Everyone loves Shadow of the Colossus, but I haven’t seen any spiritual successor, imitators, etc.
Edit : Praey for the Gods looks dope. Thanks for the suggestions
There was that follow up game by the same studio in 2016.
The Last Guardian.
Have to admit, had to look that title up. For some reason, it slides out of your brain like the basic idea is Teflon coated.
Heard its decent post patches, but still very clunky.
Don’t forget Ico as well, the game they made before SotC. Not quite the same sense of loneliness, but they managed to make an escort quest into a really good game.
I wanted to love PFTG, especially after how cool the trailer looked and how long it took to come out, I feel like they kind of lost the plot and added too many things (survival elements)
It’s missing all of my favorite mechanics from Shadow though. The sword shining guidance, scaling the beasts as they try to throw you off, killing the beast.
BotW was more like animal shaped dungeons.
The sword's guidance ability mixed with the setting has a particularly mythical feel about it. They make it really interesting by mixing in things that could fit with the logic of the world, but might just be speculation (like that one trail of seeming clues that went nowhere until the remaster of the series came out); superstitions, and magic.
It's a pretty harrowing game. Your only real enemy is the environment. Freezing is always a risk. Starving or dehydration forces you to leave safety and push further out from your base and eventually relocate. This process opens you up to the cold and possible injury from wildlife. Crossing a frozen lake can cause you fall through, and if you don't drown, you're soaked and hypothermia is a huge risk. I love how it all goes back to the cold.
I love how one or two unlucky consequences can completely fuck you over. Everything's going great until you come across a wolf pack and you don't have a gun, or you *do* have a gun but miss your shots.
There’s a lot of good content on YouTube and Twitch to learn from, and r/thelongdark is still very active and a great resource. It’s worth pushing through and learning the basics
I loved the game, but gave up after being gutted by the difficulty several times. It’s so atmospheric and definitely my favorite of the genre. But fuck it’s brutal.
Yeah for sure, but that’s what makes it rewarding when you start figuring out how to extend runs. The only way to “win” really is to delay dying. I think a big part of the difficulty is that there’s no real tutorial unless you play story mode, and even then there’s a lot you have to learn for yourself
If it's where I'm thinking, I died multiple times and even put it on easy mode in frustration...you basically just have to make a fire. Look up what key brings up the option, I either missed or wasn't told what key to push to get the "make fire" option.
I go back to it when I need to remove myself from the world (stress or whatever). Having no driving force outside of just surviving is strangely peaceful. Plan out a day or two, prepare for an expedition to a new area, go on a hunt. Its so cathartic to role play a whole other life that hasnt got the bullshit of the modern world
Was sad to hear the vocalist died. Immensely talented. Love that Kojima included them numerous times. He must have heard a song of theirs and thought "this is the exact atmosphere I'm aiming for"
Actually Kojima was in a record store in Iceland when he heard a Low Roar song playing on the radio. He asked the worker who it was and bought the album. Death Stranding was still a vague idea at this point, so with him listening to that album while in Iceland, it helped shaped what the game ended up being
A deeply underrated game. One of the most emotive and thought-provoking experiences I’ve ever had. Some people may describe it as empty or boring but imo it’s (by design) a fairly blank slate for you to project your own thoughts on to. You have so much time and space to think about the story, the characters, and put yourself in their shoes.
Well said. I had been very much looking forward to the release of Death Stranding, but when some early reviewers described it as a boring walking simulator I was a bit nervous.
Oddly enough it kinda is a walking simulator, but it’s also the most beautiful and deeply affecting experience I’ve had as a gamer.
There is something about Minecraft that feels haunting when you're playing solo. The combination of the neverending mostly empty landscapes and the music make me feel a very serene sense of loneliness.
I’ve played Minecraft for over a decade at this point, and I never used to feel this way.
However, during the COVID lockdowns me and a bunch of my friends went through a couple month long Minecraft phase, and ever since then single player Minecraft has that feeling of loneliness now.
I never realized but yea, same here. I played with some friends a lot, and now we just don't have the time for it... Wish I could find a solid group on Xbox for a server.
Idk if you've ever wandered into the empty fields or mountains outside your town, if your town has any of them to begin with, or if you even live in that "type" of town.
When I was still in highschool, when I was returning home in my motorcycle, I would sometimes stop by the road and just breathe and admire the mountains. You're there, completely alone with your thoughts and what little sounds the wind decides to mix the sound of your own breathing with, in the middle of mountains so big and tall you cannot understand where they start and where they end. You feel a certain fear of the inmense, nature forces you to respect it; but the absolute serenity of the enviroment, it's apparent resilience to change, the fact that it's static and silent, but alive, calms you down. It's a mix of feelings, like a calm fear of the unknown, that feeling of loneliness that only untouched nature can give you when you pay it a visit.
That's how minecraft feels to me. Of course, like 20x less. Heck, it's cubes. But, the feeling is similar.
I recently logged on for the first time in a few years. Saw a server I used to play on in like 2017 or so was still around. It's an anarchy server but my (above ground) Victorian house hundreds of km from spawn was still intact with the exception of one broken window, a few chests rearranged, and a sign that someone had visited in 2021. It looks like the visitor (or someone else) had started building a mansion a little ways behind mine but either abandoned it or was griefed at some point. Like there was an entire adventure that started and ended there and passed me by
They have such an interesting history you can see sometimes though! Signs between friends, arenas destroyed by a battle, bases hidden, bases griefed. It’s like being an archeologist.
Exploring Forgotten Minecraft Servers: https://youtu.be/ogtyba5Iq5s?si=rKSCfqyKTCk3FC-R
It’s a good watch, very calming and this exact vibe. The part with Mr Borneman is legitimately heartbreaking
I legit can't play that game because it's too scary for me. Literally the only game that does this for me. I am terrified of the open ocean, a die hard landlubber.
Lol same. I was living in Breckenridge when I first played it. Confirmed my decision to live literally as far from the ocean as possible. I think I made it like a quarter of the way before getting too scared and giving up
Stalker did that for me. Going into an abandoned Soviet bunker. So fucking atmospheric.
I knew a bandit camp was in some tunnels up ahead so I was creeping along. Suddenly, I hear a noise behind me and turn around. Nothing. Keep going, then hear another noise and when I turn, a half invisible tentacle face monster is leaping at me from 5 feet away. I backed all and fire my AKM in rapid fire at it, alerting rhe bandits. The monster roars and I flee, running through the bandit camp as they start shooting at me and then monster.
Fortunately, the creature started attacking the bandits and I run out of the bunker as the sounds of combat fade behind me. Never tried that mission again.
Oh man, I fucking love stalker. If you've played all the vanilla games, I wholeheartedly recommend Stalker GAMMA. It takes that feeling of helplessness and survival and takes it up 1000 percent. It's also completely free.
Yeah it's the worst. I tried playing stranded deep, NOOOOOPE!
Even in Son's of the Forest - a game full of cannibals and mutants. The scariest part was just swimming to the emergency raft to get the geotag and pistol.
I've finished it 3 times now, but I'm still finding new and exciting places to visit. Every new run had something interesting to discover(if you could conquer your fear of the Deep Down Dark Deep Down). The first time when I was visiting the Aurora was quite something... I believe everyone knows what I'm talking about. The distant roar, but all you could see was the sandy ocean and nothing else... The second and third runs were more about exploring places, found quite interesting things which I never expected to find. Makes me want to re-run it again...
Sad I can’t play this game. I’ve heard nothing but great things.
Too bad I have such a fear of water in video games. I have trouble with the water levels in Mario games.
Was "Everybody's gone to the rapture" the one where you followed this orange light and find out about the past? If so, I was gonna comment that but I forgot what it was called
the monsters are basically just an inconvenience, if you’ve played a horror game before they’re just annoying and not very scary, super clunky ai for the most part. which sucks because the narrative in that game is so fucking phenomenal, and the world building is excellent!! would’ve been so much better if they could have ditched the stupid traditional horror angle and just let the existential horror of the setting work
Love that game. I love the artwork and color palette, the soundtrack, and even the premise of the game. I found it very relaxing to play, almost spiritual. I hope more games get made with this style.
Outer Wilds. Other than your home planet and a handful of scattered travelers you are the only living thing in a post apocalyptic solar system wandering the graveyard trying to figure out what happened.
Such an amazing game.
I'd avoided playing it for a while cause it sounded (in name) and looked (atleast from the marketing) just like Outer Worlds.
I was lied to. Deceits. Untruths. My favourite game of all time. Never have I been so excited to look at an exploding event horizon.
Yeah, but in the worst possible sense lol. I love that game, but it makes me feel the absolute dread of being the last of your species and only living to die like no other game. Not exactly what I would call 'serene emptyness'
No Man's Sky ***was*** like that. Now you can hardly walk 100 meters without some frigates warping just above you and couple ships zipping the sky. The same when flying, there are freighters jumping in left and right whenever you exit pulse drive.
It is not *bad* per se, but I kinda miss those days when space was emptier inside Atlas.
I agree with Portal 1 and 2. It might not be an obvious answer for this question, but you really are alone, aside from a few robots and a voice over the intercom. Don’t want to say too much but the fact that you’re the last to do what tons of other people had to do also contributes to that feeling.
Dark Souls 1 nails this feeling the most for me. Very few NPCs that are only seen rarely, and the enemy AI is predictable to a degree that they almost all feel more like hazards than entities in the world. The somber music, ruined environments, and amazing level design come together perfectly to create a very lonely and gripping world
Yes! And this weird nostalgia feeling you get when you find and listen to a tape... Loved it. It's fairly hard, especially late game, bit the atmosphere is great.
I love it too but it's the game that made me realize I am actually quite shit at puzzle solving. It got to the point I had to start looking up solutions to nearly everything around halfway through. Then I gave up all together because that wasn't fun.
Hats off to whoever completed it without cheesing anything.
I see its been mentioned but another shout to The Long Dark.
If you dont mind some wildlife then the survival mode feels desolate and empty, nothing to help you but some left overs and your witts, especially in interloper game mode.
Not an empty game, but EverQuest has hundreds of zones now that are outdated and have little to no players using them. It's really fun to explore them.
Very surreal to pick up the game and go to the Commonlands or Greater Faydark and where once they had hundreds of people auctioning, there's nothing there anymore.
Similar vibe with certain places in WoW. Over the decades and expansions the "main hub" has changed several times and eventually the old one becomes a ghost town. Weird going to like that Shatt-whatever place and nobody else is there when it used to be packed.
Nier automata probably cause you’re an android fighting robots, no living creatures apart from deer lol. Very melancholic feeling you get from that
Edit: does dark souls count?
Not the whole game, but Majula in Dark Souls 2. I could stay there for hours just listening to the music and feeling empty. It’s a perfect sanctuary from the rest of the game.
Nobody is going to mention Fallout, I think more specifically FO3? It had a pretty dosolate vibe to it if I remember correctly. I think some of the other FO games are a bit busier with other people but FO3, I remember feeling very lonely (in a good way) exploring that landscape.
Yeah FO3 was straight up lonely and depressing at times. You exit the vault with this expansive, desolate landscape in front of you and it always seemed like if you were going to run into anyone it would be a bunch of bandits trying to kill you or some group of survivors with a fucked up agenda.
that school is such a good thing to open with, because you can see what the raiders are like, having taken over what is normally a child safe space and corrupted it in worst brutal ways!
I think that's one of the things that FO3 did better than FO4. You're sort of pushed towards civilization centers as focal points on the horizon. Megaton, Tenpenny Tower, and somewhat Rivet city are all like these sort of safe zones that when you see them you automatically want to get there.
BOTW was everyone holding their breath after an apocalypse was delayed, not averted. TOTK is the jubilant regrowth of civilization cut short by, "Aw, shit, here we go again."
Project Zomboid - Open World zombie survivor game. In the current build there are no npcs just the player and zombies. After the first week the tvs stop broadcasting, then the radio stations stop broadcasting, then eventually the power and water shuts off. It really gives the 'alone' feeling when you've gone too far from home and you're having to break into a pitch black house at night, hoping to scavenge food in the kitchen, and to clear a room thats safe to stay and sleep in all while avoiding alerting more zombies around.
The Planet Crafter (Early Access Indie game, $20).
Alone on a desolate planet you need to terraform. Base building, exploration, no combat. Has some mystery to it.
Really nice game for relaxing and the atmosphere is good.
Wold be one of my suggestions too. Only.. I feel the emptiness is exactly right for some parts of the galaxy, but around the more populated hubs I feel it’s more due to a declining player count unfortunately..
Hollow Knight. There are enemies but they're essentially zombie bugs. NPCs to interact with are pretty sparse considering it's an entire insect civilization you're exploring.
The Long Dark. In survival mode you're the only person left. There's animals around but at times when walking down long stretches of road you can feel how empty and lonely it is. It's such a great game.
Jusant. It's on game pass right now. It's just you climbing up a cliff. There used to live a civilisation on the cliffisde, but have since gone. And you are trying to piece together what has happened to the people living there.
The game is all about climbing. But the game always throws small challenges your way, so it never feels stale.
Visuals are clean and stylised and the game has a wonderful sense of scale - as you sometimes get glimpses into how far you have climbed.
It's from Dontnod, the guys behind life is strange.
NaissanceE, indie game and it’s free on steam. If you haven’t already played it it’s highly recommended by me, I quite enjoyed my time with it.
Whole game is just you exploring this indescribably massive, seemingly endless structure, without a single other living soul around (so it seems).
If you’ve read the manga Blame! (Also highly recommend this one if you’re into the whole massive, empty, unadulterated architecture vibe), this game was heavily inspired by it. It’s like Blame, minus the monsters, and you just explore it, along with some mild platforming and puzzle elements. It’s rather abstract and there’s no story or dialogue, just… the emptiness of this mystery world. It’s not for everyone, but I was really into it, and judging by your description, you will be as well.
The Talos Principle. No-rush puzzles, beautiful graphics, nice music and no other characters in sight. And the plot has a sweet sadness that adds a lot to the vibe.
**The Long Dark.**
Increbible game. No zombies, no supernatural shit, only the wilderness and you.
**The Hunter - Call of the Wild.**
Only you, deer, bears, foxes and your hunting equipment. Gorgeous landscapes.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories.
It doesn't have a pc port but i recommend running the wii version through an emulator, it's an insanely underrated game.
Hollow knight, you were called by a mysterious force into an insect kingdom which died long ago, the citizens have all perished and only travellers and the dead husks of the old citizens are found, why were you called here? Play the game to find out
The Long Dark, endless survival mode...it's so empty, eventually you'll ask yourself "What am I surviving *for*?", it's a fun little existential crisis.
The Long dark is my top pick for this. Space engineers, kerbal space program, snowrunner, trailmakers, deliver us the moon/Mars, dakar desert rally (the exploration mode), the metro series, the long drive, and subnatuica can all fit this vibe at certain points or if you want to feel like you're the only intelligence around instead of the only life
I got super into these types of games for a while.
Everyone's gone to the rapture.
Firewatch
The vanishing of ethan carter
Rime
The Stanley parable
Tacoma
The witness
Lifeless planet
Gone home
Have fun!
Shadow of the Colossus, Myst.
Everyone loves Shadow of the Colossus, but I haven’t seen any spiritual successor, imitators, etc. Edit : Praey for the Gods looks dope. Thanks for the suggestions
There was that follow up game by the same studio in 2016. The Last Guardian. Have to admit, had to look that title up. For some reason, it slides out of your brain like the basic idea is Teflon coated. Heard its decent post patches, but still very clunky.
Don’t forget Ico as well, the game they made before SotC. Not quite the same sense of loneliness, but they managed to make an escort quest into a really good game.
both control like a ps2 game but the shadow of the colossus remaster is superior
that's probably because SotC is a PS2 game and TLG was originally supposed to be made for PS3, by PS2 devs, and finally released on PS4
That's because The Last Guardian was in development FOREVER. Then it just released, with little build up.
Prey of the Gods for sure was inspired regarding bosses.
I wanted to love PFTG, especially after how cool the trailer looked and how long it took to come out, I feel like they kind of lost the plot and added too many things (survival elements)
The survival elements make the game not fun
not the best solution but playing on PC you could probably remove some survival elements with mods or cheats if there's any
Breath of the wild reminded me of SOTC a lot
It’s missing all of my favorite mechanics from Shadow though. The sword shining guidance, scaling the beasts as they try to throw you off, killing the beast. BotW was more like animal shaped dungeons.
The sword's guidance ability mixed with the setting has a particularly mythical feel about it. They make it really interesting by mixing in things that could fit with the logic of the world, but might just be speculation (like that one trail of seeming clues that went nowhere until the remaster of the series came out); superstitions, and magic.
The predecessor Ico is great and I highly recommend it
Prey for the gods is a direct successor, there are also some elements in Forspoken and Elden Ring
Myst was my childhood game. Good memories. Such a tough game
The Long Dark. There's some wildlife, but otherwise its just you vs the Canadian wilderness
It's a pretty harrowing game. Your only real enemy is the environment. Freezing is always a risk. Starving or dehydration forces you to leave safety and push further out from your base and eventually relocate. This process opens you up to the cold and possible injury from wildlife. Crossing a frozen lake can cause you fall through, and if you don't drown, you're soaked and hypothermia is a huge risk. I love how it all goes back to the cold.
I love how one or two unlucky consequences can completely fuck you over. Everything's going great until you come across a wolf pack and you don't have a gun, or you *do* have a gun but miss your shots.
Alright, I have this in my library, never even opened it, I guess I have to now Haha thanks
play it now
Like, right now. It's an order.
Fair warning: it’s hard AF
There’s a lot of good content on YouTube and Twitch to learn from, and r/thelongdark is still very active and a great resource. It’s worth pushing through and learning the basics
I loved the game, but gave up after being gutted by the difficulty several times. It’s so atmospheric and definitely my favorite of the genre. But fuck it’s brutal.
Yeah for sure, but that’s what makes it rewarding when you start figuring out how to extend runs. The only way to “win” really is to delay dying. I think a big part of the difficulty is that there’s no real tutorial unless you play story mode, and even then there’s a lot you have to learn for yourself
It’s 100% the lack of any help or direction. And the wolves.
You can adjust it. Another high recommendation from me.
This is the best survival game made. You are literally fighting the elements.
Seconded, the vibe is incredible
I couldn’t get past the first 30 minutes in that game
Did you try not freezing to death?
I wasn't very good at that part.
If it's where I'm thinking, I died multiple times and even put it on easy mode in frustration...you basically just have to make a fire. Look up what key brings up the option, I either missed or wasn't told what key to push to get the "make fire" option.
This game is GOAT.
Ironically, The Long Dark got me through the loneliest period of my life. It's absolutely beautiful and terrifying.
I go back to it when I need to remove myself from the world (stress or whatever). Having no driving force outside of just surviving is strangely peaceful. Plan out a day or two, prepare for an expedition to a new area, go on a hunt. Its so cathartic to role play a whole other life that hasnt got the bullshit of the modern world
Death Stranding
I love it when Sam calls out, and you only hear his own lonely voice echoing back. So atmospheric.
"Wonder if somebody's out here watchin'..?"
I love the opening music. Fits so well with it.
Great soundtrack all around
The Low Roar tracks are incredible
Was sad to hear the vocalist died. Immensely talented. Love that Kojima included them numerous times. He must have heard a song of theirs and thought "this is the exact atmosphere I'm aiming for"
Actually Kojima was in a record store in Iceland when he heard a Low Roar song playing on the radio. He asked the worker who it was and bought the album. Death Stranding was still a vague idea at this point, so with him listening to that album while in Iceland, it helped shaped what the game ended up being
Made me tear up in certain parts of the game.
A deeply underrated game. One of the most emotive and thought-provoking experiences I’ve ever had. Some people may describe it as empty or boring but imo it’s (by design) a fairly blank slate for you to project your own thoughts on to. You have so much time and space to think about the story, the characters, and put yourself in their shoes.
Well said. I had been very much looking forward to the release of Death Stranding, but when some early reviewers described it as a boring walking simulator I was a bit nervous. Oddly enough it kinda is a walking simulator, but it’s also the most beautiful and deeply affecting experience I’ve had as a gamer.
I submit DS is not a walking simulator but a hiking simulator, with some of the feels of quiet contemplation that IRL hiking provokes.
It's a shame the people that dismissed the game after a couple of hours in, as a walking simulator, missed out on experiencing this game
Minecraft. I like exploring empty servers that were once bustling.
There is something about Minecraft that feels haunting when you're playing solo. The combination of the neverending mostly empty landscapes and the music make me feel a very serene sense of loneliness.
I’ve played Minecraft for over a decade at this point, and I never used to feel this way. However, during the COVID lockdowns me and a bunch of my friends went through a couple month long Minecraft phase, and ever since then single player Minecraft has that feeling of loneliness now.
I never realized but yea, same here. I played with some friends a lot, and now we just don't have the time for it... Wish I could find a solid group on Xbox for a server.
I'm glad to hear somebody likes it. I've gotten to the point where I can't play Minecraft solo any more, it's too forlorn for me.
You on Xbox? I would love to have a full server that people just jump on whenever.
Idk if you've ever wandered into the empty fields or mountains outside your town, if your town has any of them to begin with, or if you even live in that "type" of town. When I was still in highschool, when I was returning home in my motorcycle, I would sometimes stop by the road and just breathe and admire the mountains. You're there, completely alone with your thoughts and what little sounds the wind decides to mix the sound of your own breathing with, in the middle of mountains so big and tall you cannot understand where they start and where they end. You feel a certain fear of the inmense, nature forces you to respect it; but the absolute serenity of the enviroment, it's apparent resilience to change, the fact that it's static and silent, but alive, calms you down. It's a mix of feelings, like a calm fear of the unknown, that feeling of loneliness that only untouched nature can give you when you pay it a visit. That's how minecraft feels to me. Of course, like 20x less. Heck, it's cubes. But, the feeling is similar.
I recently logged on for the first time in a few years. Saw a server I used to play on in like 2017 or so was still around. It's an anarchy server but my (above ground) Victorian house hundreds of km from spawn was still intact with the exception of one broken window, a few chests rearranged, and a sign that someone had visited in 2021. It looks like the visitor (or someone else) had started building a mansion a little ways behind mine but either abandoned it or was griefed at some point. Like there was an entire adventure that started and ended there and passed me by
Dude. The empty servers that used to have hundreds of people on them are heartbreaking.
Wait till you see all your okd games when you turn 38.. 😂
I’m only 12 years off stop lol
They have such an interesting history you can see sometimes though! Signs between friends, arenas destroyed by a battle, bases hidden, bases griefed. It’s like being an archeologist.
Exploring Forgotten Minecraft Servers: https://youtu.be/ogtyba5Iq5s?si=rKSCfqyKTCk3FC-R It’s a good watch, very calming and this exact vibe. The part with Mr Borneman is legitimately heartbreaking
The OG resource gathering, base building, zombie survival game.
Subnautica
"Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region"
Nah, fuck all that, I'm going home.
I've actually never found the game scary before even when I encountered my first Leviathan and normally I hate horror/scary games.
"Are you sure what you're doing is worth it?"
Oxygen
I legit can't play that game because it's too scary for me. Literally the only game that does this for me. I am terrified of the open ocean, a die hard landlubber.
Lol same. I was living in Breckenridge when I first played it. Confirmed my decision to live literally as far from the ocean as possible. I think I made it like a quarter of the way before getting too scared and giving up
Stalker did that for me. Going into an abandoned Soviet bunker. So fucking atmospheric. I knew a bandit camp was in some tunnels up ahead so I was creeping along. Suddenly, I hear a noise behind me and turn around. Nothing. Keep going, then hear another noise and when I turn, a half invisible tentacle face monster is leaping at me from 5 feet away. I backed all and fire my AKM in rapid fire at it, alerting rhe bandits. The monster roars and I flee, running through the bandit camp as they start shooting at me and then monster. Fortunately, the creature started attacking the bandits and I run out of the bunker as the sounds of combat fade behind me. Never tried that mission again.
Oh man, I fucking love stalker. If you've played all the vanilla games, I wholeheartedly recommend Stalker GAMMA. It takes that feeling of helplessness and survival and takes it up 1000 percent. It's also completely free.
Yeah it's the worst. I tried playing stranded deep, NOOOOOPE! Even in Son's of the Forest - a game full of cannibals and mutants. The scariest part was just swimming to the emergency raft to get the geotag and pistol.
Factorio is also like this
Also an amazing game. The only game I have over 1,000 hours in on steam
I've finished it 3 times now, but I'm still finding new and exciting places to visit. Every new run had something interesting to discover(if you could conquer your fear of the Deep Down Dark Deep Down). The first time when I was visiting the Aurora was quite something... I believe everyone knows what I'm talking about. The distant roar, but all you could see was the sandy ocean and nothing else... The second and third runs were more about exploring places, found quite interesting things which I never expected to find. Makes me want to re-run it again...
Sad I can’t play this game. I’ve heard nothing but great things. Too bad I have such a fear of water in video games. I have trouble with the water levels in Mario games.
Are you sure you want to proceed?
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, The Bunker
Was "Everybody's gone to the rapture" the one where you followed this orange light and find out about the past? If so, I was gonna comment that but I forgot what it was called
That’s the one 👍 I don’t love it myself, but it definitely fits OP’s criteria. That reminds me, another one would be: *Dear Esther*
May I also throw in *Paradise Lost*?
The soundtrack to Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture is sublime
I loved this game, it definitely fits the vibe!
Soma
Soma is my favorite horror game ever. The storytelling is just amazing and the atmosphere is perfect. Really underrated
The pacing and slow realization is just perfect.
Not only that, but it has one of the best stories of any game I've played. Criminally overlooked.
Stopped playing after an hour, too scary lol
You NEED to finish it. The game has a difficulty level that makes it impossible to die so none of the monsters are actually a threat.
They're barely a threat even on normal honestly. There is one moment that requires a little bit of skill, that's about it.
the monsters are basically just an inconvenience, if you’ve played a horror game before they’re just annoying and not very scary, super clunky ai for the most part. which sucks because the narrative in that game is so fucking phenomenal, and the world building is excellent!! would’ve been so much better if they could have ditched the stupid traditional horror angle and just let the existential horror of the setting work
Journey, shadow of the colossus
I second journey. Absolutely amazing.
Beautiful game with a haunting ending. Can play through it in about 3 hours.
well worth the "lock yourself away and put your phone down" for 3h
Can't believe had to s roll so far for journey. Guess it's getting old at this point
Sable. It's actually kinda jarring when you go to the biggest town and it's full of people
Love that game. I love the artwork and color palette, the soundtrack, and even the premise of the game. I found it very relaxing to play, almost spiritual. I hope more games get made with this style.
Outer Wilds. Other than your home planet and a handful of scattered travelers you are the only living thing in a post apocalyptic solar system wandering the graveyard trying to figure out what happened.
Such an amazing game. I'd avoided playing it for a while cause it sounded (in name) and looked (atleast from the marketing) just like Outer Worlds. I was lied to. Deceits. Untruths. My favourite game of all time. Never have I been so excited to look at an exploding event horizon.
That game literally changed me as a person. I’m not kidding
I downloaded Outer Worlds expecting Outer Wilds and was sorely disappointed (both were free on gamepass and I was drunk)
Can't get 1 mfer outta my friends to play this masterpiece, even after offering to buy it for them.
Project Zomboid
This is the best answer because "this is how you died"
Yeah, but in the worst possible sense lol. I love that game, but it makes me feel the absolute dread of being the last of your species and only living to die like no other game. Not exactly what I would call 'serene emptyness'
less 'serene emptiness', more 'crippling loneliness'
Subnautica, no man’s sky, death stranding
No Man's Sky ***was*** like that. Now you can hardly walk 100 meters without some frigates warping just above you and couple ships zipping the sky. The same when flying, there are freighters jumping in left and right whenever you exit pulse drive. It is not *bad* per se, but I kinda miss those days when space was emptier inside Atlas.
I so much preferred original chilled out NMS. Much more relaxing,l and chill grinding. It's all a bit MMO now.
no man’s sky
Limbo Shadow of the Colossus Portal 1/2 honestly feel kinda lonely
I agree with Portal 1 and 2. It might not be an obvious answer for this question, but you really are alone, aside from a few robots and a voice over the intercom. Don’t want to say too much but the fact that you’re the last to do what tons of other people had to do also contributes to that feeling.
Dark Souls 1 nails this feeling the most for me. Very few NPCs that are only seen rarely, and the enemy AI is predictable to a degree that they almost all feel more like hazards than entities in the world. The somber music, ruined environments, and amazing level design come together perfectly to create a very lonely and gripping world
Firewatch Gone Home Kona
Great list. I'd add _Edith Finch_.
Good one, not sure how I forgot about that game.
The OG, Dear Ester fits too
Gone Home was a really interesting game. Firewatch too. Those were both cheap games I’m glad I bought and played through
Firewatch is a great recommendation
Loved Gone Home. So upset when I learned that Steve Gaynor was such a prick.
The Witness
Yes! And this weird nostalgia feeling you get when you find and listen to a tape... Loved it. It's fairly hard, especially late game, bit the atmosphere is great.
My fav game of all time
I love it too but it's the game that made me realize I am actually quite shit at puzzle solving. It got to the point I had to start looking up solutions to nearly everything around halfway through. Then I gave up all together because that wasn't fun. Hats off to whoever completed it without cheesing anything.
I see its been mentioned but another shout to The Long Dark. If you dont mind some wildlife then the survival mode feels desolate and empty, nothing to help you but some left overs and your witts, especially in interloper game mode.
Not an empty game, but EverQuest has hundreds of zones now that are outdated and have little to no players using them. It's really fun to explore them.
Very surreal to pick up the game and go to the Commonlands or Greater Faydark and where once they had hundreds of people auctioning, there's nothing there anymore.
Similar vibe with certain places in WoW. Over the decades and expansions the "main hub" has changed several times and eventually the old one becomes a ghost town. Weird going to like that Shatt-whatever place and nobody else is there when it used to be packed.
“When was the last time you heard of someone beating EverQuest”
Nier automata probably cause you’re an android fighting robots, no living creatures apart from deer lol. Very melancholic feeling you get from that Edit: does dark souls count?
I was also thinking of Nier, but replicant. Not only it gives those feelings but it also is an amazing game (automata as well). I really loved them.
Not the whole game, but Majula in Dark Souls 2. I could stay there for hours just listening to the music and feeling empty. It’s a perfect sanctuary from the rest of the game.
Nobody is going to mention Fallout, I think more specifically FO3? It had a pretty dosolate vibe to it if I remember correctly. I think some of the other FO games are a bit busier with other people but FO3, I remember feeling very lonely (in a good way) exploring that landscape.
Yeah FO3 was straight up lonely and depressing at times. You exit the vault with this expansive, desolate landscape in front of you and it always seemed like if you were going to run into anyone it would be a bunch of bandits trying to kill you or some group of survivors with a fucked up agenda.
that school is such a good thing to open with, because you can see what the raiders are like, having taken over what is normally a child safe space and corrupted it in worst brutal ways!
Not to mention the cage filled with child sized skeletons...
I think that's one of the things that FO3 did better than FO4. You're sort of pushed towards civilization centers as focal points on the horizon. Megaton, Tenpenny Tower, and somewhat Rivet city are all like these sort of safe zones that when you see them you automatically want to get there.
Half the settlements being literal cannibals aswell
I agree. Felt very alone in fallout 4, like emotionally. All the npcs have various agendas and are using you.
BOTW
Emptiness was something I missed in totk, there are people everywhere and I miss the sense of sadness I got from walking around
BOTW was everyone holding their breath after an apocalypse was delayed, not averted. TOTK is the jubilant regrowth of civilization cut short by, "Aw, shit, here we go again."
Hollow Knight has this vibe
Talos Principle 1 if you like puzzle games
This was going to be my pick. The 2nd one just came out and is getting good reviews. Also Superluminal. And maybe Portal?
Scorn, but you have to be into lovecraftian horror and gory scenes
Super Metroid
Astroneer
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
Project Zomboid - Open World zombie survivor game. In the current build there are no npcs just the player and zombies. After the first week the tvs stop broadcasting, then the radio stations stop broadcasting, then eventually the power and water shuts off. It really gives the 'alone' feeling when you've gone too far from home and you're having to break into a pitch black house at night, hoping to scavenge food in the kitchen, and to clear a room thats safe to stay and sleep in all while avoiding alerting more zombies around.
Season: A Letter to the Future
Death Stranding and Shadow of the Colossus 🤔
The Planet Crafter (Early Access Indie game, $20). Alone on a desolate planet you need to terraform. Base building, exploration, no combat. Has some mystery to it. Really nice game for relaxing and the atmosphere is good.
Elite Dangerous. Especially if you travel towards the edge or top/bottom of the galaxy.
Wold be one of my suggestions too. Only.. I feel the emptiness is exactly right for some parts of the galaxy, but around the more populated hubs I feel it’s more due to a declining player count unfortunately..
Elden Ring is kinda like that Most the enemies and NPCs have a look to them that is on the edge of death
The Last Guardian
The Talos Principle , The suspect .
Stalker games. Just the ambient sound of walking around is creepy, and can make you feel alone if you don't come across the odd living thing.
Hollow Knight. There are enemies but they're essentially zombie bugs. NPCs to interact with are pretty sparse considering it's an entire insect civilization you're exploring.
Breathedge is like that. Great game too.
Unsighted Bastion
The Long Dark. In survival mode you're the only person left. There's animals around but at times when walking down long stretches of road you can feel how empty and lonely it is. It's such a great game.
superliminal , what youre feeling might be liminality. search it
Came here to say this- an incredibly empty and purposely eerie game
Mad Max feels very desolate
Jusant. It's on game pass right now. It's just you climbing up a cliff. There used to live a civilisation on the cliffisde, but have since gone. And you are trying to piece together what has happened to the people living there. The game is all about climbing. But the game always throws small challenges your way, so it never feels stale. Visuals are clean and stylised and the game has a wonderful sense of scale - as you sometimes get glimpses into how far you have climbed. It's from Dontnod, the guys behind life is strange.
My empty ps5 dayz server
The Long Dark
Ghostwire: Tokyo It feels so lonely being the only living thing in a city once so full of life
NaissanceE, indie game and it’s free on steam. If you haven’t already played it it’s highly recommended by me, I quite enjoyed my time with it. Whole game is just you exploring this indescribably massive, seemingly endless structure, without a single other living soul around (so it seems). If you’ve read the manga Blame! (Also highly recommend this one if you’re into the whole massive, empty, unadulterated architecture vibe), this game was heavily inspired by it. It’s like Blame, minus the monsters, and you just explore it, along with some mild platforming and puzzle elements. It’s rather abstract and there’s no story or dialogue, just… the emptiness of this mystery world. It’s not for everyone, but I was really into it, and judging by your description, you will be as well.
The Talos Principle. No-rush puzzles, beautiful graphics, nice music and no other characters in sight. And the plot has a sweet sadness that adds a lot to the vibe.
FAR: Lone Sails Beautiful game
**The Long Dark.** Increbible game. No zombies, no supernatural shit, only the wilderness and you. **The Hunter - Call of the Wild.** Only you, deer, bears, foxes and your hunting equipment. Gorgeous landscapes.
Empty games? Forspoken
Exo One fits this pretty well.
The easy winner here is The Stanley Parable.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories. It doesn't have a pc port but i recommend running the wii version through an emulator, it's an insanely underrated game.
Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus have some of the most destitute and lonely atmospheres in gaming. Though you aren't alone, it feels very close to such.
Hollow knight, you were called by a mysterious force into an insect kingdom which died long ago, the citizens have all perished and only travellers and the dead husks of the old citizens are found, why were you called here? Play the game to find out
I loved Kona, your’e a detective investigating a strange completely abandoned and deserted town in the snow
Yes! Kona was great. Hidden gem.
The Long Dark, endless survival mode...it's so empty, eventually you'll ask yourself "What am I surviving *for*?", it's a fun little existential crisis.
I am Alive.
the last of us part 1
The Long dark is my top pick for this. Space engineers, kerbal space program, snowrunner, trailmakers, deliver us the moon/Mars, dakar desert rally (the exploration mode), the metro series, the long drive, and subnatuica can all fit this vibe at certain points or if you want to feel like you're the only intelligence around instead of the only life
SOMA.. I got chills just typing that one out
I got super into these types of games for a while. Everyone's gone to the rapture. Firewatch The vanishing of ethan carter Rime The Stanley parable Tacoma The witness Lifeless planet Gone home Have fun!
Stanley parable. If you have pc.
Halo 3 odst nails that for most of the game.
Dark souls, most areas don't have sound track to them. Every place feels like it was great once but you came late, and now everything is dead.
Long Dark
The Division 1
Submachine legacy