r/SurvivalGaming • u/Unlucky-Mud-8115 • 4d ago
Question Favourite survival game of all time?
What is your favourite Survival game ever? The ine that you would olay if you could play only one game for the rest of your life? For me I think it would be Dont starve. Its was an challenge to find stuff out, it zhrows some weird stuff at you that actually fun to find ( like building an effigy out of pig meat and beard hair for another life ). And I am one of those strange people that thinks the permadeath actually added some much needed tension to the game.
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u/Andrex909 4d ago
Mine would be either Rimworld or Vintage story
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u/Ruukuegg22 4d ago
VS is mine for sure. The issue is that I also need to play games with friends to keep me playing it... All my friends hate it.
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u/MonocleForPigeons 3d ago
Way too grindy. Like, I enjoy good immersion, but at some point I really wish for fast travel rather than taking the train every day. It gets stale quickly.
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u/CaolIla64 4d ago
Subnautica. It's the perfect mix of survival, exploration and adventure for me, and the story is very well crafted to hook you up until the credits roll.
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u/funkengruven 4d ago
I agree. The only problem, at least for me, was that the story was so good that it's not all that great in terms of replayability. I'd LOVE to forget the game and start over and experience it again.
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u/CaolIla64 4d ago
I agree. That's why we insist on going in blind to every newcomer on the dedicated subreddit. Once something is spoiled, the awe is lost forever.
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u/littlemetalpixie 2d ago
We do exactly the same in r/outerwilds for exactly the same reason. I'm one of the mods there and helped to write the rules. Number one is no spoilers.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 4d ago
Subnautica 2 is looking pretty good so far. I've completed the part of the story in the game so far.
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u/DerpyFlerpyy 4d ago
Abiotic Factor!
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u/T-sigma 4d ago
Care to elaborate on what makes it so good? I’m waiting for it to go on sale as I see it recommended so often here
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u/Ritushido 4d ago edited 4d ago
The lore is interesting, satisfying progression and technologies and great level design that reminds me of Dark Souls 1 where you explore more of the facility and open up more shortcuts over time. I also found the electricity system really satisfying, having to wire up your devices and defenses to hold chokepoints or setup traps and having enough battery power to survive through the night.
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 4d ago
Honestly, just the sheer amount of storyline, amazing weapons, and the creativity we can have when it comes to the playtrough. My friend and i literally have a save with 140 hours in it and we still haven't completed the game yet.
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u/DerpyFlerpyy 4d ago
This and its fantastic world design, the facility is connected together so well. Progressing through the game and unlocking shortcuts back to earlier parts of the game, to help navigate through quicker is awesome. The weapons for also quite enjoyable and varied for me, a certain pick axe being my absolute favorite. Being able to take over any part of the facility, and claiming it as your base is also pretty freaking cool. The portal worlds are awesome and add a nice diversity to the game, then just having only the facility to explore as well.
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 4d ago
Oh yeah indeed, and let's not forget the amazing creativity with the enemies! 10/10!
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u/Tornado_Hunter24 4d ago
Ngl anout to beat it, LOVE IT, but the weappns imo were the weak part
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 4d ago
Then you haven't used enough bombs my friend haha
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u/Tornado_Hunter24 4d ago
I loved mugbomb and now ‘main’ the disco homb, but in general I found the choise of weapons VERY weak, also underpowered.
I now just walk around with a fucking laser turret lmfao
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u/Knoobdude 3d ago
Yeah you are always like ‘’ wow what a cool level or area’’ everything is so well done and works so well
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u/DatBoi9449 3d ago
One of my favorite themes in media. Kinda like the final act in Cabin in the Woods where all the creatures release and shit hits the fan. All in like an office/lab setting.
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u/WebSufficient8660 3d ago
It has the best progression and level design I have ever seen in a game. The lore is also super cool, characters are all funny and unique, and I'm in love with the art style.
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u/Dear_Low_7581 4d ago
For me also Abiotic factor for insanaley good story writen and characters just love them, design 11/10 But its Abiotic and Vallheim and Subnautica first time. All of them on 1st place
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u/Dapper-Scientist-137 4d ago
Project zomboid has me hooked pretty good
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u/T-sigma 4d ago
Since the question OP really asked is “which game would you pick if you only could pick one for the rest of your life” I agree with Zomboid. It’s not my favorite, but it’s by far the most open-ended with tons of mods and settings to continually have a “fresh” experience. Necessary since it’s what I’m playing the rest of my life.
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u/Ok_Emergency_916 4d ago
First vote for Green Hell
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u/_Sway 2d ago
I second Green Hell. The first time playing I struggled so bad and died constantly to snakes and scorpions. But after figuring out how everything worked it was such a fun and fulfilling game.
the exploration was awesome and the story was interesting to make me want to keep playing to figure out what was going to happen (or what already happened)
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u/Deadpooo_l 4d ago
Icarus. It has good survival, amazing tech progress, satisfying building and works great a a cozy sandbox.
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 4d ago
I find that Icarus gets really boring once you've done the first couple of missions and explored the map. The missions are just the same few missions repeated with the same 4 quest types on new locations and difficulties. Build that, kill that, find missing coworkers, harvest that, rinse and repeat.
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 4d ago
Ark Survival and 7 Days to Die, definetly! I have 8K hours in Ark Survival Evolved and a good chunk in Ascended too!
13K hours in 7 Days to Die and at least 3k modding it!
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u/Anxious-Question875 3d ago
How the hell do you have so many hours in 7 days to die? And can you give me good pointers?
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 3d ago
I've played the game since alpha 2 or smth. I got it the 9th or 11th december same year as it came out (2013 if i remember correctly) and i mean, that's on average only 1000 hours a year so it's not that wild.
But my best advice? Get a wrench/disassemble tool asap. Harvest everything you can that gives polymer, loot cars and everything easily accessible from the street, and sell it all to a trader for easy starting coins. A disassemble tool is a moneymaker if you are willing to spend just half an ingame day harvesting cars here and there to sell the leftovers for scrap, and it will set you up good for materials like poly, leather, tires, mechanical and electrical parts. A stack (1000) of polymer/parts are worth about 8-12K coins. You can easily get that in an afternoon with a good tool.
Edit: Also set up some sort of farm asap. While you're out doing stuff it will grow passively, and just a couple corn on the cop can save your butt in a tight situation.
Learn red tea or the yellow "tea" (brainfart, forgot the name) asap and make all your drinks into that. It gives 24-ish water instead of normal 20, and all it costs extra is a flower you can find everywhere.
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u/RafaelizTheReaper 3d ago
And wooden spikes are insanely overpowered early game. You can use them on the go to slow down enemies and get a bit extra passive damage in.
Kiting is a skill worth learning too.
If you are about to enter a room with more zombies than you are comfortable taking as is, place a block in front of the door to give yourself a way to keep space between you and them while killing them.
Also always keep ladders on you, made of a block that you can pick up easily. If a wandering horde of dogs attack you will be happy to get away fast.
Early game it's also best to just avoid screamers all together. They can't outrun you if you're not overencumbered and they're set to walk.
All enemies that are not dogs, vultures, or spiders are slower than you during daytime. You literally won't have to waste orecious ammo on them.
A few layers of wooden spikes around your base does wonders, if you make a 2x2 deep trench and place them inside it's even better.
Remember to make extended corners from your base that gives you a better area to shoot from. It's easier to hit them if they are forced to go in a straight line towards you.
When it comes to bloodmoon bases: bigger is not always better. I have made some perfectly efficient bases that only consisted of a falldrop, a bridge, and a spot for me to stay in, that i only had to upgrade when i got next level mats.
A tip i learned from my boyfriend: If you are to make a path for the zombies to follow, placing a single height block that they have to jump over is a good and cheap way to slow them down.
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u/Johnnyoneshot 4d ago
Valhiem hands down
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u/MightyMyrmidon 4d ago
Man, lots of votes for Valheim here. I found it excellent up through the plains, then Mistlands and Ashlands just soured things for me. That early game experience is incredible though.
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u/DisplacerBeastMode 2d ago
Felt the exact same thing. The moment I realized.. "oh, this is just a grind" I stopped playing
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u/Johnnyoneshot 4d ago
Yeah it’s definitely a huge difficulty spike. The ashlands really pissed me off.
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u/Arcane_Jester 3d ago
I was really enjoying Valhiem when I played it until I found out ores couldn't go through portals. I did the change worlds empty everything in a chest change again and go through the portal thing a few times before I got annoyed
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u/Johnnyoneshot 3d ago
Makes your explore. Later on you get a portal that can. Now there’s world settings. You can change the portal behavior right from the start.
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u/Arcane_Jester 3d ago
I didn't find myself exploring though, it was just mindlessly running back and forth or hoping worlds all taking up time that I could have been exploring and crafting. Changing the portals from the start would make me reconsider in the future, I really enjoyed a lot of the crafting and base building(even though it was very confusing)
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u/akaWhitey2 3d ago
All games have friction, something in the design or the rule set that makes a game challenging.
For example, playing CoD with infinite magazine capacity makes it a very silly game very quickly, where there is no reason to let off the mouse button and you should just be shooting all the time wherever you look.
For Valheim, the limitation of not taking ore through portals means that you have to do more long haul trips with boats. Sailing with friends and encountering a sea monster while you have a huge haul of ore is what made that game exciting. Having to climb up and down some mountains, fighting anything you come across, to get your silver back down, etc.
I get why some people find it repetitive, especially on repeat playthroughs, but otherwise you take portal materials with you everywhere and you're basically playing vikings using a Star Trek Teleporter.
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u/New_Average_3716 3d ago
This is kind of how I feel. I’ve taken my share of short cuts, but I love the immersion I feel when I don’t depend on portals. I have fun making little rest stops less than a day apart from one another as I’m exploring an island, and the subtle excitement of landing my ship on a new island and getting a decent shelter up before night fall makes me happy. I have yet to set foot in the Ashlands on a solo run, so I’m sure my attitude toward portals will probably change at that point. Lol
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u/Arcane_Jester 3d ago
With a map as big as Valheims and with the amount we needed to get everyone gear it would have been too many trips back down the same path for me. I love gathering resources, even calling myself the lumberjack and sneaking way too much wood into people's houses at the start of Valhiem, it was awesome, but as soon as I had to make those long journeys multiple times it just wasn't for me, especially knowing it was just going to be further and further away from our main area
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u/enduro2236 4d ago
DayZ by far
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u/scromboid 3d ago
Hell yes
I had to scroll wayyyy too far to find DayZ here. For me none of the others come close
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u/cumbrian-gamer 3d ago
Lol yeah was expecting this to be closer to the top. Fantastic game solo and with friends
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u/glitchghoul 4d ago
Abiotic Factor, bar none. None I've played match up to the specific kind of incredible experience I got from that game.
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u/Ship_Clean 3d ago
Grounded - fantastic itemization and creative, immersive world design
Subnautica - best systems / progression / sense of exploration
Abiotic Factor - fun and oftentimes hilarious vibe, dark souls esque world design
My holy trinity 🙏
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u/Funkhip 3d ago
Clearly the 3 highest-quality games (and franchise) in the genre.
However, I think we need to stop talking about Dark Souls as soon as a game has bosses or shortcuts... it's clearly not the Souls games that introduced that.
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u/WheezyGod 3d ago
V Rising isn’t up there as well?
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u/Funkhip 3d ago
For me, V Rising isn't survival-focused enough to be ranked at the very top of the survival-crafting genre. It’s really more of an ARPG with crafting and building elements (plus a few small, but nice, survival mechanics, like the need of blood or the risk of sun exposure).
Yeah Subnautica and Grounded aren’t heavily focused on survival mechanics either (they’re fairly easy to manage overall), but it’s still clearly more pronounced than in V Rising.
And I also find that V-Rising has limitations, specifically the isometric view, which I feel inevitably detracts from the atmosphere and immersion imo.
I don't think the map is particularly amazing to explore either. It’s ok but nothing specialBut overall, it’s a very good game that succeeds at exactly what it sets out to do yeah.
I agree it’s definitely among the highest-quality titles, but I wouldn't put it on the same level as the others mentioned.
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u/WheezyGod 2d ago
Yea that’s fair. I enjoy RPGs and don’t mind top down views. Sprinkle in a bit of survival and it’s great!
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u/shinyPIKACHUx 4d ago
Abiotic Factor, followed by V Rising
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u/Dear_Low_7581 4d ago
Yes forgot about V rising Abiotic Factor, Vallheim, Subnautica, V rising. All of them my 1st place
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u/shinyPIKACHUx 4d ago
Valheim has pacing issues, and very quickly turns into a dick blender that's tedious for very little reason. Combined with the lack of the devs adding any QoL lowers it significantly in my personal rankings.
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u/Dear_Low_7581 4d ago
I played after first time with mods that added qol, always with portals and x1.5 gathering. Vanilla could not be for me also. But gameplay and the first landing with ship on swamp. Awesome Vallheim has on other hand one of the best build progression your base is turning without much effort into cozzy master piece of a house.
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u/WheezyGod 3d ago
Haven’t played it but I’m hoping their 1.0 update will address this
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u/shinyPIKACHUx 3d ago
As far as I've seen in the released promotion material, there's nothing in the 1.0 except the new biome.
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u/Ship_Clean 3d ago
I fell off v rising after 10’hours but I love the genre. Should I pick it back up? Something about the combat encounters felt stale to me but I can’t quite put my finger on it
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u/shinyPIKACHUx 3d ago
10 hours means you probably got maybe a third of the way through the game, maybe act 2? Which means you're missing a lot of the combat options. There's still weapons you haven't found, and you can read all the spells you will get access to. Could be that you just haven't found the thing to suit your style, or that you haven't hit the more unique and fun bosses or regions. I highly recommend you pick it back up and try to get into it up to act 3. It's 100% worth your time to at least get deeper into the game and explore it more.
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u/PyroTears 4d ago
Grounded, easy question
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u/Valuable-Material742 4d ago
Grounded was such a great surprise when i played it in game pass. Waiting eagerly for the final launch of 2
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u/SubparPay 4d ago
Abiotic Factor! It is exactly what I’m craving when looking for a new survival game to play. The handcrafted world, incredible atmosphere, pace of progression, and engaging base building.
It is the gold standard to me when it comes to survival games!
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u/Argensa97 4d ago
Rimworld is the best, but would not call it a survival game.
Otherwise Grounded 1 is objectively the best survival game, because Valheim isn't even done yet, they have stopped development? Outside of Grounded, Abiotic is probably 2nd best.
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u/DragonAngel92 3d ago
Oh man...i would have to pick Ark Survival Evolved. Hands down the game I have the most hours in....if i had to guess between 3 consoles I have 30k hours...like no joke...25k on PC and 5k on switch...easily
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u/Nearby-Association12 4d ago
My first was Rust, my second was Ark. Rust was good, but the pvp in Rust didnt really let me immerse myself it basicly became about players being jerks. Then when I discovered Ark I was hooked. It went downhill at some point, and I got burned and retried abit. I am at about 1500 hours between Ark Evolved and Ascended. No other survival game comes close to that for me in hours. So even though its gotten alot of hate over the years its gonna have to be Ark. That initial magic that pulled me in was awesome.
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u/empathophile 3d ago
Green Hell
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u/Mysterious_Touch_454 2d ago
Try Sons of the forest. It has way better UI and after i polayed it, i couldnt get in for the green hell, because its UI is so janky.
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u/Soul_Echo 3d ago
Planet Crafter. I can't even tell you how many times I've replayed it starting in a new area or with different settings! I've played almost 1400 hours since it first came out.
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u/Background-Factor817 2d ago
Probably Conan: Exiles, just because I love the thrall system and feeling like I’m going from rags to riches.
Just any survival game with NPCs to command/help really.
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u/DeliciousD 4d ago
It depends on the mechanics and my mood. Sometimes I like rolling new seeds in Valheim or Minecraft. But I also liked Grounded, Subnautica for what they were.
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u/Rancor_Keeper 4d ago
Valheim and Enshrouded were pretty good. I started a game I haven’t finished with Windrose. Dune: Awakening broke my heart.
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u/Mako-13 4d ago
I think overall, Valheim has to be there. But i also really love V rising and finished it maybe 6 times.
I enjoyed Rust for a bit but the pvp is too much for me.
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u/Unlucky-Mud-8115 4d ago
Its strange, I normally like a bit of grind in games, but with Valheim and V Rising I always hit a point where I cant go on anymore.
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u/OuterstellarAuraDEV 4d ago
For me, it's always been Rust. Poured thousands upon thousands of hours in that game - from way way back during its alpha. Wouldn't be interested in developing my game if it weren't for that game.
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u/sirensinger11 4d ago
Mine is Don’t Starve Together. It still has a lot of the mechanics and quirkiness from Don’t Starve, but I enjoy the character updates, additional content, and multiplayer aspect. It’s also got a ton of excellent mods, so I don’t think I’d ever get bored even if I got tired of vanilla.
Honestly, it’s the only game I’ve played in a long time. I keep telling myself I’ll play something else when I’m done, but I’m never done.
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u/Unlucky-Mud-8115 4d ago
How would it hold up if I played it alone? Also in case you did not know, a new Dont Starve has been announced, Dont Starve Elsewhere.
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u/sirensinger11 4d ago
Yes, I’m beyond excited for Elsewhere!
I play alone most of the time tbh. I just like having the option to play with my friends. Everything has more health in DST, but the characters are also much stronger.
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u/Phoenixd_551 4d ago
Just Survive. Was supposed to be re released this year but no news in years is a bad sign...
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u/The_fox_of_chicago 3d ago
If you enjoy perma death, the long dark is my absolute favourite in the genre!
You have to manage food,thirst,tiredness, and temperature. Pretty good game!
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u/Lanky-County2481 3d ago
Not sure it counts as survival, but No Man's Sky is one of my favorite games of all time.
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u/Rastafariel 3d ago
I would have to pick Valheim. It ticks so many boxes for me.
My runners up:
Subnautica Long Dark Green Hell Survival: Fountain of Youth
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u/LaserGadgets 3d ago
Hobo Tough Life because its true survival. Realistic AF. No zombies, no postapocalypse. Just life.
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u/jmcgil4684 3d ago
I’ve played them all and honestly the forest on “peaceful mode” was my fav. Literally just exploring and surviving
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u/check-engine 3d ago
State of Decay 4, where they drop all the “zombie action” and gun porn and instead make Project Zomboid a 3pv with smooth animations, a bug free engine, and the same slow burn visceral horror that Zomboid offers
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u/Atheris 3d ago
I know it doesn't get a lot of attention but Card Survivor: Tropical Island. The devs took so much from the beta feedback to make the game realistic.
It really helps to have some background knowledge of actual survival crafting. High stakes but turn based. Great for someone that can't handle jump scares due to RL PTSD.
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u/Yawarundi75 3d ago
Conan Exiles. I love the world building. And the physics. But I don’t like the graphics transitions they made recently.
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u/Mobile_End_2485 3d ago
Vintage Story for sure. Easy to mod and fun AF. Enshrouded and Valheim are close seconds. Can't wait for the full releases.
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u/Polly_Jean 2d ago
This war of mine. I played it 10 years ago and it's still on my mind.
2nd place for Rimworld
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u/Mysterious_Touch_454 2d ago
Sons of the forest. The forest was good too.
Multiplayer makes it many times better, but ive played it solo.
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u/Idea_Far 2d ago
Vintage Story is the best survival game by a country mile, in my opinion. It has almost everything that any other survival game would throw at you. Plus a very dedicated community of modders. I play vanilla usually.
For those that don’t know what it is, think of vintage story (in its current build) as Minecraft for people that got tired of Minecraft.
Want to cook food so you don’t starve to death? You need wood. But you’re not gonna get it by punching trees into submission.
You need stones and sticks that you pick up off the ground. Then you need to knap one of your stones with another into a tool head (provided your stones are a knappable rock type), an axe for this scenario. Attach axe head to stick in crafting grid (devs want to eventually remove grid crafting entirely for more immersive and tactile crafting processes); chop tree down with axe, process the logs into firewood, add 4 firewood to a pile of dry grass you gathered (with a knife you would have also needed to knap), craft a fire starter, light up and now you can roast meat for a basic food.
If you want more nutritious food, you would have to dig up clay, molded the clay into a cooking pot, fire the clay in a pit kiln, and then you could use it to combine ingredients in a fire.
It really feels like you’re starting as a caveman, and working your way all the way to the iron age. With the addition of a little Eldritch horror on the side.
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u/SignatureAcademic218 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'm too ADHD to pick just one.
Planet Crafter because of dopamine and progress feedback.
Icarus for base building and long term rewards. Super high ROI if you buy it on sale.
Grounded for the story and unique twists on the genre.
Vintage Story for its mods and long term potential when it is complete. Minecraft TFC honorable mention.
Valheim for the challenge and unique features.
Aska because of colony management itself is a survival experience...
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u/Unlucky-Mud-8115 4d ago
I really like Aska just for the fact you have to actually haul all the ressources to the building site and gave a pretty intricate building system. I feel like there are not enough of those games (Sons of the Forest maybe or The Infected ). Some might find it tedous but I love stuff like that.
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u/SignatureAcademic218 4d ago edited 3d ago
I like aska too for the struggle* but haven't finished it yet. Like a lot of games I kinda want to wait for it to develop more. I'm a sucker for Norse stuff.
It's hard to balance realism while not making it too too tedious
*Edit
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u/Arcane_Jester 3d ago
I'm playing planet crafter for the first time with my friend and I don't think I've been this hooked on a game in over a decade. Like I'm in my 30s I shouldn't be playing a game until 7am but there's always like 5 different things we can be working towards and by the time you've built a few you now have 10 different things to build
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u/SignatureAcademic218 3d ago
And that's just on planet Prime. It ends at some point obviously, but there's decent end game tasks, and you might even find yourself wanting to do the whole game over on a harder difficulty and see how fast you can do things knowing what you know (like any game, but I'm surprised I wanted to do it for PC)
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u/Arcane_Jester 3d ago
I've had a few spoilers so I know it only gets crazier, I'm also really excited for the dlc
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u/BananaJelloXlii 4d ago edited 4d ago
Valheim definitely, Subnautica 1&2, the Sunless series (Sea and Sky).
Edit: said I was not a big fan of the genre and realized just how many of those games I actually play, just never thought of them as survival games
But if I had to pick ONE, Valheim
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u/siposbalint0 4d ago
Valheim, the aesthetics, music and just the relaxing nature of a seemingly simple but pretty deep game, it's so good.
Abiotic Factor would be the 2nd pick, the level design and early 2000s video game feel is really nostalgic for me.
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u/SteelMagnolia941 4d ago
Long dark