The best survival games not only provide entertaining playtime but can actually help their players learn useful skills that they can use in real-life. Some of these popular and even underrated survival games can help gamers learn about self-reliance and improve their critical thinking, response time, and strategic thinking while immersing them in unforgettable cinematic worlds and stories.
These often emotional games will transport their players to realistic worlds, but players can explore dark fantasy and scary horror adventures too. However, the best survival games don't always have to be gore or spooky. There are plenty of brilliant and exciting cinematic survival games that challenge their players while taking them on fun, family-friendly adventures.
7 Grounded
Grounded is one of the most exciting new survival early-access games that's planned to get a full release in September 2022. It's a fun and a little spooky open-world RPG survival game with incredible visuals and a great story. It can be played solo or with up to three players in multiplayer mode.
Players will be able to step into the shoes of young explorers who have been shrunk to the size of an ant and have to explore and survive the dangers of their back garden. Gamers will have to build a safe base and craft weapons and armor to protect themselves. As players explore they will uncover more of the mysterious story in a beautiful and thrilling world in which the insect life reacts to their actions.
6 ARK: Survival Evolved
ARK: Survival Evolved is one of the most exciting cinematic survival games with immersive crafting and a beautiful open world in which humans, dinosaurs, and dragons live side by side. Thanks to this multiplayer survival RPG, players will be transported into a vibrant and unique world in which they will have to fight powerful enemies and monsters to survive.
Players will find themselves on a dangerous and mystery-filled island where they'll have to tame and, in some cases, kill primeval creatures to survive and escape. It's an entertaining but also fairly complex and difficult survival game in which players will have to use their skills to stay alive while hunting, crafting, growing plants, and even doing research while also fighting off their enemies and dangerous creatures.
5 Subnautica: Below Zero
Subnautica: Below Zero is the second game of the highly praised Subnautica series. It's one of the most beloved cinematic survival games that's praised not only because of great visuals and well-crafted stories but also because these are two of the most realistic survival games ever created.
There are many great hidden secrets in the game that most players still haven't found since Subnautica: Below Zero is filled with exciting adventures. This challenging but highly entertaining open-world survival game will take its players deep underwater on an alien planet, where they'll have to find creative ways to survive, craft, and build habitats while uncovering a dark secret.
4 Alan Wake
Alan Wake is a brilliant and dark supernatural survival game and one of the most story-heavy games that can be experienced in a unique TV series style. This cinematic horror survival game takes its players on a haunting adventure during which they will step into the shoes of Alan, a thriller writer whose wife disappeared.
The story takes place in a small town called Bright Falls, and players will have to explore and solve dark mysteries while saving Alan's love. This spooky game has thrilling twists as well as cool action scenes and a multilayered story. Players will have to defeat supernatural evil and stop the danger from spreading.
3 Little Nightmares 2
Little Nightmares 2 is one of the most popular cinematic puzzle survival games with one-of-a-kind visuals and a memorable story. This psychological horror game has a surprisingly charming art style, but it's set in a creepy and danger-filled fantasy world. Players can go on this spooky adventure alone or with a friend in co-op mode.
Gamers can step into the shoes of a young boy named Mono and go on a dangerous adventure with his friend Six to uncover what's causing the humming transmission that's been distorting their world. Together they have to uncover the mystery while trying to stay alive and evade the terrifying residents of this haunting world.
2 Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 is one of the most challenging and scariest survival horror games that's also praised as one of the best zombie games of all time. This atmospheric shooter can be played in a single-player or multiplayer mode, and it takes its players on a nightmarish and violent adventure.
Players will be able to play two characters, a police officer named Leon and a college student named Claire, and experience the story from both characters' perspectives. Gamers will have to find a way to fight off and kill the terrifying and highly realistic zombies while getting to know the game's dark world and its gripping storyline deeper. It's not only a shooter game since players will also have to explore, solve imaginative puzzles, as well as collect items while trying to survive.
1 Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation is easily one of the most well-known and celebrated survival horror games with one of the most iconic tomboys in horror games. This brilliant and deeply-atmospheric game takes its players on a sci-fi adventure in which they'll get immersed in a terrifying psychological horror story and a stunning but dangerous world they can experience in VR too.
Players will get to step into the shoes of Amanda, Ellen Ripley's daughter, who has to uncover the truth surrounding her mother's disappearance while trying to survive violent and deadly aliens in a horrifying trading space station. While exploring this dark and mysterious world, players will have to find resources, hack systems, and craft items to survive in all situations and against all sorts of enemies.