Best sci-fi games on PC 2024

What are the best sci-fi games on PC? From the mind-bending visuals of Psychroma to the bustling Night City streets, these games take all different shapes and forms. There’s the cozy aesthetic and cerebral puzzles of Outer Wilds and the tense, tactical shootouts in XCOM 2 — sci-fi games encompass many different genres, so you’ll likely never get bored.

There are the remastered classics, like System Shock, the dystopian blueprint for the immersive sim, and the unappreciated masterpieces like Arkane Austin’s Prey, an unsung gem that never got its flowers. And, of course, there are all-time classics like Mass Effect games, a series that needs no introduction. Sci-fi games encompass RPGs, FPS games, and, of course, space games where you fly and fight among the stars. These are some of the best PC games out there.

The best sci-fi games to play right now are:

First up is Psychroma, a new indie game that blew me away with its Steam Next Fest demo. You play as a woman who’s woken up inside an abandoned house controlled by a sentient AI. It’s a retro side-scrolling mystery that touches on the more philosophical side of the sci-fi spectrum, making it the perfect game if you’re looking to explore new ideas and what it means to be human. 

While we all love playing indies and undiscovered gems, hugely popular games come with big communities of modders, and Cyberpunk 2077 is no different. This first-person RPG has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. It launched in a pretty rough shape, playable only on the best PCs, but after a few years of improvements and a complete gameplay overhaul it’s a remarkable experience. Night City is a place you can truly lose yourself in thanks to the densely packed streets filled with missions and little vignettes to get distracted by.

It also boasts a healthy modding scene, meaning even if you’ve played the story through a few times, seen all the endings, and played the DLC, there will always be more for you to do. You should check out the best Cyberpunk 2077 mods. 

Prey is the best game you’ve never played. Developed by Arkane Austin, it carries on the legacy of immersive sim Dishonored and distills all the studio’s knowledge into a fantastic sci-fi game set aboard a space station. With the ability to gain powers that let you turn into any object on the station, you could really solve puzzles however you wanted. Unfortunately, the studio has been shut down by Microsoft, so make sure its memory lives on. 

I doubt I’ll ever play another game like Outer Wilds. This sci-fi game is set in a fully simulated solar system full of mysteries for you to uncover. Unlike No Man’s Sky which offers an infinite but shallow galaxy, every planet, moon, and celestial body in Outer Wilds is as deep as an ocean.
You play as a member of a four-eyed alien species with a knack for space travel. Set off in a cozy — and mostly wooden — spaceship in what is a fairly cottagecore space adventure. You’re trapped in a time loop and have to figure out its source. The base game is phenomenal as it is, and the DLC, Echoes of the Eye, adds even more hours of magic to the experience. 

You’ve got a choice with System Shock, either the original 1994 version that kicked off the immersive sim genre or the 2023 remake that makes the game prettier but still maintains a lot of the original design aesthetic and direction. You play as a hacker forced to take down Shodan, a rogue AI with a vindictive hatred for humanity. She’s taken over a space station and it’s your job to fix it.

I think it’s worth going back to the original to see the inspiration behind games like BioShock as it still holds up decently, and there’s just no replacing the original. If you just can’t stand older games, though, then the remake is still a solid choice. It uses the original voice actor for Shodan, too, but adds some modern quality of life improvements. 

If you’re a fan of hard sci-fi or shows like The Expanse, Mass Effect is the perfect game for you. You play as Shepard, humanity’s last defense against a galactic threat that could end life as we know it. Set a few hundred years in the future when Earth joins its interstellar neighbors among the stars, this trilogy has romance, action, comedy, and tears.
The remastered Legendary Edition adds tons of gameplay and quality of life improvements, as well as enhanced visuals, so I’d recommend it over the original releases of the games.

Once you’ve had your fill of sci-fi games, why not check out our list of best fantasy games for a change of pace. If you’ve already played all of these, then keep an eye on our list of the best upcoming PC games, to keep an eye on, including the 1.0 launch of 7 Days to Die and Star Wars Outlaws.