Field guide · Retro futurist sci fi & facility FPS games

Games like Prey and System Shock: retro futurist sci fi FPS games on PC

By Ekin, a solo developer in Istanbul (Whale Development Studios), maker of Iron Curtain Call. Published 8 November 2026; every price, release date and platform below was checked on 8 November 2026 against the US Steam store and the sources at the end.

Retro futurist Cold War Soviet space age machinery and hand inked characters in Iron Curtain Call
Iron Curtain Call sets its rubber hose rubber hose action inside a Cold War space race and propaganda facility. Free demo on Steam.
The short answer

The ten games at a glance

Players who finish Arkane’s Prey or Nightdive’s System Shock remake are usually searching for a very specific combination: a self contained retro futurist facility that tells its story through architecture and audio logs, a mocking voice on the intercom, and combat where gadgets and environmental hazards matter as much as bullets. As a solo developer in Istanbul building Iron Curtain Call, I put together this guide to the ten PC games on Steam that capture that retro futurist facility atmosphere and systemic first person combat.

If you want the direct architectural and systemic DNA of Prey and System Shock, play BioShock Remastered ($19.99), BioShock 2 Remastered ($19.99), Dishonored ($9.99) and DEATHLOOP ($59.99). If you want a retro futurist cassette tape facility stalked by an unkillable threat, play Alien: Isolation ($39.99). If you want Soviet retro futurism and rogue facility automatons, play Atomic Heart ($59.99, free demo) and INDUSTRIA ($19.99). And if you want a sixties Cold War Soviet puppet regime where a mocking propaganda telephone guides you through clockwork ministries in rubber hose rubber hose cartoon style, play the free Steam demo of my game Iron Curtain Call (releasing 11 March 2027).

At a glance

The ten games at a glance

US Steam store prices, release dates, platforms and free demo availability checked on 8 November 2026.
GameFacility & eraCombat & systems hookFree demo on SteamUS priceOut
Iron Curtain CallMy gamesixties Slobovian ministries & space complexParty Line intercom, parry, kick & grappleYes, free: Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutesNot priced yet11 March 2027Free demo since 28 October 2026
PreyAlternate sixties neo deco Talos I space stationGLOO Cannon, Typhon neuromods & zero GYes, free$29.994 May 2017
System ShockCitadel Station under SHODAN’s controlInterlocking decks, cyberspace & implantsYes, free$39.9930 May 2023
BioShock Remasteredsixties underwater city of RapturePlasmids, hacked turrets & audio diariesNo$19.9915 September 2016First released in 2007
BioShock 2 Remasteredlate sixties decaying RaptureSimultaneous Plasmid + drill/rivet combatNo$19.9915 September 2016First released in 2010
DishonoredWhale oil industrial city of DunwallBlink teleport, Possession & clockwork trapsNo$9.998 October 2012
DEATHLOOPsixties retro futurist Blackreef islandTime loop assassination puzzle & SlabsNo$59.9913 September 2021
Atomic Heartfifties Soviet Facility 3826Polymer glove powers & rogue lab robotsYes, free$59.9920 February 2023
Alien: Isolationdeep space Sevastopol cassette futurist stationMotion tracker stealth & systemic XenomorphNo$39.996 October 2014
INDUSTRIAlate Cold War East Berlin research lab & parallel cityCold War mystery & clockwork machinesNo$19.9930 September 2021
Game by game

Each game, its facility design and how it compares to Prey and System Shock

Each card covers what the game shares with this guide’s theme, how it plays and its verified US Steam store facts on 8 November 2026.

Iron Curtain Call

My game

Play it if you want my game.

I am building Iron Curtain Call as a faster, combat driven cousin to retro futurist facility shooters. Instead of an inventory puzzle, you fight through the sixties Cold War ministries, television studios and rocket halls of the Republic of Slobovia while the Party Line telephone taunts you like a bureaucratic SHODAN. Every room is hand inked in rubber hose rubber hose style, and you turn the regime’s own clockwork machinery against its tin soldiers with parries, kicks and a grappling hook.

Developer and publisher
Whale Development Studios
Out
11 March 2027
Free demo out
28 October 2026
On Steam
Windows and macOS (demo on Windows, macOS and Linux)
US list price
Not priced yet
Demo
Yes, free
Gameplay trailer · 1:00 · Twelve chapters in sixty seconds. YouTube · Video page

Download the free Steam demoPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download

Prey

Play it if you want neo deco space station benchmark.

Arkane Austin’s Prey imagines a world where John F. Kennedy survived the sixties and the United States and Soviet Union expanded an orbital facility into the gilded neo deco station Talos I. With the GLOO Cannon letting you build your own staircases up elevator shafts and every coffee mug potentially hiding a Mimic, it is the closest modern successor to System Shock 2.

Developer
Arkane Studios
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Released
4 May 2017
On Steam
Windows (demo on Windows)
US list price
$29.99
Demo
Yes, free

System Shock

Play it if you want the 0451 origin point.

Nightdive Studios rebuilt LookingGlass Technologies’ classic nineties classic System Shock from the ground up while keeping Citadel Station’s maze like decks and Terri Brosius’s iconic voice as the rogue AI SHODAN. There are no quest arrows: you read security codes from logs, smash cameras to lower SHODAN’s security level on each deck, and try the first deck in its free Steam demo.

Developer
Nightdive Studios
Publisher
Atari and Nightdive Studios
Released
30 May 2023
On Steam
Windows (demo on Windows)
US list price
$39.99
Demo
Yes, free

BioShock Remastered

Play it if you want rapture & audio diaries.

Ken Levine and Irrational Games carried the System Shock 2 formula from deep space to the sixties ocean floor in BioShock Remastered. You rewire security bots, electrify flooded corridors, and piece together Rapture’s collapse from the voices left behind on reel to reel tape.

Developers
2K Boston, 2K Australia, Blind Squirrel and Feral Interactive (Mac)
Publisher
2K and Feral Interactive (Mac)
Released
15 September 2016
On Steam
Windows and macOS
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam

BioShock 2 Remastered

Play it if you want tactical trap setup.

BioShock 2 Remastered refines Rapture’s combat into a tactical defense loop where you lay tripwires, mini turrets and cyclone traps before defending Little Sisters against waves of splicers, all while Minerva’s Den delivers one of the best computer facility stories in the genre.

Developers
2K Marin, 2K China, Digital Extremes, 2K Australia and Blind Squirrel
Publisher
2K
Released
15 September 2016
On Steam
Windows and macOS
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam

Dishonored

Play it if you want arkane’s clockwork stealth.

Before Prey, Arkane built Dishonored, trading space station bulkheads for the whale oil powered quarantine walls, tallboys and rewireable arc pylons of Dunwall. Every mission is an architectural puzzle box with half a dozen ways past the guards.

Developer
Arkane Studios
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Released
8 October 2012
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$9.99
Demo
None on Steam

DEATHLOOP

Play it if you want retro cold war bunkers & time loop.

Arkane Lyon’s DEATHLOOP combines Prey’s systemic gadgets and turrets with a sixties Cold War retro futurist island full of abandoned radar bunkers, pop art interiors and a mocking loudspeaker rival in Julianna Blake.

Developer
Arkane Studios
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Released
13 September 2021
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$59.99
Demo
None on Steam

Atomic Heart

Play it if you want soviet facility 3826.

Atomic Heart takes the "utopian research facility after the robots went haywire" premise of Prey and System Shock and sets it in an alternate fifties Soviet Union. Your talking Polymer glove freezes and levitates lab automatons across underground testing polygons, and it offers a free Steam demo.

Developer
Mundfish
Publisher
Focus Entertainment, 4Divinity and Mundfish
Released
20 February 2023
On Steam
Windows (demo on Windows)
US list price
$59.99
Demo
Yes, free

Alien: Isolation

Play it if you want cassette futurism & sevastopol.

Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation is one of the finest retro futurist stations ever built on PC: chunky CRT terminals, manual rewiring panels, violent Working Joe androids and an unscripted Xenomorph hunting you through the vents of Sevastopol Station.

Developer
Creative Assembly
Publisher
SEGA
Released
6 October 2014
On Steam
Windows, macOS and Linux
US list price
$39.99
Demo
None on Steam

INDUSTRIA

Play it if you want retro east berlin lab mystery.

Built by indie team Bleakmill, INDUSTRIA begins in a secret East Berlin research facility on the night the Berlin Wall falls in November late Cold War and pulls you through an experimental portal into a city overrun by cold mechanical automatons.

Developer
Bleakmill
Publisher
Headup and Beep Japan
Released
30 September 2021
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam
Where my game fits

Where Iron Curtain Call fits if you love Prey and System Shock

I built Iron Curtain Call around the same Cold War space age obsession that powers Prey’s Talos I and Atomic Heart’s Facility 3826, filtered through 1930s rubber hose animation:

sixties Cold War Soviet space race and bureaucratic facilities. You fight through propaganda studios, rocket assembly halls and ministry offices where every wall poster and loudspeaker sells the regime’s glorious lie.

An antagonist on the line. Where Citadel Station has SHODAN and Rapture has Atlas, Slobovia has the Party Line telephone ringing off the hook to critique your compliance.

Fast physical combat instead of inventory menus. You never pause the fight to sort scrap in a grid. You parry, kick, grapple and dual wield in real time.

Questions

Questions players ask about games like Prey and System Shock

Which games like Prey and System Shock have a free demo on Steam?

Three games on this page have a free playable demo on Steam right now: System Shock (the modern remake), Atomic Heart and Iron Curtain Call (which also has a 60 second browser trial).

What is the closest game to Prey’s alternate sixties space race setting?

For another alternate sixties Cold War setting with rogue machines and loudspeaker propaganda, check out DEATHLOOP ($59.99), Atomic Heart ($59.99) and the free demo of Iron Curtain Call (set in sixties).

Which games like Prey and System Shock run on macOS or Linux?

Iron Curtain Call (free demo) and Alien: Isolation ($39.99) support Windows, macOS and Linux on Steam, while BioShock Remastered ($19.99) and BioShock 2 Remastered ($19.99) support Windows and macOS.

What PC and indie games are coming out in 2027?

More than one page can hold: Steam shows a lot of PC and indie games with a 2027 date, and dates keep moving. What we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026 are the shooters and the Mac action games, in two dated lists: upcoming FPS games and upcoming Mac games. Iron Curtain Call, our own cartoon noir shooter, is due 11 March 2027 on Windows and macOS, and its free demo is on Steam now.

What games release on 11 March 2027?

Among the shooters we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026: Blood of Rations (11 March 2027) and Iron Curtain Call (My game, 11 March 2027). We only checked shooters, so this is not the full set for that day; Steam’s own Coming Soon page has the rest.

What is a good new single player FPS I can play for free right now?

Iron Curtain Call has a free demo on Steam (Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutes) and a free 60 second browser trial with no download. It is a single player cartoon noir shooter, and it is our game, so weigh that. For other free shooters, our list of free FPS demos on Steam holds the best rated ones.

Sources and when we checked them

Every release date, US list price, platform flag and demo entry on this page was read from the official US Steam store API and Wikipedia/Wikidata on 8 November 2026.

  1. Iron Curtain Call, Steam store page
  2. Prey, Steam store page
  3. System Shock, Steam store page
  4. BioShock Remastered, Steam store page
  5. BioShock 2 Remastered, Steam store page
  6. Dishonored, Steam store page
  7. DEATHLOOP, Steam store page
  8. Atomic Heart, Steam store page
  9. Alien: Isolation, Steam store page
  10. INDUSTRIA, Steam store page
  11. Immersive sim, Wikipedia
  12. Prey (2017 video game), Wikipedia
  13. System Shock (2023 video game), Wikipedia
  14. BioShock, Wikipedia
  15. BioShock 2, Wikipedia
  16. Dishonored, Wikipedia
  17. Deathloop, Wikipedia
  18. Atomic Heart, Wikipedia
  19. Alien: Isolation, Wikipedia
  20. Retrofuturism, Wikipedia

Try Iron Curtain Call free on Steam or in your browser

Download the free Steam demo on Windows, macOS or Linux, play the 60 second browser trial with no install, or wishlist the full game ahead of 11 March 2027.

Download the free Steam demoWishlist and Follow on SteamPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download