Games like The Lab
If The Lab is your kind of game, the closest matches are Job Simulator, Space Pirate Trainer and Half-Life: Alyx — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its archery minigame is addictive, free vr showcase and perfect for vr beginners. 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 →The Lab is a free VR mini-game collection developed and published by Valve in 2016. Set within a pocket universe of Aperture Science, it offers several distinct experiences including archery challenges, zero-gravity puzzles, and interactions with mechanical companions. Players describe the collection as immersive and relaxing, with reviewers highlighting the tactile quality of the VR physics interactions and the addictive nature of the archery mini-game. The robot companion featured across several demos has been described as adorable by players. With a relaxed difficulty and short session design, The Lab serves as both a showcase for room-scale VR capabilities and a collection of genuinely engaging mini-games. It holds a 95% positive rating from over 4,400 Steam reviews but is not supported on Steam Deck.
About The Lab: Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
Players who liked The Lab also play
Steam players who put hours into The Lab 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.
Job Simulator
WHY THIS
Shares a relaxing mood with The Lab.
Top pick for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
In a world where robots have replaced all human jobs, step into the "Job Simulator" to learn what it was like 'to job'.
Space Pirate Trainer
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Second-strongest match for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Space Pirate Trainer is the official trainer for wannabe space pirates in VR. Pick up your blasters, put on your sneakers, and dance your way into the Space Pirate Trainer hall of fame.
Half-Life: Alyx
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Third-strongest match for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series. It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival.
Raw Data
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Ranked #4 for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Built from the ground up for VR, Raw Data’s action gameplay, intuitive controls, challenging enemies, and sci-fi atmosphere will completely immerse you within the surreal world of Eden Corp. Go solo or team up and become the adrenaline-charged heroes of your own futuristic technothriller.
SUPERHOT VR
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Ranked #5 for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Lose track of what’s real. Commit yourself, body and mind. Confront the evocative, elegantly brutal world of SUPERHOT VR. Enemies pouring into the room from all sides, dozens of bullets coursing through the air... Wait. Something seems different in here...
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Ranked #6 for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality smashes together the absolute VR chaos of the award-winning Job Simulator with the ridiculous, all-out, take-no-prisoners comedy of Rick and Morty.
Arizona Sunshine®
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Ranked #7 for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Built exclusively for VR, Arizona Sunshine® puts you and up to 3 fellow survivors in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Survive solo or in co-op, handle weapons with real-life movements, and explore a post-apocalyptic world in VR. Putting the undead back to rest is more thrilling than ever before.
Hover Junkers
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Ranked #8 for The Lab fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Engage in multiplayer VR gunfights that capture real gun play like no FPS you've played before. Pilot and fortify Hover Junkers as you physically walk, duck, dodge and aim in cross ship combat.
Reviewers mention these as similar to The Lab
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.
Portal
WHY THIS
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Portal™ is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
EPIC FANTASY REBORN The next chapter in the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls saga arrives from the makers of the 2006 and 2008 Games of the Year, Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim reimagines and revolutionizes the open-world fantasy epic, bringing to life a complete virtual world open for you to explore any way you choose.
Raw Data
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Built from the ground up for VR, Raw Data’s action gameplay, intuitive controls, challenging enemies, and sci-fi atmosphere will completely immerse you within the surreal world of Eden Corp. Go solo or team up and become the adrenaline-charged heroes of your own futuristic technothriller.
Rec Room
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with The Lab.
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Free To Play with The Lab.
Rec Room is the best place to build and play games together. Party up with friends from all around the world to chat, hang out, explore MILLIONS of player-created rooms, or build something new and amazing to share with us all.
Space Invaders Extreme
WHY THIS
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
The critically acclaimed update to the Space Invaders franchise has arrived to invade Steam with greatly improved graphics and audio! Packed with pulsing, vibrant visuals enhanced further by interactive sound. The invaders have evolved, the question is: can you keep up?
Space Slingshot VR
WHY THIS
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Have you ever wondered how Angry-birds-like view might look in VR, And from the First Person perspective? You will definitely have a lot of fun with this game shooting rats as if in reality, Now it comes, Let's go.
STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Reviewers of The Lab cross-mention this title as a similar play.
A galaxy-spanning adventure awaits in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a 3rd person action-adventure title from Respawn. An abandoned Padawan must complete his training, develop new powerful Force abilities, and master the art of the lightsaber - all while staying one step ahead of the Empire.
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More from Valve
Other recommendable Steam games by Valve, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.
Counter-Strike 2
WHY THIS
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab. Shares Free To Play with The Lab.
For over two decades, Counter-Strike has offered an elite competitive experience, one shaped by millions of players from across the globe. And now the next chapter in the CS story is about to begin. This is Counter-Strike 2.
Left 4 Dead 2
WHY THIS
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 is a co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.
Half-Life 2
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Reawakened from stasis in the occupied metropolis of City 17, Gordon Freeman is joined by Alyx Vance as he leads a desperate human resistance. Experience the landmark first-person shooter packed with immersive world-building, boundary-pushing physics, and exhilarating combat.
Portal
WHY THIS
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Portal™ is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.
Counter-Strike
WHY THIS
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Play the world's number 1 online action game. Engage in an incredibly realistic brand of terrorist warfare in this wildly popular team-based game. Ally with teammates to complete strategic missions. Take out enemy sites. Rescue hostages. Your role affects your team's success. Your team's success affects your role.
Counter-Strike: Source
WHY THIS
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Counter-Strike: Source blends Counter-Strike's award-winning teamplay action with the advanced technology of Source™ technology.
Half-Life
WHY THIS
Shares an immersive mood with The Lab.
Another title from Valve, the studio behind The Lab.
Named Game of the Year by over 50 publications, Valve's debut title blends action and adventure with award-winning technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players must think to survive. Also includes an exciting multiplayer mode that allows you to play against friends and enemies around the world.
Frequently asked about The Lab
- Does The Lab work on Steam Deck?
- The Lab is currently rated Unsupported on Steam Deck. It may not launch or may have significant issues that block normal play.
- Is The Lab free to play?
- Yes — The Lab is a free-to-play title on Steam. You can install and play it without buying anything, though some games include optional in-app purchases.
- What games are most similar to The Lab?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside The Lab are Job Simulator, Space Pirate Trainer, Half-Life: Alyx.
- Who developed The Lab?
- The Lab was developed by Valve.
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 The Lab.
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