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Games Like Darkwood: Top-Down Survival Horror

Darkwood has you scavenge and craft by day in a forest that has swallowed the land, then barricade a hideout and survive the night. These games share its top-down view, its scavenging and its hostile world, from zombie sandboxes to brutal dungeon crawls.

The games

  1. Project Zomboid art: Spiffo, the game's raccoon mascot, holds an axe in the rain with zombies reaching up behind him SurvivalProject ZomboidScavenge by day and barricade a house against the dead, top-down, where noise and light bring them in.
  2. Super Lone Survivor screenshot: the masked survivor with a flashlight walks along the steps of a dark, old apartment building's front in pixel art PsychologicalLone Survivor2D survival in a diseased city: scavenge food, sneak past creatures and keep your sanity together.
  3. Fear & Hunger key art: the painted faces of pale adventurers and a dark knight behind the game's title SurvivalFear & HungerA brutal dungeon where hunger, sanity and lost limbs matter, with Darkwood's sense that nothing is fair.
  4. Sunless Sea key art: a lone lit buoy leans out of a flat dark sea under a green-black sky 2D horrorSunless SeaCaptain a steamship over a dark ocean beneath Victorian London, as fuel, food and your crew's terror run down.
  5. Trench Face key art: a gas-masked soldier with a rifle, in stark white on black SurvivalTrench FaceWake in a corpse-filled trench and scavenge, craft and hide from the hanging things that patrol the dark.
  6. I Hate This Place gameplay seen from above at night: the heroine with an axe faces a huge blue spider-like creature with many yellow eyes in a dark graveyard clearing SurvivalI Hate This PlaceIsometric survival on cursed ranch land: scavenge, craft and build shelter while creatures that hunt by sound close in after dark.
  7. Lamentum key art: Victor with a bloody axe among the other characters and tentacles, a dark mansion on a floating rock SurvivalLamentumPixel-art survival horror in a cursed mansion: ration ammunition and choose whom to trust.
  8. CONSCRIPT key art: a soldier in a gas mask and helmet with red lenses raises a spiked club amid explosions in a trench SurvivalCONSCRIPTTop-down survival in the trenches of Verdun, scavenging scarce supplies and fighting with clumsy weapons.
  9. Endoparasitic key art: the grey silhouette of a man with no legs dragging himself across a tiled floor, leaving a trail of red blood SurvivalEndoparasiticTop-down and desperate: drag yourself through an asteroid lab, loading every bullet by hand.
  10. Endoparasitic 2 key art: the one-armed, legless survivor dragging himself and a case across a dark tiled floor, a red wound on his back SurvivalEndoparasitic 2The sequel: drag yourself through an infested arcship from above, loading each bullet by hand and crafting vaccines to live.
  11. Teleglitch screenshot: the player firing a beam at a spider-legged creature in a dim pixel-art room SurvivalTeleglitch: Die More EditionA top-down roguelike on a dead research planet: scavenge, craft and survive random levels with permanent death.
  12. EMPTY SHELL key art: a figure in a gas mask emerging from black ink against a white, glitched background SurvivalEMPTY SHELLA top-down roguelite in a secret facility on a Japanese island: random dark corridors, scarce equipment and abominations.
  13. The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters key art: Mina Park in her school uniform against a blood-red sky over the city SurvivalThe Coma 2: Vicious Sisters2D survival horror by night: scavenge and craft while a relentless killer hunts you through a shadow town.
  14. Heaven Dust 2 key art: Steve with a shotgun and a young woman back to back above a crowd of zombies, helicopters behind SurvivalHeaven Dust 2Isometric survival horror in a research centre after an outbreak, with scarce supplies and item puzzles.

Darkwood is a top-down survival horror game about a forest that has swallowed the land: by day you scavenge, craft and trade, and by night you barricade a hideout and wait for whatever comes through the trees. Few games copy it exactly, but many share its view from above, its scavenging and crafting, or its sense of a world where nothing is on your side.

The closest in daily rhythm is Project Zomboid, an isometric survival sandbox in a quarantined corner of Kentucky: you loot houses by day, board up a home, and learn that noise and light draw the dead in. It is a zombie game rather than a folk nightmare, but the long, grim struggle to last another night is the same. Trench Face is the nearest in mood: an alternate First World War, a trench full of corpses, scavenging and crafting to reach the forest, and hanging monsters patrolling the dark that you hide from, with turn-based fights. I Hate This Place has the same day-and-night shape from an isometric view: on a cursed stretch of ranch land you scavenge, craft and build shelter while creatures that hunt by sound close in after dark.

If what you loved was the unfairness and the strangeness, Fear & Hunger is the pick: a brutal dungeon where hunger, sanity and lost limbs all count against you, in an ancient fortress where gods war over planes of existence. Lone Survivor is a smaller, sadder cousin in 2D pixel art, a masked man scavenging a diseased city while hunger, sleep and pills blur what is real. Sunless Sea takes the dread to sea: you captain a steamship across a dark ocean beneath Victorian London, where fuel, food and your crew's terror run down and death comes often.

For top-down survival horror with weapons that barely help, CONSCRIPT takes you through the trenches and forts of Verdun with clumsy, desperate weapons and scarce supplies, Endoparasitic makes you drag yourself one-armed through an asteroid lab loading every bullet by hand, Endoparasitic 2 carries on aboard an infested arcship with vaccines and ammunition to craft, Teleglitch is the roguelike version on a dead research planet, where you scavenge, craft and die for good, and EMPTY SHELL sends volunteers through randomly built corridors of a secret facility on a Japanese island, with scarce equipment and abominations in the dark. Lamentum and Heaven Dust 2 bring the classic Resident Evil rules to pixel-art and isometric mansions and labs, and The Coma 2 has you scavenge and craft at night in a shadow town while a killer hunts the halls.

If you only try one, play Project Zomboid for the closest survival loop, or Trench Face for the closest mood of a hostile land at night.

Questions

What is the closest game to Darkwood?

Project Zomboid shares its day-and-night survival loop of scavenging and barricading; Trench Face is the closest in its grim, hostile atmosphere.

Are there top-down horror games like Darkwood?

Yes: Project Zomboid, I Hate This Place, CONSCRIPT, Endoparasitic and its sequel, Teleglitch, EMPTY SHELL and Heaven Dust 2 are all played from above, and Lone Survivor and The Coma 2 are 2D side-on.

Are games like Darkwood on consoles?

Darkwood itself is on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, as are CONSCRIPT, Lamentum, The Coma 2, I Hate This Place, EMPTY SHELL and Sunless Sea; Endoparasitic is on Xbox and Switch and Heaven Dust 2 on PlayStation and Switch.

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