Personally, I really don’t like most of these games due to the tedium and frustration that comes with hunger/thirst mechanics. Most of the exceptions that I do actually like either make up for it through something else that elevates the experience enough - or they either don’t have these mechanics or allow for players to disable them.
Subnautica is an example of the latter. There’s already a lot to like here: A gorgeous, hand-crafted world that skillfully strides the balance between being alien and familiar, a cool sci-fi aesthetic for everything that isn’t natural, purposeful progression, fantastic atmosphere, swimming that feels great. The fact that I can play this game having only to worry about my breath and health is the cherry on top.
The Long Dark still has hunger and thirst, but I’m willing to overlook this just so that I can soak in the atmosphere of this frozen post-apocalypse. With relatively simple tech and straightforward mechanics, this game effortlessly manages to engross the player. I will admit though that when I found a nice deserted cabin at one point, I decided to end the game there, deciding that this was a suitable end point. I’ll definitely pick it up again in the future, but not during this time of the year.
NEO Scavenger: It’s kind of ironic that one of the most “hardcore” examples of this genre is also one of my favorites. Like with the other two, it’s the atmosphere and the world that drew me in, but it’s also that all of the intricate, unforgiving survival mechanics this game has, down to getting sick due to exposure, feel realistic and purposeful, instead of merely existing to tick a standard survival game checkbox. It’s hard, not unfair, it’s punishing and random without feeling uncontrollable.
Minecraft
Rule 1: don’t dig straight down.
Rule 2: the first night must always be hiding in a dirt hole.
I like to build a dirt structure with an open block window pointing to the sun so I know when it’s safe to come out. Assuming I can’t find sheep.
Making a tree house is nice too.
Valheim.
Great and fun combat, mod support, multiplayer, good building mechanics, doesn’t feel frustrating to play.
I can second that. Valheim has a very neat balance between exploring, fighting and building. If you don’t progress to quick, even your base is relatively safe. Although I now have turned off raids completely. So my base is always safe and if I want action, I can venture out into the world. I like that.
Raids are fun but the need of moats is kinda annoying. I’d rather have more difficult raids but without raids destroying my BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS GOD DAMMIT.
Hmm I wonder if there is a mod to make moat building easier. Or just nuke troll raids, that exists I’m sure.
Do you include walls in “moats”?
Not really. Walls get destroyed easily, you still need a moat to keep trolls away.
I’ve only ever used walls, honestly, just a palisade a decent distance off from anything I like, with places to arch from.
Earthen walls are also effective at keeping our trolls, though obviously then you have an earthen wall to stare at so it may not be what you want…
I should have mentioned this game. Definitely a great title and the building, while a bit clunky, is a lot of fun.
Valheim is the only survival crafting game that I play to relax. Just log in, listen to the music and the ambient sounds and just chill. Idk why, but the rain and weather effects really relax me
And don’t forget you can play the whole thing in VR with the VHVR mod! I’ve played 330+ hours over 3 runs with my friends in VR, beating the Queen while panicking into repeated freefalls into pit (thank you feather cloak) was an insane experience (Yag too TBF; out of our 3 person group everybody died at least once, and several times the lone survivor was stuck doing laps with hordes of Fulings and a few berserkers and shamans in the parade until the others sprinted back from their beds.) Blessings to corpse run lmao
Short YT Vid of Mod: https://youtube.com/shorts/LfY0vpmZSV4?si=gM2SogURHsryrVV3
Does Terraria count? If so, Terraria.
I have owned this game for ages, I think I bought it shortly after its release, but despite having a clear memory of playing it, it was so long ago that Steam doesn’t even tell me when I last launched it.
Perhaps I should give it another go.
You should! The beginning may be a bit slow, but before long you’ll be building sweet bases or exploring the underground or doing whatever you like, really. It also has a ridiculous amount of content with even more to come next year, apparently. Also, no hunger/thirst mechanics! Like yourself, I don’t like 'em. Terraria has HP and MP, that’s it.
I bought Terraria a few months ago while I was buying some other games on sale and it’s legit all I’ve been playing. I absolutely love this game for the depth of he crafting system and the cosmic horror themed bosses and setting. Really just the whole thing is so well crafted.
Really enjoy Don’t Starve, as much as I find the gameplay loop tedious.
I definitely second don’t start together as being the best way to play. I also heavily edit the settings so that it’s not as punishing as the default. It makes the game experience feel a little more open world and less full-time grind.
Don’t starve together is more fun to play with others. But yeah the base Don’t starve gets tedious and annoying, quickly.
I always have fun with Don’t Starve until the winter season/section comes along. Then unless I very closely follow a guide or customize the world heavily in my favor at the beginning of the game, I always end up dying.
Give Frostpunk a try. It’s a good mix of city builder and survival. Darkest Dungeon is also good, but more unforgiving.
I just started Frostpunk, and one of the first tutorial steps is to build a food place. So I built it, but it wasn’t on a road (apparently) so it’s unusable. I don’t know where the road is, and even if I did I don’t know how to build or extend it. And I can’t see a way to move or demolish it. Of course I can easily look all this up, but you know when a game immediately gets on your bad side? Yup, that.
Not a survival fan either but The Long Dark and Subnautica are both fantastic.
I know I’m late but I had that same issue with finding out how to demolish roads (I ended up looking it up). Ironically my most recent obsession with it, where I sunk 30 hours in a week, is also my 2nd time giving the game a chance.
I think my initial complaint was the controls for playing with a controller. Coming back to it with keyboard and mouse was great. If you have any questions let me know, sometimes you gotta set it down and come back to it.
Demolish roads is a small red button below the row of buildings. You should see the roads button that looks like a bunch of lines, and to the right of it should be the small red demolish roads button.
I have actually played Frostpunk and it’s one of my favorite games in recent years, if a bit too easy.
Frostpunk is made by my favorite game studio and I love the genre and all their other games, but I really did not enjoy it. Some reviews mention that the scenarios have such small margins that unless you do things in a specific way, it’s very unlikely you will beat them. I agree with that to a certain extent, but it feels like there’s something else to it too. It’s been years since I played, but the tech tree felt interesting but like it wasn’t properly enmeshed with the gameplay and struggles with an obvious winning strategy that limits your feasible options.
Project Zomboid! I love the building your base aspect and you can definitely turn a lot of things off if you don’t like them.
Prey
It has a good storyline. It’s not horror focused, and ennemies won’t suprise as much as in resident evil or doom. They’re mostly there to add difficulty or be part to the mission. Recycling makes the low amount of munitions/inventory tolerable.
Huh, I never saw the Prey reboot as a survival game. I thought it was more of an immersive sim, but then again, genre definitions can be quite fluid and a game can belong to multiple genres.
That may be stretching the definition of the survival genre a bit, but the game does have some survival characteristics.
Anyway that’s the closest thing to a survival game that I enjoyed playing.
Of the OWSC-type games that I’ve played, the one I’ve enjoyed most is Raft, and even then I get burnt out on it pretty quickly. I think it’s because, at least until you get your raft surrounded with metal plated platforms, there’s a very direct relationship between the materials you pick up and the amount of ‘base’ you can build, and so you’re pretty constantly engaged with collecting, refining, and using most of your supplies in a very straightforward and immediately gratifying manner.
The thing in these games that burns me out is, it seems to be a neverending parade of collecting materials and recipes to get better materials and recipes, to the point that you’re thumbing through like eight different pages or tabs of schematics looking for what you need to make, then digging through some arcane storage system to get the shit you need to make the shit you need. After a certain point, it feels like having a second job.
I dont like many survival games, but i enjoyed my time with dont starve and subnautica
I thought the forest was quite fun. Idk what it was about it. I want to try sons of the forest. Haven’t loved the others I tried though
I like how they call the peaceful mode without enemies “Vegan Mode”. That’s the kind of humor I can get behind.
Apart from Subnautica, which only is tedious regarding food/drink in the very beginning, I enjoyed Unreal World a lot. It is turn based, so there isn’t any real-time time constraint imposed by in-game hunger/thirst. It also tries to feel realistic in a lot of aspects, including the amount of food/water your character needs. While at game start you of course need to focus on immediate survival (though, that depends a bit on the scenario you play), that focus shifts rather quickly to preparing for the winter, as in stocking up supplies (think: smoking/curing meat/fish, gathering fire wood,…), and building a shelter that you can heat, so you don’t freeze when it gets cold outside. Since the game is set in fantasy iron age Finland, you probably also want to build a sauna 😉.
Only ever cared for the OG, Minecraft, because it was new and innovative. Mostly why I don’t really like the genre is that most of them are “me too” games that don’t do a lot more than the first game that spawned the genre to begin with. More of the same with different aesthetics or balance. But not really different enough that I can even decide which is better than another; they all get homogenized into a single bland blend where if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all situation.
Unless roguelikes such as Nethack could count as “survival” games. That would be a much bigger list.
The Long Dark for me. No zombies, kannibals or other horror elements. Just surviving nature, wild animals and the cold on a Canadian island. I play a new playthrough when it gets cold outside every winter. I might pick up the DLC this time.
Stranded Deep scratched an itch for me, the limited options available made it easier to focus on a podcast versus other games which have an overwhelming number of crafting items and quests.
Subnautica of course was a banger, but recently I’ve been insanely addicted to Icarus. The mission oriented gameplay makes the survival gameplay less tedious even though I’m doing similar stuff. You drop down, figure out what you need to complete the mission, set up and get the mission done, then get out. You have meta progression to make missions quicker to work through and you have a levelling system to further impact your strength. Just a super satisfying loop to me.
