The Best 19 PlayStation 4 Survival Video Games

There’s a ton of love towards survival games. It’s all about keeping your vital signs in check such as making sure your character is healthy while venturing out into the unknown. If you’re looking for some great survival games to enjoy right now on the PlayStation 4 then check out our list below. There’s certainly no definitive list as we all have our own personal opinions, so we, of course, want to know your favorite survival games on the platform as well.

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#19 The Last Stand: Aftermath

If you’re interested in a rogue-lite experience, then The Last Stand: Aftermath might be of interest. In this game, players are getting a single-player action-packed journey as they attempt to survive as long as possible within a zombie apocalypse. Players take on the role of a random survivor already infected with the virus. You’ll scavenge the area for goods obtain perks, upgrades, and different weapons. Meanwhile, you’ll need to be cautious as there are still hordes of undead freely roaming the world. Eventually, our protagonist will die off, whether it’s from a horde of zombies that got the best of players or from the virus finally settling in. Fortunately, The Last Stand: Aftermath allows players to pick right back up as a new survivor with all the perks and upgrades being carried over.

#18 Impact Winter

Impact Winter throws players into an alternate reality where Earth was struck by an asteroid and has forced the planet into a new ice age-style winter. With most of humanity destroyed and little resources around, our game follows a small group that’s scraping by. Fortunately, they discover that help is on the way but they will be thirty days out before arriving at the group. It’s up to the player to keep the group alive and healthy until help arrives.

Overall, throughout the game, players will be venturing out into the open and securing resources. From there it’s managing the group and items with hopes of making the necessary last as you continue to press out for more items and gear. The game had mixed reviews at launch and since the release, the title has been removed from certain retailers and markets. So depending on your region, you might not be able to dive into this game right now.

#17 Fallout Shelter

Fallout has been such an iconic RPG franchise for Bethesda. Over the year’s we’ve seen several installments release that offered players a new take of this post-apocalyptic wasteland after nuclear war levels the entire world. However, Bethesda surprised fans by delivering a new type of Fallout experience for players to enjoy with Fallout Shelter. This video game throws players into gameplay where you take the role of an Overseer, which is essentially the ruler of a Vault. Setup as a management style of a video game, players are constantly updating their vault with new inhabitants and rooms. However, the more you add into the vault the more power and resources are needed to not only power the vault but to ensure that the inhabitants are taken care of.

Although, there’s even more out there to worry about than just ensuring the power is running and resources such as water or food are in check. Some hostile enemies can attack the vault and burst in to steal your goods. This means that you’ll need to ensure your inhabitants are packing heat to deal with any enemies that force their way into the group. Likewise, players can send out their inhabitants to seek out other resources to bring back to the vault, but this is also risky as you can come up against a hostile enemy that can get the upper hand on your character.

#16 The Survivalists

Team17 might be best known right now for their franchise, The Escapists. Taking that style of gameplay visuals and mechanics, this studio brought out a survival game called The Survivalists. This game focuses on either solo or working with friends online where your protagonist is dropped on an island and forced to survive which is done through exploring, collecting resources, and building necessary equipment or shelters. From there, you’ll have to manage your resources and further explore, fight off enemies and collect goods. The more you can progress the more you’ll be able to expand the makeshift town you created.

This game has also had packs to add more content into the mix such as The Survivalists Monkey Business which adds more in-game items. It’s a fairly new game at the time of writing this description as well with The Survivalists coming out into the marketplace in 2020. With that said, because this game is so new and updates are coming out, the developers are making various adjustments, some of which have been more popular than others. It’s worth bringing that up because you’ll likely find plenty of updates coming out to further enhance the gameplay experience. For instance, the latest update to release offered players the ability to farm, updates to structures, and even new items such as a Fast Raft.

#15 Don’t Starve

Don’t Starve is a pretty iconic survival game as it’s been around since 2013. In the game, players take the role of a scientist forced to live in a dark world. It’s all about keeping your vital signs up and your mentality stable. However, what has kept players enjoying this game is the number of updates that continue to come out. For instance, one of the biggest updates that still gets enjoyed and talked about online today is Don’t Starve Together. It’s just as the name implies, you have the standard feel of the game but expanded on to allow several players to join in and attempt to survive together.

#14 DayZ 

DayZ has been around for ages now and had quite a big following when it first launched into the market. This is an MMO that puts players into a post-Soviet Republic during a zombie pandemic. Dropped into the map, you’re left with gathering supplies and attempting to survive the harsh world from the various hostilities that may come out. Much like other survival games, it’s all about keeping your vitals up and ensuring you have enough resources to get through your time. 

However, what really made this game popular was the other players that could be found randomly. Being on a large map, finding another person could be tense. You never know just what kind of player you’ll bump into. Perhaps it’ll be friendly, or you could find yourself trying to take the opponent out for their resources. With that said, you also can’t bank on the player being truly alone and not have a caravan nearby to help out when the moment comes to strike. 

#13 Ark: Survival Evolved

Ark: Survival Evolved is quite a popular game and one you may have already heard about if not played. It’s an online action-adventure game where you’re left on the shores with nothing and no real goal. Instead, the game focuses on players’ ability to survive and gather resources on the island with other players along with hostile dinosaurs. You’ll have to keep your health, stamina, oxygen, hunger, and thirst under check all while collecting goods. These goods are made to craft and build up your own bases to live in.

It’s a mixture of keeping your vitals up, base in order while also having the ability to tame the dinosaurs that roam the area. You’ll, of course, have other players to interact with, but for the most part, it’s mainly surviving the elements with Ark: Survival Evolved. A game that’s a bit more PvP based that has somewhat similar attributes found in this game is Rust if you’re after more of a player battle.

Similar to other games on this list, Ark: Survival Evolved also has expansions for players to go through which adds more creatures, resources, and even locations. However, what you may also find interesting is that Ark: Survival Evolved even managed to get two spin-off games. Ark: Park is a virtual reality game that has players fending off a base from the different dinosaurs while PixARK is a survival game with similar elements to the original installment, but this time with a voxel-style world. Both spin-off games happen to be available on the PlayStation 4 as well, though, with Ark: Park, you’ll need access to PSVR.

#12 7 Days To Die

7 Days To Die is one game that seems to come up quite a bit for survival fans. It’s a game that mixes the traditional survival elements with horror gameplay. In 7 Days To Die, the world was hit with nuclear war leaving most of humanity turning into mindless zombies. From there the remaining survivors are left trying to make it day by day. Throughout the game, you’ll have to find shelter, food, water, not to mention resources that would be good to use against enemies that head your way. 

As the name suggests, on the seventh day, a major mass of zombies will invade your area and it’s a battle to keep your structure fortified while you attempt to survive the night. During the start of the week, your focus is based around gathering resources and crafting to help build structures used to aid in the defense of attacks. It may be a trial and error procedure for a little while until you manage to come up with a means to keep your walls sturdy and ready for some brute force combat. 

There’s also a multiplayer component that you may find of interest. It allows players to create their own server hosted games where groups can connect, communicate, and interact with each other. You’ll also have the ability to go through the game in either a survival game mode or one that is aimed at being creative. 

#11 Conan Exiles

While the game title has the name Conan in it, this MMO doesn’t’ put players in the role of Conan the Barbarian but you are tossed into his world. Players managed to get saved by Conan early into the game and from there you’re left on your own. Being an exile, life is tough and you’re left to your own choices. The scorching desert is not a place to wander about and there are creatures and other exiles to worry on when exploring. 

Overall, in this game, you’ll have plenty of areas to explore and story to unfold of how this world works. In terms of gameplay, this is still very much a survival game with players having to manage elements such as hunger and thirst. You’ll have to gather resources, craft goods, and fight off enemies whether it be PvP or PvE. It’s also a game that focuses on progression with experience points. The more you pull off successful crafts and combat the more experience points you’ll have to unlock different attribute customization or crafting recipes. 

#10 Chernobylite 

Chernobylite is a game that puts players into the role of a former employee of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant suffering from the loss of their loved one. Three decades after the horrible Chernobyl Disaster, our protagonist decides to venture back into the exclusion zone in hopes of piecing together the events which seemingly caused their partner’s disappearance. However, it’s not as simple as walking around freely. This is still a heavily radiated area where you’ll have all kinds of mutated creatures, stalkers, and even military forces. While you’re seeking answers, you’ll have to continue to manage their gear, craft new equipment, and keep track of your vitals, such as your health and radiation.

#9 Frostpunk

Frostpunk is the latest game, at the time of writing this, from 11 Bit Studios. This indie development team brought out This War of Mine and following after came Frostpunk, a somewhat similar game release. This is another survival game for players to endure much like This War of Mine, but instead of taking control of a small group stuck in a war siege, this game puts players control of a massive group attempting to find a safe haven after a massive winter apocalypse hits. The only way groups survive is by building up shelters around a massive generator that is fueled by coal. In this frozen tundra, players will set up camp around a generator and start putting their civilians to work.

To keep everyone alive and healthy, the group is forced to work in several areas. You have hunters to gather food, medical teams to treat the ill, explorers to find other survivors or resources, and workers to help mine for coal, collect wood, among other useful materials that may help the community grow. As mentioned, this generator requires fuel, so ensuring you have not only enough coal to keep the machine running, but that the heat is reaching necessary areas around the camp.

As more survivors find the area, the more mouths there is to feed, homes to be built, staff to add into work, and the constant threat of morale dropping. If you can’t keep everyone happy, fed, warm, and ultimately alive, you may get kicked out from running the small settlement into the ground any further. Much like This War of Mine, this studio also developed DLC to add more content for players to go through which adds a new scenario and in-game resources. 

#8 Minecraft

It’s tough to find someone that doesn’t know what Minecraft is. This game blew up and became a worldwide phenomenon and for good reason. It’s a solid exploration and survival adventure video game that players can enjoy at any age. Players are dropped in a procedurally generated world that’s full of resources to gather. While there is an endgame, most players will find quite a bit of enjoyment simply by exploring the open world and gathering resources to survive as long as they can. This includes gathering the basics from the start which includes food, wood to craft different tools, and creating a structure to protect you from hostile enemies that pop up during the night.

As you progress, you’ll eventually acquire enough resources to gather better tools and gear to make use of the in-game world challenges that may come your way. Players can get quite creative in this game as well with the ability to create unique structures or equipment. It doesn’t take that much time either before your simple hut structure turns into a mansion or you’ve charted out fields to grow crops, or have set up a solid mineshaft to gather more precious resources. You’ll even find fans throwing out seeds or the necessary settings to select when making a new world to bring out other unique worlds full of their challenges or benefits.

Likewise, while the Minecraft video game has been around for years now, it’s still heavily supported with new content being added into the title through a series of updates. As a result, Minecraft can feel a bit fresh regularly with the developers making adjustments to the in-game world, whether that be new biomes to in-game items.

#7 The Long Dark

The Long Dark is an episodic adventure though a game you can enjoy right now. In this title, players take on the role of a pilot by the name of Will Mackenzie. The power has gone out and it’s left plenty of humanity on the run for safe havens if not perished while trying. In this adventure, Will is working with a female by the name of Dr. Astrid Greenwood in the hopes of transporting something of great value. You’ll, of course, have to play the game in order to find out what it is. 

In this harsh tundra of Canada, the plane goes down leaving our duo stranded and lost from each other. In hopes of survival, Will has to monitor several vital signs such as keeping warm and gathering resources. You’ll have to make fires, keep them burning, and even purifying snow water to make sure it’s safe to consume. It’s also quite the hostile world now with nature taking over in the cities. You may find yourself coming against a hungry wolf if you’re not careful checking your surroundings. 

#6 No Man’s Sky

When No Man’s Sky was announced it was incredibly hyped. The features and content that Hello Games promised looked too good to be true. Players would be able to essentially take the role of a space explorer who can travel to any planet and make discoveries. However, what made things even more unique was the vast amount of planets available and within them the different biomes, creatures, and plant life. It was something so big that chances were essentially non-existent for two players to discover the same planet. As a result, it was going to allow players the ability to chart out locations for others to view. 

With that said, the game released to underwhelmed fans. There were plenty of missing features and attributes that players had hoped for which resulted in the game being dropped. It took a long time for Hello Games to bring out the content that was promised and it’s essentially quite a bit different today in what the title offers. You’ll often hear players online recommend trying the game out again especially if you only played it when No Man’s Sky first released.

There’s certainly a bit more content to chew through now than before but it’s also a fun survival game. While you’re mostly wandering space going from planet to planet, there’s a big focus on gathering resources to keep traveling. You’ll need all sorts of resources to keep your ship in working order, but there’s no telling what the planet will be like when you land. It could be incredibly toxic, hot, cold, along with being the home to several hostile creatures. Because of that, you’ll need to ensure your suit is capable of enduring the elements to stay alive. If not, you’ll have to find the best time of day to either venture out of your ship or base to seek the resources needed to leave. 

#5 This War Of Mine

When you think of games based around war, you mainly think of FPS, strategy games, and third-person action titles. However, there is one iconic survival title that has really left an impact on the genre and it’s one game that people still highly recommend trying out today. In This War Of Mine, players take control over a group of civilians, attempting to survive the harshness of being stuck during a siege. With snipers overseeing the area during daylight, the main time to go out and seek resources to keep your group healthy, fed, and comfortable happens at night. 

It’s a different world during the siege as people become desperate. Your morals will be put on the line as you make tough and at times heart-wrenching decisions. Meanwhile, there’s always the threat of a stranger or group showing up at your door. Did your fortify the area well enough, is the group liable to be trusted, or will you see them as prey for goods to steal? 

This War Of Mine certainly puts you in a position that you don’t often think about during wars and one you would hope never becomes a reality you’ll have to face. However, set in a video game world, you’re allowed to tempt fate and see just how things may play out. There’s even DLC that was put out to give players more storyline scenarios to go through. Currently, there doesn’t look like any additional DLC is coming out from the development team 11 Bit Studios, they have even gone on to create another survival-like title known as Frostpunk that’s focused mainly around city building. 

#4 The Forest

The Forest throws players into the role of Eric LeBlanc who is traveling with his son. Going over a forested area, the plane crashes and its left Eric on a mad search to find his son Timmy, but it’s clear that he’s not alone. In this forest is a tribe of cannibal mutants that you’ll have to deal with though their tactics are not always aggressive. You’ll have to set up a base and deal with the hostilities that come along. It’s certainly an interesting AI as well in this game as the tribes feel as if they are studying you in hopes of figuring out how to best deal with this newfound threat. They may try to attack, flee, keep a distance away from you, to even finding where you’re staying at night to create different structural threats, keeping you on edge. 

As always, in survival games is all about keeping your character healthy. You’ll have a variety of stats featured such as hunger, hydration, energy, stamina, and overall health. You’ll have to ensure that everything is ready in the green in order to keep alive and ready for the next barrage of attacks you may have to face against.

#3 Green Hell

Green Hell is a survival game set within the Amazon rainforest. Players in this game take the role of Jake Higgins, an anthropologist that awakens on the Amazon River. Knowing that his wife, Mia, had gone missing when attempting to contact an indigenous people, Jake seeks answers. However, being alone in the Amazon Rainforest is extremely dangerous. You’ll have to work on navigating through the forest, gathering details, and ensuring your vitals are up. You could not only deal with lack of food and water, but being in the Rainforest could lead to poisonous animals. Likewise, if you’re not addressing your wounds or getting enough sleep, it’s easy for Jake to start coming up with hallucinations.

#2 Subnautica

Subnautica is a futuristic survival game. Players take on the role of an astronaut, tasked with finding other planets to colonize. However, something goes wrong and your ship crash lands in a mostly aquatic world. Being the only survivor on this ship, players are forced to venture out into the deep blue depths in hopes of gathering resources for survival and potentially escape. 

It’s a bit of a tense game going down in the oceans below. There’s the constant threat of losing oxygen not to mention taking care of your other health vitals along the way such as hydration and nutrition. Furthermore, there’s the threat of hostile creatures that not only live in the water but are quite adapted to maneuvering fast, keeping you on your toes of what may be lurking about. 

However, if you’re after a challenge then you may find an interest in the hardcore mode. In hardcore mode players are forced with just one life and that means if you happen to die at all during the game you can’t load up a checkpoint or save state. Instead, you’re simply forced into playing the entire game over again. Overall, the game is focused around escaping the planet which will end the game, though you could simply see how long you’re able to stay alive without outright leaving.

#1 Subnautica Below Zero

If you enjoyed the first Subnautica game, then it’s well worth checking into Subnautica Below Zero. This is a new installment that takes place two years after the events from the original game. Players are stepping into the role of Robin Ayou, who has been searching for answers to the death of her sister. When the corporation claims it was due to employee negligence, Robin decides to smuggle herself onto planet 4546B in hopes of uncovering the truth. Here you’ll find plenty of research bases that were seemingly abandoned.

Just like with the first game, you’ll have to monitor your vitals as you explore the world. There’s quite a bit to keep track of, from the harsh temperatures that could threaten hypothermia to oxygen levels to ensure Robin’s survival. This can be a tense game to go through, but there are some additional game modes to tweak what vitals you’ll need to keep track of if you’re finding the survival mode too difficult.