The Dark Souls series, and its various successors and spin-offs, have carved an important place for themselves in the gaming scene, be it the satisfying difficulty, the beautiful surroundings, the thrilling boss fights, or the incredible atmosphere that can oscillate between fantastical and creepy.
With its popularity, the Dark Souls series has inspired its own sub-genre of Soulslike video games. These are usually third-person action-adventure games such as Nioh or Code Vein. Fans who like the defining aspects of a Dark Souls game, however, are in luck; there are a handful of great first-person games that have some similar attributes that players can enjoy.
5 S.T.A.L.K.E.R
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person horror game set in the Zone, inspired by Chernobyl. The game has an interesting progression system where players can upgrade their weapons and equipment, but their stats stay the same. The player's health and other attributes remain stagnant, making this quite a difficult challenge even on the lower difficulties. Stamina is limited and there are tons of different beasts and mutations players need to fight through, giving it a similar difficulty curve to a typical Soulslike game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. also leans heavily into environmental horror and just being an overall creepy game where players are essentially left to fend for themselves. The game plays heavily into a sense of loneliness and desperation for the main character, who has to fight through a dark and depressing world for a morally gray goal. Additionally, the game is littered with bugs, another recurring trend in the Dark Souls series.
4 Prey
The 2017 version of Prey has tons of features reminiscent of the Soulslike genre. Players are dropped into an unforgiving environment, with very little to go off on. The story and 'lore' of the game are essentially given to players through various logs, context clues, and items. There are very few NPCs, and the entire ship has a gloomy vibe, somewhat like Dark Souls 3.
The combat is very solid, just the right amount of challenging, and features surprisingly good gunplay and weapon variety. There's also a decent amount of customization, and player choices subtly affect the game's ending. Overall, Prey is a very good game, and worth a try for any player looking for more Soulslike alternatives.
3 Metro 2033
Based on the Dmitry Glukhovsky novels, the Metro series is a survival horror game in a first-person view. Metro 2033 was produced by part of the team that created S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and the influence is apparent in the quality of the game. Players are thrust into a post-nuclear war Moscow and must navigate a treacherous landscape to uncover the truth behind the 'Dark Ones' whilst also dealing with various factions of humans, including other survivors, Neo-Nazis, and a Stalinist Regime. Players experience the world through dark and gloomy environments, be it the expansive wastelands or the sprawling system of metro tunnels, and the game leans heavily into its narrative.
The gameplay revolves around basic first-person shooter combat while incorporating a variety of traditional weapons, crafting, and foraging for supplies. Players, throughout the game, also make subtle choices that affect how the ending plays out. Similar to most Soulslike games, the world is bleak and devastating, with little redeeming factors, but players are treated to little sprinkles of humanity from time to time.
2 Bioshock
Bioshock is one of the most iconic first-person games out there, and fans are eager for more. Though it may not seem overly Soulslike at first glance, most fans of From Software's hit series will quickly fall in love with this game. Bioshock, similar to most games in the Dark Souls series, has an incredible plot; it isn't bloated, and it isn't revealed to players through hours of exposition and dialogue scenes. Rather, Bioshock lets players slowly discover the world on their own while experiencing the underlying horrors of the world through various narrative devices. While the game doesn't revolve entirely around player choices, small actions eventually add up. Players get the ending their actions deserve. Depending on how many Little Sisters the player character harvests or rescues, Dr. Tenebaum's narration changes, and different endings are possible as a result.
Whilst the gameplay isn't particularly challenging, it is well-crafted and rewarding. The different weapons on display all have their own unique niches. Moreover, similar to the estus flasks, players can only have access to a limited number of plasmids and tonics at a time, making healing management all the more important.
1 Resident Evil: Village
A Resident Evil game isn't the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of a Soulslike game, but Resident Evil: Village - an incredible game in its own right - is a must-play for fans of the Dark Souls series, particularly fans of Bloodborne. Based in, as the title suggests, a Romanian village, the Victorian era architecture influence is apparent. This is somewhat reminiscent of both Yharnam and Castle Cainhurst. Furthermore, players have to use their ammunition sparingly and must regularly engage in hand-to-hand combat or outsmart the hordes of Lycans. Again, while the actual combat system is not like Bloodborne, it has a similar challenge to it, and enemies sure pack a punch. With no dodge button and a weak blocking mechanic, combat can feel difficult, and being hit is essentially a death sentence.
Picking up from Resident Evil 7, Village tells a tragic and heartbreaking story following Ethan and Rose and how they deal with inescapable loss. Village is an incredible venture into survival horror and one that any fan of Bloodborne or Dark Souls would love.