The Sons of the Forest is a first-person survival horror game published by NewNight and developed by EndNight Games, released in early access on February 23, 2023. The game has received mostly positive reviews as it offers a fantastic survival experience that has improved upon its already unique predecessor, The Forest.
Since it is a prevalent genre, horror survival games are filled with terrifying and deep games, often with attempts at interesting twists and styles. However, only a few of these titles manage to keep themselves unique. The Forest and Sons of the Forest have revolutionized their genre and made even simple things unique.
Sons of the Forest is a beautiful game filled with great mechanics, fun combat, and a gorgeous environment that will always have you staring and wanting to share screenshots with your friends.
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, and at this point, it is likely that many fans of the franchise have already finished playing Sons of the Forest and are craving more. Because of this, we decided to make an article filled with five amazing games that you can play right now if you are a fan of Sons of the Forest.
Stay with us as we cover five incredible survival horror games like the Sons of the Forest that will have you playing scared for endless nights!
What Makes Sons of the Forest So Fun
In Sons of the Forest, you are a security member who has survived a helicopter crash and is tasked with rescuing an influential billionaire and his family who have disappeared. As you progress through the story, you will start to uncover the gruesome experiments and events occurring all around this place’s inhabitants.
This game features a beautiful and scary environment with all kinds of creatures lurking in the shadows. You must overcome all the scenarios the game throws at you and protect your companions.
The Best Elements of a Survival Horror Game like Sons of the Forest
The game “Sons of the Forest” is great and has yet to be fully released. It features exploration, resource management mechanics, crafting, complex combat, and fantastic building mechanics that allow players to get creative and build a variety of structures.
Scary Ambience
The Sons of the Forest not only offers an impressive and realistic world, but it also features a tense and unpredictable environment in which any place may have roaming, lethal creatures that will undoubtedly stalk and attack you.
The developers genuinely honor the game’s name by making a dense, vast, realistic, and impressive forest environment with various biomes for you to explore.
Great and Varied Combat
The combat in Sons of the Forest is more than just spamming your left mouse key; it provides a great variety of weapons that you can find or craft, such as bows, crossbows, melee weapons, and even guns like a pistol, shotgun, and revolver.
The game allows players to be creative in protecting themselves from cannibals and mutants. It takes the survival mechanic of the genre to another level and leaves many players looking for other great games like Sons of the Forest.
Dense World
Even though this is an isolated place, the level design compensates for it with a vast forest full of surprises that keeps the experience fresh, even for players with a fair amount of hours.
Not only will you be roaming the map for supplies, but you will also have to encounter all kinds of dangers, find secrets, and experience unexpected scenarios in this fantastic game’s vast environment.
Variety of Enemies
In Sons of the Forest, you not only have to worry about keeping your character healthy by feeding him with the right food and water but also will have to learn how to combat the great variety of enemies the game throws at you.
One thing that makes this game so great and unique is the wide variety of enemies, ranging from regular cannibals to more experienced and organized ones that will raid your base in groups and in specific ways.
The game also contains gruesome mutants, which you will have to fight differently based on their type, making combat a fun and exciting experience, especially with all the weapons you can acquire.
Companions
Most horror survival games feel strongly isolated and lonely unless you play with friends. Son of the Forest offers a great way to make the game unique by adding two companions with different purposes.
At first, you have a teammate called Kelvin, who is extremely useful in gathering supplies and finishing construction. Then you have another companion you can recruit later in the game. Befriending Virginia in Sons of the Forest will help you find places of interest and even combat enemies if you provide her with weapons.
Building Mechanics
The prequel to Sons of the Forest offered fun, functional, yet basic building mechanics based on blueprints. Sons of the Forest manages to improve upon this by not only giving the player blueprints and the ability to freely place and mix building resources to create a fortress of their liking.
5 Best Great Survival Horror Games Like Sons of the Forest
If you haven’t yet played it, you should really consider playing Sons of the Forest, as it’s an amazing open-world, horror survival game. For those just starting out, check out our top Sons of the Forest tips for beginners.
If you love Sons of the Forest and are looking for another great horror survival game, check out the games similar to our top feature.
1. The Original Forest Game is One of the Best Survival Horror Games Available Today
The perfect way to start with this list is with the fantastic prequel to Sons of the Forest; even though the game was released almost a decade ago, it is still a unique experience with fantastic gameplay.
If you are thinking that The Forest is a downgrade from its predecessor, stop there. This game is unique and fun in its own way. It can be challenging and punishing in certain areas
The Forest offers fun gameplay and a vast, open world full of cannibals and mutants, forcing you to count your resources and carefully plan your moves to survive in this gruesome environment.
What Makes The Forest a Game Similar to Sons of the Forest
- Prequel to Sons of the Forest
- Shared lore
- Characters
- Variety of enemies
- Great crafting mechanics
- Challenging survival experience
- Amazing environment
Release Date: May 30, 2014
Platforms: PC and PlayStation Platforms
2. The Long Dark
The Long Dark is a survival and exploration game with challenging mechanics that will have you fighting in this dark and hazardous world.
Something that makes The Long Dark a fantastic game is the great atmosphere featuring a vast, detailed world full of snowy mountains, dense forests, and structures. Even though the graphics in The Long Dark don’t aim for realism, the art style is impressive, and you would hardly tell that this is a game from 2014.
Many fans of horror survival games believe that this game offers some of the best and most complex survival mechanics as you will have to think about everything to survive, from food, water, temperature, and other conditions that could be potentially hazardous.
This title also offers an exciting narrative that must uncover while exploring this fantastic and dangerous world.
The Long Dark is a game that any fan of the horror survival games like Sons of the Forest should try and won’t regret.
What Makes The Long Dark Similar to Sons of the Forest
- Gorgeous graphics
- Complex survival mechanics
- Challenging experience
- Building system
- Good narrative
- Slow-paced
- Fun combat mechanics
- Explorable open world
Release Date: September 22, 2014
Platforms: PC, PlayStation Platforms, Xbox Platforms, and Nintendo Switch
3. Green Hell
Green Hell is a first-person survival game set in the Amazon Rainforest. In this unique take on a survival horror game, you take on the role of a stranded character striving to survive in an arduous and unforgiving environment.
Green Hell is considered one of the most complex games of this already challenging genre. It offers a wide variety of flora and fauna mixed with a complex health system where you will have to treat your character as if you were treating yourself.
The difficulty of Green Hell makes it stand out amongst other great games like Sons of the Forest. It even implants psychological survival mechanics in which you have to worry about your character’s sanity and mental state, which can deteriorate.
This game also offers complex and creative crafting and building mechanics, in which you must build solid shelters and weapons to defend yourself from the hazards of this dense rainforest.
Only a few players have what it takes to survive in Green Hell; if you are looking for a truly challenging horror survival game, this is one of the best games like Sons of the Forest for you.
What Makes Green Hell a Great Option for Fans Looking for a Game like Sons of the Forest
- Realistic graphics
- Challenging health system
- Stunning visuals
- Fun combat mechanics
- Robust building system
- Detailed crafting system
- Variety of flora and fauna
- Challenging experience
- Tense atmosphere
Release Date: August 29, 2018
Platforms: PC, PlayStation Platforms, Xbox Platforms, and Nintendo Switch
4. Grounded
If you are looking for a more relaxed and friendly experience, then Grounded is the perfect game for you. It offers a vast, beautiful, and relatively dangerous world in which you take on the role of a child who has been shrunk to the size of an ant.
Yes, since you are the size of an ant, you will have to face your worst fears, such as massive spiders that will show no mercy. Don’t be fooled by the graphics; Grounded is fun but can be very challenging, especially for those new to horror survival games like Sons of the Forest.
What makes this game unique is the gorgeous cartoonish atmosphere filled with all kinds of flora and fauna that you can use to your advantage. In this game, you will have to craft in order to survive and protect yourself from aggressive and massive insects that will have you calling your mother in the middle of the night to help kill them.
Grounded is a game you won’t regret playing, and we highly recommend playing it with friends for an unforgettable experience.
What Makes Grounded Similar to Sons of the Forest
- Great graphics
- Fun crafting system
- Enjoyable atmosphere
- Variety of enemies
- Co-op
- Building mechanics
Release Date: September 27, 2022
Platforms: PC and Xbox Platforms
5. 7 Days to Die – A Great Zombie-Based, Horror Survival Game with Elements like Sons of the Forest
If you are looking for zombies, then 7 Days to Die is your game, as you will have to fight hordes of zombies while scrounging for supplies and building structures to protect yourself from the deadly hordes that will come for you every seven nights.
From this list, this is probably one of the tensest games, as time is not on your side, and you will have to be ready for challenging situations no matter what. This game offers a vast world that can be played with friends or by yourself.
One of the best things about this game is the variety of weapons you can craft and find, such as pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and more.
For those looking for a more classic horror-survival-zombie experience, 7 Days to Die is a great game.
Related Article: Is 7 Days to Die Cross Platform?
What Makes 7 Days to Die a Great Open World Game like Sons of the Forest
- Variety of weapons
- Punishing combat
- Enemy AI raids
- Progressively harder
- Robust crafting and building system
- Great open-world experience
- Scary atmosphere
Release Date: December 13, 2013
Platforms: PC, PlayStation Platforms and Xbox Platforms
Last Thoughts on Our Choices for the Best Survival Horror Games like Sons of the Forest
Here is where we wrap things up for this article, hoping you will find a gem of a game that will keep you up for countless nights playing with friends or by yourself.
We invite you to explore our site and check our other articles, such as our guide about everything you need to know about Kelvin in Sons of the Forest. Don’t forget to let us know in the comments what kind of content and topics you want us to cover.
Stay tuned, as we will keep covering other great horror survival games and guides for Sons of the Forest!
Good luck and have fun, fellow survivors!
