8 best games like Fallout to play in 2024, from Cyberpunk 2077 to Metro Exodus
It's no secret that Fallout is one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, so I'm here to break down some of my favourite titles that are similar to the post-apocalyptic game.
Fallout has become one of the most iconic role-playing game series in the medium, noted for its retro-future aesthetic, black humour, and satire of consumerism and capitalism. Starting life as an isometric CRPG during the 90s, it's become very different since it made the switch to first-person once Bethesda bought the rights to the series.
How I chose the best games like Fallout
While I assume the majority of the players familiar with the likes of Fallout 4 or New Vegas won't have played those original titles in the franchise, this list has enough variety for players who enjoy both styles of games.
Not all of the games on this list will be like-for-like, but they should capture some of what makes the Fallout games so beloved. Considering it will be a long time until we get another Fallout game, the below should hopefully tide you over.
Best games like Fallout
#8 - Starfield
Click to enlarge- Developer: Bethesda
- Release date: September 06, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
- Key features:
- Expansive open-world
- Made by the same company as Fallout
- Space exploration
Perhaps one of the biggest games of 2023, Starfield is the latest venture from Bethesda that took us from the Wasteland to the farthest reaches of space and continues to endure in 2024. Featuring vast space exploration and procedurally generated worlds, no experience is ever the same outside of the main story and will keep even the most ardent of Bethesda fans guessing.
While it may not be the strongest entry on this list, Starfield bucked the trend as an Xbox and PC exclusive, while also endeavouring to maintain the spirit and ambition that has continued to run through all of their titles. Even some of the best games like Starfield hope to achieve the grandiose scale it has laid out.
#7 - Metro Exodus
Click to enlarge- Developer: 4A Games
- Release date: February 14, 2019
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac
- Key features:
- Gunplay is tight and enjoyable
- High-quality world-building
- Stealth offers a satisfying challenge
Despite not being an open world like Fallout, and also lacking the distinct humour associated with the series, Metro Exodus is a worthwhile experience for any Fallout fan. The world is bleak, with a focus on survival and experiencing incredibly dynamic environments.
The game is rich with detail and everything you do will force you to think. As you progress, you will have to be calculated and disciplined to survive. It may sound a bit intense, but it remains consistently enjoyable throughout.
#6 - Cyberpunk 2077
Click to enlarge- Developer: CD Projekt RED
- Release date: December 10, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC
- Key features:
- Exploration of interesting philosophical concepts
- Keanu Reeves
- Plethora of quests and activities
- Richly detailed urban world
Cyberpunk 2077 was a well-known disaster on release, but over time, CD Projekt RED has shaped it into a gem of a game. Since the release of the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion to critical acclaim, the game has finally reached its promised echelons.
Boasting the same type of first-person RPG gameplay you can find in Fallout, it allows you to explore a beautifully realised cyberpunk hellscape called Night City, with the freedom to make your way through the game on your terms.
It's also thematically similar to Fallout in many ways, satirising free-market capitalism to create its type of post-apocalyptic world where corporations rule everything and ownership over your own body is questionable.
#5 - Wasteland 3
Click to enlarge- Developer: inXile Entertainment
- Release date: August 28, 2020
- Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC
- Key features:
- Beheading a statue of Reagan
- Classic CRPG presentation and design
- Difficult moral choices
- Rich, tactical combat gameplay
The original Wasteland was the game that directly inspired the Fallout series, and over three decades later, Wasteland 3 is carrying the torch with its representation of a post-apocalyptic America, easily making it one of the best games like Fallout available in 2024.
Set in the frozen wasteland of Colorado, you'll play as members of a Ranger Team who barely survived an ambush in the wastes, forcing you to make alliances and gather support where you can to survive and establish some semblance of order in a chaotic world.
Played from an isometric perspective with turn-based combat, it takes more inspiration from the older Fallouts in gameplay and tone and even features multiplayer for those looking to enjoy the end of the world with a friend.
#4 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Click to enlarge- Developer: GSC Game World
- Release date: March 20, 2007
- Platforms: PC
- Key features:
- Awful Eastern European accents
- Freedom of exploration
- Frightening encounters
- Gripping atmosphere
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person, survival horror, role-playing game set in an alternate reality where a second disaster occurred in Chernobyl, causing strange changes and phenomena to occur in the 30-mile surrounding area called The Zone.
You'll assume the identity of the Marked One, an amnesiac whose only known goal is to find and kill someone called Strelok, with the game throwing you into the world and giving you the tools to do so in your manner.
Its bleak and often terrifying atmosphere is one of the stand-out aspects of the game and combines effortlessly with the tactical gun fights and resource management to create a consistently tense and often stress-inducing experience unlike anything else.
It may not be for everyone, but you'll be hard-pressed to find something similar until the sequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R Heart of Chornobyl releases in the future.
#3 - Dying Light 2: Stay Human
Click to enlarge- Developer: Techland
- Release date: February 4, 2022
- Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC
- Key features:
- Drop-kicking zombies off buildings
- Fun parkour gameplay
- Quest choices and story permutations
- Variety of weapons
The nuclear apocalypse is one reality for the world ending, with Dying Light 2: Stay Human presenting the ever-popular zombie apocalypse alternative where the dead rise and snack on us like chicken nuggets.
Dying Light 2 leans into the RPG formula more than its predecessor, with a big focus on choices you can make during the story that alter the plotline, dictate what characters survive, and decide what the ultimate fate of the city is.
Set in first-person, one of the main features of its gameplay is parkour, allowing you to seamlessly glide across rooftops and scale buildings to escape the undead hordes. But if you do get caught and need to fight, the crunchy melee combat system lets you cave in skulls and slice off limbs to your heart's content.
#2 - Project Zomboid
Click to enlarge- Developer: The Indie Stone
- Release date: November 8, 2013
- Platforms: PC
- Key features:
- Complete freedom to survive how you want
- Die from catching a cold 50 hours into your playthrough
- Most detailed zombie simulation ever
- Tonnes of interconnecting systems and features
Sticking with zombie games, Project Zomboid is one of the most detailed and complex zombie survival role-playing games to ever exist - and it's still not reached version 1.0, having spent the decade in early access. Don't let the early access tag fool you into thinking it feels unfinished though, as Zomboid has more content and features than most sandbox games can dream of.
You start by creating your character, selecting your strengths and weaknesses, then you are randomly thrown into one of the locations on the map and tasked to survive by any means. It can be a brutally punishing game at first, with one bite spelling the end of your playthrough, but you'll slowly pick up on how to optimise your survival by scavenging food, finding shelter, and securing weapons.
No game recreates the zombie apocalypse like Project Zomboid, and its richly detailed, expansive, and free-form player-driven gameplay easily makes it one of the best games like Fallout this year
What is the best game like Fallout?
#1 - The Outer Worlds
Click to enlarge- Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
- Release date: October 23, 2020
- Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC
- Key features:
- Bright aesthetic and colourful worlds
- Customisable gameplay
- Lighter tone and irreverent humour
- The return of low-intelligence dialogue options
Our pick for the best game like Fallout you should play this year is often referred to as Fallout in space - The Outer Worlds. Led by the creators of the franchise itself, and developed by many of the same people involved with Fallout: New Vegas, the game is in many ways as close as you'll get to the series until Fallout 5 inevitably comes out.
Set in an alternative future where megacorporations managed to colonise and terraform planets in distant solar systems, it again lampoons consumer culture and capitalism, with a bigger focus on the class divide, and has a much more irreverent and silly tone.
It plays from a first-person perspective, allowing you to build a character of your liking with a focus on fighting, sneaking, or talking, as you attempt to solve the mysteries of a missing colony ship and free the system of Halcyon from the clutches of the sinister collective known as The Board.
Now that you know the best games like Fallout to play in 2024, head over to our lists homepage for even more guides, such as the best games like Baldur's Gate 3, or the best games like Alan Wake so you can keep adding to your ever-growing backlogs.
