By Open-world survival games are one of my favorite genres that always puts me in a good mood after a session.
The way they combine the freedom of a vast open map with the ability to craft and build your own home in that world makes them perfect for a relaxing gaming session where you also feel productive.
I got addicted to this genre during the early access days of Rust. I spent more than 300 hours in the game, and I wasn’t even doing PVP.
After getting bored of Rust, I went looking for more games like it. That’s when I came across these games.
In this list, you’ll find some of the best open-world survival games where you can craft, build, and survive. Whether you like fantasy worlds, post-apocalyptic worlds, or massive desert worlds, there’s a game for each and every one of you here.
1. Enshrouded
When it comes to survival crafting games with a fantasy RPG vibe, Enshrouded takes the throne. It offers a combination of features that’s unmatched by any other survival game.
Enshrouded is a lot like a blend of Skyrim and Minecraft. It has a massive open-world map with questing, unique locations for exploring, a skill tree for leveling, and most importantly, deep crafting and building for even creating cities inside the game.
I especially liked Enshrouded because it’s very solo-friendly. You can play offline in single-player mode and have the entire open world to yourself.
Combat in this game is also quite satisfying, which is something very important for me when playing survival games.
2. Valheim
Valheim is a sandbox-style survival crafting game that gives you the freedom to go at it however you like. You can explore, build, and fight challenging bosses and do much more in this game.
The sandbox nature of this game lets you set your own goals as well. The main gameplay loop of Valheim is upgrading your gear and fighting big bosses. But if you’re not into boss fights, you can also choose to explore the map. Or even plan a massive base and build it.
Valheim is a tiny game that only takes up about 5GB of space. And it also doesn’t require high-end PC specs to run the game. All this makes Valheim one of the greats in the survival crafting genre.
3. RuneScape: Dragonwilds
RuneScape: Dragonwilds plays a lot like Enshrouded. In a way, it feels like they copied each other. The two games were even released very close to each other. They are both good open-world survival games, but Enshrouded is the better game in comparison.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds takes place in the same RuneScape universe, except this game is all about survival and crafting. Dragonwilds has questing, building, crafting, exploring, and all the good stuff.
It’s an impressively designed and addictive survival crafting game. However, once you get to a certain point in the game, it gets a bit repetitive. And the world starts to feel lonely as well. For these reasons, Dragonwilds is best played co-op with friends.
4. Dune: Awakening
When I started playing Dune: Awakening, I immediately fell in love with the game. I loved it so much that I started watching the movies and then bought the entire set of the book series, all because of the game.
Dune: Awakening features a beautiful open-world map where there’s nothing but the desert, which is the home of the giant sandworm that will eat you up if you stay in the sand for too long.
The survival elements and the crafting aspect of this game are brilliantly designed in a way that gives you a sense of progression every time you unlock a new blueprint. The questing and exploration aspect of the game is also quite addictive.
I started playing the game without having any knowledge of the Dune universe. And now I’m a complete Dune fan. The game is welcoming to both newcomers and veterans of the franchise.
5. The Long Dark
Exploration takes a huge role in The Long Dark. This game puts you in a brutal and frozen world where you have to plan every journey before heading out.
The Long Dark has both a story mode with a single-player campaign and a survival mode. The survival mode is brutal, and it’s permadeath. If you die, you have to start over. The massive map encourages exploring, but surviving it is not easy, especially when you also have to deal with the cold.
The Long Dark is one of the few games that defined an era in the survival genre. Even though it’s one of the older titles in the list, it still holds up in terms of gameplay. And the game goes on sale often, so it’s totally worth grabbing.
6. Rust
I spent hundreds of hours in Rust playing on PvE servers. That’s the beauty of this game. You don’t have to play on PVP servers with sweaty players raiding your base all the time. There are plenty of custom servers to choose from.
I mostly played Rust for the crafting and looting aspect of the game. It was so addictive to go on a loot run and get back to craft the best gear. I also ran a shop of my own to make some scraps, the real currency in the game.
Rust is great for co-op play as well as solo play. Monthly wipes also give you a reason to just go crazy with your builds and set your own goals.
7. Permafrost
Permafrost is one of the newest titles in this list. It follows a similar setting to The Long Dark with its cold, frozen open world, except with a more focus on crafting and realism.
Permafrost is a story-driven survival crafting game that has an engaging story campaign. It’s ideal for both single-player and co-op play.
Much like The Long Dark, exploration is at the core of Permafrost. In fact, the game progression is locked behind exploration itself. The further you explore and discover the map, the higher you can level up and progress.
For an early access game, Permafrost shows great potential and already has very positive feedback from the community.
8. Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid is a different style of survival game where you play in a top-down perspective view. This game may not look like much at first glance, but it has some of the deepest survival mechanics in any game I’ve played.
In Project Zomboid, every run is like a permadeath run. You have to start over when you die. And when a zombie bites you, it can infect you. You need to scavenge and craft to find everything in this game. If you find a can of meat, you then need to find a can opener to open it.
Project Zomboid is brutal, but it gets super fun and addictive the more you play it. The modding scene is also impressive. Recently, I saw a first-person mod that completely transforms the game as well.
9. Windrose
Windrose is a pirate-themed survival crafting game where you not only get to live the pirate life but also explore and fight mysterious enemies.
Windrose features a fairly decent base-building system where you can build a home where you do all the crafting. It also lets you explore the sea in your own pirate ship, which you can use to explore various islands with mysteries to uncover.
Windrose is still in early access, so in terms of content, it’s a bit limited. The crafting system and the base-building system definitely need improvements. But the game has good exploration and loot that rewards your time.
10. Abiotic Factor
Abiotic Factor is a fun sci-fi-themed survival crafting game that is ideal for co-op play with friends. Of course, it supports solo play as well.
In this game, you become a scientist with a specific specialty, and you are tasked with exploring a massive science facility that’s filled with weird monsters, artifacts, and paranormal stuff.
To survive, you need to explore, scavenge, and build your own base of operations to craft gear, cook food, and face every enemy lurking at your doorstep.
11. Palworld
If you’re a fan of creature collecting games, Palworld will surely get you hooked. This game obviously takes inspiration from Pokemon and it’s not afraid to show it.
In Palworld, collecting and training weird creatures is the core part of the main gameplay loop. But it also has survival elements such as farming, crafting, building structures and factories, and much more.
Exploration is another rewarding part of the game where you can enter dungeons to fight monsters.
I wasn’t a big fan of the weird-looking creatures in this game, and I wasn’t a fan of Pokemon either. So I couldn’t get into this game. But it could be fun for most people.
12. Don’t Starve
Don’t Starve is different from all of the survival games on this list. It features a unique art style with a top-down perspective view, and it combines fun dark humour to create a different kind of survival experience.
Don’t Starve has a world that’s out to get you. It also challenges you with seasonal threats and creatures that get worse as you progress through the game.
Going out into this world, gathering resources, and crafting the tools you need to survive is the core gameplay loop of Don’t Starve.
It’s definitely not a game for everyone. Especially the art style can be a deal-breaker for some players who prefer immersive worlds and characters. But it’s one of the most creative survival games out there.
13. 7 Days to Die
7 Days to Die is mainly about building and upgrading your base to survive waves of zombie attacks. To do this, you need to venture out into a post-apocalyptic world and gather resources.
The game gives players a great sense of progression by rewarding you with new recipes, crafting benches, and base upgrades as you progress through the game.
Every 7th day, you get to defend your base from a huge zombie horde. These zombie attacks, however, are at the core of the gameplay, which will get more difficult in each round.
14. Icarus
Icarus is another impressive open-world survival game that offers immersive and engaging gameplay systems that reward your time and efforts. But there’s a reason why it’s ranked all the way down here.
After getting dropped into an alien world, you now have the only goal of surviving this world with the tools you’ve got. You start with very primitive tech and slowly progress towards better equipment and gear.
You progress by exploring, gathering resources, building bases, and crafting gear. The game itself is brilliant, but the price is not.
Icarus base game costs around $35, but the base game has a very limited amount of content. For the full game, with all the DLCs, the total goes well over $200. That price tag is the only reason I would avoid this game.
