Colony Survival Game

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)The appeal of survival games is simple to understand: fighting to stay alive is hard-coded into our DNA, so it's easy to see why we'd become engrossed in experiencing it in games. The best survival games on PC push players to their limits, presenting them with tough problems and challenging them to find creative solutions.In such a popular genre, which games provide the best survival experiences? Below you'll find our favorite examples of simulated survival on PC, whether it's among the stars, deep underground, and in other dangerous environments packed with monsters, mutants, zombies, dinosaurs, or the deadliest enemy of all: other players. Here are the best survival games on PC. FrostpunkIn a sentence: Survival, city-building, and crisis management in a frozen world.Status: Released April 24, 2018Link:Frostpunk is a blend of city-building, society simulation, and survival in a grim and frozen world. With a handful of cold, hungry, unhappy people, you'll need to construct a working city inside a snow-filled crater heated only by a massive coal furnace.

Gather resources, hunt for food, and manage your citizens by giving them hope for the future. It's a harsh and beautiful survival game that confronts you with difficult choices at every turn.Further reading:. SubnauticaIn a sentence: Survival, crafting, and building—underwater.Status: Released January 23, 2018Link:Explore an alien, underwater world while piloting your hand-crafted submarine through mysterious submerged landscapes. From beautiful coral reefs to deep-sea caves and trenches, you'll gather resources and sustenance, build habitats and a fleet of subs, and craft new tech to help you survive the depths.

It's hard not to compare it to Minecraft, yet developer Unknown Worlds has put their own unique stamp on the survival genre.Further reading: OutwardIn a sentence: A fantasy RPG with strong survival elementsStatus: Released March 2019Link:Sounds strange to say it, but this fantasy RPG where you can never actually die is around. In you're not only challenged by mystical monsters but the world itself, in which you must keep yourself fed, hydrated, and healthy. In the arid deserts heat will sap your endurance, in the marshy swamplands the water can poison you, and with no fast-travel or quest markers or even your own location shown on your map, each excursion is an exercise in preparation, patience, and survival.Further reading. In a sentence: Sci-fi colony management simulation inspired by Dwarf FortressStatus: Released October 17, 2018Link:It's been five years of Early Access, but RimWorld has finally reached version 1.0. In this management and survival sim you oversee a colony of randomly generated people stranded on a procedural alien planet.

Sep 26, 2010  Kongregate free online game Shattered Colony: The Survivors - Defeat the zombies while managing multiple resources in this hybrid RTS game. Infinite number. Play Shattered Colony.

Expand the base, keep your colonists healthy and sane, and deal with disasters thrown your way by RimWorld's AI director, which can include anything from disease outbreaks to alien attacks to weather events. The toughest challenge may be just making your colonists simply get along with each other: each one has a distinct personality, desires, and moods.Further reading: Raft. In a sentence: Survive on a raft while building it into a floating fortressStatus: In Early AccessLink:It sounds almost idyllic, floating through the world serenely on a raft, building and expanding upon it as you fish flotsam from the ocean with a grappling hook. There are sharks, though. Hungry ones, and if they can't eat you they'll settle for eating your floating home. You'll need to somehow find food and fresh water while keeping your raft afloat and growing. Luckily, you can play co-op with a pal and double your chances for survival.Further reading: State of Decay 2In a sentence: Endure the zombie apocalypse while managing a crew of survivorsStatus: Released May 22, 2018Link:You don't play State of Decay 2 as a person, but as a community of people.

The enemies that await you inside can range from 20-25, with the area boss usually showing up as a level 30-32 Assaultron.To get the most out of this area, it would be best if you brought along some support. The door is locked by a terminal, but the terminal is not locked, so just interact with it and use it to unlock access to the inside of Sugar Grove.While the Protectrons lingering around the outside may be lower levels (around the 5-10 range) inside your true test awaits.

As you make your way through the zombie apocalypse, you scavenge not just food, water, weapons, and gear, but more characters, each with their own skills, quirks, and personalities. Supplies are scarce so the bigger your community, the more you'll need to support it, meaning you'll be making excursions into the big open world map of rural America. You can have co-op partners drop in and out as well.Further reading: ScumIn a sentence: Prisoners are released onto a deadly island to fight for their livesStatus: In Early AccessLink:Scum hasn't been in Early Access long, so we're not sure what kind of game it will ultimately become, but it's already raised the bar for pure survival features. It's got a metric ton of data about what you eat and drink, down to the individual vitamins and minerals—and that stuff doesn't vanish when you eat it. It tracks your character's heart rate and body weight and even, and even simulates the added weight of your clothes when they get wet.

Scum's got a whole lot of survival simulation under the hood.Further reading: The Long DarkIn a sentence: Atmospheric survival in a Canadian post-apocalypse.Status: Released August 1, 2017Link:With a focus on atmosphere and environmental survival, The Long Dark stands out in an increasingly crowded genre. You play as a bush pilot stranded in the frozen wilderness after a mysterious global calamity.

There are no zombies, no mutants, and no other players: it's just you fighting against the elements, the wildlife, and your own human fragility.Further reading: Oxygen Not IncludedIn a sentence: Keep a handful of 3D-printed colonists alive in a dangerous and expanding underground colonyStatus: Early AccessLink:The best games are those that are easy to learn and difficult to master. Oxygen Not Included fits that bill: jumping into it and is a snap, but fully understanding it takes a lot of time and effort. While it's adorable, the colony-builder is also deep and complex as it simulates its harsh subterranean environment. You'll need to manage your colonists hunger, happiness, cleanliness, and naturally their clean and breathable oxygen as they dig out caverns, gather resources, build machinery, and try to turn a harsh environment into a comfortable underground home.Further reading: Ark: Survival EvolvedIn a sentence: Survival, crafting, and building—with dinosaurs.Status: Released August 29, 2017Link:Dropped nearly nude on an expansive map filled with dinosaurs, you'll have to contend with extreme heat and cold, starvation and dehydration, and fellow humans (though you can play solo as well). Craft weapons and gear, build a base, tame and ride dinosaurs, and join with (or battle) other players.

Ark's free Primitive Plus DLC adds tons more depth to crafting and farming.Further reading: Don't StarveIn a sentence: Survive a cartoon wilderness filled with beasts and monsters.Status: Released April 13, 2013Link:With charming artwork yet punishing gameplay, Don't Starve is an addictive challenge and one of the best survival experiences out there (and in a rare turn of events, one of the few games here to graduate from Early Access). The crafting is complex and satisfying as you attempt to survive busy days and deadly nights. Fight (and eat) animals, practice both science and magic, and keep an eye on your mental health so you don't go insane. The standalone expansion even lets you play with pals.Further reading: DuskersIn a sentence: Real-time strategy roguelike in which you explore creepy abandoned spaceships using drones.Status: Released May 18, 2016Link:Duskers may not feel entirely like a survival game, given that it's a real-time strategy roguelike about steering a fleet of drones through spooky derelict spaceships. But the reason you're exploring is to scavenge parts, collect fuel, and repair and upgrade your drones so you can continue traveling through space in hopes of finding safety and an answer to the unexplained event that seems to have left the universe uninhabited (by humans, at least).

Its a tense and nail-biting experience as you must keep moving through increasingly dangerous situations in hopes of gathering enough resources to survive.Further reading: Survival (The Division expansion)In a sentence: Battle a blizzard, roaming NPC gangs, and other players as you seek a cure for your illness in The Dark Zone of Manhattan.Status: Released November, 2016Link:The Division's second expansion provided not just new content for players but a new way to play. Trapped in a deadly blizzard, players begin each round stricken with a disease, are armed with only a pistol and low-level gear, and must travel to The Dark Zone to locate a cure and an extraction point. Meanwhile, they must survive the terrible cold, roving gangs of NPC enemies, and a couple dozen other players who are in the same predicament.Further reading: DayZIn a sentence: Online zombie survival in the Eastern European countryside.Status: Early AccessLink:Yes, many players have grown weary of waiting for the multiplayer zombie survival game to leave Early Access, and DayZ's roots in military sim ArmA make it a bit intimidating for newcomers. Still, the survival elements of DayZ are strong, with complex nutrition, hydration, and health systems that go beyond merely eating, drinking, and bandaging wounds.

Scavenge a sprawling and decaying persistent open world, engage in tense interactions with other players, customize weapons and craft gear, and try not to die: if you do, you start again with nothing.Further reading: MiscreatedIn a sentence: Tense and spooky multiplayer survival, with mutants.Status: Early AccessLink:It's easy to relegate it to the crowd of DayZ-like games that have popped up over the past few years, but Miscreated has begun to stand out as a stable and enjoyable multiplayer game—and built in Cryengine, it looks amazing as well. Beginning with just a flashlight and a change of clothing, arm and equip yourself by exploring decaying neighborhoods and military bases. AI mutants and wildlife pose a threat, but the biggest threat will come from your fellow survivors.Further reading: StarboundIn a sentence: Terraria in space.Status: Released July 22, 2016Link:From visiting distant galaxies in your customized starship to building a home and farming crops, Starbound satisfies as both a sprawling survival adventure and a cozy pastime. The 2D pixelated sandbox is a joy to explore, and along the way you'll meet friendly alien NPCs and battle surprisingly tough bosses. There's a story-based campaign and side-quests, but no real feeling of pressure to complete them except at your leisure.

You can also play with friends on dedicated servers or simply by inviting them into your game via Steam.Further reading: RustIn a sentence: Naked men running around hitting each other with rocks.Status: Release February 8, 2018Link:Join or battle other players—or attempt to go it alone—starting with primitive tools and weapons and advancing to firearms and massive bases. You'll have to contend with wild animals, hunger, and thirst, but this is a very PVP-intensive survival experience and your main threat will come from the dozens of other players on the servers. Rust left Early Access in Early 2018, but continues to add new features.Further reading: MinecraftIn a sentence: Build things, destroy things, fight monsters.Status: Released October 7, 2011Link:You may have heard of it.

There are many different ways to play Minecraft: alone, in creative mode, with friends and strangers, as an explorer, or with custom game modes on specialty servers. As a survival game, it's still excellent, with well-implemented hunger and thirst systems and incredibly robust crafting and building. Dive into its blocky and beautiful world and you may never want to leave.Further reading: The ForestIn a sentence: Plane crash survivor angers cannibal tribe.Status: Release April 30, 2018Link:After picking through the wreckage of the plane crash that stranded you here, you'll quickly discover you're not alone. You share a mysterious island with a tribe of terrifying cannibals, and while you struggle to stay fed and hydrated, build structures from simple tents to log homes, and construct traps to snare animals, you'll have to defend against the hungry and determined locals. The Forest is built in Unity 5, which provides stunning visuals and effects. There's even a VR version.Further reading: TerrariaIn a sentence: Side-scrolling Minecraft.Status: Released May 16, 2011Link:A wonderful, expansive, addictive, and not to mention inexpensive survival crafting sandbox.

Explore randomly generated worlds, gather resources, and enjoy a simple yet satisfying crafting system. Tunnel through vast caverns, battle monsters, befriend NPCs, build yourself a palace, and play alone or with friends in co-op. Terraria has been around for years, but it's stood the test of time.Further reading: HurtworldIn a sentence: Surivival in a harsh environment with a focus on skill-based PVP.Status: Early AccessLink:Don't let its mildly cartoony look fool you: Hurtworld is no picnic. If you survive a few early hours of scrounging and combat with AI mutants and human players, you'll be able to claim land, build a base, and repair procedurally generated vehicles (if you can find the parts). There's an emphasis on the effects of weather, and not just on the player—for instance, the steak in your pack might freeze instead of rot when it gets cold enough. And, for a game that promises to punish you, it's surprisingly forgiving in a few instances, such as letting you keep your weapons when you die.Further reading: This War of MineIn a sentence: Struggle to survive in a war-torn city.Status: Released November 14, 2014Link:Depicting war not from the perspective of an elite soldier but from that of a group of civilians simply trying to stay alive amidst the chaos, This War of Mine is a different and more desperate kind of survival game. You'll face tough choices as you manage your survivors' health, both physical and mental.

Scrounging for food and supplies during the night is tense and harrowing, and no matter what you find it never seems to be enough. It's not just a survival game but a harsh and unblinking look at the reality of war.Further reading: UnturnedIn a sentence: A free-to-play multiplayer survival sandbox.Status: Released July 7, 2017Link:It costs you nothing to play Unturned, but this isn't some slapped together free-to-play title. Its creator (a teenager) has released scores of updates to the zombie-based survival sandbox since 2014, which makes it easy to see why it's been downloaded by millions of players since its initial release.

Despite Unturned's blocky visuals it contains deep and satisfying crafting, skill, and survival systems, plus there's a massive and exuberant community surrounding it.Further reading.