Arkane Austin’s Prey is one of the finest science fiction games of the generation. It’s set on a large research-oriented space space overrun by the aliens it tried to study.
The Typhon are a dangerous species with incredible adaptive ability, and you’ll spend a lot of time studying their traits… and trying to stay alive.
The game is a perfect example of an immersive sim, with a range of gadgets and unlockable powers, an open world environment ripe for exploration, and even a few important choices to make through gameplay and narrative choices.
It’s a ton of fun, but perhaps you crave a change of pace, playstyle or scenery without abandoning the kind of immersion offered by Prey. We’ve got you covered: most games on this list are science fiction like Prey, some of them are confined to a place cut off from the rest of the world one way or another, and all of them can match Arkane’s title in terms of immersive environments.
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Control Ultimate Edition | 2019-08-27 | Action | Remedy Entertainment |
 | Resident Evil 7 Biohazard | 2017-01-23 | Horror | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
 | Resident Evil 8 Village | 2021-05-07 | Horror | Capcom Development Division 1 |
 | System Shock 2 | 1999-08-11 | RPG | Irrational Games |
 | Singularity | 2010-06-30 | Horror | Raven Software |
 | System Shock Enhanced Edition | 2015-09-22 | Adventure | Looking Glass Studios |
 | Alien Isolation | 2014-10-06 | Action & Shooter | Creative Assembly |
 | Metro Exodus Gold Edition | 2019-02-22 | Action | 4A GAMES |
 | Metro 2033 Redux | 2014-08-27 | Horror | 4A GAMES |
 | Soma | 2015-09-21 | Adventure | Frictional Games |
 | Metro Redux Bundle | 2014-08-27 | Horror | 4A GAMES |
 | Stalker Bundle | 2007-03-20 | Adventure | GSC Game World |
 | Stalker 2 Heart Of Chornobyl | 2024-11-20 | RPG action | GSC Game World |
 | Dishonored Definitive Edition | 2012-10-11 | Action | Arkane Studios |
 | Dishonored 2 | 2016-11-11 | Action | Arkane Studios |
 | Deus Ex Collection | 2017-01-06 | Adventure | Automata Source |
 | Deus Ex Goty | 2000-06-22 | RPG | Ion Storm |
 | Deus Ex Mankind Divided | 2016-08-23 | RPG | Eidos Montreal |
 | Deus Ex Human Revolution Directors Cut | 2013-10-25 | Action & Shooter | Eidos Montreal |
 | Deus Ex The Fall | 2014-03-18 | Adventure | SQUARE ENIX |
 | Bioshock The Collection | 2016-09-15 | Adventure | 2K Australia |
 | Bioshock Infinite | 2013-03-25 | RPG | Aspyr (Mac) |
 | Bioshock Triple Pack | 2013-03-25 | Action | Irrational Games |
 | Dead Space Remake | 2023-01-27 | Action | Motive Studios |
 | Dead Space 3 | 2013-02-08 | Adventure | Visceral Games |
Dishonored
| Release date: | 2012-10-12 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Arkane Studios |
It shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the games similar to Prey would be another production from Arkane.
The similarity is mostly in the gameplay design philosophy, emphasizing immersive and dynamic interactions between player character, gadgets, and powers with the environment. If that’s what you need, Dishonored has that in spades, but the setting is very different.
In Dishonored you’re thrown into the city of Dunwall, a fantasy metropolis inspired by 19th-century London and Edinburgh. Dishonored is divided into several discrete missions, each presenting a large, engaging sandbox. Each mission is a different target for your supernaturally gifted assassin on a mission to save the daughter of a tragically murdered Empress Jessamine.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Control
| Release date: | 2019-08-27 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | Remedy Entertainment |
Moving closer to modern setting, Control takes place in the modern-day USA, nominally.
The game’s confined to the unrealistically spacious interiors of a brutalist building holding the Federal Bureau of Control, an agency specializing in containment of supernatural items and phenomena. Which usually worked great, until the FBC became overrun by alien entities known as the Hiss.
It’s a great setup, and not far from Prey’s own alien situation. You even get a few cool telekinetic powers in addition to a shapeshifting gun. Control, from developer Remedy, taps into a very different kind of weirdness, however, one inspired by the SCP Foundation. Oh, the FBC HQ is also an open world in a Metroidvania style, opening up to you as you unlock new zones.
| Key features |
|---|
|
System Shock (series)
| Release date: | 2023-05-30 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | Nightdive Studios |
System Shock games are something of a grandparent of immersive sims, and it’s no stranger to space stations and spaceships overrun by an antagonistic and dangerous force.
Although it’s System Shock 2 that’s probably the most influential, the original one has been recently remade, making it a lot more accessible. And while it lacks SS2’s brain parasites, it does take place on a space station.
Specifically, the Citadel Station owned and controlled by the TriOptimum Corporation. Which is a big target for a lowly hacker like you, and that ambition puts you in trouble. Thankfully, all you need to do is hack a certain AI and your transgressions will be forgiven. Oh, if only things could be that simple. The situation goes sideways fast, and you’re left with a huge problem to solve.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Bioshock
| Release date: | 2007-08-21 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | 2K Australia |
Remember that bit about System Shock being influential? That’s one of the key examples.
BioShock is set in 1960 in a fictional underwater city of Rapture, once touted as a utopia free from government oversight, now breaking apart, divided, and with violent Splicers roaming the corridors. And then there are you, a plan crash survivor who has to navigate this hostile situation.
BioShock is a fantastic, immersive experience with a fair share of tense combat, and plenty of weirdness involved, mostly due to the fantastical substance called ADAM, which can be processed to grant people incredible powers at the cost of addiction. The story also has a certain twist which we won’t spoil in case you haven’t heard of it yet, but it is quite impressive.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Deus Ex (series)
| Release date: | 2000-06-22 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Ion Storm |
The Deus Ex series is a great pick, if your search for something like Prey requires a down-to-earth science fiction world with a cool aesthetic more than a claustrophobic scenario.
The games present cyberpunk-adjacent urban landscapes in a version of Earth where cybernetic and nanotechnological augmentations can change people’s lives… and not necessarily for the better.
Deus Ex, particularly the most recent Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, pull double duty as first-person RPGs and action/stealth games. The plots always involve nefarious corporate conspiracies, thankfully you’re well-equipped to deal with them. Your skills are already formidable, and augmentations range from social enhancers to becoming a shrapnel dispenser.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Dead Space Remake
| Release date: | 2023-01-27 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | Motive Studios |
Dead Space has a few things in common with Prey, including a protagonist untrained in combat, a setting surrounded by deadly outer space, and enemies with upsetting, form-defying shapes.
Unfortunately, while Prey’s Typhon were mostly inky blobs, Dead Space’s Necromorphs are fleshy constructs made from recombined dead bodies and animated by an alien intelligence.
Dead Space goes all in on being a horror experience, with claustrophobic corridors, horrific enemies, and a cosmically terrifying mystery lying at the center of nightmares inflicted upon the protagonist, Isaac Clarke. Isaac is just an engineer, grossly unprepared to deal with the situation on USG Ishimura. If you thought Prey’s Talos I station was too cozy, give DS a chance.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Alien: Isolation
| Release date: | 2014-10-06 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Creative Assembly |
Another horror game on the list, this time mostly set on a space station in the process of having its crew killed by a xenomorph on the loose.
That’s right, Alien: Isolation is set in the same universe as Ridley Scott’s iconic science fiction horror, and stars Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda in the leading role. Her search for Ellen, lost in cryosleep, is what led her to the unlucky space station.
The game perfectly recreates the aesthetic of the original movie, and it does wonders for immersion in the setting. Exploration of the station is fraught with danger, not just from the iconic monster, and you’re in for many tense moments of both stealth and action in riveting first-person perspective. It’s both a great horror game and a fantastic adaptation of a beloved franchise.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Soma
| Release date: | 2015-09-21 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Frictional Games |
Your last memory was from 2015, a cranial scan preserving your consciousness before the injuries claimed you…and now it’s 2104, you’re in some underwater stations that looks like it’s on its last legs, and there’s virtually nobody around.
Soma is the last full-on horror game on the list, and while you’ll find plenty of danger, the key draw is the atmosphere, as expected from creators of Amnesia.
Exploration, solving puzzles and conundrums, and life-saving stealth all serve the story about what happened on the station. The theme of preserving consciousness digitally past the body’s lifespan a constant presence in the plot, emphasized not only by people communicating with you, but also people who were forcefully turned into violent cybernetic mutants by a rampant AI.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Metro (series)
| Release date: | 2014-08-27 |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Developer: | 4A GAMES |
Metro 2033 and its sequels are set twenty years after Earth was rocked by a nuclear conflict, with only pockets of humanity surviving.
You’re playing as Artiom, a member of such a community which survived in the Moscow metro tunnels. Unfortunately, it’s not all cozy and safe, as the tunnels are also home to enemy factions and dangerous mutants.
The series evolved across three entries, up to the open world environment of Metro: Exodus, and Artiom and his family develop with it. The Metro games are a great option if you’d like a change of scenery from the hi-tech interiors of Prey or many other games on the list, and would rather experience some grittier, but just as engaging and thrilling, science fiction.
| Key features |
|---|
|
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
| Release date: | 2007-03-20 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | GSC Game World |
The STALKER series is getting a little bit long in the tooth, having started in 2007, and the development of STALKER 2 has already been subject to many delays.
With all that said, playing the games is still worth your while, because they are just great science fiction stories in a fascinating setting and rich and satisfying gameplay mixing a shooter with survival horror.
The games take place in the alternate history version of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. There was another catastrophe, which resulted in the nearby reality becoming unstable, creating zones of extremely weird phenomena… and many valuable artifacts gathered and sold by the titular Stalkers. There are three installments so far, and each presents a fantastic, immersive, experience.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Science fiction worlds before your eyes
Welcome to the end of the list! Hopefully, the journey got your eyes on something that matches the vibe you’re looking for after playing Prey and you’re already planning to explore new places full of alien phenomena, weird gadgets, and plenty of problems to solve through ingenuity and determination.
From space-age science fiction and gritty post-apocalypses to quick delves into the paranormal and supernatural, there should be something for everybody!