Finished the descent and want more? These 12 games share Idols of Ash's DNA — momentum-based movement, brutal physics, horror atmosphere, or emotionally driven short-form design. Ranked by how closely they scratch the same itch.
Skip straight to your type — then read the full rankings below.
Same momentum-based vertical movement, zero hand-holding, physics that reward mastery.
Relentless monster pursuit in darkness with no combat option. Closest horror DNA match.
The original punishing physics precision game. Loses everything on death. Deeply meditative.
Wordless emotional climbing games where the ascent itself carries meaning.
The most terrifying sense of descending into something vast and ancient that does not want you there.
Two players, momentum climbing, communication under pressure. Idols of Ash if you could bring a friend.
Sorted by overall similarity to Idols of Ash across movement, atmosphere, and design philosophy.
A brutalist concrete tower to climb — first-person, momentum-based, completely unforgiving. Fall from anywhere and you restart from the bottom. No enemies, but the movement physics and the psychological weight of accumulated height are almost identical to Idols of Ash. The community directly compares the two games, and Idols of Ash's developers have cited vertical platformers like this as an influence. If you want the movement without the horror, Beton Brutal is your answer. If you want the horror without the movement, read on.
The original punishing physics precision game. A man in a cauldron climbs a mountain with a hammer. Lose your footing at the summit and fall all the way to the start. The developer narrates philosophical commentary throughout. Getting Over It was the direct ancestor of Beton Brutal, Only Up!, and Idols of Ash — the game that proved a simple physics system and brutal consequence could be emotionally meaningful rather than just frustrating. If you have not played it, you should.
Two players climb an endlessly generating tower using momentum-based grappling and body physics. White Knuckle is directly comparable to Idols of Ash in movement feel — the hook-and-swing locomotion, the importance of momentum management, the sensation of losing control at speed. The key difference: it is co-op focused and the tower generates procedurally rather than being a fixed descent. Think of it as Idols of Ash if you could bring a friend and the structure kept going forever.
A WWI bunker haunted by something that cannot be killed — only evaded. The Beast responds to sound, light, and movement. You cannot fight it. You can only manage noise, use the environment, and keep moving. The Bunker captures Idols of Ash's core horror thesis more faithfully than any other game: the threat is relentless, you have no combat option, survival is entirely about movement and decision-making under pressure. The setting and mechanics are completely different, but the emotional experience is remarkably similar.
A solo climbing game about ascending a massive dried-out tower in a world where the sea has receded. Jusant shares Idols of Ash's focus on a single vertical journey with environmental storytelling, minimal UI, and a melancholy atmosphere built from found notes and ancient architecture. Where Idols of Ash descends and pursues, Jusant ascends and reflects. Both use climbing as a vehicle for processing something vast and sad. If you came to Idols of Ash for the emotional depth and not just the movement, Jusant is essential.
Survival on an ocean planet — but the real game is descending into the deep. The further you go down, the darker it gets, the larger the creatures, and the more the game communicates that you are somewhere you were not meant to be. Subnautica does not pursue you with a monster like the Murderpede, but it creates the same feeling: you are a small thing descending into something ancient and vast that will swallow you if you stop paying attention. The deepest biomes — the Lost River, the Inactive Lava Zone — are as atmospherically crushing as Idols of Ash's final sections.
A vertical platformer where everything is ascending — from a shantytown through increasingly absurd environmental layers reaching toward the sky. Only Up! went massively viral in 2023 for the same reasons Idols of Ash has in 2026: the brutal fall consequence, the short run potential, and the social sharing of both triumph and disaster. The tone is lighter than Idols of Ash and the movement less physics-sophisticated, but the fundamental loop — ascend, fall catastrophically, try again — is identical.
An underwater sci-fi horror game about consciousness and identity, set in an abandoned deep-sea facility. SOMA shares Idols of Ash's commitment to using horror as a vehicle for a serious emotional and philosophical story. Like Idols of Ash, it has a no-combat design philosophy (in Safe Mode) — the monsters cannot be fought, only avoided. The descent into the facility's lower sections creates the same sense of going somewhere increasingly wrong. If the Coil Rot lore and the grief themes of Idols of Ash resonated with you, SOMA will too.
A wordless journey toward a distant mountain — played alone or with a silent stranger encountered online. Journey shares Idols of Ash's design philosophy of environmental storytelling, minimal UI, and a singular vertical objective that carries emotional weight far beyond its mechanical simplicity. The tone is opposite — where Idols of Ash is dark and desperate, Journey is transcendent — but both games use the act of moving toward something as a meditation on grief, perseverance, and what it means to arrive. The ending hits differently after playing Idols of Ash.
A 2D Metroidvania set in a vast underground kingdom of insects. Less mechanically similar to Idols of Ash than the entries above, but shares the same thematic DNA: a descent into an ancient place, environmental storytelling through ruins and statues, a world that has been dying for a very long time, and a story about infection and sacrifice that rhymes with Coil Rot's themes. If you loved the lore of Idols of Ash and want a much longer game to sink into, Hollow Knight delivers one of gaming's most complete underground worlds.
A retro boomer shooter with fast movement and dark occult atmosphere. Less similar mechanically — it has combat, where Idols of Ash has none — but the emphasis on movement mastery as the primary skill, the dark underground environments, and the relentless pace share DNA. Recommended for players who loved the movement feel of Idols of Ash and want something with more content, even at the cost of the no-combat purity.
A recursive puzzle game about processing the end of a relationship — love, loss, and the inability to let go. Mechanically it is entirely different from Idols of Ash, but thematically it is the closest thing on this list to the emotional core of the Coil Rot story. If the checkpoint memories and the grief narrative of Idols of Ash hit you hard, Maquette will resonate. It is short, it is sad, and it earns its ending.
What each game shares with Idols of Ash.
| Game | Momentum movement | No combat | Vertical level | Horror pursuit | Short runs | Deep story |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idols of Ash | ||||||
| Beton Brutal | ||||||
| Getting Over It | ||||||
| White Knuckle | ||||||
| Amnesia: The Bunker | ||||||
| Jusant | ||||||
| Subnautica | ||||||
| Only Up! | ||||||
| SOMA | ||||||
| Journey | ||||||
| Hollow Knight | ||||||
| Dread Templar | ||||||
| Maquette |
Yes Partial No