Don’t Starve, Can You Survive?

Don’t Starve came out in early 2013 though it had been in beta for quite some time before that.  It is still currently being updated.  The game is mostly sandbox, without much of a story other than the fact that a mysterious man named Maxwell has somehow (In Wilson’s case by having him build a machine) got you to a dangerous island where you will have to brave the elements, gather resources, fight monsters, and most importantly, not starve.

Don’t Starve is rather addicting.  It feels like minecraft but with more of a focus on survival than building.  Every day is a constant struggle to stay alive as you are attacked by spiders, hounds, and the various other creatures that roam the landscape.  You need to find sources of food and plenty of things to burn for a fire at night.  If it turns to night and you don’t have a light source then you will be attacked by what is called the Grue.

Don’t Starve gives the player hunger, sanity, and health to keep track of.  Hunger depletes over time and must be replenished by eating food.  If you reach zero hunger then your health will start depleting and you will die after a time.  You do not need to drink anything.  Sanity depletes during dusk and nighttime, when close to monsters, when eating certain kinds of food, when taking damage, and when it’s raining.  Sanity can be replenished by eating food, wearing certain types of clothing, picking flowers, standing next to befriended pigs, and sleeping.  If your sanity gets too low then hallucinations will gain physical form and attempt to kill you.  Health is depleted when you take damage, whether that be from getting hit by a monster, the hunger bar depleting, standing in fire, or eating certain kinds of food.  When the health bar reaches zero, your character dies.  If you do not have some means of respawning, then the world you were playing on gets deleted.

The point of the game, while it is a sandbox, is to find the four pieces of the machine and put it together.  Doing so will allow you to travel to another world and the old one will be destroyed.  Of course you will have to survive in order to do this, especially when winter comes.  At that time you can easily freeze to death if you aren’t prepared.  Without the proper clothing and access to heat sources, you will die.  Food and resources are also harder to come by.

I like Don’t Starve because of how well thought out it is.  There are so many different things you can do, so many different strategies.  Everything you can craft has a use, and a good one at that.  The enemies are well thought out and they don’t make the game impossible, but act like real wildlife, staying neutral towards you for the most part, and attacking when you get to close.  Of course sometimes you need to fight in order to obtain resources.  Sometimes you can’t avoid it.  The game is challenging and requires planning.  Rushing in will get you killed.  It makes the game feel very realistic, even as you fight a massive Treeguard (An Ent).

I would highly recommend this game, especially if you play minecraft.  It is not first person, but I adjusted very quickly. I believe that this game would be impossible to play if it were set as a first person experience.  Once you start playing, much like me, you will quickly find that you can’t put the game down.

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