20 Games like ARK: Survival Evolved | Updated 2024

Raft

Raft doesn’t have dinosaurs stomping through your base, but it does have a very hungry shark upset at your raft and eager to nibble at it. Which is an issue, when you’re a lonesome survivor somewhere out on a wide ocean with just bits of rickety wood and flotsam to separate your from the depths below. Thankfully, Raft is a survival game with crafting, so your situation will gradually improve.

Image credit: Redbeet Interactive

You start off with a tiny raft, but you will expand it over time. Better yet: as you collect flotsam out of the ocean, or gather resources on the occasional island, you’ll be able to make your vessel much bigger, and much more comfortable. This also means an easier time staying alive despite having the typical survival game meters to maintain.

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Palworld

Palworld was a smash hit of January 2024, and while it doesn’t enjoy the millions of players it had at launch, it has settled into a more realistic, comfortable player counts sitting near other great like Terraria or Stellaris.

In case you missed the buzz and don’t know what Paworld is, it’s a survival game which lets you catch and employ fantastical creatures to work in your base and aid you in exploration.

Image credit: PocketPair

It’s somewhere between Ark and Conan Exiles, if instead of dinosaurs or human thralls there was a whole collection of Tamagotchi creatures, called Pals. They can be your mounts, generate power, do menial tasks, etc. while you are focused on what’s actually important: keeping yourself alive by any means necessary.

Myth of Empires

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Myth of Empires

Myth of Empires is an odd beast. It looks like it took a bite out of several genres, including survival, strategy, and shades of RPG.

Usually, such a mix of influences would mesh well, but MoE manages to make it work, allowing players to work on fight for the glory of one of several empires, or pursue the simple life of farming amid wars and ambitions of the mighty, if you want to.

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A neat feature of the game that connects it to Ark, is that you can tame animals to bolster your defenses. There are also recruitable nPCs, because you can’t build a faction with just animals, no matter how much you’d want to. With several civilizations, tons of crafting recipes, and diverse mechanics, this might be the closest you’ll get to playing an action game version of Civilization.

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Outward

Outward’s a bit different from most other games on the list, but it might be the right option for you, if you enjoy a bit of RPG in your survival games.

Outward is quite adept at mixing them, with a fairly reactive story, NPC to talk to and quests to complete, in addition to several meters to keep track of, and even a hefty amount of base-building introduced in one of the expansions.

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An interesting aspect of Outward is that being defeated in battle doesn’t need to mean the game is over. You might end up captured and taken elsewhere, bereft of your possessions, for instance. There’s an endless potential for new stories, and great replayability, since failing certain quests can derail the story in interesting ways and letting you play through the consequences.

Outward Definitive Edition

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No Man's Sky

If you want a galactic-scale survival game, then get yourself No Man’s Sky.

It’s a game about exploring a procedurally generated cosmos which has so many planets you could potentially visit, it might as well be infinite. There are so much procedurally generated content, you are almost guaranteed to find something truly unique on your travels, be it a new planet or a new species of… something.

Image credit: Hello Games

There are also genre staples, like building a base, co-operating with fellow players, and making sure your life support systems are capable of keeping you alive. You can focus on explorations and direct your effort towards reaching the galactic core, or you could study alien languages or just really get into trading. Your call, the game is there to give you the opportunities you need.

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Valheim

Valheim came seemingly out of nowhere in 2021 and for a good while kicked it with the best in the genre. With good reason, too.

It’s a Viking-themed survival game taking place in a Norse afterlife and giving you an unenviable task of dealing with some boss-shaped thorns in Odin’s side. It might sound grim and serious, but Valheim can be pretty chill compared to the rest of the genre

Image credit: Iron Gate Studios

Valheim is also pretty relaxed regarding the meters like hunger. If go you hungry, you don’t die, you simply don’t have the bonuses that come with being fed. Of course, there’s also an extensive support for base building, which is always a great way to spend the resources you find through exploration of the game’s many biomes All that just to prepare for the tough boss battles…

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V Rising

In a way, the most odd-one-out entry on the list, but it might strike your fancy, if what drew you to ARK were the fantastical elements.

Here you’re not playing some survivor, or a stranded soul. You’re a full-on fancy Vampire, just woken up and ready to terrorize people, but not before setting foundations for a snazzy Gothic castle and learning the hard way that the Sun is a deadly laser.

Image credit: Stunlock Studios

Over the course of the game you’ll spend a lot of time exploring a lovely fantasy world, fighting with fools who deem themselves worthy of attacking you and your swooshy cape. Of course, you will also, erm, exsanguinate many a villager, and develop new abilities. Although a vampire’s unlife is usually lonesome, V Rising is multiplayer-friendly, both in co-operatively or competitively.

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The Isle

Dinosaurs. We could end the elevator pitch here, since you’re probably already hooked, but probably some explanations are in order.

The Isle is a game which lets you live your best life as a dino, aging from a tiny hatchling to adulthood through distinct phases. The game includes a large range of species, from tiny ones to the colossi looming majestically over the landscape.

Image credit: Afterthought Games

You need to feed (including hunting), you must maintain thirst, and you’ll have to learn the rules of nature if you hope to survive.

Each dinosaur has different traits, including even details such as unique roars, which can be used for all kinds of communications in the game. Hearing a T. Rex player press the “I’m coming to hunt, everyone, good luck” key can be terrifying if you’re a tiny dino.

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Grounded

Not quite dinosaurs, but Grounded has its share of huge enemies which will feel like monsters, rather than tiny creatures you usually step on every time you walk on grass.

See, the premise here is that you’re playing as a teen who got shrunk down to the size of an ant and got lost in the suddenly huge lawn of their house. Good luck gathering morning dew (not the drink) to have fresh water!

Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment

You’ll be harvesting tree-sized grass for construction, find bottle caps to use for shields, and spear spiders in the eye when they try to break into your safehouse. And it the meantime you’ll have to figure out what happened and how to undo it. Grounded is a fantastic, unique survival game and looks great. You can also have a pet weevil, which is just cute.

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Kenshi

Kenshi can be a lot to take in, and it’s certainly not a game for players who like to get a bit of direction.

If you do, tough luck – the only directions you get are the cardinal ones on your map. Kenshi is a sandbox through and through, sacrificing some visual fidelity for gameplay complexity that rewards you with diverse playstyles and endless roleplay possibilities.

Image credit: Lo-Fi Games

If you want to run trading caravans? Sure, the game will let you, if you work for it. You want to be a bandit? You can assemble a crew of never-do-wells, build a hideout, and be the scourge of postapocalyptic world. But you must be careful, since you’re just a person, not the Protagonist, and the game’s injury system will make sure that you pay dearly for carelessness.

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Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition

Erecting enormous structures, building entire cities, recreating the locations from your favorite books, movies, and TV shows – that’s what you imagine when you hear about the game created by Mojang. But Minecraft is on our list for a reason, and that reason is the Survival Mode. In many ways, it is very similar to the core gameplay mechanics of ARK.

Much like ARK, in Minecraft you begin with nothing, and have to gradually improve your living situation. You might begin with a wooden hatchet and a dirt hovel, but it won’t be long before you have an automated resource acquisition, a looming castle, and enchanted gear made of diamond or rarer, spookier materials. And you’ll need it to defend yourself from the world’s many dangers.

Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition

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The Forest

At first glance the game doesn’t have much in common with ARK.

The setting is pretty plain and the plot that got us there is simple – we play as the survivor of a plane crash, looking for his missing child in a mysterious forest. But wait, is that an alien kidnapping a child? And what’s with these weird wooden structures? And that definitely looks like a work of some cannibals, yikes!

Image credit: Endnight Games Ltd

The Forest is pretty similar to ARK in terms of gameplay, especially crafting. The player (or players – the game can be played in online multiplayer) has to build shelter, create makeshift weapons for defense, and collect supplies to survive in the wild. To make the gameplay more survivalist, the game only allows saving within created shelter – there is no autosave option. Talk about hardcore!

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Dino D-Day

Well, it has dinosaurs so it counts…right? Dino D-Day is a multiplayer first-person shooter set during World War II.

The players select the side of the conflict they want to fight on – the Allies or the Axis. The trick is that, due to Adolf’s dabbling into dark arts, the prehistoric reptiles are back and fight on the fronts of the world for both sides.

Image credit: 800 North and Digital Ranch

After selecting their faction, the player can choose the side and class they want to play as. The Allied forces include classes like assault, medics, and heavies. The Nazi forces replace heavies with snipers. Both factions have their specialized dinosaur units, equipped with different types of weapons – machine guns, explosives, and others.

Dino D-Day

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Rust

Rust is something of a poster child for grim and gritty survival games. In this multiplayer title the player is put on a procedurally generated map, armed only with a torch and a rock.

With these tools they will have to gather supplies and defend themselves against other players, dangerous fauna, and other elemental dangers.

Image credit: Facepunch Studios

Facepunch Studio’s survival game started as a clone of DayZ, however, the developers decided against making another zombie game, instead opting for a battle royale survival experience. The mechanics include classics like crafting, nutrition, but Rust also adds frequent item drops. Ranging from survival supplies to weapons and vehicles, they can shift the balance of power.

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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter & Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

A list about surviving in a world full of dinosaurs would not be complete without this legend.

In 1997, Turok was a revelation – it combined the first-person shooter mechanics of Doom and world exploration of Tomb Raider. Turok, a Native American warrior tasked with protecting the barrier between the worlds, quickly became one of the most recognizable protagonists.

Image credit: Iguana Entertainment

The core gameplay Dinosaur Hunter involved traveling between the game’s hub world and seven other stages. Within each stage, the player must complete various objectives and find keys. Turok is armed with a variety of weapons he can use against his scaly enemies, including a knife, a bow, and a variety of futuristic guns, because we fight not just dinosaurs, but also aliens.

Conan Exiles

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Conan Exiles

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Subnautica

If you liked that one documentary, in which James Cameron dives into the oceanic depths in a submersible, this game is just for you.

Subnautica is like ARK: Survival Evolved but underwater. As a survivor of a spaceship crashing into an alien ocean, you are tasked with exploring the depths and establishing a research base to figure out the way of getting off the planet.

Image credit: Unknown Worlds Entertainment

The former won’t be easy, as the vast waters of this unknown world are inhabited by all sorts of creatures, some friendly, others not so much. The game can be played in several modes, including Survival, in which you have to balance exploration with maintaining their various meters, such as the oxygen supply. If you’d rather just explore and build a base, the creative mode is there too.

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Subnautica: Below Zero (PC) - Steam Key - GLOBAL

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Primal Carnage

Like Dino D-Day we’ve already discussed on our list, Primal Carnage pits humans and dinosaurs against each other.

The premise of PC bears strong similarities to the Jurassic Park series. A remote island, an experiment to bring back dinosaurs, but then everything goes to hell – sounds familiar? Luckily, the game is not plot-heavy, relying on multiplayer humans-dinosaur PvP.

Image credit: Lukewarm Media

There are several game modes, including a wonderfully named “Get to the Chopper”, where the players face a dino horde to, well, get to the chopper. Humans come in several classes, each with a unique loadout. Meanwhile, dinosaurs include a T.Rex, Dilophosaurus, and Pteranodon, among others. They aren’t armed but possess unique skills and stats making them tough adversaries.

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PixARK

What happens, when you combine Minecraft and ARK? Well…this.

PixARK utilizes many solutions from both games, and is an official spin-off of the latter. Its visuals are decidedly Minecraft-y (if more detailed and arguably cuter), as are some of its gameplay mechanics. For example, the player can reshape the map by adding and removing terrain blocks. Digging for minerals for crafting is also here.

Image credit: Snail Games

The rest of the gameplay is pure ARK – survival on a mysterious island inhabited by dinosaurs, gathering supplies, facing other players, etc. Like in the original game, the beasts can be hunted down or tamed to serve the player. Additionally, PixARK features a procedural quest system, constantly providing the player with new challenges.

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DayZ

There are no dinosaurs here, but there are zombies. And survival. DayZ was born as a standalone mod to Arma 3, a famously realistic tactical shooter.

In the game you become a survivor of a zombie apocalypse, roaming the area of Chernarus in search of supplies and working with (or against) other survivors. It’s not as out-there as ARK, but it doesn’t need to be, it has other strengths!

Image credit: Bohemia Interactive Studio

The survival aspect of the game is heavily accentuated. Anything that can kill the player in real life – from malnutrition and dehydration to various diseases – can also occur in the game world. This is why staying healthy and well-fed is key to staying alive in the world of DayZ. The game found a robust player base with more than a million of sold copies.

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Conan Exiles

The Hyborian Age needs its new hero…to manage their health and knit a some sturdy clothes.

Based on the stories about Conan the Cimmerian, Conan: Exiles features all the mechanics expected from a survival game: health management, crafting clothes and items, and fending off hostiles – both human and beast… Thanks to the fantastical setting there are even dinosaur-like dragons!

Image credit: Funcom

Aside from that, C: E features an advanced character creation system, a system of religious beliefs that influence what benefits the player can receive throughout the game, as well as level-based progression. The game caused some controversy for its gore nature and character creation options, which allowed some liberal manipulation of body parts usually “Rated M for ‘Mature’”.

Conan Exiles

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