The Best Sci-Fi Games You Can Play Right Now

Elite Dangerous

Science fiction is vast, and it can mean so many things to different people. There are lots of games with science fiction elements in them, but with this list we really wanted to capture the wonder of space, the weirdness of different lifeforms, and the possibilities of the future. Visiting new worlds, piloting humongous space crafts, dogfighting above planets, exploring and uncovering weird alien life, interacting with advanced technology - games that let you get lost in a world like nothing on Earth.

These then, are the best sci-fi games you play right now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, PS4, Xbox and Switch.

No Man’s Sky

Controversial when it was first released due to a lack of content, No Man’s Sky is a completely different game to what originally launched in 2016. It’s a space exploration adventure, where you’re free to cruise the skies and the stars, mine resources, build a base, trade and engage in conflict with other lifeforms if you need to. The game is procedurally generated, meaning the billions of planets have their own ecosystems, biomes and inhabitants, making this one of the most unique games you’ll ever play. It’s an optimistic science fiction game, where exploration is the point, not necessarily what you eventually find. There’s a story involving something called The Atlas, but really this is a giant sandbox for you to live your life as an astronaut pottering around space.

Play on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Prey

Prey at first looks like a standard sci-fi first person shooter, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is so much more than a shoot-em-up in space. Developer Arkane, known for the Dishonored series, brings its stealth and immersive sim skills to Metroidvania level design, with the player using alien abilities to hide, defeat and escape a life form known as the Typhon. The space station Talos is a joy to explore, a maze and puzzle, and the game features multiple endings depending on your playstyle so there’s real reason to play it more than once in a completely different way.

Play on: PC, Xbox One, PS4

Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous is nothing if not ambitious, recreating the Milky Way galaxy at scale for you to explore. You pilot your ship and decide how to make your money; trading, smuggling, mining, transporting people, assassinating, bounty hunting, or a combination of all of those things. You can then use your hard-earned space bucks to upgrade your ship and build it out to your own spec. You can align with a faction and work towards their goals, helping to shift the balance of power and their territorial control, and in the process rank up your commander, in what amounts to a space pilot simulation game where you can lose hours of your life.

Play on: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Alien Isolation

Licensed games don’t come any better than Alien Isolation, a lonely, tense standoff between you and H.R. Giger’s iconic creature. With incredible attention to detail, developer Creative Assembly recreates the iconic movie, with a set that feels like Ripley will walk around the corner at any moment. It’s a game of cat and mouse, and the slow atmosphere and gradual creep of terror creates a true white-knuckle experience. Nearly ten years old, it’s still a terrifying and suspenseful science fiction adventure.

Play on: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch

Stellaris

Do you want to exist in peace and harmony with the rest of the galaxy, or do you want to dominate and annihilate every other living being? You can play this 4X grand strategy game however you want as a civilization exploring, colonizing and managing a region of space, reacting to scripted and emergent events. It begins with your one planet and a handful of spaceships, where you mine resources and tentatively expand the empire. But it doesn’t take long before you have to split your time and decision making between diplomacy and war, trade and compromise, to find a balance between technology and tradition. It’s an epic game of universe-management, there’s nothing quite like the scale of Stellaris.

Play on: PC

Observation

Observation puts you in control of the AI of a space station, letting you live out your HAL-9000 or GERTY from Moon fantasies. Here you are SAM, observing and operating the station, opening doors, moving cameras, and eventually smaller spheres into hostile environments. It’s a slow paced sci-fi, and it takes a while to tell its story, but it’s one that you have control over as you piece together puzzles and the mystery of the hexagonal entity. It’s a gripping story and well worth investing your time.

Play on: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Returnal

Returnal was one of the best first games for the new PS5, a roguelike where you’re trapped in a time loop searching for the White Shadow. It’s an action adventure shooter, where you blast aliens with advanced weaponry, and are reborn every time you die, allowing you to slowly piece together parts of the story. Your enemies attack with geometric energy - spirals, spheres, hoops - and you retaliate with increasingly dangerous weapons and upgrades. It’s a unique experience. It’s punishingly hard at times, and it can feel like a grind, but it’s designed that way, so the challenge is its own reward.

Play on: PS5, PC

Dead Space

This horror science fiction game features an alien-worshipping cult, a weird conspiracy, mutated creatures, and an engineer plodding around a decrepit space station. It’s tense and thrilling, and very, very gory. Players can dismember enemies as they approach, meaning you take a strategic approach to lopping off limbs or other features, some of which continue crawling towards you. It’s equal parts Event Horizon and Resident Evil, enveloped in an astonishingly spooky atmosphere. Forget the sequels and spin-offs, and go for the recently released remake on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Play on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Death Stranding

On the surface, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is an action game where you deliver cargo for upgrades. You’ll need to consider weight and stability, and at the same time improve your standing with communities dotted around the post–apocalyptic map. You come into conflict with bandits and “beached things”, and when you die you have to swim back to your own body to be reborn. Is it starting to sound strange yet? Because Death Stranding is bonkers, a truly eccentric take on the end of the world and how communities evolve. Its starry cast includes Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen and Guillermo del Toro, but you’ll remember it for a million other WTF moments that you still won’t understand after Googling them.

Play on: PC, PS4, PS5

EVE Online

There’s a reason EVE Online is still thriving 20 years after it first released. It’s a truly unique, life-sucking adventure, where you fly, trade, explore and fight across the galaxy, pledging allegiance to factions, and engaging in all-out war with other players. Battles and grudges can last for years, espionage can bring down fleets of enemies, serious money is earnt, lost and stolen, and the politics of the universe are created by the players themselves. You will likely only ever be a small part of the EVE Online universe, but that’s the pleasure of it. It can feel like an online job, and you must give yourself fully to EVE Online to get anything out of it. It’s all or nothing with this game.

Play on: PC

Destiny 2

There are many first-person sci-fi shooters, but Destiny is the real deal. It’s a mythical science fiction world with incredible gunplay and lore from Bungie, the makers of the original Halo. You take on the role of a Guardian and engage in PvE and PvP events, epic raids, and story events, slowly building a set of powerful gear - weapons, helmets, cloaks, gauntlets, and more, all blessed with perks and quirks. It really comes into its own with friends in multiplayer, as you fly around planets obliterating aliens and other players, creating gameplay that becomes a true social and shared experience. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Play on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S