There’s a strange allure to being dropped into an unknown world where the only familiar thing is your sense of panic, as if you were a kid again, turning off the lights and running to your bed at night before the imaginary monster catches up. Except, here, the monsters are very real, and sometimes far more terrifying than anything the depths of a child’s undeveloped brain could conjure up.
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These games don’t just give you an open world to lose yourself in by choice, they make sure to utterly dismantle your ability to tell up from down with their world design. All you get is a slight nudge towards your supposed goal, with your own wits and path-finding skills to get you there. Only, sometimes, the path is inside a black hole or fraught with Lovecraftian nightmares breathing down your neck.
6 Sable
The Desert Winds Don’t Whisper Any Answers
Sable
- Released
- September 23, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Shedworks
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Set in the dunes of the desert planet Midden, Sable introduces players to a world that feels desolate and unfamiliar, yet inviting. The aesthetic is a perfect blend of ancient technology and nomadic tradition, making the environment feel less like a backdrop for you to get from point A to B chasing objective markers, and more like a world that actually feels lived in. The relics and architecture of the mysterious “Machine People” give players a sense of history and culture that feels very believable, though incomprehensibly foreign.
The game chooses to forego combat entirely, instead following Sable through a coming-of-age journey to complete the Gliding Ceremony, a mythical tradition whose meaning remains purposefully unexplained. This lack of danger allows players to freely explore this alien world at their own pace, guided only by environmental storytelling or a few NPCs who speak in cryptic metaphors, which makes each discovery you make feel all the more rewarding. All in all, Sable’s world is one that speaks loudly, but in a language that’s up to the player to decipher.
5 Outer Wilds
The Universe Ends Every 22 Minutes, But You’re Still Late
Outer Wilds
- Released
- May 28, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
Outer Wilds takes the question “Do you want to be an astronaut?” And does one better: “Do you want to be an astronaut, astrophysicist, quantum mechanics expert, and a three-fingered alien, all in one?” The ancient race of the Nomai is central to the game’s narrative, yet nothing about them is clearly explained save for some ship logs. The entire game takes place within a 22-minute time loop, having players explore not just one, but six different alien worlds.
From Brittle Hollow’s collapsing core, Dark Bramble’s recursive interiors, and the Hourglass Twins’ sand transfer system; each planet blurs the line between logic and irrationality with not just visuals, but core gameplay mechanics that feel foreign. The definitive proof of Outer Wilds' alien nature is the fact that there’s no hand-holding or combat. Instead, the player’s guide is their own problem-solving skills, and the enemies are quantum super-positions and observer effects.
4 Pathologic 2
You Are Dying. But So Is Everything Else.
Pathologic 2
- Released
- May 23, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Ice-Pick Lodge
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
The rural town of Pathologic 2 feels fairly normal at a glance, at least in terms of layout; there are houses, streets, and people. But, dig a little deeper, and you’ll find a society that’s entirely alien in tone, language, and behavior. Conversations are laced with cryptic metaphors and surreal logic, and the seemingly normal town layout soon becomes an unrecognizable nightmare. The Abattoir, the Polyhedron, and the Termitary are all places that challenge physical logic and symbolic coherence.
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This is a horror game where the central villain isn’t anything tangible, but rather a concept. The “Sand Plague” is not just a disease but something with sentience, possibly even a voice, and its origins are never fully defined, which only adds to the eeriness. Players are left craving for any morsel of information they can get, but they only have 12 days to live. Pathologic 2 uses time as a weapon, never giving enough but always making you want for more.
3 The Eternal Cylinder
Roll For Your Life: God Is A Giant Metal Tub e
The central mechanic of The Eternal Cylinder is in the name. T here’s a cylinder. It’s eternal. No one knows why it exists or what controls it, but the herd of Trebhum that players take control of, have to find a way to survive in this cruel and hostile world. Luckily, they have the strongest power in existence: the ability to adapt.
Consuming strange flora and fauna, the Trebhum can rapidly rewrite their biology. And players must use this ability to get through an onslaught of massive one-eyed beasts, floating monoliths, gravity-defying structures, and AI deities who speak in opaque, reverent tones. It’s not just the creatures, either; the world itself is a threat. With fully destructible environments and The Cylinder’s Servants always on the prowl, nowhere is safe. When even the game’s narrator is unreliable, contradicting himself at every other turn, it’s solid evidence that The Eternal Cylinder is beautiful, grotesque, and totally indecipherable .
2 Death Stranding
Rain That Ages You And Ghosts That Bleed Tar
Death Stranding
- Released
- November 8, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Kojima Productions
- Genre(s)
- Action
- Platform(s)
- iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Taking place in a fractured America where timefall rain causes rapid aging and ghostly “BTs” that float between worlds, Death Stranding takes the setting of a familiar country and makes it unrecognizable. There’s all the Kojima-isms one would expect, with talks of “Chiral Matter” and the liminal Beach where souls linger, but nothing is ever clearly explained.
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What adds to the alien feeling is just how empty the world feels, with communications mostly happening over holograms instead of face-to-face interactions, save for having to give BB an occasional rocking to quiet him down. Death Stranding takes the Hideo Kojima formula of long, vague monologues, throws in a bit of existential horror, paints it in a coat of harsh utilitarianism, and tells players to go on a ride. And it’s glorious.
1 Subnautica
Welcome To 4546B. Don’t Drink The Water
Subnautica
- Released
- January 23, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
- Developer(s)
- Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
As if the deep ocean weren’t terrifying enough, how about the deep ocean on an alien planet? Subnautica starts players off as castaways on a world with no dry land and gives them one objective: survive. Even before the glowing kelp, hole-fish, and floating eyeballs start to seem normal, the game decides to throw in psychic ruins hinting at an alien race that tried and terribly failed to control some sort of plague.
Before long, the objective shifts from survival to exploration as the game urges you simply through its impeccable environmental storytelling, to go deeper and seek answers. Except, each turn only leaves players with more questions until they reach the depths where Leviathans roam. Biomes transition from tropical shallows to pitch-black abyssal zones, with abrupt shifts in color, sound, and spatial geometry. The pressure of the deep doesn’t just weigh down on your vessel, but on your very psyche.
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