The survival horror genre has exploded over the last decade. Here are some of the best available to play right now on PS4.

When playing some harsh and stressful survival games, you'll want to make sure that you're ironically as comfortable as possible in your gaming station. It just so happens that the PlayStation 4 (PS4) is one of the coziest gaming devices you can have since you get to sit back far away from the television or monitor on your couch with your arms more relaxed than on the PC.

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Hence, you could say that playing survival games is best experienced on consoles, mainly the PS4 (let the comment section console wars begin!). Thankfully, there is no shortage of survival games in PS4's collection. Some of them are even exclusives that are not available on the Xbox consoles or the PC. To shorten your scouring time for such games, we have here a list of 10 of the best of them, here you go Sony loyalists.

Updated July 10, 2021, by Sid Natividad: PS4 survival games are still on a roll -- especially now that some older titles have become more available with the advent of the PS5. Still craving more of that human-condition-at-work in video games? Want to worry about your hierarchy of needs on top of typical video game challenges? Then you need to try out these best PS4 survival games.

It might not be for everyone, but Death Stranding is revolutionary in its own way. This game is Hideo Kojima's latest innovation which makes use of multiplayer in ways no other game has gone before. The core gameplay, for that matter, is best enjoyed online. That loop involves delivering packages like the world's most dedicated and impractical FedEx delivery guy.

What makes Death Stranding work more as a survival title than an action-adventure one is how the packages tend to handicap the players whereupon they have to think up creative or resourceful ways to avoid combat and complete their delivery. Combat is sparse and unconventional, meaning you have to rely on grit most of the time.

If you're craving for something more hardcore than a souls-like game particularly in the "running-around-helpless" aspect of gameplay, then Outward ought to be your masochist sanctuary. It's a medieval fantasy RPG with no mini-map, no fast travel, and no readily available modern means of video game healing.

Outward pits you against its cruel world where you'll feel lonelier than ever as you journey through the land on your own armed mostly with only your wits and measly tools or spells. It's a game that treats you like an expendable NPC, not as a chosen one or protagonist.

Do you remember your childhood nightmares and hallucinations back in the days when you were suffering some fever-induced deliriums because of a cold or a viral infection? Well, consider yourself lucky if you don't; you'll get to see what those looked like in Little Nightmares anyway.

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Little Nightmares is a horror survival/adventure game where you commandeer a meek character named Six as they try to escape The Maw. The Maw is a carnival of monstrosities filled to the brim with some of the worst manifestations of childhood fears. The game is also a great way to face and overcome said fears.

Of course, who could forget one of the most iconic trendsetters in the survival genre, Minecraft? It's a simple game with outdated graphics but that doesn't matter as Minecraft's beauty is what you make with it. This game rewards creativity and merely gives you the tools to build.

Thus, it's a video game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, as is evident in the highly varied playerbase. There is also solid lore in the game that's actually quite dark and is presented in stark contrast with its cute and boxy art style. All of that serves as reasonable context to reshape the world into your own vision.

Think of Hunger Games except everyone is more toxic and more insane, also more naked. Rust can be quite a crazy but interesting experience for all players. It drops you off on a locale stark-naked and you'll have to work your way up from the stone age to the modern age.

To do this, you'll have to be as clever or as smart as possible as even anti-social behavior can be rewarding in Rust. The game's main focus is letting players kill one another where base-building and resource-collecting is relegated to the background.

Starting off this list is a PS4 exclusive, one that ought to put a smile on horror fans' faces: Until Dawn. You essentially control and determine the survival of horror film protagonist stereotypes in this game by choosing their next course of action. Each choice you make has dire and reverberating consequences and the game makes good use and depiction of the butterfly effect.

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While it's more scripted horror than survival, Until Dawn is still about who outlasts the mysterious and bloodthirsty killer in the random cabin in the woods. In a sense, it still is a survival game, though its survival elements might pale in comparison to some of the more hardcore titles in this list.

Moving on to the open-world is Dying Light and its numerous downloadable contents (DLC) and expansions. The game showcases a huge and sprawling city you can traverse vertically and horizontally in first-person parkour and you certainly would need to if you want to avoid the ravenous zombie hordes on the city streets.

You play as an undercover agent in a shady organization committed to fixing the zombie infestation in the city of Harran. If you find the daylight zombie hordes and human bandits wanting, simply go out at night and Dying Light will show you why it's a bad idea to be alone with zombies once the sun comes down. Regardless, it's a good enough game if you're after casual survival where you don't need to fulfill a checklist of your character's needs.

If hardcore survival is what you're after, look no further than Conan Exiles. This sandbox survival game here is all about doing what you want and need to be a conqueror. You start off as a measly prisoner freed by Conan the Barbarian himself and you must then set out to explore the land and make something for yourself with what you can find.

Once you're had your footing by killing animals over and over again until you're full or have enough of their skin for your armor, you can then turn to slavery. Yes, you can enslave non-player characters (NPC) here and have them work for you after you've humiliated them by dragging their unconscious body on the ground. Oh, and once you're rich enough, you can perform ritual sacrifices to summon a god of your religion of choice; pretty much how our ancestors rolled.

If Conan Exiles seems a little too barbarous for you, then Subnautica might be able to show you that even survival games can be therapeutic. The game plunges you deep under the ocean of an alien planet where you'll need to set up a base, look after your needs, explore, and study the local wildlife.

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It's a survival game locale that has never been explored prior and that makes Subnautica a fresh experience. Diving underwater and seeing some underwater wonders alone makes Subnautica worth playing. Just don't forget that it's also about survival, meaning there are certain creatures of the deep who aren't too warm with you snooping around their natural habitat.

One of the younger entries in this list, Days Gone is a compelling zombie horror survival game that makes good use of the open-world format. Look past the controversial IGN and Gamespot score and you'll find a community of zombie game veterans praising Days Gone for being a fresh take on an aging formula and sub-genre.

Days Gone follows the story of Deacon St. John who tries to survive the wilderness of fictional Oregon amidst a zombie apocalypse with the zombies being called "Freakers" while searching for his wife with whom he got separated a couple of years ago. Days Gone is one of the few games in this list that throws actual hordes of zombies, making it a blast to play.

The Alien franchise has been getting disaster after disaster of video games with the most notorious title being Aliens: Colonial Marines. It wasn't until Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation that the franchise showed its potential for horror and atmosphere once again, proving that Xenomorphs are just as scary in video games as they are in the films.

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Alien: Isolation is all about Amanda Ripley's journey to find her missing mother, Ellen Ripley (the protagonist of the first Alien movie). Ironically, Amanda somehow underwent the same ordeal as her mother did, having to fend for herself and survive the Xenomorphs as they wreak havoc in space and many other human establishments. If you want to know what it feels like to be scared livestock, this is the game for you.

At first glance, ARK: Survival Evolved appears to be a mad scientist's wet dream in terms of concept. It borrows plenty of elements from science fiction tropes, like an enclosed island with hidden futuristic technology and guns too. However, what makes ARK stand out is its local fauna or creatures... dinosaurs.

You can capture, tame, and ride velociraptor-like creatures and even use them to fight some nasty T-Rex dinos. You can even capture and tame the T-Rex yourself. Moreover, ARK's fascinating creature feature doesn't stop with dinosaurs; they also have plenty of other more alien-looking beings and even bosses that can be crucial to gameplay. It still has the standard survival fare of collecting, crafting, and looking after your needs, meaning survival is still the top priority here.

Survival with a purpose or a narrative incentive is always more compelling than just survival for the sake of it. That's why The Forest is truly a special game in that regard. It has one of the best premises and plots for survival games. While on a plane ride with your son, the plane crash lands onto a mysterious island; both you and your son survive but he is taken away by some freaky cannibals.

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It is up to you to track down your son while overcoming the ominous forces inhabiting the island. Once you start feeling safe in your log fortress, go explore some caves and you'll be presented with the creepiest underground tunnel network ever in the history of gaming. The Forest is certainly not for the faint of heart; lucky for you, you can bring friends along so you can laugh or scream together in-game.

Few apocalypse survival sims manage to capture the actual intensity and desperation of trying to survive in a wasteland, that's why Frostpunk is a whole new world of pain and depression even for those used to apocalypse games. Frostpunk showcases the plight of the survivors of a climate apocalypse where the world is plunged into subzero temperatures, forcing most of life to die in the white void.

You lead a community of survivors as they try to scavenge, rebuild, and sacrifice their way into preservation. Frostpunk introduces new survival mechanics never-before utilized in any video game. By the end of a story playthrough, you'll be feeling the chill and the heartlessness of its wasteland.

When it first came out, the original Outlast was generally praised for its interesting take on the haunted house horror template. In this game, you're a journalist with no tool or weapon other than a camcorder with limited battery life and subpar infrared-- you're basically a sitting duck.

The worst part is that the insane asylum you just entered is full of monstrosities and many other murderous entities that like to lurk in the dark and chase anyone who looks like a normal human being. All of this happens in first-person view and you'll find yourself abusing your camcorder's infrared like a safety blanket.

The first aspect you'll notice in Don't Starve is the cartoonish art style and graphics. It gives the game a goofy and comical look, but make no mistake — this game is difficult. In stark contrast to the light-hearted art, Don't Starve constantly keeps you under pressure where you'll have to race against time in building, hunting, eating, and other activities. Because when the night comes, there's not much you can do against the unseen creatures of the dark.

Initially, you get to play as Wilson, a German scientist who gets trapped by a demon in a mysterious wilderness world. You must then survive and invent enough until you are able to find a way to escape and get back home. As you reach new survival milestones, you get to unlock other characters with special capabilities, giving the game high replay value.

Most survival games in this list make the actual act of surviving look fun and sterilized. In reality, it's often lonely, hopeless, and cold. After all, you're pretty much devoid of all the comforts you had and you simply can't build a new home just by smashing some trees together. The Long Dark understands that you can't have nice things realistically, so they don't hand it over to you like you're Robinson Crusoe.

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Instead, The Long Dark makes you trudge through endless snow, ghost towns, and bleakness. The only other sentient life you'll find in droves are hungry wolves who are in the same circumstance as you are. Despite how desperate the situation is in The Long Dark, it still makes you feel like you're in a post-apocalypse or climate disaster movie, meaning you'll want more of it after getting a taste of what true survival feels like.

One doesn't need to look far into fiction in order to find survival game inspirations. Our very own dark history of warfare has often given birth to real-life survival situations. This War of Mine explores that dark notion in human history. The game takes place in a modern fictional war-torn Eastern European city where a group of civilians gets trapped during an ongoing siege.

You must then manage their food, health, mental well-being, and resources so they can outlast the raging war. In short, it's a more depressing version of The Sims where instead of made-up problems, the civilians in This War of Mine might actually die of real-life ordeals and aftermaths of war. This is one of the few survival games out there which fully captures the emotional and mental taxes of actual survival; take it as a lesson in human suffering 101 and get ready to receive more psychological scars.

Green Hell is all about authentic survival in the Amazon rainforest. It's a much more realistic version of The Forest, meaning no mutants or cannibals. All you have to contend with in this game are the hostile Amazon locals, wild animals, parasites, and the non-living forces of nature.

You have to appease for your macronutrient requirements (water, fats, carbs, protein) by hunting and foraging and even checking how many leeches you have on you from time to time as well as building shelter or other tools to increase your lifespan in the jungle. It's essentially Far Cry but without the guns or action movie nonsense.

One of the latest original entries for the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a back-to-basics reimagining of zombie game formula. Instead of following up on the third-person action horror format of the previous games, Resident Evil 7 does everything more immersively in first-person and makes the protagonist a lot more vulnerable.

It does this by taking plenty of elements from horror movie classics such as the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even The Blair Witch Project. This makes Resident Evil 7 an exciting new take on the franchise, one that's also a precedent for more innovative entries in the near future.

Sid was born, did some stuff, then decided to become a writer. He finds respite in the sweet embrace of mass media escapism after having risked his life too many times as a journalist covering warzones and depressed areas. Nowadays he mostly risks his bladder as he tries to hold his urine waiting for those precious post-credits scenes at the movies or trying to kill Souls-like bosses. So far it's going well. Probably.