Best Cozy Sci-Fi Games

Many gamers love fast-paced, action-packed, and quite frankly stressful games, while others prefer those with relaxing elements. Cozy games have been one of the most popular gaming genres since 2020, when most gamers wanted an escape from the horrors of real life and delve into relaxing experiences like those offered in games like Animal Crossing.

The definition of a cozy game is broad, as each one can feature a number of elements. However, they normally include but are not limited to simulations or farming. While sci-fi and cozy games don’t sound like they’d make a good pairing, they do, and there are many games out there to prove it.

10 Lost Nova

Steam Reviews: Very Positive

Mia is lost during a vacation gone wrong and needs to gather resources to fix her ship and get home. Players can use her trusty salvaging laser to get the resources and earn currency for buying upgrades and unlocking activities.

Players can explore at their own pace in Lost Nova. With no time limits or enemies to keep an eye out for, this game is as casual as it gets, permitting players to wind down by fishing in lava pools and make friends with the locals.

9 The Red Strings Club

Steam Reviews: Very Positive

Using pottery, bartending, and impersonating people on the phone, players find themselves on a mission to take down a corporate conspiracy. The Red Strings Club plays as a cyberpunk narrative experience and focuses on fate and happiness.

The narrative revolves around uncovering a mysterious corporate program that promises a blissful experience while debating what the meaning of happiness is and what lengths are permissible to get it. To gather the correct information and progress one’s agenda, players must read the customer’s moods and mix the perfect cocktail, thus manipulating their emotions.

8 Loddlenaut

Steam Reviews: Very Positive

Loddlenaut isn’t just any old ocean clean-up game; it’s an immersive experience where players can find themselves recycling materials, befriending local creatures (otherwise known as Loddles), and exploring sunken corporate ruins.

The adorable Loddles are what make this game so cozy. Players must protect them from the polluted waters and feed them aquatic fruits while trying to make their planet habitable again. Depending on their diet, they will grow in different ways and develop unique traits.

7 Sable

Metascore: 76

Sable

Platform(s)

PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

Released

September 23, 2021

Developer(s)

Shedworks

Genre(s)

Adventure

Sable is an adventure RPG game where players guide Sable through her Gliding: a rite of passage that takes her across vast deserts and beautiful landscapes that have been capped by the remains of spaceships and ancient wonders.

Throughout the casual yet incredible gameplay, players won’t feel stressed by the danger of battle or survival, making this perfect for those who’d rather enjoy the art of cozy gaming. The journey is a captivating one that follows players as they complete tasks and explore the dunes on a hoverbike.

6 VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

Metascore: 77

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

Platform(s)

PC, PS Vita

Released

August 16, 2014

Developer(s)

Sukeban Games, Wolfgame

Genre(s)

Visual Novel

Nothing screams coziness more than a visual novel. VA-11 Hall-A is set in a world where human life is infected with nanomachines that are designed to oppress them. However, the player doesn’t need to worry about them. Instead, they play as a bartender in a small bar in downtown Glitch City that offers an entrancing storyline where the future does not depend on the decisions made but on the drinks served.

Not only is the game hard to put down, but the visuals are inspired by old Japanese adventure games for the PC-98, making for a truly unique gaming experience.

5 Verdant Skies

Steam Reviews: Very Positive

For those who love cozy games like Harvest Moon, Verdant Skies allows gamers to lose themselves in the hand-painted world of Viridis Primus. Players must keep a close eye on the colony and ensure its success by making friends and pursuing romances with a diverse group of NPCs.

With the farming system, the goal is to create the perfect crop hybrid using the genetic slicing machine. Alternatively, days can be spent making pottery or painting. Players can gather resources, customize homes, and befriend colonists, which makes for a truly cozy experience.

4 I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

Metascore: 91

Developed by Northway Games and published by Finji, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist takes the player through life starting from ten years old and going through events that affect the colony until the age of twenty.

With adorable graphics and detailed storylines, players explore the wilderness, study, fall in love, discover creatures, and deal with the consequences of any actions they might make. Any choices made will directly affect the lives of the player, friends, and the fate of the colony. There might be some pressure in the gameplay, but I Was a Teenage Exocolonist still falls into the cozy category of gaming.

3 The Planet Crafter

Steam Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive

While this is a game where dying from loss of oxygen is possible, there’s no fighting, and the consequences of most actions are minimal and casual. In The Planet Crafter, players visit a hostile planet and modify it so that it can become habitable for humans. Players can build bases and machines in order to keep the planet warm and create an atmosphere with enough oxygen to keep the inhabitants alive.

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Zeolite is one of the rarest minerals in the game. However, there are a few consistent ways to find it and even a spot where mining is possible.

For fans looking for a more casual version of Subnautica, this is definitely one to add to the cozy wishlist.

2 Slime Rancher

Metascore: 81

Slime Rancher follows in the footsteps of Beatrix LeBeau, who is a young rancher setting off on a trip a thousand light years away from Earth on the ‘Far, Far Range.’

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With new challenges every day, there’s always something new to uncover while slime ranching. Players can collect colorful slimes, harvest resources, explore the untamed wilds, and grow crops. While it might not come across as a cozy game on the surface, players are sure to feel relaxed while farming (catching slime) and feeding fruit and veg to them.

1 Autonauts

Metascore: 80

Autonauts is an automation game where the aim is to travel the universe and create settlements on uninhabited planets with the goal of setting worlds in motion through the power of automation. In it, players can build helpful worker bots and program them to do useful tasks like making tools and gathering resources.

As there are no time limits, no enemies, and no pressure, this is the perfect cozy game with coding twists that allow players to automate their own world in any way they want.

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