Different things get different people ticking. Whether it’s money, love, or relaxation, you’ll find just about everything is at least one person’s reason to live. However, you only get to think about these finer details if you are alive.
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I love survival games because they tap into a primal place. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re surviving the end of the world or are just stuck in an isolated part of it while life goes on as normal. When you don’t know whether you’ll have a heartbeat come the next morning, every little action could be decisive.
However, nothing ruins a good survival experience like obnoxious handholding. If the game will always point you towards what to do, where to go, and what to find to stay alive, it’s a different experience entirely.
If you want a survival experience where your life and inevitable death are fully down to your skills and choices, here is a selection of survival games with no handholding.
8
Rust
Griefer’s Paradise
Very few games see such a dramatic increase in relevance so many years after their release. Rust’s release in late 2013 was not a flop by any means, but that 60 thousand player peak in year one is nothing compared to the 260,000 scored over a decade later.
As a survival MMO, the core gameplay element of Rust is the base, which you painstakingly build with the full knowledge that someone else is going to raid it while you’re offline. That brings about a lot of anger, revenge, and griefing, which in my experience has made the Escape From Tarkov community look like a Buddhist monastery in comparison.
If you accept that defeat is a matter of when and not if, Rust is one of the most intense survival games out there purely because of the adrenaline and tension. Every encounter is deadly, every person is bound to kill you on sight, and that’s what makes it fun. On top of that, when you get tired of being toxic, there’s always PvE servers so you can mind your own business.
7
7 Days To Die
The Most Alpha of 1.0s
After a whole decade in early access, 7 Days to Die finally came out in 2024 to cement its spot as one of the most fun survival experiences on the market. Parts of the game still feel decidedly alpha, but it’s a brilliant play nonetheless.
It’s hard to not default to the generic “DayZ with Minecraft building” description because of how apt it is. I feel the game is a lot closer to the former than the latter, but the block builder influence is felt throughout.
7 Days to Die is extremely open-ended in its gameplay, and leaves the ‘how to survive’ part entirely up to you. Hunting works. Diving into zombie-infested military bunkers also works. It’s your call.
What holds the game back next to some other entries here is the story (or lack thereof), and the clunky combat mechanics. If you can look past that though, it’s a survival challenge that requires brains to work out.
6
Atomfall
Mystery, Tea, And Quarantine
Life in the rural edge of northern England can feel pretty confusing even without a nuclear disaster, but the denizens of Atomfall don’t have such luxury. While the base gameplay mechanics, themes, and even name may lead you to think this is just a transatlantic Fallout copy, Atomfall goes for a fully immersive experience.
Of all games on this list, Atomfall is easily the one that’s the most aggressive on having no handholding. You come to in a bunker shared with a half-dead bloke in a hazmat suit who tells you to find the Interchange to unlock the truth. What, were you expecting some more help? Sorry mate, best I can do is occasional cryptic phone calls past that point.
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Atomfall gives you no map markers, no companions, and no actual orders to follow when playing the game. You can take your time to learn everything about the disaster and the area, or you can sprint your way to the endgame if you know exactly where to look.
The fact that there’s no real order or quest requirements to complete the game means no playthroughs are the same, and helps you get into the shoes of an amnesiac thrusted into this mess.
5
Project Zomboid
Long Live Permadeath
“Hey, have you tried this game? It’s like The Sims, but in a zombie apocalypse, super cool.” It’s a weird pitch, but also super accurate. Project Zomboid earns its spot on this list because it is a beautifully complex life simulator which just so happens to take place during a horrifying zombie apocalypse.
Project Zomboid works with permadeath mechanics. While the game has a rudimentary tutorial to get you acquainted with the controls, you do all your other learning the painful way.
I’ll readily admit to having tried to shoot my way out of my first encounter with a zombie horde. Totally fine if you’re playing Days Gone, but in Project Zomboid, it just meant I ran out of space, ammunition, and options before they ran out of zombies.
However, it’s the pain of being sent back to square one that makes it such an impactful game. While most other titles encourage you to try again, Project Zomboid injects enough trauma into you that you’ll think twice every time a situation vaguely reminds you of your last death. Peak survival instinct, in a neat, isometric package.
4
DayZ
For Long Walks On The Beach
Call me predictable all you want, but DayZ gets a high spot on this list because no game has come anywhere close to it in delivering a brutal zombie survival shooter. The beauty of this mod-turned-hit is that it uses the realistic systems that made ARMA 2 so obtuse to build an aggressively lifelike simulation of survival during a zombie apocalypse.
You wash up on a beach with nothing to your name, and the game is not particularly bothered about teaching you anything. Unlike other games, including some on this list, the crafting system in DayZ is grounded, so you cannot build a rifle out of three pieces of scrap metal and a hammer.
Those first few hours trying to put together backpacks out of ropes and cloth or fashioning fishing rods out of sticks are some of my favorite gaming experiences, because they make you feel aggressively vulnerable.
That feeling subsides over time, but it never quite dies off. Even if you are armed to the teeth and have plenty of supplies, there’s always that lingering tension, because every step could truly be your last. And if you do die, you’re back to that beach with nothing on you.
3
Green Hell
Tropical Marital Counseling
Don’t you hate it when your anthropologist wife goes missing deep in the Amazon, and you’re the only one who can save her? Green Hell takes this simple predicament and turns it into one of the most impactful and occasionally horrifying survival games ever made.
You are on your own after waking up in the middle of the jungle, and while you’re busy trying to find out what happened to your wife, the game is hellbent on killing you, so you have to tend to that as well.
Hunger, thirst, infections, poisoning, or even a good old-fashioned mauling—Green Hell holds the distinction for the most ways I’ve died in a video game. Truth be told, in some of those deaths I don’t even know what got me, but that’s the charm of it. You’re in an inhospitable environment, and the game drives that home in every chance that it gets.
Green Hell does survival so well that it eclipses its story, and that’s a shame, because beneath all the horrible ways the jungle can (and will) claim your body, the game tells a very compelling tale that never falls wayside. It will hit you like a bag of bricks, but you’ll be thankful afterwards.
2
Far Cry Primal
Back In My Day
It’s not often that a game throws you deep into pre-historic times, and few of them are as brutal as Far Cry Primal. Ubisoft didn’t stray too far from the usual Far Cry formula here, where you’ll have dumb fun capturing outposts and trying not to die in dumb ways.
However, while Far Cry 6 stands as a reminder of how formulaic it has become, 2016’s Far Cry Primal remains one of the best entries in the series despite its issues.
The game really comes into its own when played on Survivor Mode, where suddenly food and sleep matter, and predators are a lot more common (which makes prey less abundant). True to Far Cry’s heritage, fire plays a big role here, although the physics are not as impressive as in Far Cry 2.
Far Cry Primal’s sound design is a real treat, because after a couple of hours I started wondering if I was going crazy. Every little noise felt like impending doom, and a lot of the time, it was.
1
Valheim
Viking Homesteading Simulator
Regardless of how experienced you are with viking or survival shenanigans, nothing quite prepares you for the brutality of Valheim, especially in the highest difficulty settings.
Hardcore in particular makes this a survival experience that is best experienced at least once. The most aggressive changes here are that dying means losing everything, and you don’t have a map to guide you. Since everything is procedurally generated, good luck memorizing that.
At the same time, Valheim stands out for being very modular, so you can fine-tune it to make it playable if full hardcore is too much. The lack of handholding is compensated by having an extremely intuitive interface, so the challenges you face are there by design, and not because the game is poorly made.
However you decide to proceed, Valheim is special because it makes you appreciate every little victory that goes your way. Even if you are not a bona fide survival gamer, the base-building and overall atmosphere make this game worth a shot.
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