Games Like Outer Wilds

The Forgotten City is a narrative-driven time loop adventure in ancient Rome. Discover the ruins of an ancient underground city, travel 2000 years into the past, and unravel the mystery of who destroyed it by cleverly exploiting the power to wind back time. The fate of the city is in your hands.

Why similar: Mystery 21.2%, Great Soundtrack 21%, Exploration 15.4%, Story Rich 11.2%, Open World 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: Like Outer Wilds, it builds a brilliant mystery around a repeating time loop where knowledge, not upgrades or combat, is your real progression.

An archaeologist uncovers a lost history in an ancient space Nebula. Award-winning narrative adventure game with hieroglyphic language puzzles, from the creators of 80 DAYS.

Why similar: Mystery 20.8%, Exploration 12.7%, Space 12.5%, Sci-fi 10.9%, Great Soundtrack 9.5%

Why You'll Like It: It captures Outer Wilds' archaeological wonder by having you explore a fragmented sci-fi world and uncover its history through careful interpretation and discovery.

Lost at sea 1803 ~ The good ship Obra Dinn.

Why similar: Mystery 30.6%, Great Soundtrack 21.1%, Story Rich 12.8%, Puzzle 12.2%, Atmospheric 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers the same joy of piecing together a larger truth from scattered clues, rewarding close attention and deduction over action.

In this award-winning puzzle adventure game, play as the Traveler on a quest to reunite the Peoples of the Tower. Observe, listen, and decipher ancient languages in a fascinating universe inspired by the Myth of Babel.

Why similar: Puzzle 27.6%, Great Soundtrack 20.4%, Mystery 9.7%, Adventure 9.7%, Exploration 9%

Why You'll Like It: Its progression is driven by observation, pattern recognition, and gradually decoding an unknown world, creating the same satisfying knowledge-based momentum.

You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you.

Why similar: Puzzle 21.6%, Exploration 19.1%, Open World 16.8%, First-Person 8.5%, Mystery 7.4%

Why You'll Like It: Its open-ended island, quiet atmosphere, and escalating chain of realizations make it one of the closest matches to Outer Wilds' curiosity-driven design.

Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive.

Why similar: Open World 25.1%, Exploration 22.5%, Horror 17.2%, Sci-fi 9.5%, First-Person 7.7%

Why You'll Like It: It shares Outer Wilds' sense of awe-filled solitary exploration, environmental storytelling, and gradual unraveling of an alien mystery.

Uncover a story of intrigue, betrayal, and a civilization teetering on the brink of collapse as you solve intricate puzzles to unlock the secrets of Riven. Built from the ground-up and expanded from the award-winning original game released in 1997.

Why similar: Mystery 21%, Exploration 19.8%, Puzzle 14.2%, Story Rich 13.2%, Atmospheric 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its dense environmental storytelling and mystery-heavy exploration reward careful observation in a way that strongly echoes Outer Wilds' design ethos.

A new sci-fi adventure from Cyan, the creators of Myst. Abducted far across the universe, you find yourself on a broken alien landscape with odd pieces of Earth. Explore, uncover, solve, and find a way to make it home.

Why similar: Mystery 20.2%, Exploration 19.9%, Puzzle 14.9%, Adventure 10.8%, Open World 7.8%

Why You'll Like It: From the creators of Myst, it offers immersive first-person exploration and world-based puzzle solving centered on understanding an unfamiliar place.

Play as an Artificial Intelligence guiding a stranded xenobiologist through a beautiful and mysterious alien ocean. A non-violent sci-fi story, enter a world of wonder, fear and vulnerability, unraveling the history and ecology of an impossible planet. What will you discover together?

Why similar: Beautiful 19% ★, Great Soundtrack 15.4%, Space 14.4%, Mystery 11%, Exploration 9%

Why You'll Like It: Its calm, scientific approach to exploring an alien ecosystem evokes the same feeling of slowly understanding a mysterious world through observation.

Welcome to Myst: a starkly beautiful island, eerily tinged with mystery and shrouded in intrigue. Built from the ground up to play in 2D & VR, explore Myst in a whole new dimension! Journey to the Ages, unravel puzzles, and be a part of the surrealistic adventure that will become your own.

Why similar: Exploration 27.4%, Puzzle 19.9%, Mystery 11.9%, Adventure 11.6%, Story Rich 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: This classic first-person puzzle mystery similarly asks you to explore strange spaces, infer their logic, and uncover narrative through the environment.

The Talos Principle 2 is a thought-provoking first-person puzzle experience that greatly expands on the first game's philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges.

Why similar: Exploration 19.4%, Story Rich 18.2%, Puzzle 17.5%, Mystery 15.5%, Sci-fi 15.1%

Why You'll Like It: It combines first-person puzzle exploration with philosophical sci-fi storytelling and a strong sense of uncovering the meaning behind an ancient world.

What if someone knew your mind better than you did? The Swapper is an award-winning, narrative driven puzzle game set in the furthest reaches of space.

Why similar: Space 27.4%, Puzzle 16.2%, Sci-fi 13.5%, Great Soundtrack 13.2%, Atmospheric 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: It delivers a lonely, thoughtful sci-fi atmosphere and clever environmental puzzles while slowly revealing a haunting cosmic mystery.

Observation is a sci-fi thriller uncovering what happened to Dr. Emma Fisher, and the crew of her mission, through the lens of the station’s artificial intelligence S.A.M.

Why similar: Space 29.7%, Adventure 12.5%, Sci-fi 10.7%, Horror 8.6%, Mystery 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its space-station setting, investigative structure, and unsettling sci-fi mystery make it a strong pick for players who loved Outer Wilds' cosmic intrigue.

Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure.

Why similar: Exploration 48.6%, Puzzle 28.8%, Atmospheric 13%, 3D 4.3%, Indie 3.7%

Why You'll Like It: Beneath its cute exterior is a deeply knowledge-gated adventure where learning the world's secrets transforms how you play, much like Outer Wilds.

Firewatch is a single-player first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness, where your only emotional lifeline is the person on the other end of a handheld radio.

Why similar: Mystery 17.3%, Great Soundtrack 16.8%, Story Rich 13.3%, Exploration 11.9%, Atmospheric 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its strength is the same pull to keep moving forward for the next clue, using atmosphere and isolation to sustain a central mystery.

Deliver Us The Moon is a Sci-Fi thriller set in an apocalyptic near future where Earth's natural resources are depleted. In an effort to solve the energy crisis, global powers created the World Space Agency and secured a promising new source of energy on the moon.

Why similar: Space 34.9%, Sci-fi 9.9%, Adventure 9.9%, Mystery 9.2%, Story Rich 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: It offers grounded space exploration and environmental storytelling centered on uncovering what went wrong in an abandoned lunar setting.

A strange signal... an alien craft... an interplanetary, gravity-defying journey through space and time.

Why similar: Space 32.5%, Exploration 16.4%, Mystery 13.1%, Atmospheric 10.6%, Story Rich 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: While lighter on story, it channels Outer Wilds' dreamlike cosmic traversal and meditative sense of moving through beautiful, mysterious space.

Rediscover gravity and explore an Escher-esque world of impossible architecture. Witness infinity in first-person and master its rules to solve physics-defying puzzles. Cultivate a garden to open new paths forward, where an eternal expanse awaits.

Why similar: Exploration 22.7%, Mystery 22%, Puzzle 19.2%, First-Person 12.1%, Atmospheric 12.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its impossible spaces and spatial rule-bending create the same fascination with learning a world's hidden logic through exploration.

In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens and you are now being hunted.

Why similar: Space 24.4%, Great Soundtrack 12%, Sci-fi 11.5%, Exploration 9.4%, Horror 8.1%

Why You'll Like It: Though more combat-heavy, it shares Outer Wilds' love of environmental storytelling, spacebound mystery, and uncovering a station's interconnected secrets.

Rethink human’s dominion in The Invincible: a story-driven adventure set in a hard sci-fi world by Stanisław Lem. Discover planet Regis III as scientist Yasna, use atompunk tools looking for a missing crew and face unforeseen threats. Make choices in a philosophical story that’s driven by science.

Why similar: Space 29.6%, Mystery 19%, Sci-fi 13%, Story Rich 11.4%, Exploration 11.3%

Why You'll Like It: This retro-futurist sci-fi mystery leans heavily on planetary exploration, existential questions, and uncovering what happened in a hostile unknown place.

The Sexy Brutale — a never-ending masked ball featuring intrigue, murder and the (quite possibly) occult! Relive the same mysterious day where the guests at the casino mansion are being murdered by the staff over and over again...

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 30.5%, Mystery 27.4%, Puzzle 15.3%, Story Rich 10.8%, Adventure 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: It uses a time-loop structure to turn repeated observation into mastery, with each loop helping you understand a larger hidden story.

Embark on an unique and unforgettable journey and guide Sable through her Gliding; a rite of passage that will take her across vast deserts and mesmerizing landscapes, capped by the remains of spaceships and ancient wonders.

Why similar: Open World 20.8%, Exploration 19.7%, Story Rich 15.2%, Atmospheric 11.8%, Sci-fi 11.6%

Why You'll Like It: It captures Outer Wilds' peaceful exploration and wonder, emphasizing curiosity, ruins, and self-directed discovery over combat.

No Man's Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated universe.

Why similar: Space 35.2%, Open World 20.8%, Exploration 16.8%, Sci-fi 9.9%, First-Person 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: It matches Outer Wilds on sheer spacefaring wonder and self-directed discovery, even if it is more sandbox than mystery-box.

From Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE — COCOON takes you on an adventure across worlds within worlds. Master world-leaping mechanics and solve intricate puzzles to unravel a cosmic mystery.

Why similar: Puzzle 16.4%, Exploration 16.1%, Beautiful 15.9% ★, Space 15.6%, Great Soundtrack 9%

Why You'll Like It: It is built around elegant, layered revelation, constantly teaching you new ways to think about its worlds and how they connect.

INFRA puts you into the boots of a structural analyst on a routine mission. Quickly though, your task turns into a fight for survival, all caused by deep-rooted schemes of the past. Your tools are simple: your camera and the wits to navigate a labyrinth of debris.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 16.3%, Exploration 15.9%, Mystery 14.3%, Puzzle 10.6%, Atmospheric 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: It rewards careful first-person exploration and noticing environmental details, giving you that satisfying sense of slowly understanding a place.

An interactive thriller about a man trapped in a time loop. Featuring James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe.

Why similar: Mystery 28.7%, Story Rich 14.8%, Puzzle 13.9%, Great Soundtrack 12.7%, Adventure 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its compact time-loop structure and clue-driven progression echo Outer Wilds' reliance on repeated runs and accumulated knowledge, though on a much smaller scale.

Join Norah, a woman plagued by a mysterious illness, in her search for her missing husband in this adventure puzzle game set on a lush island paradise. Immerse yourself in stunning visuals and unlock forbidden secrets in a moving tale of mystery and love.

Why similar: Mystery 20.3%, Story Rich 15.8%, Puzzle 15.3%, Exploration 14.3%, First-Person 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: Its first-person island exploration, puzzle solving, and slowly revealed supernatural mystery make it a good fit for Outer Wilds fans.

From the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent comes SOMA, a sci-fi horror game set below the waves of the Atlantic ocean. Struggle to survive a hostile world that will make you question your very existence.

Why similar: Exploration 13.3%, Horror 11.8%, Mystery 11.4%, Story Rich 11.1%, Sci-fi 10%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a powerful sci-fi mystery with strong existential themes and a compelling drive to keep exploring for answers.

Antichamber is a mind-bending psychological exploration game where nothing can be taken for granted. Discover an Escher-like world where hallways wrap around upon each other, spaces reconfigure themselves, and accomplishing the impossible may just be the only way forward.

Why similar: Puzzle 33.8%, Exploration 24.3%, First-Person 15.7%, Great Soundtrack 7.4%, Indie 5.5%

Why You'll Like It: Its nonlinear first-person exploration is all about experimenting, observing, and learning impossible rules through surprise and insight.

Explore the ancient, mysterious world of Journey as you soar above ruins and glide across sands to discover its secrets.

Why similar: Beautiful 41.1% ★, Great Soundtrack 22.2%, Exploration 11.5%, Atmospheric 8.6%, Adventure 5%

Play the critically acclaimed masterpiece. Embark on a new journey in a vast, exotic world where you’ll encounter towering enemies and challenging puzzles on your quest to unravel Ori’s destiny.

Why similar: Beautiful 40.5% ★, Great Soundtrack 25.9%, Exploration 7.3%, Story Rich 6.2%, Atmospheric 5.1%

Tacoma is a sci-fi narrative adventure from the creators of Gone Home. Set aboard a high-tech space station in the year 2088, explore every detail of how the station’s crew lived and worked, finding the clues that add up to a gripping story of trust, fear, and resolve in the face of disaster.

Why similar: Space 26.1%, Story Rich 12.7%, Mystery 12.1%, Exploration 11.6%, Sci-fi 11.5%

Why You'll Like It: This narrative exploration game lets you reconstruct events in an abandoned space habitat, scratching a similar environmental-investigation itch.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she's the last one in her family left alive.

Why similar: Story Rich 19.3%, Great Soundtrack 17.4%, Mystery 15.9%, Exploration 11.9%, Atmospheric 10.3%

OneShot is a surreal top down Puzzle/Adventure game with unique gameplay capabilities. You are to guide a child through a mysterious world on a mission to restore its long-dead sun. The world knows you exist.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 39.3%, Story Rich 18.6%, Puzzle 10.1%, Atmospheric 9.3%, Exploration 8.1%

The Talos Principle is a first-person puzzle game in the tradition of philosophical science fiction. Made by Croteam and written by Tom Jubert (FTL, The Swapper) and Jonas Kyratzes (The Sea Will Claim Everything).

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 21.9%, Puzzle 19.7%, Story Rich 11.1%, Sci-fi 10.9%, Atmospheric 8.3%

From the creators of What Remains of Edith Finch. Enter the surreal world of The Unfinished Swan and explore a mysterious, hidden kingdom by splatting paint to reveal the world around you.

Why similar: Exploration 20%, Beautiful 14.6% ★, Mystery 14.3%, Puzzle 13.4%, Great Soundtrack 8.4%

Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Why similar: Space 32.6%, Open World 16.3%, Exploration 11.2%, Sci-fi 9.6%, Great Soundtrack 8.9%

You are a traveling painter, exploring the island of Eastshade. Capture the world on canvas using your artist’s easel. Talk to the inhabitants to learn about their lives. Make friends and help those in need. Visit cities, scale summits, unearth mysteries, and discover forgotten places!

Why similar: Beautiful 24.3% ★, Great Soundtrack 14.5%, Open World 12.9%, Exploration 11.6%, Story Rich 8.6%

Enter an abandoned Cold War base on a moon of Saturn in this atmospheric VR puzzle adventure. Scan evidence, translate Volgravian messages, manipulate strange machinery, and uncover a sci-fi mystery that grows more surreal with every discovery.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 19.1%, Beautiful 17% ★, Mystery 12.3%, Exploration 9.5%, Sci-fi 7.2%

Explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with dangers and lost technologies.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 51.1%, Atmospheric 13.8%, Exploration 13.6%, Adventure 7.9%, Sci-fi 5.6%

Maquette is a first-person recursive puzzle game that takes you into a world where every building, plant, and object are simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge.

Why similar: Beautiful 25% ★, Great Soundtrack 13.6%, Puzzle 11.6%, Mystery 10.3%, Adventure 7.9%

Perception is reality. In this mind-bending first-person puzzler, you escape a surreal dream world through solving impossible puzzles using the ambiguity of depth and perspective.

Why similar: Puzzle 22.5%, Exploration 17.7%, Story Rich 16.2%, First-Person 13.2%, Psychological Horror 11.3%

“Ori and the Blind Forest” tells the tale of a young orphan destined for heroics, through a visually stunning Action-Platformer crafted by Moon Studios.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 46.7%, Atmospheric 13.5%, Story Rich 11%, Beautiful 9.4% ★, Adventure 5.6%

From the creators of the award-winning Hyper Light Drifter comes the high-speed and gravity-bending world of Solar Ash.

Why similar: Space 25.7%, Exploration 24.1%, Sci-fi 11%, Atmospheric 10.9%, Adventure 10.6%

Featuring a beautiful, detailed open-world and a haunting soundtrack, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is non-linear storytelling at its best.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 36.1%, Atmospheric 11.3%, Exploration 10.3%, Story Rich 9.9%, Open World 8.4%

Winner of over 80 awards, CONTROL is a visually stunning third-person action-adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Why similar: Epic 17.3% ★, Story Rich 15.6%, Sci-fi 11.3%, Horror 10.5%, Great Soundtrack 10.3%

Rebel Galaxy is a swashbuckling space adventure, with action-packed combat, exploration, discovery, trade, and “negotiation” with the outlandish denizens at the edge of the known universe.

Why similar: Space 43.2%, Great Soundtrack 20.2%, Open World 13.7%, Sci-fi 9.2%, Exploration 3.9%

Hike, climb, and soar through the peaceful mountainside landscapes of Hawk Peak Provincial Park as you make your way to the summit.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 25.1%, Beautiful 24.4% ★, Exploration 22.9%, Open World 14.7%, Adventure 7.2%

The Turing Test is a challenging first-person puzzle game set on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. You are Ava Turing, an engineer for the International Space Agency (ISA) sent to discover the cause behind the disappearance of the ground crew stationed there.

Why similar: Space 29.4%, Puzzle 15%, Great Soundtrack 13.3%, Sci-fi 12.2%, First-Person 8.2%

CRYNEGINE Indie Game of 2017. Featuring an incredibly detailed ancient world and a breathtaking soundtrack, Aporia: Beyond the Valley takes open world storytelling to new heights of adventure.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 13.7%, Beautiful 13.4% ★, Adventure 12.1%, Puzzle 11%, Exploration 9.5%

Explore a strange world full of colorful friends and foes. When the time comes, the path you’ve chosen will determine your fate... and perhaps the fate of others as well.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 40.1%, Story Rich 18.4%, Psychological Horror 16.7%, Horror 8.3%, Exploration 7.4%

Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 62.4%, Story Rich 12.3%, Exploration 6.4%, Atmospheric 5.8%, Indie 5.2%

Place your faith and embrace the Void.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 32.9%, Mystery 30%, Puzzle 15%, Story Rich 6.6%, Adventure 6%

A single-developer passion project. A seamless full scale solar system. Thrilling action. Be part of an incredible journey as a Universe is built from the ground up!

Why similar: Space 35.6%, Open World 15.2%, Exploration 15.2%, Great Soundtrack 12.6%, Sci-fi 7.5%

The Flux is not keen on giving away its secrets, and you’re one of them. Sail a vast planet under a blanket of stars and use your tools and wits to remind yourself of what was lost and what could come next. An open world mystery about understanding the end of the world.

Why similar: Space 18.9%, Mystery 17.7%, Exploration 14.7%, Story Rich 10.2%, Open World 9.6%

MirrorMoon EP is a game about mystery and exploration set in outer space. These space travels begin on a red planet and its unique moon and extend across galaxies. The single player part of MirrorMoon EP blends adventure and exploration with navigation-based puzzle solving.

Why similar: Space 21.1%, Exploration 14.2%, Great Soundtrack 13%, Beautiful 12.3% ★, Open World 9.4%

Control a herd of charming creatures called Trebhum and explore an unforgettable alien world filled with exotic lifeforms and surreal environments. Discover dozens of mutations to overcome puzzles, explore new biomes, and survive on a dangerous planet.

Why similar: Open World 25.7%, Exploration 23.3%, Story Rich 19%, Atmospheric 12.4%, Puzzle 9.9%