It can be hard to find a game that scratches the Stalker series itch. You know, the stuff that makes it charming, like the radioactive, post-apocalyptic wastelands, the terrifying, mutated creatures and high-energy anomalies, or trying to get “friendly” with the locals.

If you’re here, though, either the robust selection of mods available just aren’t doing the trick for you, or you’ve exhausted everything to do inStalker 2. Whatever the case, while they can’t promise an identical Stalker experience, the games listed below are able to get pretty darn close to that experience in one way or another.

A screenshot from Metro: Exodus Enhanced Edition (2020) wherein the player is perched atop a high building, looking at a panoramic view of a destroyed city, covered in snow in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Updated on July 29, 2025 by Tom Hopkins: Now that Stalker 2 is out, fans of the series have another game to jump into. However, that’s the obvious choice. Between the launch of the first and most recent games in the series, loads of similar games have been released.

The Metro series is the obvious choice when it comes to games that are similar to Stalker. Not only is the vibe similar, but it’s also set in an expansive post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe.

Deacon With A Talon 7 in Days Gone.

The latest game in the series is Metro Awakening, a shorter experience that’s exclusive to VR platforms.

However, unlike the other games in the series, Exodus takes place in an open world. The previous games all took place in the dark tunnels under Moscow, but the structure was expanded to include the world above the surface. You take on bandits and mutants, all while trying to survive - just as you do in Stalkerr.

An old car is parked on a hill while an alien looking beam of light glows in the distance.

Days Gone hasn’t been the most highly rated of the PlayStation first-party exclusives, but it’s certainly garnered a cult following. Where it is similar to the Stalker series is in its setting. You explore an open post-apocalyptic wilderness, full of mystery and things that can kill you.

Where the two games differ is in the speed of the action. The hordes of zombies in Days Gone are a constant threat, with hundreds of undead attacking you at any one time. Stalker is a slower experience, with you needing to be tactical in how you approach every threat. If you enjoy the setting of Stalker though, you’ll likely enjoy Days Gone.

A mostly black and white loot UI showing a grid-based inventory with a smoke grenade and other tactical gear inside.

If you enjoy the first-person perspective and survival aspects of Stalker, Pacific Rift is the perfect game for you. It even features the anomalies and strange obstacles you’ll be familiar with. However, not everything is the same.

There’s a big focus on the car you get to explore in, as well as the puzzle-solving aspects. It’s not a shooter in the same way as Stalker, so you won’t be taking on enemies in as aggressive ways. The dark and mysterious vibe of Stalker also doesn’t carry over, with the game being set in a fictionalised version of the late 90s.

A first-person POV of hands wearing black gloves holding and firing a suppressed pistol in a wooded area during Autumn.

If you’re able to forego the real-time, first-person aspects of the Stalker games,Wasteland 3is still able to tick the post-apocalyptic, RPG, faction, and tactical combat checkboxes, packaging the entire experience into a squad and turn-based adventure full of tough, ethical decisions.

While this game might not feel quite as open-world as it does in Stalker, you’ll likely be pleased by the degree of spontaneity and volatility of the environment and the enemies you encounter. While it’s a shame you won’t be prowling the wastes of The Zone, why not give this fictional alternate reality set in Colorado a chance?

A gold-gloved, technologically augmented hand firing a blast of freezing cold, blue and white liquid.

Ah, FPS, real-time, survival-horror goodness where stealthy gameplay is rewarded, all set in an alternate timeline where late 1980s Sweden has been overrun by a wide variety of autonomous, deadly machines. It doesn’t quite feel the same as fighting off a pack of Pseudodogs or a Chimera, but these robots are still pretty intimidating at times, especially the building-sized ones.

In Generation Zero, your best friends are knowledge, guerilla warfare, and a lot of ammunition accompanied by upgraded weapons and gear. Learn the patterns, behaviors, and weaknesses of your mechanical enemies, and strike them when the odds are in your favor.

A first-person perspective of looking through a rifle scope with a red crosshair in a snowy environment.

WhileAtomic Hearthas plenty of robotic enemies to fight, since practically every mechanical servant went haywire, sparking a global catastrophe in this utopian version of the Soviet Union set in the 1950s, you might be pleased to hear there are plenty of mutants to fight, too.

With humanity at stake, you’ll play as Major Sergey Nechayev, communicating and collaborating with your boss, robotics designer Viktor Petrov, to figure out what went wrong. Whether it’s a variety of melee weapons, cyborg-like enhancements, or a good old-fashioned AK-47, you’ll figure out how to deal with the enemies in your way, some way or another.

A first-person perspective of a wrist-mounted screen showing a variety of items in the players inventory in orange-yellow text.

Although it’s in early access, Road to Vostok has much to be desired, especially if the thought of a Sandbox, Survival, FPS experience with a focus on realism, combat, and looting in a post-apocalyptic setting excites you.

While the game isn’t open-world in the same way that Stalker is, there are already plenty of interconnected maps with randomized events that crank up the PvE difficulty the closer you get to Vostok. Also, ensure you pay attention to your character’s medical conditions in the field and visit the trader to maintain your weapons and gear.

A gray, grid-based looting UI of a player searching a bandit’s inventory.

If you were playingFallout: New Vegasaround its initial release, you’d miss out on Stalker’s in-depth survival mechanics. However, thanks to modern additions and updates, you can take Fallout’s typical RPG, FPS, and looting experience and introduce new survival aspects by playing in Hardcore mode.

Now with additional sadistic game mechanics, like sleep deprivation, dehydration, starvation, and less effective medical supplies, you should be able to feel that familiar, Stalker-esque struggle, but this time, caught between the factions warring in the dusty deserts of the Mojave.

5Zero Sievert

As long as you don’t mind pixel art graphics with a top-down perspective, Zero Sievert translates from the Stalker experience quite well, allowing you to explore a variety of maps full of random events, including anomalies and airdrops, fight off mutants, die to radioactive zones, and build trust with different factions.

The game is completely single-player, focused on brutal PvE that can be tailored to your liking, allowing for some forgiveness here and there if you need a more lenient experience or an incredibly difficult challenge with permadeath mechanics.

While it’s true thatEscape From Tarkovis primarily a multiplayer, extraction-shooter experience that lacks mutated creatures or anomalies, the combination of PvP and PvE threats, a complex medical and health system, and a wide variety of realistic weaponry makes for an exciting, albeit unforgiving experience.

If you jump into Escape From Tarkov, you’ll be introduced to a whole new work of hardcore extraction shooters.

There are plenty of quests to do, and depending on whether you choose to align yourself with BEARs or USECs, certain factions on some of the maps will be either more trusting of you or immediately hostile on sight. EFT isn’t the perfect alternative to Stalker, but it can get your heart thumping in the same way.