Best Exploration Games on Steam
Unlike generic lists, our strategy game recommendations use a rigorous analysis of Steam user reviews to identify and feature only the best, community-validated exploration games.
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Airscape - The Fall of Gravity
Airscape is a fast-paced, ultra-challenging 60 level action platformer. You play a deep-sea octopus, kidnapped by a mechanical alien race. Jump, dodge, and swim through a skybound environment full of floating islands, water formations, and robotic terrors.
the static speaks my name
A dark/sad/weird/funny first person exploration game. You play a man on his last night alive as he obsesses over a mysterious painting. More of a story game in that it emphasizes mood and character over gameplay. Takes ten minutes to play and has "next-gen" features like a shrimp tank.
Fingerbones
Explore a mysterious abandoned bunker and find notes that paint a disturbing picture.
Submerged
Submerged is a third-person combat-free game in which you explore a mysterious flooded city and discover the beauty of desolation in vast outdoor environments. You take on the role of Miku, a young girl who has brought her wounded brother to the city in their small fishing boat.
PixelJunk™ Nom Nom Galaxy
Welcome to SoupCo, Astroworker! In Nom Nom Galaxy, construct and automate gigantic soup factories on unexplored planets throughout the universe, harvest flora and fauna to turn them into artisanal soups, and rocket your product into the gullets of the galaxy!
Way of the Samurai 4
Way of the Samurai 4 takes place in the humble port town of Amihama during the mid 19th Century, several years after the arrival of the “black ships” from the West ended Japan’s long history of cultural isolation.
Through Abandoned: The Underground City
It’s the first game of Through Abandoned series, classical point and click game. You try to find your twin-brother who disappeared in a huge and mysterious place called Abandoned.
Odallus: The Dark Call
The old gods have forgotten this land. No one could save our people when darkness started spreading and collecting human souls for its army. Odallus is a classic exploration/action game, inspired by Ghosts’n Goblins, Demon’s Crest and Castlevania.
Contradiction: Spot The Liar
Spot the lie and beat the liars in 'Contradiction' - the all-video murder mystery adventure!
The Magic Circle
In this darkly comedic story, you are the hero of an unfinished fantasy game, and your designers have failed you. Steal the power of a game god - trap their creations, swap behaviors and body parts, crafting your own unique solutions to free-form puzzles. Can you release a game ...from the inside?
Marble Mayhem: Fragile Ball
Devilishly difficult but insanely rewarding physics puzzler. Play through 85 levels of diverse and ingenious physics-based challenges.
The Silent Age
Experience a post-apocalyptic world like never before in The Silent Age, a thrilling point-and-click adventure game. Use time travel to unravel the mystery behind humanity's disappearance and save the world from extinction. Start your journey now!
BeamNG.drive
A dynamic soft-body physics vehicle simulator capable of doing just about anything.
Crash Drive 2
Get ready for ridiculous fun in this multiplayer free-roaming stunting game. Drive a bus, tank or monster truck and speed across huge open worlds. Level up your car, participate in random events and discover secret areas. Buy now and get a free copy to gift to your friend!
Homesick
Explore an abandoned building, encountering puzzles and clues to discover what happened, as you try to escape in both your nightmares and the waking world. Be immersed in the hauntingly beautiful 3D atmosphere in this puzzle exploration mystery game.
60 Seconds!
60 Seconds! is a dark comedy atomic adventure of scavenge and survival. Collect supplies and rescue your family before the nuke hits. Stay alive in your fallout shelter. Make difficult decisions, ration food and hunt mutant cockroaches. And maybe survive. Or not.
Fort Defense
All hands on deck! Pirate armada dead ahead! Take part in an uncompromising struggle repelling freebooters' assaults. Watch out, the enemy may catch the tide for ruining your fortress. Build towers, collect crystals, upgrade spells and believe in your victory!
Axiom Verge
Explore and uncover the mystery of a surreal alien world by blasting aliens and glitching your environment in this intense retro side-scrolling action/adventure.
Home is Where One Starts...
Home is Where One Starts... is a short, first-person exploration game in the same vein as Dear Esther or Gone Home. It’s a story about childhood, hope, and the miracle of memory. You play as a little girl from a broken home somewhere in the American South.
The Music Machine
A teenage girl and the vengeful ghost possessing her stumble onto horrors of cosmic proportions as the latter searches for a way to murder the former.
Kerbal Space Program
In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics.
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Embark on an all-new adventure with Shantae, the hair-whipping belly dancing genie. After losing her magic, Shantae teams up with the nefarious pirate Risky Boots in order to save Sequin Land from a curse.
Environmental Station Alpha
Explore an abandoned space station in this retro-themed explorative action platformer.
Convoy
Convoy is a tactical roguelike-like inspired by Mad Max and FTL in which you cross a wasteland in search of parts for your broken ship. Presented in pixel art and set in a future post-apocalyptic setting, Convoy is a squad based tactical combat roguelike-like in its core.
House of Caravan
Taking place in a single mansion in Candlewood, northeast USA, in the early 20th Century, House of Caravan is a sinister adventure filled with dark secrets and vexing puzzles.
Domestic Dog
Have you ever wanted to be a dog? Well now you can, kinda...
Lakeview Cabin Collection
Delve into the diverse world of horror movies in this 2D action puzzler. Nothing can prepare you for the R-rated challenges you will face!
Fire: Ungh’s Quest
FIRE is an exploration-adventure with intuitive puzzle design. Without losing many words it tells a savagely hilarious story. Journey into the Stone Age and face the most challenging task of this era: The search for fire!
In Verbis Virtus
Use your real voice to cast spells in In Verbis Virtus, a fantasy adventure unlike any other. Step into the shoes of a wizard in search of an ancient power. Explore a lost temple, making your way through forgotten chambers brimming with unspeakable beauty and terror.
Elite Dangerous
Take control of your own starship and blaze your trail in an ever-changing galaxy. Master the arts of combat, mining and trade or venture out into the unknown across a 1:1 scale universe.
Chronicles of Teddy
Chronicles of Teddy : Harmony of Exidus is a 2D Adventure / Action game with a Pixel Art Retro finish. Help Tarant in a quest, in which you will have to fight, use your sense of direction and hearing to accomplish your mission.