Survival games on the PC come with a mix of tension, excitement, and exploring in always hostile surroundings where basic resource management, crafting, and quick thinking will save your life.
Each game in this genre has its unique challenges and quirks, but they all share one primary goal: survive. And here are some of the best survival games to be had on PC.
1. Subnautica
It’s an alien underwater world and they’re going to throw you out there and you’re got to survive threats everywhere. The game has players stranded on an aquatic planet, discovering and building underwater bases, gathering resources and crafting vehicles for exploration.
The increased tension that comes with 3D movement and small amount of oxygen is also quite amplified, so of course every dive seems like a life and death mission.
Staying submerged for too long becomes enough to practically suffocate you, but danger can come from anywhere, and you’re a stranger in this strange world.
But whereas these moments are followed by others of calm moments spent exploring vast kelp forests, intricate caves, and biomes that are home to awe inspiring creatures; Subnautica balances this.
The game asks players to remember food, water and air while still focusing on a calming, almost meditative exploration of a hypnotic alien environment, and that’s a rare take on the survival subgenre.
2. RimWorld
Stranded colonists in RimWorld will always be reminded in a brutal world of constant threats, from wild animals, hostile raiders, and even psychological breakdowns.
But it’s an emotional and social survival challenge too, as players have to provide emotional and social needs of every colonist. If the affected individual is your colony’s only doctor or other key player, a quarrel or bout with depression can effectively knock the whole colony out of commission.
It’s RimWorld’s open survival that makes it different. Their progression is possible through multiple different routes, from constructing livable peaceful farming villages, to rustically brutalizing raiding roving bands.
Let’s just say the game is a complex simulation that as you make a decision, it ripples through the colony and affects its sustainability. While there’s still plenty to explore even after lots of hours of play, each new game is a new challenge, and a chance to discover what’s out there.
3. Terraria
Terraria is often compared to a 2D version of Minecraft and its difference is in the mix of action, RPG elements and the rich crafting mechanics.
A randomly generated world, where players sleuthed down dungeons, fought monsters, and gather loot, crafting tools, and constructing shelters until they got bored.
Terraria is layered world, and as the game goes on, players can craft more and more powerful weapons and items, their discovery taking them further and further into the world of Terraria.
4. Valheim
Players end up trapped in Viking inspired Purgatory from whence they must survive gathering resources, crafting their weapons, and defeating mythological creatures.
In co-op mode, people can play up to ten players, ensuring the game stays social in the survival experience. From a peaceful forest full of friendly creatures, players eventually enjoy entirely darker places full of big ogres and deadly mosquitoes.
Valheim is already chock full of clean, intricate details such as fire mechanics properly accounting for the smoke ventilation, and beehives needing to be tended to.
Part of the appeal of this game is that it’s in the retro aesthetic and in an immersive world. Both aspects provide players with a beautiful, and deadly, murder of a world that it is both traditional and Norse mythology.
5. Frostpunk
Instead of survival, Frostpunk places players in the frozen remains of a world where humanity hangs on to life in and around a large furnace.
Surviving the population is the main goal, and that typically involves making some very difficult moral calls. It isn’t simply a matter of managing resources, you need to actually build a functioning society in horrendous conditions.
It makes the game decide for the players, having to choose whether they will enforce the extended work shifts to get the coal or the harsh laws to enforce order. Each decision affects the morale and stability of the colony and survival and desperation are rarely clear.
The chilling atmosphere and the intense gameplay of Frostpunk are something you can call the most intense survival experience, where human cost of survival is in the foreground.
6. Minecraft
Probably the most famous sandbox survival game is Minecraft, an open world in which players can explore, mine and craft, and of course build.
Minecraft’s survival mode may be best known for creative projects, like recreating fictional worlds, but it’s certainly a difficult mode of play just as much. Out at night things start becoming alive with monsters, and they are not very helpful, you need to stay alive by being vigilant, and strategic.
Since Minecraft’s crafting system is so flexible, the game’s players can craft any way they choose — vast mines, farming, or hanging back to defend against the mobs.
Hardcore mode erases the game upon death, eliminating those slackers without enough desire to keep playing on, forcing hardcore players to either endure the real tragedy of death or continue to endure the nightmare of a game, until they’re finished.
Conclusion
On PC, the survival genre is so diverse there’s a game for every type of player; the peaceful exploration of Subnautica and the harsh societal management of Frostpunk. For these games’ play challenges you to adapt to hostile environments, make hard choices and find ways to solve them creatively.
With the best survival games, there is either a chance to survive in an alien ocean, or to manage a frostbitten colony, in this kind of game you are given a chance to try your best to survive in an alien setting.
Also read: List of Best Soulslike Games
