Physics plays an important role in games since it defines behavior for the player, the world, and any items in the environment. Take that away, andyou have a whole bunch of chaoson your hands.
That’s honestly what makes games with zero-gravity mechanics so much fun. It’s one thing to shoot at an enemy during a pursuit in an alley, but imagine if the gravity wassuddenly turned off.
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You’d be running up the walls or grabbing at fire escapes while still trying to take down the target. Zero-gravity basically turns a standard levelcompletely upside downand adds in new challenges and new ways to have fun.
Not every game that features zero-gravity mechanics does it right, however. Some might only put it in a single level, or not give you complete freedom to use the environment how you want.
Take a look at the list below to find some ofthe best video games with zero-gravity mechanicsthat will give you the most enjoyable experience.
To define this list, we considered games that either feature zero-gravity as one of their main gameplay features or use zero-gravity mechanics in a fun and unique way instead of just being a one-off.
10Starfield
Fight Through Zero-Gravity Levels While Manipulating Gravity
Fextralife Wiki
Whether you love or hateStarfield, there’s no question that it hassome pretty fun zero-gravity fights. The best part is that you don’t always know if you’re entering a zero-gravity area beforehand.
I remember seeing a station and thinking I’d go get some resources, only to enter and find myself floating around. Even worse, there were a bunch of Spacers floating everywhere, too, trying to run me off.
Combat in Starfield is quite enjoyableonce you get the hang of it, and when you add zero-gravity to the mix,things can get weird and even more fun. For example, one of my favorite things to do in a zero-gravity environment is to use the Grav Dash power to launch myself at an enemy and shotgun them right in the face.
Using powers in a zero-gravity environment makes Starfield’s otherwise straightforward combat a lot more fun.
9Observation
Become An AI And Help Your Crew Survive Zero-Gravity
Observation
Observationis one of those thrillers that you can’t stop watchingbecause you absolutely need to know how it ends. In the game, players take on the role of SAM, an AI who helps run a space station.
As SAM, players help out their crew with their duties. When things inevitably go wrong, the player has to help the crew discover what’s going on with the station.
Now, because the station is having a host of problems, the gravity isn’t always working. The crew—those that remain, anyway—find themselves having to bob around and rely on you, as SAM, to go about their duties.
I have a deep love for stories involving robots and AI, so while I was controlling SAM, I couldn’t help but find myself observing (pun intended) how helpless these astronauts were. As their bodies bobbed around in the station, I realized how easy it would be to just jettison them into space.
The zero-gravity environment definitely made me feel the terror of these astronauts as they realized how tenuous their situation really was.
8Deliver Us The Moon
No Combat But Plenty Of Zero-Gravity Puzzles And Thrills
Deliver Us The Moon
When I first picked up Deliver Us The Moon, I thought it wasa bit too realistic to be comfortable. In the game, you play as a lone astronaut sent to the moon to save Earth after all of its resources have been used up.
Along the way, you encounter puzzles or situations that lack gravity. You’ll find yourself floating around trying to solve these puzzles to progress in the game.
Aside from puzzles, I enjoyed discovering records from those who lived in the station before it fell into ruin. Now, some of these areas lacked gravity, which meant I needed to float along to discover them.
Typically, these areas required a bit more finesse to find, so every story that I discovered in these sections felt just a bit more rewarding.
7Shattered Horizon
Chaotic First-Person Shooter Set In Zero-Gravity
AlthoughShattered Horizonis no longer around, at the time,it was chaotic fun. In the game, players take one of two sides and battle it out for survival.
The real gimmick here is that zero-gravity plays a major role in a majority of the maps. Sure, players can jetpack in a lot of battle royale games these days, but in Shattered Horizon, you were basicallyat the zero-gravity’s mercy.
Some of the best players learned how to use the zero-gravity mechanic to their advantage. I was not one of them.
Instead, I remember being absolutely decimated by players who would cling up around the corners of a building, then rush down on me when my back was turned. Frustrating at the time, but a memorable experience that few games can replicate now.
It’s a pity that Shattered Horizon is no longer on Steam since it wasone of the pioneersof making zero-gravity a key part of gameplay.
6Star Citizen
Arena Commander Mode Offers Realistic Zero-G Dogfights
Star Citizen
When I play a space game,I like a little realism.Star Citizengave me exactly what I prefer in its Arena Commander game mode.
In one of the game’s patches, the dev team introduced G-force effects on a player’s pilot. Basically, if a player moved the ship in such a way that made a ton of G-force affect the ship,the player would black out.
When this happened to my character for the first time, I was equal parts giddy and dismayed. I loved how realistic the experience was, but since it left me completely vulnerable, you’re able to be sure that I was swiftly destroyed while sleeping away.
Players typically fight other players or enemy NPCS in this mode, so this isn’t an ideal situation to put yourself in. However, it’s so realistic that I think Star Citizen’s use of zero-gravity mechanicsmakes it stand out.
5Heavenly Bodies
A Silly And Sometimes Frustrating Perfect Depiction Of Zero-Gravity
Heavenly Bodies
Heavenly Bodies canmake or break your relationshipif you play it with your partner or a friend (you’ve been warned). When played together, you take on the roles of astronauts who have to do astronaut things in a space station.
The problem is that you must use a controller to move your character’s legs and arms separately. You’re not using the thumbstick, either.
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What ends up happening is a hilarious, and frustrating, series of attempts to carry a crate in zero-gravity conditions andfailing miserably. At least, that was my hair-pulling experience with my partner. Fights were had.
Let’s not forget, either, that sometimes the station falls apart, and you have to catch onto something fast or be ejected into space forever.
Heavenly Bodies is honestly a lot of fun, and it gives a pretty realistic, albeit silly, zero-gravity experience. It just might alsomake you think twice about becoming an astronaut.
Explore A Wrecked Ship In Zero-Gravity To Discover What Happened
As a big fan of survival games, I immediately took an interest in Adr1ft. Although it’s technically a puzzle game, there are plenty ofsurvival mechanics in it, too.
The game starts with you floating in space and finding that your space station is wrecked.You have no memory of why. The game has you floating around in zero gravity while trying to find out what happened.
Zero-gravity is right at the heart of this game. I found the experience of floating among the wreckage and pieces of the station that were still intact extremely immersive.
I always had to keep an eye on my oxygen meter, which falls over time, and with that sense of helplessness that comes with zero-gravity environments, it made the pressure of finding more oxygen tanks even more intense.
Without it, I don’t think the game would have had nearly as much of a punch.
3Lone Echo
Experience Zero Gravity In VR
Unless you’re one of the lucky few who became an astronaut or have enough money to take a flight on a rocket, chances are you’re not going to experience zero gravity for yourself.Lone Echogets you pretty close to the real experiencewithout having to leave your home.
It’s a VR game where you play as a service robot. You have to help the lone human crew member repair the station and keep them alive.
As far as VR games go, I found this one both fun and very immersive. For example, because it’s set in a zero-gravity environment, I had to grab items that I saw in order to push myself forward. Practically everything is interactive, too.
Since it’s VR, the experiencefeels all the more realas you float in space, pull yourself around, and assist in repairing the station. Along the way, I had to actually grab tools that I saw lying around in order to fix problems like a broken door unit.
If you want real zero-gravity immersion, then you may need to give this game a look.
Zero-Gravity Space Walks To Fast Travel
Preyhas some pretty interesting use cases of zero-gravity. While there are sequences where you need to float around and defeat enemies, it’s really the spacewalk and fast travel element that lands it so high on the list.
That said,spacewalking isn’t a walk in the park. I frequently had problems with Operators and Technopaths while floating helplessly when I was trying to skip some floors.
Craft some Typhon lures before heading out into space to make life a bit easier.
I found that being unable to use my mobility and typical methods to deal with the Typhons really challenged me.I had to think on my toeswhenever I stepped into space.
Despite the danger, spacewalking in Prey is worth it since it allows the player to skip floors they’ve already explored to get to new levels of the station. Marrying this type of risk with a high reward is what makes this zero-gravity experience pretty unique.
Dead Space (2023)
Easily one ofthe best horror space video games, Dead Space improved on its zero-gravity mechanics by giving Isaac, the player character, thrusters. These thrusters allow him to easily navigate zero-gravity sections of the game andeven provide new ways for players to take down enemies.
That said, there’s still a lot of horror left in the game. InDead Space, I found myself starting to dread the moment when I encountered a zero-gravity environment.
The game already works hard to makeyou feel helpless and vulnerable. The zero-gravity sections of the game amplify those feelings.
I’ll admit that I may have jumped out of my chair a few times when floating along only to finda Leaper jumping straight for my face. Any thought I had of being able to travel relatively peacefully through these areas was gone.
Much like my experience with the rest of Dead Space, only dread remained whenever I found my feet rising up off the floor.
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