Summary
There are an ever-growing number of options for fans of survival games to dig into. Whether players are looking for man-versus-environment survival or moreaction-based survival games, there’s something to suit any taste. What’s more, these games take place in a wide variety of environments, from deserts to jungles to oceans.
With so many games incorporating survival aspects, developers have had to get creative with their settings and mechanics to stand out in the genre. The games here all have a knack for using the environment against the player in unique ways, adding an extra level of challenge in their struggle for survival.
The survival gameplay inStranded Deepleans towards man-versus-environment. Despite the idyllic visuals of the tropical seas where players are stranded, it’s one of the more hostile environments in survival gaming. The sun can burn and cause heat stroke, there are random poisonous starfish strewn like landmines in the sand — and that’s all before players even venture into the water.
The tropical waters are teeming with menacing sharks, waiting to jumpscare players in their dinghy or attack them in the open water. For much of the game, players will be relatively defenseless against these threats, making them genuinely terrifying. The game also forces players to go between islands and even underwater to find resources, so the sharks can’t be ignored.
7 Days To Dieis geared more towards combat than most survival games, with the zombie threat being ever present. Despite the game having regular environmental mechanics like heat and cold, and standard hazards like fire, the unique environmental hazards are the ones players can build themselves.
Base buildingis a big part of7 Days To Die.Defending oneself from the titular seventh day horde is a large part of the gameplay loop. This, of course, includes building automated defenses to keep the zombies out. From spike pits to whirring blade traps, players can get creative with their home-defense systems. The only thing to remember is that these traps are just as deadly to the player if they get careless.
Groundeddoesn’t have much in the way of static environmental effects. There’s a toxic gas that players have to figure out how to navigate, but that’s not new in survival games. What is unique, is how the perspective of the game turns everyday garden fixtures into deadly threats. The game’s hook of the playerbeing shrunken down to insect sizemakes a big difference to how they interact with their environment.
There are plenty of moments, especially in the early game, where the threat of spiders is so great that they become more like environmental fixtures that players will navigate around than enemies they could reasonably fight. Similarly, a player can take down a few ants, but a nest of them is a true environmental hazard that must be dealt with. Being the size of a snack certainly makes survival a different prospect.
Don’t Starvetakesa uniquely disturbing approach to the survival genre. Hazards and dangers inDon’t Starvedon’t only damage players physically, they also affect their sanity. The sanity meter is a central mechanic that players will need to manage throughout the game.
This adds an extra thing to think about, as simple things like getting wet in the rain can be hazardous to a character’s mental health. Sanity is not just a countdown to death meter, either. There are all kinds of increasingly harsh effects that happen both visually and mechanically as sanity gets lower. It’s a unique approach to handling hostile environments in survival games.
The drive-to-survive gameplay ofPacific Driveis unique on its own, blendingextraction-style lootingwith vehicle maintenance. WherePacific Drivesets itself apart, though, is in the creative design of its anomalous environmental hazards.
The nice thing about the game’s design is that players will discover these anomalies organically as they progress, and will have to work out how they function from context and clues scattered around the world. There’s everything from semi-sentient bollards to radioactive clouds to worry about, and a whole host of threats that can harm or hinder both the player and their vehicle. It’s a refreshing approach to the survival genre that keeps players on their toes at every turn.
Thinking about real-life survival environments, the jungle is a threatening place. There are creatures that want to kill, creatures that can kill without even trying, poisonous plants, parasites, the list goes on.Green Helltakes this hostile environment seriously. The jungle here is even more inhospitable than its average real-life counterpart.
There are threatening creatures and natives, for sure, but players are just as likely to die a slow and ignoble death from illness or poisoning, until they learn to identify the jungle’s many dangers. There’s hunger, tiredness, thirst and sanity to consider at any given time, and a granular detail to the survival aspects that makeGreen Hella unique survival experience.
No Man’s Skyhas introduced so much varietyto the game over its years of development, that the number of environmental hazards is huge. From aggressive flora, to raging nuclear storms, what players will have to deal with varies from planet to planet.
There is some streamlining of the way hazards are dealt with in gameplay terms, which means that each planetary hazard doesn’t feel too different to the next. However, the visual effects alone can make them worth experiencing. The swirling embers of a firestorm buffeting a players' ship, or sitting above the eerie green glow of a nuclear storm over a planet’s surface, can provide some nice vistas.
Add to that the giant worms that erupt from some planet’s surfaces as players explore, derelict freighters with their own hazards to deal with in space, and corrupted planets with their own dangers.No Man’s Skyhas an impressive collection of environmental hazards that players won’t find elsewhere.
Subnautica’s main hook is the uniqueenvironment of an alien ocean, and it certainly provides the otherworldly hazards players might imagine in that kind of setting. The most pressing concern for the player from the get-go is how to manage their oxygen levels. Being underwater for extended lengths, and being able to go deeper, are essential to the player’s progress.
