10 Loneliest Video Games

Many video games have an aura of loneliness. Older games didn’t have the luxury of open worlds and sophisticated artificial intelligence to make them feel alive. On the other hand, even newer video games have moments of emptiness that can come off as melancholic for a player.

Some games try to negate this by populating their worlds with ambivalent, non-playable characters, but it doesn’t always work. Other games don’t include NPCs at all, which leaves worlds feeling even more empty. Whether it’s filled to the brim with hostile NPCs like Dead Space or has no real NPCs like Portal, some video games make players feel like they’re truly alone.

10 Half-Life at Least Has Some Scientists and Guards

Then Again, It Also Has Plenty of Aliens and Treacherous Soldiers

Half-Life is a seminal game in the first-person shooter genre. It stars Dr. Gordon Freeman, a Black Mesa Research Facility scientist. During an experiment involving a mineral of unknown origin, Gordan inadvertently causes a workplace disaster, resulting in equipment going haywire. In the aftermath, personnel perish, and multiple alien species are unleashed into the mysterious facility.

Gordan isn’t completely alone as he traverses through Black Mesa. More than a handful of guards are willing to protect him, along with some scientists seeking to aid him by any means. However, alien species and special forces are actively murdering these personnel, which essentially leaves Gordon to fend for himself. With that in mind, while Half-Life isn’t the loneliest game, it’s not quite a friendly environment either, with aliens and soldiers out to get Gordon.

9 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Has a Love Interest

Everyone Else Has Turned into Monsters

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a well-regarded PlayStation 2 platformer. In it, an unnamed prince retrieves an artifact known as the Dagger of Time, which is blessed with the titular Sands of Time. The prince is tricked into releasing the Sands of Time to catastrophic results.

While the prince, a vizier, and a princess named Farah survive unscathed, everyone else has turned into monsters. Farah is the prince’s only ally as he makes his way through the rapidly crumbling palace. There’s no one else for the prince to turn to; all he can do is save himself.

8 Super Mario 64 Has a Dearth of Friendly NPCs

The Friendly NPCs Are All Stationary

Super Mario 64 is the first 3D entry in the iconic Mario series. Mario travels to Princess Peach’s castle after hearing that she has prepared a cake for him. However, when he arrives, he discovers that Peach has been enclosed within the confines of her castle thanks to Bowser’s misuse of its 120 stars. The castle needs at least seventy of those stars to break Peach out.

Controlling Mario in a 3D world is exciting, but that excitement may fade upon realizing how lonely Mario is. Every world in the game is either closed off by walls or surrounded by areas Mario can fall off of. Most crucially, there are hardly any friendly NPCs in Super Mario 64, save for a few stationary Toads. Every other NPC is out to kill Mario, and with no second player, Mario is left alone in the surprisingly liminal world design.

7 SCP: Containment Breach Has Everyone Killed By Anomalies

Whether It Be a Sentient Statue or a Walking Corpse, They’re Out to Get Everyone

SCP: Containment Breach is an independent survivor horror video game based on the internet-famous SCP Foundation mythology. In it, a disposable test subject, D-9341, is sent to the chamber of SCP-173, a sentient statue that only moves when no one is looking at it. Something goes wrong during testing procedures, and SCP-173 and other SCP subjects escape containment.

While D-9341 survives the breach, that’s only a small consolation. All other remaining humans in the facility are killed by SCP subjects or are under orders to terminate D-9341. Everything and everyone in the facility is out to get D-9341. D-9341 is all alone and has to rely on his wits to combat the reality-bending breach and escape from the puzzling facility.

6 Dead Space Technically Does Have Human Characters

But They’ve All Been Turned Into Zombies

Dead Space largely takes place abroad on the USG Ishimura, a Planet Cracker-class spaceship that has mysteriously lost power following a routine mining operation. Upon arrival, engineer Isaac Clarke, along with his repair crew, discover that the ship is practically deserted. Most personnel are either dead or converted into a hostile zombie species known as necromorphs.

Isaac is forced to fend for himself against the necromorphs while grappling with the ship’s rapidly decaying systems. The longer Dead Space goes on, the more isolated Isaac becomes. Most of the repair crew is dead, and the remaining survivors are being eliminated one by one. The only human-like presence on the Ishimura is the necromorphs and a strange fleshy substance that’s rapidly consuming the ship.

5 Amnesia: The Dark Descent Is Daniel Versus Himself

Plus, Some Humanoid Monsters

Amnesia: The Dark Descent sees Daniel wake up from his slumber with no memory of how he got there. In fact, the only things Daniel can remember are his name, that he lives in Mayfair, and that he’s being hunted by something. Daniel finds a note he wrote to himself telling him he’s being hunted by a being called a Shadow. The note instructs him to find and kill the baron of the castle, Alexander.

Many people regard Amnesia: The Dark Descent as one of the scariest independent horror games ever made. One factor that makes the game terrifying is that Daniel is completely isolated within the castle’s walls. Any intelligent beings inside the castle aren’t human, and all the unintelligent beings in the castle want Daniel dead. Eventually, being in the palace alone for so long starts to take a toll on Daniel’s sanity. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is an incredibly isolating experience, with players feeling hopelessly lost with Daniel.

4 Penumbra: Overture Literally Traps the Player Alive

There’s Only One Other Sentient Being

In Penumbra: Overture, a young physicist, Philip, is searching Greenland for his long-lost father. The freezing climate forces Philip to seek shelter inside an abandoned mine, but he’s trapped when the mine’s entrance collapses. Philip discovers he wasn’t the first person to take refuge in the mind and that others had sheltered there under similar circumstances.

There’s one constant living voice that speaks to Philip as he journeys through the mines. Other than that, Philip is completely alone as the mines grow increasingly dark. He occasionally encounters unusually large animals he must evade. Eventually, his isolation gets to him, and Philip begins to hallucinate figures that are out to get him.

3 Portal Is Devoid of Humanity

Everything Seems Cold, Sterile and Automated

Portal takes place within the confines of the Aperture Science laboratory. A test subject known only as Chell has been selected to take part in a series of experiments involving portals. She initially travels through portals, gets a gun that can shoot one-way portals, and eventually upgrades the gun to produce two-way portals. The experiments only get more fun from there, but there’s a small catch.

Aperture Science is completely devoid of any human life, with no scientists visibly monitoring Chell or jotting down observations. Everything in the facility appears to be automated. Chell can only actively interact with robotic turrets that will fire on sight. There’s an artificial intelligence, GLaDOS, to guide her, but at first, that AI appears to be as automated as everything else.

2 Five Nights at Freddy’s Only Has Animatronics

And Maybe Some Pre-Recorded Messages

In Five Nights at Freddy‘s, the player controls the latest employee at a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza establishment. They’re tasked with monitoring the premises as a night security guard. A previous employee, known only by the nickname Phone Guy, left behind a string of pre-recorded messages to help the player adjust to the job.

Working the night shift is already lonely, but Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza has an aura of abandonment. It’s implied through Easter eggs that the establishment has either already closed down or is in the process of doing so. The player is completely alone in the decaying pizzeria, and the only thing to keep them company are the animatronics that are actively hunting them.

1 The Stanley Parable Has a Narrator

But There’s No One Else

The Stanley Parable tells the story of an office worker named Stanley. Stanley’s sole task is to follow orders from a monitor and push the buttons he’s told to push. One day, his monitor stops displaying any information. Stanley takes it upon himself to investigate and quickly finds that his office complex is more abnormal than it seems.

Stanley soon discovers that the office complex he works in is completely empty. There’s a narrator who speaks to him as he explores, but there are times when he’s hostile or absent. Some endings indicate that the narrator only exists in Stanley’s head, which means that Stanley is completely left alone in what has to be the most liminal level design imaginable. Narrator or no narrator, players will find The Stanley Parable a completely hopeless experience, with virtually no other being to interact with in the game.