Red from Transistor sitting on a motorcycle.
Science Fiction games are ubiquitous. Watch any major gaming presentation, and you'll see plenty of trailers and gameplay videos for the next space-faring or post-apocalyptic title. The big names are perennially popular for a reason.
Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077, Dead Space, Portal 2, and the like are essential, but that's not what we're talking about here. Below are 10 sci-fi games you've probably heard of , but don't get the regular attention their quality demands. They run the gamut from survival crafting to simulation, but they've all got a couple of things in common: great science fiction world-building and worthwhile gameplay. Abiotic Factor Deep Field Games, 2025 Abiotic Factor is a recent release, having exited early access with its 1.0 version on July 22, 2025, but it feels like it never really got its time in the sun. The elevator pitch is that Abiotic Factor is Half-Life meets the co-op survival crafting genre – low polygon count and all. It's possible to play alone, but it's one of those games that really benefits from having a few buddies running around. When you begin Abiotic Factor, it's your first day on the job at a Garrick Advanced Technology Enterprises facility located at an undisclosed location in the Australian Outback. Things quickly go awry as creatures from other dimensions begin invading the facility. You scavenge for supplies to build a base, weapons, armor, and more while trying to escape GATE. You delve deeper into the facility, running into all sorts of characters, factions, and alternate dimensions. It's got a great, off-beat sense of humor, and it's perhaps the only game I've ever played where I got excited about reading new emails. Hardspace: Shipbreaker Blackbird Interactive, 2022 Speaking of working for disastrous corporations, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a spaceship salvaging simulator where you work for the Lynx Corporation. By simply taking on the job, you've accrued over a billion dollars in debt, and you have to disassemble spaceships, sort the pieces, and save valuable components to get out of the red. You float around in zero-G, armed with your trusty laser cutter to pull the ships apart, but watch out: electrical fires and explosive decompression are just two of the many hazards you need to avoid. There are various difficulties you can play Hardspace: Shipbreaker on, which changes time limits and the number of lives you have , but I prefer to play on the easiest, which eliminates the time restraints. The only"timer" you then have to worry about is your oxygen, which can be refilled by moving to a specific location. Without any time or life limits, it's quite a relaxing puzzle game where you figure out the best way to pull apart a ship and sling its pieces into giant, orbital incinerators. Transistor Supergiant Games, 2014 Six years before Supergiant Games rocketed to stardom with Hades, the independent development studio published Transistor, an isometric action RPG that never got its due. Supergiant broke onto the scene three years earlier with the beloved Bastion, and it always felt like Transistor never really stepped out of Bastion's shadow. Like Bastion before it and the Hades series well after, Transistor is gorgeous with some fascinating gameplay mechanics. You play as Red, a singer whose voice has been sealed inside a cyberpunk greatsword called the Transistor. The game uses real-time combat, but allows you to pause the action to plan your next move and queue your abilities, called Functions. Functions work both as independent attacks and as synergies to alter other Functions, and half the fun is experimenting with all the combinations as you attempt to escape the robots pursuing Red. Returnal Housemarque, 2021 Returnal was the PlayStation 5's first masterpiece, and, for my money, is still one of the console's best games . Developer Housemarque had been on a roll with 2D bullet hell titles before dazzling with Returnal's third-person shooter mechanics. The roguelike sees protagonist Selene crash-landing on the planet Atropos and subsequently becoming entangled in a time loop. You set out from the crash site after each death, but the planet's six biomes have rearranged themselves. You pick up new weapons, upgrades, and parasites that provide buffs and debuffs simultaneously, all while battling enemies in each room who shoot various patterns of projectiles at you. The central mystery is fascinating, but it's tightly designed gameplay really shines. Plus, it still has some of the best DualSense integration of any PS5 game. Rollerdrome Roll7, 2022 After gaining some fame with the OlliOlli series, Roll7 – which was sadly closed down in 2024 – asked a simple question: what if Tony Hawk's Pro Skater had guns? And that's exactly what Rollerdrome is, where you play as Kara Hassan, participant in a blood sport where you skate around the arena, dodging incoming fire, gunning down enemies, and performing sick tricks to reload. Rollerdrome is a bit light on story, but there's some interesting sci-fi there for those who look. Civilization is largely deteriorating in Rollerdrome's setting, and people are encouraged to participate in the sport because it offers a significant payout when jobs are at a premium. Between levels, you have the opportunity to piece together a story about a tyrannical government distracting the citizenry from its crimes by orchestrating this gladiatorial deathmatch on wheels. Mad Max Avalanche Studios, 2015 Right on the deteriorating-society cue, we have Mad Max, a licensed game that deserved so much more, including a sequel. Released in 2015, a few months after Mad Max: Fury Road redefined action films in theaters, Mad Max is about as good of a video game adaptation of the series as you could hope for, a few valid criticisms aside. It's exactly what you would expect: vehicular combat in an open-world desert. It's one of the many games that hopped on the free-flow combat hype train begun by the Batman: Arkham games, but only has a passable rendition of the system. The melee combat is perhaps its low point, but the vehicle combat, exploration, and scavenging are all very satisfying. Enigmatic leading man Max Rockatansky spends the whole game souping up Magnum Opus to take down Immortan Joe's son, Scabrous Scrotus, who later appeared in Furiosa. Sadly, Mad Max creator George Miller hates the game, but wants Hideo Kojima to take a crack at an adaptation – which I can definitely get on board with. Prey Arkane Studios, 2017 Not to be confused with the 2006 game Prey, nor Prey, the 2022 film in the Predator franchise, Arkane Studios' Prey is a sci-fi survival horror game – or, more precisely, an immersive sim. You're stranded on a space station where an alien life form, known as the Typhon, was being researched before it escaped containment. Navigating the space station and attempting to find a means of escape, you come into possession of psychic abilities derived from the Typhon, such as being able to morph into inanimate objects or turn corpses into ghosts that fight for you. Prey's sales weren't exceptional, and a sequel was sadly never produced. It has never enjoyed the wider popularity of Arkane's Dishonored or even Deathloop. Immersive sims tend to be niche, but Prey is some truly exceptional sci-fi that tragically didn't pick up as much steam as it deserved. Metro Exodus 4A Games, 2019 Prior to Metro Exodus, the series was known for being confined to the post-nuclear-apocalypse Moscow metro tunnels, and while I highly recommend playing 2033 and Last Light as well, Exodus is truly special. Rather than fully embracing an open world, Metro Exodus is split into a handful of openly explorable zones. Protagonist Artyom and his companions have left the metro tunnels and live on a train they take across Russia and Kazakhstan, hoping to rediscover human civilization that has sprung up in the wasteland. Metro Exodus excels in its survival horror gameplay and wonderful sense of exploration. It's one of those games that wants you to take your time wandering the wasteland, seeing where the interesting landmarks on the horizon take you. More often than not, they'll bring you to some violent, isolationist survivors or unspeakable mutant horrors, but it wouldn't be much of a survival game if that wasn't the case. Extensive weapon customization is a huge highlight in Exodus, letting you tailor your loadout to your playstyle. Meet Your Maker Behaviour Interactive, 2023 Meet Your Maker never accrued the audience it deserved, and sadly will not receive any more content updates. It's still playable, though, and I suggest giving it a shot just to experience the bizarre sci-fi and novel gameplay mechanics. Meet Your Maker is split into two gameplay avenues: building your own bases and raiding those created by other players. The goals are essentially opposite one another. You build a base so that players have a hard time traversing it, while on the raiding side you're attempting to maneuver through all the traps and enemies to secure certain materials and make your way back out alive. I've never played anything else quite like it, and it's a shame it never took off more than it did – it has a lot of potential, in my opinion. As a bonus, you can raid in co-op, which makes it almost slapstick hilarious as you and a friend take turns getting hurled into the meat grinder. STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl GSC Game World, 2024 STALKER 2 feels almost too big to claim no one is talking about it, but I would argue it's not currently getting enough attention. It caught a lot of flak at release for bugs and the scaled-back state of its A-Life 2.0 NPC simulation system , but I adored my time with STALKER 2, and it boasts some truly excellent science fiction and survival horror gameplay. If you want a game that's bafflingly weird, look no further. The game takes place in the Zone, an area that's become almost incomprehensible to the human mind after a fictional second disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Various factions vie for control of the Zone, but all of them have to manage the mutants and anomalies it contains. The Zone is often characterized as having an allure akin to a siren's song, and its beautiful in-game vistas help sell the illusion of why so many willingly make a new life in the unknowable hellhole. It's a deeply philosophical game, and should be at the top of the list for anyone looking for compelling sci-fi. 9.7/10 9/10 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed First-Person Shooter Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 74/100 Critics Rec: 62% Released November 20, 2024 ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Intense Violence, Blood, Use Of Drugs And Alcohol, Language, Crude Humor Developer GSC Game World Publisher GSC Game World Engine Unreal Engine 5 7 Images Close S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a survival horror FPS game that picks up in the world where the first game's expansion, Call of Pripyat, left off. Players will head deep into the heart of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone as they meet new allies, foes, and terrifying mutated creatures carving out their tale in a world ravaged by nuclear disaster years prior.
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