Games

The Best Sci-Fi Games Without Humans

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1 month ago

November 26, 2024

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Once in a while, someone makes a much riskier decision within the sci-fi genre: take humans out of the equation. There might be “humanoids” (creatures who have a similar body shape), and they may take inspiration from human civilizations or problems, but they are explicitly distinct from humans. Under the right circumstances, removing humans can offer a lot of creative freedom.

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When done right, it can create an entirely unique world separate from our own, while still using that setting to address themes relevant to a human audience. In the case of video games, this can create a unique experience for players to provide some of the best sci-fi games that lack any humans.

7 Abzu

You Are the Last of an Old Race

Released: August 2, 2016
Developer(s): Giant Squid

Giant Squid’s classic game follows an enigmatic diver as they explore various aquatic biomes and restore life to a ruined ocean. The game explores a lot of environmental themes, but it also has some curious implications for the player character. One of the big ones is a moment where she is injured and revealed to be a robot. But even more curious are the hints it provides about the game’s backstory.

One section of the game involves a series of ruins containing murals portraying just what happened to the ocean, telling a story involving figures who look suspiciously similar to the diver, seemingly hinting at a past race that became over-industrialized and took too much without giving enough back, leading to disaster.

6 Kerbal Space Program

Like NASA, But Silly

Released: April 27, 2015
Developer: Squad

In a game that puts a lot of effort into simulating actual rocket science, one might expect to see human astronauts. Curiously, that was not the approach taken for Kerbal Space Program. Instead, the game replaces humans with goofy green creatures, the titular “Kerbals” who are trying to explore outer space but often get into trouble while doing so.

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This may have worked out in the game’s favor. Despite its real science, Kerbal Space Program doesn’t exactly take itself seriously, especially since a big part of the game is the inevitable chaos that ensues when non-rocket scientists try to build functioning rockets. The decision to have the more cartoonish Kerbals instead of more realistic astronauts makes it a lot easier to embrace that part of the game.

5 No Man’s Sky

An Infinite Universe Full of Aliens

Hello Games’ ambitious procedurally generated open world allows the player to explore a cosmos full of aliens. These creatures range from native flora and fauna on every planet to advanced civilizations. But one might be quick to notice the lack of humans in this world. Just about every character that can be encountered is some sort of alien. Even the player character, while having a humanoid-looking body, is not explicitly identified as human.

Instead, the default species is labeled as an “anomaly” whose appearance is concealed by a space suit which is never removed, keeping their identity ambiguous. This is also reinforced by the implication that the player is the only one of their kind (unless you’re playing in multiplayer), so it’s not even clear if Earth exists in this universe.

4 Outer Wilds

An Alien Solar System

Released: May 28, 2019
Developer(s): Mobius Digital

This strange title from Mobius Digital takes place in a fictional (and unusually small) Solar System. Players travel across several different planets where they can encounter various characters and creatures, all of whom are aliens. The primary species, which includes the player character, is a race of blue four-eyed beings called the Hearthians.

There are also traces of an ancient species called the Nomai whose ruins are still scattered across the system, and the mysterious Stranger’s Inhabitants. The most familiar things players will encounter are giant space anglerfish and jellyfish in the aquatic world Giant’s Deep. Some of the aliens are humanoid, but there are no humans anywhere to be found.

3 Ratchet and Clank

A Cast of Goofy Aliens and Robots

Third-Person Shooter

3D Platformer

Systems

Insomniac’s popular series of action-platformers has had a lot of aliens and robots in its cast, including its title characters, but never humans. The closest the series has gotten are the Markazian and Kerwanian species, both of which are human-like, as seen with CaptaiN Qwark, but they are certainly not human.

In fact, the franchise has never clearly established if humans even exist in this universe. Fortunately, this works with the game’s over-the-top action and wacky storylines, since it allows the craziness of the series to manifest in creative character designs.

2 Spore

Create Your Own Species

Systems

Released: September 7, 2008

Will Wright’s iconic evolution simulator is all about creating your own species and guiding it from a single-celled organism to an advanced spacefaring civilization, so there is really no need for humans to appear. This is especially true when you consider the amount of time the game takes place, which greatly exceeds the amount of time humans have existed.

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The cell stage is designed as an equivalent of the Archaen Period, while the Creature Stage is more like the Devonian. Just between those two, there is a gap of about 1 billion years. The time between these stages is actually greater than the time between the Devonian Period and now, and there are still three more periods before even getting close to primates. Humans would be a pretty minuscule part of the game’s timeline.

1 Stellaris

Taking Out Humans is a Valid Option

This is an unusual one, as it’s not so much the game lacking humans entirely as it is having the option to play without them. There are a bunch of playable governments to choose from, each of which includes different species, plus options for custom factions. For humans to make an appearance, the player has to actively choose to play as one of the two human governments.

Choosing an alien government or customizing a new species entirely allows players to freely explore a human-free galaxy, and interact with it as they feel is appropriate. The absence of humans is not a huge deal in such a scenario, since the galaxy is full of other alien governments, alien wildlife, and even some ancient alien civilizations with a few dark secrets. Sure, the player can encounter these as humans, but it can be just as exciting to do it as an original species.