Science fiction, often shortened to just Sci-Fi, is a genre of speculative fiction that spans numerous subgenres like fantasy or horror, in settings that usually involve futuristic concepts like advanced technology, time travel, alien life, and much more. From H. G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’ science fiction novel released in 1898 to the introduction of Superman in ‘Action Comics #1’ released in 1938, the world and works of science fiction have spanned across generations, tracing its roots all the way back to ancient mythology, with its exact definition having long been disputed over time.
But while the Sci-Fi concept has grown and spread across the centuries, coming to life in the form of novels, comic books, television series, cartoons, and major motion pictures alike, it is also no stranger to the medium that might just be best suited for the concept. Obviously, I’m talking about video games.
From X-COM to Dead Space, Half-Life to Fallout, Doom to Stray, and too many more to name, the world of interactive fiction is well-suited for Sci-Fi designs of all shapes and sizes to come to life in brilliant, beautiful new ways.
In this Top 20 list, I’ll be telling you about 20 of the best Sci-Fi games that you can find on Steam today, recommended to you not just by me, but by the mountains of positive reviews that these titles have received over time. So if you’re looking to use this list as a way to find your next big Sci-Fi experience, then you might just be in luck, my friend.
So without further hoopla, let’s get right into this Top 20 list of Sci-Fi games you can find on PC today, dictated by reviews from the gamers who played them.
#20: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (PC/Mac/PS3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii/Nintendo DS/iOS/Android)
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Trailer
A solid start to our list, rounding out at the #20 spot is the combined duo of award-winning titles based on one of the most notable Sci-Fi brands out there, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The entire story of Star Wars, from The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi, is told through many entertaining levels filled with creative and lighthearted writing that’s become a staple of the Lego video game brand over the years.
The Complete Saga received critical acclaim over the years for bringing the Star Wars series to life in a brand-new fashion. When playing the game, each film has its own section of levels that goes through the entire plot of that particular film, levels which you can play in ‘Story Mode’ or ‘Free-Play Mode’, meaning that if you beat a level set in Attack Of The Clones in story mode, you can come back later while playing as Darth Vader or Qui-Gon Jinn in free-play mode. The levels are also filled with clever puzzles and contain dozens of collectibles that encourage multiple playthroughs of one level to make sure you find every little nook and cranny, making for an enjoyable sense of replayability all around.
I’m sure many readers will immediately feel some sense of nostalgia when seeing this game again, as I know I do just from writing about it. Though The Complete Saga is more of a staple of the Star Wars game genre rather than Sci-Fi as a whole, its Overwhelmingly Positive Steam score with 17,348 current reviews still puts it here in a well-earned #20 spot.
Regardless of whatever metaphorical box it should or shouldn’t be included in, I highly recommend that you give The Complete Saga a play, as not only is it a fun Star Wars game, but just an entertaining game in general.
Experience all your favorite moments from the first six iconic Star Wars films, retold through the humorous and entertaining world of Lego!
#19: Titanfall 2 (PC/PS4/Xbox One)
Titanfall 2 Official Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer
Powered by a heavily modified version of the Source engine, Titanfall 2 gives players a multitude of incredibly versatile ways to play when put on the battlefield. When running on foot as a Pilot, you have access to a wide array of weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, grenades, and more, while also having access to a variety of versatile movement options like the jump kit that allows double jumping and assists with parkouring through the map, along with grappling hooks and cloaking devices, giving the player virtually no limits to ways they can move through a map.
Paired with the pilots are several Titans to choose from, massive mecha-style robots that while much slower than a Pilot, come with their own wide array of devastating weapons and superior protection that adds a uniquely interesting and fun blend of ‘David and Goliath’ styles to put to use on the battlefield.
Though Titanfall 2 did release to generally favorable reviews and was highly enjoyed by its player base for its unique story setting and multiplayer gameplay, it would be wrong of me not to mention that since the spring of 2021, Titanfall 1 and 2 have suffered from crippling DDoS attacks that have caused multiplayer functionality to switch from playable to unplayable at uncertain intervals in time.
The single-player story mode remains unaffected by the attacks, but the status of the multiplayer servers in 2023 remains unknown. For the most part, you can still join games, but due to server issues and a general lack of communication from developers Respawn on the issues, I would say that you should take Titanfall 2’s multiplayer side with a grain of salt these days.
I’ll bring it back to a lighter note here by saying that despite all the issues the game faces nowadays, Titanfall 2 still has solid and enjoyable gameplay mechanics that make it one of the most unique FPS games out there, which still makes it deserving of a spot on this list.
With a single-player campaign that gives off a buddy-cop film type of feeling with you and your Titan fighting for your lives across multiple levels and multiplayer that still sees upwards of 1,500 daily players despite glaring issues, I’d recommend getting Titanfall 2 during a Steam sale event if you want to experience the excellent blood-pumping gameplay this title is known for.
Described as "frantic and exhilarating" by Destructoid’s Nic Rowen, Titanfall 2 puts players in the boots of a pilot of the mecha-inspired Titans and thrusts them into fast-paced combat against man and Titan alike.
#18: FTL: Faster Than Light (PC/Mac/Linux/Apple App Store)
FTL- Advanced Edition Trailer
In FTL, you start the game in a ship of your choosing with three crew members, whether they’re humans or something else like a giant mantis is up to you, right as your ship intercepts a data packet from the exclusively human and highly xenophobic Rebellion faction that’s currently on the verge of defeating the Galactic Federation.
With this information, the Federation could turn the tide of the war and secure themselves a victory, so it’s up to you and your crew to make it across several star systems while being hunted by the pursuing Rebels, facing various randomly generated challenges and hardships along the way. In this board game-inspired roguelike, will you and your crew survive the journey across the galaxy, or will you meet your end in the cold vacuum of space?
FTL was developed only by two men, Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, who became friends when they were both employees of 2K Games's Shanghai studio. After both recently left the company in 2011, they agreed to work together and tasked themselves to make FTL in a year’s time. Their efforts were well placed as the game was released to favorable reviews from Metacritic, IGN, and Gamespot among others, with many favorable comparisons to Star Wars and Star Trek being made.
Later on, the game won awards such as the Short-form Game of the Year 2012 award from PC Gamer and both the Excellence in Design award and the Audience Award, on top of being a finalist for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize award for the 15th Annual Independent Games Festival, among others.
FTL presents you with hundreds of text-based encounters that will force you to make difficult decisions as the captain of your vessel, intensely challenging space-based ship-to-ship combat, and a permadeath system that puts you at the edge of your captain’s chair while biting your nails throughout the entire journey.
If you want to survive in this game that’s got that signature hands-off, hard-hitting style the indie game genre is known for, you’ll have to be able to keep calm under pressure and be able to make tough choices. If you think you have what it takes to survive when the whole universe is against you, you should pick up FTL: Faster Than Light on Steam today.
It’s up to you to guide the crew of your starship to safety on the other side of the galaxy while pursued by hostile forces in this 2012 real-time strategy roguelike.
#17: Steins;Gate (PC/PS3/PS4/PSP/PS Vita/Xbox 360/iOS/Android)
STEINS;GATE Steam Trailer
Steins;Gate is set in the Akihabara district of Tokyo during the summer of 2010, one year after the events of the previous game ‘Chaos;Head’, and follows the protagonist Okabe Rintaro and his friends, a group of tech-savvy students who discover the means to send text messages into the past using a modified microwave.
In seeing just how far they can go with their discovery, Okabe and his friends begin causing major shifts in the timeline, and get entangled in a conspiracy with the mysterious SERN organization, who have invented their own faulty time machine that results in the deaths of whoever uses it, and an equally mysterious woman calling herself ‘John Titor’ who claims to be a time traveler from a dystopian future.
Steins;Gate has received much acclaim over the years, one of the most notable achievements being when it was voted #6 in a poll of "most tear-inducing games" of all time in Famitsu’s magazine back in 2011, along with many generally favorable to critically acclaimed reviews that complimented the game setting’s scenario, the enjoyable writing and characters, and the excellent usage of the visual novel medium to tell the game’s story, among other glowing compliments and praise. By December 2015, the Steins Gate visual novel series sold more than one million copies overall, cementing its status as one of the most well-known visual novels ever written and released.
With many different linear paths to choose from and endings to discover, an interesting setting, and the memorable slew of characters it possesses, Steins;Gate is a worthwhile addition to your visual novel collection if you’ve never seen it before. Its current Overwhelmingly Positive Steam Review score and overall acclaim make it a uniquely interesting addition to this list, and one you should check out today if you’re a fan of VNs all around.
The second game in the ‘Science Adventure’ series, Steins;Gate is a Sci-Fi visual novel from 2009 that inspired two manga series, an anime, and its own animated film.
#16: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC/Mac/PS3/Xbox 360/Xbox Backwards Compatibility/Nvidia Shield TV)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Official Trailer
Set in the year 2018 after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, we rejoin Raiden, a former child soldier and surprise protagonist of MGS2: Sons of Liberty, who is now a katana-wielding cyborg that fights for justice in a world rampant with Private Military Corporations that use advanced cyborg technology to make highly durable superhuman soldiers after the fall of The Patriots four years prior.
The main antagonists come in the form of rival PMC ‘Desperado Enforcement LLC’, a group that wants to destabilize peaceful nations across the world and preserve conflict, so they can reap both financial rewards and technological advancements made by the war economy. Raiden must use his superhuman cyborg strength and highly advanced high-frequency blade to defeat the rival cyborgs and other dangerous machines trying to destabilize the world, fighting for peace and the innocent to make sure that the world doesn’t fall into chaos once more.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is perhaps one of the most memorable installments in the Metal Gear franchise, as displayed by the recent ‘meme resurgence’ in recent years that massively boosted the game's popularity nearly a decade after it was released. The game is unique in the Metal Gear saga, where instead of focusing on stealth tactics and avoiding conflict wherever you can, Revengeance is an action-orientated hack-n-slash that focuses on combat using Raiden’s high-frequency blade, a weapon that utilizes ridiculously incredible technology that allows you to cleanly slice through virtually any object at will along a geometrical plane, including random items, vehicles, and even enemies.
The unique and well-designed gameplay, paired with the over-the-top story told through equally over-the-top acting, done so in a straight-faced serious manner that works incredibly well as is signature to the Metal Gear franchise, and a masterfully composed unique soundtrack all come together to make Revengeance one of the most well-made and memorable games of the 2010s.
This ‘parallel timeline’ continuation of the Metal Gear story is one of my favorite games on this entire list. If you’re strictly a fan of the original Metal Gear saga’s stealth gameplay you might not enjoy Revengeance much as the traditional Metal Gear games, but if you’re willing to look past that fact, you might just find yourself enjoying the highly insane, and highly enjoyable gameplay experience this game provides.
Whether you’re a fan of the Metal Gear franchise or not, I highly recommend that you give this game a purchase, as the fun gameplay, memorable characters, and banger soundtrack will not leave you disappointed, I guarantee it.
This unique title continues the story of the legendary Metal Gear franchise, where you play as the cyborg Raiden and face off against powerful and over-the-top adversaries in this incredibly memorable 2013 release.
#15: DOOM (2016) (PC/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch/Stadia)
DOOM – Launch Trailer
In 2016, Bethesda Softworks and id Software released this soft reboot of their original 1993 “overnight sensation” Doom. In DOOM (2016), you play as the Doom Slayer, who awakens chained to a sarcophagus inside the Union Aerospace Corporation’s facility on Mars as it's actively being invaded by the forces of Hell.
Breaking free from his chains and soon finding his ‘Praetor Suit’ of armor, the Doom Slayer sets out across Mars hellbent on brutally slaughtering every demon he comes across. As the only one who can stand up against the overwhelming armies of Hell, it’s up to you to stop Hell’s invasion into this universe before all of humanity is wiped out.
While the game did receive criticisms directed mostly toward its multiplayer mode, DOOM (2016)’s release was met with critical acclaim for its single-player gameplay, story, and fast-paced gameplay that many believed was a welcome return to form for the Doom series, with one such example being when GameSpot’s Peter Brown praised the reboot’s single-player as he thought it captured the spirits of the older games while refining them with modern elements.
Among many high-rated reviews, DOOM (2016) reached two million copies sold in June 2017, a year and two months after its release, and won multiple awards for its Sound Design, the Best Action Game award at The Game Awards 2016, among a handful of other award wins and dozens of other nominations. Overall, DOOM (2016) was an incredibly successful relaunch for the Doom brand, with DOOM Eternal following it soon after in 2020.
I’ve played through the original Doom at least half a dozen times, and though I haven’t yet gotten around to beating the entirety of this particular Doom title, I can safely say that what I have played so far makes it a game worth playing for any Doom fan or FPS fan in general. With the original Doom being one of the founding fathers of the modern FPS genre, many players beyond just myself can agree that this game is a worthy continuation of Doom’s legacy.
“They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.”
#14: Star Wars: Empire at War (PC/Mac)
Star Wars: Empire at War PC Trailer
The second Star Wars title on this Top 20 list is more of a traditional Star Wars title in the form of Empire at War, a Real-Time Strategy title built on the promise of ending the perceived mediocrity of previous Star Wars RTS games. A promise that it delivers on quite well with its unique take on the RTS genre, where instead of needing to create workers to build resource mines as per usual, you gain resources based on how many planets are under your control across the galaxy, with certain planets granting certain bonuses depending on which faction you’re playing.
17 years later, Empire at War and its DLC campaign Forces of Corruption still get players thanks to certain factors like an expansive modding scene, the version on Steam bringing back multiplayer servers after they were originally shut down, as well as the core gameplay of the game itself. Across its storyline-based campaign mode, the sandbox-style Galactic Conquest mode, and the more familiarly RTS-styled Skirmish mode, Empire at War offers many fun ways to play and gives you many different units to play with.
Both the Rebels and the Empire come with a vast array of ground troop units, a unique roster of vehicle units, hero units of familiar characters from across the films, as well as an equally deep selection of starships and cruisers big and small to choose from when engaging in space-based dogfights, making for an incredibly fun experience no matter if you’re fighting for freedom or tyranny.
I can recommend playing Empire at War to anyone who’s a fan of the RTS genre or a fan of Star Wars, as this game gives a unique spin to both genres through its solid core gameplay. If you want to free the galaxy with the Rebels, crush all resistance with an iron fist as the Empire, or perhaps just fight for whoever pays the most in the Forces of Corruption DLC campaign, either way, Empire at War won’t leave you disappointed.
In 2006’s Empire at War, you lead either the Rebellion or the Galactic Empire in large-scale battles either on land or in space across over 40 unique planets in the Star Wars galaxy.
#13: VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/PS Vita/Nintendo Switch)
Cyberpunk Bartender Action: VA-11 Hall-A Final Trailer
In the world of VA-11 Hall-A(or just Valhalla, as I’ll refer to it from now on), corporations reign supreme, all human life is infected with nanomachines designed to oppress them, and the formidably terrifying ‘White Knights’ ensure that everyone obeys the new world laws… but this isn’t a game about those people. In Valhalla, you play as Julianne “Jill” Stingray, the bartender of the eponymous ‘VA-11 Hall-A’, a small dive bar downtown that’s said to attract the most fascinating clientele.
Your objective in Valhalla is to serve drinks to whoever walks through your doors while listening to their stories and learning about the day-to-day lives of the cast of characters present in the game, who are described as the “average non-heroes”, characters which developers Sukeban Games noted as being inspired by side characters in movies who are never fully fleshed out.
The gameplay is ‘visual novel-like’, but instead of affecting how the story progresses through dialog options or story choices, the only influence the player has on the character dialogs is through the drinks they make and serve to the customers. Over time, Jill will learn more and more about her customers to the point where the player knows what kind of drink they’ll want by heart, resulting in intimate experiences that could lead to forming deep friendships.
I’m a real sucker for these pixel art-style short-story type indie games, and Valhalla has been one of those games on my radar for some time now. If you’re the same as me in that regard, I highly recommend you get Valhalla, whether it's for the unique and charming bartending gameplay, the cyberpunk dystopian world setting, the interactions that the characters can have, or just simply for the “waifus”. Valhalla is a relatively small game on this list, but overall this interesting “booze 'em’ up” game is a welcome addition here at #13.
In this ‘booze em’ up’ about waifus, technology, and post-dystopia life, you’re not the hero of a revolution, you’re the bartender in a small downtown bar that attracts the most fascinating people this side of dystopia.
#12: Half-Life (PC/Mac/Linux/PS2)
Half-Life (1998) - Official Trailer
In Half-Life you play as Gordon Freeman, a man who goes from your average everyday Theoretical Physicist to a warrior for humanity in the span of a 9-to-5 work day. Gordon must escape from the Black Mesa facility after a failed experiment causes the Resonance Cascade, an event that brings hostile alien life flooding into the underground facility, and in turn, causes equally hostile military personnel to invade with orders to kill everything and everyone inside. Will you be able to help Gordon survive in this blend of FPS, puzzle-solving, and horror genres that changed the gaming landscape in 1998?
I’m sure for many readers it would be obvious that Half-Life would end up on this list in some capacity, as much like the earlier mentioned Doom, Half-Life is another game that revolutionized the gaming industry across the board and changed industry standards forever back in the late 90s. With its award-winning gameplay and incredibly immersive setting, Half-Life is more than deserving of a spot anywhere on this list.
If you use Steam, or if you’ve just played games on a computer in any capacity in the past 25 years, chances are you’ve heard of Half-Life once or twice. And if you somehow haven’t, do yourself a huge favor and go buy it immediately so you can experience an exceptional Sci-Fi setting that tore the house down back in ‘98. Trust me when I tell you, it’s well worth the price of admission.
Theoretical Physicist Gordon Freeman was late to his new job at Black Mesa Research Facility one morning, and before he knew it he was caught in the middle of the most pivotal moment in human history.
#11: Oxygen Not Included (PC/Mac/Linux)
Oxygen Not Included [Official Launch Trailer]
In Oxygen Not Included, it’s up to you to manage every minuscule detail of your space colony, whose population are called Duplicates due to being ‘Duplicated’ out of the cloning machine that makes up the heart of your colony. From how many resources the Duplicates have to the amount of food you’ve got left in storage, to even the little things like having working toilets and enough beds to sleep in, you’ll have to keep close tabs on all of this and more, while simultaneously managing the most stressful resource of all: the amount of oxygen you have left.
It falls on your shoulders to lead your Duplicates from their humble beginnings stumbling around in the dark scrounging for survival to the construction of a prosperous and self-sustaining space colony, where one day you might even build a rocket ship to ascend into the stars. As long as you remember to breathe, you should be fine… probably.
Oxygen Not Included might be the most “Sci-Fi” of Sci-Fi games on this list. From having colonists-turned-survivors on another celestial body in color-coded shirts to the lingering sensation of dread overhead while you run on a giant hamster wheel to charge a battery, it’s got everything you’d want out of the genre. Though the game might be a challenge for more casual players, Oxygen Not Included is an overall hit according to Steam reviews, with the game enjoying a substantial Overwhelmingly Positive score on Steam with over 97,000 reviews at the time of writing.
Oxygen Not Included’s developers Klei Entertainment is one of my own favorite indie game studios out there today, with great titles like Don’t Starve, Invisible Inc., Shank and of course Oxygen Not Included having been made by them. If you think you have it in you to take your very own space colony under your watch and expand it so that they’re not only surviving but thriving, then Oxygen Not Included is the game for you.
Stranded underground inside a derelict asteroid with nothing but your wits, it's up to you to help your colony survive, grow, and thrive in this space-colony simulation survival game. Just don’t forget to breathe.
#10: Fallout: New Vegas (PC/PS3/Xbox 360)
Fallout: New Vegas Trailer - E3 2010
In the year 2281, 204 years after the world was destroyed in an all-out nuclear war, you are a mail courier for the Mojave Express postal service, where you take a job to deliver a Platinum poker chip that ends with you getting shot in the head by a mysterious man in a checkered suit. You later wake up in the house of a doctor, who fixes you up and brings you back to full health.
From here, you create your character and decide what kind of man or woman you want to be from now on, before setting out into the post-apocalyptic Mojave Wasteland on a quest to hunt down the man who shot you, a journey that will lead you to every corner of this vast wasteland, where you will commit actions and make decisions that will shape the history of the Mojave however you see fit.
Fallout: New Vegas, developed by the original Fallout creators Obsidian Entertainment and published by the IP’s current owners Bethesda Softworks, was released on October 19th, 2010, and less than a month later on November 8th, the game had already shipped five million copies worldwide and achieved a revenue of $300 million. New Vegas is viewed by many as one of the best games of the 2010s and even as the best Fallout game in general, where the choices you can make are virtually endless.
From letting you join the New California Republic to try and bring back old-world order and democracy to New Vegas, joining up with the xenophobic and violent Caesar’s Legion to take over New Vegas and kill anyone who dares oppose them, or even letting you choose your own independent path through the wastes, the freedom this RPG presents to you, along with a well-written overarching story, a fantastical and interesting setting, memorable characters, grizzly combat gameplay, and a vast open world to explore to your heart’s content, all when put together makes for one of the most engaging, fun and memorable RPGs ever released.
New Vegas is perhaps one of the best games out there to be in the #10 spot here, as even I can attest to the hundreds of hours I’ve spent playing through this game time and again. This sentiment is likely shared by the over 147,000 individual Steam users whose reviews put New Vegas into the Overwhelmingly Positive status it has today. The Fallout brand is one of my favorites, and not only that, it’s one of the few games that my own Dad has put hundreds of hours into as well, giving us the rare chance for me to gush about video games towards him and for him to actually understand what I’m saying. It’s just that good of a franchise, and New Vegas is just that good of a game.
That all being said, you shouldn’t hesitate to go and get your own copy of New Vegas if you don’t have one already, so you too can experience this legendary RPG and see for yourself why its high praise from many, many gamers worldwide is more than well deserved.
A seemingly normal courier job in the post-apocalyptic Mojave Wasteland leads you to get shot in the head and left for dead in the desert. After your miraculous survival, you begin a journey that might just change the wasteland forever.
#9: Satisfactory (PC)
Satisfactory Early Access Launch Trailer
We’re getting into the single digits now as I introduce to you: Satisfactory, a game where you are an employee working for FICSIT Inc. called a Pioneer, who is dropped onto an alien planet with a handful of tools with the task of using the world’s natural resources to construct factories of further and further complexity, in an endless cycle of harvesting materials to make your factories superior, so you can then construct even better means of harvesting materials, all with the overall purpose of completing the increasingly complex orders and demands sent down by your bosses for their unknown purposes.
In this first-person open-world factory-building game with a dash of exploration and combat, you can either play alone or with friends in your mission to expand your factory from a meager automated drill and a wood-powered generator to an explosive sea of complexly laid out conveyor belts, intricately built train systems, and so much more in the pursuit of building an automated haven of technological prowess to exploit this alien world’s natural resources with maximum efficiency.
The satisfying process of advancing in this game is strangely addicting, giving you the almost animalistic urge to keep playing just so you can keep upgrading your factories and make what you already have bigger and better than before, just because you can. This sentiment is clearly shared by many Satisfactory players, as it was reported that three months after the game was released to early access in March 2019 the game had already sold 500,000 digital copies, and based on data collection by Simon Carless, a video game industry businessman, in mid-2021 the game had made at least $11.5 million in revenue.
Satisfactory is a more hands-on take on the many classic ‘Tycoon’ games of yesteryear, and a rare case of me not being able to hold back from getting a game near-immediately after discovering it existed. If building your very own “conveyor belt heaven” as the devs like to call it sounds like something you would enjoy, as I myself and many others have enjoyed, don’t hesitate to give this strangely addicting title a try someday.
Venture to an uncolonized alien planet to exploit its natural resources through the use of automated city-sized factories to meet your company quota in Satisfactory.
#8: Dyson Sphere Program (PC)
Dyson Sphere Program Trailer
In a similar vein to the previous title on this list, Dyson Sphere Program places you as the leader of a project given by the space alliance COSMO to construct Dyson Spheres, unparalleled megastructures designed to be built around stars to directly harness their power and energy, to produce the energy humanity needs to power its new hyper-advanced supercomputer technology which lets humanity live in comfort inside a virtual reality simulation that makes up their modern society. In this title, it’s up to you to give humanity the power it needs by constructing the greatest industrial empire the universe has ever seen.
You start a game of Dyson Sphere Program with relatively limited resources and a ‘backwater’ space workshop, and you must use those resources to design an interstellar space factory and production lines while forming transport teams that deliver resources across the solar system to and from entirely separate planets. Over time, your small and humble space workshop will eventually be developed into a galaxy-wide industrial empire.
With many new technologies to discover, such as massive mecha suits to fly, sail, or jump through outer space with, you are left to roam an entire procedurally generated universe that makes every different playthrough unique. Every action you take, from building your first conveyor belt to having a stream of ships transporting goods from planet to planet, everything you do serves the grander purpose of prolonging humanity’s modern life by building your very own impossibly advanced Dyson Spheres.
Developers Youthcat Studio reported that within four days of their early access launch on Steam, Dyson Sphere Program had already sold over 200,000 copies, with the game reaching over 350,000 copies sold by the end of the first week. Additionally, the game reached over 1.7 million copies sold by September 2021, just eight months after launch. Dyson Sphere Program was inspired by other notable Sci-Fi PC games such as Factorio but found success thanks to its own unique spin on the factory-building formula, which has helped it stand out and earn an Overwhelmingly Positive ranking on Steam with over 65,000 user reviews.
Much like with Satisfactory, if expanding your profit margin to be even bigger than the galaxy itself sounds like a welcoming cup of tea to someone like yourself, you should pick up a copy of this early access gem today.
It’s up to you to set out into the universe with the sole purpose of building massive Dyson Spheres around stars to harness their energy for the most advanced supercomputer ever constructed.
#7: Subnautica (PC/Mac/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S/Nintendo Switch)
Subnautica Cinematic Trailer
Subnautica begins with the protagonist Ryley Robinson, a Non-Essential Systems Maintenance Chief becoming the sole survivor of The Aurora, an intergalactic starliner that is currently crashing under unknown circumstances while orbiting an ocean planet. Waking up in your currently-aflame escape pod, you quickly repair said pod before stepping outside and seeing the massive wreck of the Aurora in the distance, surrounded by nothing else except water as far as the eye can see.
Now, you’re left to fight for your survival in the vain hope of returning home. Stuck in an unknown alien world all alone, there’s nobody else to keep you company except for your helpful onboard AI companion, and the undersea life that comes in endlessly different shapes and sizes, and potentially with hostile intentions…
Subnautica is an open-world crafting survival game that in the loosest of senses could be compared to the likes of games such as Minecraft, only instead of building with blocks, in this game, you’re left to survive in the depths of an alien ocean planet where you must hunt for food and craft superior tools, new vehicles, and even expansive underwater facilities to serve in your efforts of surviving under the waves.
The only way to go is down in Subnautica, so you must build yourself better dive suits and diving gear to venture deeper and deeper into the darkness below, where you will find not only better resources to aid in your survival, but also newer, stranger, and more hostile forms of ocean life that ultimately serves to make Subnautica one of the most unique, and perhaps terrifying, open-world survival games out there.
I’ll be frank here when I say: I hate this game. Not because the gameplay is bad or anything like that, far from it even as I do very much enjoy the core gameplay, but because being met by unknown horrors while swallowed in the darkness of the ocean’s depths is something that terrifies me the more I think about it, leading me to usually chicken out of a run in this game at a certain point.
But for those of you who can properly stomach a game like Subnautica unlike this wuss, I definitely recommend you give this game a try if you want to see if you can survive against all odds in this stand-out survival game from 2018.
After your deep-space transport mysteriously crashes onto an unknown world, you are left as the sole survivor and stranded on a massive ocean planet with no other lifeforms but those that await you in the ocean’s dark depths.
#6: Stray (PC/Mac/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/ Xbox Series X/S)
Stray Gameplay Trailer | Sony State of Play June 2022
Lost, alone, and separated from family in this game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive, Stray might just be the most unique title on this Top 20 list. You play as a stray cat that gets separated from its pack and trapped inside a decaying underground cybercity, isolated from the outside world and abandoned by all life…
Save for the artificial intelligence robot assistants who were left behind by humanity, thus leaving them with nothing but to wander the city streets indefinitely. Being a small cat in a big new world, you’re left to roam through places high and low while defending against unforeseen threats and solving mysteries in this unwelcoming city inhabited by strange creatures and curious robots alike.
After meeting and befriending an AI named B-12 who inhabits the body of a small drone, you and the drone work together in a quest to try and escape the city. This adventure game gives players a unique experience by putting them in the role of a cat and thus giving them unique means of traversing the surrounding city environment while interacting with various objects, along with other additional cat-based activities, from sleeping to snuggling up to the robot denizens of the city, or just annoying them instead if you see fit.
After a generally positive response upon release, multiple awards won and dozens more nominations, and it sitting pretty at an Overwhelmingly Positive status on Steam with over 110,000 reviews, Stray is one of the most unique and most successful games of 2022.
If you’re a fan of adventure games with creatively written stories and fun gameplay elements that involve knocking over paint cans and messing with random vending machines to progress, or maybe even just for the fun of doing it, I can confidently say this standout from last year and standout star of this Sci-Fi list is well worth checking out.
In Stray, instead of a gun-toting action hero, you play as a stray cat who roams the backstreets of a forgotten dystopian city.
#5: Deep Rock Galactic (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S)
Deep Rock Galactic - 1.0 Launch Trailer
Hoxxes IV is home to one of the most dense and diverse collections of hostile alien lifeforms ever encountered, thus making it the most dangerous planet in the known galaxy. But it is also the most lucrative planet for the intergalactic mining company ‘Deep Rock Galactic’ thanks to it being so “unreasonably rich” in valuable and rare minerals, and with Deep Rock Galactic being unreasonably determined to strip every cent of value out of this rock, they send in the only miners willing, capable, and able to get the job done down in the depths of Hoxxes: the DWARVES.
Entering us into our top five on this is a perfect example of an amazing blend of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre tropes, Deep Rock Galactic. In this game, you play as one of four customizable classes of Dwarven miners who are sent to the planet Hoxxes IV, where you play through a wide variety of different objective-based mission types across ten unique environment biomes, but the real kicker of playing these missions is that the entire game is set in cave systems that are entirely procedurally generated on top of being 100% destructible through any means you can manage.
This completely random level system makes DRG one of the most unique 1-4 player Co-Op titles on the market today, taking that classic ‘Left 4 Dead-like’ style of four players against an infinite horde of enemies and giving it its own unparalleled spin through the use of innovative gameplay mechanics, a wide array of customization for your dwarves, well written and humorous voice lines and interactions given by the dwarves, various difficulty levels to conquer and overcome, and much more that gives this game plenty of replayability and then some.
Deep Rock Galactic sits at a well-deserved Overwhelmingly Positive score on Steam with over 185,000 individual reviews. When I first bought DRG I couldn’t put the game down for months, and I still boot it up often to mindlessly blast through waves of bugs with a smile on my face all the while.
One of my favorite moments playing the game was when I launched my own game lobby, and after 10 minutes of playing as the Driller class alone, 3 players joined one after another and all picked Driller themselves. At first, this annoyed me, but soon I was laughing to myself like an idiot as we all began spouting pro-Driller rhetoric that culminated when we all decided to get absolutely smashed beyond belief at the Abyss Bar on our space station before setting out into the next mission. And if you haven’t played DRG, drinking that much beer permanently makes your screen distorted and blurred throughout a mission, which only added to the headache-inducing laughing fit those few hours ended up giving me thanks to the random chance of three strangers deciding to all do the same joke.
If it wasn’t obvious already, I recommend you try D.R.G. A.S.A.P. if you enjoy shooters, dwarves, beer, or anything above and beyond. It’ll be well worth your time, I promise you.
Deep underground on the most dangerous planet in the galaxy, four dwarves fight an endless infestation of deadly alien bugs all for the sake of mining gold and getting rich. Rock & Stone!
#4: Half-Life 2 (PC/Mac/Linux/PS3/Xbox/Xbox 360/Android)
Half-Life 2 Original Trailer
He was no hero in his old life, but ever since the Black Mesa Incident that changed the course of Earth’s history forever, Gordon Freeman has become a symbol of hope in the world of Half-Life 2. Freed from his stasis and placed 20 years into the future, Gordon is needed once again to help save a world he no longer recognizes. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world, and right now this world needs a man like Gordon Freeman.
It’s no surprise to most that Valve’s legendary Half-Life series has multiple places on this one list alone, and in truth, the ranking of the highly anticipated and highly praised Half-Life 2 is more than well earned here at #4.
From the groundbreaking Source engine that debuted with Half-Life 2 in 2004 to the incredible gameplay and signature top quality Valve storytelling, there’s not really much that I need to say that hasn’t been said already regarding what makes this game both a worthwhile addition to this list, and more importantly yet another generation-defining title in the Half-Life Saga. If you’ve gotten this deep into this list and somehow don’t know anything about Half-Life 2, just do yourself a favor and pick up the game right now for an absolute steal of a $9.99 price tag.
The grim desolation combined with the more grounded setting of Half-Life 2’s world, and the hope for a better tomorrow that you bring the dispassionate and world-worn citizens you encounter in this game as Gordon Freeman, altogether makes Half-Life 2 a great story. And when you combine it with the groundbreaking Source engine gameplay, it becomes a great game as well. All around, the Half-Life franchise has earned its place in history, and it’s especially earned its multiple spots on this list.
Gordon Freeman returns in this game-changing sequel to Valve’s flagship title that revolutionized the FPS genre back in 1998.
#3: Half-Life: Alyx (PC/Linux)
Half-Life: Alyx – Official Gameplay Trailer #3 (Combine Shootout)
The third and final Half-Life title on this large list of highly praised Sci-Fi games is none other than Half-Life: Alyx, the prequel game where you play as Alyx Vance five years before the events of Half-Life 2, where all the usual bells and whistles the Half-Life brand is beloved for return in full force, only this time it’s done so in the world of Virtual Reality. In an expansive world set in the all too familiar City 17, Alyx provides players with an experience that is not just unique to Half-Life but is a testament to the potential that Virtual Reality games have when really, truly done right.
In Half-Life Alyx, you have to help lead the titular protagonist in her goals of resisting the Combine’s dictatorship, the alien overlords who rule over Earth with an iron fist after the events during the Black Mesa incident led them to conquer the planet in just seven hours. In the game, virtually every cabinet, locker, box, and whatever else can be opened, broken into, or smashed to reveal the prizes that might be hidden within, encouraging players to explore the world as much as they can while progressing through the story in a fashion that is uniquely well suited for the VR world.
Alyx also features dozens of those little touches that Valve is known for which really make you feel like you’re in the shoes of Alyx Vance herself as she scrounges through the ruins of City 17 to reach her next objective, intent on bringing the Combine down a peg no matter what. Even when just watching footage of the game, it’s not difficult at all to see how this game got the critical acclaim that it did, and how it ended up in the top 3 of this list.
If you have the means to acquire a VR headset to play Alyx with, such as Valve’s own Index VR headset that this game was specifically designed alongside, you absolutely should sink the cost for this game and give it a whirl. With over 71,000 Steam users putting it at yet another Overwhelmingly Positive score, all signs point to “yes”, this game is absolutely worth the wait for the gameplay and story that it gives in return.
Fans were returned to the world of Half-Life once again after a 12-year hiatus in the form of this VR Prequel to Half-Life 2.
#2: RimWorld (PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Xbox One)
RimWorld Launch Trailer
When launching a new RimWorld game, you have the choice of three AI “Storytellers”, modeled after the AI Director from Left 4 Dead, that analyze your colony's situation and randomly generate an event that it believes would make the best story. Because more than being a brutally hard-hitting colony survival simulator set on an alien world, RimWorld is a “Storytelling Game” akin to the iconic Dwarf Fortress. Keeping your colony running involves managing your survivor’s needs, moods, individual wounds, and illnesses, while simultaneously staving off threats that range from opportunistic pirates, savage tribal raiders, and even an overwhelming swarm of murderously rabid squirrels.
RimWorld offers a virtually endless supply of things to do. If pirates try to invade your base, you can take their abandoned wounded and bring them back to health so they join your colony as new survivors, or you can form caravans to either trade with other factions or even pack up and move your colony to an entirely new place in the fully generated world, among hundreds of other things I can’t fully describe in this one post. But I will, however, talk about one of my favorite aspects of the game real quick: the survivors.
In RimWorld, your beginning colonists are three passengers of a crashed passenger liner who survived using escape pods, and each individual colonist has their own wide selection of individual skills and backstories, such as one survivor being a journalist, while the other is a retired soldier, or maybe just an accountant. Each character also possesses unique traits that range from being a nobleman, to a scientist, to even a nudist, and on top of that, each survivor can either create or destroy relationships with other colonists. All of these many facts and more put together make for an incredible ant-farm viewing experience in the world of RimWorld, and you really will need to just check it out for yourself to fully understand the depth you can achieve in this game.
RimWorld’s Overwhelmingly Positive status on Steam is achieved through the 140,00+ user reviews. The game also won awards such as Indie DB’s Indie of the Year award in 2016, and in 2018 the game was voted Steam’s Top User-Rated Game from all categories. If all of this sounds like a story you want to experience firsthand, then I can safely recommend to you that buying RimWorld will be an investment you won’t regret.
Inspired by Fantasy and Sci-Fi works like Dwarf Fortress, Firefly, Warmmer, and Dune, RimWorld pits you against the world as a colony of survivors, and the world wants nothing more than to put you down.
We’ve seen a lot of great games on this list so far, that’s for sure. But it’s finally time to get to the #1 spot on this list. And for some, it might come as no surprise that the overall #1-rated spot on this list goes to none other than…
#1: Portal 1 & Portal 2 (PC/Mac/Linux/PS3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Switch/Android)
Portal: Companion Collection - Announcement Trailer
In both Portal 1 & 2, you use the ‘Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device’, or just the ‘portal gun’, to traverse through a plentiful selection of test chambers across the mysterious Aperture Science facilities using two portals that you can place on any flat surface with white walls. In this standout franchise that first debuted with the Orange Box in 2007, you’ll have to be able to start thinking with portals if you want to progress through and survive the strangely lifeless Aperture Labs.
Since both of these games are the #2 and #1 rated Sci-Fi games on Steam respectively, I opted to just put them together in the #1 spot on this list to give room for a couple of the other great titles on this list.
These two games have not only sold millions of copies and pulled in universal praise all around, but have also spawned a handful of spinoff games, comics, fan games, and even guest appearances in other games like GLaDOS being the dealer in Telltale Games’ Poker Night at the Inventory, a Bridge Constructor spinoff based entirely around Portal, and even an entire bonus campaign DLC pack in the game Lego Dimensions, among other small guest appearances. Over a decade later, the world of Portal continues to stand the test of time, and more than deserves to be slotted at #1 on this list.
If you haven’t played either of the Portal games, I 100% recommend that you go to Steam right now and get them both using the Portal Bundle for only fifteen dollars US. The Portal franchise has over 300,000 user reviews combined on Steam, giving both games an exceptional Overwhelmingly Positive status, so you don’t need to take just my word for it that these games are well worth your time.
Capping off our Top 20 Sci-Fi titles list, I couldn’t think of a better game series to take us home with than the phenomenal Portal series.
Both installments of Valve’s blockbuster first-person puzzle platformer franchise Portal have sold millions of copies over the years, and over a decade later exist as a standout franchise even among Valve’s lofty roster of games.
Conclusion
That entire list of 20 Sci-Fi-infused games was probably already enough for one day, right? But by all means, if you think there was another game that deserved to have a spot on this list, or you just want to give your own shoutout mentions to some of your other favorite Sci-Fi titles that you can find on PC today, please feel free to comment below so I can hear your suggestions for your very own Top 20 list of Sci-Fi games!
Or, maybe just settle for a couple of games, whatever you prefer.
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