My Top 12 Offline, Single-Player "Survival" Games
Since the arrival of the infamous Arma II DayZ mod in early 2013, the idea of survival games and the featuring of survival mechanics in other genres have found their way into the mainstream. By 2015, the “early access, player versus player survival-sandbox” was a commodity that lined the shelves of many-a-steam account, and player counts were peaking worldwide. Popularity wise, the 2020 Battle Royale game is basically the streamlined evolution of the 2013-2017 survival game.
This is of course an oversimplification, but in all seriousness, the multiplayer (zombie) survival-sandbox craze was out of control from the early to mid-2010s. The vast majority of titles released within that time frame died slow deaths, usually petering out after 3 years max, most dying within the same year of release. The ones that survived (ha) were those with a dedicated developer/developer-team who either (A) pushed regular updates to maintain the interest of their player base, and/or (B) specialized in one particular aspect that no other title was focusing on, allowing them to differentiate themselves more greatly to keep players coming back.
The games that died were, conversely, those with developer teams who neglected to fix core issues, supply new content, and/or come into their own with unique mechanics. A prime example of such a failure is H1Z1 and their team at Daybreak Games, who neglected to ever improve the horrid zombie AI, combat rampant cheaters on their official servers, and patch core bugs/glitches plaguing the game since launch day. Heck, they even removed features, such as weather-changes, due to performance problems they were never able to pin-point. Red flags all over the place, there!
Then, you have other games such as 7 Days to Die, which, despite opening up for Early Access in late 2013, is still in an early access ALPHA stage almost 7 years later! Granted, it’s not a bad game at all; it just isn’t a very polished one, as is generally the case across the board in this genre (barring a few exceptions). The thing is, 7 Days is still going strong (20,000 active players on average at the time of this writing) because they regularly push out big content updates a few times a year, and the game itself honed in on mechanics concerning crafting and horde-survival, something no other titles at the time were doing (and I’d argue that even today, it’s still the only true game of its kind).
You also have the OG’s in the field that refused to die, hammering through hard times and improving themselves beyond recognition. Their developers’ dedication, coupled with a loyal player base, have become what other games in the genre wish they could become. A few examples from this batch include Unturned, a one-man developer project that’s been rolling steadily and humbly evolving incrementally since its initial 2012 debut as a Roblox-minigame under the name Deadzone. The other much-beloved title to mention is of course Facepunch’s Rust, which at one point was re-coded and designed from scratch entirely, despite years of effort put into the prior prototype. You wouldn’t have thought then, with its future in limbo, that it would become one of 2020’s most played PC games, regardless of genre… but here we are, with the game fully released and its Early-Access tag long-gone. I don’t care what the haters have to say; Rust was Early Access done right.
The greatest strength of the Multiplayer Survival-Sandbox is also (sometimes) its biggest weakness; other players! I love the uncertainty, treachery, and danger other players introduce into my games as much as the next guy, but at the same time, the fun-factor of these titles is very heavily dependent on (A) server quality (which is hit or miss depending on many factors, including technical soundness of the netcode and simply what type of people are connected with you), and (B) the amount of time you have to invest, seeing as nearly all these games will see your progress deleted overnight if you are not the server host. The genre has its place, though; like I said in my review of Rust, the time you spend in these games must be treated like a vacation. Your experiences are temporary; you are playing for the memory of said experiences, because in the end, you’ll have nothing to come back to as time goes by.
In that vein, I am writing out this carefully curated list for people who want the challenge of a survival experience, but desire the freedom to start and stop at their leisure, value the feeling of permanent progression, and don’t want to go head-to-head against people who are likely leagues ahead of them in terms of experience.
So here it goes: these are my favorite single-player, offline survival games!
Survival-Focused Games
This section will contain titles which put survival mechanics at the head of their design philosophy. These games were made with the intention of being survival games.
The Long Dark
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first, shall we? The Long Dark is probably the only game on this list to focus entirely on being a true Survival Game. No zombies, mutants, or monsters… it’s just you against mother nature, in an absolutely HUGE open-world sandbox. Your goal? Stay alive as long as possible, against all odds. Bad weather, starving wolves, and resource scarcity are your enemies, here. Death means starting over from scratch. Definitely the most hardcore title on this list by a wide margin. Hinterland Studio really put their nose to the grindstone in terms of general polishing, as every element in this game functions butter-smooth, and nothing feels out of place. Highly recommended, hence its high listing here. Also features a well-made story mode, but they’re not done with it yet, so for now it serves more as a tutorial for its mainline survival-sandbox.
Don’t Starve
If Tim Burton made a Survival Game, it would be Don’t Starve. The primary goal is to, as the name suggests, avoid death by starvation, though there are plenty more things to worry about than simply your stomach. Insanity and the creatures that lie in the dark are big threats to your success, and its roguelike map structure mean you can’t just memorize where to go, as every run is different. Just like in the Long Dark, death means starting over completely (if you play on the standard settings), but the plethora of difficulty/world-gen options and alternative characters to play as allow you to tweak the experience to be more or less forgiving. The unique art style and overall design separate Don’t Starve from the competition, and the game itself is quite fun, if frustrating at times. Klei Interactive also has their sequel, Don’t Starve: Together, which offers a slightly stripped-down version of the game with the option to join up with friends, if you’re interested in cooperative play.
Outward
A survival game that plants its roots in RPG mechanics, Outward offers a much different take on the genre. You can never flat-out “die” in Outward; instead, reaching zero HP will lead you into scenarios like having to work in a labor camp to earn your way out, or being stripped dry and left for dead in far-away locations. This encourages players to press on, despite encountering failure, and ultimately leads to more interesting outcomes than your bog-standard “load game” screen. Since Outward’s release, I’ve seen more games take note of this idea and adapt it in their own way; you know you’re doing something right when others try to copy you. Another mechanic to take note of is the lack of fast travel, which forces you to think about what you’ll pack with you on your journey, and encourages you to take care of local business in certain areas while you are already there, instead of just accepting every mission you’re offered with the mindset of “I’ll deal with it later.” The game plays mostly like a traditional action-RPG, and despite being rough around the edges, it still makes for a very fun experience. It also allows for cooperative play to invite a friend along with you if you’d like.
Darkwood
A top-down survival-horror game, Darkwood will test you. “Uh… 2D graphics? Top-down sight picture? How can that possibly be scary?” One word: sound. The audio-mixing/soundtrack and overall game design at work here is incredible, considering the relatively small crowdfunding budget Acid Wizard was working with. And just because the game is top down doesn’t mean you can see everything on-screen; the scariest part about Darkwood is the fact that you can only see in the direction that your character is facing via your cone of sight. Tunnel vision coupled with fear-inducing sound effects, resource scarcity, and a map layout that’s randomly generated, and you literally have no idea what’s around every corner… but don’t worry; your imagination will fill in what the 2D sprites can’t provide. And if you’ve a “poor imagination,” the sound and music will take care of that for you…
Games Featuring a Survival Mode
Titles under this section are not necessarily “survival games” through and through, but instead feature survival-focused game modes/difficulty settings that enhance the challenge and shift focus away from the original game design.
Fallout 4 / Skyrim SE
Everybody knows Bethesda. Most people like Bethesda games. Bethesda games are solid and highly flexible for modification. That’s why I’m including two of their latest single-player open-world entries on this list. Both feature a survival mode (though in the case of Skyrim, it arrives in the form of overpriced DLC) which makes scavenging a necessity and encourages slower paced gameplay, due to the fact that in order to save your game in Survival mode, you need to sleep at a bed. Die, and you’ll be zipped back to where you last took a nap. This system, albeit simple, changes how you play both RPGs dramatically. If you want survival in a Nordic fantasy setting, play Skyrim. If you want it in a post-nuclear apocalypse, play Fallout. Both have huge modding communities, and with the right tweaks, you can tailor your experience in pretty much any way you see fit; if you can think it up, chances are someone already made a mod for it. Both titles are RPG-first, with the survival elements being more of an afterthought, but I still found them to be enjoyable in their own right; just be sure to temper your expectations.
No Man’s Sky
Speaking of tempering your expectations, let’s talk about No Man’s Sky. While Hello Games did create and profit from what some may consider the biggest lie in gaming history, over the few years since the release of No Man’s Sky, they’ve been hard at work delivering on implementation of systems that were once false promises, despite leagues of (somewhat deserved) backlash and bad-faith. Regardless of the past, No Man’s Sky today offers a very laid-back exploration-focused sci-fi survival sandbox, if that’s your cup of tea. It’s got base building, space-pirates, optional cooperative multiplayer, and basically an infinitely generated universe to mess around in. Definitely not a game for everyone, but I come back to it every now and then to get my fix of space-ships and planet harvesting action.
Minecraft
On the topic of harvesting, what would this list be if I omitted the most popular game ever made? Minecraft’s survival mode has harvesting, crafting, base-building, cooking, mining, dungeon delving, boss fights, single/multiplayer… I mean, it pretty much checks every box except for “realistic graphics” when we’re talking about content. Very accessible, very well known, and not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said. I doubt there’s another game with as many mods as Minecraft, so if you’re looking for a very specific experience, I’d check out Technic or Feed the Beast’s modpacks if you want an all-in-one solution to nab a ton of mods in one go. By far and away one of the best survival games ever, let alone probably one of the best games of all time, period.
Games with Survival Elements
The following titles are not survival games, nor do they feature a survival mode. Why include them then? Because they contain enough survival elements that they are almost survival games, and they all take place in post-apocalyptic scenarios (and they’re all great games either way).
Metro Exodus
Nuke-torn landscapes? Check. Resource scarcity? Check. Open-ended level design? Check. I mean, there’s no base-building, food/water mechanics, or even a true open-world sandbox to mess about in, and the story progression is very linear, but it would be wrong to exclude Metro Exodus from this list based on that criteria alone. The atmosphere feels very authentic, and even though at the end of the day you’ve still gotta go from point A to B no matter what, the freedom to move about the levels as you see fit grants an excellent illusion of open-world gameplay, and the variety of monsters combined with constantly running out of ammo and gas mask filters creates tense situations that are excellent in their own right. Highly recommended, even though it doesn’t quite fit the bill when we’re talking “survival” game, seeing as it’s really a story-driven, linear shooter.
Dying Light
In the same vein as the previous entry, I’d also like to offer Dying Light as a potential candidate, as with its Nightmare Difficulty added a few years after its release, it definitely has a newfound survival atmosphere that feels distinctly different than its original action movie-esque gameplay. Whereas before, the zombies would eventually become a pushover, being decapitated and felled left and right with single well-placed blows from over-the-top weapons, Nightmare difficulty forces you to flee from hordes and seriously prioritize getting home before dark. Every zed poses a legitimate threat to your survival, and the three open-world maps it includes, alongside an enjoyable story-mode and wide arsenal of close-quarter weapons and firearms, ensures you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth. If you decide to get this one, be sure to buy “The Following” edition, as it includes their major expansion pack that adds a huge location and post-game story to complete, along with new weapon types and drivable dune-buggies! Good stuff.
Death Stranding
While it is without a doubt not a survival game, and definitely not for everybody, Death Stranding does scratch the survival-game itch in ways that are not immediately apparent at first glance. To put it simply, it’s a game that’s all about micro-management of inventory and resources, crafting gear, constructing safe-houses, and traversing an open-world. If that doesn’t sound familiar, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s basically “superhero UPS guy treks across Icelandic America, kicking the asses of thieves, terrorists, ghosts, supernatural creatures and taking names… with a backpack full of junk and a baby strapped to his chest.”
Sound like fun? ‘Course it does…
Rain World
The sole platformer on this list, Rain World is deceptively cute in comparison to the other games on this list. News flash: it is by far and away the most difficult one here, so hard that only 6.5% of people who bought the game actually finished it. It’s unfair, and it’s brutal. It’s also extremely atmospheric and beautiful, if you give it time to bloom, pushing through the frustrating lows it bestows upon you. There’s over a thousand hand-crafted rooms to explore, and it’s truly open-world, with tons of verticality in its level design. It features survival mechanics, such as needing to scavenge for food in order to sleep and save your game, and tons of hidden locations and wildlife to keep you engaged. I’ve finished the game three times or so now, and there are still entire regions I’ve never seen. Absolutely amazing work by VideoCult in making this, and ballsy no-compromise design choices make the world feel authentic. I’ve got a soft spot for this one, and highly recommend it to people seeking a challenging, unique platforming experience fraught with hardship at every turn.
Resident Evil 2
Another survival-horror for the list, Resident Evil 2 offers a truly terrifying immersive experience. Zombies take a crap ton of ammo to kill permanently, and Capcom doesn’t give you very much ammo to work with. Resources don’t respawn, but neither do your enemies, so at least there’s that. The story is very linear, but different points in the game allow for limited exploration, and give you freedom to hunt for key items in an order of your choosing. Multiple scenarios/characters to play as give the game great replay value that will give you a fresh experience for a few runs. Extremely polished at every corner, amazing graphics, and a great step forward for the franchise. This is a must-own title if you feel you’re brave enough to try it. Great value, great fun.
It’s not a perfect list, and I’m sure I missed a few. Bear in mind, however, that I’ve neglected to list games that I have not personally tried, for I cannot attest to their quality without first-hand experience. The list above should give you a great starting point if you are interested in dipping your feet into genre, but don’t necessarily want to try your luck with the multiplayer titles that started the trend to begin with.
I will close by saying this, though; the long running “family roots” of the genre, namely DayZ and Rust, blew up because they provided a sandbox environment for people to unleash their inner crazy. They are famous not because they’re inherently “great” games, but because they allow people to create alliances, rivalries, and aims that spark some of the craziest scenarios a game can ever produce. Why? Because people are random, and you never know what you’re in for when you jump right into the middle of a warzone, where “fair play” and rules are thrown out the window. Offline survival games will never quite recreate those feelings of dread and stress, nor adrenal elation through successful encounters, but they might pique your interest enough to try the real thing. Regardless, this list contains fun games, period… so enjoy!