25. Witchspire
Developer/Publisher: Envar Games | Release: June 10, 2026 | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC | Shop: Steam
What is Witchspire about? In Witchspire, you take on the role of a witch. You build your house, start collecting and breeding creatures, and then fight against various monsters and bosses on the map. The game looks cute and cuddly, but it is a real survival game.
You can play the witch game both solo and in coop. The game is currently in Early Access and is expected to stay here for 1 year.
What Witchspire does well:
- beautiful game world
- great freedom in the building system
- many creatures and nature spirits to collect and tame
- multifaceted system with magic, sword fighting, a large skill tree, and of course, broom riding
- Playable solo and in coop
Who is Witchspire for? If you are looking for a witch game that has some surprises, then you should take a look at Witchspire. On top of that, you get a hint of creature collecting that can be quite motivating. Witchspire is also an excellent alternative to Palworld if you prefer fantasy over firearms.
26. Romestead
Developer/Publisher: Beartwigs / Three Friends | Release: May 26, 2026 (EA) | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC | Shop: Steam
What is Romestead about? In Romestead, the known world has been overrun by a zombie horde. But instead of sending you into a post-apocalyptic scenario with firearms, Romestead takes place in ancient Rome or at least an era that looks like it.
Solo or with up to 7 other players, you build a city in a large, randomly generated game world and gather residents around you whom you have rescued from the zombies. At night, you must defend your settlement against the attacking hordes.
In addition, Romestead offers dungeons and bosses to fight and an extensive gods system.
What Romestead does well:
- Coop with up to eight players
- unconventional Roman setting
- randomly generated game world
- extensive building and skill system
- Strategy components for city building and management with manually adjustable production chains
Who is Romestead for? This survival game is suitable for anyone looking for a survival game in an interesting setting or who wants to fight zombies as a Roman centurion armed with sword and shield instead of guns. You can also find an extensive play report on MeinMMO: Romestead looks like a pixelated survival game, and after 15 hours I now know: it is much more
27. Windrose
Developer/Publisher: Kraken Express / Pocketpair Publishing (Japan) | Release: April 14, 2026 (Early Access) | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC (Steam)
What is Windrose? Windrose describes itself as a “PvE survival adventure in the age of pirates.” You build a hideout and a fleet alone or together with up to 8 players and explore a randomly generated game world with islands, dungeons, and enemy ships. You can also hire NPCs for crafting and thus grow stronger.
In combat against the various enemies, you have access to a wide arsenal of different weapons, such as sabers, halberds, great swords, and pistols. Of course, you also have your own ship – or ships if you farm diligently. Some reviewers also describe Windrose as “Pirate Valheim.”
What Windrose does well:
- well-captured pirate setting
- base and ship building and subsequent battles
- first-class sailing like in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag with atmospheric shanties with the same singer
- many weapons and options to fight your enemies
- Coop with up to 8 players; the developers recommend 4-player teams
- randomly generated game world
Who is Windrose for? Windrose is aimed primarily at players who enjoy the pirate setting, as known from Assassin’s Creed: Blackflag, with wild seas, shanties, and rough pirates.
At the same time, the game relies on an extensive survival system that includes base building, resources, and intense battles, which the developer himself calls Soulslike. You can read an extensive play report on MeinMMO:
28. Raft
Developer: Redbeet Interactive | Publisher: Axolot Games | Release: May 23, 2018 | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC | Shop: Steam
What is Raft? Raft, as the name suggests, takes place on a raft. You start on a small raft in the middle of the ocean and drift over the water, collecting driftwood to build and survive.
The challenge in Raft is to make progress despite the constant limitations. Due to the limited building options, Raft requires a lot of planning and skill.
What Raft does well:
- Inverted gameplay: Instead of dominating the world, you have to try not to be dominated yourself
- You have to create the possibilities available to you by yourself
- The vast ocean you explore makes Raft unique. You have no other choice but to constantly be on a journey if you don’t want to die
- The only one of our survival games where you always have your house with you and the resources come to you instead of having to return repeatedly
Who is Raft for? Anyone playing Raft should be prepared to think carefully about every step. Raft is a game for planners and strategists. Whether alone or in a group, due to the confined space, you always need to keep an eye on what you currently need and what is most important at the moment. Clear goals and tasks are a must for every player.
29. Bellwright
Developer: Donkey Crew | Publisher: Donkey Crew/Snail Games | Release: April 23, 2024 (Early Access) | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC | Shop: Steam
What is Bellwright about? You play in a fictional medieval world and are accused of murdering a prince. Now you are sentenced to death and try to incite a rebellion against the tyrannical rulers.
Bellwright is the new project of the makers of Last Oasis, after that game flopped and even the developers no longer thought well of it. The game fully focuses on PvE; you build cities and manage NPCs to keep the economy running, hire fighters, and conquer new territories.
What Bellwright does well:
- Coop with up to 4 players in a session
- a unique gameplay that combines battles like in Mount & Blade with building strategy in third-person
- full-fledged story that unfolds throughout the game
- Management and production chains instead of pure collection and crafting
Who is Bellwright for? If you liked Mount & Blade and want to play it as a coop survival game, Bellwright is just your game. Bellwright is not only visually oriented towards the battle game, Mount & Blade is a dedicated model.
Currently, Bellwright is still under development and is purely an Early Access title. The developers are now preparing for the official release at the end of 2026: The last major updates brought a completely new area, the Halmare Islands, and substantial improvements such as wall construction or a new road system.
30. Dune: Awakening
Developer: Funcom | Publisher: Funcom | Release: June 10, 2025 (Early Access) | Model: Buy-2-Play | Platforms: PC, PS5 and Xbox | Shop: Steam, PS Store, Xbox Store
What is Dune: Awakening about? Dune: Awakening is an open-world survival MMO where you start thrown right into the desert of Arrakis. On the desert planet, you secure your survival by searching for food and water, crafting items, and building a base.
What Dune: Awakening does well:
- The game world of Arrakis is visually and atmospherically strongly based on the book and film adaptation. Fans should feel at home in the world of Dune: Awakening.
- The game focuses on classic survival elements such as resource management, crafting, base building, and the constant struggle for survival in the inhospitable desert.
- Players can join groups or factions, complete missions together, and experience the game in PvE and PvP.
- Individual skill trees and faction systems provide long-term motivation and variety in the game.
Who is Dune: Awakening for? Fans of the survival genre will find innovative genre mixtures with MMO elements that promote cooperation and strategy. Both solo and group gameplay offers fun, especially in teams where the game unfolds its full potential.
Hidden gems: RimWorld, Frostpunk, Against the Storm
As a little bonus, we want to introduce you to RimWorld, Frostpunk, and Against the Storm. These games are not classical survival games but rather building strategy games that just have a survival aspect that particularly appeals to survival fans. The genre is now referred to as Survival City Builder
.
What is RimWorld about? In RimWorld, you play a group of people who land on a foreign planet with a spaceship that has crashed somewhere in space. Your task is now to build a new spaceship to escape.
Both the environment with heat, cold, or toxic rains and the indigenous population or bandit gangs make it difficult for you to survive. You can hunt, breed animals, or grow plants to survive.
What makes this game special is that your settlers have their own personalities. Each prefers something different or can do certain things better, and you must ensure that all areas are adequately occupied for the colony to function.
RimWorld still receives large updates and paid expansions regularly. In June 2025, for example, the new expansion Odyssey for RimWorld was released with plenty of new content.
What is Frostpunk about? In Frostpunk, you play in a similar manner. However, here the sun has been darkened by a volcanic eruption, and you must build and maintain a city on the ice planet Earth.
Frostpunk plays with the constant threat of cold, and you are constantly faced with difficult decisions that often require sacrifices. Will you really risk children’s health to provide enough warmth for the city, or will you take the risk that all machines fail to keep the little ones healthy?
Unlike RimWorld, however, you do not try to escape. Instead, the city continues to grow and thrive; more settlers come, whom you must save, and the management of resources, food, warmth, and infrastructure becomes increasingly complicated.
Meanwhile, the successor has been released; you can read a play report on Frostpunk 2 directly on MeinMMO.
What is Against the Storm about? The game strongly resembles Frostpunk, but with a more pronounced roguelite approach. You repeatedly build settlements that are meant to withstand a storm, only to inevitably be destroyed in the end.
Unlike Frostpunk and RimWorld, however, you do not play in a post-apocalyptic or sci-fi setting, but in a fantasy world. Your inhabitants are beavers, lizards, humans, and other beings, each with their own needs and abilities, somewhat similar to Anno.
Even though you keep losing, you earn some form of progress in Against the Storm for everything you do and try to keep moving forward. The game is my personal absolute hidden gem and my comfort game when I’m feeling down. I have now invested over 160 hours.
What makes both games so good:
- Simple but deep building strategy that requires tactics, finesse, and planning
- Consistently new, tricky tasks that you must solve to survive
- A certain pressure from the game to keep progressing so that everything runs smoothly
Who are the games for? RimWorld, Frostpunk, and Against the Storm are games that introduce survival fans to the building strategy genre. Those who enjoy typical survival scenarios but also want to try something new will find both RimWorld and Frostpunk to be the ideal entry point.
- RimWorld is available for PC and Mac via Steam, Epic Games Store, or GoG.com. There are now even versions for consoles including PlayStation (PS Store) and Xbox (Microsoft Store).
- Frostpunk is available for PC via Steam and also for PlayStation (PS Store) and Xbox (Microsoft Store).
- Against the Storm can be found here on Steam and in the Xbox Game Pass.
A similar game is The Tribe Must Survive, which is harder than it looks:
Outlook: These survival games are still to come
Blind Descent
Blind Descent is an upcoming survival game in which you must explore Mars alone or with up to three friends to find a lost team.
You will explore an unknown planet, discover new life forms, and like in every survival game, collect resources to craft new tools and weapons and later to build buildings.
When and where is the release? The game is expected to be released only on Steam. According to the developers, work on the game has been going on since 2019, and there is no official date for the release or early access yet.
ARK 2
After ARK: Survival Evolved is now more or less finished, a second part is set to be released. You will dive back into a world full of dinosaurs, even if little is known about the story so far. However, the Hollywood star Vin Diesel appeared as one of the characters in the reveal trailer. We expect:
- a colorful world with different biomes
- all possible kinds of dinos and creatures to fight and tame
- a hidden story that can be uncovered through secrets and exploration
- high replayability and years of support with DLCs and updates
When and where is the release? We don’t know exactly when ARK 2 will be released, but it is now expected to happen sometime in 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Versions for PS4, PS5, and Xbox One have not been announced yet. Read more about it in our hub for release, trailer, and gameplay of ARK 2.
If you are looking for alternatives to these games that are less hardcore in terms of survival, there is a nice game called Aloft that primarily satisfies the explorer’s lust. Although I personally prefer the harder games, I found Aloft surprisingly enjoyable: I played a survival game that was way too cute for me, and still had fun
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!
Comments