71%Strong matchLook Outside
98%15k98% positive reviews, Overwhelmingly Positive across 15k reviews·Survival Horror · Horror
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Slip between the cracks of reality into a world where danger awaits at every turn. Survive with strategy, battling when necessary or fleeing when the odds are stacked against you. Collect strange items, unlock new abilities, and recruit unique companions. Forge your own path; every choice matters.
The Backworld
SteamSlip between the cracks of reality into a world where danger awaits at every turn. Survive with strategy, battling when necessary or fleeing when the odds are stacked against you. Collect strange items, unlock new abilities, and recruit unique companions. Forge your own path; every choice matters.
While the depths of The Backworld include surreal horror, you’ll also explore traditional JRPG-inspired fantasy and sci-fi worlds, including your hometown. There are over 100 different areas to find!

The multiverse is nonlinear, offering countless expansive paths to choose from. You'll learn new traversal abilities, unlocking more and more areas to find over time.

Survival goes beyond combat. Use strategy to overcome challenges by fighting when necessary, sneaking past threats, using hazards in the environment, or just talking!

Meet a large group of companions with unique personalities. Each companion has a special battle resource, like mana for a wizard or energy for a robot, altering how they play in combat. You can also recruit extra pets!

The sanity system affects you as you encounter horrors. Every character has unique reactions, such as Eli going berserk, causing you to lose control of him. Your party's overall state will also cause you to hallucinate many things, such as fake NPCs and incorrect UI elements.

There are hundreds of bizarre items and pieces of equipment to find. All equipment grants unique passives and active abilities, allowing for high build diversity. For example, a flesh sword grants health regeneration and a powerful slash ability.

A cosmic war ripples through dimensions, reaching your hometown. With reality crumbling, you and your friends must face The Backworld to stop the chaos before it consumes everything.

You can adjust the survival horror and general RPG difficulties separately to match your preferences.
Higher RPG difficulties will grant enemies new abilities, passives, and greater statistics.
Higher survival horror difficulties will make the sanity system more punishing and extreme. They can also add an extra hunger resource that you'll need to manage and other features like perma-death, reduced checkpoint effectiveness, and a single save slot. But you can opt out of these extreme features if you are looking for a more traditional RPG experience.
You can also adjust everything to low if you're just looking for some "chill" horror exploration with a creepy story!
Steam data © 2026 Valve Corporation. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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The best games like The Backworld are Look Outside, Splintered, Bleak Faith: Forsaken, WORLD OF HORROR, and Infliction.
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