I was a fan of The Escapists and I think I reviewed it for Gamestyle in a previous life. So I jumped at the chance to give The Survivalists a go. I was left in two minds about what I ended up playing.
Let me state from the start, that The Survivalists is a technically sound game; it does crafting and survival really well. It looks the part and is generally fun to play. So everything that comes next is not me trying to put the game down. This is more personal issues I have started to have with games of this type. Honestly, for a gameplay based review look elsewhere for details, just know I think this does everything competently.
The issue comes with this being yet another game that is based around busy work. Which in of itself is fine, but when there are so many of them out there, a game needs to do something very different to stand out from the crowd and grab your attention.
Whilst the gameplay around your monkey companions raises a smile, it rarely goes beyond that, and The Survivalists falls into the same trappings of other craft-based survival games. Just lots and lots of bust work.
When I still have the likes of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and even games such as Cities Skylines all on the go, I have little time to add another game that requires me to dedicate the sort of time needed to get the most from it. This is as someone who pretty much avoids all the live service games from AAA publishers.
I did think on the Nintendo Switch it would be a good place for it, as I still go back to The Escapists from time to time. (Although I have yet to play the sequel). I had almost to force myself to be bothered to push through with The Survivalists.
It just doesn’t do enough to push those other games to the side. I mean, what can really? I already had my fill with the likes of Minecraft and Don’t Starve and once again, this is completely passable as a game, but I have too much to play anyway.
I started to feel guilty about my lack of desire to continue, because it is well ,made and the developers clearly care about the game. But here we are, I ended up having to step back and say enough is enough, as the more I forced myuself to play, the more I resented what I was playing.
To review based on my own issues would have been an unfair attack on a decent game. The sort of game I usually champion. So if you are still looking for a time-waster, or a new crafting survival game to scratch that itch, then The Survivalists is definitely worth it.
However if like me, you are already knee-deep in too0 many games, you’ll be better off waiting for a sale or just avoiding altogether.
