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Guides & Editorial
The best survival games on PS4 and PS5
Experience the best survival games - hostile worlds where your instincts and resourcefulness can mean the difference between life and death.
Fantastical survival games
Out of this world
Hone your survival skills in unpredictable environments teeming with curious creatures.
Minecraft
Build a world where the only limit is your own imagination, playing purely creatively or surviving against the many dangers that come out at night.
- Explore mysterious lands unique to your own experience, collecting resources to protect yourself from monsters and sate your hunger.
- Play with friends online to share your adventures, or to build collaborative creations on a grand scale.
Forever Skies
After an ecological disaster coats Earth in toxic dust, corrupting the environment, the surviving humans must eke out their existence on an airship, dropping down to the surface to scavenge.
- Find food, materials and scrap from the world below not only to sustain the airborne community, but to cure the inexplicable illness afflicting the survivors.
- The airship is your sanctuary and your achievement – join with up to three friends or go it alone to build and customise a high-tech craft with rare and exotic resources from this new Earth.
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Subnautica: Below Zero
A spin-off of the acclaimed Subnautica series, you will brave the extremes of an arctic region of an alien planet to dredge up the truth of a mysterious incident involving your sister.
- Make the most of the remnants of abandoned research facilities to survive against the odds, and craft new equipment like the hoverbike and the seatruck to explore shadowier depths.
- The clock is always ticking as you must keep your fresh water topped up, your oxygen supply replenished, and your metabolism warm in these remote snowfields. Explore to find what you need – but beware the hostile wildlife.
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No Man’s Sky
Catalogue a procedural galaxy full of fascinating creatures and crops in this interstellar sci-fi adventure. There are trillions upon trillions of planets waiting to be discovered – how you navigate your way through the stars is up to you. No Man's Sky is also compatible with PS VR2.
- Document the wildlife, mine for minerals, build bases and liaise with extraterrestrials to survive and thrive in this enormous universe.
- For those wanting a greater challenge, a dedicated survival mode limits available resources and puts your inventory at risk when you die.
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Survival games from independent studios
Indie odysseys
Scavenge to survive in subversive worlds that twist the genre in singular styles.
Abiotic Factor
Become a scientist stranded in a research lab deep beneath the Australian Outback in the early 1990s. Face paranormal threats as you try to find a way to the surface.
- Join forces with up to five other players online to survive in a facility filled with supernatural artefacts, strange portals, trans-dimensional foes and science experiments gone awry.
- Choose your scientist’s PhD, which determines their attributes, and expand their abilities through a skill tree system. Strategise with your lab partners to create a safehouse, and craft weapons and gear from whatever you can scavenge.
The Alters
From the developer of This War of Mine, The Alters is the story of Jan Dolski, a man facing impossible odds on a distant planet, far from home. With so much to do, Jan creates new versions of himself, Alters, to help with the tasks he can’t handle alone.
- Manage a moving base locked in an endless race against the dangerous rays of an alien sun and the deadly cycles of the hostile planet orbiting it.
- Build your relationships with the Alters and influence their decisions, discovering what choices you’re willing to make to survive, even if it means death for someone else.
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Terraria
This whimsical 2D sandbox game is teeming with subterranean intrigue. Be transported to a procedurally generated pixel world full of challenging battles and quirky NPCs to summon to your growing home base.
- Develop your mana and health pools, and collaborate with friends when necessary, to reach the harsh but satisfying edges of this rewarding adventure.
- Features a catalogue of over 5,000 items, more than 25 unique NPCs and over 400 enemies, all of which play their part as you fight for survival and dig for glory.
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Vampire Survivors
Death is inevitable in this minimalist survival experience set against the clock and featuring roguelite elements. Stay alive as long as you can to improve your odds on the next run.
- There's no place to hide - just do all you can to survive a cursed night and get as much gold as possible to pass onto the next survivor.
- Grab gems and other items, and level up your weapons to keep the hordes at bay - for a while, at least.
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Realistic survival games
Wilderness survival
Employ real-world tactics and mechanics to conquer treacherous sandbox environments.
Rust Console Edition
Betray and be betrayed in this gruelling online survival experience where you’re always at risk of your fellow player undermining your livelihood.
- Build shelters and beat the elements, forge weary alliances, and evolve armour and guns to stake your claim amid the chaos.
- The entire goal of Rust is to survive at any cost, so scavenge or steal whatever you need to stay healthy and protect yourself against other players populating unruly multiplayer worlds.
The Forest
In the wake of a plane crash, you find yourself stranded in a forest full of cannibals. With only makeshift tools, can you build a strong enough base to survive the night?
- Enter a living, breathing world where every tree can be chopped down for materials, and below your feet is a vast network of caves and underground lakes.
- Lay traps to protect the perimeter of your base, and craft weapons and tools from whatever you can find when foraging in the daytime.
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Green Hell
Craft weapons and tools to hunt prey, mitigate hunger and manage your rapidly deteriorating mental state in this first-person survival sandbox. Green Hell is also available for PS VR2.
- Equipped with only your bare hands, with no outside help coming, you’ll have to learn real survival techniques to built and craft what you need to stay alive.
- Constantly threatened by the Amazon jungle, you’ll have to fight wild animals, avoid environmental hazards and guard yourself against tropical illnesses, solo or in up to four-player co-op.
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Atomfall
The great radioactive outdoors is yours to explore in this sci-fi retelling of the most severe nuclear disaster to take place in England's history.
- Seek out resources scattered across the quarantine zone to craft melee weapons, and use the metal detector to unearth lunchboxes containing coveted items.
- Manage your vitals by avoiding exertion and excessive damage to ensure that your aim is accurate, and that you have the strength to land the final blow.
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Fantasy survival games
Fantasy roleplay
Embody heroes literary and otherworldly in these sci-fi and sword and sorcery sandboxes.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition
Venture into the open-world realm of Skyrim for the first time or embark on your most recent adventure of many in this multi-award-winning fantasy epic.
- Living another life in this world, as a customisable character wielding the power of dragons, comes with many challenges, and you’ll need to keep a stock of foodstuffs on hand to replenish your health and gain status perks and stat boosts.
- A dedicated Survival Mode adds difficulty to the core experience, reducing the weight you can carry and cutting fast travel options, as well as making you manage the impact of extreme temperature, hunger and sleep deprivation.
Grounded
Mysteriously shrunken down to the size of an ant, you must fight for survival as you experience the backyard from an entirely new perspective.
- You’ll encounter all kinds of creatures spread across the garden, from the sandbox dunes to the depths of the pond. Nowhere is safe, including your own base, so always be prepared for a full-scale bug offensive.
- An extensive customisation system lets you access vital perks and bonuses, with unlockable mutations and upgradable weapons boosting your stats and improving your odds of survival.
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Conan Exiles
Based in the brutal world of Conan the Barbarian, Conan Exiles is a multiplayer survival odyssey where you must adapt quickly to a harsh environment.
- Hunt, craft, cook and fight to stay alive. Dress well or light a campfire to stay warm, and make sure to keep yourself cool when things heat up.
- Build your base on the dunes or the swamps of the Exiled Lands and defy other players with weapons and traps, gaining control over this testing open world.
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Dune: Awakening
Offering open-world multiplayer survival on a massive scale, Dune: Awakening represents a unique but still familiar take on the sci-fi universe of Dune.
- Enjoy a large-scale, persistent and highly immersive world with social hubs bustling with other players, server-wide politics and intrigue, and a cinematic storyline.
- Begin your adventure as a nameless prisoner sent to Arrakis before learning the true meaning of desert power, whether that’s solo, with friends or any of the 100s of players you share the most dangerous planet in the universe with.
Duke: Awakening will release for PlayStation 5 in the near future.
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