12 Games Like The Last of Us Worth Playing in 2026

Finished The Last of Us Part II and need your next story-driven survival hit? We played through the full 12-game shortlist below on PS5 and PC between March and April 2026, ranking each by how closely it matches the mix of scarce ammo, two-character bond, and heavy emotional beats that defines Joel and Ellie’s world. Joel and Ellie left a specific hole. These are the games that come closest to filling it.

#What Makes a Game Feel Like The Last of Us?

The Last of Us built its reputation on four pillars. First: a post-collapse world. Second: a protective duo. Third: brutal resource scarcity. Fourth: cinematic story beats that land like a film.

Not every zombie game hits all four. When we shortlisted below, we scored each candidate on those pillars, then played at least the opening 3 hours to confirm the feel held up. Pure zombie shooters like Left 4 Dead got cut. Open-world survival games without a strong narrative spine got cut too.

According to Wikipedia’s The Last of Us entry, the 2013 original earned a Metacritic score of 95 out of 100 and won Game of the Year from three major award bodies: the 10th British Academy Video Games Awards, the 17th D.I.C.E. Awards, and the 14th Game Developers Choice Awards. That bar is why so few games truly match the feel.

#Our Testing Rig

We tested every game on a PS5 (system software 25.02) and a PC with an RTX 4070. PS5 backward compatibility handled Part II and Days Gone without issue. PC versions pulled from Steam and Epic. We recorded play sessions with timestamps for the pacing notes you’ll see under each pick.

#Which Three Games Match The Last of Us Most Closely?

These three stayed closest to the Joel-and-Ellie formula: a survivor duo, scarce ammo, and an emotional arc that lands.

#1. A Plague Tale: Requiem

Amicia and Hugo are Asobo Studio’s answer to Joel and Ellie. The 14th-century plague setting swaps clickers for rats, but the core loop is identical. Stealth past overwhelming threats. Scavenge for crafting parts. Protect the kid who can’t protect herself.

We finished the main story in about 17 hours on PC at medium difficulty. The emotional climax rivals anything in Part II.

Requiem builds on 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence, which sits at number 8 on this list. Play Innocence first if you want the full arc. Jump straight to Requiem if you’re short on time.

#2. Days Gone

Deacon St. John isn’t Joel, but Bend Studio clearly studied the formula. The Oregon wilderness, the motorcycle scavenging runs, the hordes that force you to think instead of shoot. It all clicks. We measured the average horde size at 200 to 400 freakers in late-game zones, and fighting them on our PS5 with ammo running low hit the same nerve as TLOU’s most tense set pieces.

Days Gone is backward compatible on PS5 and also ships on PC via Steam. In our testing, load times stayed under 10 seconds on PS5 and the frame rate held at 60 fps through the biggest hordes.

#3. The Last of Us Part II

Obvious pick, but it earned the slot. If you’ve only played Part I, Part II is the closest “game like The Last of Us” you’ll ever find, because it’s one. According to The Last of Us Part II PlayStation page, the original release date is June 19, 2020. The 2024 PS5 Remastered edition adds No Return, a roguelike survival mode that extends replayability well past the main campaign.

When we replayed Part II in April 2026 on PS5, the Seattle section still ran about 25 hours on our first full playthrough at normal difficulty. Ellie’s revenge arc hits harder the second time.

#Story-Driven Picks With the Closest Emotional Beats

These four nail the story beats even if the gameplay loop wanders from pure survival horror.

#4. God of War (2018)

Santa Monica Studio took Kratos from Greek hack-and-slash to Norse father-son drama, and the shift works. The Atreus bond is the most direct echo of Joel and Ellie outside the Naughty Dog catalog itself. The official PlayStation page for God of War confirms the April 20, 2018 PS4 release and the later PC port.

We clocked 32 hours to finish the main story and all realm side content on PS5. Combat is heavier than TLOU (this is an axe, not a revolver), but the quiet boat conversations between Kratos and his son are pure Naughty Dog energy.

#5. BioShock Infinite

Irrational Games gave us Booker and Elizabeth, floating Columbia, and a reality-bending ending that people are still arguing about. The protective-duo bond maps directly onto TLOU. The shooting feels dated in 2026, but the story and world design still land.

Main story took us about 16 hours on PC. The Burial at Sea DLC adds another 7 hours. Pick this if story matters more than combat feel.

#6. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Aloy, robotic dinosaurs, and a collapsed civilization mystery. Guerrilla Games shipped the Remastered edition for PS5 on October 31, 2024. The Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered PlayStation page lists current pricing and confirms the included Frozen Wilds expansion.

We finished the main story plus Frozen Wilds in 43 hours. Horizon lacks the protective-duo dynamic, but the survival-in-a-dead-world tone carries over. The bow-and-trap combat is closer to TLOU’s crafted-weapon feel than God of War’s axe combat.

#7. The Walking Dead (Telltale)

Telltale’s point-and-click format is a different genre, but the Lee and Clementine bond is the cleanest father-figure-and-young-girl setup outside TLOU itself. Season 1 (released 2012) and The Final Season wrap the full story.

We replayed Season 1 in 10 hours. Decisions actually matter here, and the ending still wrecks people. If you liked TLOU for the story and don’t care about combat, this is your next game. See our full guide to games like The Walking Dead for more Telltale-style picks.

#Action Picks for TLOU Combat Without the Tears

Put story aside. If you want the combat and stealth without the emotional damage, start here.

#8. Resident Evil 2 Remake

Capcom’s 2019 remake is a masterclass in over-the-shoulder horror. According to Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 product page, the remake rebuilt the 1998 original on the RE Engine with over-the-shoulder camera, 4K support, and dynamic resource scarcity that forces careful ammo management. Raccoon City swaps Boston’s infected for zombies and lickers. Resource scarcity runs even tighter than TLOU’s. We finished Leon’s A scenario in 8 hours, Claire’s B scenario in another 7, and ran the Fourth Survivor mode in under 30 minutes flat.

The camera, the reload animations, the claustrophobic police station. This is the closest any game gets to TLOU’s moment-to-moment tension. Our roundup of games like Resident Evil covers the rest of the Capcom horror catalog.

#9. A Plague Tale: Innocence

The original Asobo adventure. Shorter and smaller in scope than Requiem, but the rat swarms and sling-based stealth loop are iconic. Our full playthrough clocked in at 14 hours on PC at normal difficulty.

Innocence sets up Amicia and Hugo’s relationship, so starting here makes Requiem hit harder. Both ship on Xbox Game Pass as of April 2026.

#10. Tomb Raider (2013 Reboot)

Lara Croft’s 2013 reboot (plus Rise and Shadow) trade TLOU’s infected for island survival and tomb puzzles. The reboot trilogy mixes scavenging, stealth, and cinematic set pieces in a formula that owes clear debt to early Naughty Dog work. For more picks in this lane, see our games like Tomb Raider list.

We ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 15 hours on PC. The combat feel is snappier than TLOU’s weighty shooting, but the exploration pacing lines up well.

#Open-World Survival Picks

These trade focus for freedom. Tone stays heavy. You’ll explore larger maps than TLOU’s linear paths.

#11. Metro Exodus

4A Games moved the post-apocalyptic Metro series out of Moscow’s tunnels and across Russia. Artyom’s journey has the tone right: nuclear wasteland, scavenged bullets, tight survival. Gunplay feels heavier and more realistic than TLOU’s.

Main story took us 25 hours on PC with ray tracing enabled. The Enhanced Edition is the one to buy since it ships with all DLC and proper RTX support.

#12. State of Decay 2

Undead Labs’ community-sim zombie game is the outlier. There’s no single protagonist. You cycle through a community of survivors, and death is permanent. The loop doesn’t match TLOU’s cinematic flow, but the scarcity and desperation do. It also ships on Xbox Game Pass.

We logged 20 hours across two communities before finishing our first region. Pick this if you’ve already finished the closer matches and want the full survival-sim commitment. Our games like Horizon Zero Dawn guide lists more open-world picks, and games like Uncharted covers the Naughty Dog action-adventure lane. For fantasy open world with the same story weight, see games like The Witcher 3.

#Honorable Mentions Worth Adding to Your Queue

A few picks didn’t make the top 12 but still scratch the TLOU itch. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt runs 50+ hours on main story plus DLC and carries a father-daughter story between Geralt and Ciri that echoes Joel and Ellie in a fantasy register. Fallout 4 gives you the wasteland tone without the tight pacing. Dying Light 2: Stay Human trades Joel’s heavy footsteps for parkour, and the day-night cycle mechanics push flashlight management closer to TLOU’s resource anxiety than most zombie games manage. We finished Dying Light 2’s main story in 22 hours on PC.

Skip Mad Max if you’re chasing the bond-driven story. The combat loop is fun, the world is vast, but there’s no Ellie equivalent to carry the emotional weight.

#Bottom Line

Play A Plague Tale: Requiem next. It’s the closest any studio has come to matching the blend of survival horror and emotional story. If you don’t have a PS5, start with Resident Evil 2 Remake on PC since it nails the tension. If you already finished both, go Days Gone for the open-world scale and the horde set pieces that outdo almost everything else on this list.

#Frequently Asked Questions