10 Games That Make Exploration Feel More Like Survival Than Adventure

6 days ago 4

Open World Games that Feel More Like Survival The Forest The Long Dark Tomb Raider Zelda Breath of the Wild

Published May 19, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

Elena is a Contributing Writer at DualShockers specializing in horror games, survival horror, open-world RPGs, fantasy, and historical fiction. She began covering games professionally in 2024, with her early gaming focus tied to Baldur’s Gate 3 before her interest in horror coverage grew through games like Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f.

Before joining DualShockers, Elena worked as an award-winning journalist for local news stations and newspapers in central Indiana, including FOX59/CBS4Indy, and has also contributed to CBR. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Telecommunications, has a Career Specialist Permit to teach Journalism, and won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Best Column Award in 2019. Outside of games writing, Elena is also a high school teacher, where she teaches job readiness, financial literacy, and college preparation.

Typically, when fans of open world exploration games hop into a new title, they want to get lost, exploring every little corner of the map on a grand adventure. Running around and soaking everything in is part of the allure of these games, and a huge reason why people keep coming back to the genre.

Sometimes, though, those open worlds will have other plans for you — mainly by making you fight for your life.

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There are some games where you can't really focus on exploration as much because you're too busy simply trying to stay alive. Whether it's due to overwhelming enemy territory, specific mechanics that make things more difficult, or some other reason, these games will feel more like a fight for survival than an adventure.

Even with that extra challenge, you're in for a ride.

10 The Forest

Ready to Try Human for Dinner?

You can't be in a worse situation than a literal plane crash on a deserted island, separated from your son, who you aren't even sure survived, but there's a horrifying second problem: you're actually not alone on that island. That's the situation you find yourself in with The Forest, and it only gets worse.

It's a double-edged sword of a game, where exploration is addictive and fun, especially as you find more sick loot for your stash in your treehouse, but you'll have to deal with cannibals (who are way smarter than you'll first give them credit for), every step of the way. The adventure is a survival feat in and of itself.

This is a game where you'll get a lot of mileage, clocking in hundreds of hours of equal parts exploring and fighting for your life. Eventually, you'll be able to fight and kill your way to the top, crowned as cannibal king and becoming the very savages fighting you.

Oh yes, Timmy? Don't worry about him. He'll be fine.

9 Red Dead Redemption 2

Wash Your Scent Off

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterclass in open world gaming, encouraging players to stop and smell the flowers ... but if you take too long, you'll be ambushed by a cougar ... or a bear, or a rival gang, or, depending on your honor level, bounty hunters. You'll want to explore everything and admire all that the world has to offer (including its people), but you'll have to keep your head on a swivel for potential threats (especially its people).

As realistic and rich as the world's ecosystem is, it's important to remember that it's just as ruthless as the real world's. One minute, you'll just be hunting to try and make some money, and the next, you'll have to run and shoot because your literal life depends on it, whistling frantically for your horse all the while. On the bright side, you'll have plenty of time to take in the beautiful American countryside while running for your life.

And since this game focuses on realism unlike any other, you have to actually go through water if you want some threats (like cougars) off your tail, because they will literally track you down otherwise.

Even still, you're going to love exploring every corner of the world so much, the adrenaline from the threats is part of the joy.

8 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Get Ready for the Death Screen ... a LOT

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best introductions to fantasy open worlds, especially when you take into account its wonderful worldbuilding. It's also absolutely ruthless, the start of the game being the most painful reminder of this.

When many talk about the difficulty of this game, they're almost always referring to the Guardians, who will one-shot Link out of all the hearts he has. Even when you actually make it off the Great Plateau and get Mipha's Grace, it only delays the inevitable — but Link, the true Chaotic Good he is, loves the adventure.

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This isn't even mentioning how sensitive to temperature Link is; if the area you're in is too hot or too cold, there are going to be dire consequences for Link. Of course, you have to deal with enemies all the while, ranging from simple bokoblins to full-on bosses roaming about that solely exist to humble you. Plus, enemies become more aggressive at night, completely respawning after a Blood Moon, but that's all the more incentive to explore.

It's a beautiful game all the way around, comforting your very soul in a way only adventure can, but it'll also remind you of why you need to be careful, no matter how strong and powerful you are.

7 Minecraft

Quite Literally Struggling to Survive

At this point, everything has been said about Minecraft. It's iconic, but depending on your difficulty and world, it can also be surprisingly challenging to survive in. Even on standard difficulty, you can die in all manner of ways, typically as a consequence of your exploration.

It's a cozy sandbox game that's relatively unassuming, until mobs get in the picture. Zombies, spiders, skeletons, creepers, Slenderman, and all other manner of horrors await you, and are indeed hostile. The only way around this constant cycle of destruction is by turning on Peaceful, but even then, you can still be consumed by the world itself. After all, there's a reason why the number one rule of the game is Don't Dig Down.

Exploration is essential for survival (but also just fun to get lost in, especially while mining), but there are ways to day around every corner, often when you least expect it.

Walking through the blocky world and enjoying the ASMR-inducing gameplay is one part of the charm; the other is the creative ways you can manage to get yourself killed despite being as careful as possible.

6 Tomb Raider: Survivor Trilogy

A Brutal Semi-Open World

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Tomb Raider's Survivor Trilogy is a great example of the absolute brutality that goes into survival, and the things that Lara Croft has to deal with are enough to make you wince at best.

The trilogy goes in the order of 2013's Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and then Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and all of them are as ruthless as the last. While these games are more properly described as semi-open world games, there's enough for you to explore within a zone that keeps your interest ... but also enough threats to be a problem.

Plus, since it's in its own little trilogy, you don't have to know anything about Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider IP to get started. It's just important to know that when you start, exploration is great and fun, but you cannot, under any circumstances, let your guard down.

5 Elden Ring

Don't Get Attached to Your Runes

Considering that Souls games tend to be told through what you can find through exploring the world, it's no surprise that Elden Ring is no exception to that. And to no one's surprise, it's immensely difficult, borderline unfair with how relentless it is with players. Shocker: a Souls game is hard.

Elden Ring's got a rich world to explore, steeped in all different kinds of European folklore, begging for players to come and find its secrets. That is, until you try.

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For players who want to explore, but not be overwhelmed by a world larger than the story.

Regardless of how you build your character (even if it was for tons of roleplaying opportunities, as there are tons), you're going to be challenged and pushed to the limit by all enemies and bosses in this game. You're going to die a lot, but you can't get enough of the world and all the lore that's hidden within it.

Just don't get attached to your Runes, you're not going to be able to keep them for long.

4 Rain World

A Vast, Rich Environment

On the surface, Rain World looks like a cute little platformer, but then it beats you down so hard that you feel completely powerless while you're playing; in spite of this, you can't put it down.

Exploration is equal parts rewarding and essential to survive in a world like this one (especially with how fantastically realistic the other creatures are). Every single shelter matters for a small, lost cat like you — it's even more important when you see just how hostile the world and its inhabitants are. For a survival game, it does not want you to survive.

There is a lot of knowledge hidden away in the game, enticing players to come and seek it out, but the ruthlessness of the world is enough to make players second-guess. Even still, it's a great time from start to finish; if nothing else, the world and its ecosystem are absolutely worth its accolades.

3 Death Stranding

Please, Just Let Me Deliver

Of course, if something is written by Hideo Kojima, you're going to have to take a minute to be able to understand what the story is trying to be. Death Stranding also just so happens to bring the calmer, more mundane aspects of life into the gameplay, grounding you in the world better than anything overly fantastical (but trust, there is plenty of sci-fi).

One minute, you're working shifts as a delivery boy, trying to get your packages from Point A to Point B for the best tips, and the next, you're having to hide and pray that you won't be seen by BTs. This doesn't even mention the timefall and how you have to constantly be eagle-eyed for your next shelter.

Even still, the storytelling is more like being at the centre of a ball of rubber bands: as you unravel, everything snaps apart in dramatic ways, and that's something worth experiencing in and of itself.

Being in the world itself is simply dangerous, but beautiful at the same time, and it fits perfectly into Death Stranding's overall message.

2 Darkwood

Ruthless in Every Way

Darkwood is survival horror in its purest form — a flawless genre blend while also fitting in its own — but it's also one of the most difficult, without any question.

The sound design of the game creates an atmosphere unlike any other, every creak and breeze making your skin crawl, regardless of how normal the sounds genuinely are. Then you hear something grotesque, ungodly, and nothing will make you genuinely uncomfortable more than what you trace the sounds back to.

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Look around and look carefully, you'll never know what's looking right back at you.

In all honesty, you won't even know what's driving you to keep exploring. Perhaps it's a primal sense of survival, perhaps it's just a morbid sense of curiosity, or perhaps it's both. Either way, you're going to love and hate the adventure (in the best way), and it's going to terrify you all the while.

Seriously, there's not really a game like it, and it's best to just experience it to understand it.

1 The Long Dark

At Least It's Calming ... Sometimes

When it comes to the realist, most brutal depiction of genuinely trying to survive, The Long Dark is the best worst time you're going to have. There is nothing better than just trying to survive in this world, looting everywhere you can for any resources you can use to your advantage. You just also have to be on the lookout for threats, like wolves.

Not to mention, being aware of the weather is crucial to staying alive, because if it slips your mind for even a second, you're dead. On top of your typical survival mechanics (hunger, warmth, etc), there is a lot that you need to juggle — and the only way you can properly manage is to explore.

The exploration is part of the survival in The Long Dark, and it's a gameplay loop that's as addictive as it is difficult, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Worst case, you can customise your game to make it as easy as you need ... but it's a survival game in its purest form, it's far better of a gameplay experience to play it as such.

All the ups and downs of adventure and survival are tied together perfectly in The Long Dark, and it results in something just special.