Games Like SUNLESS SEA

DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 48%, Exploration 17.2%, Open World 8.2%, Horror 5.8%, Atmospheric 5.3%

Why You'll Like It: It perfectly captures the feeling of navigating a dangerous, Lovecraftian ocean while managing your ship and sanity against unknown horrors.

SAIL THE STARS. BETRAY YOUR QUEEN. MURDER A SUN. Sunless Skies is a Gothic Horror roleplay game with a focus on exploration and exquisite storytelling.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 32%, Steampunk 20.9% ★, Exploration 8.1%, Survival 7.3%, Story Rich 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: As the direct successor to Sunless Sea, it refines the exploration and narrative mechanics while moving the gothic horror into the vast, haunting expanse of space.

Explore the House, a parasite dimension that steals from other worlds, in a train that scuttles on mechanical legs.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 32.5%, Steampunk 17.6% ★, Exploration 8.6%, Dark 7.5%, Story Rich 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: This game is the closest thematic and mechanical sibling to Sunless Sea, featuring exploration, survival, and a deeply poetic, surreal narrative.

Seize forbidden treasures. Summon alien gods. Feed on your disciples. Cultist Simulator is a game of apocalypse and yearning. Play as a seeker after unholy mysteries, in a 1920s-themed setting of hidden gods and secret histories.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 59.7%, Roguelike 12.8%, Story Rich 10.9%, RPG 8.3%, Roguelite 8.3%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the same developer's flair for cryptic, lore-rich storytelling and occult themes, focusing on the slow descent into madness.

Pathologic 2 is a groundbreaking open-world horror RPG. Resist the plague. Make medicine. Heal people. Perform an autopsy. Trade to get what you need. Fight and kill if necessary. Survive. Struggle with an outbreak in a secluded rural town that is rapidly turning into hell.

Why similar: Survival 25.1%, Story Rich 17.7%, Dark 15.5%, Atmospheric 12.1%, RPG 10.4%

Why You'll Like It: An intensely oppressive survival game where resource management and difficult moral choices define your struggle against an inevitable, encroaching doom.

You didn’t ask to lead this expedition, but here you are. Stuck in the ice, Captain missing, miles from civilisation. Someone has to take charge. Manage your meagre resources, balance safety and morale, make the hard calls, and head in the only direction you can - through The Pale Beyond.

Why similar: Survival 30.5%, Exploration 16.3%, Story Rich 15.7%, Dark 15.7%, Atmospheric 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: This survival-management game forces you to make grueling narrative choices while leading a crew through a frozen, hopeless expedition.

Delve into a role-playing game of horror, loss and madness set in the strange worlds of HP Lovecraft. Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones offers a mix of rich role-playing and turn-based tactical combat, represented in an illustrative visual style. Can you find salvation in a dead world?

Why similar: Lovecraftian 60.1%, RPG 11.7%, Horror 7.9%, Great Soundtrack 4.8%, Story Rich 4.6%

Why You'll Like It: A turn-based RPG that is deeply committed to the source material of H.P. Lovecraft, focusing on investigation and sanity management.

Darkwood - a new perspective on survival horror. Scavenge and explore a rich, ever-changing free-roam world by day, then hunker down in your hideout and pray for the morning light.

Why similar: Survival 19%, Dark 15.2%, Exploration 14.1%, Story Rich 10.5%, Horror 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: A top-down survival horror game that relies on atmosphere and mystery rather than jump scares to create a truly unsettling experience.

Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. Live the life of an escaped worker, washed-up on a lawless station at the edge of an interstellar society. Inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, explore the station, choose your friends, escape your past and change your future.

Why similar: Exploration 27.9%, Story Rich 25.3%, RPG 18.3%, Atmospheric 15.1%, Adventure 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: It combines resource management with a deeply personal, existential narrative set in a decaying, hostile space station.

Lost at sea 1803 ~ The good ship Obra Dinn.

Why similar: Story Rich 26.2%, Great Soundtrack 24.6%, Atmospheric 17.7%, Naval 11.5% ★, Horror 5.6%

Why You'll Like It: A brilliant detective mystery that uses a unique, haunting aesthetic to tell a story of isolation and death at sea.

Experience the quiet terror of this 1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft. Navigate a hellish roguelite reality with turn-based combat and unforgiving choices. Experiment with your deck of event cards to discover new forms of cosmic horror in every playthrough. The inevitable awaits...

Why similar: Lovecraftian 47.7%, Survival 11.9%, Horror 10.7%, Roguelike 8.1%, Roguelite 6.5%

Why You'll Like It: This cosmic horror game captures the feeling of inevitable doom and investigation through its distinct, retro-inspired art style.

Barotrauma is a 2D co-op submarine simulator – in space, with survival horror and RPG elements. Steer your submarine, complete missions, fight monsters, fix leaks, operate machinery, man the guns and craft items, and stay alert: danger in Barotrauma doesn’t announce itself!

Why similar: Survival 58.9%, Horror 21.9%, Naval 11.2% ★, 2D 5.6%, Singleplayer 2.5%

Why You'll Like It: This cooperative submarine survival game captures the claustrophobic dread of exploring a dark, alien ocean filled with lethal threats.

Take command of an 'Age of Sail' ship and her crew, exploring a vast, story-filled world that reacts to your decisions. Engage enemy vessels, fortifications and sea monsters in brutal tactical combat, all framed in an art style inspired by classic Naval Oil Paintings.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 39.5%, Survival 12%, Exploration 9.6%, Naval 8.7% ★, Story Rich 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: It mirrors the naval combat and roguelite exploration of Sunless Sea, focusing on managing a crew and ship in a dangerous fantasy world.

A classic survival horror experience set in a dystopian future where humanity has uncovered a dark secret. Unravel a cosmic mystery, escape terrifying creatures, and scavenge an off-world government facility as Elster, a technician Replika searching for her lost dreams.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 64.4%, Dark 17.8%, Atmospheric 11.4%, Adventure 3.8%, Singleplayer 2.6%

Why You'll Like It: A masterfully atmospheric survival horror game that leans heavily into Lovecraftian themes and psychological decay.

This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.

Why similar: Roguelike 40.7%, Survival 24%, Roguelite 9.8%, Top-Down 6.6%, Indie 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: The gold standard for ship-based roguelite survival, requiring careful resource management and strategic decision-making under pressure.

1924. Private Investigator Pierce is sent to look into the tragic death of the Hawkins family. Plunge into a world of creeping madness and cosmic horror. Cryptic clues, shadowy figures, and pure terror bar your way as you fight to retain your sanity and solve an otherworldly mystery.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 66%, Horror 8.3%, Story Rich 7.5%, Atmospheric 5.4%, Dark 4.3%

Why You'll Like It: A narrative-driven investigation game that places you directly into the psychological horror of the Cthulhu mythos.

VOID SAILS is a single-player adventure where you captain a flying ship across uncharted space. Sail through mysterious worlds, battle powerful foes, and make story-defining choices. Uncover dark secrets in a game where every discovery could bring you closer to the truth—or to madness.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 45.7%, Exploration 13.6%, Steampunk 13% ★, Story Rich 8.2%, RPG 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: This game focuses on the core loop of sailing and exploration within a dark, atmospheric, and Lovecraftian-inspired world.

A lovecraftian roguelike. Dive into procedurally generated undersea caves. Collect gold, upgrade your equipment, and Feed the Deep.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 41.1%, Exploration 10.3%, Dark 10%, Survival 8.8%, Roguelike 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: A roguelike exploration game that emphasizes the dangers of the deep sea and the constant need to manage your resources.

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories is an action roguelite with RPG elements. Explore randomly generated levels based in Lovecraft's stories, fight cultists and all kinds of monsters from the Mythos, improve your gear, solve puzzles, and find clues and knowledge to defeat the Great Old Ones.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 66.8%, RPG 6.5%, Roguelite 6.4%, Horror 4.5%, Adventure 4.2%

Why You'll Like It: An action-oriented roguelite that brings the monsters and madness of the Cthulhu mythos to the forefront of its gameplay.

Curious Expedition is a roguelike expedition simulation set in the late 19th century. Together with famous personalities you will venture on unprecedented expeditions to regions never explored before for fame, science and treasures.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 49%, Exploration 14.6%, Roguelike 11.4%, Story Rich 8.9%, RPG 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: A roguelike exploration game that focuses on resource management and the risks of venturing into the unknown.

Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost?

Why similar: Lovecraftian 53%, Roguelike 12.5%, RPG 8.1%, Dark 7.5%, Gothic 4.5% ★

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on the stress and psychological toll of adventuring, mirroring the madness mechanics found in Sunless Sea.

NEO Scavenger is a game where you must survive in the wasteland long enough to figure out who you are. Each turn, you must decide where to go, how to scavenge for supplies, and how to deal with anything and anyone you encounter.

Why similar: Survival 53.4%, Roguelike 18.9%, RPG 12.5%, Open World 8.2%, Indie 3.1%

Why You'll Like It: A gritty, turn-based survival game that emphasizes exploration, scavenging, and the harsh reality of a post-apocalyptic world.

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut is a groundbreaking role playing game. You’re a detective with a unique skill system at your disposal and a whole city to carve your path across. Interrogate unforgettable characters, crack murders or take bribes. Become a hero or an absolute disaster of a human being.

Why similar: Story Rich 27.8%, RPG 20.3%, Exploration 14%, Atmospheric 11%, Great Soundtrack 9.4%

Why You'll Like It: While mechanically different, it shares the same unparalleled depth of writing and focus on the internal psychological state of the protagonist.

UnderRail is an old-school turn-based isometric role-playing game that features a large open post-apocalyptic world, deep and challenging combat and an intricate storyline.

Why similar: RPG 43.7%, Open World 15.8%, Exploration 12.5%, Atmospheric 12%, Indie 5.6%

Why You'll Like It: A deep, isometric RPG set in a claustrophobic, dark underground world that rewards careful exploration and character building.

Crying Suns is a tactical rogue-lite that puts you in the role of a space fleet commander as you explore a mysteriously fallen empire. In this story rich experience inspired by Dune and Foundation, each successful run will uncover the truth about the Empire... and yourself as well.

Why similar: Dark 23.9%, Roguelike 23.5%, Story Rich 21.1%, Roguelite 17.5%, Indie 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: A space-faring strategy game with a strong narrative focus and a bleak, atmospheric tone reminiscent of classic sci-fi.

In this strategic rogue-like you become a famous expedition leader in the 19th century. You form your own crew with the skills and personality to discover legendary treasures, while exploring randomized locations and stories on every new adventure.

Why similar: Roguelike 23.1%, Exploration 22.3%, RPG 19.4%, Adventure 13.7%, Roguelite 9.6%

Why You'll Like It: A strategy game about exploration and discovery that captures the spirit of 19th-century expeditions with a unique mechanical twist.

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

Why similar: Steampunk 45.5% ★, Survival 36.4%, Dark 6.3%, Great Soundtrack 6.1%, Atmospheric 4.1%

Why You'll Like It: A city-builder that forces you to make brutal survival decisions in a dark, frozen world where resources are constantly dwindling.

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

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 35.1%, Exploration 17.5%, Atmospheric 15.9%, Adventure 9%, RPG 7.8%

Why You'll Like It: A beautiful, atmospheric action game that tells a cryptic story through its environment and visual design.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is the thematic successor to Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed role-playing games of all time. Immerse yourself in a single-player, isometric, story-driven RPG set in Monte Cook’s Numenera universe. What does one life matter? Find your answer.

Why similar: RPG 39.1%, Story Rich 28.1%, Adventure 10.2%, Atmospheric 9.1%, Great Soundtrack 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: A story-rich RPG that excels in creating a surreal, alien world filled with philosophical questions and dark mysteries.

Out There is an award-winning space exploration game blending roguelike, resource management and interactive fiction.

Why similar: Survival 20.1%, Exploration 17.5%, Roguelike 14.4%, Dark 11.5%, Story Rich 10.5%

Why You'll Like It: A space survival game that forces you to manage limited resources while drifting through an indifferent and dangerous galaxy.

Control powerful mechs from the future to defeat an alien threat. Each attempt to save the world presents a new randomly generated challenge in this turn-based strategy game.

Why similar: Roguelike 35.9%, Great Soundtrack 20%, Roguelite 18.3%, RPG 12.6%, Indie 8.5%

Inhabit a deeply-simulated science fantasy world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Build a character from over a hundred mutations and cybernetics. The award-winning sandbox roguelike & RPG full of robots, deep lore, and sentient plants.

Why similar: Survival 25.2%, Open World 20.5%, Roguelike 16.6%, Story Rich 14.4%, RPG 10.4%

Gods Will Be Watching is a minimalistic “point and click thriller” centered on despair, commitment, and sacrifice as players face intriguing puzzles and tough decisions that will affect their entire crew’s wellbeing.

Why similar: Dark 23.8%, Story Rich 19.6%, Survival 19.4%, Great Soundtrack 8.8%, Atmospheric 8.2%

Descend into Lovecraftian horror aboard a claustrophobic military submarine. Assign tasks as a captain’s right hand, analyze sonar signals, make hard decisions, and keep the crew from madness. Dark horrors lurk both within… and beyond the hull.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 47.7%, Dark 13%, Story Rich 10.6%, Horror 9%, Atmospheric 7.4%

Pilot drones into derelict spaceships to find the means to survive and piece together how the universe became a giant graveyard.

Why similar: Survival 27.2%, Exploration 23.1%, Roguelike 15.6%, Horror 12.7%, Roguelite 11.5%

Heat Signature is a game from the developers of Gunpoint where you break into spaceships, make terrible mistakes, and think of clever ways out of them. You take a mission, fly to the target ship, sneak inside, and make clever use of your gadgets to distract, ambush and take out the crew.

Why similar: Roguelike 35%, Roguelite 16.3%, Top-Down 16.1%, Open World 9.9%, Indie 7.8%

You only have 21 days until this living city dies. The clock is ticking. You can’t be everywhere at once. Decide what to explore, who to meet and see every decision shape the curious stories and terrible secrets of this branching narrative game.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 53%, Story Rich 9.9%, Great Soundtrack 9.8%, Exploration 9.5%, Adventure 7%

You are a lowly egg cell on a journey through a swollen sea of strange and humanoid fish. Prey on smaller life and growing larger and stronger to perhaps someday be born.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 35.5%, Survival 17.7%, Exploration 13.9%, Dark 12.9%, Atmospheric 6.1%

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: Steampunk 53.9% ★, RPG 19.9%, Adventure 12.7%, Indie 6%, Open World 5.7%

Harebrained Schemes' biggest Shadowrun game to date, and the definitive Shadowrun RPG experience available on PC. Now a standalone title with tons of new content & improvements!

Why similar: RPG 44.3%, Story Rich 29.6%, Atmospheric 9.8%, Adventure 7%, Singleplayer 5.1%

Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift. You are Alex, and you’ve just brought your new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight island party gone horribly wrong.

Why similar: Story Rich 27.2%, Great Soundtrack 18.8%, Lovecraftian 14.1%, Atmospheric 14%, Horror 12%

1975. Disaster strikes the Beira D oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Navigate the collapsing rig to save your crew from an otherworldly horror on the edge of all logic and reality in this 3x BAFTA Games Award-winning narrative horror experience.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 48.8%, Dark 12.6%, Exploration 9.3%, Horror 9.3%, Story Rich 8.9%

Every descent is a deadly gamble. DIVE or DIE in the cursed abyss, face Eldritch horrors to uncover the mystery of the black rain. Scavenge and upgrade, recruit and sacrifice. Save your camp... The Flood is coming.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 42.7%, Survival 13.7%, Exploration 11.6%, Dark 10.3%, Horror 6.9%

A rogue-like river journey through the backwaters of a forgotten post-societal America. Forage, craft, evade predators.

Why similar: Survival 43%, Great Soundtrack 18.4%, Exploration 11.1%, Adventure 7%, Roguelike 5.5%

Dungeon of the ENDLESS™ is a Rogue-Like Dungeon-Defense game, in which the player and their team of heroes must protect the generator of their crashed ship while exploring an ever-expanding dungeon, all while facing waves of monsters and special events as they try to find their way out...

Why similar: Roguelike 32.1%, Survival 19.2%, RPG 14.6%, Great Soundtrack 13.2%, Roguelite 7.5%

KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway running through the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it.

Why similar: Atmospheric 25.2%, Great Soundtrack 21.2%, Story Rich 20.7%, Adventure 16.7%, Exploration 7.7%

Take control of Invisible's agents in the field and infiltrate the world's most dangerous corporations. Stealth, precision, and teamwork are essential in high-stakes, high-profit missions, where every move may cost an agent their life.

Why similar: Roguelike 49.9%, Roguelite 43.7%, Singleplayer 6.4%

BELOW is a solitary journey through the haunted depths of a forbidden isle. Explore. Survive. Discover.

Why similar: Exploration 19.8%, Open World 19.2%, Roguelike 14.5%, Horror 10.6%, Roguelite 9.9%

Travel by train through a dying world. Look after your passengers, keep your train operational, and make sure you can always reach the next station. Make your way through swarms of infected at each station. Explore mysterious and abandoned stations looking for supplies and survivors.

Why similar: Survival 40.1%, Story Rich 13%, Great Soundtrack 10.5%, Atmospheric 10.1%, Adventure 7.8%

Command an ancient starship and fight your way to the heart of a dying Empire. Fend off attacks from demented cultists, craven space pirates, and xenophobic Imperial soldiers. Discover powerful artifacts and use them to build your ship into a fearsome war engine.

Why similar: Roguelike 31%, Roguelite 26.5%, Gothic 25.4% ★, Adventure 9.2%, 2D 4.2%

DIVE. DISCOVER. DIE. Crew a submarine with friends in We Need To Go Deeper - a 2-4-player cooperative submarine roguelike set in a Verne-inspired undersea universe.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 45.4%, Steampunk 25.2% ★, Exploration 10.3%, Roguelike 7.7%, Roguelite 6.4%

Afflicted by severe amnesia, you drift deep into the Common Dream. You scour for the lost pages of the Necronomicon, while clinging on to any little purpose you have left. Faced with mad dreamers, horrible abominations and eldritch deities, you feel drawn to the dark Abyss deep within.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 55%, Great Soundtrack 10.5%, Roguelike 9.7%, Roguelite 5.5%, Atmospheric 4.4%

Something ancient and evil is stirring in Victorian England. Only you can stop it. Journey to the brink of madness and beyond as you set forth alone into the dark.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 55.6%, Great Soundtrack 15%, Story Rich 12.6%, Horror 9.5%, Adventure 3.6%

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: Exploration 26.4%, Great Soundtrack 23.9%, Story Rich 18.9%, Atmospheric 13.9%, Adventure 8.4%

Sunken Engine Lovecraftian Ship Repair Simulation. Restore your father’s old shipyard. Each arriving ship carries a dark mystery to be solved. Keep your customers satisfied while dealing with the strange and eerie happenings on the island.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 56.4%, Naval 11.6% ★, Dark 9.9%, Story Rich 9.3%, Atmospheric 6%

Experience a story-driven RPG where your choices mean all the difference in the world.

Why similar: RPG 37.1%, Story Rich 29.2%, Great Soundtrack 9.4%, Adventure 8.4%, Atmospheric 6.1%

The Consuming Shadow is a procedural survival horror adventure in which you must explore the land, fight your way through randomly-generated dungeons and try to stay sane in your quest to save the world from the invading Ancients.

Why similar: Lovecraftian 69.6%, Dark 6.3%, Horror 5.8%, Adventure 5.3%, Roguelite 5.1%

Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within...

Why similar: Lovecraftian 55.3%, Roguelike 10.2%, Gothic 9.4% ★, Roguelite 9%, Story Rich 7.4%

Restore a crumbling occult library by a winter sea. Build the world’s foremost collection of grimoires and arcana. Master the invisible arts. BOOK OF HOURS is a narrative crafting RPG set in a 1930s world of hidden gods and secret histories. What sort of Librarian will you choose to be?

Why similar: Exploration 47.3%, Story Rich 26.6%, RPG 26.2%

1872, with a steampunk twist. Phileas Fogg has wagered he can circumnavigate the world in just 80 days. Travel by airship, submarine, mechanical camel, steam-train and more. Race other players and a clock that never stops in TIME Magazine's Game of 2014.

Why similar: Steampunk 36.1% ★, Story Rich 18.2%, Exploration 13.6%, Adventure 9.9%, Great Soundtrack 8%