The 30 best survival games on PC -Part 1

Now is the best time to get into the survival games on PC since the genre has recently boomed, and gamers can find many good titles in the Steam with both early access and fully developed games. There are even more being released every year, though, which is why we’ve done the heavy lifting for you and ranked the finest survival games that you can play today. On a serious note, there are the early access games in this list meaning they could be a bit rough around the edges at first. Allow them the time they need, however, and you’ll often end up with a group of developers who, with further updates could potentially turn out some rather great games. Still, we have provided only the best and most comprehensive-in-feeling survival games for this list only; thus, every game from the list will leave you craving for more. It’s in no way comprehensive but hopefully, it should provide you with a good number of choices in wolf-taming, base-building and carrot picking.

 

Some collections of new survival games that are being developed and set for release this year also should also be named as there are quite many superb ones among them. The first one is Nightingale, an open-world survival ‘em up, in which you construct decks that transport you to different spheres with allies and antagonists. The ones that we should expect include; ARK 2 featuring Vin Diesel, Stalker 2: Heart Of Chernobyl, and Frostpunk 2.

 

On a parting note it should be said that when we talk about only ‘surviving’ characters the first-person ones or those that have hunger bars aren’t what we are concentrating on. Lots of characters here inhabit different genres, and many of them are as different from each other as salt and pepper, if not more, with one significant thing in common – you need to live, damn it.

 

30. State Of Decay 2
Developer: Undead Labs

Release date: 2020

Condensing Brendy’s State of Decay 2 review, he claims it is an endless list of things to do, and that is precisely what it is. But hey, if it is okay for you then the game is a great way to have survival ‘em up with friends as you fight the flesh-chomping zombies here, there and everywhere. According to Hayden, permadeath makes it both the story of survival and community, for the most striking thing is that monotonous, repeated tasks are the ones that can bring the most interesting encounters.

29. Ark: Survival Evolved
Developer: Studio Wildcard, Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, Virtual Basement LLC

Release date: 2017

Progression is Ark: How The Valley of Survival Evolved into the most ambitious of all, as you quietly progress from a lowly prehistoric moron to a creatures and titans-whisperer. If you do like dinos then you will be well provided for here as towards the end of the game they can be used as forms of transport or the equivalent of combine harvesters. If you are into the critical genre of first person survival simulator then you will have lots of fun as well here. Prepare for a lot of picking up of fibers and furs for boot making, or spears in case of confrontations with other teams of players.

The game is also filled with update and expansions and therefore one should not be limited of what he or she has to do.The last I checked David Tennant is in it?

 

28. The Long Dark

Developer: Hinterland Studio

Release date: 2017

The Long Dark is an unforgiving survival game set in a large snowy landscape with no hand-holding whatsoever. Its story mode, Wintermute, is a relatively easy way to be introduced to the cruel but stunning world of the game but it is the survival mode which is the real, free-roaming challenge; the game simply puts you in the middle of the snowy wasteland and you have to figure it out yourself. You have to look for a safe place to stay and then look for food and water and at the same time try to gain calories and keep warm. Leaving the shelter is a bit like preparing for a camping trip.

You are concerned with your needs as a human and almost nothing else, but that is quite a responsibility. You have to calculate where you can get to and still be able to walk due to hunger, how long it will take you before it gets dark and cold, and of course, the emergency measures in case of blizzard – you aren’t going for a beer run.

This list has a lot of interesting takes on the survival genre, but The Long Dark doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel and succeeds anyway. Whereas other games try to pack as many enemies, other competing players and more useless crap than you can shake a stick at into journeys from A to B, The Long Dark fills them with mood. Hikes are stressful because you are listening for the howling of wolves and hoping that the wind does not blow. It is, however, possible to still occasionally become a tourist every now and then. The map is a bleak piece of Canadian landscape, so who could be excused for pausing the looting to take some pictures?

 

27. Project Zomboid

Developer: The Indie Stone

Release date: 2013

A zombie survival game that feels like it doesn’t want to leave early access, Project Zomboid is an isometric sandbox that puts you in a town and just wants you to not die, which is easier said than done when hundreds of zombies are waiting to feast on your brains.

The level of simulation in Project Zomboid is perhaps the most detailed of them all. For example, vehicles are relatively new and are nearly as operational as actual automobiles. You can lock them, break into them, hot wire them, mess with the temperature, the radio, steal parts from them – everything is considered. All this is understandable for practical purposes, such as temperature regulation in scorching or freezing weather, or making a break-in through a car window to ensure the car is less secure if zombies appear.

This is also true for the natural world and thus, depending on the precipitation level, snow, and temperature, the world changes physically and places new tasks for the players. Everything is immensely grandiose, and the long gestation period becomes comprehensible once you consider what has been included over time.

26. Neo Scavenger
Developer: Blue Bottle Games

Release date: 2014

The setting of Neo Scavenger shares a similar post-apocalyptic theme with Fallout, although the game is much darker and does not let the player forget about how fragile he is even in the later stages of the game. This is a game in which a mere scratch can lead to your death. It’s merciless, but only if you look at each abrupt life as a failure, instead of what they really are: autonomous parables.

Murdering a lot of mutants will not make you experienced, and it will not suddenly imbue you with a factor that makes you a better mutant killer. However, by failure and success, you will be in a position to know the right way of handling any crisis you encounter. It is the kind of permadeath that everyone would love to have. Getting a new game is fun because one can try a new build of a character, combining various abilities and drawbacks. Some are static, but the geography does change when one begins a new life; thus, will not be making the same routes over and over again.

25. V Rising
Developer: Stunlock Studios

Release date: 2022

V Rising is an early access survival game with a bit of MMORPG on it and developed by the Battlerite team. If you thought that was a real combo of genres, then get this: you get to be a vampire. Neat, right? Like in Valheim, you have to collect resources, level up, and defeat a large number of bosses. But it has very much got its own bloody taste. As in most games of the genre, it is top-down, you have your MOBA-style combat, and servers that can accommodate up to 40 players. As for PVP server, you can attack other players’ fortresses in raids, if you choose this option.

But if you’d prefer it this way, if you’d like to play the game alone or with a few friends in PVE, you can! The levelling journey is also fairly well-paced, which makes the transition from the chump vampire to the champion vampire a smooth and fun one. If that was not enough to convince you, do not forget to read our V Rising review for a more elaborate discussion.

24. Among Trees
Developer: FJRD Interactive

Release date: 2021

Stress may not be something you expect from games where you will perish if you stand still for too long, but Among Trees does it. You are placed in a lovely forest, and I mean a lovely forest where as soon as you attempt to move you will be bumping into rabbits and woodpeckers. You look for food to eat and then you are immediately running around with raw mushrooms in your mouth, then you are constructing a tiny greenhouse right next to the growing cabin. It is survival as Henry David Thoreau described it not as Bear Grylls would.

There are, of course, actual bears among the game’s scarce threats. There are also difficulty settings, that allow you to fill your boots with poison mushrooms if you want to. Regardless of the direction it is still a very beautiful forest and it is highly recommended that one should visit the forest even if it is in its early stages of opening.

23. UnReal World
Developer: Sami Maaranen, Erkka Lehmus

Release date: 2016

The first version of Finnish survival roguelike UnReal World was not as rich in seeds that would turn it into one of the greatest and most unique survival games in the world. By mid nineties, the solo developer Sami Maaranen was able to identify that formula that would make the game to run for over two decades. Still in active development with frequent updates adding new large features as well as fitting small changes, UnReal World is a survival simulation set in the realistic environment. It is an early survival game that was there before the flood of craft ‘em up games, and it has a more polished and engaging concept than any of the other games in the genre. The price for this game is such things as complexity, old school graphics, and interface, but the benefits are worth the price.

 

22. Cataclysm:
Developer: Kevin Granade & community

Release date: 2013
Sin described it as the kind of roguelike you could play for the rest of your life, and "UnReal World set in a near future" when everything was a mess. First, you create a world and then provide stats to a character and then go to the ‘survive’ phase. Perhaps that is why they have to sneak into deserted structures, looking for food, and use mechanics skills which the player receives at the beginning of the game. It could mean becoming a rollerblading prodigy, eliminating zombies with a sling shot, and even creating your own bicycle from the ground up through the game’s vehicle construction kit.

Regardless of the type of person you turn into, the systems at your disposal are unbearably specific. C:DDA has variety and depth and if you can get past the ASCII graphics or simple tilesets then you will have years and years of stories to tell.

 

21. Sons Of The Forest (early access)

This place was occupied by this game’s predecessor, The Forest. Like its daddy, Sons Of The Forest is a survival game of PVEVC, where “C” means “cannibals”. You are a special ops team that was assembled to extract a kidnapped billionaire from an island – however, your helicopter crashes and nearly everyone in your team – except for this one moronic but adored man named Kelvin – is captured. Thus, your dilemma is a) exist in this wooded island. Build a camp. Grow blueberries. Stroll through the trees, and listen to the soft murmur of the river running by.

And then of course there is b) see some half-naked man clutching on the tree, and gazing at you. Ah, there is another one on the path a little further up. Oh, he is approaching you. Oh no. Oh no! Sons Of The Forest is still in early access, but it became a hit on Steam when it was released, and there is much to like about it: the kind of pulp action it emulates, its sunny setting, the contrast of which becomes rather less sunny when the cannibals appear and you still haven’t crafted any weapons yet. The survival and crafting systems are well thought out and explained, kudos to the inventory system – it is a roll-out survival pack for you to search through. Good stuff.

 

20. Raft
Developer: Redbeet Interactive

Release date: 2022

Unlike other survival games where you are placed in a desolate, or zombie infested wasteland, Raft leaves you on the water. Being stuck all alone (or with several other people if you chose to play in co-op) on the titular pile of wooden planks surrounded by water as far as the eye can see, Raft is a bit like the video game version of The Life of Pi.

Instead of having to survive with a hungry tiger as your marooned next door neighbor, it’s the sharks you have to look out for in this early access briny survival sim as they will chomp chomp chomp their way through practically anything they can fit into their mouths – including that flimsy raft of yours.

Fortunately, it is not only about surviving the raft and defending the new home from the creatures of the ocean depths. Whereas the hunger and thirst have to be refilled constantly, Raft also allows you to be a little ridiculous and build multi-story palaces if you want to, complete with shark head trophies and any other flotsam and jetsam you can find in the ocean. And goodness is there a lot of flotsam swimming about in Raft. No matter what has befallen the larger world beyond, much of it has wound up in the sea.

 

19. Pathologic
Developer: Ice-Pick Lodge, General Arcade

Release date: 2015

It is perhaps unnecessary to state that Pathologic is not like any other survival game, because, really, Pathologic is not like any other game at all. That is a survival RPG game with some elements of psychological horror. In one of three healers, you are tasked with finding the root of a sickness that is gradually consuming the life out of an ethereal town and you have twelve days to do so.

The town has its own pace and its own time and things will happen in that town whether you are a participant or not. When the plague hits the town the inhabitants can begin to die off and this will make it difficult for them to assist you in your mission. Some are shut down all the time, while others will only open if you are playing as a particular character. And you will not be able to learn anything at all if you get sick or poorly nonurished. Every action you perform in Pathologic has a reaction, although sometimes it is not immediately noticeable. It is possible to gain more reputation by soothing the suffering of the ill but those might be the resources that you would require in the future or for yourself. The whole game is an ethical issue with a dark outlook.

 

18. 7 Days To Die

Developer: Ice-Pick Lodge, General Arcade

Release date: 2015

First, one may think that 7 Days To Die is just another zombie game, the result of a rather unexplainable cross between Minecraft and DayZ. But to discard it as a game with poor graphics and distorted terrains would be a severe underestimation of this murky-looking craft ‘em up, which is probably the only game that can be compared to an interactive zombie movie. The zombies are classic Romero – they are just meatbags – slow, shambling corpses who do not even acknowledge your existence as you run around the city scrounging for supplies.

That is why everything is set to make you relax and feel comfortable just before they make their move. At night you sit and think, “Yeah, those traps will do the trick”. The game sends a swarm at you and everything goes up in smoke. It’s the basic mistakes you see in any zombie movie you can think of. You should have known better, but alas, you fall for their tricks every single damn time. Finally, 7 Days To Die understands how to put the pressure on the player – if it doesn’t eat them alive while they’re unconscious, that is.

 

17. This War Of Mine
Developer: 11 bit studios

Release date: 2014

Between this and Frostpunk, it can be seen that 11 bit Studios definitely have a good sense of developing dark, yet engaging survival management games. This War of Mine takes place in a fictitious war, and it challenges you to take care of a group of people sheltered in a city under siege. During the day, survivors have to remain indoors, and that is where you organize your hideout, deciding how to spend scarce, brief supplies. It is rather interesting that there are so many demands, but there are only a few things you can do at the same time and solve.

Depending on the night, you can select a survivor to go out into the dark in search of food in the destroyed city. Out there, awful things occur. Your survivor might have to murder to get the medicine and food their friends need, come back to the base and be scarred for life. Survivors may feel guilty and/or shameful and that can lead to loss of appetite and even the will to live.

This War of Mine does not show the glamour of war or the capability to survive one; it shows the suffering and makes the players question the morality of survival. Yet, being more personal, it is also significantly more efficient than Frostpunk. One cannot really bother for 100 unknown people, but we were fully to blame for the fate of Boris, Katia and the rest of the survivors.

 

16. Astroneer
Developer: System Era Softworks

Release date: 2016

Watching Astroneer is very enjoyable for us. Survival should be hard, but Astroneer is built on a wild new idea: What if it was not hard at all? Madness! The only thing you have to concern yourself with is oxygen, but if you’re connected to a base or a vehicle you never have to worry about running out, and you can always keep topping up your own. Having that sorted out, you can begin growing rapidly, venturing out on long missions into beautiful extraterrestrial territories. Instead of a gruff and burly man of the wilderness, you’re a scholar, exploring new frontiers and establishing scientific bases.

This is because you immediately start with the advanced technology and you can now build rockets while in another survival game you are still building your first log cabin. Soon you will be flying to other worlds and moons in the search for more materials and scientific wonders. Still, there is enough steam behind Astroneer even if it didn’t have the struggle. It’s also a great co-op game and that extra set of hands means you can carry more back from missions and begin more complex research and construction missions sooner. Since it is all voluntary, it is not the sort of survival game that is going to strain friendships or turn into arguments as to who is supposed to bring the spare battery.

‘Thanks for reading! The remaining of blog will be in the next post, don’t miss it!’