Recommend/discuss survival games (aka Hi crpgnut!)

Hey, New Man's Sky is gritty! At least I think you can make grits - you can make just about everything else. ;)
 
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Wow, @crpgnut;, you really delivered :thumbsup:

crpgnut said:
Salt (54 hours)
I played a lot of this in its pre-Steam days; thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes I found it quite soothing just pottering around, sailing.
I stopped playing after the big reset they had that changed the map generation, making my own map obsolete. I think they added a heap of features afterward, so it deserves a revisit sometime.

crpgnut said:
SCUM 85 hours
This sounded rather intriguing, especially the metabolism stuff, so I got it. I was initially put off by the "Mixed" Steam rating, but all the bad reviews I read were due to the proliferation of hackers and such (that might be less of an issue now due to the adoption of EAC?). Given that I (at least initially) want to play it SP-only, those complaints didn't dissuade me.

I've played it a few hours and so far I think it's a keeper. The metabolism stuff is great. The zombies aren't OTT like in 7DTD, but it's easy to get in trouble if you're not careful.
I eventually found a .22 rifle and some matching ammo, so used it to hunt deer. Big mistake! The shots attracted around eight zombies and I had to hightail it to a house and dive in the window. From there I used up my ammo thinning the herd, and haven't found any for that gun since. :(
The deer kept me fed for a while, though.

The deadliest thing I've discovered is… a goat. Seriously. I was looting some zombies and something zoomed right through me and knocked me down. I had no idea what it was at the time.
A few minutes later I thought I had come across the corpse of a goat (I thought maybe zombies killed it), but when I got closer (free meat!) it got up and smashed right through me. It was then I realised that this is what had taken me out earlier.
Apparently I had internal injuries that a rag bandage wouldn't fix, so I ran around nearby houses, avoiding zombies, looking for some decent medical equipment, until I died on a kitchen floor. And I had just found a massive hiking backpack for all my loot, too, dang it. :D
 
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@Shagnak; SCUM has a rest mechanic that can sometimes help if bandages aren't enough. Eat a little something and then rest on a bed or couch or chair. Not sure if the bed offers better bonuses, but I generally try to find one. There are also pain relievers and other items in the medicine cabinets. Those can sometimes help with injuries, but not always. I think this part (healing) is still in early alpha.

I haven't played No Man's Sky, so I didn't review that one and I skipped several other games that I have played. You can always friend me on Steam and then look at my library if you're curious about a particular game. This still wouldn't catch the few that I play less than two hours and return.

If you want me to review something that I've played but haven't mentioned, just post about it. I'll followup. I probably have another 15-20 titles.
 
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Stranded Deep-very early impressions--Airplane survivor that jumps into a life raft and paddles to a tiny nearby island. This game is generated at the start, so no two worlds will be exactly the same. The first island always has enough to keep you alive for a few days. SD doesn't have any human enemies and your biggest challenge is avoiding sharks while moving between islands. There are things that will poison you as well, but you'll be able to mix up home remedies to heal.

This is another slow-paced relaxing survival games. Combat is almost always by choice, as it's pretty easy to avoid shark attacks if you're paying attention. Built a shelter, a fire, cook some crab, crack open some coconuts, etc.
 
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The Forest, yeah I've played it quite a bit. You and your son are on a plane and it crashes on an island full of cannibals. You wake from the crash to see a blurry figure dragging your child off the plane. You then pass out again and wake later. The game starts with you scavenging items from the plane and the luggage strewn nearby. From there you need a shelter from which to protect you from the elements/cannibals while you start your search. This game has some horror/suspense added to the typical survival memes. It's pretty fun but I eventually found the story was a little too contrived for me to finish the game. Still got my money's worth easily.
 
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7 Days to Die and The Long Dark would be my personal choices. This would give two very different types of games within the same genre. 7D2D can play a variety of different ways depending on your options. You can play a static map, random seeds, with zombies, without zombies but with aggressive creatures, etc. You can also pick which version of the game you like best. For instance I really enjoy version 15.2 more than some of the later versions of the game.

The Long Dark feels quite different in story mode than it does playing survival. The varying levels of difficulty make a massive difference in this game too. I can survive pretty easily in the first two modes and have no prayer in the third one.

What's weird about the survival genre is that almost nothing ever leaves Early Access. Most of these games have been out for years and still are being tweaked.

Up and Comers: Road to Eden and SCUM
 
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Honorable Mention: More crafter than survival though--Solace Crafting. I probably have a review of this somewhere on this site. Tons of crafting and it's all pretty fun to do. Constant updates and a pretty active discord channel; especially considering this is one dude and his fans.

My Steam review: Solace crafting is like many other survival/crafting games but I like the fact that you choose your pace in leveling up everything. If you want an easy-peasy game just stay within 5km of the beginning. The creatures will be low level and you can slowly rise up until they're too easy. Then move on at whatever pace suits you.

The game has several hundred crafting recipes and most are as simple as a couple clicks to complete. Combat is melee, ranged, and magical with the standard classes of fighter, scout, mage, priest. So far, there are no rogue skills or classes. Chests are locked till you kill a boss type that is close.

You actually have a choice of sexes in the game and a full color palette for almost any item. Want bright blue hair and to have all your storage containers color-coded? Go ahead. There are stoneworking, leather making, tailoring, smithing, mining, alchemy, enchanting and many other things to do as you level up. Many of things mix and match too.

For a game this early in the development stage there is a ton to do and a nice variety of places and biomes to visit. I can only expect this game to get better and better as the developer is very active and is willing to answer questions over on the discord site almost every day. He lives in Japan, so take that into consideration if you go looking for him :)
 
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No problem, just one nut's opinion after all. I'd suggest different games for different Watchers, naturally. Those who like tactics and party play would probably really like Judgment: Apocalypse. It doesn't work for me, but it's likely a decent game. Another good game for folks who like managing communities would be Survivalist. I played for 27 hours and I hate that crap! :D
 
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@Shagnak; SCUM has a rest mechanic that can sometimes help if bandages aren't enough. Eat a little something and then rest on a bed or couch or chair. Not sure if the bed offers better bonuses, but I generally try to find one. There are also pain relievers and other items in the medicine cabinets. Those can sometimes help with injuries, but not always. I think this part (healing) is still in early alpha.
Cool, thanks for the tips. :cool:

I've been trying to do some archery in SCUM (less zombie attracting), and failing terribly. Eventually I had a look at the archery explanation video on Steam - holy shit, that's some realistic modelling. No wonder with my zero skill and average strength I'm not doing too well at it.
 
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I typically take boxing and try to find MMA gloves and brass knuckles. Since I play SP, this is an easy way to kill the puppets(zeds). Bows are great for animals but I play near the Dam most of the time and they don't spawn much that way. I've mastered the paths that the robots take and I loot the Dam every day :)
 
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7 Days to Die and The Long Dark would be my personal choices.

I haven't played 7D2D since 2017. How far has it come since then? I remember it being pretty rough around the edges.

Never tried The Long Dark. I see it has very positive reviews, but I'm not a fan of that visual style (Cel-shaded or whatever it's called) and have a hard time getting immersed in games that use it.
 
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I haven't played 7D2D since 2017. How far has it come since then? I remember it being pretty rough around the edges.

Never tried The Long Dark. I see it has very positive reviews, but I'm not a fan of that visual style (Cel-shaded or whatever it's called) and have a hard time getting immersed in games that use it.

7D2D--Still rough around the edges and very unlikely to ever reach full release, imo. I liked it a ton though, mostly without the zombies. I looted and leveled skills like mad and loved roaming on the minibike.

TLD--I hate the art style too. What TLD does is it just gives an amazing vibe almost constantly. It does immersion like no other game ever. You feel like a dude who is in a frozen wilderness wondering if he will survive long enough to find his ex-wife and reach some type of reconciliation.

However, it too has made its developer millions and may not ever get fully released. I just find what's already out there to be significant enough to be worth the money. YMMV.
 
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However, it too has made its developer millions and may not ever get fully released. I just find what's already out there to be significant enough to be worth the money. YMMV.

Yeah, I read that only 2 of the promised 5 episodes have been released so far. What's the difference between survival mode and story mode? Is survival just the exact same areas without any narrative?
 
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Oops, thought I answered this. So story mode only uses a few of the regions that are available in survival mode. Survival mode can be super brutal if you pick an area that has zero or very few human structures. The two chapters of story mode are pretty fun but not something that you would really replay much. Survival mode is really decent though and has enough difficulty levels that most should find an acceptable challenge.
 
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