If you're looking for games to play that are similar to STALKER, you've probably already heard it all. Heck, let us give you a shortlist you've already read dozens of times before: Fallout, Metro, Zero Sievert, Escape From Tarkov, Into the Radius (if you've got a VR headset), and - if you're really branching out into niches - games like Far Cry 2. There's no shortage of things to choose from, really.

Today, we're here to present you with a slightly different list. One that goes off of vibes for the most part, and doesn't tell you the same thing you've been hit over the head with time and again. Down below, we've assembled a list of must-play STALKER-adjacent titles that are going to make you feel like you did when you played STALKER.

Three Unlikely Must-Play Games for STALKER fans

Finding these games is no mean feat, of course. It's a given that the vast majority of them have been already discussed to no end, making them unsurprising and uninteresting in this context. Yet, we've got a handful of examples that you might've been avoiding all along, thinking they might not be interesting at all. Let us explain why STALKER fans have to play each and every one of the following titles!

Atomic Heart

Atomic Heart is, in many ways, the most obvious pick of the bunch. This is, after all, a Soviet-themed first-person shooter with sci-fi and New Weird leanings. It's a natural fit for STALKER comparisons but fails to compete in the same niche. Atomic Heart is a largely linear and with precious little nuance in the narrative department. It's a fairly crass and perhaps even mis-toned in many ways, and this alone may put off players used to STALKER's comparative dullness and down-to-earth storytelling.

Yet, at the same time, Atomic Heart's out-of-the-way vibes are on-point. Sure, the characters are annoying, but the creature, anomaly, and world designs are all absolutely phenomenal. Even more importantly, Atomic Heart's world manages to evoke the same feelings of wonder and dread that STALKER often does. It achieves the same goal in a roundabout way, really, and as long as you can bear Atomic Heart's more annoying qualities, it's a must play for the sheer vibes of it all.

Pacific Drive

Pacific Drive is, in all the ways that count, STALKER with a car. Its whole schtick is that your own vehicle is an anomaly into its own right, and you get to wield it in lieu of any real weapons. Your job? To navigate an ever-changing, ever-evolving Zone of Exclusion that's absolutely loaded with Weird anomalies.

Sound familiar? Yeah.

Pacific Drive nails the STALKER vibe almost perfectly. Sure, it's a different Zone that leans more heavily into the Americana influences of the US of A, but we promise that the whole experience rhymes rather delightfully with STALKER proper.

A potential downside to consider is that Pacific Drive doesn't have any guns (not really), and its graphics are simplified compared to STALKER's hyper-realism. In the grand scheme of things, though, it doesn't matter when you're stuck knee-deep in semi-malicious non-Newtonian fluids.

Death Stranding

Finally, if you've been on the fence about Death Stranding as a STALKER fan, now's the time to reconsider. A pioneer and a true champion of the contemporary New Weird, Death Stranding does loneliness far, far, far better than any other game on the market. It's a thing in STALKER, too, and even though this game is a more story-centric experience, you're still getting long stretches of brutal, survival-based gameplay that's going to remind you of it.

Death Stranding comes with a huge amount of typical Kojima eccentricity, of course. That's either a pro or a con, depending on the way you lean, but STALKER had plenty of its own weirdness as well if we're being honest.

Gameplay and vibes are on point, however, and that's the bit we're most interested in today!

Stay Tuned for STALKER 2!

With all of these out of the way, it should be plainly obvious we're plenty excited about STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl here at 2Game. We've already covered a whole wealth of related topics, such as:

As of late, we've also updated our STALKER 2 system requirements guide, and - most importantly - covered the absolutely delightful set of previews we received about the game. We are more-or-less ready for Heart of Chornobyl's November 20 release, and you can bet we'll have loads of coverage ready to go on day one. From running the game on the Steam Deck all the way to testing out the SDK, 2Game's got you covered. Stay tuned!

If you’re looking for games to play that are similar to STALKER, you’ve probably already heard it all. Heck, let us give you a shortlist you’ve already read dozens of times before: Fallout, Metro, Zero Sievert, Escape From Tarkov, Into the Radius (if you’ve got a VR headset), and – if you’re really branching out […]