Summary
- Apple TV's Severance is an engaging show with a science fiction premise centered on identity and morality.
- Antichamber offers a similar eerie atmosphere to Severance through its puzzle platforming and cryptic clues.
- Escape the Backrooms and Soma provide horror and mystery that will captivate Severance fans with thrilling narratives.
Apple TV’s Severance has proven itself to be one of the most intriguing and exhilarating shows of the 2020’s. Its science fiction premise is expertly crafted, centering on the corporate employees of the company Lumon, who have surgically separated the memories of their work and home lives into two separate consciousnesses. Through this central idea, the show constantly engages viewers with themes of identity and morality, whilst also providing endless mysteries and shocking twists.
Between the twisting corridors of the severed floor, endless charts of numbers on computer screens, and moments of offbeat office humor, Severance provides a distinctly odd atmosphere and a confusing sci-fi world that would make for an amazing video game. As fans await the next season, there are plenty of great gaming experiences with similar themes and science-fiction concepts that they can keep themselves busy with.
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8 Antichamber
Mind-Bending Puzzle Gameplay
Antichamber
- Released
- January 31, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
Created by a single developer, Antichamber is an underrated puzzle platformer with a strange visual style Severance fans would find familiar. Much of the game takes place within long winding corridors which twist and turn in architecturally impossible ways, similar to Lumon’s severed floor. The boxed instructions found around every corner contain plenty of cryptic clues to decipher.
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The actual narrative of the game is intentionally ambiguous, with bright colors and eerie, quiet music throughout. The new abilities and laser mechanics added later on create a rewarding experience when completing certain difficult puzzles. Antichamber gives players the feeling of being trapped in an endless maze, and provides plenty of head-scratching moments to keep Severance fans guessing.
7 Escape the Backrooms
Shocks Around Every Corner
Escape the Backrooms
- Released
- October 23, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
Inspired by the widely influential creepypasta, Escape the Backrooms allows players to explore the fictional “backrooms” in all their unsettling glory, with plenty of desolate white hallways to entice fans of Severance’s underground office space. Horror and gruesome detail are the central focus here, creating moments of tension as players hide and run away from the hideous-looking monsters found in every level.
Tight hallways, harsh lighting panels, and environmental puzzles only add to the eerie atmosphere of it all. The multiplayer component adds the notion of shared entrapment, similar to that of Lumon’s severed employees, as they work together to see the outside world. For fans of Severance who love a fun horror challenge, this is a perfect pick.
6 Disco Elysium
Figuring Out Who You Are
Disco Elysium
- Released
- October 15, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- ZA/UM
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Stadia
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Providing an intriguing mystery/detective narrative, Disco Elysium is a great experience for any Severance fan to try, with strong similarities from the beginning. Memory and identity are key themes, with the detective’s initial amnesiac state giving players the opportunity to follow whatever personality type they choose.
One of the game’s central mechanics, called the Thought Cabinet, allows players to categorize the information they discover about themselves. They can choose which traits or ideologies they will suppress or focus on, in a way that mirrors the internal conversations of Severance’s “innie” and “outie” personas. With a slow-burn narrative filled with interesting conversations and information, Disco Elysium will have players invested until the end.
5 Job Simulator
Dumb Fun in the Working World
Job Simulator
- Released
- April 5, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Owlchemy Labs
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Meta Quest
- Genre(s)
- Simulation, Virtual Reality
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
In Job Simulator, players are given the opportunity to experience the working world in all its satirical mundanity. The game features a similar level of offbeat humor to the workspaces on the severed floor, and offers an engaging VR simulated experience. As the player loads in, they get four occupations to choose from. Each one comes provided with their own set of necessary tasks to complete and time-wasting opportunities to distract themselves with.
In particular, the “office worker” section offers some great moments of enjoyment when throwing paper airplanes or shooting staples, whilst also mirroring the setting of Lumon with its own tongue-in-cheek “SRS Business Inc.” There are generic motivational posters surrounding the entire office, and even simplistic computer screens like those found in Macro Data Refinement. It makes for a fun, light experience Severance fans would find amusing.
4 Soma
Thrilling Moments of Morality
SOMA
- Released
- September 15, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Frictional Games
- Genre(s)
- Horror
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Set in an abandoned research facility far beneath the ocean surface, Soma creates a tense and thought-provoking horror narrative, taking Severance’ s themes of identity and mystery to their extremes. As players explore the dark corridors and cramped ventilation shafts of PATHOS-11, they will find themselves running from terrifying monsters and artificially intelligent beings. Both of these start to create moral conundrums and that are bound to stick with players for a long time.
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There's plenty of tension as players uncover this world’s mysteries, and multiple environmental puzzles for those wanting even more to keep their brain occupied. It’s difficult to discuss Soma without spoiling its best narrative moments, but its strong focus on identity and what it is that makes a human are sure to keep any Severance fan gripped.
3 Portal (Series)
Life As a Test Subject
Portal 2
- Released
- April 18, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
Widely considered among the best science-fiction games ever made, Portal and its sequel Portal 2 share much of the same science-fiction DNA as Severance, with added puzzle mechanics and artificial intelligence. The setting of Aperture Science echoes Lumon Industries through its white-panelled walls and elevators, adding to the eerie world-building through the broken and dilapidated state of the factory the player explores.
Through the games’ challenging puzzle platforming sections, players will also find similar notions of human testing and work through the “tests” they complete. The robot antagonists GLaDOS and Wheatley make plenty of dry comedic remarks at the player’s expense, working similarly to conversations with the severed floor’s unsettling management team. The Portal games are essential for any gamer, and perfect for Severance fans.
2 The Stanley Parable
The Fun of Ignoring Instructions
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
- Released
- April 27, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Crows Crows Crows
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- First-Person, Simulation, Mystery
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Famous for its satirical meta-commentary on gaming as a medium, The Stanley Parable presents players with many of the same central components as Severance, with themes of identity, dry humor and office-based exploration. From its first moments, the desks are empty and any questions about what the player character’s job is are left intentionally unanswered.
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Perhaps the best part of the game is its snide narrator who directs players’ route around the office. When his instructions are ignored, this narrator lashes out in moments of comedic frustration that mirror Lumon’s upper management. In fact, Severance creator Dan Erikson cited the game as a major influence on the show. It's a great experience that fans shouldn’t miss out on.
1 Control
Strange Government Conspiracies
Control
- Released
- August 27, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Action, Third-Person Shooter, Supernatural
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Through its unconventional setting and reality-bending story, Control is an experience that any fan of Severance would adore. In the game, the player has free rein to explore the Federal Bureau of Control, a governmental agency with an abundance of desolate office spaces, large meeting rooms, and hoards of paranormal entities to encounter and incapacitate.
Through the mundane-appearing “objects of power” and the game’s trippy visual style, Control excels in creating an atmosphere shrouded in mystery, adding to its world-building through the optional item pick-ups littered around every room. Open documents are found on empty desks, detailing past events and paranormal tests gone wrong. Informational videos recorded by Dr. Darling offer endearing moments amidst the madness, giving plenty for Severance fans to find themselves utterly captivated by.
Severance
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- February 17, 2022
- Network
- Apple TV
- Cast
- Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman, Sarah Bock, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Jeff McCarthy, Hudson Flynn, Ruby Stevens, Alexis Cofield, Alexandra Ferrara, Michael Kayne, Jillian Lindig, Lou Martini Jr., James Augustus Lee, Joanne Kelly, Anthoula Katsimatides, Nikki M. James, Cassidy Layton, Michael Caiazzo
- Writers
- Anna Ouyang Moench, Wei-Ning Yu
- Seasons
- 2
- Streaming Service(s)
- AppleTV+
Severance: Best Episodes, Ranked
Severance has had some standout episodes so far, and more are surely to come.