Staying alive is more than a snazzy Bee Gees song from 1977. It takes a lot of effort to keep a human alive on a constant basis, but often, that only becomes apparent when the comforts of modern living disappear.
Securing food, shelter, a good night's sleep while fending off the elements, and a thing or ten that hates you is challenging but fun. This list of brutally realistic survival games is here to drive that point home.
10 Best Survival Horror Games For Beginners
Want to get started in the survival horror sphere? These games are great for beginners to the genre.
What makes each of these games special is the attention to detail from the developers to try and make playing as lifelike as possible.
Some of them replicate realistic mechanics directly, while others strive for a realistic outcome.
8 Survival: Fountain of Youth
From Shipwrecked to Eldorado
Survival: Fountain of Youth
- Released
- April 19, 2023
- ESRB
- e
- Engine
- Unity
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Developer
- Odinsoft Inc.
- Publisher
- Twin Sails Interactive, CE-Asia
- Genre(s)
- Survival
Let's start with the bad news: you got shipwrecked in the Caribbean. That's never great. Now, onto the good thing, kind of: you're a European explorer in the 16th century, so your life expectancy was never that great to begin with.
As the name implies, the game sets you in the search for the mythical Fountain of Youth, but you're not exactly surrounded by friends and family there.
The New World comes with scorching tropical sun, plenty of fruits, and even more animals. Some of them are friends, some are food, and then you have predators that will end your adventure early on.
Survival: Fountain of Youth has 11 islands for you to explore, with plenty of variety of terrain and threats. It's a nice mix of deadly Caribbean horrors and the excitement of uncovering secrets, but in a slightly less brutal package than the other entries.
7 The Long Dark
Baby, It's Cold Outside
The Long Dark
- Released
- August 1, 2017
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Hinterland Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Hinterland Studio
- Engine
- Unity
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- How Long To Beat
- 22 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Bush flying is a cool thing. It allows you to reach the most remote corners of the Earth while having an easy way to get home. Of course, this system only holds up if your aircraft is still functional. Will Mackenzie's is not.
The Long Dark throws you deep into Canada's hinterland during winter. Short daylight hours, next to no food around, and wolves make your life hell there. And yet, as you warm up by the fire at the end of a long day, it hits you: this is so peaceful and beautiful.
10 Best Survival Games
Survival games can be scary, challenging, or relaxing, and they offer an experience like no other. Check out our list of the best in the genre.
The game has plenty of story content you can dig into, and while the writing makes it worthwhile, the methodical approach to surviving is what makes The Long Dark so special.
If you are just in it for the survival part, you can buy the open-ended mode separately for around half the price of the full game. That said, having a compelling story on top of the survival mechanics adds a lot more flavor.
6 Stranded Deep
Sea, Air, Land
- Released
- April 21, 2020
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Crude Humor, Mild Violence
- Developer(s)
- Beam Team Games
- Publisher(s)
- Beam Team Games
- Engine
- Unity
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 22 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 1 GB (November 2023)
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
Imagine a world where Lost is just about surviving a plane crash on a deserted island instead of the nonsense it eventually became.
Stranded Deep is special because it's the only survival game in this list that plays out in the air, sea, and land. Besides trying not to die on the island, you can go for a sail or a relaxing swim in the Pacific, or put together an ultralight to get a better view from the air.
The survival mechanics of Stranded Deep are ruthless but entertaining. It's very easy to pour four hours into building a shelter and working out a great gameplan, only to fall in battle to a rogue crab.
Unlike most games, the nourishment part of Stranded Deep actively punishes you for gluttony. Sure, you want to keep your energy and hydration levels up, but stuffing yourself with coconut water, for example, can give you diarrhea so bad you'll end up worse off than when you started.
Some Stranded Deep players are resentful that the developers moved on to making Stranded Deep 2 instead of expanding the base game. The ethics and optics of that are for a separate article, but as it stands now, Stranded Deep is a great realistic survival game despite its flaws.
5 Gray Zone Warfare
Open World Tactical Medicine
- Released
- April 30, 2024
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Madfinger Games
- Publisher(s)
- Madfinger Games
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- FPS, Survival, Open-World
Being a mercenary on a tropical island following a disaster is not for the faint of heart.
During a night reconnaissance mission in Gray Zone Warfare, I made a navigation error and got shot up badly.
Bandaging one of the wounds stopped the bleeding, but there was underlying organ damage that required surgery to fix. As I coughed my guts out, the pain of the untreated injuries outlasted my short supply of painkillers.
I limped for over one kilometer at night while seeing double from the pain and nausea until I finally reached a landing zone and a helicopter pulled me back to base camp.
You don't know true desperation until you are jumping in joy from finding a single can of soda in a dead body, just enough to keep you alive for another few minutes under the tropical sun.
Gray Zone Warfare looks like a looter shooter on the surface, but the medical system is the best in any survival game.
You need to manage painkillers, antibiotics, tourniquets, blood transfusions, and emergency surgery to survive the massive open world. All it takes is one stray bullet to put you in a coma or outright kill you.
4 Project Zomboid
Lifelike Apocalyptic Homesteading
- Released
- November 8, 2013
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- The Indie Stone
- Publisher(s)
- The Indie Stone
- Engine
- LWJGL
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- How Long To Beat
- 60 Hours
- Steam User Rating
- 94% (November 2, 2023)
Zombies, in my realistic game? It's more likely than you think!
Project Zomboid presents itself as a gritty little game about not becoming zombie dinner, but it sits on one of the best sets of survival mechanics ever. They are so good, in fact, that many players run the game with the zombies turned off.
The juxtaposition of feeling at home in your cozy improvised farm and the adrenaline from being chased by a zombie horde makes Project Zomboid a unique emotional experience.
What really makes this game special is how realistic workflows translate to its survival mechanics. Little things like having a go bag nearby or sustainable farming make a whole lot of difference in the game, much like they do in life.
Similarly, taking a car for a spin means having to drive it carefully, as crashing can lead to serious injuries even when the car makes it out fine. Got a flat tire? Look for a jack, a wrench, and a spare.
In some ways, Project Zomboid is like that annoying friend who tells you your breathing is now a manual action, but in a cool, interactive way.
3 DayZ
Outliving Zombies, Hunger, and People
DayZ
- Released
- December 13, 2018
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Bohemia Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Bohemia Interactive
- Engine
- enfusion
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- How Long To Beat
- N/A
- X|S Optimized
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 10 GB (January 2022)
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
If you get around the whole zombie apocalypse thing, DayZ is the most realistic open-world survival shooter ever created, and it's not even close. What started as a modest ArmA 2 mod is now a standalone giant that casually lounges at the top end of Steam's player count charts.
What makes DayZ so special is that every little thing you come across influences how you play. You have plenty of choices around how you wish to survive.
Towns are full of supplies but also have plenty of zombies and players. Sometimes they team up with you, other times they shoot you in the head.
10 Best Survival Games With Unique Mechanics
From city management to apocalyptic shooters, surviving in these games means very different things.
Of course, you can always just disappear into the woods. Hunting your own food and living off the land is fine until you get sick or can't find something to eat.
There is precious little to do besides staying alive, but the depth of the survival simulation is such that you never run out of things to do.
Nothing beats sitting by the campfire, wondering if this is your last night alive, while planning the next day.
2 This War Of Mine
Someone Will Die; You Choose Who
This War of Mine
- Released
- November 14, 2014
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Mild Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Developer(s)
- 11 Bit Studios
- Publisher(s)
- 11 Bit Studios
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 11 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 3 GB (November 2023)
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The siege of Sarajevo was one of the most brutal events of the Bosnian War. Although This War of Mine takes place in the fictional city of Pogoren, the developers have been overt about the inspiration from Sarajevo.
Food stops hunger, medicine stops illnesses, and bandages heal injuries. Easy, right? The problem is that all of these things are in extremely short supply. That's where the game makes you question your humanity.
During my first time playing, I told myself I'd never resort to stealing from others trying to survive. When a little child in my shelter was about to collapse from hunger, I broke my promise, raiding a stranger's house for food.
"It was for survival," I told myself. There was no alternative. Once things got desperate again a few days later, I decided to hit up another home. Its owner shot me, and thus, my journey ended.
Should I blame him? Well, if he hadn't taken that shot, maybe he would have starved. Maybe I would have killed him myself. No, he did the right thing, I think. "It was for survival", right?
You'd think that after getting the grip of the game, things get easier, and you optimize better, but it's hopeless.
At one point or another, you'll have to make a tough choice about who lives and who doesn't. There's no right or wrong here. I just hope you can live with whatever path you choose.
1 Green Hell
If an Anthropologist Vanishes in the Forest...
Green Hell
- Released
- September 5, 2019
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Creepy Jar
- Publisher(s)
- Creepy Jar
- Engine
- unity
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 17 Hours
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
In Werner Herzog's 2006 war epic Rescue Dawn, a prisoner of war remarks that the real prison is the jungle. Green Hell drives that point home harder than any other game.
The game throws you into the depths of the Amazon forest in search of your missing wife. The Amazon is brimming with wildlife and resources, but for every one thing that can save you, it feels like another ten will kill you.
One of the standout features of Green Hell is how much work goes into staying sane, and the consequences of neglecting your mental health are dire.
Like any extended stay in the jungle, Green Hell has quiet, relaxing moments intertwined with brushes with death and traumatic experiences.
The two campaigns give you a solid 30-50 hours of gameplay, but the game also has an Endless mode that is fully open-ended. This is a survivalist's true test.
