If you're looking for something to scare you, SOMA should be your next stop. Abandoned deep water research facility, disgusting growths, the endless terror of unknowable darkness

For the whole “exploration-holy shit-I can only play this once” sort of feeling, you can’t beat Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Outer Worlds)

First thing I thought of. Just for people curious: it's like early early access Subnautica. It's not polished, it's ugly, but it's perfectly playable.

It's got similarish exploration to Subnautica, just land based, buy mechanically kinda sucks. Instead of unlocking vehicles and new gear to go deeper, you just get bigger O2 tanks to walk further. So it's more shallow, but also trivialized by being able to construct simple rooms everywhere and never even need to worry about oxygen. Sense of progression is based around rarer materials being further from your spawn point and unlocking new tech as you continue terraforming.

Gotta say, seeing the world literally change around you as you hit milestones is cool as hell.

No Mans Sky, Ark Survival Evolved are 2 options on gamepass.

Outer Wilds has a lot of similar elements. It’s up there with Subnautica as one of my favourites.

Did you pursue and kill a reaper? Try No Man's Sky.

Did you just avoid the leviathans? Try The Planet Crafter.

Have you played it? Seriously addicting but probably one of the scariest games.

The cannibals screaming at night when you can’t see them…chilling!

Me too. It's been great to have another game with similar aspects that I loved about Subnautica.

i would like breathedge however too much talk and funny things kills the immersion

Yep! Grounded is probably the most polished survival game similar to subnautica. And the multiplayer makes it even better!

I would put both games in the genre of "Mystery exploration" (or adventure mystery). I think they have more in common than Subnautica does with most other crafting survival games, such as RAFT or Minecraft or Stranded.

Ugh, I hated that one. Just didn't click for me. I love the idea of being left alone and having no manual what to do, but OTOH the graphics are so basic that it just crashed down too hard after the opulence that is Subnautica.

How it is similar to Subnautica?

I don't know if it can be of interest to you, but I'm currently working on a game and a lot's of people told me it feel like it's "subnautica on mars". I'm releasing a closed beta in the next few days.

You can check the Steam page here : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1284190/The\_Planet\_Crafter/

Definitely check out Raft. Firewatch is a different type of game but can be had for very cheap and is a very well done game as well. More story based then exploration/survival

Raft is a great survival game. Plus it has co-op which makes it even better.

Yeah it's really good, check out the Steam reviews but I strongly advise going into it blind and avoid the reddit for it as you really don't wanna spoil the puzzles for yourself. Great music as well

Valheim doesn’t really have a story, but I think it does the survival aspect really well.

Green Hell has a pretty gripping story, but I think its survival mechanics are really unforgiving and difficult.

Dysmantle is really fun, I think it has a pretty good story so far; I’m in the middle of playing it.

Silent Hill 2 Remake has a very desolate and eerie feeling from start to finish and is themed around what you are describing. SH2 in particularly is famous for giving people a feeling of hopelessness, lonesomeness and dread. Some combat and puzzles.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a good contender too. It is about coping with loss and has gameplay elements inspired by psychosis and skizofrenia. Brilliant game and extremely beautiful. Also very desolate and gives you that feeling of a bottomless emptiness. Some combat and puzzles.

SOMA. Pretty much exactly what you describe, though with a slightly different take. Amazing game. No combat. Some puzzles.

These games all feature vast, dark, empty spaces. Some may or may not include the ocean. But no spoilers. Enjoy!

Soma is great imo, can't talk about it a lot because the more you know spoils it. But its by the people that made Amnesia, another horror classic.

maybe try cry of fear, it could be what you are looking for

Lone survivor- 16 bit silent hill inspired indie game

Seriously tho, I loved it. Got all the stuff if you know what I mean. So many layers in that game

Prey falls into a genre now called 'Immersive Sims' so, check out games in that category. While people are recommending Outer Wilds, I'd disagree that its similar to what you're looking for.

I'd recommend:

• BioShock
• Metro2033
• System Shock 2
• The Long Dark
• STALKER
• The Forest
• Fallout series
• Deus Ex
• Dishonored (same developers as Prey)

Subnautica 2 unfortunately falls flat compared to the first one IMO

Outer Wilds

i will say alien isolation. Just like that.

Look for SOMA or Quantum Break (many logs, email, etc to read and the game include even a mini serir ingame)

I'm not saying Outer Wilds isn't a great game but I personally don't think it contains many elements of what made Prey great.

Control is much more like Prey. Both are quite rewarding for exploring and take place in one area. They also both tell multiple stories in the form of documents/logs/e-mails that add to the immersion of the world they're building.

And for Subnautica, I would say The Forest is a direct comparison. Both let you explore and build whatever you want, but if you come across enough interesting caves you'll start noticing there's a storyline building.

honestly once i got below the first “level” and into the lost river, it wasnt so scary. the real fear for me is being at the top of the water and not seeing the bottom but i feel safer with a monster in a cave i can see the walls lol

It didnt help when the pda points out the biome has 9/13 traits that cause extreme terror in the human mind. Thanks...

And that they did it without the initial intention to make a terror game is brilliant! Because of that, they did not focus on any horror elements at all. It’s all in the mission to improve the atmosphere, make it more immersive. Letting the ocean do its effect by its own.

Make sure you play the VR version next time you revisit it... Its a masterpiece!!!

Just floating above a void where I can’t see the bottom is enough to drive me crazy.

I'll preface by saying I absolutely adore Subnautica. I will never uninstall that game from my PC, I've finished it 7 times, I'm still playing it. I cannot wait for the sequel.

Subnautica: Below Zero does exist.

I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't like it. The map is smaller, there's no ultra fast fins, there's no seamoth, there's no cyclops. And the reason there's no ultra fast fins or seamoth or cyclops is because the underwater map is around half the size of Subnautica I'm guessing.

The protagonist is a "scientist" who acts like a teenager, she is voiced and extremely annoying. However there is a companion who is interesting and kind of saves it. It's just unfortunate our character fails to interact in a meaningful and intelligent way with it.

The story is a mess.

There's more emphasis on the overworld in this game, as we all know from the original, running on the overworld feels janky. Unless the controls have been patched DO NOT USE the Snowfox (snow traversal vehicle), the controls are an absolute goddamn travesty. Just build a Prawn suit and use it to get around.

It doesn't feel like you're trying to survive like the first game, it feels like you're in a theme park specifically designed for you to explore.

However if you can get over that, there are some positives here. The biomes are beautiful, there's new creatures and the ending was worth putting up with the rest of the game.

I wouldn't recommend trying to find games with similar mechanics and instead find games that evoke the same emotions. For me, the closest games that created a sense of wonder/terror/adventure in an unfamiliar world with environmental storytelling have been... Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, Super Metroid, and Dark Souls.

7 Days to Die. Lots of crafting, building, scares.

It's great, I did it solo and you can always find people to play with in their discord if you wanted to. You can have pets too so you don't feel alone.

Oh OK you already tried it. I was so disappointed with it. I really tried to like it.

I ended up getting sick of the ridiculous amount of hostile creatures and just drove around ramming them all with the Seatruck. They were just in the way, I believe they reduced their numbers in a patch, but it was just excessive and there's no way 50 predators could survive in that space. Everyone was discussing ways to get around leviathans, and the solution really is to just run them over with your truck.

I do appreciate they patched the new base parts from BZ into Subnautica in the Living Large Update, which they absolutely didn't have to do.

My favorite horror game is Soma. You'd like it based on the games you mentioned you had played.

Alien isolation for a game that will make you on edge. Also give both the Alan Wake games a try. They’re not scary but psychological

You’ll probably get this recommendation a lot. But the Silent Hill 2 Remake was amazing. I have never been scared or frightened playing a game until I touched that. Took me quite some time to beat it because i would get overstimulated playing it and had to take breaks doing so. You’ll enjoy it a lot I think.

Another one i enjoyed was Hellblade Senuas Sacrifice. This is on the more psychological side of horror.

Play these with headphones on and in the dark and you’ll be immersed completely.

Big fan of Clock Tower (a lot of tension) on PS1 and The Thing on Xbox/PS2.

Doom 3 is pretty scary, scarier than any other entry in the series.

Resident Evil is great, but never found it scary outside of the RE2 remake, RE4, RE7, and RE8. RE1 and RE2 are personally my favorites, RE1 remake is likely the best way to enjoy it now but RE2 and RE2 remake are both great still. The RE Outbreak games are a ton of fun too, but less so now that there's no online.

Silent Hill is amazing. SH1 and especially SH2. Heard great things about the SH2 remake.

Parasite Eve is amazing, Parasite Eve 2 less so, and Parasite Eve "3" even less so (went from a narrative driven horror action RPG to a more action focused game that a major marketing focus was the main characters sexy outfits and destructible clothing...).

The Suferring games are great, aside from a few jump scares it's more action-y with a horror and gore theme.

Only ever played the first couple Fatal Frame games, but they're very spooky.

Evil Dead: Regeneration is not scary, but if you're an Evil Dead fan you'll love it. Similarly, the Buffy games on PS2/Xbox are great fun with horror elements.

If you go back further there's a lot of interesting PC horror games, but primarily point and click type games. I'm a little more retro leaning generallybut there's a lot of great more modern PC horror games too that'll pop up on any "top 20 PC horror games" list you'll find on Google with stuff like Outlast, Soma, Amnesia, Dredge, Sons of the Forest, Mouthwashing, Phasmophobia, or Scorn.

I grew up a Resident Evil fan. Evil Within 1+2 freaked me out a bit.

Hmm, there’s SOMA, Reveil, Shift 87, the Fears to Fathom games, Anemoiapolis, Killer Frequency off the top of my head. I’ve played a few other games that are more surreal and creepy but I’m not sure I’d call them horror (namely Off Peak and The Norwood Suite)

Putting this here in case it violates format rules

I understand how that mechanic amps up the game by making you conserve resources and not just blasting away every alien or ghost or whatever, but it just stresses me out rather than adds to the fear.

Any suggestions for games that run on the Deck (or are on PS5 if not, I guess) that don't do that?

Examples of games that I mean: Resident Evil, Dead Space, Days Gone (at least the little I played). Your ammo is so scarce and it's so easy to lose health and die. Combine that with assholes that can't be killed (Mr X, The Hunter, etc.) and it's not fun and scary to me, just annoying and stressful.

On the other hand, something like Subnautica was PERFECT because it was pretty easy to farm whatever resources you needed, and you're not meant to kill the vast majority of enemies. Prey (2017) was another good one, because you end up with a ton of ammo, upgrades, and various powers by the end.

I made it a little bit further past his first appearance, but yes, it kind of ruined the game for me. I didn't like having to say "f it" and haul ass to a safe area whenever he started chasing me. I know you can listen for him and hear his footsteps, but that didn't really help.

I get the appeal, but yeah, just not for me.

I wouldn't put Days Gone in the same bucket as Resident Evil. Resident Evil has scarcity of resources and inventory slots so it's an inventory management game as much as it is a horror game. In Days Gone, you only have the resource scarcity at the start. Once you get about 10ish hours in, maybe sooner, and do the camp missions, you get more money to trade for stuff. I never had an issue with resources in that game after the start.

Cool! I'll check out RE4.

I did play Dead Space Remake on the easiest setting lol. It wasn't ideal because there was zero challenge to it, but everything about the game was awesome so I didn't mind too much.