Eight PC horror games that channel Stephen King's small-town dread, unreliable narrators, and slow-burn tension. From Alan Wake to Silent Hill 2, ranked by how King the story feels.
Zeverland is still in playtest on Steam. Seven Rust and Minecraft-style zombie survival games you can play on Windows, macOS, and Linux while you wait for its release.
Fallout 5 is years away and the Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters are still rumors. Seven Fallout alternatives for Windows, macOS, and Linux to fill the wait.
After Ascend to Zero landed on Game Pass, we compared the seven best Vampire Survivors alternatives on desktop, from Brotato to Halls of Torment.
Alan Wake 2 is free-adjacent on Epic this week and the Stranger Things itch is back. Eight PC games that scratch it: 80s dread, small towns, and Upside-Down energy.
Repetitive mini-games and heavy ads drive 456 Cat Survival Master 3D players elsewhere. Seven Squid Game and party-mini-game alternatives worth installing in 2026.
Dying Light: The Beast skipped PS4 and Xbox One entirely. Seven zombie survival alternatives on Windows for players stuck on older hardware.
Best stranded astronaut survival games for PC in 2026: Outer Wilds, Subnautica, No Man's Sky, Prey, Alien Isolation, Dead Space and Stranded Alien Dawn compared.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is not on Android. Eight wild west games for Android we tested in 2026, from Wild West Cowboy Redemption to Westland Survival, ranked.
Evil Dead Burn brought the franchise back into the conversation, but Evil Dead: The Game's servers are shrinking. Seven co-op survival horror alternatives that fill the gap.
EVE Vanguard's Operation Avalon alpha is live but on a clock. Seven EVE Vanguard alternatives on PC for hardcore shooters, extraction FPS, and persistent-world combat.
Fallout season 3 starts filming this month. Eight desktop post-apocalyptic picks, from Fallout 4 to Metro Exodus and Frostpunk, ranked for setting, systems, and replay value.
Escape the Backrooms just landed on Switch 2 with day-one cross-play. Seven desktop backrooms horror picks, from Inside the Backrooms to Anemoiapolis, tested for coop and solo runs.
Subnautica 2 launched into a 2-to-3 year early access window on Steam. If you want a full underwater or open-world survival game today, here are seven alternatives.
The soulslike western niche keeps growing. Seven desktop picks that pair frontier and weird-west settings with the punishing combat we tested for months.
Great alternatives to Wild Wild Eden on PC: Red Dead Redemption 2, Wild West Dynasty, 7 Days to Die, Green Hell, SCUM, The Long Dark, and Rust, tested.
Great Valheim alternatives on PC: V Rising, Enshrouded, Palworld, Grounded, Sons of the Forest, Nightingale, and Conan Exiles, tested for co-op survival.
OD survives Xbox's studio reset but is still years out. Eight atmospheric horror games for desktop to fill the queue while Kojima's project develops.
State of Decay 3's studio Undead Labs faces sale or closure. Seven survival and zombie community-sim alternatives on PC while the game's future is uncertain.
State of Decay 3's troubled production left a gap. Eight zombie survival games for Windows, macOS, and Linux that scratch the same itch on Steam right now.
Robert Eggers' Werwulf trailer dropped this week. Seven folk horror games for desktop that share its rural, medieval, dread-soaked register, ranked after a playthrough.
Polygon confirmed FNAF 3 will not be written by Scott Cawthon. Seven Five Nights at Freddy's alternatives on Steam for fans wondering what to play while the next chapter is in someone else's hands.
Wardogs promises hardcore gunplay with progression that sticks. We rounded up 7 desktop FPS alternatives that respect your time the same way.
Dune: Awakening is the survival MMO everyone is talking about ahead of Dune 3. We tested 7 PC alternatives if its grind, scarcity, or PvP isn't for you.
A new TLOU 2 multiplayer mod has fans hungry for more post-apocalyptic stories. Seven games like The Last of Us on Steam, ranked after weeks of play.
Hideo Kojima says his next game OD is built to test fear thresholds. Seven psychological horror games on Steam right now that already get there.
Don't Starve Together hit its highest player count ever a decade after launch. Seven Don't Starve Together alternatives for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Dead Space dropped to $6 on Steam. If you've finished the remake and want what's next, these 7 Dead Space alternatives keep the sci-fi survival horror going.
Polygon's coverage of Bethesda's early-access pipeline for Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 highlighted the wait. Seven Fallout 4 alternatives for PC, tested.
Hellraiser Revival's October launch and the Summer Game Fest preview reignited the survival-horror conversation. Seven Hellraiser: Revival alternatives on Windows, macOS, and Linux for the wait and the appetite after.
Enginefall just made survival look interesting again. Seven Rust alternatives for Windows, Mac, and Linux that scratch the build-raid-loot itch without the toxicity tax.
Enginefall isn't out yet, but the Snowpiercer-meets-Rust pitch is loud. These seven co-op survival alternatives on PC scratch the same itch right now.
Wild Terra 2 is free to keep on Steam this week, but the player base is small. Here are seven Wild Terra 2 alternatives for medieval sandbox MMO fans on PC.
Palworld blew up at launch, then the meta hardened. We tested 7 Palworld alternatives for desktop that scratch the same survival, taming and crafting itch in 2026.
Seven asymmetric multiplayer horror games for PC, compared by killer design, survivor pacing, queue health, and how each handles the four-versus-one tension.
Turok: Origins lands fall 2026. We tested 7 dinosaur-and-jungle action alternatives on PC right now that already deliver the bow-and-shotgun rush.
Silent Hill: Townfall is the next surprise horror hit, but the wait is real. Seven Silent Hill alternatives on PC for psychological horror fans right now.
The Backrooms broke records again in a single week. Seven Backrooms-style horror game apps for Android that capture the liminal-space dread on mobile.
Polygon called Widow's Bay episode 8 the best slasher since 2018's Halloween. We tested 7 slasher horror games on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
PUBG's creator confirmed the end of his open-world survival project, sending genre fans looking elsewhere. We tested 7 survival games on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Bethesda's 2026 update gave Fallout 76 a real reason to log back in. Seven Fallout 76 alternatives for Windows for the days you're between visits.
Polygon called The Lost Wild a mix of Jurassic Park and Alien: Isolation. We tested 7 cinematic survival horror games on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Polygon's coverage of The Alters' Last Variable DLC sent fans hunting for what to play next. Seven Alters alternatives that scratch the same solo-crew survival itch.
State of Decay 3 got its gameplay reveal, but it's months away. We ranked 7 PC zombie survival games that scratch the same base-building, permadeath, scavenge-or-die itch.
Polygon traced Backrooms back to the Robin Williams thriller One Hour Photo. These seven Backrooms-style horror games on PC keep that buzzing-fluorescent dread alive.
Eurogamer's reveal of Bloober Team's Star Trek: Shadow Frontier sent us back through the genre. Seven sci-fi horror games for desktop that still hold up in 2026.
Capcom just confirmed Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake. While Capcom cooks it, here are 7 Resident Evil alternatives worth playing on desktop right now.
ARC Raiders reset what an extraction shooter can feel like, and now Modern Warfare 4's DMZ is chasing it. Here are seven ARC Raiders alternatives worth your evenings.
Alien Isolation 2 was announced at Summer Game Fest 2026. Seven Alien Isolation alternatives for Windows for survival-horror fans waiting for the sequel.
The next game from the Alien Isolation team has dinosaurs in it, and we already have a wave of dinosaur survival games on PC. We tested 7 of them.
99 Nights in Forest Sandbox rides the Roblox forest survival trend, but the loop runs thin. Here are 7 mobile survival sandbox alternatives worth installing.
Minecraft on PC still rules sandboxes, but the Microsoft account requirement and aging engine push players elsewhere. Seven Minecraft alternatives for desktop in 2026.
The Backrooms movie hits theatres in 2026. Here are 8 Backrooms-style liminal horror games for Android that recreate the endless yellow rooms, no-clip dread, and unease.
Polygon called Grave Seasons the scariest farming sim of the summer. These seven cozy horror games on Android pair low-stakes management loops with quiet dread.
Subnautica is PC and console only. These 7 Android games deliver the same underwater survival and open-world exploration on your phone.
Subnautica 2 brought co-op survival to the spotlight again. These seven Android survival games already let you play with friends, with notes on each compromise.
Oxide's wipe cycle and pay-to-skip grind push players to look elsewhere. Seven Rust-style mobile survival alternatives that hold up in 2026.
Eurogamer's preview of Call of the Elder Gods put cosmic horror back in the spotlight. These seven Lovecraftian games for Android cover point-and-click investigation, card-driven occult, and cosmic-survival nightmares.
Subnautica 2 cleared a million copies in its first hour, and the underwater survival genre is having a moment. These seven Android games scratch the same itch with raft crafting, ocean exploration, and deep-sea building.
Subnautica 2 sold a million copies in its first hour. We picked the seven open-world survival games on Android that hit the same loop of explore, craft, build, and barely make it through the night.
Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS Plus and Spielberg's new Western pulled the cowboy itch back. Seven Western games on Android cover survival, shooter, sandbox, and frontier RPG picks.
