids Meets Ant-Man

A survival game set in someone’s backyard doesn’t sound particularly atmospheric, let alone like one of the best survival games for nature exploration. However, it turns out that shrinking the player to the point that they’re smaller than an ant so that blades of grass resemble skyscrapers, even the most mundane garden can appear denser and more atmospheric than the Amazon. The premise behind Grounded might be simple, but the game nails its setting and atmosphere at every turn.

Grounded’s opening areas excel at making the player feel small. The areas are relatively open and bright, revealing massive structures in the distance. Just a little bit off the beaten track, the player will find giant ants, spiders, and other bugs that dwarf them. Other areas — especially interiors, with their cramped conditions and dark lighting — make for deeply claustrophobic atmospheres that make the player yearn for the expansive outdoors. Wherever the player may be, Grounded’s atmosphere drives home the point that they are small, insignificant, and easily squished.

4 This War Of Mine

A Bleak And Realistic Portrayal Of Warfare

This War of Mine is an endlessly bleak and depressing game where every decision the player is forced to make is designed to leave a knot in their stomach. Inspired by the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War (1992–1996), it’s dedicated to accurately depicting what it feels like for the innocent civilians who get caught up in wars not of their making. Plenty of games have paid lip service to accurately recreating warfare, but This War of Mine is the real deal.

Players spend the game controlling a group of survivors who are holed up in a procedurally-generated building. They must keep these survivors healthy, fed, watered, and psychologically stable, which is easier said than done. Survival means making tough moral decisions that will leave survivors psychologically scarred. The game’s muted, monochromatic art emphasizes the its depressing setting. Every building is dilapidated, and often the only thing that can be heard is either weeping, or the sound of distant gunfire. Other survivors the player meets while scavenging will either beg for pity or attack on sight. The tension is constant and the game’s dedication to its oppressive atmosphere is emotionally draining. Even if the player “wins” by surviving until the end of the war, the game makes sure they feel like they lost. This War of Mine is one of the best survival games set in a city, but it’s also a harrowing experience many gamers will never finish.

3 Subnautica

The Ocean’s Depths Range From Wonderful To Dreadful

When it comes to atmosphere, Subnautica pulls off a balancing act that few other survival games have managed to achieve. At any given moment, it can feel immersive, wondrous, mysterious, or simply terrifying. The shallows of planet 4546B’s vast ocean are bright and beautiful. There are few threats, resources are plentiful, and ignoring the ticking time bomb that is the Aurora, the atmosphere in the game’s early hours is one of relaxed exploration.

The deeper one gets into Subnautica, though, the more its atmosphere begins to change. It gradually becomes clear that there is a greater mystery at play, and a general sense of unease begins to permeate the environment. Subnautica’s deep-sea areas are vast, dark, and full of ominous silence. The sense of ease fostered by the early areas is replaced with foreboding. Much like in Grounded, these areas do an excellent job of making the player feel small. The only stumbling block comes on the odd occasion where the player is forced to step foot on dry land. These areas just don’t feel as atmospheric, making exploring them more of a drag than an exciting change of pace.

2 Green Hell

As Close To The Amazon As Most Of Us Will Get

Thankfully, most of us will never get stranded in the Amazon Rainforest. For those who are curious, though, there’s always Green Hell. One of the best co-op survival games ever made, it uses its realistic setting and hardcore survival mechanics to create a deeply immersive atmosphere that brings the Amazon to the player’s living room. For a start, the game is gorgeous to look at. Its Amazon is lush and densely populated with real-world flora and fauna that pop visually.

This is backed up by some clever sound design. The rainforest is full of ambient noises like wildlife in the brush, rustling leaves, and distant flowing water, all of which add to the sense of being lost in a real environment. It sounds idyllic until one remembers the constant threat from wildlife, and the predators that think the player is dinner. If those ambient sounds go quiet, it’s probably time to run. Green Hell is a survival game that prioritizes realism in almost every aspect of its gameplay, which is reflected in its atmosphere. Richly atmospheric and thrilling to play, only one other game can keep it from the top spot.

1 The Long Dark

Bring Something Warm To Wear

In many ways, The Long Dark is an inferior survival game to other high-up entries on this list. Its graphics are more simplistic, the survival mechanics lack depth; it’s a survival game with no base building and, after seven years of constant development, it still isn’t finished. Despite these flaws, it deserves the top spot thanks to its brilliantly atmospheric setting and accessible take on survival gameplay.

The game is set in Canada’s frozen wilderness. Some mystery apocalyptic event has plunged the world into a seemingly endless winter that has also cut the area off from the outside world. The player must keep protagonist Will Mackenzie alive while he tries to work out what is going on. Survival means scavenging for food and water, crafting, and doing one’s best to stay warm. The game’s setting excels at making the player feel alone, and makes good use of environmental storytelling to hint at what happened to both the world at large and this region’s missing inhabitants. The game’s graphics are simple but highly stylized, while its spartan sound design emphasizes the sense of isolation. More than anything, though, the game excels at making the player shiver. Its use of atmosphere is so convincing that every time the player is forced to send Will out into the cold, they’ll find themselves shivering.