Survival gamestend to be among the more brutal genres of games out there. This is because most experiences that fall under this umbrella drop players into a world with almost nothing and forces them to try to gather material and keep their health up to stay alive for as long as possible.
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While the concept seems overwhelming enough, it can then be taken up a notch when these games are brutal in presentations. The most brutal are those that are rated M for Mature by the ESRB as these typically showcase violence and other intense themes that wouldn’t be appropriate for a younger audience.
87 Days To Die
Survival games are known for having a ton of systems that players can tinker around with.7 Days to Dieis one of the deeper survival experiences out there as they have a ton of systems that are spread out among many different gameplay elements, pulling from other genres like first-person shooters and tower defense games.
The open world of7 Days to Dieis split between five different biomes that the player can explore and take on hordes of zombies. It has a deep crafting system that allows players to make tools ranging from weapons to vehicles. It can be played with friends and against other players, plus it hasa huge modding community.
7State Of Decay 2
Some games under the survival umbrella could be considered simulators as they tend to be simulating an experience that an individual may have if dealing with the adversities in front of them.State of Decay 2very much leans into the simulation aspect, along with being a zombie-fighting experience.
Another open-world experience,State of Decay 2tasks players to rebuild society while also dealing with post-apocalyptic repercussions. There are many choices that are crucial to survival, includingwhere to set up a baseand who to bring on adventures in hunting for food and killing zombies.
6Conan Exiles
Settings matter when it comes to an open world that players will spend a lot of time with.Conan Exilesis an open-world survival multiplayer game set in the Conan the Barbarian universe, where the game starts with Conan rescuing the player and then setting them off to survive on their own.
Along with wandering an intense world to gather materials,Conan Exilesplayers can gear up their character in a specific way that will get them ready to create or join a clan in war. Along with building civilizations, an arsenal of tools can be used to take on players, fromswords and bowsto endless amounts of magic.
5DayZ
One aspect of the high-stakes survival experiences in games is the fear of permanent death. In other words, there are games that place players in the world with one life. Dying means that player will lose all their items and progress, forcing them to start from scratch after they die.DayZwas one of the biggest entries to implement this.
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Another open-world multiplayer survival experience,DayZplaces players in a world filled with both dangerous zombies and players that will be willing to take anyone down given they can loot the player after the fact. Up to 60 players can be on a server at one time with the ability to find some that are customized with mods.
4Rust
Most of the time, games rated maturein the survival genreare given that rating because of the violence and gore. While that is also the case withRust, the survival multiplayer game is also known for having players start out with nothing at all. Not even clothes.
While this is a comedic element ofRust, there’s much more to the game than its unique starting point. Unlike many other games on this list, the game is very focused on surviving the wilderness, which includes animals and other players who are living around the world. If players don’t want to interact with random people, there are private servers available.
3This War Of Mine
As mentioned earlier, mature-rated survival games are among the most brutal in the genre.This War of Mineis a look at what it is like being a civilian trying to survive in the middle of a war, where enemy soldiers have no problem taking down innocent people that aren’t trying to fight back.
From this angle,This War of Minetells the story of many of the people who have to live in this dangerous world trying to provide for each other while their world falls apart. Decisions madethroughout the gamewill determine how long a person survives in this bleak environment.
2Frostpunk
The creators behindThis War of Minehave also made another mature survival title calledFrostpunk. The world has completely frozen over, and the player is in charge of building a society that can have sustainable heat to thrive in these frigid conditions.
Decisions are also at the forefront ofFrostpunk. Along with gathering resources and attempting to make it as easy as possible to keep society running, players willneed to decidethe basic everyday life of the people in the community. Players are ultimately a ruler, so they must choose how compassionate or intense they use their power.
1The Forest
A lot of survival games typically start the player off in the middle of nowhere with no backstory to know how they ended up in the situation they are currently in.The Foreststarts with the player on a plane that later crashes into the woods, where horrific mutants are ready to make their attack.
As with many survival games,The Foresttasks the player to attempt to live in the woods after the crash. This includes building a camp and gathering resources, plus dealing with any enemies that may attempt to kill the player at night. The depth of the game actually comes from the mutants themselves, as they are more than just monsters, as well asa dynamic combat system.
