From Sons of the Forest and Rust to Ark and Valheim, there’s something alluring about games that capture that sense of surviving against all odds. Few things, it turns out, are quite as threatening as nature itself, and going beyond the ocean depths of Subnautica and following in the frozen footsteps of The Long Dark and Frostpunk comes Winter Survival, an aptly named new Steam game pitting you against the frostbitten wilds.
Winter Survival comes from developer Drago Entertainment, and sees “what was supposed to be a nice winter hike in the Mount Washington State Park” transformed into a horrifying, harsh fight to stay alive. This brutally realistic survival game forces you to consider your body temperature, your physical and mental exhaustion, and of course your hunger and thirst as you struggle against the elements.
At the forefront of Winter Survival’s systems is your character’s mental state. “In reality, your mind becomes a problem way sooner than starvation,” Drago Entertainment explains. “It starts with fatigue symptoms, losing your will to continue the struggle, up to imagining things, and even full-blown hallucinations.”
Of course, some threats are very real and present. That includes deadly animals such as wolves and bears and, while you can certainly prepare weapons, torches, traps, and other tools to help fight off any potential predators, in many cases avoiding or escaping a dangerous confrontation is the better play than attempting to take a fight head-on. You’ll also be able to build shelters, campfires, and more to help hold out against the cold and the wildlife.
Winter Survival offers three different ways to play. Story mode is the core narrative driven experience, Coldwave pushes the survival elements to the max with constantly shifting weather to see how long you can survive, and Endless mode is a more freeform sandbox game mode that gives you access to more resources and crafting options.
Winter Survival is set to launch Wednesday February 28, 2024 via Steam Early Access. You can add it to your wishlist now. If you want to play it even earlier, however, Drago Games are currently taking sign ups for “a certain amount of playtesters to get their hands on Winter Survival before it releases into early access” via their website.
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