Январь 2010 Февраль 2010 Март 2010 Апрель 2010 Май 2010
Июнь 2010
Июль 2010 Август 2010
Сентябрь 2010
Октябрь 2010
Ноябрь 2010
Декабрь 2010
Январь 2011
Февраль 2011 Март 2011 Апрель 2011 Май 2011 Июнь 2011 Июль 2011 Август 2011
Сентябрь 2011
Октябрь 2011 Ноябрь 2011 Декабрь 2011 Январь 2012 Февраль 2012 Март 2012 Апрель 2012 Май 2012 Июнь 2012 Июль 2012 Август 2012 Сентябрь 2012 Октябрь 2012 Ноябрь 2012 Декабрь 2012 Январь 2013 Февраль 2013 Март 2013 Апрель 2013 Май 2013 Июнь 2013 Июль 2013 Август 2013 Сентябрь 2013 Октябрь 2013 Ноябрь 2013 Декабрь 2013 Январь 2014 Февраль 2014
Март 2014
Апрель 2014 Май 2014 Июнь 2014 Июль 2014 Август 2014 Сентябрь 2014 Октябрь 2014 Ноябрь 2014 Декабрь 2014 Январь 2015 Февраль 2015 Март 2015 Апрель 2015 Май 2015 Июнь 2015 Июль 2015 Август 2015 Сентябрь 2015 Октябрь 2015 Ноябрь 2015 Декабрь 2015 Январь 2016 Февраль 2016 Март 2016 Апрель 2016 Май 2016 Июнь 2016 Июль 2016 Август 2016 Сентябрь 2016 Октябрь 2016 Ноябрь 2016 Декабрь 2016 Январь 2017 Февраль 2017 Март 2017 Апрель 2017 Май 2017
Июнь 2017
Июль 2017
Август 2017 Сентябрь 2017 Октябрь 2017 Ноябрь 2017 Декабрь 2017 Январь 2018 Февраль 2018 Март 2018 Апрель 2018 Май 2018 Июнь 2018 Июль 2018 Август 2018 Сентябрь 2018 Октябрь 2018 Ноябрь 2018 Декабрь 2018 Январь 2019
Февраль 2019
Март 2019 Апрель 2019 Май 2019 Июнь 2019 Июль 2019 Август 2019 Сентябрь 2019 Октябрь 2019 Ноябрь 2019 Декабрь 2019 Январь 2020
Февраль 2020
Март 2020 Апрель 2020 Май 2020 Июнь 2020 Июль 2020 Август 2020 Сентябрь 2020 Октябрь 2020 Ноябрь 2020 Декабрь 2020 Январь 2021 Февраль 2021 Март 2021 Апрель 2021 Май 2021 Июнь 2021 Июль 2021 Август 2021 Сентябрь 2021 Октябрь 2021 Ноябрь 2021 Декабрь 2021 Январь 2022 Февраль 2022 Март 2022 Апрель 2022 Май 2022 Июнь 2022 Июль 2022 Август 2022 Сентябрь 2022 Октябрь 2022 Ноябрь 2022 Декабрь 2022 Январь 2023 Февраль 2023 Март 2023 Апрель 2023 Май 2023 Июнь 2023 Июль 2023 Август 2023 Сентябрь 2023 Октябрь 2023 Ноябрь 2023 Декабрь 2023 Январь 2024 Февраль 2024 Март 2024
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
31
Game News |

2021 delivered some big twists to the familiar survival game formula

 2021 delivered some big twists to the familiar survival game formula

I have a love-hate relationship with survival games. I'll get deep into them for a good long while before abruptly realizing I am sick of chopping down trees. And then I'll go cold on the genre for a while. Eventually, I'll remember how much I love survival and get drawn back in again, even if it means sharpening an ax and clearing yet another forest.

Luckily, 2021 turned out to be a standout year for survival games, and I got sucked into a bunch of them. Even chopping down trees didn't bother me this year, from Valheim's ultra-dangerous falling timbers to all the pine trees ablaze from lightning strikes in Icarus. And a big reason survival games had a great year was because so many of them had interesting twists on familiar survival systems.

In February we got Valheim, the open-world Viking adventure that swept up millions of players who quickly got busy building forts and conquering the Norse afterlife. Despite launching in Early Access, Valheim felt startlingly complete and stable, an impressive achievement for the small team (five people!) at Iron Gate Studios. And Valheim is appealing even for players who don't typically go for survival games or who find certain survival systems a drag. As Fraser wrote a couple weeks after Valheim launched, it's more forgiving than many survival games while still being a dangerous and challenging experience.

I've harped on this before, but part of Valheim's genius was its twists to common survival systems. It keeps food and cooking an extremely important part of success and turns your stomach into an inventory where you can mix and match foods that provide various benefits. You need to cook and eat, since that's how you boost your base health, your healing rate, and your stamina. With an empty stomach, you simply can't fight, run, or dodge for long, or absorb much damage. 

At the same time, you won't ever starve to death or even experience a debuff if you don't eat. You'll always retain your starting amount of base health and stamina, even without eating. That keeps food a massively important part of Valheim without punishing players for ignoring it while they're just hanging out at home or running around in the mostly safe Meadows biomes.

Another tweak of the typical survival rules: Repairing weapons, gear, ships, and building parts don't require extra resources. Usually in a survival game, if you want to repair an ax made of iron and wood, you'll need some spare iron or wood. In Valheim, all you need is a hammer or the correct workbench. Weapon and gear degradation is still a thing, and you still need to be careful your axes and bows don't break while you're out slaying monsters far from home. But once you're at a workbench, you can quickly repair your gear without having to do any tedious resource gathering. Valheim keeps the importance of these survival systems intact without making them a drag.

(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

Another fun twist on survival in 2021 was the session-based survival game. Tribes of Midgard launched in July, and while it also featured Vikings, co-op, and big magic trees, it's nothing like Valheim. The survival systems in Tribes of Midgard are pretty streamlined—you need to gather resources, craft items and weapons, upgrade your base, and protect yourself from harsh elements in certain biomes, but it's more of an action-RPG, and the sessions are short but frenzied (there's also a special survival mode where sessions can last much longer). And Icarus, from Dean Hall and RocketWerkz, arrived in December with another take on session-based survival. Players land on an alien planet and spend anywhere from a few days to a few weeks completing missions before blasting back off. 

I was a bit skeptical of Icarus because whenever you blast off and leave the planet behind, you lose everything you worked for: all the tools and weapons you crafted, the resources you gathered, and the base you built. But it turns out it's not a drag at all. Thanks to the progression system, I was able to buff my character's survival skills so gathering resources happens much quicker and I need less food, water, and oxygen to survive, so I'm able to get items crafted and a new base built much more quickly and easily on each mission.

(Image credit: RocketWerkz)

And to counter the fans' concerns about not being able to build permanent bases like they do in more traditional survival games, Icarus shipped with special outpost maps where players could build with no time limits and no fear of losing their fort when they leave. Between missions I drop down to my peaceful little map and do a bit of building and crafting. It's a soothing respite between the dangerous missions.

One of my favorite survival games of the year is Dice Legacy, which really looks nothing at all like a survival game. It's a city-builder, a colony-management game, a roguelite, and a survival game all mashed up into one. You roll dice, but those dice are also your citizens—they can freeze in winter, suffer injuries, and age and die. You'll need to feed them, keep them warm, and even keep them happy, or they'll turn on you. You can set them to work gathering resources, fighting enemies, or researching new tech, and you can even turn them into super dice with powerful abilities. Dice Legacy is a really unusual combination of genres, and it's an enjoyable surprise.

(Image credit: Facepunch Studios)

And as far as ongoing survival games, I got into Rust toward the end of the year, which continues to impress me with how much it's grown and changed since it first appeared back in 2013. I don't need to blow its horn—Rust has been in the Steam top 10 for ages and increased its player base even more this year, and it continues to get new features like underwater labs, underground rail networks, military bases, quest-giving NPCs, and a bunch more. There are also plans for a system where players can sail off the edge of the map on one server and arrive on another.

It's great to see so many new twists on survival systems in 2021, and I'm hopeful 2022 will continue the trend. There are a lot of survival games to look forward to: Ark 2 is due out this year, Sons of the Forest (the follow-up to The Forest) is coming in May, and Dying Light 2, Stalker 2, space station sim Ixion, and more are also in our near future. Hopefully, the next batch of survival games will deliver as many changes to the formula as we saw in 2021. 



Читайте также

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

Крестовые походы и битвы богов в стратегии Godsworn — уже в Steam

Former US senator and anti-videogame crusader Joe Lieberman has died at age 82

Москва

Блиц-матч по шахматам между двумя командами провели в павильоне «Спорт для каждого»

Новости тенниса



Game24.pro — паблик игровых новостей в календарном формате на основе технологичной новостной информационно-поисковой системы с элементами искусственного интеллекта, гео-отбора и возможностью мгновенной публикации авторского контента в режиме Free Public. Game24.pro — ваши Game News сегодня и сейчас в Вашем городе.

Опубликовать свою новость, реплику, комментарий, анонс и т.д. можно мгновенно — здесь.



Персональные новости

«Радио Зенит» – информационный партнер форума «Мы вместе. Спорт»

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

Благотворительный фонд «Свет в руках» проведет Всероссийскую акцию «Росток памяти»

Пассажир рейса Москва — Пермь попал в реанимацию