Photo by Alex Haney on Unsplash
Survival games are the best way to simulate most real-world situations whether it be resource management or surviving out in the middle of the woods. Here are three survival games you should check out!
1. Minecraft
If you have not heard of this game before, you might be living under a rock as this is by far the most popular PC video game globally. Minecraft is currently the second best-selling video game of all time, boasting more than 200 million in sales and a player base of around 500 million players.
Player punching wood in Minecraft – Picture by Jason Kok
Summary
Minecraft is a sandbox game that can be played in survival and creative mode.
Survival mode is all about progression, where you gather all resources from scratch and craft your way up from there to fend off against the dangers of the night such as zombies and skeletons. You can also build any structure of your liking and kill animals or harvest crops to fill up your health and hunger bar to survive.
Then there is Creative mode where you get access to unlimited resources. You have multiple superpowers that make you able to fly and be invincible to almost anything except The Void.
Pros
The game is very easy to pick up as the game mechanics are straightforward and simple to understand. You can spend long hours playing without worrying as there is no time limit in the game. If you have any questions about the game, you can always visit the threads and guides made by the community on platforms such as Reddit and Minecraft Wiki in order to find useful information about the game. The possibilities are endless as you can explore and build as many structures to your heart’s desire. Besides, you can customise your gaming experience by installing a few mods that can help expand the game’s features.
Cons
After playing for long periods of time, the game will usually become boring once you run out of things to do since there is not much left to explore after beating the Ender Dragon. While there are mods that can add new features and adventures to the game, they may not run smoothly on every computer and may lag or sometimes crash the game. Although the multiplayer mode features a lot of great servers such as Hypixel that let you play minigames and chat with other players, it is not really a controlled environment and players may fall victim to online bullying or scams.
Conclusion
Minecraft is a game that not only appeals to children but also players of all ages, because of its blocky cartoony graphics as well as its simplicity and the community around it. It is a well-developed game that lets its players create anything out of building blocks according to their imagination.
2. Raft
Many may not know what Raft is about or have never even heard of the game, and this is partly because the game has not been fully launched yet and is still in the early access phase. According to TheGamer, the game increased in popularity tremendously due to famous gaming YouTubers like Jacksepticeye and Corpse.
Screenshot of ChiKenR’s Base in Raft – Picture by Jason Kok
Summary
Raft is a survival game in which you find yourself on a small floating raft surrounded by the ocean. To survive, you not only have to supply yourself with food and water but also defend your raft from the shark that is trying to chew off the foundation. Soon enough, you will see yourself exploring different islands to find and gather resources to further improve and expand your vessel.
Pros
Considering it is an early access game, Raft provides an extremely great multiplayer experience that is perfect for playing in big groups. With more players, you are able to have bigger manpower to gather more materials in order to expand and construct your raft.
A unique aspect of this game is the limitation of freedom, as with other games like Minecraft, too much freedom can get quite boring after a while as you just keep exploring a world that never seems to end.
The game mostly focuses on the player’s skill to manage their raft, which is essentially their area to live on. It tests your ability to handle your resources while keeping the shark from chewing away at your foundations.
Lastly, it is the storyline that keeps it interesting, as it sort of simulates a real-world situation of what could happen if the water level keeps rising while you are stranded at sea, but with an added interesting and mysterious twist to it.
Cons
Starting fresh can be difficult as the game requires you to have a decent knowledge of the game in order to survive. As you continue to progress, you will find it more time-consuming to gather the necessary items as they are mostly spread around the island.
Another thing to note is how frequently the game gets updated. Since it is not developed by a giant studio, updates can take quite some time to release as the development team only consists of eight people.
Conclusion
The game offers great features and a story mode that makes the game more exciting to play. When progressing through the storyline, you feel completely immersed in the whole experience, which is what makes survival games so fun.
3. Fortnite: Save The World
Most people are familiar with the title Fortnite, as it is one of the most popular battle royale games in the world, but they might not know that it has another game mode which is PvE.
Overlooking Storm Shield Base – Picture by Jason Kok
Summary
Fortnite: Save The World is a co-op game where you and three other players fight against husks and complete different missions to meet the overall objective. It can be played solo but you are encouraged to play with more players as you will have a higher chance of surviving and getting the objective completed efficiently.
Pros
Just like its battle royale counterpart, you can also build in this version along with placing and using a wide variety of traps and guns to fend off husks when defending your base. As it is a co-op game, you can play with up to three of your friends to have fun and help each other progress.
Cons
First off, the storyline and missions can be seen as a bit too draggy in the sense that it is just a rinse and repeat process with not many changes to the core gameplay. There is a noticeable lack of regional servers that in turn causes high latency to players who are not in the specific regions, which can cause an unpleasant experience for players.
While players receive new content at the end of every week, this may only be useful for players who are constantly playing the game, but those who play the game inconsistently will have to read up on what the content is about.
Lastly, upgrading your arsenal will keep on getting harder throughout the game. The higher the level of your gun, the more rare resources you will need to craft it with. This can be tedious as it may take up to a day’s work to farm weapons and traps.
Conclusion
The game offers the player a lot in terms of freedom to explore and doing interesting missions that can lead to discovering the game’s lore. In terms of gameplay, it can be fun but playing with friends makes the experience more enjoyable.
It definitely tests you on multitasking and resource management as you have to defend your base by repairing and adding traps while also keeping tabs on the husks.
This basically wraps up everything you need to know about different survival games, so pick any of them that suits your preference and start playing! While we have only covered these few survival games, there are still many out there for you to explore too.
By Jason Kok