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About Species: Unknown

Species: Unknown is a single player and multiplayer survival shooter game with horror and science fiction themes. It was developed by WanadevStudio and was released on October 23, 2025. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Species: Unknown is a first-person survival horror game, playable in co-op with up to 4 players (private or public servers) or solo. You play as a mercenary sent aboard an abandoned spaceship. Your job? Execute high-risk contracts, make it out alive, and claim your reward. But keep in mind that you’re not alone. Something is hunting you… Form a squad of up to 4 players to take on different contrac…

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Games Like Species: Unknown

Looking for games like Species: Unknown? Here are top survival shooter recommendations with a horror and science fiction focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Nuclear Nightmare, Funnel Runners or Whispefall.

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Reviews

95%Audience ScoreBased on 7,032 reviews
story244 positive mentions
stability46 negative mentions

  • Excellent atmosphere and sound design that creates genuine sci-fi horror immersion.
  • Unique and diverse creatures that require different tactics, enhancing gameplay variety.
  • Highly polished and well-optimized experience for an early access game with great graphics.
  • Limited content with only one map currently available, which can lead to repetitiveness.
  • Some AI behaviors are overly aggressive or unfair, causing frustration especially in solo play.
  • Certain gameplay mechanics like long door animations, stamina drain, and limited player mobility reduce overall enjoyment.
  • story

    1,727 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    14% positive mentions, 82% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions

    Species: Unknown offers a tense, atmospheric sci-fi horror experience centered around completing one of four mission types aboard a single, large derelict spaceship. While the unique creatures, varying mission objectives, and modifiers create distinct playthroughs and strong replayability early on, the limited map variety and mission types can lead to repetitiveness after extensive play. The game is highly enjoyable solo or with friends, but players look forward to more maps, enemy types, missions, and deeper story elements in future updates to sustain long-term engagement.

    • “Every mission feels like a movie, with different objectives that need completing along with a creature that raises the stakes.”
    • “The best part has to be the data collection on the aliens; after every successful mission, you get info on the monster relevant to that mission, including body parts, lore, and the alien itself.”
    • “Whether you're creeping through the halls alone or coordinating with friends while something stalks you through the vents, the game consistently creates stories you'll be talking about long after the mission ends.”
    • “At the moment, the available content is somewhat limited, with only a handful of missions to complete.”
    • “The same location for every mission, a small handful of different enemies, and the same few mission types over and over.”
    • “After a few hours a lot of the missions start to feel similar, but for 10 dollars there is already a good foundation here and it is fun to play.”
  • gameplay

    891 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    47% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The gameplay of the game is widely praised for being smooth, engaging, and immersive, with solid mechanics and a fun, tense core loop that combines exploration, mission objectives, and varied monster encounters. Players appreciate the unique, well-designed creatures and cooperative elements that demand teamwork and adaptation, while the atmospheric presentation and sound design enhance the horror experience. However, critiques often mention the current lack of map variety and content leading to some repetitiveness, limited stealth mechanics, and occasional balance and progression issues, though the game’s early access status and ongoing development suggest these are likely to improve.

    • “The gameplay loop is great so far: go to place, do objective, get out. Each mission is slightly different, with different monsters forcing you to adapt your gameplay to be able to defeat them, and different mission modes also requiring adjustment, creating a lot of variety and keeping gameplay fresh.”
    • “The core mechanics are unique, fun, and engaging. The monsters themselves are very unique in how they hunt players, forcing you to adapt to different gameplay mechanics, making each run feel like a whole new game mode. The mission variety keeps gameplay feeling fresh no matter how many times you play.”
    • “The gameplay is immersive: movement feels weighty but not clunky, with smooth mechanics and a satisfying rhythm. The coop gameplay adds a whole new layer of fun and panic, requiring strategy and teamwork. The atmosphere, sound design, and gameplay loop combine to create a truly engaging, tense experience that keeps players coming back.”
    • “But it is extremely grindy to unlock newer items and has some real lame mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay loop is railroady – there really isn't such thing as 'rewardable player creativity'.”
    • “There's no real hiding mechanic or any stealth features that can help you deal with enemies; you either just shoot them until they run away or run away yourself.”
  • graphics

    743 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    70% positive mentions, 29% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions

    The game features stunning, high-quality graphics with impressive atmospheric lighting and detailed environments that evoke comparisons to AAA titles like Alien Isolation and Cyberpunk. It runs smoothly and is well optimized for its small file size (~4-5GB), delivering a rich sci-fi horror aesthetic without heavy performance demands. The visuals, combined with excellent sound design, greatly enhance immersion and contribute to a tense, eerie gameplay experience praised by players across various platforms.

    • “The graphics are absolutely stunning and breathtaking, pulling you into a chilling sci-fi atmosphere that feels like you’re truly aboard a mysterious vessel in deep space.”
    • “It truly sports some insanely beautiful graphics and runs on stable 60fps with not a single hiccup; add to that that it only weighs ~4GB, and you genuinely cannot help but wonder how it manages such current-gen visuals in so small a size!”
    • “Great graphics, smooth gameplay, and impressive lighting effects that create a genuinely immersive and eerie game atmosphere, comparable to notable sci-fi horror titles.”
    • “Only thing that's somewhat annoying right now is that it's not very optimized; no matter the graphics settings, I get <=40 fps sometimes, even though I have a beefy setup.”
    • “I immediately had to turn the graphics all to low just to make the game play smooth enough, and it looks super bad like that.”
    • “Graphics terrible, jerky all the time.”
  • atmosphere

    583 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    63% positive mentions, 36% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions

    The atmosphere is widely praised as a standout element, masterfully creating a tense, immersive, and cinematic sci-fi horror experience reminiscent of Alien: Isolation and Dead Space. With exceptional sound design, lighting, and environment detail, the game sustains a gripping sense of dread and suspense, especially heightened in co-op play through proximity chat and dynamic encounters. While some note repetitiveness due to limited maps, the overall atmosphere effectively combines horror, tension, and thrilling gameplay, making it a defining strength of the game.

    • “Species: unknown is a tense, atmospheric co-op horror game that combines alien: isolation's tension with phasmophobia-style teamwork.”
    • “For an early access title and from a small studio the game just oozes atmosphere and the team have done a fantastic job on nailing that feeling of space horror.”
    • “The atmosphere and interactivity with the scenery are very high quality, and the game concept is excellent, but it loses steam after 10 games unless there are more unknown species and more ships.”
    • “But the most notable one is the game's heavy reliance on the 'unknown' aspect of its design, since the more you play, the more you learn; time played can heavily diminish the atmosphere on future runs.”
    • “Needs some refining in places; once the power is on, the atmosphere kinda loses all its tension.”
    • “The game relies way too much on atmosphere and not enough on actually putting you in a fight or flight state to pressure you into surviving the horror.”
  • optimization

    225 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    48% positive mentions, 42% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game is widely praised for its exceptional optimization and smooth performance, especially impressive for an early access title built on Unreal Engine 5, with many users reporting stable frame rates even on modest hardware. However, some occasional stuttering, crashes, and performance drops occur, particularly in specific game areas or on older systems, reflecting typical early access growing pains. Overall, the developers demonstrate strong technical competence and ongoing commitment to improving optimization and stability.

    • “This game is phenomenally optimized as well.”
    • “The game is incredibly polished and well-optimized, and I find myself frequently returning to it because it really is a blast.”
    • “An extremely well-optimized early access game despite being in UE5; the guns feel great, the specimens are unique, and the sound design is perfectly terrifying.”
    • “Extremely poor optimization and memory leaks especially for older GPUs.”
    • “Optimization is really bad and the longer the game's open, I've noticed memory leaks.”
    • “Upon returning it’s disappointing that the stuttering and fps drops are actually worse than before to the point of being unplayable.”
  • replayability

    152 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    39% positive mentions, 56% neutral mentions, 5% negative mentions

    Replayability is generally praised for its mission modifiers, varied enemy challenges, and upgrade systems that keep gameplay fresh despite currently having only one map. However, many reviewers note that the limited content and static map layout reduce long-term replay value, suggesting that adding more maps, procedural elements, and randomized objectives would significantly enhance replayability as the game develops from early access. Overall, the game offers strong replay potential for its price and current state, especially in co-op, with expectations that future updates will expand and deepen this aspect.

    • “Combine this with the fact that each enemy creature poses a unique threat and unique challenge to defeat or avoid it, providing avenues for a lot of replayability.”
    • “Even with one map (for now), the random species, mission modifiers and objectives really do a lot to make it highly replayable and tense with varying difficulty and rewards.”
    • “Updates are slow, as is content releases, but you can rely on whatever update to be with as few bugs as possible, and even after a hundred hours of playing, this game is still fun, and the replayability is high.”
    • “It is okay, there is only so much you can do with one small map. The developers seem to think adding new specimens will add more replayability; however, after about 5 runs the map gets very boring and even easy on the hardest difficulty.”
    • “This is a pretty big detriment to the game's replayability, as these kinds of games thrive mostly on the unknown aspects of the environment. But after 3-4 games it feels like you've got a pretty good grasp on the ship layout, which deflates a lot of the tension about what's around each corner, especially when certain mission types have you doing the same objective in the same order, meaning going to the same locations over and over.”
    • “The 'modifiers' as replayability are kind of boring, particularly when most of doing this is just executing the correct strategy repetitively.”
  • humor

    141 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game delivers a unique blend of horror and humor, creating many hilarious and memorable moments especially when played with friends. Features like proximity chat amplify the comedic chaos, with panicked screams and voice interactions adding to the fun. Overall, while maintaining a tense and scary atmosphere, it consistently fosters laughter through unexpected situations, funny character reactions, and cooperative gameplay mishaps.

    • “The proximity chat and walkie talkies add more immersion and create terrifying and hilarious moments when someone screams in terror over the radio and it abruptly cuts off.”
    • “While it delivers plenty of tense and scary moments, it also creates a lot of unexpected and genuinely funny situations that you’ll be laughing about long after the session ends.”
    • “At the same time, the cooperative gameplay leads to chaotic teamwork, panicked voice chats, and hilarious reactions that balance the fear with a lot of fun.”
  • music

    129 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    47% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric, cinematic quality that evokes classic sci-fi horror like Alien, greatly enhancing immersion and tension. Its blend of ominous, expressive tracks and ambient sounds effectively builds suspense without being overbearing, contributing significantly to the game's unique and intense horror experience. While some note minor repetitiveness due to limited track variety, overall the soundtrack is considered top-notch and a standout aspect of the game.

    • “The menu music captures the feeling of classic sci-fi horror like Alien while still sounding unique, and the music during escape sequences adds tremendous urgency bordering on overwhelming (which I think is a good thing).”
    • “The music, sound design, and art direction all serve to drive up the anxiety and put you on edge.”
    • “From the ominous low-key music tracks to the incredible depth of ambient sounds from equipment and the environment.”
    • “Sometimes the game crashes or the sounds are lost, only menu music plays during gameplay, till you die.”
    • “My only complaint so far is how obnoxiously loud the music for the jump scene is despite having the music and ambient sounds turned down.”
    • “The problem I have been encountering with a lot of my recently played 'scary' games is a lack of background music.”
  • stability

    76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    39% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 61% negative mentions

    The game runs well and looks impressive, especially for an early access title, with most users reporting smooth performance and minimal bugs. While some minor glitches and occasional crashes occur, they are relatively rare and often quickly addressed. However, a few users experience frustrating bugs, especially during missions or with AI behavior, reflecting typical early access stability issues.

    • “By far one of the most polished and bug free early accesses I've ever seen.”
    • “Runs great even on my PC and as an early access title it is very well put together.”
    • “Best with friends, runs great on Linux (Manjaro) with no crashes and no performance hitches.”
    • “Nobody should have to spend hours troubleshooting just to launch a game.”
    • “• The game is a bit buggy right now and you will eventually run into a game breaking, run ending bug.”
    • “Even with two people, some missions are darn near impossible to complete especially when it glitches; got stuck in death cam and was unable to quit, respawn, or bring up the menu.”
  • grinding

    52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    4% positive mentions, 6% neutral mentions, 90% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game is often described as tedious and repetitive, with progression locked behind lengthy and costly missions that can feel unnecessarily grindy, especially for solo players. While some appreciate the rewarding unlocks and sense of achievement from grinding, many find the gameplay loop can become a slog due to limited map variety, recurring enemies, and slow pacing. Nonetheless, cooperative play and ongoing developer responsiveness to feedback are seen as positive aspects that may improve the grind experience.

    • “Actually a crazy game for the price, it's so good, fun, not too grindy and the only thing that I don't like is that there is one map.”
    • “It's insanely cheap for what you get, the gameplay loop is fun and rewarding, isn't too grindy but they don't just hand everything to you, and it looks really good.”
    • “Also the store system kinda sucks, way too pricey for how little money you get (unless you go out of your way to do the hardest missions you can find, but even then: you still have to do two or three of them to afford one thing), making the game feel grindy for no reason.”
    • “Everything you can currently access or have the potential to access is locked behind hours of grinding.”
    • “The credit system to unlock new gear and upgrades is incredibly tedious, and there's no progression following the credits.”
  • emotional

    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game delivers a deeply immersive and emotionally intense experience, combining effective audio and atmosphere to evoke genuine fear and nostalgia. Players report moments of heartfelt connection, dread, and even emotional support, highlighting the game's unique ability to engage and move its audience despite its horror elements.

    • “When the flashlight goes out, it was pitch black, it was lowkey scary in a fun way and the audio really made me feel like I was there.”
    • “On a personal note: I'm pretty desensitized to horror games at this point, but this game made me feel a level of dread I haven't experienced in a long, long time.”
    • “The music is incredible, the levels are challenging, the experience is what you make it but in my humble opinion it is rich with opportunities and the entire game is heart-breakingly beautiful even in the horror.”
  • monetization

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    13% positive mentions, -1% neutral mentions, 88% negative mentions

    Users appreciate the game’s lack of in-game purchases, viewing its current monetization approach positively and not as a cash grab. However, there is some skepticism due to early access concerns and the art style in ads resembling low-effort asset flipping. Overall, the monetization is seen as fair and non-intrusive at this stage.

    • “It's that good, and with the lack of in-game purchases, they can do no wrong!”
    • “Given this is in early access, I'm hoping it doesn't get abandoned as a cash grab.”
    • “I reeeeally don't like early access games, as last decade it's mostly 'cash grab & runaway' stuff, unfortunately...”
    • “The art in the ads makes it look like an asset flipping slob a bit.”
  • character development

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    75% positive mentions, 25% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The character development is highly praised for its outstanding and inclusive character designs, with detailed and lifelike features that enhance immersion and emotional impact. The designs contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere, making encounters more engaging and intense.

    • “I love it when games are this inclusive to character designs!”
    • “Jumped into the game and were immediately in awe of the graphical detail, the custom character design, the lighting, and just pretty much everything.”
    • “Outstanding character design, the specimens you face feel alive which makes them more terrifying.”
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Play Times

12h Median play time
19h Average play time
6-26h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 47 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Species: Unknown is a survival shooter game with horror and science fiction themes. Common tags for Species: Unknown include first-person, 3D, realistic, indie, aliens and others.

Species: Unknown is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 19 hours playing Species: Unknown.

Species: Unknown was released on October 23, 2025.

Species: Unknown was developed by WanadevStudio.

Species: Unknown has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Species: Unknown for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Species: Unknown is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Nuclear Nightmare, Funnel Runners, Whispefall, CRYO, RIPOUT and others.