Skip to content
FiltersEvery game, every platform 30 gamesChoose
Where you play
Kind of horror
19 more
Price
Players
Time to finish
Released
Content

Your choice stays on as you move around the site, until you clear it. One place to play opens that part of the site; within a group any option will do, except Content, where every one you pick holds. Content goes by each game's content notes.

Games Like Outlast: Horror Where You Can Only Hide and Run

Outlast takes away your weapons and leaves you with a camcorder, a locker to hide in and your legs. The games below share that helplessness: you survive by hiding, sneaking and running from things you cannot beat, and several come from the studios that shaped the formula.

The games

  1. Outlast 2 key art: a cultist in the foreground holds a chained, spiked pickaxe while a man in a hat sits on the lit porch of a shack in green haze PsychologicalOutlast 2Outlast's own sequel: a camera with night vision, no weapons and a cult hunting you through the Arizona desert.
  2. Amnesia: The Dark Descent art: a pale green stone hall in Brennenburg Castle with a carved fountain at its centre PsychologicalAmnesia: The Dark DescentThe game Outlast learned from: no weapons, a lantern, a sanity meter and monsters you can only hide from.
  3. Alien: Isolation key art: Amanda Ripley's face inside a space helmet lit green against black SurvivalAlien: IsolationOne alien you cannot kill hunts you through a space station and checks the lockers you hide in.
  4. The Outlast Trials art: three test subjects with night-vision goggles strapped to their faces, one screaming with an arm raised, in a murky olive tint SurvivalThe Outlast TrialsThe same studio and the same Murkoff experiments, played alone or with up to three friends.
  5. Amnesia: The Bunker art: a soldier's hands, one holding a revolver, as a pale clawed creature reaches out of a dark tunnel SurvivalAmnesia: The BunkerA creature hunts you by sound through a World War I bunker while you keep the lights on.
  6. Penumbra: Overture key art: a man with a red backpack stands alone between snow-covered rooftops beside a wooden frame, facing a white Greenland snowstorm SurvivalPenumbra: OvertureFrictional's earlier game, before Amnesia: an abandoned mine in Greenland where you hide from what lives in the tunnels.
  7. Penumbra: Black Plague key art: a lone figure with a red backpack stands in a snowstorm between two snow-covered roofs, beside a frozen post hung with charms PsychologicalPenumbra: Black PlagueFrictional's second Penumbra: no weapons at all, hiding from infected staff in a research complex under the Greenland ice.
  8. Home Sweet Home key art: the pale, bloodied face of a long-haired ghost girl beside the game's red scrawled title and the words VR now available StealthHome Sweet HomeUnarmed hiding in lockers and under furniture from a vengeful spirit, drawn from Thai folklore.
  9. SOMA key art: a dripping robot head with glowing blue lights and hanging cables beside a frightened woman's face and hand pressed to wet glass PsychologicalSOMAFrictional Games again: no weapons on a failing undersea station, with a story that turns the horror inward.
  10. Maid of Sker key art: a frightened woman covers her mouth while a man runs through ivy-covered iron gates beside the hotel wall SurvivalMaid of SkerBlind cultists hunt a Welsh hotel by sound, and holding your breath is how you hide.
  11. Remothered: Tormented Fathers key art: old Dr. Felton in an armchair, a red-robed nun among moths, a woman holding a metronome and Rosemary with a blade in a dark room SurvivalRemothered: Tormented FathersHide from a sickle-wielding old man in the mansion where a girl went missing.
  12. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead key art: a young woman in round glasses and a red knit glove holds a finger to her lips before old TVs showing static SurvivalA Quiet Place: The Road AheadNo weapons, only silence: sneak past blind creatures that hunt by sound, in the world of the films.
  13. Stay Out of the House key art: the Butcher, in a burlap sack mask and plaid shirt, raises a bloody cleaver against a dark sky with lightning SurvivalStay Out of the HouseKidnapped by a cannibal butcher: hide, sneak through vents and pick locks to escape his house within three days.
  14. Intruders: Hide and Seek key art: a deer skull with large dark antlers over murky teal and brown ink smudges on a pale grey background StealthIntruders: Hide and SeekA boy who cannot fight hides from three intruders holding his parents hostage, with or without VR.
  15. Visage key art: a figure under a pale sheet in front of rain-streaked glass, next to the Visage logo PsychologicalVisageSlow first-person dread in a house haunted by the families who died there, with only light to protect you.
  16. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard key art: a sepia ink collage of an upturned face crowned by a dark house and bare trees SurvivalResident Evil 7 BiohazardFirst-person horror where a family that will not die stalks you through a rotting farmhouse.
  17. The Mortuary Assistant key art: a pale, rotting face with a bloody open mouth beside a dark tiled embalming room with a corpse on the table PsychologicalThe Mortuary AssistantNight shift horror alone in a mortuary, finding a demon while doubting your own eyes.
  18. Infliction key art: a man's silhouette in a brightly lit doorway at the end of a dark hall, with a bloodied hand holding a knife in the foreground PsychologicalInflictionA ghost hunts you through a family home; you hide, or stun it for a moment with a camera flash.
  19. Westworld Awakening key art: a cowboy and a woman holding a gun run hand in hand through a hazy red-lit desert, a tall saguaro cactus at right Puzzle horrorWestworld AwakeningVR hide-and-seek with a serial killer host in a sinister facility, with no way to fight back.
  20. The Designer's Curse key art: a bald, doll-like figure with a bloodied, nail-studded torso in a dark brick corridor, beside the white title Puzzle horrorThe Designer's CurseA free Amnesia-style game: puzzles in a dark manor and creatures you can only avoid.
  21. Still Wakes the Deep key art: the silhouette of a man filled with the image of an oil rig, glowing over a dark sea SurvivalStill Wakes the DeepNo weapon on a storm-wrecked 1975 oil rig: hide, sneak and climb past a crew turned into fleshy hunters.
  22. Amnesia: Rebirth key art: Tasi holds up a lit match, a pale clawed creature lurking in the dark beside her PsychologicalAmnesia: RebirthFrictional's desert sequel: hide from ghouls with a few matches while your fear grows in the dark.
  23. Monstrum key art: a hulking monster with a glowing orange face fills a dark ship corridor SurvivalMonstrumA monster you cannot fight stalks a randomly built cargo ship, and one catch ends the run.
  24. White Day key art: a frightened schoolgirl with twin ribbons crouching on a wooden floor marked with chalk circles SurvivalWhite Day: A Labyrinth Named SchoolLocked in your school at night, hiding from a baton-wielding janitor whose keys you hear coming.
  25. Key art of a flooded basement corridor in green and red light, with a lift on floor B2 glowing red and a girl's silhouette in its doorway SurvivalThe Bridge Curse 2: The ExtricationA film club shooting at night in a haunted university, hunted by ghosts that follow sound.
  26. 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 SistersOutlast's hide-and-run in 2D: a student in her school at night, hiding from a killer who hears you run and sees your flashlight.
  27. Perception key art: a frightened woman with glowing teal eyes looks up in blue light, moths on her face and hair, beside the title and braille dots PsychologicalPerceptionA blind woman sees a mansion only by the sound she makes, and every sound draws the Presence that stalks her.
  28. Hollow Cocoon key art: a pale long-haired figure with dark markings on her bare back stands among red ropes and paper talismans in a green-lit room Multiple endingsHollow CocoonUnarmed in an old Japanese mansion, hiding and sneaking from a tall, pale creature you cannot fight.
  29. Palmyra Orphanage key art: a cracked, pale doll-like face with a black eye and blood running down it, emerging from darkness PsychologicalPalmyra OrphanageStealth through an abandoned post-Soviet orphanage while its old principal wanders, waits and hunts you.
  30. Nun Massacre key art in the style of a VHS box: the nun with bleeding eyes and a knife, a schoolboy in a green uniform and a corpse in a red chair holding a clown doll Multiple endingsNun MassacreHide and seek in a boarding school at night with a knife-wielding nun, in Puppet Combo's PS1 style.

Outlast 2 is the obvious next step: the same camera and night vision, the same lack of weapons, and a cult hunting you through the Arizona desert. The Outlast Trials comes from the same studio and is set in the same Murkoff experiments, but it is built to be played with up to three friends, so it trades some of the loneliness for shared panic.

If you want more of that helplessness on your own, start with Amnesia: The Dark Descent: it is the game Outlast learned from, slower and darker, with a lantern instead of night vision and a sanity meter that punishes you for staying in the dark too long. To see where Frictional's hide-and-run formula began, Penumbra: Overture sends you down an abandoned Greenland mine to hide from the creatures in its tunnels, and Penumbra: Black Plague takes even your crude tools away, leaving you unarmed in a research complex full of the infected.

Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia, also made SOMA and Amnesia: The Bunker. SOMA keeps the no-weapons rule but moves to a research station on the sea floor, and its creatures matter less than its unsettling story. The Bunker is the most like a chase game of the three: one creature hunts you by sound through a World War I bunker while you keep a generator running. The Designer's Curse is a free game in Amnesia's mould, with puzzles in a dark manor and creatures you cannot fight.

Alien: Isolation is the best pick if Outlast's chases were your favourite part. A single alien that cannot be killed roams a whole space station, learns where you like to hide and checks the lockers, and saving costs you seconds you may not have.

Home Sweet Home and Infliction keep the lockers and the helplessness but swap Murkoff's madmen for ghosts: a vengeful spirit from Thai folklore in one, a malevolent presence in a family home in the other, which you can only stun with a camera flash.

Maid of Sker and Remothered: Tormented Fathers keep the hiding but give it a stalker you learn to read. In Maid of Sker, blind cultists hunt a Welsh hotel by sound, so you hold your breath as they pass; in Remothered, an old man with a sickle hunts you room by room through his house while you hide and distract him with thrown objects. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead makes silence the whole game: an asthmatic, pregnant survivor with no weapon creeps past blind creatures that hunt by sound, watching a noise meter at every step. Westworld Awakening does it in VR: you are a host hiding from Hank, a serial killer host, in the labs beneath the park, with nothing to fight him with.

If you want the hiding without the supernatural, Stay Out of the House locks you in a cannibal butcher's house for three days: you sneak, hide in vents and pick locks to get out, in a grainy VHS style. Intruders: Hide and Seek makes you a boy at a family's country house when three intruders take your parents hostage: you cannot run or fight, only hide and sneak, and it can be played in VR.

For slower, more psychological dread, Visage puts you alone in a house where families died, with light as your only defence, and The Mortuary Assistant has you embalm bodies at night while a demon plays with your perception. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is the furthest from Outlast's rules, since you do get weapons, but its first hours of hiding from Jack Baker in a rotting farmhouse are some of the closest thing to Outlast in a big-budget game.

Five more keep you just as helpless. Still Wakes the Deep strands you without a weapon on a 1975 oil rig in a storm, hiding from a crew that something from under the sea has remade. Amnesia: Rebirth is Frictional's desert sequel, with a handful of matches against ghouls in caves and ruins. Monstrum puts one unkillable monster on a cargo ship whose corridors are built anew each run. White Day locks you in your school at night with a janitor who patrols with a baton, and The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication is closest to Outlast's camcorder: a film club shooting a horror movie in a haunted university, hunted by ghosts that follow every sound.

Four more keep the unarmed hiding in a single building. Perception makes you blind: Cassie sees a mansion only by echolocation, and every tap of her cane draws the Presence closer. Hollow Cocoon traps a student in an old mansion in a 1980s Japanese village with a tall, pale creature, Palmyra Orphanage sends you through an abandoned post-Soviet orphanage where the old principal still hunts the halls, and Nun Massacre is Puppet Combo's low-poly take, a mother hiding from a killer nun in a boarding school at night.

If you want the chase in 2D, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is Outlast's formula seen from the side: a student alone in a twisted version of her school at night, hiding from a killer with her teacher's face who hears you run and sees your flashlight.

If you only try one, play Amnesia: The Dark Descent for the roots of the formula, or Alien: Isolation for one hunter that never stops looking for you.

Questions

What is the closest game to Outlast?

The Outlast Trials, from the same studio and set in the same Murkoff experiments; for a single-player game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent or Alien: Isolation.

Are there games like Outlast I can play with friends?

Yes. The Outlast Trials is designed for up to four players and keeps the hide-and-run play.

Are there games like Outlast with no combat at all?

Amnesia: The Dark Descent, SOMA and Visage give you no weapons; Alien: Isolation gives you tools that can only drive the alien off for a moment.

More horror games by kind

Other guides