Green Hell
Survival games are sort of a tricky business. Unlike games where you battle enemies or compete against opponents, the survival game experience is mechanically very front-loaded. You are most vulnerable when you have little or nothing at the beginning. Dangers like running out of food and water don't scale with level or ramp up by zone, they're just there. It makes for a different sort of experience from most other game types, with all the discovery - learning recipes, dangers, and map details - tapering off as time progresses.
Green Hell really drove this point home to me. After a brief tutorial segment that sets up the story and teaches a couple things, the game drops you on your own with little more than a notebook. Some of the shelter patterns within specify they allow you to save the game, but the game doesn't otherwise make clear that shelters (crafted or a few pre-existing in the world) seriously are the only way to save your game. That's how on-your-own you are. There are various huntables, edibles, and craft materials as well as things that may harm you. You kind of have to figure out which is which the hard way. So I probably had to restart the first hour of the game half a dozen times after being poisoned by snakes or getting violently ill from eating something in particular. It took some time before figuring out I could start fires using crushed up dry leaves instead of just the far rarer bird nests. I fumbled a bit with learning to use coconut shells to deal with water.
But once I learned what I was doing and what I was dealing with, survivability went way up. I could stop in time upon hearing a rattlesnake or seeing an ant hill. Most of the major threats became completely avoidable with some familiarity. That left sustenance, which also became much easier when figuring out how to acquire food and water and make it managably safe. Once I reached that point the hostile tribefolk were my major fear, and I rarely ran into them, so a losing death spiral actually would require one or more notable mistakes rather than just accidents. In a survival mode playthrough, I expect my interest will start to wane after I reach that equalibrium point (as it does with The Long Dark, even though I keep coming back to that game).
The story mode was pretty good. I have some lingering questions about details, but on the whole it comes together reasonably well. The ending has some ambiguity, but it feels suitable. The main part of the game begins with something unclear having gone down and the main character not remembering what, exactly, so that's ripe for reveals along the way and I was satisfied with the pace of those. I was a little disappointed to realize the pre-existing camps are pretty well situated so you could rush from one to another without ever really doing any building of your own, but that's only visible after the fact. It works well overall, providing some direction while not really forcing you forward. In this aspect, the game reminds me of Subnautica which I consider very highly.
So... yeah, pretty cool game, all told. I'll dabble some with the survival mode and see how that holds up.
Green Hell really drove this point home to me. After a brief tutorial segment that sets up the story and teaches a couple things, the game drops you on your own with little more than a notebook. Some of the shelter patterns within specify they allow you to save the game, but the game doesn't otherwise make clear that shelters (crafted or a few pre-existing in the world) seriously are the only way to save your game. That's how on-your-own you are. There are various huntables, edibles, and craft materials as well as things that may harm you. You kind of have to figure out which is which the hard way. So I probably had to restart the first hour of the game half a dozen times after being poisoned by snakes or getting violently ill from eating something in particular. It took some time before figuring out I could start fires using crushed up dry leaves instead of just the far rarer bird nests. I fumbled a bit with learning to use coconut shells to deal with water.
But once I learned what I was doing and what I was dealing with, survivability went way up. I could stop in time upon hearing a rattlesnake or seeing an ant hill. Most of the major threats became completely avoidable with some familiarity. That left sustenance, which also became much easier when figuring out how to acquire food and water and make it managably safe. Once I reached that point the hostile tribefolk were my major fear, and I rarely ran into them, so a losing death spiral actually would require one or more notable mistakes rather than just accidents. In a survival mode playthrough, I expect my interest will start to wane after I reach that equalibrium point (as it does with The Long Dark, even though I keep coming back to that game).
The story mode was pretty good. I have some lingering questions about details, but on the whole it comes together reasonably well. The ending has some ambiguity, but it feels suitable. The main part of the game begins with something unclear having gone down and the main character not remembering what, exactly, so that's ripe for reveals along the way and I was satisfied with the pace of those. I was a little disappointed to realize the pre-existing camps are pretty well situated so you could rush from one to another without ever really doing any building of your own, but that's only visible after the fact. It works well overall, providing some direction while not really forcing you forward. In this aspect, the game reminds me of Subnautica which I consider very highly.
So... yeah, pretty cool game, all told. I'll dabble some with the survival mode and see how that holds up.
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