When it comes to obtuse and impenetrable gaming genres for newcomers, there are few that offer a more grueling beginner experience than the survival genre. These games tend to start you with next to nothing, place you in a severely hostile environment, and tend to takegreat pleasure in knocking you on your ass.
10 Best Open World Survival Games
How can I survive off of grass and dropped frames?
Which is a shame, because if you can get over this initial hump in most of these games, each experience tends to provide that quintessential ‘zero to hero’ feeling as you bend the world to your will. So, we want to do something about it to give you your survival sea legs.
We have devised a list of survival games that are either completely unique or more accessible than the rest. Making them the ideal games to play if you hate survival games, but want to find one that will change that perspective.
Cards on the table, we are going to be playing it fast and loose with the term ‘survival’. We are mainly going for games that aren’tjusttraditional survival and offer something more, or games that aren’t survival but could act as a gateway into the genre. If you want traditional survival games catering to non-fans,check these options out.
9Fallout: New Vegas
Play It Again, My Johnny…
Fallout: New Vegas
Let’s kick things off with a series thatmany love for its RPG chops. However, since Fallout: New Vegas, the Fallout franchise has consistently included survival modes in its titles, allowing players to brave the wasteland while monitoring their hunger, thirst, and sleep, all while tangling with Deathclaws.
Fallout 4 is a great survival experience, but it’s also a very involved one that pulls no punches. So we instead decided to go for FNV’s survival/hardcore mode, which is a lot less burdensome but still adds an extra layer to proceedings.
Players will need to watch their carry weight more carefully, heal with Stimpaks over time rather than instantly, and will also need to eat, drink, and sleep on a regular basis.
It’s basically an extra layer of realism and immersion to make your time in the Mojave even more memorable, so be sure to give it a try.
The North Goes Nuclear
Speaking of Fallout New Vegas, how about a game that Rebellion admitted themselves was heavily inspired by the Obsidian-fronted Fallout title?
Atomfall is a part RPG, part FPS, and part survival game. It takes the framework of the successful Sniper Elite series, borrowingits tight gunplay and FPS mechanics, but then builds an open-world mystery on top of those solid systems.
In northern England, you’ll be trapped in an enigmatic quarantine zone and will need to find leads and clues to figure out how to escape, but it’s not quite as easy as simply following a quest marker.
In fact, this game doesn’t have quest markers at all, and forces the player to understand the world, its characters, and wield knowledge as skillfully as you wield your weapons.
Add in some custom survival and crafting systems that can be altered to suit your tastes, and you have a survival game with a difference that caters to everyone. A must-play, even if you’re not a survival fan.
Push Back The Horde
Left 4 Dead 2
In terms of fantasy survival situations, aside from perhaps a nuclear apocalypse, I don’t think anything can rival a zombie outbreak in popularity. Who hasn’t talked at length to their loved ones about how they would survive the longest in a zombie situation? I know I have.
Left 4 Dead 2 is perhaps the most visceral and fun way to test that theory, as you and up to three other friends can partake in a series of campaigns as you attempt to bounce from saferoom to saferoom, before ultimately getting the last chopper out of zombie Saigon.
You’ll have ample tools for the job, like boomsticks, pipe bombs, and the like. But, critically, the zombies have plenty of ways to make your life hell as well, with the Director AI working in the background to tailor-make your hellscape.
Even today, it’s still most likely the best 4-player FPS game around, and a veryenjoyable introduction to survival gaming for tentative newbies. Just don’t shoot the Witch, whatever you do.
6Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Wake Up, Sleeper!
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
I know what you’re thinking. ‘Hey, isn’t this game a point-and-click, text-based CRPG?’ Why, yes, it is, good eye. But, hear me out.
WhileCitizen Sleepermay be a game that is governed by dice rolls and primarily succeeds off the back of its excellent writing and well-paced storytelling, it does have a lot of survival-esque qualities.
Think about it: you’re a sleeper on the run from your owners, with no money to your name, no reputation, and no friends to lean on. You have to work tirelessly every day just to make ends meet. That’s survival gaming, baby.
Plus, you always feel like you have someone breathing down your neck as you travel the Starward Vector, fueling up, gathering supplies, completing jobs, and bouncing before your potential assailant can nab you.
It’s not traditional survival, but it’s a stone’s throw awayand well worth checking out.
5Vampire Survivors
Become A One-Man-Army
While it might not be a traditional survival game with base building and crafting primitive tools from wood and stone, it has the word ‘Survivors’ in the title. So, that’s got to count for something, right?
Vampire Survivors is probably the most accessible and beginner-friendly survival experience you would ever take on, as the game effectively plays itself on account of being a Bullet Heaven.
Players simply need to move around the screen, grab XP orbs, and choose their power-ups carefully to craft a build that will make them an unstoppable force capable of mowing down enemies at a speed imperceptible to the human eye.
Plus, you may even team up with a pal for a co-op experience where you can double your firepower, divide, and conquer. It’s a game that will make you feel like a god right from the first run, which perhaps isn’t in the spirit of grueling Survival games, but if you’re someone who isn’t a fan, maybe this is something you’ll prefer.
4Pacific Drive
Drive To Survive
Pacific Drive
I’ve played my fair share of traditional survival games in my time, but it would be hard to argue against anyone crediting Pacific Drive as the most unique and innovative of the bunch.
You see, Pacific Drive is, for all intents and purposes, a traditional survival game where you need to explore, craft items on the fly, and avoid environmental hazards to ensure you don’t take a dirt nap. But it’s also wholly unlike anything else in the genre.
This is partly down to the surreal, New Weird setting. It’s also somewhat because of theroguelike-esque loop the game employs.But, above all, it’s because this game has you drive around in a beat-up station wagon, and without that car, you’re toast.
Your car is your lifeline, and this feature alone makes the game far more interesting than a lot of traditional base-building survival games on the market. So, take a trip to the Olympic Peninsula when you get a chance.
3Dune Awakening
Become the Lisan al Gaib
Dune: Awakening
Dune Awakeningis easily the most ‘traditional’ survival game listed here, but there’s a reason why I’m suggesting it to all of you survival deniers, so stick with me.
Firstly, if you’re a Dune fan in any capacity, this game really nails the feel of Arrakis, allowing you to pop on a Stillsuit, fight tooth and nail for Spice, avoid the dreaded Sandworm, and choose your faction carefully. I’m a Harkonnen man, myself.
But, alongside the survival-focused gameplay, this game also has a clear MMO feel to proceedings that helps this one stand out from the crowd. It’s not you against the world. Instead, it’s you among peers and all trying to carve out an existence on this desert planet.
Don’t get me wrong, it ain’t easy. But, never have I played a survival game that felt like such a unique and inviting multiplayer experience until diving into Arakkis. So, if you think playing with friends would help ease you into the survival genre, Dune Awakening is the way to do it.
2Dying Light
Good Night, Good Luck
Dying Light
In the casual gaming sphere, there are few game formats more popular and accessiblethan open-world games.Mainly because Sony and Ubisoft have crafted a blueprint so idiotproof that just about anyone could jump in and hit the ground running.
However, some developers are more than willing to riff on this Ubisoft formula and add some extra spice to the proceedings. Something that the original Dying Light did with aplomb.
You still have all the staples of an open world. Endless things to do in a vast setting, collectibles galore, and a gradual skill tree to unlock as you go. But, in Dying Light, you also have zombies to contend with, and survival mechanics that make them all the more dangerous.
You have a day/night cycle that makes nighttime exploration extremely risky, you have a scarcity of resources that forces you to run around in these dangerous conditions, and you have volatiles that will make your life hell if they spot you.
Thankfully, there is a great equalizer in the form of the parkour system that allows you to evade the infected, provided you’re able to leap and land with finesse. It’s a pulse-raising experience, and it makes us super excited for what The Beast has in store for us.
1The Alters
If You Want Something Done, Do It Yourself
The Alters
If there’s any game recently released that will make you think about survival games in a different way, alongside your life decisions to this point, it’s The Alters.
Playing as Jan Dolski, you’ll crashland on a hostile planet and be forced to use the power of an alien substance known as Rapidium to clone yourself to replace the crew that died upon arrival.
From there, madness ensues as you’ll need to work alongside Jan, Jan, Jan, and other Jans as you work to get your roaming base moving and get off this planet alive. All the while embracing survival systems that feel a stone’s throw away from those found infellow 11-Bit title, This War of Mine.
But why this game will suit non-fans more than that harrowing civil-war-focused affair is because The Alters balances sad and silly to make things a little more lighthearted and palatable.
Plus, the game also features third-person exploration and action-focused gameplay akin to Death Stranding, a well-paced sci-fi storyline that isn’t just filler content like most survival games, and emergent features that make everyone’s playthrough slightly different. So, there’s something for everyone.
It’s essentially a narrative-driven survival game, which until The Alters, was pretty much unheard of. So, if you’re a sucker for a good story, The Alters just might be your gateway into the survival genre.
10 Best Survival Games Where You Feel Powerless
You’ll need to defy the odds if you want to survive any of these horrific scenarios.
