Games like Northern Lights
If Northern Lights is your kind of game, the closest matches are Escape The Pacific, Project Zomboid and The Infected — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its crafting hides for gear, snowmobile adds tense travel and atmospheric. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →About Northern Lights: Northern Lights is an open world survival simulation set in the extreme conditions of the arctic tundra. Clinging to life, you must use real-life survival techniques to gather resources, craft, and hunt while tending to your health and sanity. Can you survive your way out of the mysterious island?
Players who liked Northern Lights also play
Steam players who put hours into Northern Lights also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Escape The Pacific
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Top pick for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Raw, real survival in the Pacific. Build a modular floating base. Master realistic sailing mechanics. Face challenging Pacific-like weather & seasons. Hunt, craft, build & navigate using Sun Dial, Sextant & Triangulation. Explore an endless island cluster-based world. Simulate real life scenarios!
Project Zomboid
WHY THIS
Second-strongest match for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Project Zomboid is the ultimate in zombie survival. Alone or in MP: you loot, build, craft, fight, farm and fish in a struggle to survive. A hardcore RPG skillset, a vast map, massively customisable sandbox and a cute tutorial raccoon await the unwary. So how will you die? All it takes is a bite..
The Infected
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Northern Lights.
Third-strongest match for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
The Infected is a sandbox, first-person, open-world survival game. Build bases, craft, farm, hunt, and survive changing seasons. Choose whether to face the hybrid “Vambies” or turn them off for a pure survival experience.
Medusa Frontier
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Medusa Frontier is a budget sci-fi survival game being developed with OpenGL & C++. Gameplay is currently limited to resource gathering and base building on a 1k terrain map.
As One We Survive
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Simulation and Early Access with Northern Lights.
Survive in a harsh post-apocalyptic world. Scavenge resources, build up a homestead, form a community, and defend yourself against a lawless world while joining a father's desperate journey to save his sick daughter.
The Long Dark
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Ranked #6 for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
THE LONG DARK is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. There are no zombies -- only you, the cold, and all the threats Mother Nature can muster.
Satisfactory
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Northern Lights.
Ranked #7 for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
The Forest
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Ranked #8 for Northern Lights fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
As the lone survivor of a passenger jet crash, you find yourself in a mysterious forest battling to stay alive against a society of cannibalistic mutants. Build, explore, survive in this terrifying first person survival horror simulator.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Northern Lights
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
The Long Dark
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Reviewers of Northern Lights cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
THE LONG DARK is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. There are no zombies -- only you, the cold, and all the threats Mother Nature can muster.
The Forest
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Reviewers of Northern Lights cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
As the lone survivor of a passenger jet crash, you find yourself in a mysterious forest battling to stay alive against a society of cannibalistic mutants. Build, explore, survive in this terrifying first person survival horror simulator.
Green Hell
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Northern Lights cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Plunge into the open-world survival simulation set in the extreme conditions of the uncharted Amazon jungle. Use real-life survival techniques to craft, hunt, fight, and gather resources, set a makeshift shelter, or raise a fortress. Survive alone or team up with your friends and challenge the jungle together.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Northern Lights at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Vampire Survivors
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
R.E.P.O.
WHY THIS
Priced ~42% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Early Access with Northern Lights.
An online co-op horror game with up to 6 players. Locate valuable, fully physics-based objects and handle them with care as you retrieve and extract to satisfy your creator's desires.
Slay the Spire
WHY THIS
Priced ~48% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.
WEBFISHING
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
WEBFISHING a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)
POSTAL 2
WHY THIS
Priced ~92% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
Live a week in the life of "The POSTAL Dude"; a hapless everyman just trying to check off some chores. Buying milk, returning an overdue library book, getting Gary Coleman's autograph, what could possibly go wrong?
Buckshot Roulette
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under Northern Lights on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Play Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun. Four enter. One leaves. Roll the dice with your life. Good luck!
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
ENA: Dream BBQ
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
Experience surreal environments and inexplicable characters as ENA in a new wild world.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
The Looker
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Northern Lights.
You wake up, alone, on a strangely familiar island full of puzzles that will frustrate and annoy you.
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
Virtual Cottage
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Virtual Cottage gives you a comfy place to rest and be productive without any distractions. Open the game, set yourself a goal and enjoy the atmosphere.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Plays great on Steam Deck
Valve-Verified or Playable picks from the similar pool — ready to go on Deck out of the box.
Project Zomboid
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Project Zomboid is the ultimate in zombie survival. Alone or in MP: you loot, build, craft, fight, farm and fish in a struggle to survive. A hardcore RPG skillset, a vast map, massively customisable sandbox and a cute tutorial raccoon await the unwary. So how will you die? All it takes is a bite..
The Long Dark
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Northern Lights.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
THE LONG DARK is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. There are no zombies -- only you, the cold, and all the threats Mother Nature can muster.
Satisfactory
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Northern Lights.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Simulation with Northern Lights.
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
Frequently asked about Northern Lights
- Does Northern Lights work on Steam Deck?
- Northern Lights is currently rated Unsupported on Steam Deck. It may not launch or may have significant issues that block normal play.
- How much does Northern Lights cost?
- Northern Lights is listed on Steam at 11.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Northern Lights?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Northern Lights are Escape The Pacific, Project Zomboid, The Infected.
- Who developed Northern Lights?
- Northern Lights was developed by MadGoat Studio.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Northern Lights.
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