Survival Games

[DoomMunky]

So this new video preview for The Forest looks so goddamn amazing that I'm stoked to try something similar. Are there any other good survival games out there?

 

Miasmata is awesome, with fevers and traversal being the main challenges, navigation and getting lost a huge part of it, and death literally waiting around some corners.

 

STALKER has always been great for the survival VIBE, but not so much on survival mechanics.

 

Fallout 3, the first 3 or 4 hours, at least, were amazing. Scrounging for bullets, trying desperately to survive, not having any resources...amazing.

 

What else?

 

Far Cry 2 has really a really good survival feeling, too, actually...

[TychoCelchuuu]

New Vegas with Josh Sawyer's mod (on Hardcore), Don't Starve, Gods Will Be Watching, System Shock + System Shock 2, NEO Scavenger, DayZ, Dwarf Fortress, and the upcoming Sir, You Are Being Hunted spring to mind.

[Drath]

Would I be terrible if I mentioned my own game? It's not as big as all the others mentioned (yet!) as it's still in early beta (and FREE!), but it's seen quite a few players and was featured on PCGamer.com and inside the print mag (does that mean anything anymore?).

 

Wayward

[youmeyou]

Minecraft (the first few hours you play it, at least) has a great survival based urgency to it. Goes away rather quickly once you move on to building redstone elevators in your mammoth fort.

[youmeyou]

Out of curiosity, DoomMonkey, why don't you feel Stalker has good survival mechanics? I quite enjoyed the series and feel very few games are their equal in terms of both mood and mechanics. Having to balance the need to eat with how much you can carry with how much radiation you're willing to be exposed to with whether you want to prioritize battle readiness versus environmental protection in your gear is a delicious blend of survival, first person action and post-apocalyptic thrill.

 

Also in terms of pure survival DayZ stands out above every other experience I've had, but playing it, you but up against the game's half-finished state so often that it's ultimately a very frustrating experience to engage with. Really looking forward to seeing what they do with the standalone version.

[Malice Song]

Fallout 3, the first 3 or 4 hours, at least, were amazing. Scrounging for bullets, trying desperately to survive, not having any resources...amazing.

 

What else?

 

At one point I'm going to sound like a broken record, since I am championing this all the time, but since you mentioned it:

If you want survival feeling and are willing to do some research, Fallout 3 with mods can seriously deliver. Hunger/thirst/sleep, injury systems including bleed out, broken bones, traumata and radiation poisoning, the need to cook meat on a campfire to avoid food poisoning, greatly reduced ammount of bullets and medicine lying around untouched, more realistic sneaking and combat, the beautiful shock when you hear the sound of ants and realize that you're actually scared ... basically whatever you want the wasteland to punish you with, there's some mod out there that provides it.

[Drath]

I've been recently putting together a Giant Bomb list of all the (Wilderness) Survival games I can find:

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/drath/lists/wilderness-survival-games/84771

 

I'm slowly adding all the games and information to the Giant Bomb wiki, but their approval system is very slow, so lots of stuff isn't done yet. Hopefully I can reach 1000 wiki points or whatever soon so I can make the updates easier.

[tegan]

There was that one DS game, Lost in Blue. Never played it, though.