It has been a great couple of months for Resident Evil fans. Resident Evil 9 launched to critical acclaim and strong sales numbers, cementing the series as one of the best in survival horror.
Finishing a game that good, though, can leave you wanting more of the same, and that feeling is hard to shake.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of horror games that share a similar feel or atmosphere to the Resident Evil series, so you have somewhere to go once the credits roll.
The Evil Within 1 & 2
The Evil Within was directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, which is really the only introduction this game needs. The story follows Detective Sebastian Castellanos, who responds to a mass murder at a mental hospital and ends up trapped in a distorted, nightmarish world full of grotesque creatures and hostile environments.
The gameplay is built around resource management and stealth, ammo is scarce, and you’ll need to think carefully before every encounter. The second game takes everything the first did well and refines it, adding a more open structure while keeping the same survival horror feel.
The similarities to Resident Evil are hard to miss, and that’s no coincidence. Both series share the same creator, and it shows. The over-the-shoulder perspective, the limited resources, the tension of every encounter, it all feels very familiar, especially if you’ve played Resident Evil 4. If you’re looking for something that feels like a natural extension of the RE experience but with a darker, more psychological edge, this is the first place to look.
Signalis
Signalis is a 2022 indie survival horror game developed by just two people at Rose-Engine. You play as Elster, an android who wakes up after her ship crashes on a remote, frozen planet and finds herself navigating a hostile underground facility full of corrupted androids and things she doesn’t fully understand yet. The story is psychological, layered, and doesn’t spell everything out for you, which is part of what makes it so memorable.
The gameplay is built around tight inventory management, scarce ammo, puzzle solving, and knowing when to run instead of fight. The atmosphere does a lot of the heavy lifting, and it does it well.
The similarities to classic Resident Evil are hard to miss. Safe rooms, item boxes, limited inventory, interconnected areas full of locked doors and keys to find, it’s the same loop RE fans have been playing for decades, just wrapped in a completely different aesthetic. If the top-down perspective and the retro visual style don’t put you off, this one is well worth your time.
Tormented Souls
Tormented Souls is a 2021 survival horror game where you play as Caroline Walker, who arrives at an abandoned mansion to investigate the disappearance of twin girls, gets knocked unconscious, and wakes up in a bathtub with one of her eyes surgically removed. The setting is genuinely creepy, the puzzles are well-designed and will actually make you think, and the tension rarely lets up from start to finish.
If any game on this list qualifies as a direct love letter to classic Resident Evil, it’s this one. Fixed camera angles, limited saves tied to a physical item, scarce ammo, cryptic puzzles, and a mansion full of locked doors you’ll spend the whole game trying to open.
The developers clearly grew up playing those early RE games and set out to recreate that exact feeling, and they largely succeeded. If you’ve been chasing the atmosphere of the classic RE titles and haven’t played this yet, it should be your next download.
Returnal
Returnal is a 2021 third-person shooter where you play as Selene, an astronaut who crash-lands on an alien planet and gets stuck in a time loop. Every time she dies, the world reshuffles and she wakes up back at the start, but pieces of the mystery slowly come together the more you play.
The combat is fast and punishing, the atmosphere is deeply unsettling, and the story is the kind that rewards you for paying attention. The environments are hostile and oppressive, and there’s a constant sense of dread throughout that RE fans will find familiar.
It plays very differently from Resident Evil since it’s a roguelike bullet-hell shooter rather than a survival horror game, so don’t go in expecting the same experience. But if the difficulty and roguelike structure don’t put you off, it’s one of the best horror-adjacent games available.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is a 2023 survival horror game where you play as two characters: FBI agent Saga Anderson, investigating a string of murders in a small town, and Alan Wake himself, trapped in a nightmare dimension, trying to write his way out. The story is strange, layered, and unlike anything else out there.
The game’s biggest strengths are its atmosphere and world building. The environments are beautifully crafted, the sound design is excellent, and the mystery keeps you hooked from start to finish.
The connection to Resident Evil is more about feel than mechanics. Exploring dark areas with limited resources, piecing together a mystery through notes and environmental clues, and that constant sense of dread running through every location will feel very familiar to RE fans.
SOMA
SOMA is a 2015 sci-fi horror game set in an abandoned underwater research facility. You play as Simon Jarrett, who wakes up there with no clear understanding of how he got there or what happened to everyone. The story deals with consciousness, identity, and what it means to be human, and it handles those themes better than most games attempt to.
The atmosphere is the real strength here. The facility is oppressive and isolating, the sound design is excellent, and piecing together what happened through audio logs, terminals, and environmental details is genuinely compelling. Keep in mind, there is no combat; you can only run and hide from enemies.
The connection to Resident Evil is more about setting and tone than mechanics. Exploring a dark, abandoned facility full of grotesque creatures, uncovering the truth through scattered documents and notes, and that constant feeling of being alone somewhere you shouldn’t be will all feel familiar to RE fans. The gameplay loop is different, but the atmosphere hits many of the same notes.
Remothered: Tormented Fathers
Remothered is a 2018 survival horror game where you play as Rosemary Reed, a woman who sneaks into the mansion of a retired doctor to uncover the truth behind a girl’s disappearance. Once inside, she finds herself being hunted by a relentless stalker and has to explore, hide, and solve puzzles to find a way out. The story takes some genuinely unexpected turns, and the atmosphere inside the manor is consistently tense.
There is no combat here. Survival is entirely built around stealth, using the environment to your advantage, and knowing when to run and when to hide. Every footstep matters, and getting spotted sends your heart rate up every time.
The connection to classic RE is in the setting and structure. A dark, confined location full of secrets, puzzles to solve, documents to piece the story together, and locked doors that slowly open up as you progress. If you’re a fan of the older RE games and don’t mind a slower, stealth-focused experience, this one is worth checking out.
Darkwood
Darkwood is a 2017 top-down survival horror game set in a supernatural forest in Soviet-era Poland. A mysterious plague has overtaken the woods, turning everything in it hostile. During the day, you explore, scavenge, and prepare your hideout. At night, you lock the doors and survive until morning.
The atmosphere is the game’s biggest strength. It builds dread entirely through sound design and limited visibility, with no jump scares at all. The story gets told through the environment and the unsettling characters you meet along the way, and it lingers.
The connection to RE is in the resource management and exploration loop. Scavenging supplies, managing a limited inventory, and piecing together what happened through scattered documents will all feel familiar to RE fans. The perspective is different, but the tension of never having enough and always being one bad decision away from death is the same.
Final Words
Finishing a great horror game is never easy, especially one as polished as Resident Evil 9. But hopefully this list gives you somewhere to go next.
Whether you want something that plays almost identically to RE, like The Evil Within or Tormented Souls, or something that just captures the same atmosphere and dread in a completely different way, like SOMA or Darkwood, there’s enough here to keep you busy for a long time.