The epitome of what I’m trying to refer to is the Playdead games (Limbo and Inside). Dark Souls and BioShock both hit on this idea but not quite so directly. The game BADLAND is also a great example of this, too. The mobile game The Silent Age also did this exceptionally well. Never quite knowing what’s going on, and maybe some tension without release, but again not straight up horror. A feeling of uneasiness is what I’m looking for.
When playing through Inside, there’s never any moments where you’re scared, but you’re never sure what’s going on and there’s always a level of unease. What are all the mindless zombie-like people? Why is everyone hunting the player? What happened to this city? What’s the goal of the character the player controls? What exactly is going on here? That’s what I’m looking for. If you know of any other games which do this, I’d greatly appreciate hearing about them. It’s a very specific niche so I’m not sure how many games do this, but the games that I’ve seen do this tend to be some form of post-disaster or dystopia. I’ve seen some great artwork do this too. Zdzisław Beksiński had done some stuff like this. Some great dystopian novels also do this quite well.
I never did finish it, but The Solus Project is, I’m pretty sure, exactly what you’re asking for. 2017 first person exploration game, very environmental, set on a subtly creepy and somewhat confusing alien world. I got a copy in my Steam library…somehow that was cheap enough I don’t remember and played a big chunk of it a couple years ago.
Less action than the Half Life/Unreal/Marathon alien horror FPS lineage, but similar feel.
I second this. I bought this game around 2016 and have also never finished. I absolutely love the concept, but it just feels so eerie that it makes me too anxious to finish.
One thing to add to the previous comment is that this game has a survival element to it. You can adjust how tough you want it to be though. So you have to monitor things like hydration, hunger, warmth, sleep, and saturation. It’s not super complex or anything, I just feel it’s worth mentioning that it exists in the game since some people don’t like survival games.
Very interesting game, a lot of secrets and things to explore. I CONSTANTLY want to go back and give it another shot thinking “this is the time I’ll stop being so creeped out by this game” maybe I’ll just have to get some Xanax and try again. I think I made it halfway through one time…
I actually stopped because I realized I’d missed some important early-game stuff that was making it frustrating to continue. Not a softlock, just a pain in the ass and/or long trek back.
The environment and exploration are amazing and the uh… things left behind by the alien children… are supremely unsettling.
This thread convinced me. I’ve never really played many survival games so this’ll be interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, it seems perfect