Skip to main content
Stay Out Game Cover

About Stay Out

Stay Out is a multiplayer open world role playing shooter game with horror, thriller and post-apocalyptic themes. It was developed by MOBITECH LLC and was released on November 27, 2019. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Stay Out, also known as Stalker Online, is a MMOTPS inspired by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series of games and the novel "Roadside Picnic." Discover a world full of dangers and incredible events, which has its own laws and principles. Become one of the “Stalkers” - people living the romance of the unknown, able to overcome any trials in search of artifacts on the territory of the Alienation Zone. Take a …

Skip Games Like Stay Out

Games Like Stay Out

Looking for games like Stay Out? Here are top open world role playing shooter recommendations with a horror, thriller and post-apocalyptic focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Will To Live Online, STALZONE or Next Day: Survival.

Skip User Reviews

Reviews

62%Audience ScoreBased on 8,345 reviews
story191 positive mentions
grinding201 negative mentions

  • Immersive atmosphere with strong post-apocalyptic vibes reminiscent of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., enhanced by detailed environments and excellent sound design.
  • Rewarding and meaningful slow progression where every upgrade and successful expedition feels earned, promoting strategic thinking and experience-based improvement.
  • Engaging multiplayer experience including co-op missions and dynamic player interactions that add unpredictability, tension, and opportunities for memorable moments.
  • Poor optimization causing lag, technical issues, and frequent bugs that disrupt gameplay, especially on lower-end systems.
  • Steep learning curve with confusing quests, minimal tutorial assistance, unintuitive UI with very small text, and language barriers that frustrate new players.
  • Presence of pay-to-win elements, grind-heavy progression, and a toxic player community in PvP environments which can hinder enjoyment and fairness.
  • story

    1,060 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    18% positive mentions, 73% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions

    The game's story and quest design receive mixed reviews: while some players praise its atmospheric world, interesting lore, and challenging missions that offer a sense of adventure, many criticize the quests for being confusing, poorly translated, and lacking clear direction or markers. Repetitive fetch quests, technical bugs, and a lack of cohesive narrative cohesion frustrate players, making progression and story immersion difficult, especially for new or solo players. Overall, the story element holds potential but is hindered by execution issues, translation problems, and confusing quest mechanics.

    • “The lore is well-developed, and the missions are engaging and varied.”
    • “The quests are diverse, challenging, and rewarding.”
    • “The story unfolds in that you are a man who has reached a coast where he finds another man who was sitting in front of a campfire; this man never tells you his name, but he is a guide who helps you understand the things you need, after which you are free to follow the plot or explore at your own pace.”
    • “When you get to Liubech Outlands the story falls apart; main quests are beyond difficult and require hunting spiders with no map markers, causing almost zero XP, money, and story progression. Dev note: organize main questline from side quests and add map marker settings.”
    • “The progression curve is absolutely ridiculous; low-level players can't complete quests for better equipment because those quests are too difficult with current gear, creating a vicious circle that seems designed to annoy or force players to pay real money.”
    • “The quests are confusing to navigate with many being poorly translated, vague, or offering no clear directions, leaving players wandering aimlessly and often relying on external wikis or guides to progress.”
  • graphics

    503 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game's graphics receive mixed reviews, with some praising the atmospheric, detailed, and immersive visuals that effectively create a post-apocalyptic vibe, while others criticize them as outdated, poorly optimized, and not up to modern standards. Performance issues, such as low FPS and graphical glitches, are frequently mentioned, detracting from the visual experience despite some commendable art design. Overall, the graphics are considered acceptable for a free game but leave room for significant improvement.

    • “Nice and smooth graphics plus the ambience makes you feel like you are really inside the zone.”
    • “Once, I got caught in a thunderstorm, and the visuals combined with the sound were breathtaking.”
    • “The combination of survival mechanics, atmospheric visuals, and intense missions makes it a must-play for anyone who loves post-apocalyptic games, highly recommend it.”
    • “Once I loaded in, the game showed only half of what it had in the trailer graphics-wise.”
    • “No matter which graphical settings I pick, I will have between 24-30 FPS on a solid machine.”
    • “The graphics are poor, and also not optimized for such low quality.”
  • gameplay

    485 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 61% neutral mentions, 12% negative mentions

    The gameplay of "Stay Out" offers a complex, immersive survival experience blending exploration, combat, and RPG elements, with rewarding mechanics that deepen as players learn the systems. While the survival and crafting features, detailed weapon customization, and tense PvP encounters are praised for creating engaging and atmospheric gameplay, the game suffers from a steep learning curve, clunky controls, frequent bugs, poor optimization, and sometimes confusing quest design. Players who invest time enjoy the challenging and dynamic gameplay loop, but newcomers may find the early experience slow, frustrating, and difficult to navigate.

    • “The gameplay is punchy and satisfying – you’re constantly moving, adapting, reacting.”
    • “This game has one of the strongest gameplay loops I've experienced.”
    • “The balance between survival mechanics and action keeps the gameplay fresh, and every session feels different.”
    • “Rather than presenting a clean, data-driven framework for resource pipelining and exploration, the game locks your objective progression behind vague, poorly translated mechanics that defy logical deduction.”
    • “Trading is wonky with the NPCs, the movement is janky, gameplay is so barebones it hurts, the sights on the guns aren't accurate, especially the revolver; the bullet hits somewhere where the gun is covering the screen so you can't accurately place shots, and the text is so small it's almost unreadable, which is unfortunate because there's no quest markers or something similar; the only praise I can give it is that it's free.”
    • “The first hours were frustrating — I got lost, died a lot, didn’t understand the mechanics.”
  • atmosphere

    368 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 38% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions

    The atmosphere of "Stay Out" is widely praised for its immersive, dark, and haunting post-apocalyptic world that effectively captures the essence of the Stalker series. Players highlight its detailed environments, eerie sound design, slow pacing, and sense of tension, which together create a gripping and addictive experience, even during quiet moments. While some criticize technical issues and translation flaws, the game's atmosphere remains its strongest and most compelling feature, drawing players into a unique survival experience.

    • “Stay out is a masterclass in atmospheric immersion.”
    • “I really like how immersive the atmosphere is, especially during night missions, the lighting, sounds, and little details make you feel like you are really there, plus the player community is welcoming and fun to interact with.”
    • “The sound design deserves way more credit; sometimes I stop moving just to listen because it adds so much to the atmosphere.”
    • “The atmosphere is oppressive.”
    • “Invisible buildings, missing icons, choppy animations, poor GUI, bad story, little to no immersive atmosphere during NPC encounters and storytelling, and missing models.”
    • “While the game and atmosphere itself is okay and gives you the proper Stalker feeling, getting any gear, decent loadout, leveling up, and actually progressing is a huge pain. It seems like its only purpose is to bore you with farming to encourage spending money, but the microtransactions are lootbox-based with a tiny chance of the desired item, making it frustrating.”
  • grinding

    206 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 2% neutral mentions, 98% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game is extensive, slow-paced, and often described as tedious or overwhelming, with many players needing to invest hundreds of hours to progress and acquire decent gear. While some enjoy the challenge and survival aspects of the grind, others find it repetitive, frustrating, and at times bordering on pay-to-win due to expensive in-game purchases. Overall, grinding is a core, but polarizing, part of the experience, appealing mainly to dedicated fans of hardcore survival MMOs.

    • “The grind has become even more intense, you can't buy anything or explore new areas without dedicating countless painful hours to grinding for reputation and whatnot.”
    • “The game's tedious progression system, while likely appealing to hardcore players who enjoy grinding and slow, steady improvement, may quickly become repetitive and frustrating for those seeking a more structured and rewarding experience, as the limited variety in tasks and sluggish advancement can erode the sense of achievement over time.”
    • “The game turned into a ridiculous grindfest, you have to farm hundreds of hours for everything, and while farming itself is ok and reasonable in an MMO RPG, there are too few opportunities to farm, without any content, just repetitive struggle with the same few mission, mobs, etc. Also the servers are overcrowded, which makes farming even harder, and you can't even communicate with people most of the time.”
  • stability

    155 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    1% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 99% negative mentions

    The game is widely criticized for its excessive bugs, glitches, crashes, and frequent server issues that severely impact gameplay and progression—especially in the early-tutorial and starting areas. Many users find it frustratingly unstable, with persistent technical problems like NPC glitches, invisible walls, and performance drops, though a minority acknowledge its fun core despite these flaws. Overall, stability is a major concern that detracts significantly from the player experience.

    • “The tutorial is buggy and I couldn't get past a certain section.”
    • “Tutorial is broken at the 'open modifications for the AK' and cannot progress through it; the game is very buggy, with half the map not loading and most buildings and props not loading. Restarting does nothing. This game needs a lot of work to be playable and should not be in early access yet.”
    • “I have 11 hours on this game and still haven't made it out of the starting area because the game is just too buggy.”
  • optimization

    152 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    15% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 45% negative mentions

    The game is widely criticized for poor optimization, with frequent performance issues such as frame drops, lag, and high system demands even on upper-tier PCs. While some players appreciate its atmosphere and gameplay despite these problems, many find technical shortcomings—especially in CPU usage and crowded areas—significantly hinder the experience. Optimization improvements are needed for smoother, more stable performance, particularly on mid to lower-end hardware.

    • “The game pleasantly surprised me with its excellent optimization.”
    • “The optimization is impressive.”
    • “Beautiful and highly optimized game.”
    • “The game optimization is awful; I have a previous generation top-tier PC and I get 30 fps with settings not even maxed out.”
    • “Very poorly optimized (I have a 4080 RTX) and still have FPS issues.”
    • “The optimization of this game is god awful.”
  • monetization

    51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    6% positive mentions, 47% neutral mentions, 47% negative mentions

    The game is widely criticized for its aggressive and predatory monetization, featuring numerous pay-to-win elements, overpriced microtransactions, and loot boxes with poor drop rates that hamper fair progression. Many reviewers describe it as a cash grab with grind-heavy gameplay designed to push players toward purchases, overshadowing the gameplay and contributing to a frustrating overall experience. While some purchases are cosmetic or offer convenience, the heavy emphasis on monetization detracts significantly from the game's value and enjoyment.

    • “The game is free to play, so it is understandable that there is some need for microtransactions to support ongoing development.”
    • “In-game purchases are primarily cosmetic, with some helpful items like boosters, beginner kits, and ammo available.”
    • “While the game and atmosphere are good and capture the proper stalker feeling, progression is a huge grind seemingly designed to push you to spend money on lootbox-based microtransactions with low chances of desired items.”
    • “This decade-long project has turned into a complete cash grab.”
    • “The microtransactions are some of the most predatory I've ever seen.”
    • “Pay to win is just how this game works and microtransactions are some of the most expensive I've ever seen with the worst drop rates and package deals.”
  • humor

    33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    91% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions

    The game's humor is often described as dark, absurd, and unintentionally funny, stemming from buggy mechanics, awkward translations, and chaotic in-game situations. Many players find moments of laughter in frustrating or bizarre experiences, especially when playing with friends, though others see the humor as highlighting the game's flaws and poor design. Overall, the humor contributes to memorable and entertaining moments despite the game's shortcomings.

    • “Played with my brother for a weekend, we had zero plan, just explored and got into the weirdest situations — ended up hiding in a bunker with 2 hp and one bandage, laughing like idiots. This game creates moments that stick with you.”
    • “Sometimes you lose gear, sometimes everything goes wrong, but you still end up laughing about it afterward.”
    • “None of my guns would appear in my hand so it was hilarious going around shooting things with empty hands & bullets actually came out.”
    • “Not funny.”
    • “Worst game I've ever played, don't even try to play it for the bugs, it's not funny, it's boring.”
    • “The English translations are funny to laugh at, but not funny if you actually want to know what is going on.”
  • music

    26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 61% neutral mentions, 12% negative mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric and mood-enhancing qualities, significantly contributing to the eerie and immersive experience. While the soundtrack and main menu music receive high marks, some users find certain ambient sounds unpleasant or the music in specific areas intrusive. Overall, the music stands out as a key positive feature, often considered the best aspect of the game.

    • “The musical accompaniment works perfectly here; it is not intrusive, but enhances the atmosphere at the right moments.”
    • “Walking through an abandoned zone with eerie music playing is something else.”
    • “The sound, music and everything combined really deepens the experience.”
    • “We started the game by turning off the awful music.”
    • “The main menu music is god-awful loud and you have to go through character customization options first, of which there are close to none, to turn it off.”
    • “Some of the ambient music and background sounds are just awful.”
  • emotional

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

    The game excels at fostering deep emotional attachment through its slower pacing, allowing players to become immersed in its world and systems over time, with simple decisions carrying significant emotional weight. Many players report profound emotional moments and connection to exploration, though the story often feels secondary and some recent updates and technical issues have caused frustration and disappointment for others. Overall, emotional responses vary widely, ranging from heartfelt engagement to significant dissatisfaction.

    • “The slower pacing allows players to become emotionally attached to locations, routes, and even certain routines developed over many sessions.”
    • “Overall, the game creates immersion not through cinematic presentation, but through tension, uncertainty, and gradual emotional investment into the world and its systems.”
    • “I’ve had more emotional moments sitting by a fire here than in any story-driven game.”
  • character development

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    33% positive mentions, 17% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The game offers a solid skill tree and character development system, but its narrative and character depth are lacking, with limited customization options and notable omissions in storytelling. Technical issues and poor presentation further detract from the overall experience. Improvements in character design diversity and narrative integration are needed to enhance engagement.

    • “Skill tree and character development is good.”
    • “Be a lot better with further character design and access for more ammo after the start but still a good game!”
    • “The game sets players in a meticulously recreated post-Soviet world, yet the narrative and character development are not its strong points.”
    • “However, it struggles with technical issues and lacks compelling storytelling and character development.”
    • “They take a good book, in this case Roadside Picnic, and they remove all of the plot and character development from the story.”
  • replayability

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

    The game offers high replayability through dynamic events, emergent gameplay, and a rich, authentic zombie survival experience. Its user-friendly UI, in-depth level-up system, unique NPCs, and engaging story further enhance replay value, especially when played with friends.

    • “Dynamic events and emergent gameplay increase replayability.”
    • “I settled in (after a short download, may I add) for an authentic zombie survival experience flooded with great features and a user-friendly UI with great combat, an in-depth level-up system, unique NPCs, a great story, and replayability.”
    • “The game is great with friends and has a lot of replayability to it.”
Skip Game Offers

Buy Stay Out

Play Times

13h Median play time
169h Average play time
3-100h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 36 analyzed playthroughs
Skip Videos

Videos

Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Stay Out is a open world role playing shooter game with horror, thriller and post-apocalyptic themes. Common tags for Stay Out include free to play, indie, alternate history, atmospheric, third person and others.

Stay Out is available on PC, Windows and Tablet.

On average players spend around 169 hours playing Stay Out.

Stay Out was released on November 27, 2019.

Stay Out was developed by MOBITECH LLC.

Stay Out has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Stay Out for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Stay Out is a multiplayer game with local co-op support.

Similar games include Will To Live Online, STALZONE, Next Day: Survival, Miscreated, The Skies and others.