10 Best Games About Time Loops You Should Play

What would you do if you had to live the same day over and over? Would you try to save someone? Break the rules? Maybe just go fishing until the sun explodes?

Time loop games take that question and twist it into a dozen different directions. These are puzzles made of moments, where every clue matters and each reset brings you closer to the truth (or maybe just a better shotgun).

Whether you’re into heady sci-fi, quiet emotional epics, or stylish shootouts where yesterday’s failure becomes today’s perfect plan, the ten games below show just how many ways there are to play with time… and how time, sometimes, plays with you.

Deathloop (2021)

DEATHLOOP is a stylish first-person shooter from that revolves entirely around a repeating day on the island of Blackreef, where you, Colt Vahn, must break the time loop by assassinating eight targets in a single cycle. The catch? Time resets if you die too many times or fail your objective, and a rival assassin named Julianna (who can be AI- or player-controlled) is actively hunting you to preserve the loop.

While the game uses a four-region, four-time-period structure instead of a continuous clock, your progress hinges on learning where your targets will be and when, piecing together the perfect route through clues, trial, and error. It blends immersive sim elements with roguelike progression: weapons, powers (called Slabs), and upgrades persist across loops only if you’ve infused them with a resource called Residuum.

While some found the AI underwhelming and the puzzle solutions a bit too guided, DEATHLOOP still stands out for its inventive take on time loop storytelling, its retro-futuristic 1960s vibe, and its fluid mix of stealth, gunplay, and experimentation, especially once you master the loops.

Outer Wilds (2020)

Outer Wilds is a critically acclaimed open-world mystery set in a handcrafted solar system trapped in a 22-minute time loop. You play as an astronaut from a curious alien species, venturing into space to uncover the secrets of an extinct civilization and the reason behind the imminent supernova that resets everything.

What sets the game apart isn’t just its cosmic setting or precise physics simulation. It’s the way exploration becomes its own reward. There are no upgrades, no traditional progression systems. There is only knowledge, and what you do with it. Every clue you discover changes how you understand the world, and eventually, how you interact with it.

From planets that collapse over time to ancient texts scattered across crumbling ruins, the solar system itself is a living puzzle box. It’s no surprise it earned Game of the Year honors from multiple outlets in 2019 and remains one of the most beloved examples of time loop storytelling. Because once you’ve played Outer Wilds, you’ll wish you could experience it again for the first time. And whatever you do, don’t use any guides!

The Stanley Parable (2022)

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is a first-person exploration game where the illusion of choice is both the premise and the punchline. You play as Stanley… until you don’t. You follow the narrator’s soothing British voice, until you disobey it, or the game takes control away entirely.

A reimagining and expansion of the cult 2013 original, Ultra Deluxe adds new endings, new content, and new wrinkles to its core conceit: that even when you’re offered a dozen choices, the game is still playing you.

While it doesn’t rely on a traditional time loop mechanic, its recursive structure (sending you back to the start after each ending, often with subtle changes) mimics the feeling of being stuck in a loop you only think you’re controlling. With over two dozen endings, meta-commentary that evolves the more you engage, and even achievements that require players to not play the game for a decade, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe deserves its place on this list not because it features a time loop, but because it feels like one: endlessly self-aware, disorienting, and hilariously existential.

The Forgotten City (2021)

The Forgotten City began life as a beloved Skyrim mod, but its transformation into a full standalone title has earned it overwhelming praise, for good reason. Set in an ancient Roman city governed by the brutal “Golden Rule” (if one person sins, everyone dies), the game casts you as a time-traveling investigator trapped in a loop, trying to prevent a collective apocalypse.

It’s a first-person narrative mystery that rewards curiosity, logic, and ethical reflection, with minimal combat and heavy emphasis on dialogue, deduction, and moral choice. Each loop builds on the last: objects and knowledge persist, allowing players to untangle complex social webs and philosophical dilemmas at their own pace.

What makes it stand out among time loop games is how elegantly it avoids tedium: tasks you’ve completed can be delegated in future loops, letting you focus on new leads. Praised for its writing, historical detail, and intelligent design, The Forgotten City is a masterclass in narrative design that respects the player’s intelligence.

In Stars and Time (2023)

In Stars And Time is a time-loop RPG that follows Siffrin, a pun-loving and increasingly frayed hero stuck reliving the same two days in a final push to defeat a tyrant king. What begins as a lighthearted turn-based adventure (with Rock, Paper, Scissors combat and charming party banter) slowly transforms into an emotionally raw exploration of fatigue, futility, and found family.

Unlike many time loop games that use the mechanic for puzzle-solving or combat strategy, In Stars And Time uses repetition as an emotional scalpel, drawing the player into Siffrin’s disintegrating mental state. The game intentionally frustrates through repeated fights, recycled dialogue, and delays, all of which mirror Siffrin’s own unraveling. Its writing is often hilarious, sometimes devastating, and always sincere, with a cast of queer, deeply human characters whose relationships form the emotional backbone of the loop.

For players drawn to narrative-heavy games that understand both the mechanics and the meaning of repetition, In Stars And Time is a must-play punch in the gut.

Quantum Break (2016)

Quantum Break is a third-person action game that fuses sci-fi storytelling with real-time gameplay and live-action television episodes. Set in the aftermath of a failed time travel experiment, the game follows Jack Joyce as he gains time-manipulation powers and struggles to prevent the collapse of time itself.

Gameplay centers around dynamic combat enhanced by time powers, like freezing enemies, dashing through firefights, and rewinding collapsing environments, alongside brief environmental puzzles and exploration. Between each of the five acts, players watch 20-minute live-action episodes that adapt based on their in-game choices, a format that no other game has pulled off quite like this.

While it’s not a traditional time loop game where you repeat events, Quantum Break explores fractured timelines, future echoes, and altered sequences in a way that still earns it a place on this list. It’s a stylistically bold experiment in storytelling through time, which, despite occasional stutters (both technical and narrative), remains a singular, memorable take on interactive time travel.

The Sexy Brutale (2017)

The Sexy Brutale is a stylish, real-time murder-mystery puzzle game set during an endlessly looping masked ball in a bizarre casino mansion. You play as Lafcadio Boone, a priest trapped in a 12-hour time loop, silently observing as masked staff kill off guests in grotesque, theatrical fashion: by immolation, spider venom, bullets, you name it. The catch? You can’t interact with anyone directly.

Instead, you eavesdrop, sneak through rooms, and manipulate objects to prevent each murder, one loop at a time. Each guest you save grants you a new mask-based power, unlocking deeper access to the mansion and new layers of the story. It’s a game about timing, patience, and piecing together routines like a living clockwork mystery.

Though the puzzles aren’t overly difficult, the game thrives on its atmospheric art deco aesthetic, hauntingly reactive jazz soundtrack, and the grim satisfaction of gradually understanding, and rewriting, the clockwork of death. Its inventive blend of time-loop mechanics, character-driven design, and narrative payoff makes it an essential entry on any list of the best time loop games.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (2022)

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a story-rich, genre-blending RPG that captures the emotional turbulence of adolescence. Only this time, it’s on an alien planet, and you just might remember living it all before.

As you guide your character from age 10 to 20 through monthly choices of where to work, who to befriend, and what values to uphold, your memories from previous lives begin to bleed into the current one, unlocking new paths and shifting the fate of the colony. Every decision contributes to your personal deck of “memory” cards used in lightly strategic challenge encounters, from escaping wild creatures to navigating relationship drama or passing a science test.

With over 800 story events, 250 collectible cards, and 29 different endings, the game’s time loop is the emotional core of the experience. The loop exists to be understood, rewound, and lived better. It’s this quiet, replay-driven structure, paired with writing that has made players cry, rethink their lives, or immediately start again, that earns Exocolonist its place among the best games about time loops.

Loop Hero (2021)

Loop Hero traps players in a desolate world swallowed by a timeless void and hands them the power to rebuild it, one perilous loop at a time. Rather than controlling the hero directly, you shape the path they walk, placing terrain, enemies, and buildings using a deck of mystical cards while they auto-battle their way through each procedurally generated expedition. It’s part roguelike, part city builder, part deck-builder, and part idle RPG.

The loop is the core mechanic, governing not only the gameplay but the narrative arc and structure of progression. You’ll balance tile placement for buffs and synergies, gather loot and materials to upgrade a persistent camp, and unlock new character classes and cards that evolve each run. With its deceptively simple visuals and compulsively satisfying gameplay, Loop Hero earns its place on this list by turning the time loop into a game board where memory, entropy, and strategy collide in a uniquely addictive spiral.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is an action-adventure game for the Nintendo 64 that centers its entire structure around a repeating three-day time loop. As Link, players explore the haunting world of Termina, where the moon is on a collision course with the earth, set to crash in 72 in-game hours (roughly 54 minutes in real time).

What sets Majora’s Mask apart is how deeply the time loop informs every aspect of gameplay: characters follow strict daily routines, quests must be tracked through a notebook of scheduled events, and players must constantly reset the timeline using the Song of Time, retaining only key items and progress. Layered atop this are 24 masks, including transformative ones that turn Link into a Deku Scrub, Goron, or Zora, each with unique abilities needed to solve puzzles and access new areas.

Critics have praised its innovation, emotional storytelling, and haunting atmosphere, while its recursive design has influenced later games like Outer Wilds and Elsinore. For a game that asks players to confront loss, responsibility, and the inevitability of time, Majora’s Mask remains a defining entry in any conversation about time loop mechanics in gaming.

FAQ: Best Games About Time Loops