5 Best Survival Games That Get Better As You Play

Survival is a test of time, and the best survival games mirror that sentiment. No matter the game, you feel the lack of resources and the need to gather them. The best survival games give you more options to expand your understanding of how the mechanics work together. The main staple of survival games is base buildings. Truly great survival games have more to show you the longer you play.

1. Subnautica

With a sequel in the works, you might be wondering if the first Subnautica is worth going back to, and the answer is yes! You crash into an alien world with nothing but your PDA, a rocket leaking radiation, and when a fish infects you with an alien virus, Subnautica urges you to just keep swimming, and eventually, you’ll be able to cure yourself, build a rocket, and go home. It’s breathtaking to see the sea that was so alien become something more recognizable through your base as it grows from a small one-room pod to a sprawling base with everything you need.

2. The Wandering Village

Or maybe, you are already home. Because that’s where you start in The Wandering Village, the back of a giant creature. This survival game is unique in that your home base is alive and will move around without your direct input. You control a group of nomads who build their home on the back of a giant beast, the only thing tall enough to tower above the corruption of the world. But it’s a race against time, because your Onbu might just wander into a desert, or another biome you aren’t prepared for, so you need to build your village from a few dinky tents into a truly impressive civilization built on the back of a giant.

3. DayZ

DayZ presents a world where the wandering dead aren’t even the biggest threat. It’s the people who’ve come here before you who’ve taken the best loot. Or worse, a building you thought was safe was turned into a kill room for a greedy player with a sniper hiding in a house a block away, so you need to keep moving. You have to fight not only zombies, but the other players who won’t always be friendly, so it’s a good idea to armor and arm yourself, and it’s only by moving deeper into the world where you can find the best of the best gear to survive.

4. Frostpunk

In Frostpunk, hope is the resource you need to cultivate. The cold storms have frozen much of the world, killing many, starving more. You’ve been selected as the Captain to lead your people past the worst storm you’ve seen. You do that by scavenging, building, and sending teams away from the relative safety of your city into the wasteland, making decisions, and investing everything you can spare. You have a limited amount of time to build your city from a small outpost into a colony that can weather it. Dotting your city with mini-generators and buildings that generate their own heat is the only way to make sure everyone lives through the coldest night ever seen so far.

5. No Man’s Sky

Finally, to end the list, a game that deserves more credit as a survival game, and despite the rocky start that it had, No Man’s Sky has really come into its own! You go from a small one-person ship with little storage space to a much larger starship. From building single room bases to store your excess to sprawling complexes made to showcase your wealth. No Man’s Sky embraces the very human desire to explore, to traverse the stars and planets, to build a home wherever you land, and then explore some more…and of course, the gamer urge of Make Number Go Up.

Final Thoughts

In the end, though all survival games are a race against time, these games only get better as time goes on. As you play the game and amass more and more resources, understanding the mechanics behind the game, and unlocking more options, you go from worrying about whether you’ve got enough food to last the night to feeling optimistic about surviving the next week.