Games Like Phoning Home

Named Game of the Year 2019 by Giant Bomb, Polygon, Eurogamer, and The Guardian, Outer Wilds is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop.

Why similar: Open World 19.3%, Exploration 17.5%, Great Soundtrack 12.3%, Adventure 9.7%, Mystery 9.7%

Why You'll Like It: Captures the same sense of wonder and mystery found in exploring a strange, alien solar system through puzzle-solving and discovery.

The Signal From Tölva is an open-world first-person shooter set on a distant, haunted, future world. Unlock savage weapons and recruit robots to fight alongside you as rival factions struggle to discover the source of the mysterious signal. What you discover will decide the fate of a world.

Why similar: Robots 30.1%, Open World 26.3%, Sci-fi 9.6%, Exploration 9.3%, Action 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: Features a similar focus on robotic exploration and atmospheric discovery on a mysterious, desolate alien planet.

Interact with strange new worlds in a unique and tactile way, molding the environment itself as if it were clay in your hands. Build your base, master resource management, automate your production lines, and more as you unravel the mysteries of the universe, alone or with friends.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 44% ★, Survival 15.1%, Open World 14.8%, Crafting 7.9%, Exploration 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: Provides a similar loop of exploration and resource management on vibrant, alien planets with a focus on discovery.

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 Survival Craft 44.3% ★, Survival 15.3%, Open World 12.4%, Crafting 9.3%, Exploration 6.4%

Why You'll Like It: The gold standard for alien world exploration and survival, offering a deep sense of environmental storytelling.

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: Robots 23%, Sci-fi 13.2%, Puzzle 13.1%, Great Soundtrack 11%, Exploration 8.3%

Why You'll Like It: Offers a deep, philosophical sci-fi narrative paired with intricate puzzle-solving that complements the tone of Phoning Home.

PREMIER EDITION - While seeking life on a distant planet, an astronaut discovers an abandoned Russian town. He suspects his mission is a hoax until a mysterious young woman saves him from a strange and deadly phenomenon...

Why similar: Exploration 18.2%, Sci-fi 15.8%, Adventure 13.5%, Mystery 12.8%, Atmospheric 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: A narrative-driven exploration game that mirrors the feeling of being a lone traveler on a hostile, mysterious alien world.

The Moon has gone dark, cutting off Earth’s last source of energy. As a lone astronaut, you’ll explore abandoned lunar bases, solve intricate puzzles, and navigate stunning zero-gravity environments. Operate advanced vehicles, uncover hidden truths, and survive in this gripping sci-fi thriller.

Why similar: Adventure 24.2%, Action 13.6%, Sci-fi 12.1%, Indie 12.1%, Survival 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on atmospheric, narrative-heavy exploration in a sci-fi setting that emphasizes the isolation of space travel.

Survive in outer space! Together with your immortal chicken, discover the truth behind your sudden spaceship crash. Craft tools, pilot vehicles, and even control space stations to survive and explore the wreckage.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 46.8% ★, Survival 13.9%, Crafting 8.8%, Open World 7.9%, Sci-fi 5.2%

Why You'll Like It: Combines survival mechanics with a humorous, sci-fi space setting that feels like a more chaotic take on the genre.

Scrap Garden is a charming puzzle platformer about the adventures of Canny, a lonely robot, who awakens in a post-apocalyptic world to find all other robots shut down and seized up. What happened to the City? Why did all robots stop moving? Did anyone survive except him?

Why similar: Robots 32.3%, Adventure 16.3%, Exploration 12.7%, Action 11.6%, Indie 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: Features a charming robotic protagonist in a puzzle-platforming adventure that shares the mechanical aesthetic of the seed game.

A base-building open-world survival shooter that replaces your typical base with a giant drill. Alone or with friends, explore an island plagued by eruptions, upgrade your drill, and fight robots to uncover what's been hiding beneath the surface.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 42% ★, Survival 13.8%, Open World 13.3%, Crafting 11.7%, Exploration 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: A survival game featuring unique steampunk-inspired robotic drill ships that you must manage and upgrade.

Experience the freedom of unbounded climbing as you take control of BUD, a procedurally animated robot on a quest to save his planet. Create your own path through an alien world as you control and ride a giant plant on a vertical journey to the stars.

Why similar: Open World 31.1%, Robots 29%, Exploration 13.3%, Adventure 12.6%, Third Person 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: Centers on a cute robot exploring a vertical, procedurally generated world with unique movement and climbing mechanics.

You’ve fled your home, only to find yourself lost in space with a damaged ship. Your only option is to beam down to the planet below, repair your ship and set off to explore the universe...

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 51.9% ★, Survival 11.3%, Open World 9.3%, Crafting 8.9%, Exploration 4.8%

Why You'll Like It: Offers a massive, procedurally generated universe to explore with deep survival and crafting systems.

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 31.8%, Exploration 17.2%, Adventure 13.5%, Sci-fi 11.9%, Atmospheric 9%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses heavily on the joy of exploration and atmospheric discovery in a vast, stylized world without combat.

Miasmata is a first-person survival/adventure game, developed from the ground-up by brothers Joe and Bob Johnson. You play as Robert Hughes, a plague-stricken scientist on a journey to discover a cure. Your adventure begins on the shores of a remote and mysterious island.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 32.8% ★, Survival 24.7%, Open World 11.2%, Exploration 9.2%, Adventure 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: A first-person survival game that emphasizes navigation and exploration in a dangerous, isolated environment.

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: Robots 41.6%, Adventure 14.9%, Sci-fi 13.4%, Futuristic 13%, Mystery 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: A narrative-focused sci-fi adventure that emphasizes the awe and danger of exploring an unknown planet.

Welcome to a mysterious world filled with strange creatures, giant monsters and warring factions. You won't last long here on your own. Fortunately, you know how to build giant robots! Find the plans, gather the resources, climb inside your giant robotic creation and start punching monsters in the face!

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 26.8% ★, Robots 12.8%, Adventure 11.8%, Survival 11.7%, Action 11.5%

Why You'll Like It: Features survival and crafting mechanics with a heavy emphasis on building and piloting giant robots.

PLANET ALPHA, a beautiful alien world filled with mystery and danger. Pursued by relentless enemies, you must harness the power of night and day as you struggle to survive.

Why similar: Survival 20.2%, Open World 18.2%, Adventure 13.5%, Exploration 12.3%, Sci-fi 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: A visually stunning platformer that captures the mystery and beauty of an alien ecosystem through exploration.

Crash-landed on a surreal, low-poly world filled with freakish inhabitants, choose between permadeath and non-permadeath modes and embark on an epic (and ridiculous) survival adventure. Will you manage to stay alive as you unravel the mysteries of Wrongworld and search for a way home?

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 51% ★, Survival 13%, Open World 9.6%, Crafting 7.3%, Adventure 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: A quirky survival game that blends exploration and crafting with a strange, alien sense of humor.

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

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 45.1% ★, Open World 16.3%, Survival 10.8%, Exploration 7.6%, Crafting 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: The ultimate open-world space exploration game, perfect for those who want to discover endless alien landscapes.

I Am Future is a relaxing single-player survival game about building a cozy rooftop camp amid a flooded post-apocalyptic city. Set up a farm, go fishing, tinker with gadgets, craft new tools, manage a team of cute robots to automate and expand your base, explore the mysterious world, and chill out!

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 36.7% ★, Open World 15.5%, Crafting 14.7%, Survival 12.8%, Exploration 8.1%

Why You'll Like It: Features a robot-centric survival experience focused on building and exploration in a post-apocalyptic setting.

A first-person survival game set on a post-apocalyptic, ecologically ruined Earth. Play solo or with up to 3 friends as you build, upgrade, and fly a high-tech airship. Scavenge resources, craft tools, and face dangers on the surface as you hunt for a cure to save humanity.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 35.1% ★, Survival 13.1%, Open World 12.4%, Crafting 11%, Exploration 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: A high-tech survival game set on a ruined Earth that focuses on exploration and airship management.

Radiation Island is a survival adventure game where you craft your own destiny in a huge open world environment. As part of the Philadelphia Experiment you have become stranded in a parallel, alternate reality. Discover this new and mysterious world, with all its surprises.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 50.3% ★, Survival 18.8%, Open World 9.1%, Adventure 7%, Crafting 6%

Why You'll Like It: An open-world survival game that challenges players to explore and craft in a mysterious, isolated environment.

Face the supernatural dangers of the Olympic Exclusion Zone with a car as your only lifeline in this driving survival adventure! Scavenge resources, load up your trusty station wagon, and drive like hell to make it through alive.

Why similar: Survival 28.8%, Crafting 20.7%, Exploration 12.8%, Sci-fi 9.9%, Adventure 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: A unique survival game where your primary companion is a vehicle, emphasizing maintenance and exploration in a strange world.

Empathy: Path of Whispers is an atmospheric and story-driven adventure game where you explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance by journeying through its past.

Why similar: Adventure 32.5%, Great Soundtrack 20.7%, Indie 12.5%, Atmospheric 11.2%, Story Rich 10.6%

Why You'll Like It: An atmospheric, story-rich adventure that focuses on exploring the memories and emotions of a forgotten world.

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: Adventure 37.8%, Indie 23.5%, Sci-fi 16.5%, Atmospheric 6.1%, Story Rich 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: Puts you in the role of an AI on a space station, offering a unique perspective on sci-fi narrative and exploration.

Equipped with cutting-edge salvaging tech, carve & slice spaceships to recover valuable materials. Upgrade your gear to take on more lucrative contracts and pay your billion credits debt to LYNX Corp!

Why similar: Sci-fi 36.1%, Open World 19.9%, Futuristic 15.3%, Puzzle 10.9%, Great Soundtrack 7.2%

Why You'll Like It: Provides a grounded, industrial sci-fi experience that focuses on the mechanical aspects of working in space.

Submerged is a third-person combat-free game in which you explore a mysterious flooded city and discover the beauty of desolation in vast outdoor environments. You take on the role of Miku, a young girl who has brought her wounded brother to the city in their small fishing boat.

Why similar: Open World 21.5%, Exploration 16%, Nature 15.2%, Adventure 9.4%, Third Person 9%

Why You'll Like It: A relaxing, combat-free exploration game that focuses on uncovering the history of a sunken city.

Transform the world of Hob! A new action-adventure from Runic Games, the award-winning studio behind Torchlight I and II. It's your chance. Make it home.

Why similar: Open World 25.7%, Adventure 21.6%, Exploration 14.6%, Action 11.6%, Indie 8%

Why You'll Like It: A wordless, puzzle-heavy adventure game that excels at environmental storytelling and world-building.

While searching for a new home, an unexpected failure in your ship has left you stranded on a planet surprisingly similar to Earth. Discover a vast open world, hunt for food, develop technologies, and build yourself a new home to survive!

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 42% ★, Survival 13.6%, Open World 12.7%, Crafting 10.4%, Exploration 5.4%

Grab your jetpack and explore procedural asteroid fields, derelict spaceships and abandoned outposts. Build and automate your Space Rig to process scavenged trash. Craft, trade and fight your way home in this interstellar, open-world survival sandbox.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 41.1% ★, Survival 13.1%, Open World 11.5%, Crafting 11.5%, Exploration 5.1%

Force of Nature is a Sandbox game that combines Action, Adventure, RPG, Strategy and Management genres

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 47.9% ★, Survival 15.2%, Crafting 13.2%, Open World 10.9%, Exploration 4.3%

Outpost Zero blends the genres of Multiplayer Base Building Survival and Simulation games in a Sci-Fi universe. On a lawless alien world, robotic scouts are tasked with building an Outpost for human colonists. Command AI minions, colonize the planet, and survive the perils of Gaiya.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 43.4% ★, Survival 17.3%, Open World 11.7%, Adventure 7.8%, Crafting 7.6%

The Gold River Project™ invites you and your friends on an open world camping trip gone wrong. Alone or together, you must explore, craft, build, and survive the increasingly harsh environments of the Pacific Northwest wilderness as you uncover the experiment trapping you inside.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 38.4% ★, Open World 12.4%, Survival 11.2%, Crafting 8.4%, Exploration 6.2%

The Long Journey Home combines an open world full of galaxies, planets and anomalies with quests and mechanics of a rogue-like RPG. One destination. Endless adventures. Where will this journey take you?

Why similar: Survival 29.6%, Exploration 22.3%, Indie 17.6%, Sci-fi 14.8%, Adventure 8.8%

Survival: Fountain of Youth is a challenging single-player open-world adventure game set on the Caribbean islands. Survive as a shipwrecked 16th-century explorer, craft tools and shelter, and uncover the secrets of both an ancient civilization and your own fate.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 44.5% ★, Survival 16%, Crafting 12.2%, Open World 11.4%, Exploration 7.2%

Experience the first stages of terraforming an entire planet in this space survival open world terraforming crafting game prologue. Explore, survive, collect, build your base then create oxygen, heat and pressure to make an hostile planet livable for humanity.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 43.9% ★, Survival 16.6%, Open World 13.6%, Crafting 11.6%, Exploration 6.9%

Stranded in a hostile alien world, you must fight to survive. Hunt, harvest, craft, advance skills, and build using local resources along with technology from your voyage.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 52.7% ★, Survival 16.6%, Open World 11.1%, Crafting 7.5%, Action 2.8%

Diluvion is a 3D deep sea, Jules Verne inspired, exploration game with RPG elements and thrilling submarine combat. As the Captain of your own vessel, you must grow and manage your crew as you search for the secrets of the past in a hauntingly beautiful flooded world.

Why similar: Adventure 34.2%, Action 29.5%, Indie 18.5%, Open World 15.9%, Singleplayer 1.9%

Explore a mesmerizing alien world, filled with deep bioluminescent wonders and horrors alike. Old alien artefacts await uncovering, in your search for the lost crew of Lazarus, in the search for your family in the depths of planet Eo-III.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 46% ★, Survival 17%, Open World 17%, Nature 5.8%, Mystery 3.8%

Scrapnaut is a co-op & singleplayer top-down, base building survival game with steampunk elements. Explore an open world with different biomes, take care of oxygen, manage your farms, generate electricity, build your home and much more!

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 34.1% ★, Survival 16.2%, Open World 10.4%, Crafting 10.1%, Robots 9.4%

Science-driven survival with a relaxing vibe. Farming, base building, crafting, animal taming, puzzle-solving, and exploration on Prehistoric Earth, where you arrive as an alien botanist who is very good at plant research, but... can't breathe oxygen.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 42.4% ★, Survival 14.4%, Open World 13.4%, Nature 7.6%, Crafting 6.3%

Warning: This is an Early Access game! Welcome to an enigmatic world, where a new gaming experience in exploring, building and surviving is waiting just for you. Experience a sandbox world with survival elements, and join us in creating a full version of the game.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 40.1% ★, Survival 13.6%, Open World 12.8%, Crafting 10.7%, Adventure 5.3%

Signs of Life is a sci-fi survival sandbox platformer with a combination of procedurally generated and hand-crafted content. You'll explore mysterious locations, Mine blocks for resources, and meet strange (and some familiar) creatures, some of which don't even want to kill you and eat your corpse.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 52.2% ★, Survival 13.5%, Crafting 11.1%, Open World 7.2%, Adventure 5.8%

Terraform a dead planet back to life in this open world survival crafting game. Explore ruins, gather resources, print machines, drive modular vehicles, grow forests, biomes, and ecosystems. Create life and make it thrive with your own hands.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 37.6% ★, Robots 14.1%, Open World 10.6%, Survival 10.3%, Crafting 9.6%

The Solus Project is a single player exploration adventure with survival elements. The adventure is set on a mysterious planet and is the spiritual successor to The Ball - 2010 PC Gamer Action/Adventure Game Of The Year...

Why similar: Survival 35.1%, Exploration 13.1%, Adventure 10.7%, Open World 10.2%, Sci-fi 10%

Investigate a starship crash, explore a hostile world, build shelters and survive nightly attacks of the Rot. Tear down any structure and experience total freedom of action.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 44.4% ★, Survival 15.1%, Crafting 11.4%, Open World 10.5%, Exploration 5%

GRAV is a sand box experience where you explore a multitude of planets, hunt strange alien creatures, build and defend outposts, craft weapons and armor, and attempt to survive against other players in a hostile environment.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 49.2% ★, Survival 16.4%, Open World 13.9%, Crafting 8.6%, Adventure 3.2%

A fiercely formidable sci-fi survival game, set on a hostile alien world that wants you dead! Alone, or with a crew, do you have what it takes to survive?

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 51.4% ★, Survival 16.7%, Crafting 12.3%, Adventure 7.2%, Sci-fi 4.8%

You are the lone survivor orbiting a potential new home planet, tethered to what’s left of your ship. Gather nearby debris and assemble a make-shift vessel in an attempt to survive the harsh realities of space. Maybe you'll live long enough to uncover the truth behind the ship's malfunction...

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 47.8% ★, Survival 16.2%, Crafting 14.4%, Open World 8.9%, Adventure 4.5%

Defunct is an indie adventure game with a focus on flow, speed and an engaging world. You are a broken robot that accidentally falls out of a giant cargo ship onto a post-human Earth, now inhabited by robots. You have to get back to your ship before it’s too late!

Why similar: Robots 34.9%, Adventure 25.9%, Great Soundtrack 20.6%, Indie 14.6%, Singleplayer 4%

Starsand is a mystic survival game set among the dunes of an arcane desert. An open-world full of danger, vast environments and mysterious happenings await you! Explore, hunt, craft, build – and SURVIVE.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 40.3% ★, Survival 13.9%, Open World 13.2%, Crafting 10.9%, Exploration 6.4%

Take the role of a plane crash survivor stranded somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Come face to face with some of the most life threatening scenarios that will result in a different experience each time you play. Scavenge. Discover. Survive.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 52.1% ★, Survival 17.2%, Open World 11.4%, Crafting 9.6%, Exploration 3.6%

Crash-land onto a unique and hostile alien world and begin your fight to survive. Face its inhabitants, upgrade your technology, create outposts & bases, and find a way to repair your ship. Explore the beautifully strange terrain, all while blasting and crafting your way off of the planet.

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 44.2% ★, Survival 15%, Open World 14.4%, Crafting 11.4%, Exploration 7.2%

Cradle is a sci-fi first-person-view quest designed for the player to explore the surrounding world. The story is built around the relations of the protagonist and a mechanical girl who by quirk of fate found themselves amidst the desert.

Why similar: Adventure 20.3%, Open World 18%, Sci-fi 15.7%, Exploration 12.7%, Indie 9.7%

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

Why similar: Exploration 27.2%, Adventure 20.7%, Sci-fi 16.8%, Atmospheric 15.2%, Mystery 11.6%

Explore a drowned Earth, restore lost systems, and raise the last human seeds in this first-person survival-crafting adventure. Build, scavenge, defend, and launch humanity back to the stars.

Why similar: Survival 21.5%, Open World 20.6%, Crafting 18.3%, Exploration 10.6%, Sci-fi 8.3%

Land on a distant planet in this chill resource management game. Harvest alien resources, build and automate machinery, uncover secrets across the stars and strike shipping deals with distant colonies for exclusive rewards!

Why similar: Open World Survival Craft 29.6% ★, Robots 15.3%, Open World 13.1%, Survival 11.2%, Crafting 11.2%