SURVIVAL games come in many weird and wonderful packages, but at their core they revolve around the same basic concept: surviving.
This generally entails you managing your levels of hunger, hydration and health. In theory it sounds like a potentially bland formula when creating a game and, if done wrong, it can be.
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In fact, it is not difficult at all to find a survival game on Steam that is not worth the price of admission as the genre is notorious for games being released in Early Access states that often end up being abandoned by developers.
This abandonware explosion took place after the pioneer of the genre, Minecraft, soared to a ridiculous level of popularity. Some titles like Rust and Ark Survival Evolved rode on this popularity and made games that, although buggy, took the industry by storm and offered unrivaled gaming experiences under the right circumstances.
Both drop you in worlds where real life players are your biggest threat.
Single-player survival games are much different as you often have to survive against hostile environments and AI, which are far more predictable than real-life players.
Rust started out as a bare bones game with no loading screens and no real end to gameplay posed by the developers.
This means players play as long as they have time for while trying to grind to outdo other players by getting better items, builder bigger bases and winning in PVP (player versus player) exchanges.
The gameplay loop is addictive as it can take many real-life hours to get the best items or loot (as it is known to the community), and every time you step outside your base with valuable items, you stand to lose everything you have worked so hard for.
This is what makes player interactions so interesting as people can help you, ignore you or actively try to kill you on sight to steal your precious loot, which is the most common form of player interaction.
This sense of loss is also notorious for bringing out the most toxic sides of players as it is difficult to not become frustrated with a 12-year-old screaming expletives about your family after killing you when you have painstakingly gathered materials for hours.
The game is at its best when the 12-year-olds go to bed, and you and your friends construct an impenetrable base that is loaded with loot collected by outsmarting and outplaying other players on the server.
The adrenaline rush you get after winning a close PVP exchange is akin to beating a boss in Dark Souls when you have a sliver of health bar remaining and no estus flasks (excuse the obligatory Dark Souls reference).
For people who have not played survival games like these, I would recommend them. But be prepared to be devoted to those games every night for up to a week if you want to succeed.
The open endedness of this type of multi-player experience is like heading to the casino; when you’re on top you feel unstoppable, but you need to remember that at any moment you could slip up and lose everything.
