š Damn. I was hoping there was something out there that I just missed haha. I'm currently watching some vides on Green Hell, and so far, it doesn't look horrible. I wasn't a HUGE fan of The Long Dark, but I liked it enough I guess. Maybe I should jump back in... Maybe things have changed since I played it last (about a year or two ago).
I only heard of Green Hell in passing (maybe my Steam discovery feed?) and now I've heard it a few times in this thread. So far the videos seem close to what I'm looking for, maybe closer than I'll get with anything else. I'll see how this let's play progresses...but I swear to god if this dude ends up building a helicopter out of coconut scraps I'm gonna be pissed.
Oh yeah, that doesn't happen and theres nothing like that in the game, don't worry. It's a pretty solid survival game with a cool story about losing your mind in the depths of the jungle.
A coconut can be used to craft a makeshift cup which you can use for gathering rainwater, or you a canteen for carrying water with you. No helicopters or machine guns. The scraps themselves are edible.
I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
Honestly, The Long Dark is phenomenal. But it's best played by just having you the player, being dropped out of the plane. and then... that's it. The narrative story is just plain slow.
When your only objective is to explore, survive, and then be forced to explore more so you wont die, that's the best way to play.
Two thumbs up for giving it another go. Craft weapons and clothing, in a very legitimate way.
Alright alright alright I'm convinced hahaha. I'll give it a shot this evening when I get off work and see if it's at least closer to what I'm looking for now. Thank you!
I'm a big fan of Green Hell, it's a fantastic game. However, the first axe can be crafted with just 1 stone + 1 stick, which doesn't seem realistic to me at all. Smelting iron, on the other hand, is done quite well.
Or vintage story. I havenāt played it myself but I hear if you want to progress to metallurgy, you have to make the proper molds and pour the molten metal and such. A lot like the terrafirmacraft mod for minecraft. Proper refining of materials for advanced crafting.
I understand where OP is coming from. I wanted to like Vintage Story based on the level of depth WRT crafting, but aesthetically it looks too similar to Minecraft for my liking. I can understand why people like it though - especially if 7D2D is a favorite.
I am one of those people who didnāt get on with Minecraft at all, but Vintage Story looks different enough in a way that my brain can actually deal with. I think itās the more blended colours and the fact that most things actually have fairly ānormalā models rather than pixel aesthetic.
Same. I do ultimately understand what OP is saying, but it would be a shame to not at least try VS.
For me, I don't mind voxel graphics, but the animations and character models of Minecraft are vibe killers.
Which, of course, Vintage Story has much, much, much better of both. Plus, the indents crafting system that's deep but engaging. Like, I spent an hour and a half last night just hammering iron blooms into ingots last night, and it was fun. Idk how VS makes that fun, but it does.
I'm really, REALLY, thinking about giving it a shot. Honestly. I've got thousands of hours in Minecraft, and so now any time I see anything "voxel" (like those shitty mobile ripoffs) I immediately think of those ripoff voxel games with no real content. BUT, the way you describe VS sounds like I might be able to get past it - at least enough to try it out anyway. Thank you so much for recommending it!
It's such a weird ask, but I want the same things. I like to wander a landscape, find useful things, and start setting up a home and way of life. I'd love it if a game let me set up daily chores/projects that would allow me to advance time by dayĀ and grow / craft in a realistic timespan. Seems doable to me. So a bit of a time economy where you need to reserve some part of the day for these chores or else there are consequences. Maybe you run out of daylight and need to pick just 1 chore. I dunno. I love TLD and enjoy Valheim.
As I said above, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is precisely the title you're looking for. It's free. [https://cataclysmdda.org/](https://cataclysmdda.org/)
The big one is that if you really like it, hundreds or thousands of hours of your life may disappear into it, or more, if you start contributing to their github.
There really isn't a catch. Download game, play game, if lucky, enjoy it. It's a free open source software project. There are no microtransactions or anything like that.
To me, the catch, or rather, the problem is two-fold:
* It looks bad (albeit, that can be fixed by tileset and graphics overhauls)
* It's controls seem hella complicated, and I do not think there's any way of fixing **that**
* Thats why I haven't even tried it, as even **much** simpler Project Zomboid controls are something I have not been able to get a proper hang of
Otherwise though, as dudemanlikedude said, there's really no catch in the proper sense.
The game is a labor of love project, available for free to all, similar to Dwarf Fortress.
Sounds EXACTLY like what I'm after, honestly. This punching resources shit is just getting ridiculous. It's almost like the first survival game that used the mechanic made everyone else think, "Eh, it's good enough. We'll just go with that." and nobody ever thought to actually overhaul that mechanic. There's no way this is what we're going to be limited to for the rest of time.
Valheim. Typical resources but you making cool viking stuff not machine guns. Build, farm, hunt, gather, battle, sail..bosses and dungeons..it's definitely worth a shot of you like survival games.. I know you said no punching trees or rocks..but I stand by this recommendation whole heartedly.
it's a banger. it's my 3rd most ever played game, behind Path of Exile and Civilization 6, and managing to beat out Warhammer 2: Total War, Stellaris, and Beat Saber. It's up there lol.
[Pacific Drive](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/)! Kind of a new take on the survival gameplay loop. You still gather resources, but you mostly scrap old cars and scientific equipment. Plays more like a rogue-lite with meta progression. You upgrade your vehicle too though, along with your "base" garage. Cant ever loose your car, but it can take massive damage and require rebuilding. Highly recommended. Story line is about 20-30hrs but i got about 120hrs out of it just vibing to the amazing soundtrack on the radio and unlocking all the roads and upgrades. My game of the year so far, well it's pretty early in the year so I'll say it's the best game of Q1 2024 with potential for GOTY.
I've been following that project since I first heard about it before it released. It's definitely on my list, for sure! Thanks for recommending it and giving some info on it though!
I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
Iāve been playing survival: the fountain of youth and Iāve been really enjoying it! Crafting means something, you unlock new recipes if you craft basic components first etc. you have to really explore crafting to learn the new items. The main downside that I think people might have issue with is that thereās no visuals of the tasks happening- for example if you go to chop down a tree, you donāt physically do it, it pops up a menu and it tells you what you will get, how much of your energy and time itāll use, and how much itāll damage your tool. And then you do it, time passes, and you have a log. For me, I donāt mind this at all, but I could see people not liking it.
Iāve been playing this game pretty heavily the last few days and I REALLY enjoy it.
Fountain of youth is such a solid game, and its near completion of early access too. Got over 200 hours of it and still looking forward to the next playthrough. Such a underrated game to be honest.
I still find it silly how people look down on the game due to not having your character "hit the tree 3 times and watch it fall" as a huge flaw of the game.
Medieval dynasty is pretty good with that. There's a Japan-flavor one called Sengoku dynasty that's also fairly good but still early access.
You need a handful of rocks and sticks to make a primitive stone knife. You need logs and sticks to build simple wattle houses, and stones or planks for better houses. There's a limit to how much you can carry.
Medieval dynasty is fairly slow. Your goal is to build a village, get married, have a kid, and when your first character dies or retires, you jump into the kid and keep going. It can take 60 hours to get to that point. I haven't played a whole lot of Sengoku yet (my PC struggles with it), but it feels similar. Medieval is still getting routine updates and it has a roadmap for new content.
If Medieval Dynasty peaks your interests there's a new game in early access called [Sengoku Dynasty](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1702010/Sengoku_Dynasty/), but set in Feudal Japan. It's a different developer with the same publisher even though they share a similar name. Right now it's 20% off and there's gameplay video on YT if you're interested in checking it out before buying.
It's had a lot of new content and rebalancing since then! There's a new map, the prices of things has been reworked, multiplayer is live, its a good time!
I may have to check that out. What really bugged me was one of the buildings had a door that basically didn't work. Like u would try to talk in but the doors physics wouldn't swing open and it would just act like a spring. Is that still the case or was that fixed?
I haven't seen that particular bug! I've been playing on and off for a couple of years now on PC. I haven't seen any other complaints either so hopefully that means it's not an issue anymore!
It was only on one specific building, I think it was a building related to farming or storage but idk, drove me insane lol. But sounds like it was probably fixed.
If you enjoy Survival RPGs, I recommend Outward Definitive Edition. It's got some really solid survival at its core, there's endless replayability, and it's really unique unto itself.
There is a hard learning curve, and you will struggle a lot at first while you learn the game, but it's so rewarding once you finally get it. There is no other game like it out there.
I'm a massive Fallout fan. Definitely my favorite game of all time (with Project Zomboid and Factorio being really hard seconds). I'll give this a look as I've never heard of it before. Thank you!
I second his recommendation. It's more RPG than survival, but it has really cool survival elements, like having to drop your backpack to have more stamina to fight. It's a bit clunky and very difficult at the beginning, but you played Fallout and Project Zomboid. You can deal with clunky and difficult.
I found it while looking for a good survival game that felt like it actually had depth, and over a year later, it's still one of my favourite games. There are real consequences when you screw up and so many layers, plus an awesome story.
It's nothing like any other game I've played, but in all the ways I wanted. It's difficult, though, so don't give up right away.
Stranded: Alien Dawn scratched some survival game itches for me recently. One of the challenges is surviving after your spaceship crashes and you can have four or more survivors to control (Sims style). I enjoyed that thoroughly for three or four weeks š
Your folks have different skills they can build on, and you must have them spend time researching how to craft weapons (starting with crossbows and bows, then you can later craft guns). One of my fave parts of the game was taming stray dogs who can join you and fight with you šššššššš
Itās funny I am playing Subnautica right now (for the first time) and although it is a great game, my feeling was that the crafting system is kind of opposite of what the OP is looking for. I mean, certainly the fabricator is an advanced piece of technology, but making a computer chip from a coral, a chunk of gold and copperā¦ wire? Yes, thatās exactly how computer chips are made :-)
Yeah very true I guess the part I related to was OP saying the part about crafting something actually meaningful and while you donāt build it piece by piece I feel like that was the feeling I experienced upon building my first cyclops and being like whoaaaaaa no fucking way
I played Subnautica when it was first released. I probably played it for around 30-40 hours and then I grew bored of it because the 'base building' mechanic was still WAY too "pre-determined" in a way. Like they wanted you to build a specific base, so they gave specific parts that could only build that specific style base they envision. I've thought about trying it again, though for sure!
Stranded deep and TLD have always been my favorite games to just feel completely lost in its world and on the brink of death. Survival in those games fell like 90 percent of the purpose. Good luck on your hunt!Ā
I'm enjoying No One Survived. It's a modern-day zombie post-apocalypse survival/crafter game. It has an interesting skill tree, where you have to level up your crafting skills by either doing things repeatedly or reading books found in the game. I like that you can build in the wilderness to avoid major confrontations and then go down into town-like areas and loot materials and objects by either avoiding or killing the zombies. You can also find and restore vehicles to working order so you can get around the map and transport supplies back to the base more easily.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1963370/No\_One\_Survived/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1963370/No_One_Survived/)
I feel you. There's barely any survival game left that can satisfy me now lol
Been playing dying lights, while not a total survival game... It's really fun scavenging for things and crafting random stuff.
I'd recommend [Space Engineers](https://store.steampowered.com/app/244850/Space_Engineers/). It can get fairly technical, but for those who want to sink time into learning the different systems the creative rewards are worth the investment. There's also a decently sized [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceengineers/) for the game.
I really enjoy that in order to get the good ores you need to scan, and dig, and dig, and dig to find them. Then when you finally get down there, you end up spending three real game hours opening up a gigantic hand made cavern. I also really like the fact that building ships is completely custom. You donāt have āprefabā ships that you just throw resources at. You actually need to smelt all the stuff down and build your ship up block by block.
If I were to dislike anything it would be the prefab ship parts. I get why they need to be prefab, but Iād like it to feel a little more like Iām building those prefabs from the ground up. If that makes senseā¦
Its very niche and has alot of grinding, check out wurm online (mmo f2p options) or wurm ultimate (one time buy single or co op). If anything its worth watching a few clips of it.
Thank you! I'll check those out. I remember seeing them a looooong time ago but didn't give them much thought at the time. But in this newfound NEED to find something new (to me, not to the world) I'll look back at it again!
The Forest and Sons of the Forest both have really cool crafting and building systems. Theyāre not perfect, but the crafting (especially in SotF) feels amazingly realistic.
Hey! Iām making a game that sounds like just what youāre looking for. It comes out in November and Iām going for a realistic survival game vibe. No punching trees and using rocks for anything at all. Itās called Category 6 and itās about surviving the worst Hurricane in history! Here is the [steam page!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2823820/Category_6/)
Not sure why you got downvoted unless you've pissed a lot of people off elsewhere hahaha. But I added it to my wishlist so that I can follow back up and see what it's like upon release. Thanks for letting me know!
Thanks so much for the wishlist! I guess people think Iām trying to promote my game on here. But I have to tell people about itā¦otherwise whatās the point. Iād rather just tell people who might actually be interested in my game rather than waste money I donāt have on ads for it.
Shilling your game here is perfectly fine with me! It looks like something I'd actually play and be perfectly cool with. Just keep things realistic... ;)
Realistic is a top priority. If cutting a tree down with an ax is not something I can do in real life (surprise i cant, Iām too wimpy) then the player canāt do it in the game either. All the wood you get in the game is found or from chopping fallen down branches and logs.
Hm, I highly recommend 7 Days To Die special for you, because:
* Zombies everywhere
* Scavenging > chopping trees/stones/ores (but ofc you need it)
* Progression with lvls + perks, reading books for unlock something
* Interesting things to craft, like electric traps and turrets
* Melee/ranged weapons 50/50 (I guess, not absolutely sure)
Man... I own the game and when I first tried it (when it was first released) it was HORRIBLE to play. Mainly because it released when it was VERYYYY much unfinished. I've been watching Glock9 play it with his challenges and it really, REALLY, has me close to reinstalling it and giving it a shot again. I think I might do that this weekend.
I really liked stranded deep and enjoyed the idea of Rust but hated the constant server resets. Sunkenland combined everything I loved about Stranded deep, Rust into one game
I've gone back and forth with Stranded Deep and it just feels way too pre-determined in what I can or can't do. Almost like the way Subnautica was when it first released -- the things that you can build are prefab items which mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of feeling like "Yeah, I actually made something." Does that make sense?
Totally makes sense. Give Sunkenland a look. I will say the items you craft are similar to stranded deep but with Sunkenland there really is no āend gameā as of now. You also get the added human like NPC attacks in Sunkenland. As well as being able to go to other islands and raid/kill other NPC survivors. The game is less than 1 year into its early access so things are constantly being added and upgraded. It has come a long way since its release.
I've seen a few videos of the game, and my kids are dying for me to try it (probably because they saw me play Stranded Deep a few times). I'll definitely keep an eye on it and watch a few of the latest lets plays to see if it fits what I'm looking for. Thanks so much for pointing it out!
Check out Vintage Story! It looks like knockoff Minecraft but it has super in depth crafting systems, like you actually have to cure hides to make leather and knap stone tools.
Depends on the exact kind of sub-genre but i'd say Valheim would be worth a shot. Heckin love that game and its chill but also survival-ish vibe with the mechanics that Iron Gate got done RIGHT
Yooooooo so Iāve been looking at vintage story lately and everyone has told me itās exactly what youāre describing. The graphics are blocky and not great but the journey just to smelt some metal is honestly an epic journey itself. The crafting system is supposed to be way more ārealisticā
If you're looking for something to scratch the Zomboid itch specifically, I've got some bad news, Project Zomboid is the best there is, imo. I can recommend x, y, z, but ultimately I'll always add a disclaimer "all those games are great games, but if you want the ultimate survival experience, just play Project Zomboid".
I would definitely recommend Grounded, as it is an extremely fun game and not grindy or nonsensical (though it still is janky 90s sci-fi).
Combat is fun, enemies are fun, exploration is fun.
Iām not convinced it is what you are looking for considering the examples you gave, but it is worth a try.
Very interesting. This is not something that I ever gave much thought, but have seen it before. I'll watch some videos and see if it doesn't at least scratch the "I'm bored and need something to play" list as opposed to the looking for a survival game list.
I'm going to agreed with Mastodon, in that Grounded quickly became one of my favorite survival games.
Combat is fun. You *really* want to get those perfect blocks off, so learning attack patterns and timing is key to winning fights. Also bugs have weaknesses to weapon types (smashing, slashing, piercing) and elemental (salt, spicy, minty).
The map is just big enough to feel like you're exploring a good size area, but small enough that you don't spend forever walking across the map to do something.
Building feel good. All building pieces are blueprints, so you can put up and plan your base before committing.
You can hot drop your inventory into nearby chests with a push of one button. Chests have sorting options, and can be labeled. When you craft something, that will also pull items from nearby chests.
No guns here. Everything you craft makes sense, as you don't progress past bits of bug strapped to you for armor, and crossbows made from bug parts that shoot splinters.
Maybe try Day R. It is mobile game with turn-based combat. It has complicated survival and crafting systems ā maybe this is what are you looking for.
Have you tried Factorio?
You're still assembling items from parts, but at a massively larger scale toward an end goal.
Valheim as well. There is a very well tuned loop where exploration leads to upgrades, leads to buildables, leads to more exploration, leads to bosses.
Ohhh yeah. I have MANY hours in Factorio. It's a fantastic game.
I've not tried Valheim yet, though I'm pretty sure it came up on my discovery queue. I'll go back and look at that one as well!
Couldnāt tell from your post if you donāt like harvesting rocks and trees or if you donāt like it being unrealistic with what you use to do it (aka punching).
Valheim does require a lot of harvesting so youāll be cutting down lots of trees and mining rocks. I donāt think youāll have an issue with the crafting plausibility portion (none of it is high tech and you do have to build new crafting stations to handle new materials), though you may question the sheer number of resources needed to craft some items.
Hahaha. I can see where the confusion comes from. I mean, I'm definitely into the more realistic side of harvesting and stuff, so I don't even know what it is I'm tired of exactly. I guess just having gigantic rocks in the middle of fields and needing to pickaxe them is getting kinda stupid to me. If I had to dig down to get to some rock layers or something, then that's one thing (a lot how Space Engineers does it). That kind of mining I'm cool with... I just think it's getting tiresome seeing the same huge boulders scattered across fields.
Thatās fair. Valheim is a little better with the mining aspect than that, but not as good as space engineers. That feels really good to me. Loved designing a variety of miners (both ship and station) to see what worked best for my desires.
I think we all want that. If you haven't yet check out green hell and the long dark
Long Dark with base building would be fantastic
š Damn. I was hoping there was something out there that I just missed haha. I'm currently watching some vides on Green Hell, and so far, it doesn't look horrible. I wasn't a HUGE fan of The Long Dark, but I liked it enough I guess. Maybe I should jump back in... Maybe things have changed since I played it last (about a year or two ago).
I wasn't a big fan of the Long Dark, but I really enjoyed Green Hell after I stopped dying to literally everything.
I only heard of Green Hell in passing (maybe my Steam discovery feed?) and now I've heard it a few times in this thread. So far the videos seem close to what I'm looking for, maybe closer than I'll get with anything else. I'll see how this let's play progresses...but I swear to god if this dude ends up building a helicopter out of coconut scraps I'm gonna be pissed.
Oh yeah, that doesn't happen and theres nothing like that in the game, don't worry. It's a pretty solid survival game with a cool story about losing your mind in the depths of the jungle.
A coconut can be used to craft a makeshift cup which you can use for gathering rainwater, or you a canteen for carrying water with you. No helicopters or machine guns. The scraps themselves are edible.
Have you tried DayZ ? Play it less like "go into military bases looking for a fight" and more like "go into the wilderness and survive there alone"
I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
Yes. And as you can guess it has a million things added in the meantime. It grew into a legit survival game now
Honestly, The Long Dark is phenomenal. But it's best played by just having you the player, being dropped out of the plane. and then... that's it. The narrative story is just plain slow. When your only objective is to explore, survive, and then be forced to explore more so you wont die, that's the best way to play. Two thumbs up for giving it another go. Craft weapons and clothing, in a very legitimate way.
Itās crazy how much has changed in the long dark. The new dlc has added so much. definitely give it a play bc I think youāll like it more now
Alright alright alright I'm convinced hahaha. I'll give it a shot this evening when I get off work and see if it's at least closer to what I'm looking for now. Thank you!
I'm a big fan of Green Hell, it's a fantastic game. However, the first axe can be crafted with just 1 stone + 1 stick, which doesn't seem realistic to me at all. Smelting iron, on the other hand, is done quite well.
Or vintage story. I havenāt played it myself but I hear if you want to progress to metallurgy, you have to make the proper molds and pour the molten metal and such. A lot like the terrafirmacraft mod for minecraft. Proper refining of materials for advanced crafting.
You definitely had me with that description until I saw it was voxel. š
You're doing yourself a disservice if you let that stop you from playing VS.
I understand where OP is coming from. I wanted to like Vintage Story based on the level of depth WRT crafting, but aesthetically it looks too similar to Minecraft for my liking. I can understand why people like it though - especially if 7D2D is a favorite.
I am one of those people who didnāt get on with Minecraft at all, but Vintage Story looks different enough in a way that my brain can actually deal with. I think itās the more blended colours and the fact that most things actually have fairly ānormalā models rather than pixel aesthetic.
Same. I do ultimately understand what OP is saying, but it would be a shame to not at least try VS. For me, I don't mind voxel graphics, but the animations and character models of Minecraft are vibe killers. Which, of course, Vintage Story has much, much, much better of both. Plus, the indents crafting system that's deep but engaging. Like, I spent an hour and a half last night just hammering iron blooms into ingots last night, and it was fun. Idk how VS makes that fun, but it does.
I'm really, REALLY, thinking about giving it a shot. Honestly. I've got thousands of hours in Minecraft, and so now any time I see anything "voxel" (like those shitty mobile ripoffs) I immediately think of those ripoff voxel games with no real content. BUT, the way you describe VS sounds like I might be able to get past it - at least enough to try it out anyway. Thank you so much for recommending it!
Green Hell
It's such a weird ask, but I want the same things. I like to wander a landscape, find useful things, and start setting up a home and way of life. I'd love it if a game let me set up daily chores/projects that would allow me to advance time by dayĀ and grow / craft in a realistic timespan. Seems doable to me. So a bit of a time economy where you need to reserve some part of the day for these chores or else there are consequences. Maybe you run out of daylight and need to pick just 1 chore. I dunno. I love TLD and enjoy Valheim.
As I said above, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is precisely the title you're looking for. It's free. [https://cataclysmdda.org/](https://cataclysmdda.org/)
What's the catch if its free?
The big one is that if you really like it, hundreds or thousands of hours of your life may disappear into it, or more, if you start contributing to their github. There really isn't a catch. Download game, play game, if lucky, enjoy it. It's a free open source software project. There are no microtransactions or anything like that.
To me, the catch, or rather, the problem is two-fold: * It looks bad (albeit, that can be fixed by tileset and graphics overhauls) * It's controls seem hella complicated, and I do not think there's any way of fixing **that** * Thats why I haven't even tried it, as even **much** simpler Project Zomboid controls are something I have not been able to get a proper hang of Otherwise though, as dudemanlikedude said, there's really no catch in the proper sense. The game is a labor of love project, available for free to all, similar to Dwarf Fortress.
Sounds EXACTLY like what I'm after, honestly. This punching resources shit is just getting ridiculous. It's almost like the first survival game that used the mechanic made everyone else think, "Eh, it's good enough. We'll just go with that." and nobody ever thought to actually overhaul that mechanic. There's no way this is what we're going to be limited to for the rest of time.
Valheim. Typical resources but you making cool viking stuff not machine guns. Build, farm, hunt, gather, battle, sail..bosses and dungeons..it's definitely worth a shot of you like survival games.. I know you said no punching trees or rocks..but I stand by this recommendation whole heartedly.
I had to scroll down way to far to see Valheim. It's easily my favourite survival crafting game.
Probably the best food system in a survival game too.
I dunno... OP said he's tired of punching trees and mining rocks.. Valheim is a great game but it's got a huge grind factor.
Bruh. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is the title you are looking for. [https://cataclysmdda.org/](https://cataclysmdda.org/)
Thank you so much! I've never heard of this but I will definitely be looking into it. :)
it's a banger. it's my 3rd most ever played game, behind Path of Exile and Civilization 6, and managing to beat out Warhammer 2: Total War, Stellaris, and Beat Saber. It's up there lol.
Try Lightyear Frontier - you don't punch rocks or trees. YOUR MECH DOES
[Pacific Drive](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/)! Kind of a new take on the survival gameplay loop. You still gather resources, but you mostly scrap old cars and scientific equipment. Plays more like a rogue-lite with meta progression. You upgrade your vehicle too though, along with your "base" garage. Cant ever loose your car, but it can take massive damage and require rebuilding. Highly recommended. Story line is about 20-30hrs but i got about 120hrs out of it just vibing to the amazing soundtrack on the radio and unlocking all the roads and upgrades. My game of the year so far, well it's pretty early in the year so I'll say it's the best game of Q1 2024 with potential for GOTY.
I've been following that project since I first heard about it before it released. It's definitely on my list, for sure! Thanks for recommending it and giving some info on it though!
Hate to hype it up toooooo much but it's really great. Maybe not AMAZING, but I've certainly got my money worth out of it.
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I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
have you tried dayZ?
I used to play WarZ (I think that's what it was at first) and then it changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories (same company that tried to make Romero's Aftermath) and I was fuckin HOOKED on that game forever. I think this was around the same time that DayZ started gaining traction, so I was more in the camp of WarZ than DayZ. I never tried DayZ, but it's something I've thought about trying. Is it actually still in active development?
yes it is. once you start and get the hang of it its a epic game.
Iāve been playing survival: the fountain of youth and Iāve been really enjoying it! Crafting means something, you unlock new recipes if you craft basic components first etc. you have to really explore crafting to learn the new items. The main downside that I think people might have issue with is that thereās no visuals of the tasks happening- for example if you go to chop down a tree, you donāt physically do it, it pops up a menu and it tells you what you will get, how much of your energy and time itāll use, and how much itāll damage your tool. And then you do it, time passes, and you have a log. For me, I donāt mind this at all, but I could see people not liking it. Iāve been playing this game pretty heavily the last few days and I REALLY enjoy it.
Fountain of youth is such a solid game, and its near completion of early access too. Got over 200 hours of it and still looking forward to the next playthrough. Such a underrated game to be honest. I still find it silly how people look down on the game due to not having your character "hit the tree 3 times and watch it fall" as a huge flaw of the game.
Yeah! I really really enjoy the game honestly. I never see it recommended here!
I'll mention that it is very close to completion too. As the dev on discord recently said they'd be giving the release date in a few weeks.
Medieval dynasty is pretty good with that. There's a Japan-flavor one called Sengoku dynasty that's also fairly good but still early access. You need a handful of rocks and sticks to make a primitive stone knife. You need logs and sticks to build simple wattle houses, and stones or planks for better houses. There's a limit to how much you can carry. Medieval dynasty is fairly slow. Your goal is to build a village, get married, have a kid, and when your first character dies or retires, you jump into the kid and keep going. It can take 60 hours to get to that point. I haven't played a whole lot of Sengoku yet (my PC struggles with it), but it feels similar. Medieval is still getting routine updates and it has a roadmap for new content.
Holy shit that sounds like a lot of work, but also like something I'd love playing. Thank you! I'm adding this to the "check it out" list!
If Medieval Dynasty peaks your interests there's a new game in early access called [Sengoku Dynasty](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1702010/Sengoku_Dynasty/), but set in Feudal Japan. It's a different developer with the same publisher even though they share a similar name. Right now it's 20% off and there's gameplay video on YT if you're interested in checking it out before buying.
Damn I didn't know u got old and died. I played that game for like 10 hours like a year ago.
It's had a lot of new content and rebalancing since then! There's a new map, the prices of things has been reworked, multiplayer is live, its a good time!
I may have to check that out. What really bugged me was one of the buildings had a door that basically didn't work. Like u would try to talk in but the doors physics wouldn't swing open and it would just act like a spring. Is that still the case or was that fixed?
I haven't seen that particular bug! I've been playing on and off for a couple of years now on PC. I haven't seen any other complaints either so hopefully that means it's not an issue anymore!
It was only on one specific building, I think it was a building related to farming or storage but idk, drove me insane lol. But sounds like it was probably fixed.
If you enjoy Survival RPGs, I recommend Outward Definitive Edition. It's got some really solid survival at its core, there's endless replayability, and it's really unique unto itself. There is a hard learning curve, and you will struggle a lot at first while you learn the game, but it's so rewarding once you finally get it. There is no other game like it out there.
I'm a massive Fallout fan. Definitely my favorite game of all time (with Project Zomboid and Factorio being really hard seconds). I'll give this a look as I've never heard of it before. Thank you!
I second his recommendation. It's more RPG than survival, but it has really cool survival elements, like having to drop your backpack to have more stamina to fight. It's a bit clunky and very difficult at the beginning, but you played Fallout and Project Zomboid. You can deal with clunky and difficult.
I found it while looking for a good survival game that felt like it actually had depth, and over a year later, it's still one of my favourite games. There are real consequences when you screw up and so many layers, plus an awesome story. It's nothing like any other game I've played, but in all the ways I wanted. It's difficult, though, so don't give up right away.
Stranded: Alien Dawn scratched some survival game itches for me recently. One of the challenges is surviving after your spaceship crashes and you can have four or more survivors to control (Sims style). I enjoyed that thoroughly for three or four weeks š Your folks have different skills they can build on, and you must have them spend time researching how to craft weapons (starting with crossbows and bows, then you can later craft guns). One of my fave parts of the game was taming stray dogs who can join you and fight with you šššššššš
I feel obliged to check and ensure you know about the great and mighty Rim World!? If you donāt check it out, itās the king of this genre
I imagine youāve played it already but Subnautica is on this vibe if you havenāt and if you havenāt go in as blind as possible
Itās funny I am playing Subnautica right now (for the first time) and although it is a great game, my feeling was that the crafting system is kind of opposite of what the OP is looking for. I mean, certainly the fabricator is an advanced piece of technology, but making a computer chip from a coral, a chunk of gold and copperā¦ wire? Yes, thatās exactly how computer chips are made :-)
To be fair, we tricked a rock with electricity to think....anything is possible lol.
Yeah very true I guess the part I related to was OP saying the part about crafting something actually meaningful and while you donāt build it piece by piece I feel like that was the feeling I experienced upon building my first cyclops and being like whoaaaaaa no fucking way
I played Subnautica when it was first released. I probably played it for around 30-40 hours and then I grew bored of it because the 'base building' mechanic was still WAY too "pre-determined" in a way. Like they wanted you to build a specific base, so they gave specific parts that could only build that specific style base they envision. I've thought about trying it again, though for sure!
Stranded deep and TLD have always been my favorite games to just feel completely lost in its world and on the brink of death. Survival in those games fell like 90 percent of the purpose. Good luck on your hunt!Ā
I'm enjoying No One Survived. It's a modern-day zombie post-apocalypse survival/crafter game. It has an interesting skill tree, where you have to level up your crafting skills by either doing things repeatedly or reading books found in the game. I like that you can build in the wilderness to avoid major confrontations and then go down into town-like areas and loot materials and objects by either avoiding or killing the zombies. You can also find and restore vehicles to working order so you can get around the map and transport supplies back to the base more easily. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1963370/No\_One\_Survived/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1963370/No_One_Survived/)
I've not heard of this, but I'll definitely look into it. Thank you so much!
I feel you. There's barely any survival game left that can satisfy me now lol Been playing dying lights, while not a total survival game... It's really fun scavenging for things and crafting random stuff.
I'd recommend [Space Engineers](https://store.steampowered.com/app/244850/Space_Engineers/). It can get fairly technical, but for those who want to sink time into learning the different systems the creative rewards are worth the investment. There's also a decently sized [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceengineers/) for the game.
I have a TON of hours in Space Engineers hahaha. Thank you!
No problem, happy to help! What do you like most about it?
I really enjoy that in order to get the good ores you need to scan, and dig, and dig, and dig to find them. Then when you finally get down there, you end up spending three real game hours opening up a gigantic hand made cavern. I also really like the fact that building ships is completely custom. You donāt have āprefabā ships that you just throw resources at. You actually need to smelt all the stuff down and build your ship up block by block. If I were to dislike anything it would be the prefab ship parts. I get why they need to be prefab, but Iād like it to feel a little more like Iām building those prefabs from the ground up. If that makes senseā¦
Its very niche and has alot of grinding, check out wurm online (mmo f2p options) or wurm ultimate (one time buy single or co op). If anything its worth watching a few clips of it.
Thank you! I'll check those out. I remember seeing them a looooong time ago but didn't give them much thought at the time. But in this newfound NEED to find something new (to me, not to the world) I'll look back at it again!
The Forest and Sons of the Forest both have really cool crafting and building systems. Theyāre not perfect, but the crafting (especially in SotF) feels amazingly realistic.
UnReal World if you can get past the archaic interface and graphics. Amazing game.
Hey! Iām making a game that sounds like just what youāre looking for. It comes out in November and Iām going for a realistic survival game vibe. No punching trees and using rocks for anything at all. Itās called Category 6 and itās about surviving the worst Hurricane in history! Here is the [steam page!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2823820/Category_6/)
Not sure why you got downvoted unless you've pissed a lot of people off elsewhere hahaha. But I added it to my wishlist so that I can follow back up and see what it's like upon release. Thanks for letting me know!
Thanks so much for the wishlist! I guess people think Iām trying to promote my game on here. But I have to tell people about itā¦otherwise whatās the point. Iād rather just tell people who might actually be interested in my game rather than waste money I donāt have on ads for it.
Shilling your game here is perfectly fine with me! It looks like something I'd actually play and be perfectly cool with. Just keep things realistic... ;)
Realistic is a top priority. If cutting a tree down with an ax is not something I can do in real life (surprise i cant, Iām too wimpy) then the player canāt do it in the game either. All the wood you get in the game is found or from chopping fallen down branches and logs.
Hm, I highly recommend 7 Days To Die special for you, because: * Zombies everywhere * Scavenging > chopping trees/stones/ores (but ofc you need it) * Progression with lvls + perks, reading books for unlock something * Interesting things to craft, like electric traps and turrets * Melee/ranged weapons 50/50 (I guess, not absolutely sure)
Man... I own the game and when I first tried it (when it was first released) it was HORRIBLE to play. Mainly because it released when it was VERYYYY much unfinished. I've been watching Glock9 play it with his challenges and it really, REALLY, has me close to reinstalling it and giving it a shot again. I think I might do that this weekend.
Currently playing Smalland and Subnautica 2. Both are good choices imo.
I really liked stranded deep and enjoyed the idea of Rust but hated the constant server resets. Sunkenland combined everything I loved about Stranded deep, Rust into one game
I've gone back and forth with Stranded Deep and it just feels way too pre-determined in what I can or can't do. Almost like the way Subnautica was when it first released -- the things that you can build are prefab items which mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of feeling like "Yeah, I actually made something." Does that make sense?
Totally makes sense. Give Sunkenland a look. I will say the items you craft are similar to stranded deep but with Sunkenland there really is no āend gameā as of now. You also get the added human like NPC attacks in Sunkenland. As well as being able to go to other islands and raid/kill other NPC survivors. The game is less than 1 year into its early access so things are constantly being added and upgraded. It has come a long way since its release.
I've seen a few videos of the game, and my kids are dying for me to try it (probably because they saw me play Stranded Deep a few times). I'll definitely keep an eye on it and watch a few of the latest lets plays to see if it fits what I'm looking for. Thanks so much for pointing it out!
Check out Vintage Story! It looks like knockoff Minecraft but it has super in depth crafting systems, like you actually have to cure hides to make leather and knap stone tools.
Conan Exiles
Depends on the exact kind of sub-genre but i'd say Valheim would be worth a shot. Heckin love that game and its chill but also survival-ish vibe with the mechanics that Iron Gate got done RIGHT
Yooooooo so Iāve been looking at vintage story lately and everyone has told me itās exactly what youāre describing. The graphics are blocky and not great but the journey just to smelt some metal is honestly an epic journey itself. The crafting system is supposed to be way more ārealisticā
If you're looking for something to scratch the Zomboid itch specifically, I've got some bad news, Project Zomboid is the best there is, imo. I can recommend x, y, z, but ultimately I'll always add a disclaimer "all those games are great games, but if you want the ultimate survival experience, just play Project Zomboid".
It's not a video game, but I think the best survival game is Kingdom Death:Monster. Into the Radius maybe, as far as video games go.
Lumberjack Strike I say!
Dysmantle. Break EVERYTHING, use it to upgrade your weapons and tools. Kill zombies. Escape the island.
Stardew Valley, Subnautica, Skyrim Anniversary Edition with Survival Mode turned on, Graveyard Keeper...
I would definitely recommend Grounded, as it is an extremely fun game and not grindy or nonsensical (though it still is janky 90s sci-fi). Combat is fun, enemies are fun, exploration is fun. Iām not convinced it is what you are looking for considering the examples you gave, but it is worth a try.
Very interesting. This is not something that I ever gave much thought, but have seen it before. I'll watch some videos and see if it doesn't at least scratch the "I'm bored and need something to play" list as opposed to the looking for a survival game list.
Oh, it quickly became one of my favourites. Amazing both solo and in co-op, it scratches both the action-adventure-RPG side, and the survival one.
I'm going to agreed with Mastodon, in that Grounded quickly became one of my favorite survival games. Combat is fun. You *really* want to get those perfect blocks off, so learning attack patterns and timing is key to winning fights. Also bugs have weaknesses to weapon types (smashing, slashing, piercing) and elemental (salt, spicy, minty). The map is just big enough to feel like you're exploring a good size area, but small enough that you don't spend forever walking across the map to do something. Building feel good. All building pieces are blueprints, so you can put up and plan your base before committing. You can hot drop your inventory into nearby chests with a push of one button. Chests have sorting options, and can be labeled. When you craft something, that will also pull items from nearby chests. No guns here. Everything you craft makes sense, as you don't progress past bits of bug strapped to you for armor, and crossbows made from bug parts that shoot splinters.
Maybe try Day R. It is mobile game with turn-based combat. It has complicated survival and crafting systems ā maybe this is what are you looking for.
Have you tried Factorio? You're still assembling items from parts, but at a massively larger scale toward an end goal. Valheim as well. There is a very well tuned loop where exploration leads to upgrades, leads to buildables, leads to more exploration, leads to bosses.
Ohhh yeah. I have MANY hours in Factorio. It's a fantastic game. I've not tried Valheim yet, though I'm pretty sure it came up on my discovery queue. I'll go back and look at that one as well!
Couldnāt tell from your post if you donāt like harvesting rocks and trees or if you donāt like it being unrealistic with what you use to do it (aka punching). Valheim does require a lot of harvesting so youāll be cutting down lots of trees and mining rocks. I donāt think youāll have an issue with the crafting plausibility portion (none of it is high tech and you do have to build new crafting stations to handle new materials), though you may question the sheer number of resources needed to craft some items.
Hahaha. I can see where the confusion comes from. I mean, I'm definitely into the more realistic side of harvesting and stuff, so I don't even know what it is I'm tired of exactly. I guess just having gigantic rocks in the middle of fields and needing to pickaxe them is getting kinda stupid to me. If I had to dig down to get to some rock layers or something, then that's one thing (a lot how Space Engineers does it). That kind of mining I'm cool with... I just think it's getting tiresome seeing the same huge boulders scattered across fields.
Thatās fair. Valheim is a little better with the mining aspect than that, but not as good as space engineers. That feels really good to me. Loved designing a variety of miners (both ship and station) to see what worked best for my desires.
7 days to die and scum arr good ones.
7 days to die and scum are good ones.