Best Action Games Like Lies of P

The best action games like Lies of P are Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring. Below are 9, each with the reason it is here — and, at the end, what filtering to action costs you.

Why Action Is a Good Answer for Lies of P

Filtering to action means you want the fighting to carry the game rather than the story or the map. It is the right filter when what you actually miss is how something felt in your hands.

What you get: Combat you get better at. Action games put their design budget into the moment-to-moment, so the thing you are doing in minute two is the thing you are still doing in hour twenty, only better.

What made Lies of P worth playing in the first place is covered on the full list. This page is the action part of that answer, and only the action part.

9 Action Games Like Lies of P

  1. 1. Bloodborne

    The obvious ancestor, and the aggression and setting are the closest match.

  2. 2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

    Where the parry-first combat comes from, done at its best.

  3. 3. Elden Ring

    If you want the same combat language with an open world.

  4. 4. Dark Souls

    The genre's foundation, and the best-connected map in it.

  5. 5. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

    Deflect timing as the whole combat system, at higher speed.

  6. 6. Black Myth: Wukong

    Modern action with the same handcrafted-area structure.

  7. 7. Stellar Blade

    Parry-heavy combat with handcrafted areas and a strong look.

  8. 8. Steelrising

    The other clockwork-automaton soulslike, if you want more of the setting.

  9. 9. Nioh 2

    Deeper combat systems, mission-based rather than connected.

What This Filter Leaves Out

Pacing and world. Action games rarely have the quiet stretches or the writing that the adventure and RPG picks bring, and a few of them are shorter than they look.

The full list is on games like Lies of P — 9 picks, no genre filter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best action game like Lies of P?

Bloodborne. The obvious ancestor, and the aggression and setting are the closest match.

Are all of these on the PlayStation 5?

No. Lies of P released on the PlayStation 5, but a recommendation is only useful if you can play it, so the picks above span platforms and eras. What they share is the genre and the reason.

What makes a good action game?

A small set of verbs and a game that keeps finding new questions to ask of them. The weak ones add buttons instead; the strong ones make you better at the ones you already have.

Are action games always hard?

No, and difficulty is a poor proxy for depth. Some of the hardest action games have very few decisions in them, and some of the deepest have a difficulty setting that lets you meet them halfway.

How are these chosen?

By hand. Each pick was written for the full Lies of P list first, on what the game actually does, and this page is the part of that list that is action — never a genre tag lookup, which is how "best racing games like Super Mario 64" used to be a page on this site.

Other Angles on Lies of P

More Action Games Recommendations

Or read the action guide for where to start in the genre generally.