Top 10 Games Like The Last of Us (2026)
The Last of Us built its reputation on Joel and Ellie's relationship carrying more weight than any gunfight or infected encounter in the game. Naughty Dog released it on June 14, 2013, and at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards it won Best Design and Best Narrative. The Last of Us Part I remake brought the full experience to PC and PS5, and Part II expanded the story into something darker and more divisive. You can buy The Last of Us Part I on GameBoost if you haven't played through Joel and Ellie's journey yet.
Games that combine survival tension with genuine emotional stakes are harder to pull off than they look. Most post-apocalyptic games lean entirely on scarcity and combat, and most character-driven games skip the survival pressure altogether. The ten games on this list manage both, some through a shared setting of collapse and scavenging, others through the same kind of relationship that made Joel and Ellie's story hit as hard as it did.
In this article, we'll explore the ten best games like The Last of Us, covering what makes each one worth your time and how close each one actually gets to that same feeling. Here's a quick look at all ten before we get into the details.
Rank | Game | Why It's Similar |
|---|---|---|
1 | Post-apocalyptic open world with scavenging, survival, and a grounded protagonist | |
2 | A close, emotional relationship at the center of a brutal survival journey | |
3 | Tense, resource-scarce survival horror with a genuinely emotional dual-protagonist story | |
4 | A post-apocalyptic world built around isolation and human connection | |
5 | Open-world zombie survival with scavenging and a constant sense of danger |
1. Days Gone
Days Gone is an action-adventure survival horror game released on April 26, 2019, developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Built in Unreal Engine 4, it was Bend Studio's first original IP since Syphon Filter and its first open-world project. A PC version followed on May 18, 2021, with a remastered PS5 edition released on April 25, 2025.
You play as Deacon St. John, a former outlaw biker turned drifter, two years after a global pandemic turned most of the population into mindless, cannibalistic creatures called Freakers. After discovering a clue suggesting his missing wife Sarah might still be alive, Deacon sets out across a ravaged Oregon to find her, scavenging for fuel, ammunition, and crafting materials along the way.
Deacon's motorcycle is the game's core mechanic, doubling as his main transportation and a constant resource sink that needs fuel and repairs to stay running. Freaker Hordes, large mobs that can number in the hundreds, roam specific locations and force careful planning rather than direct confrontation. The game sold over 8 million copies despite a rocky launch, and its emotional core, a man refusing to give up on someone he loves in a world that's given him every reason to, echoes the same bond that drives Joel and Ellie's story.
Available on: PC (Steam), PS4, PS5
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's survival tension stretched across a full open world, with a motorcycle and horde mechanics giving it its own identity.
2. A Plague Tale: Requiem
A Plague Tale: Requiem is an action-adventure stealth game released on October 18, 2022, developed by Asobo Studio and published by Focus Entertainment. It's the sequel to 2019's A Plague Tale: Innocence, and it picks up roughly six months after the first game, at the height of the Black Death sweeping through 14th-century France.
You play as Amicia de Rune, protecting her younger brother Hugo as they flee across southern France searching for a cure to his mysterious blood disease, the Prima Macula. Amicia is equipped with a sling, a crossbow, and improvised tools for stealth, while Hugo's powers let him sense enemies through walls and, when pushed to a breaking point, summon and direct the same swarms of plague rats that hunted them in the first game.
Massive rat hordes remain the series' signature threat, forcing you to manage fire and light sources carefully while sneaking past Inquisition soldiers who far outmatch Amicia in a direct fight. The story leans heavily on the siblings' bond, with Amicia's growing willingness to do whatever it takes to protect Hugo. The game received five nominations at The Game Awards 2022, including Game of the Year.
Available on: PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch (cloud)
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's protective, sibling-driven emotional core wrapped in a medieval setting with its own distinct horror.
Get A Plague Tale: Requiem on GameBoost →
3. Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem is a survival horror game released on February 27, 2026, developed and published by Capcom. Built in RE Engine, it launched as the ninth mainline entry in the series and marked its 30th anniversary, with the freedom to switch between first-person and third-person perspectives at any point through the settings menu.
You mainly play as Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst investigating an unidentified disease outbreak at an abandoned hotel, the same hotel where her mother was murdered eight years earlier. Unlike series veterans like Leon Kennedy, who also appears and eventually intertwines with her story, Grace isn't a trained fighter. She's out of her depth from the opening scene, relying on basic training and sheer instinct to survive rather than combat expertise, giving the game a genuinely vulnerable "final girl" energy closer to RE7's Ethan than a typical action hero.
The investigation eventually leads back to the true cause of the original Raccoon City outbreak, tying Grace's personal grief into the franchise's founding mystery. Resource management, puzzle-solving, and slow, dread-heavy exploration all return in full, and the ability to fully customize your perspective lets the same scenes hit differently depending on how you choose to experience them.
Available on: PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's blend of personal tragedy and constant dread, with a protagonist who feels genuinely unprepared for what she's up against.
Get Resident Evil Requiem on GameBoost →
Also Read: All Resident Evil Games in Order
4. Death Stranding
Death Stranding is an action-adventure game released on November 8, 2019, directed by Hideo Kojima, developed by Kojima Productions, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Built on Guerrilla Games' Decima engine, it's the first project from Kojima's studio since his departure from Konami in 2015. A PC version followed on July 14, 2020, and a Director's Cut expanded the game across PS5, additional PC platforms, and eventually Xbox Series X/S by 2024.
You play as Sam Porter Bridges, a courier tasked with reconnecting isolated cities across a ravaged United States after a catastrophic event unleashed otherworldly creatures and tar-like matter across the landscape. Sam's job is delivery, not combat, hauling cargo across brutal terrain while avoiding both hostile humans and invisible entities called BTs that can only be detected through a scanning device strapped to his chest.
The game's entire structure is built around isolation and the slow, deliberate act of rebuilding connections between scattered survivors, with other players' structures and paths appearing asynchronously in your own world to help along the way. It's a far slower, more contemplative pace than most post-apocalyptic games.
Available on: PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, macOS, iOS, iPadOS
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's themes of connection and isolation stretched into something slower, stranger, and entirely Kojima's own.
Get Death Stranding on GameBoost →
5. Dying Light 2: Stay Human
Dying Light 2: Stay Human is an action role-playing survival horror game released on February 4, 2022, developed and published by Techland. It's the sequel to 2015's Dying Light, set years after the original virus mutated and spread globally, wiping out most of the human population.
You play as Aiden Caldwell, navigating a sprawling settlement known simply as The City, mankind's last real stronghold against the infected. First-person parkour is the core movement system, letting you scale buildings and traverse rooftops to avoid ground-level combat entirely if you choose, and a dynamic day-night cycle flips the danger level completely, zombies are slow and manageable during the day but turn aggressive and far more dangerous once the sun goes down.
Choices around which factions to support reshape parts of The City itself, changing available routes, resources, and even how NPCs treat you later on. Combat leans on melee weapons, crafting, and momentum-based movement rather than guns, and the game has received five years of continued content support, including the standalone spin-off Dying Light: The Beast in 2025.
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's post-outbreak tension wrapped in a faster, more mobile survival loop. The day-night shift keeps the danger genuinely unpredictable.
Get Dying Light 2: Stay Human on GameBoost →
6. Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter released on February 15, 2019, developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. Based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's third novel Metro 2035 and a sequel to Metro: Last Light, it's the third entry in the Metro trilogy and shifts the series out of the underground tunnels that defined the first two games entirely.
You play as Artyom, now married to Anna, as the two of them and a small crew of Rangers led by Anna's father Colonel Miller flee Moscow aboard a converted steam locomotive called the Aurora, traveling east across post-nuclear Russia in search of surviving civilization. The train doubles as a mobile home base, upgraded over the journey and constantly filling up with new survivors picked up along the way, several of whom won't make it to the end.
Gameplay blends open, sprawling regions with tighter, more claustrophobic sections, and resource scarcity stays constant, ammunition, filters, and medkits all have to be scavenged and crafted carefully. The story leans harder into Artyom and Anna's relationship and the makeshift family forming around them than the earlier games did, trading some of the series' supernatural elements for something more grounded and personal.
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's scavenging tension and tight-knit found family dynamic set against a bleak, post-nuclear Russian backdrop.
Get Metro Exodus on GameBoost →
7. Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2 is an action role-playing survival horror game released on April 21, 2023, developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver. It's the third major entry in the Dead Island series and spent nearly nine years bouncing between different studios before Dambuster finished it, set about 15 years after the events of the first two games.
You play as a slayer who survives a plane crash after the aircraft is shot down under military protocol to contain a zombie outbreak spreading through Los Angeles. Rather than the tropical resort setting of the original games, this one puts you in a quarantined version of LA, moving through recognizable, zombie-swarmed versions of Venice Beach, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills.
Combat stays first-person and melee-focused, with an emphasis on gory, physics-driven dismemberment and a crafting system that lets you build weapon mods from scavenged materials. The game sold over 3 million units within a year of launch and earned a Best Action Game nomination at The Game Awards 2023, praised mainly for its setting and visual presentation.
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's zombie-survival backdrop without the emotional weight, just close-quarters combat in a genuinely striking, quarantined city.
Get Dead Island 2 on GameBoost →
8. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a first-person shooter and survival horror game released on November 20, 2024, developed and published by GSC Game World. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it's the fourth entry in the series and the studio's first major release since relocating out of Kyiv during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a production history that shaped much of the game's long, difficult development. A PS5 version followed on November 20, 2025.
You play as a lone stalker exploring a photorealistic, 64-square-kilometer recreation of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, dramatically reshaped after a second explosion. Warring factions, violent mutants, and deadly environmental anomalies all compete for territory across the Zone, and stalkers like you enter looking for valuable artifacts, or the truth behind the mysterious power hidden at its center.
Survival mechanics run deep, hunger, sleep, bleeding, and radiation exposure all need constant management, and the game's A-Life 2.0 system simulates NPCs living out their own routines across the Zone even when you're not nearby. The story branches non-linearly toward several different endings depending on choices made along the way.
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG), Xbox Series X/S, PS5
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's oppressive scavenging tension stretched across a massive, genuinely dangerous open world.
Get S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on GameBoost →
Also Read: Where to Buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 for the Lowest Price
9. State of Decay 2
State of Decay 2 is an action-adventure survival game released on May 22, 2018, developed by Undead Labs and published by Xbox Game Studios. Built in Unreal Engine 4, it's the sequel to 2013's State of Decay and keeps the same core idea, community survival takes priority over any single character's personal story.
You control a procedurally generated survivor and gradually recruit others to build and sustain a community across one of several distinct open-world maps, each with its own layout, resources, and hazards. Base management sits at the center of everything, assigning survivors to tasks, scavenging for food and medicine, and defending your home from zombie hordes that grow more aggressive the longer a fight drags on.
Unlike most games on this list, there's no fixed protagonist, characters can permanently die, and you simply switch to controlling someone else in your community when that happens, keeping the overall story going even as individual people don't make it. A Juggernaut Edition overhauled the game's visuals and added a new map in 2020, and the game had surpassed 10 million players by 2021.
Available on: PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
My Verdict: Best for players who want The Last of Us's survival-first tone shifted toward managing a whole community instead of following one protagonist's journey.
Get State of Decay 2 on GameBoost →
10. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is an action-adventure third-person shooter released on May 10, 2016, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It's the fourth main entry in the series and Nathan Drake's final outing, released on Naughty Dog's first title built specifically for PS4. A remastered version reached PS5 and PC on January 28 and October 19, 2022, as part of the Legacy of Thieves Collection.
You play as Nathan Drake, a retired treasure hunter pulled back into the life by his presumed-dead brother Samuel, who owes a dangerous debt that forces the two of them, alongside longtime partner Victor Sullivan, to chase down Captain Henry Avery's lost pirate treasure. Combat blends firearms, melee, and stealth with heavy platforming and traversal, using grappling hooks, ropes, and climbing to move through large, vertical environments.
The game leans harder on character relationships than any previous Uncharted entry, particularly Nathan's marriage to Elena and his complicated bond with Sam, and it's directed by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, the same team that had just finished The Last of Us. That shared creative DNA shows in the pacing and emotional beats, even wrapped around a much more optimistic, adventure-driven story. It won numerous Game of the Year awards and is widely considered one of the best games ever made.
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5
My Verdict: Best for players who want Naughty Dog's own cinematic storytelling and character work in a faster-paced, more hopeful adventure than The Last of Us.
Get Uncharted 4: A Thief's End on GameBoost →
Best Games Like The Last of Us on Each Platform
Best Games Like The Last of Us on PC
Every game on this list is playable through the full range of PC game keys on GameBoost. Days Gone and Metro Exodus stand out as the deepest open-world picks, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Death Stranding push the survival and isolation themes furthest.
Best Games Like The Last of Us on PS5
Days Gone, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Resident Evil Requiem, Death Stranding, and Uncharted 4 all run natively on PS5 and are part of the PlayStation game keys lineup on GameBoost. Dying Light 2, Metro Exodus, Dead Island 2, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 round out the platform's selection for players who want faster-paced survival action.
Best Games Like The Last of Us on Xbox
Resident Evil Requiem, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, State of Decay 2, and Death Stranding all run on Xbox Series X/S, alongside Dying Light 2, Metro Exodus, and Dead Island 2, all covered in the Xbox game keys catalogue on GameBoost. State of Decay 2 in particular has been an Xbox mainstay since its 2018 launch.
Best Games Like The Last of Us on Nintendo Switch
Switch options are the most limited here, but A Plague Tale: Requiem is playable through cloud streaming, and Resident Evil Requiem launched directly on Switch 2. Both are part of the Nintendo Switch game keys selection on GameBoost.
FAQs About Games Like The Last of Us
Q: What is the best game like The Last of Us?
A: Days Gone is the closest match, combining open-world post-apocalyptic survival with a protagonist driven entirely by a personal search for someone he loves. A Plague Tale: Requiem is the strongest pick if the sibling relationship and emotional weight mattered more to you than the setting.
Q: What games like The Last of Us are on PC?
A: All ten games on this list are available on PC. Metro Exodus, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and Death Stranding stand out as the deepest picks for players who want survival tension with genuine atmosphere and scale.
Q: Is there a sequel to The Last of Us coming out?
A: Naughty Dog hasn't confirmed a third mainline entry following The Last of Us Part II. The HBO series has continued the story on television, but there's no announced timeline for a new game continuing Ellie's arc.
Q: What makes a good game like The Last of Us?
A: Three things define the comparison, resource scarcity that actually forces careful decision-making, a protagonist whose personal stakes drive the story forward, and a setting hostile enough that survival itself feels like the real objective. The strongest picks on this list deliver at least two of the three convincingly.
Q: Where can I get the best deals on survival and post-apocalyptic game keys?
A: GameBoost offers competitive prices on every game in this list year-round, with no need to wait for seasonal sales. Every purchase includes instant delivery, 3% cashback in GB Coins, and 24/7 live chat support.
Final Words
Survival games built around real emotional stakes are rarer than the genre's crowded shelf of zombies and wastelands suggests. Days Gone and A Plague Tale: Requiem come closest to Joel and Ellie's dynamic, one through a husband refusing to give up on his wife, the other through a sister protecting her brother against everything the world throws at them. Resident Evil Requiem and Death Stranding prove the same tension works in completely different genres, one through claustrophobic horror, the other through a slow, isolated journey about reconnecting a broken world.
GameBoost Products
“ Mustafa Atteya has been writing about gaming and esports since 2023, specializing in competitive game content and player improvement guides. At 25, he brings both hands-on gaming experience and professional SEO writing expertise to the GameBoost team.”
