Space. The Final Frontier. Vast, dark, miraculous, and awe-inspiring. But also scary and incredibly dangerous. Especially without oxygen or some sort of atmospheric suit. In video games, space can be explored in many ways. From space operas, focused on story and characters, to multiplayer shooters, emphasizing gunplay and combat.
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There are, however, games set in space where survival is the focus. Stranded on a foreign world with mysterious aliens and creatures. Scavenging for supplies to replenish much-needed resources and avoiding and investigating unusual anomalies that could twist you physically and mentally. There are many games where you’re just trying to survive in space.
10FTL: Faster Than Light
You captain a spaceship with a mission to inform your allies about a rebel fleet in pursuit of you.FTL: Faster Than Lightis a roguelike strategy game where you must maintain the vessel, monitor your crew, and survive random encounters with enemies across the galaxy.
FTL is all about management. You have supplies and resources; you have an objective. It’s your job to make them last until your mission is complete. You can upgrade your ship along the way, but if it gets destroyed, it’s game over, and you must start again.
9Breathedge
One of the sillier, more comedic games about surviving space, Breathedge has you take on the role of a man aboard a spaceship who is trying to find a resting place for his grandfather. Naturally, that’s not a simple task because the ship gets wrecked, and it becomes something far tougher than expected.
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You must maintain oxygen levels, find tools tosolve puzzles, build basesand make it off the spaceship. Meanwhile, there’s an immortal chicken aboard too. Breathedge is a funny, bizarre game where surviving space isn’t the only focus.
8No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Skyis many things. It can be an immersive space simulator where you craft your own outpost, gather supplies and resources, and try to live out a space fantasy. It can also be a space opera, where you travel the galaxy, interact with aliens and strangers, and do battle with deadly foes. It can also be a space set mystery, where you try and uncover what is in the center of the galaxy.
While No Man’s Sky launched with less content than expected, it has since grown to become something unique. It’s a game set in space,across the galaxy, in spacecraft,on alien worlds, all about surviving, gathering resources, and making a life for yourself.
7Astroneer
Like No Man’s Sky,Astroneerhas you take on the role of a space explorer. This time around, your task is to colonize strange worlds, to gather supplies and resources, and to terraform the environment. The problem is that everything is randomized and procedural; you have no idea what to expect.
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Aiding your efforts are spacecraft you can pilot, rovers you can drive, and portals you can use. Astroneer is all about space exploration and the promise of a future. It’s about surviving at the moment and then hopefully in the future.
6Adrift
After a disaster in which a space station is nearly destroyed, an astronaut must navigate the ruins, uncover what happened, and recover her memories in the process. You slowly piece together the unfortunate events and then must find a way home.
Adrift has you in zero gravity, monitoring oxygen levels and using your wits to solve puzzles and find a way home. It’s a game where space itself is the enemy, where one false move can be the end, and where every action you take can have repercussions.
5Observation
When the crew of a space station goes missing, the onboard AI is rebooted and must investigate. Using camera feeds, drones, and other gadgets and technology, you must find out what happened to your crew, uncover your past and solve puzzles along the way.
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Observation is a science fiction thriller where you are responsible for the survival of your crew. The problem is that you don’t know where they are. You must reboot systems, put out fires, explore the unknown, and query anomalies in a science fiction game that goes dark and twisty while maintaining a high level of realism throughout.
4Outer Wilds
Outer Wildsis a story and mystery-driven game in which you play as an alien who takes to the skies in a space vessel in search of answers. Answers concerning a strangetime loopenveloping the galaxy. Answers concerning your people and their history.
Outer Wilds highlights the dangers of space travel, the anomalies, the surprises, and the unknown. You can visit alien worlds ravaged by tornados and maelstroms. There are planets filled with secrets and hidden portals. Outer Wilds makes space seem vast and joyous but also scary.
3Surviving Mars
A city-building strategy game, Surviving Mars is about constructing a colony on Mars, gathering supplies and resources, and surviving as long as possible. Along the way, you’ll contend with natural events, plagues, wars, and politics.
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Surviving Mars uses real data and information to create a realistic depiction of the red planet. It relies on actual science and technology to allow you to survive the environment.You’ll need oxygen, food, farms, water, and more to make it on Mars. But different factions require varying needs, making it a challenge for you.
2Returnal
Selene crash lands on a strange planet filled with deadly creatures and aliens. She must run and gun her way through the environment, gathering pick-ups and perks to help her battle and survive. Meanwhile, she can investigate ancient architecture and uncover themysteries of the planet.
Plus, she’s caught in a time loop. Every time she dies, she reverts to the moment she crashed, only to repeat everything she just did. WhileReturnaltakes place entirely on a planet, its science-fiction story and setting showcase the dangers of the unexplored.
The mining vessel, the USG Ishimura has gone silent and adrift. Isaac Clarke and his team are sent to investigate and conduct any repairs. What they don’t know is that a religious cult aboard the vessel has harvested an artifact from the planet, and now the crew are turning into deadly creatures inDead Space.
Dead Space is a survival horror game in which you battle the elements and monstrous alien creatures. You must navigate the Ishimura, power up or down systems, reserve supplies and oxygen, traverse zero gravity environments, and figure out what has happened. Dead Space might be one of the deadliest games about space survival.
