Games like What Never Was
If What Never Was is your kind of game, the closest matches are Dear Esther, Homesick and Trauma — picked from the ranked list below. 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 What Never Was: What Never Was is a short, story-driven first-person game focused on exploration and puzzle-solving about Sarah, having to shoulder the arduous task of clearing out her grandfathers attic, and soon finds that not everything about the attic is what it seems.
Players who liked What Never Was also play
Steam players who put hours into What Never Was 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.
Dear Esther
WHY THIS
Top pick for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Begin a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years.
Homesick
WHY THIS
Second-strongest match for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Explore an abandoned building, encountering puzzles and clues to discover what happened, as you try to escape in both your nightmares and the waking world. Be immersed in the hauntingly beautiful 3D atmosphere in this puzzle exploration mystery game.
Silence
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Can you save Silence, the grim, but also serene world between life and death? Can you help Noah find his little sister Renie in this suffering world? Can you bring her home? Explore Silence and join the siblings on their adventurous journey.
Gorogoa
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Gorogoa is an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts. Winner of Debut Game at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards, as well as Best Mobile Game and the Innovation Award at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards.
What Remains of Edith Finch
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she's the last one in her family left alive.
Gone Home
WHY THIS
Ranked #7 for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.
Obduction
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for What Never Was fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
A new sci-fi adventure from Cyan, the creators of Myst. Abducted far across the universe, you find yourself on a broken alien landscape with odd pieces of Earth. Explore, uncover, solve, and find a way to make it home.
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Plays great on Steam Deck
Valve-Verified or Playable picks from the similar pool — ready to go on Deck out of the box.
Dear Esther
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Begin a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years.
Silence
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Can you save Silence, the grim, but also serene world between life and death? Can you help Noah find his little sister Renie in this suffering world? Can you bring her home? Explore Silence and join the siblings on their adventurous journey.
Gorogoa
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
Gorogoa is an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts. Winner of Debut Game at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards, as well as Best Mobile Game and the Innovation Award at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards.
What Remains of Edith Finch
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she's the last one in her family left alive.
Gone Home
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Indie and Adventure with What Never Was.
June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.
Frequently asked about What Never Was
- Is What Never Was verified for Steam Deck?
- Yes — What Never Was is Steam Deck Verified, meaning Valve has confirmed it runs well on the Deck with full controller, text legibility, and default configuration support.
- Is What Never Was free to play?
- Yes — What Never Was 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 What Never Was?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside What Never Was are Dear Esther, Homesick, Trauma.
- Who developed What Never Was?
- What Never Was was developed by Acke Hallgren.
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 What Never Was.
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