Games Like What Remains of Edith Finch

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: Walking Simulator 24.1%, Exploration 13.4%, Mystery 12.4%, Story Rich 12%, First-Person 8.5%

Why You'll Like It: From the same studio, it pairs dreamlike first-person exploration with imaginative mechanics and a gently melancholic storybook tone.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery. Purchase this game to get both the original and the Unreal Engine 4 remaster called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 29.5%, Mystery 15.3%, Atmospheric 11.7%, Story Rich 10.7%, First-Person 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: It similarly uses a beautiful, unsettling landscape and environmental investigation to reveal the fate of a troubled family.

June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 55.3%, Story Rich 10%, Atmospheric 7.3%, Exploration 6.2%, First-Person 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: This foundational exploration narrative has you piece together an intimate family story by examining a lovingly detailed empty house.

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: Walking Simulator 29%, Story Rich 18.1%, Mystery 11.3%, Atmospheric 11.3%, Great Soundtrack 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: Its first-person wandering, strong sense of place, and emotionally vulnerable mystery make it an excellent character-driven companion.

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: Walking Simulator 33.8%, Story Rich 18.7%, Female Protagonist 9.1%, Mystery 8.5%, First-Person 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: You reconstruct the lives of absent people through an immersive space and layered environmental storytelling rather than combat.

Marie's Room is a short story exploration game about an unconventional friendship between two classmates. You play as Kelsey, remembering Marie's room as it was twenty years ago. But something’s off. What happened to Marie?

Why similar: Walking Simulator 25%, Story Rich 21.6%, Great Soundtrack 10.7%, Atmospheric 9.9%, Mystery 6.9%

Why You'll Like It: This short, personal walking simulator centers on returning to a former friend's room and uncovering a bittersweet shared past through objects.

Embark on an emotional first-person narrative adventure where you control the story—and affect its outcomes—with your real-life blinks. With this innovative technique you will fully immerse yourself in a world of memories, both joyous and heartbreaking, as your whole life flashes before your eyes.

Why similar: Story Rich 33.1%, Walking Simulator 26.3%, Emotional 11.8%, First-Person 11.3%, Mystery 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: Its inventive blink-controlled interactions make a compact, affecting journey through memories, family, grief, and the stories people leave behind.

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: Walking Simulator 44.8%, Great Soundtrack 15%, Story Rich 11.1%, Atmospheric 10.4%, First-Person 4.6%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a hauntingly beautiful abandoned-world mystery assembled from traces of ordinary lives and supernatural events.

Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: 'Dear Esther...' - and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 32.5%, Story Rich 11.4%, Exploration 9%, Mystery 8.2%, First-Person 8%

Why You'll Like It: Its poetic narration and lonely island exploration emphasize mood, fragmented memory, and interpretation over conventional gameplay.

The Beginner's Guide is a narrative video game from Davey Wreden, the creator of The Stanley Parable. It lasts about an hour and a half and has no traditional mechanics, no goals or objectives. Instead, it tells the story of a person struggling to deal with something they do not understand.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 37.1%, Story Rich 23%, Atmospheric 10.5%, Great Soundtrack 8.3%, First-Person 8%

Why You'll Like It: A reflective first-person anthology about authorship and interpretation, told through a succession of distinct, carefully constructed spaces.

Virginia is a single-player first-person thriller set in a small town with a secret. Experience a missing person investigation through the eyes of graduate FBI agent Anne Tarver.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 27.9%, Story Rich 14.3%, Mystery 12.9%, Female Protagonist 10.6%, Atmospheric 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: Its surreal, wordless cinematic mystery follows an investigator through dreamlike transitions and emotionally charged visual storytelling.

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: Story Rich 17.9%, Walking Simulator 17.2%, Mystery 11%, Female Protagonist 10.4%, First-Person 9.2%

Why You'll Like It: This colorful first-person adventure combines an isolated setting, family-driven motivation, surreal revelations, and environmental puzzles.

Coming back to the family hotel after years, a young woman finds herself trapped with the ghosts from her past and an old cellular telephone as the only way to unveil a terrible truth.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 25.2%, Story Rich 14.2%, Mystery 12.3%, Atmospheric 9.3%, Female Protagonist 7.8%

Why You'll Like It: It builds an uneasy personal mystery through solitary exploration of a vast hotel filled with remnants of family trauma.

Long-lost family secrets. Hints of a hidden fortune. And miles to go before they sleep. Tess Devine’s relationship with her mom has never been easy, but they’re about to set out together on a journey into the past that they’ll never forget.

Why similar: Story Rich 31%, Exploration 15.4%, Atmospheric 13.1%, First-Person 13%, Mystery 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: A quiet road-trip narrative about a mother and daughter uncovering family secrets, with a strong focus on objects, spaces, and conversation.

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: Story Rich 19.3%, Great Soundtrack 17.7%, Mystery 15.8%, Exploration 11.8%, Atmospheric 10.1%

Why You'll Like It: Although more systems-driven, its core pleasure is uncovering an interconnected cosmic history through curiosity, exploration, and poignant discoveries.

Draugen is a single-player, first-person Fjord Noir mystery set in 1920s Norway. Explore a forgotten coastal village in your search for your missing sister, accompanied by your independent and enigmatic young ward. Norwegian Game of the Year 2019.

Why similar: Story Rich 22.6%, Mystery 17.9%, Atmospheric 13.6%, First-Person 11.2%, Psychological Horror 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: Exploring a deserted Norwegian village while investigating a disappearance delivers a similarly intimate, melancholy first-person mystery.

A deep, interactive adventure about love and loss, beautifully depicted and offering an intense cinematic experience. What would you do to save the one you love?

Why similar: Story Rich 27.5%, Great Soundtrack 18.8%, Walking Simulator 17.5%, Atmospheric 17.2%, Adventure 6.3%

Why You'll Like It: Its wordless, stylized tale of love and loss uses changing perspectives to revisit a tragedy and search for understanding.

Lost at sea 1803 ~ The good ship Obra Dinn.

Why similar: Mystery 25.5%, Story Rich 22.1%, Great Soundtrack 13.8%, Atmospheric 13%, Walking Simulator 7.5%

Why You'll Like It: It is more deduction-heavy, but shares the satisfaction of reconstructing a large cast's intertwined fates from evocative scenes.

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 26.7%, Mystery 13.1%, Great Soundtrack 12.3%, Atmospheric 12%, Walking Simulator 10.8%

Why You'll Like It: Its natural dialogue system, supernatural mystery, and focus on young people confronting buried history give it a similarly intimate unease.

12 March 1938, Renée, 16, was ripped out of her world, her only fault was that of not knowing her place in the world.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 18.7%, Story Rich 12.8%, Female Protagonist 11.4%, Mystery 10.4%, Exploration 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: A somber first-person exploration game that uses an abandoned institution and fragmented memories to tell a painful personal story.

In the wake of catastrophe find the means to make your family whole again.

Why similar: Story Rich 27.4%, Atmospheric 19.7%, Walking Simulator 10.8%, Emotional 9%, Dark 7.9%

Why You'll Like It: A cinematic, largely wordless adventure about a family enduring an extraordinary catastrophe, driven by atmosphere and emotional discovery.

Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality.

Why similar: Great Soundtrack 25.5%, Atmospheric 18.9%, Female Protagonist 13.3%, Story Rich 11.7%, Beautiful 10.8% ★

Why You'll Like It: A beautiful, mostly wordless journey through grief whose shifting imagery and gentle exploration evoke Finch's emotional, artistic sensibility.

What Never Was is a short, story-driven first-person game focused on exploration and puzzle-solving about Sarah, having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfathers attic, and soon finds that not everything about the attic is what it seems.

Why similar: Story Rich 21.7%, Walking Simulator 16.4%, Mystery 13.7%, First-Person 9.1%, Female Protagonist 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: A short first-person attic exploration mystery about a grandfather's hidden past, with object-focused storytelling and a warm melancholic atmosphere.

A story-driven experience about two doctors traversing backwards through a dying man's memories to artificially fulfill his last wish.

Why similar: Story Rich 43.7%, Great Soundtrack 35.4%, Emotional 7.4%, Indie 4.2%, Adventure 3.5%

Why You'll Like It: Its pixel-art presentation differs, but its central strength is an unforgettable, deeply compassionate story told through reconstructed memories.

In this 3D visual novel, follow failed screenwriter Junon as she attempts to make it through the most pivotal day in her life. Relive the past, alter the present, and embrace the future, or without your help, Junon’s story might end in a wreck.

Why similar: Story Rich 26.8%, Mystery 19%, Atmospheric 16%, Female Protagonist 12.4%, Emotional 6.6%

Why You'll Like It: This emotionally intense narrative uses replayed memories and interactive scenes to examine family conflict, regret, and grief.

A song from years ago triggers a flood of memories for champion swimmer Miriam. Embark on an evocative journey through her turbulent childhood and the complicated relationship she shared with her devoted mother.

Why similar: Story Rich 27.1%, Atmospheric 20%, Female Protagonist 19.9%, Adventure 15.8%, Emotional 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: A brief, visually expressive interactive memoir about a daughter's relationship with her mother and the emotional weight of memory.

Investigate an infamous cold case in the eerie, abandoned town of Painscreek. Search for evidence, connect the dots and uncover who killed Vivian Roberts. Can you expose the truth behind this town’s dark secrets?

Why similar: Walking Simulator 23.4%, Story Rich 17%, Mystery 16.9%, Atmospheric 9.7%, Exploration 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: It turns first-person exploration into a methodical investigation of a deserted town and its web of personal secrets.

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: Walking Simulator 23.2%, Story Rich 17%, Mystery 15.6%, Great Soundtrack 12.1%, Exploration 8.6%

Why You'll Like It: A mystery built around talking to residents, observing consequences, and gradually revealing the hidden history of an isolated community.

Explore the mysterious Hotel Norwood in this surreal first-person adventure. Curious characters, forgotten secrets, and head-nodding music await your arrival.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 24.9%, Great Soundtrack 18.1%, Mystery 11.4%, First-Person 10.4%, Atmospheric 9.9%

Why You'll Like It: Its bizarre hotel is full of self-contained stories, eccentric inhabitants, and surreal environmental discoveries that reward wandering.

A first-person narrative adventure game about exploring a cult compound in the remote New Mexico desert. Discover the lives of the former inhabitants -- what brought them together, what they believed, and why they ended it all.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 34.8%, Story Rich 20.4%, First-Person 11.8%, Psychological Horror 10.1%, Adventure 8.9%

Why You'll Like It: This unsettling walking simulator uncovers the history of an abandoned cult compound through notes, spaces, and quiet observation.

Follow the grim tale of young Amicia and her little brother Hugo, in a heartrending journey through the darkest hours of history.

Why similar: Story Rich 34.9%, Female Protagonist 14.2%, Atmospheric 13%, Great Soundtrack 12.2%, Adventure 6.2%

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

Why similar: Walking Simulator 26.1%, Exploration 14.6%, First-Person 14.6%, Atmospheric 11.5%, Puzzle 9.8%

Explore an abandoned building, encountering puzzles and clues to discover what happened, as you try to escape in both your nightmares and the waking world. Be immersed in the hauntingly beautiful 3D atmosphere in this puzzle exploration mystery game.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 24.7%, Atmospheric 14.4%, Great Soundtrack 12.8%, Mystery 11.4%, Exploration 8.8%

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

Why similar: Walking Simulator 23.8%, Great Soundtrack 19.3%, Atmospheric 16.3%, Exploration 9.9%, Story Rich 8.7%

When humans get too lonely, they turn into monsters… Set sail across a beautiful and evolving world of darkness and light, and discover what it means to be human.

Why similar: Atmospheric 27%, Dark 16%, Emotional 15.6%, Adventure 15.3%, Female Protagonist 13.2%

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: Walking Simulator 25.2%, Story Rich 12.3%, Atmospheric 11.3%, Mystery 10.5%, Great Soundtrack 9.3%

It's Clara's last day on the island where she grew up. She needs to complete preparations, visit her favorite places, and say her goodbyes before leaving on a journey she may not return from.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 42.7%, Great Soundtrack 13.7%, Atmospheric 12.2%, Female Protagonist 10.3%, First-Person 10%

The Haunting of Joni Evers is a dark supernatural mystery about a broken family from small-town Oklahoma. Haunted by a specter that's hunted her family for generations, Joni must uncover the mysteries of the Cunningham House, dig through lost memories, and face the past to break the curse.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 22.4%, Story Rich 14.8%, Mystery 11.7%, Atmospheric 9.4%, Female Protagonist 8.5%

A third‑person psychological horror game where you explore both the real world and the spirit realm. As a medium drawn to a deserted resort, you’ll uncover dark secrets, confront echoes of trauma, and face the consequences of seeing more than one truth.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 16.1%, Story Rich 15.9%, Female Protagonist 13.3%, Atmospheric 11.7%, Great Soundtrack 11.1%

The Old City: Leviathan is an experiment in first person exploration that focuses entirely on story. All that exists is you and the world. Set in a decaying city from a civilization long past, The Old City: Leviathan puts the player in the shoes of a sewer dwelling isolationist.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 40.8%, Atmospheric 14.1%, Story Rich 12%, Exploration 10%, First-Person 8.2%

A first-person psychological horror with a strong emphasis on atmosphere and storytelling. Explore an ever-shifting Victorian mansion as a painter seeking to complete his masterpiece, even at the cost of his own sanity.

Why similar: Horror 22.8%, Walking Simulator 22.7%, Story Rich 9.4%, Atmospheric 9.2%, Psychological Horror 9.2%

A quiet game of life and loss. One by one, everyone left the village for the city. Everyone, except Talma. Approaching her final years, she maintains a simple way of life tending to her homestead, surviving, subsisting, whilst increasingly disturbing letters arrive from her family in the city.

Why similar: Story Rich 22.9%, Atmospheric 16.3%, Female Protagonist 13.3%, Great Soundtrack 11.6%, Adventure 10.2%

Röki is a stunning adventure set in the snowcapped wilderness. As Tove, you must explore an uncharted world of hidden legends and forgotten monsters. Solve puzzles, collect curiosities, and uncover a tale of tragic loss, as you chart your path to redemption.

Why similar: Story Rich 29.4%, Atmospheric 17.8%, Female Protagonist 16%, Emotional 8.6%, Adventure 6.4%

Stories Untold is a compilation tape of four experimental adventures, including a remaster of the original hit episode “The House Abandon”.

Why similar: Atmospheric 23%, Story Rich 19.7%, Psychological Horror 15.1%, Great Soundtrack 10.7%, Horror 8.9%

A gothic suspense tale set in a cursed mansion. "The House in Fata Morgana" is a full-length visual novel spanning nearly a millennium that deals in tragedy, human nature, and insanity.

Why similar: Story Rich 20.2%, Great Soundtrack 16.5%, Mystery 14.7%, Atmospheric 10.7%, Female Protagonist 8.1%

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 24%, Walking Simulator 23.1%, Exploration 21.7%, Female Protagonist 9.3%, Adventure 8.8%

Home is Where One Starts... is a short, first-person exploration game in the same vein as Dear Esther or Gone Home. It’s a story about childhood, hope, and the miracle of memory. You play as a little girl from a broken home somewhere in the American South.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 34.6%, Atmospheric 9.6%, First-Person 9.2%, Story Rich 9%, Female Protagonist 8.9%

An exploration game about emotional ties that transcend even death. Riley is faced with a headstrong ghost, urging her on an adventure across atmospheric shores, uncovering the island's tragic secret. Choices in dialogue shape the bond between the two, ultimately deciding Riley's fate.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 24.5%, Story Rich 16.6%, Great Soundtrack 11%, Atmospheric 11%, Mystery 10.2%

A beautiful, 3rd-person exploration game centered around two parallel stories: a fox trying to find her missing family, and a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska. Uncover artifacts from the son's life as he becomes intertwined in the fox’s journey towards The First Tree.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 31.8%, Atmospheric 15.6%, Story Rich 15.1%, Great Soundtrack 12.1%, Exploration 8.6%

Take on the role of Six, a lone child lost in a massive metal vessel known as the Maw, surrounded by dangerous, distorted versions of adults. You’ll need to do your best to escape in one piece or your fate will be worse than you ever dared dream.

Why similar: Atmospheric 20.6%, Story Rich 18.5%, Great Soundtrack 13.6%, Horror 9.1%, Dark 8.8%

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: Story Rich 17.9%, Adventure 15.3%, Atmospheric 11.4%, Walking Simulator 10.2%, Indie 9.5%

What if you lost all your memories? An emotional family drama seen through the eyes of a woman with Alzheimer's disease. As Annie’s life slowly unravels, uncover memories of her deceased brother as her past bleeds into the present.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 24.3%, Story Rich 20.2%, Mystery 11.9%, Female Protagonist 9.6%, First-Person 9.4%

Blackwood Crossing is a story-driven first-person adventure game. An intriguing and emotive tale exploring the fragile relationship between orphaned siblings, Scarlett and Finn. When their paths cross with a mysterious figure, an ordinary train ride evolves into a magical story of life, love and loss.

Why similar: Story Rich 38.2%, Adventure 26.2%, Female Protagonist 21.6%, Indie 14.1%

Northern Canada, 1970. A strange blizzard ravages Atamipek Lake. Step into the shoes of a detective to explore the eerie village, investigate surreal events, and battle the elements to survive. Kona is a chilly interactive tale you won't soon forget.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 24.7%, Story Rich 16.2%, Atmospheric 13.1%, First-Person 10.7%, Great Soundtrack 9.4%

Guide two brothers on an epic fairy tale journey from visionary Swedish film director, Josef Fares and top-tier developer Starbreeze Studios. Control both brothers at once as you experience co-op play in single player mode, like never before.

Why similar: Story Rich 30.1%, Atmospheric 21.8%, Great Soundtrack 11.7%, Adventure 10.3%, Emotional 7.8%

The Fidelio Incident is a single-player, first-person thriller set off the coast of Iceland. Inspired by Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. After a violent plane crash, Stanley must search a desolate frozen island in search of his wife Leonore while covering up any traces of their bloody Irish past.

Why similar: Walking Simulator 40.9%, Great Soundtrack 14.6%, Story Rich 11.9%, Mystery 9%, First-Person 6.6%

If Found... is a game about going home, coming out and erasing everything.

Why similar: Story Rich 23.1%, Great Soundtrack 19.7%, Female Protagonist 13.8%, Atmospheric 11.5%, Visual Novel 8.6%

Florence Yeoh feels a little... stuck. Her life is an endless routine of work, sleep, and spending too much time on social media. Then one day, she meets a cello player named Krish who changes everything about how she sees the world and herself.

Why similar: Story Rich 43.1%, Female Protagonist 21.5%, Adventure 10.9%, Visual Novel 8.4%, Indie 8.1%

Venture out into the dark woods where strange creatures roam, on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. Solve and decipher cryptic puzzles, listen for clues, and learn about mysterious folklore creatures in the built-in encyclopedia as you seek to foresee your future.

Why similar: Story Rich 25.9%, Atmospheric 17.4%, Mystery 15.3%, Dark 9.8%, Psychological Horror 9.3%