The Tartarus Key similar games & best alternatives

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The Tartarus Key

PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch • 2023

Should you play it?

There’s no way out for Alex Young who wakes up to find herself locked in a strange mansion filled with puzzles, traps, and cameras following her every move. Whether she and her companions live or die, and find the truth behind their abduction, is up to you in this first-person mystery thriller.

What works

  • Engaging and logical puzzles
  • Strong psychological horror atmosphere
  • Retro ps1-style graphics and sound design
  • Multiple endings and replayability
  • Well-written characters and dialogue

Things to keep in mind

  • Short game length
  • Some puzzles can be obscure or frustrating
  • Limited character interaction after rescue
  • Lack of voice acting
  • Bad ending requires replaying entire game

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feel the closest overall

  • The Entropy Centre

  • The Turing Test

  • Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

  • Viviette

  • Amanda the Adventurer 2

  • The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication

  • Theatre Of The Absurd

  • Amanda the Adventurer

  • Cube Escape Collection

Search more ->

Hidden Gems

Less popular games with surprisingly high similarity

  • Meridian 157: Chapter 1

  • Xi

  • Aporia: Beyond The Valley

If you liked…

Recommendations by what you enjoyed most

  • Autonomy

    Alternate DiMansion Diary
  • Escapism

    Layers of Fear
  • Story

    Strange Horticulture

Similarity map

Explore nearby similar games and see why they’re close.

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game. They are arranged from the game’s motivation profile. Closer dots usually mean more similar reasons to play (exploration, competition, relaxation, etc.)—not that one game is “better” than another.

  • Purple star: this page’s game — everything on the map is relative to it.
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom out and see more games.

Why don’t the axes read like a score? This view uses t-SNE: it only keeps who is close to whom. The scales are not “good to bad” or hours played—they separate groups on the map. Read distance between dots, not the axis numbers (hidden on purpose).

The Tartarus Key: A very typical example of its motivational profile. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Expression, Fellowship, Cooperation, Leadership. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Relaxation, Exploration. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Violence.

Last update: 24/07/2026