Survival Games

[Dark Drakan]

As most of you will be aware, I am currently in process of rejoining the PC gaming crowd (still keeping my consoles) and I am fascinated by the emergence of the survival game genre lately and im looking for suggestions of games to keep my eye on.

So far I am aware of games like DayZ, Rust, The Forest, Nether, State of Decay, Don't Starve, This War of Mine & games like No Mans Sky which center more closely on exploration. I was recommended The Long Dark after asking for suggestions on Twitter and I had never heard of it before but it sounds great.

PC Gamer have also posted their Guide to games of 2015 (some are currently available in early access) and here are their suggestions for Exploration and Survival games to keep an eye on. Games like (only handful from list):

• No Man’s Sky
• Adr1ft
• Salt
• H1Z1
• Solarix
• Project Zomboid
• The Long Dark
• The Forest
• DayZ
• Death in Candlewood
• Project Isolation
• 7 Days To Die
• AQP
• Don't Starve

So my question is... Are there any you know of that I should keep an eye on or any you already play in early access that you are enjoying? Preferably ones I can play with friends but dont mind single player suggestions too such as The Long Dark. ​

 

[Quistrix]

I do love a good survival game. Still very interested in State Of Decay after trying out the demo. That's a very extensive list there so I can't think of anything else to add at the moment.

It's a shame the Resident Evil games have veered away from survival horror to a more action-orientated series.

 

[queenofdisco]

I loved State of Decay on the 360 first time playing, but having replayed it, I've noticed it's just buggy and clunky as ****e.

Really great concept but falls flat for me personally. And that's where all these new zombie games have come from; H1Z1, Project Zomboid, DayZ etc.

I personally would love to make my own games, zombie survival first among them. Heres hoping someone does a right decent one soon.

 

[Quistrix]

State of Decay is definitely very buggy, but I think it's forgivable considering it isn't a AAA game. There's a lot of features in it that I hope other developers take inspiration from.

 

[queenofdisco]

Did you happen to hear about what they found when remastering it?
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/03/...idiculous-amount-of-penises-in-state-of-decay

UNDEAD LABS DISCOVERS A 'RIDICULOUS AMOUNT' OF PENISES IN STATE OF DECAY

The phalluses were hidden in the original edition of State of Decay.
BY JENNA PITCHER When Undead Labs began revamping its 2013 zombie-survival game with the upcoming State of Decay: Year One Edition, the developer found a surprise in the game’s higher 1080p resolution textures that was concealed in the lower resolution version.

Undead Labs outsourced the creation of some of the textures and assets to contractors to assist with the original game’s development. The indie developer only discovered recently with the enhanced resolution and texture quality that the hired artists had designed penises into the game’s textures.

“Some of our contractors worked a ridiculous amount of genitalia into the background,” Undead Labs senior designer Geoffrey Card told XBLA Fans during PAX East.

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition Pre-Order Bonuses Revealed - IGN News
01:09

The organs initially went unnoticed in the original release and got through testing because the game’s lower resolution textures kept them concealed. Undead began removing the phalluses from the game after the discovery and are no longer in any available versions of the game.

“Undead Labs was not aware of the textures in question until they began the process of exporting textures for State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition, and they are not visible in the original edition of State of Decay,” a Microsoft representative said in a statement issued to IGN. “Undead Labs is no longer working with the contractor in question, and this material will not be present in State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition.’”

Launching April 28 on Xbox One and PC, Year-One Survival Edition includes the core game, the Breakdown and Lifeline DLC, new missions, characters, features and enhancements. Pre-ordering the new edition from select US retailers will get you one of three in-game knives. Be sure to check out IGN's State of Decay review for our impressions on the open-world game.

 

[Firis]

Did you happen to hear about what they found when remastering it?
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/03/...idiculous-amount-of-penises-in-state-of-decay

Wonder if the designer of those special textures is going to get in any trouble.

To answer the initial question, I am not big in the gaming scene as I have a laptop made in 2005, doesn't run games that well surprisingly so I'm stuck with C&C and Diablo 2, not that im complaining. I have seen a large amount of good survival games popping up on my YouTube subscriptions though, I can say my best advice would be check out smaller Let's Players, they tend to play cheap little indie games that would be impossible to find otherwise, and many of them are surprisingly good, especially in the horror survival genre.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I loved State of Decay on the 360 first time playing, but having replayed it, I've noticed it's just buggy and clunky as ****e.

Really great concept but falls flat for me personally. And that's where all these new zombie games have come from; H1Z1, Project Zomboid, DayZ etc.

I personally would love to make my own games, zombie survival first among them. Heres hoping someone does a right decent one soon.

I think DayZ is getting closest to the type of survival game I would want, at the moment it isnt there as there are many concepts that aren't in the game yet, zombies are still broken and animations are still clunky and quite poor but overall the ideas they have look great. So the game itself still ends up more PvP as isnt much else for some players to do at the moment. However I think the whole play style of the game will change when zombies become a bigger threat and disease/hunger and the elements play a bigger role in survival. I have seen the development road-map of what they plan to incorporate and the features/fixes in the pipeline and im impressed. Just a shame that it will eventually run into a wall with the limitation of the engine its being built on (although they are slowly moving the game to a new in house engine).

H1Z1 showed promise as it does function better than DayZ at moment in some areas as its built from ground up rather than on top of another engine. However this whole paying for early access to alpha (although full release game is free), encouraged microtransactions and paying for the Battle Royale mode separately (which was just announced) just screams at me that its being used as a cash cow unfortunately.

Im excited to see that Undead Labs do with the multiplayer zombie game they are working on. With the lessons they have learned from State of Decay (as well as cash made) and the misfires that have happened throughout the development of DayZ and H1Z1 being avoided it could be something great.

 

[Quistrix]

I keep trying to convince Scott to play DayZ on my behalf but he's really put off by the fact that it's an MMO. I think he's a poop.

 

[Tsuyu]

No mention of Don't Starve?

Such a delightfully charming and terrifying game.

 

[Quistrix]

No mention of Don't Starve?

Such a delightfully charming and terrifying game.

I think Andy mentioned it in his initial post.

It's definitely up there in my list for sure.

 

[Dark Drakan]

DayZ Status Report Highlights 24/03/15

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I keep trying to convince Scott to play DayZ on my behalf but he's really put off by the fact that it's an MMO. I think he's a poop.

It's not like a traditional MMO though, just a huge map with others players inhabiting it. Not as if there are hundreds of other players on one server and you pass others all the time, heard you can go hours without even seeing another human player.

No mention of Don't Starve?

Such a delightfully charming and terrifying game.

I'm aware of it though have no experience with it myself but I had heard its meant to be good.

 

[Quistrix]

It's not like a traditional MMO though, just a huge map with others players inhabiting it. Not as if there are hundreds of other players on one server and you pass others all the time, heard you can go hours without even seeing another human player.

You can imagine that being the exact sort of thing that Scotty would hate. He's walking around, having a good time. Lead into false sense of security, thinking he's all alone... then BAM some naked guy runs past. Hilarious for us, traumatising for Scoots. He's that grumpy guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn, he really is.

 

[Dark Drakan]

You can imagine that being the exact sort of thing that Scotty would hate. He's walking around, having a good time. Lead into false sense of security, thinking he's all alone... then BAM some naked guy runs past. Hilarious for us, traumatising for Scoots. He's that grumpy guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn, he really is.

It's that tension of knowing you are not alone and knowing death means you could lose everything that intrigues me. Makes each encounter genuinely about survival and you not wanting to lose everything you have worked so hard to achieve. I can imagine at times it being incredibly frustrating as you get killed for no reason or (at the moment) glitches causing death or loss of character or equipment but its the fear of that loss that drives some players to doing anything to survive.

Daily I spend a lot of time reading through peoples experiences on the DayZ forums and watching streams and YouTube videos of peoples sessions that happened that night and some of the experiences are fascinating I have to say. If the final game can even hit 50% of what it is aiming to then it could break new ground in the industry. Love concept of death mattering and not simply respawning with all your gear and running around without consequence acting however you please with no fear of loss or death.

They are currently working hard on the Zombie AI and animations and are incorporating horde AI at the moment and upping the zombie count. Soon as they start to become a genuine threat (and not just because they are buggy) I can see the atmosphere of the game changing entirely as people have to group together to survive city encounters (where they have said there will be more zombies grouped together). At the moment there is more PVP because the zombies arent really a threat on their own and not much else to do once you get decent gear but that could change soon.

VERY EARLY PROTOTYPE OF THE AI TEST

 

[Quistrix]

Don't worry Andy, I'll make Scotty play it one way or the other. I live vicariously through him when it comes to PC games. :lol:

 

[Dark Drakan]

Don't worry Andy, I'll make Scotty play it one way or the other. I live vicariously through him when it comes to PC games. :lol:

My PC should be finished in the next few weeks so I will hopefully catch him for some games too. Need to sort myself a cheap headset too.

 

[Gikoku]

How did I go through this entire thread without a single mention of Dying Light? Come on man. Story and characters are forgettable, but nevermind that ****. GAMEPLAY! Wasn't a fan of Dead Island at all, but Dying Light is a heap of fun. The survival elements aren't the most hardcore out there, but it didn't take away from how addictive the gameplay can be. Take Far Cry 3, Mirror's Edge, a pinch of Fallout, and accidentally spill a bottle of L4D into the concoction and there you have Dying Light. Proper open world, climb anything, 90% of the buildings enterable, a neat little crafting system, and random zombie AI & encounters that help make for a non-linear experience. Don't even get me started on the night time gameplay (full of nopes).

Speaking of Fallout. I recommend revisiting Fallout 3 & NV on PC as there's plenty of hardcore survival overhauls available that can offer a wildly refreshing experience. Can also say the same for Skyrim actually.

 

[Quistrix]

Can also say the same for Skyrim actually.

And you were doing so well...

 

[Dark Drakan]

How did I go through this entire thread without a single mention of Dying Light? Come on man. Story and characters are forgettable, but nevermind that ****. GAMEPLAY! Wasn't a fan of Dead Island at all, but Dying Light is a heap of fun. The survival elements aren't the most hardcore out there, but it didn't take away from how addictive the gameplay can be. Take Far Cry 3, Mirror's Edge, a pinch of Fallout, and accidentally spill a bottle of L4D into the concoction and there you have Dying Light. Proper open world, climb anything, 90% of the buildings enterable, a neat little crafting system, and random zombie AI & encounters that help make for a non-linear experience. Don't even get me started on the night time gameplay (full of nopes).

Speaking of Fallout. I recommend revisiting Fallout 3 & NV on PC as there's plenty of hardcore survival overhauls available that can offer a wildly refreshing experience. Can also say the same for Skyrim actually.

I wouldnt class Dying Light as a survival game in the same sense of the other games. More like an action based FPS with some survival type elements incorporated into it.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Another early access survival game has just been announced and it's practically Jurassic Park meets DayZ. After the huge controversy and fail of The Stomping Land it seems another dinosaur survival MMO has stepped up to take its place. Known as Ark: Survival Evolved...

Coming to Steam early access in June 2015 & then Xbox One & PS4 release planned for early 2016.​

 

[Quistrix]

Looks pretty interesting. Thought it was rather funny every time a bow 'n' arrow was used against a friggen' T-REX but I'll let that slide. OMGDRAGON <3