14 Games Like The Forest
Our assembled list of games like The Forest offers other first person horror games where you’ll craft, build and fight for survival in an open world environment.
The Forest joined the genre of other open world survival games in early 2014 through Steam Early Access with a full release in 2018 for Windows and PlayStation 4. Set within a dense forest players will take on the role of plane crash survivor Eric Leblanc in a sandbox world that lets you set your own path of first person survival. From chopping down trees to scavenging for food and exploring the cave networks you create your own adventure in the Forest.
In addition to exploring the open world environment for resources players will need to craft their own tools, shelter and weapons to survive as you shift through day and night cycles. While the environment is challenging in The Forest players also need to battle the the tribe of nocturnal cannibals who pose significant threat although their behaviour towards you will leave players wondering who is the real monster.
The games similar to The Forest here will also push your survival skills to the limit as you gather resources, craft items and fight off enemies with cannibalistic intentions. This list includes both single player alternatives and multiplayer options across a range of video game platforms.
Stranded 2
Stranded 2 is a free to play 3D game that challenges you to survive by yourself on an island as you explore and craft to improve your chances of survival. Building on the original Standard game by offering improved graphics, larger islands, additional items and higher levels of randomisation you’ll get plenty of more hours of Stranded gameplay with this sequel. Allowing players to play either through the story mode that gives you goals and objectives to achieve over four islands or the sandbox m...[Read Review]
Miasmata
Miasmata is a unique survival adventure that has you attempting to cure yourself from a deadly disease that has infected your body. The only thing that stands between you and your death is the scientific knowledge that you hold about the plant life that is scattered around your remote island location which requires you to explore and craft your way to a cure. Miasmata is one of the most unique and impressive adventure games released in recent years and even more impressive when you factor in the...[Read Review]
Fallen Earth
Fallen Earth is a MMO that combines FPS and role playing features with its post-apocalyptic game world to deliver an experience akin to the modern games in the Fallout series. Fallen Earth originally launched in 2009 as a paid MMO game before transitioning to a free to play game in 2011, it was later shut down for a temporary 2 year period between October 2019 and October 2021. Fallen Earth is centred around the Grand Canyon area which is now a wasteland after a series of devastating natural eve...[Read Review]
State of Decay
State of Decay combines the open world genre with a zombie outbreak to create a large and challenging adventure that has you leading a settlement of survivors through a number of trials. First released on the Xbox 360 in 2013 the title was quickly brought to Windows and eventually remastered in a Year-One Survival Edition version that also added Xbox One support. The fictional Trumbull Valley is the setting for this zombie adventure and feels like a small to medium sized rural area in the real w...[Read Review]
Don’t Starve
Don’t Starve is a single player survival game that has many unique features and a dark art direction that makes it a stand out open world survival experience. The game was released in April 2013 by Klei Entertainment with a standalone expansion pack released in 2016 under the name Don’t Starve Together which introduces multiplayer to the Don’t Starve universe. While this review here does not cover this expansion in particular the mechanics discussed below are all applicable to the ba...[Read Review]
Wurm Online
Wurm Online is a sandbox style MMORPG that has a creative focus allowing you to create your own adventure in a medieval themed world. Players can play Wurm Online with a basic account for free but to remove some restrictions you will have to commit to a subscription based premium account. Following the initial 2012 release a stand alone paid version was launched in 2015 known as Wurm Unlimited gives players the toolkit they need to have their own single player adventure or host a multiplayer ser...[Read Review]
Infestation: The New Z
Infestation: The New Z offers another iteration on the open world survival genre with close ties to The War Z and Infestation: Survivor Stories games before it to offer a familiar experience in a reset game world. Like these games that predate it players will explore the free to play world as they co-operate with friends and battle through PvP to ultimately survive in the harsh game world. Ignoring the rocky history that this franchise has had with countless development issues and decisions that...[Read Review]
CastleMiner Z
CastleMiner Z is a sequel to the popular Xbox Live Indie Game of CastleMiner while also bringing the series to the computer environment via Steam. While the original CastleMiner was a creatively focused experience the sequel pushes the game into survival orientated gameplay instead aligning it with other games in the genre that offer a survival sandbox experience in a block based game world. This CastleMiner Z block based gameplay also features mechanics that are familiar to the genre with zombi...[Read Review]
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 continues the co-operative zombie adventure with all new characters, locations, enemies and weapons to change up the popular gameplay introduced in the original Left 4 Dead. The popular AI director also makes a return with plenty of tweaks to ensure players are always challenged as they fight against near endless zombie waves alone or with other players. Just like the original game plot details are kept minimal with players following four survivors of an infectious disease that has...[Read Review]
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Sir, You Are Being Hunted is one of the more unique games to be released in recent years with its offering of stealth gameplay combined with free roaming sandbox mechanics. As the name might suggest players spend their time being hunted in a procedurally generated game world by killer robots. Unlike the zombies, mutants or humans of other games these British themed robot opponents give Sir, You Are Being Hunted a unique setting over other stealth and survival titles. Players find themselves in t...[Read Review]
Dead Island
In Dead Island you’ll explore an open island environment as you try to prevent being eaten by zombies by finding whatever melee weapons you can find around the place. Following the adventure of four survivors who are looking to escape the island you’ll fight alone or with friends in a melee combat orientated zombie title for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. The setting for this zombie infestation is the luxury tropical resort on the island known as Banoi. After a night of wild part...[Read Review]
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead (L4D) is a zombie survival experience that focuses on co-operative gameplay against a varied and randomised zombie infection. Left 4 Dead separates itself from similar co-operative shooters by promising a different experience each time you load up a game map thanks to the AI director that alters aspects of the map each time it is played. The Left 4 Dead base game takes place across four varied and unique acts all with a movie design to the campaign, their own tagline and five separat...[Read Review]
Dead Island: Riptide
Dead Island: Riptide is the second game in the Dead Island series and continues on with familiar lore and mechanics from your previous adventure but takes place on a whole new island which keeps it accessible to newcomers to the franchise. Launching in 2013 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 its an overall similar experience released only two years after the success of the original zombie beat down title. The events in Dead Island: Riptide occur right after those of the first Dead Island game although th...[Read Review]
ZombiU
ZombiU (Zombi on non Wii U platforms) brings the zombie genre onto Nintendo’s platform with an amazing and horrifying experience that shows off some unique mechanics and potential of the Wii U. On non Wii-U platforms some of these features are taken out or redesigned while still retaining the impressive fundamental design of the primary Wii U version mot notably the fantastic London setting and horror tones that are magnified by the permanent death mechanic with some graphical improvements along...[Read Review]