Best Games like Subnautica in 2023

Open world games are popular in the gaming industry, but games that offer a free world environment and survival mechanics have hype on another level. Subnautica is one of those games where you are playing the role of an astronaut whose spacecraft crashed on an unknown planet known as 4546B, and the player has to explore the oceans on that planet. The gameplay and mechanics are exciting, but unfortunately, not many users know about this fantastic masterpiece. This game was released for the Windows platform back in 2014, and after two years its developers ported it on Xbox One.

Subnautica managed to get a rating of 10/10 from approx. 120000 users on Steam and no doubt it’s one of the best survival games in the market. But as we know, playing something for hundreds of hours can make you tired, and your interest will gradually decrease. Taking care of this, we have made a list of some best games like Subnautica to play in 2021. Of course, the mechanics and gameplay are not exact as the Subnautica, but it’s very identical to it. So, without doing further ado, let’s start with the first game.

Subnautica Similar Games

Before starting the list, I would like to say that some of these games have very similar mechanics and gameplay as the Subnautica, but some don’t have. It doesn’t mean that these games are different, but I’m talking about the story, events, missions, and the environment. But I’m sure if you like to play Subnautica, you will become a fan of all these games mentioned below. We have picked them according to the rating given by users on Steam and some other platforms.

ABZU (2016)

The artwork director and the music composer behind Journey released a small game, namely ABZU, a bit hard to pronounce for me. This game is not for every gamer as most of them don’t even like to play such kinds of games, but there is a massive fanbase of these games. For a couple of years, open-world survival games have been getting popular, and several indie developers and small companies are releasing them.

The digital copy of this game was initially released back in 2016 while the manufacturers also released a retailer version of it in 2017 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This game has much to discover as there is a massive open-world environment under the water, ancient ruins, and some monstrous sea creatures. The gameplay of this open-world title is more than diving under the water, and it’s something like a journey. I don’t know if you like to call it a gameplay journey or not, but some people want to play while some don’t.

The development of this game has lasted for three years continuously, and a team of thirteen worked on this game. Like the previous game Journey, this one also gives a quiet, relaxed environment under the sea. The playable character who might be a female can dive anywhere into the water but doesn’t come over the air.

The overall controls of this game are not much complicated because there are a few buttons to use like a ‘Dive’ button, movement, and some interaction buttons to interact with objects in the game. There is a progression system in this game too, and you can complete missions to unlock further while on the other hand you can dive deeper and deeper into the ocean and can achieve points and stars and can ride on some fishes. It’s one of the recommended games like Subnautica because both of them offer an underwater environment.

SPACE ENGINEERS (2019)

We all know when it comes to space games, there are two categories. The first one is you play the role of living on earth and explores some other plants while the other one is you play the role of an alien and discovers our planet. The game we have next on our list is Space Engineers which gives us an option to play from both of these mechanics. Yea I know it sounds appealing for space lovers so let’s deeply check out what else this game is offering.

Keen Software House developed Space Engineer, and it was initially released for PC back in 2013, last year the developers ported it for Xbox One on which you can enjoy the single and multiplayer mode of it. There are several modes of this game from where you first start the game, which is known as the ‘first jump’ in which you learn the basic mechanics and movement of the game. This pre-session also includes basic crafting tutorials and vehicle combat which is very common in survival games. You can conclude the main story of this game as an engineer who was fighting against an evil corporation.

This game has everything, including action-adventure mechanics, learning to survive in different environments, and I hooked up with its gameplay. There are several things to do in this game on your own like mining some resources, repairing crashed or bad machinery, but still at some points there are limits for you.

There are three types of significant structures available in this game, and they are stations, small aircraft, and large aircraft. Then it is up to the player that is your place short variant of block it will become a small ship while if you place large that ship will become a large one. If the blocks are placed in such a way that it interacts with voxels of the land, it will become a station.

MINECRAFT (2009)

We did much research in space and explored some planets, so let’s come back to the earth and start discovering something there. The third game on our list is Minecraft which is an open-world game, and it’s better to say that a game with a never-ending environment. A few years back this game was released as indie, but later on, Microsoft bought the ownership of this game.

This game was initially released ten years ago, but I played it for the first time in 2019, and I was confused that it’s worth playing a game after a decade? I got my answer when I first played this game on my PC, and I was addicted to it. I would say this game is made for people of almost all ages and you will enjoy its mechanics and gameplay because of its never-ending world. A few years ago, this game was very trending in the gaming industry and not only on YouTube, but some companies are using it for merchandise too.

As I mentioned earlier back in 2009, when this game was released, there were some features and modes that are not available. At that time, there were no special missions or goals to do in it; instead, the game allows you to do whatever you want in it. Back in that time, there was no Wiki or tutorial of this game, and it’s a bit hard to know what to do in this game, but still, this game got popular.

Later on, people used to know that this game has a mining and crafting system with which you can make different things and use them in your gameplay and that’s the thing behind its success. The game features three different modes, namely Creative Mode, Hardcore, and Survival mode. Starting from the creative style, the users have access to all of the items and can make buildings and other structures. The survival mode includes the player alone in an open world and has to mine resources to craft different things while it has some in-game enemies too.

The last mode remaining is the hardcore mode which is the same as the survival mode but a bit difficult to play and doesn’t have any respawn feature. Of course, like Subnautica this game doesn’t have underwater gameplay, but its open world and survival mode is much similar and make it a great alternative over it.

THE FOREST (2018)

It’s time to get out of Sci-fi games and let’s move toward a real-world forest survival game where you have to get out from an island. Endnight Games released the Forest for Microsoft Windows and Sony PlayStation 4. Before this, the game was in the beta stage for four years where you can pay the developer to enjoy the access.

The main playable character of this game is Eric LeBlanc who survived a plane crash, and he has to look for his son who was missing. The player needs to survive in the heavily forested environment and to create shelter, weapons, and other items to live. This game has a pervasive and competitive crafting system that might not be available in other survival titles. At the start, you will learn some basic movements and mechanics of this game while playing this game for the first time you have to find some materials in the Forest and have to craft some stuff for a living.

While there are some villages in this game where you will find some big monsters, which will make your gameplay easy, you get resources, and you can easily escape from them. You have to chop down trees in the game to make several items that can be used later for different things.

This game also features a day and night system, and you have to set traps for different animals to get their skin and meat for the player. There is a survival guide book in this game with which you can get ideas about how to play this game as seen in its trailer. The inventory system of this game can be accessed any time there, and all of the items you craft within the game will be available there.

The graphics of this game are awe-inspiring, and you might need some high-end hardware for it. If you are looking for Subnautica similar games, I would suggest you give it a look.

THE LONG DARK (2014)

The story of this game is much similar to “The Forest”, but the environment is placed in an open-world cold area somewhere located in Canada. The game was initially announced in late 2013, but it was released after a long development of 4 years. But there was an alpha version that was released in 2014 and users can access it from Steam Game Library.

When you first play this game, you will find yourself alone in an open world environment with a crashed plane. The story of this crashing plane will be available in the story mode of this game while there are five chapters announced for The Long Dark. That’s the thing that makes it different from all other open-world games as most of the others don’t have a story mode and start with a player directly. Back in 2017, the game was released with its two chapters of the story modes and its fans have an eye on its release to check out the story of this fantastic game.

The story mode available with this game is known as Wintermute, and the story mode comes with a reason, i.e. ‘for the crash for the plane’. You might notice that it’s a bit hard to make a story for open-world sandbox games because it’s a time taking process, but the company has figured it out as they have released the two chapters at the start.

The start of this game takes you through a tutorial that is placed in a safe zone where you can learn how to play it, but still, it’s challenging as most of the players even die in it. As the game is set in the cold, you have to find some woods to start the fire and to cook something on it, and you also have to purify the water to make it drinkable.

The overall mechanics of this game are interesting, but it’s not the same as of Subnautica, but still, their mechanics are identical, and you will love this game if you have played such games before.

SATISFACTORY (2019)

We have reviewed many open-world survival games, and it was getting boring? Isn’t it? We if yes then we have something different for you. This game has an open-world environment, but instead of crashing planes and surviving mechanics, this one got a factory-making simulation. You are dropped onto a planet where you are playing as an engineer who has some set of tools and harvests the natural resources and uses them for making factories.

The idea behind this game Satisfactory was amazing and unique as there are only a few games available with these mechanics and it’s one of them. The release date of this game is 19 March 2019, and it was early access while as of now it is available for Windows Platform only. The engine used for this game is Unreal Engine 4, which is popular because of its amazing graphics and visuals. Almost everything in this game is presented as a gated unlock system, and you can make more and more complex constructions. The overall mechanics of this game are not that difficult, and once you start playing it, you will love it.

The players in this game have some options to select before playing it which are Rocky Desert, Grasslands, Northern Forest, and Dune Desert. These four levels also change the overall environment of the game, including the resources and other things. When the player first lands there, it will create a hub or pod from the broken parts of the spaceship, and then the gameplay begins.

Because of its different gameplay mechanics, this game got a fantastic hype among the players, within the three months of its release the game managed to hold more than 500,000 copies which is quite surprising for such types of games. The mechanics of this game are much similar to the other open-world games, and it’s the best fit for games like Subnautica list.

ASTRONEER (2019)

SpaceX is planning to colonize Mars, but we don’t know if it is possible and we will be there at that time. All those who are interested in colonizing Mars before 2024 can try Astroneer, which is somehow related to this scenario. Of course, we are not going to colonize Mars in this game, but there are some unknown planets on which you have to live and colonize them.

System Era Softworks announced this game back in 2016, four years before the release of this masterpiece. This game has no specific missions and goals to complete, but there are planets on which you have to complete some particular challenges. The game was released for three different platforms including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The engine used for the development of this game was Unreal Engine 4 which gives best-in-class graphics. Most of the games available allow players to switch between the First-Person Perspective and the Third Person Perspective, but this one doesn’t have that thing, and you can only use TPP.

The navigation of the player in this game is possible on foot, and you can also use the rover or the aircraft. The crafting system of this game is impressive and massive as you can craft hundreds of different items including airships, rovers, space stations, generators, and solar panels, etc. To craft items within the game, you need to harvest some resources like aluminum and other metals.

As an Astroneer you need some things to edit the terrain which is known as Terrain Tool and a backpack that has a 3D printer to print different things. In simple terms, there is everything to create different structures in the game, and that’s the thing that attracts players toward it.

This game is useful if you have previously finished the Subnautica and you can play it as an alternative over the competition. There are a few games like Subnautica because these survival games are not very popular with players, but for a couple of years, their industry is massively growing.

NO MAN’S SKY (2016)

Exploration of this universe has always been a will for humans, because of the secrets revealed in it, but it’s not possible due to its massive world scale. I was fond of those games in which I can pick up a spacecraft and freely roam to the different planets. Although a few years back, there are not many games available that offer these kinds of mechanics and gameplay.

There we have No Man’s Sky, which is developed by Hello Games and offers a never-ending universe with automatically generated planets where you can explore different things. This game was released for PlayStation 4 and PC in 2016, and Xbox One in 2018. The four basic principles of this game are exploration, survival, crafting, and trading. The developers of this game made some promises, but they didn’t keep them; however, since the release of this game, there are many updates released.

At initial the game doesn’t include multiplayer, but after some time developers added this feature and there are several modes that allow up to 16 players to play together. The updates contain some new features like base buildings, surface vehicles, space fleet management, and later on, they have also included VR support.

No Man’s Sky offers three different features which are the default mode, survival mode, and creative mode. Each mode contains its mechanics and gameplay becomes changed so you can select them according to your preference.

When you first start the game, you will find yourself alone on a random planet with a crashed spacecraft. You have to fix that to explore some other worlds, and your first hour will be like how to find resources in-game, craft other items with them, and such types of things. In the end, if you say it will always be standing first in the list of games like Subnautica because of similar mechanics and gameplay.

In the initial stages, this game almost flopped but with some improvements and significant updates. The mechanics became much more impressive, and people used to play this. No Man’s Sky has a very positive rating on Steam by more than 100,000 users after the significant updates released last year. 

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Conclusion

Subnautica is one of the best games to enjoy the underwater world, and it’s lovely because of its gameplay and environment. As of now, there are a few games available that offer this kind of gameplay, and taking care of this we have made a list of games like Subnautica which you can enjoy. The best-recommended game to try is ABZU which offers almost the same gameplay mechanics. Apart from this, there are some other options too which you can try.

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Zakriya Aamir