Best Submarine Games for PC

Why it's here: The best submarine game on PC if you have a crew to bring. Barotrauma drops you into a 2D sub under the ice of Europa where every player holds a job, captain, engineer, medic, and a single leak or reactor fault becomes everyone's emergency. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the steep learning curve, and the first voyages can feel overwhelming without a patient friend. Steam: 94% positive, Very Positive, across more than 90,000 reviews. Get it for a regular group and expect to sink a few times first.

Why it's here: The pick for running the boat rather than just aiming it. In UBOAT you command the sailors in order to command the submarine, keeping hunger, fatigue and morale in check while a detailed damage system keeps handing the crew new emergencies to staff their way out of. I would put its crew and supply management above anything else on this list. The caveat from Steam reviews is technical: bugs, uneven performance and save glitches come up again and again. Steam: 84% positive, Very Positive, across about 27,000 reviews. Worth it if logistics are the fantasy, and save often.

Why it's here: The best Cold War submarine sim, and the one to play if you want sonar to do the talking. Cold Waters puts you on a nuclear attack boat in a dynamic war, tracking convoys and landing forces by sound before you commit a single torpedo. Steam reviews praise the depth and realism but flag a steep learning curve and thin tutorials, so budget an evening for learning the controls. Steam: 87% positive, Very Positive, across about 4,800 reviews. Pick it up once arcade torpedo runs stop feeling tense.

Why it's here: The classic WWII U-boat sim, released in 2005 and still the one Steam reviewers keep calling the best of the genre. Silent Hunter III runs a full career patrol by patrol, and a lot of its staying power comes from the community mods that have kept it current, with plenty of nostalgia on top. The honest asterisk is age: Steam reviews report crashes and a dated interface, so plan on community patches from day one. Steam: 88% positive, Very Positive, across about 2,600 reviews. Install it with mods and it still holds up.

Why it's here: The modern pick, for players who want the whole naval war and not only the view from the periscope. Sea Power puts you in charge of NATO or Warsaw Pact task forces in the missile age, where your submarine is one hull among surface ships, aircraft and the sensors hunting it. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is performance, with bugs and crashes most often reported when mods are loaded. Steam: 91% positive, Very Positive, across about 7,000 reviews, with steady developer updates counted as a plus. Choose it to command the submarine war from above as well as fight it.

Why it's here: The exploration pick, and the one game here where the submarine is something you earn. Subnautica strands you on an alien ocean world with an oxygen tank and a fabricator, and you craft your way up to piloting your own subs into trenches, cave systems and lava fields. This is the one roster entry where the full clear really is the question, and the mid-to-late resource grind is the recurring complaint in Steam reviews. Rated E10+, Steam: 97% positive, Overwhelmingly Positive, across more than 380,000 reviews, the highest score on this list. Go in blind and see it through.

Why it's here: The horror pick, and the shortest game here by a distance. Iron Lung seals you inside a one-man submarine on an ocean of blood, and you see the outside only through a grainy still camera while steering by an incomplete map and proximity sensors. Steam reviews single out the sound and the dread, and the recurring complaint is length: it is designed to be finished in under an hour, with little reason to replay. Steam: 92% positive, Very Positive, across about 11,000 reviews. Play it in one sitting, in the dark, with headphones.

Why it's here: The party sub, for two to four friends who prefer chaos to procedure. We Need To Go Deeper is a Verne-inspired co-op roguelike where the crew pilots, repairs, loads torpedoes and reroutes power on the run, then swims out on foot to loot the trench. Steam reviews are more divided on this game than on anything else here, with bugs and a sense that development has stalled as the main complaints. Steam: 86% positive, Very Positive, across about 6,000 reviews. Buy it for a voice-chat game night, not for playing alone.

Why it's here: The puzzle pick, for anyone who likes the idea of a submersible more than the history of one. Nauticrawl hands you a stolen machine covered in levers, dials and devices with no manual, and working out how to pilot it to freedom is the whole game. Steam reviews praise the sound design and the puzzle of the controls, and the shared caveat is length, with little replay value once you have escaped. Steam: 91% positive, Very Positive, across about 500 reviews. Try it if Iron Lung left you wanting a machine to master.