Your votes have been counted and tallied, and your accompanying words of praise and affection matched accordingly.
But which game has survived to make it to the top of the pile?
Come and find out as we count down your 25 favourite survival games of all time.
Gunmetal:Theme wins it for this one, the dark gothic atmosphere is done extremely well.
Kenshi
Anon:I’ve put way too many hours intoKenshifor this to not be my #1.
It’s also single player, so that’s a huge bonus.
TheAngriestHobo:Kenshi is a fever-dream of a survival game.
It’s jankier than your uncle’s car, but it has ambition and scale in spades.
Kenshi throws you into a brutal, uncaring post-apocalyptic alien world and says “survive”.
But if you do survive, or even prosper?
My god, then the game opens up for you.
The gameplay itself doesn’t change, mind you - just the scale of it.
You start hiring people, building structures, and before you know it, you have a city.
It’s an infinite story generator that just keeps scaling up.
Cut:(Alien) atmosphere
23.
Nic:‘Maleria is rubbish but fire is wonderful’: The Game
20.
Dwarf Fortress
TheAngriestHobo:This is a survival game by Tarn and Zach Adams.
All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality.
The game is encircled by fans of procedurally generated worlds and detailed simulations.
The game menaces with spikes of difficulty that you just didn’t prepare for well enough, you dolt.
Just keeping drink that plump helmet ale!
It’ll be fine!
Marsican:If I prefer theDwarf Fortressmode, the adventurer mode is still such a cool and complete experience.
And you’re always wanting to start to perfect your worlds.
A lot of replay ability and a HUGE time sink.
Gunmetal:Colony survival with automation done very well.
Kalil:I spent hundreds of hours fine-tuning intricate contraptions.
It tickles my engineer brain.
Mike5000:Hundreds of hours of interesting and enjoyable challenges.
But finally getting my Prawn Suit and punching my way through the snow-beasts made it all worthwhile.
Eve Gwynedd:Very beautiful and scary, nice story.
FancyPants:Not as good as the first but still an epic adventure!
Sledgehammer:A great follow up to Subnautica.
Lars Westergren:While not as satisfying as the first, it has a good enough story and explorarion.
I played the game with AC at full power for the sake of immersion.
Janis Petke:Lovely steampunk survival strategy on the frozen wasteland.
JERZYN:The best survival strategy out there.
You genuinely care about your citizens.
No decision is really straightforward.
This game is closest in terms of showing the hardship of managing a city in dire circumstances.
Sentegraphs:Everything comes together so well in this city builder/survival game.
I bought it because it looked cool.
But I kept thinking about it, and kept returning.
Frostpunk is incredibly engaging, and easy to lose yourself in.
It set the scene for other greats to come after it.
dglenny:I am terrible at this game.
Well, I am terrible at the bosses, at least.
Calmputer:I dug, too greedily and too deep.
You know what I awoke in the darkness?
Way too much lava.
An Tran:Easily accessible, with plenty of content.
It’s a game I would be willing to recommend to just about anyone.
Jone991:I love its 2D graphics and the gameplay is simple and fun.
This game has mechanics like bullet hell and stuff… that I like.
Krogerg:Love the pixel art.
LessThanNothing:It’s the only survival/crafting game I have enjoyed.
Easy to play in small sessions.
Less fiddling around than other survival games and just more having fun.
Don’t Starve Together
explosionforgov:Love the Burtonesque art style and the perfect mix of creepy and cute.
Also, seeing those meatballs in the crock pot always makes me hungry.
I also love the art style.
We need more games with that level of talent and dedication put into character and world design.
Corey:A wonderful implementation of cooperative gameplay and balance of the various characters.
JERZYN:DST has an amazing depth, and it’s the best survival game to play with friends.
The stress mechanic gives a good amount of pressure as well.
MyrddinE:This is one of my go-to games for multiplayer fun with friends.
roguewithwhimsy:I loved hosting a game on my ancient laptop during a free Steam weekend.
The different terrain areas and the changing seasons allow for interesting challenges and strategic decisions.
matthew mumbrue:NPCs that do work for you?
That’s incredibly helpful.
Xyvik:The most role-playing-friendly, thematic game on the list by quite a long shot.
My creations have never been more needlessly elaborate.
Kalil:Two words: dick physics.
New modded levels and decisions would be a huge boost.
Frostpunk was also a step in the wrong direction.
This War of Mine had an excellent world to explore full of little vignettes of story.
My only criticism is it was too short.
Janis Petke:Thought-provoking survival in the rubble left by a war.
Loykymar:Steal from your elderly neighbour to survive or be decent and maybe starve to death.
Tough choices to make.
JERZYN:This is a heart-wrenching game.
This arguably makes the decisions so much more difficult to make.
Ethan:There are a lot of games that could go on this list.
But damn, does This War Of Mine not have a sense of impact to it.
I have never managed to make it to the end of the game.
I haven’t devoted a massive amount of time to the game either.
As I said, it is not the best gameplay-wise.
But as an experience, I can’t think of a game quite like it.
Don’t Starve
sockmoxy:My first encounter with permadeath in games, and I unexpectedly loved it.
Failing was fun and I learned something new each run and slowly, persistently got better and better.
Except when I didn’t, and then I starved.
eggsnbeans:Great art and the fear mechanic is good.
Bobtux:The ambiance and the mechanics.
It needs mentioning that the Tim Burton-noir art style and comedy is also exceedingly charming.
It’s my #1 because it has compelling multiplayer (and singleplayer) and a lot of content.
And then a lot of fleshed out combat with their associated skill system to be engaging.
And a persistent, unique world to explore.
Blackrook:Totally destructible/diggible terrian and blocks, allows freeform building and tunnelling.
One of the best games to play with friends.
The weapons feel satisfying and the combat feels weighty.
Hope the game continues to get more polish.
FancyPants:A fun way to kill time (and zombies) with friends.
Joel MacDonald:The exploration in this game is astounding.
The environmental storytelling in this game puts even the biggest AAA games to shame.
It is all done entirely with object and item placement.
Xyvik:Yes, it’s STILL in alpha.
And truth be told, I don’t think it’s ever going to leave alpha.
But with 887 hours, 7 Days sits at my #2 all-time most-played games list.
Marak:2000 hours in, the modding support is awesome.
Even wrote my own overhaul mod :-)
10.
And just as you start to let your guard down, it happens.
Maybe you take your eyes off the road for a second and slam into a crashed car.
Maybe you forget to equip your weapon before opening that bathroom door.
Maybe you carelessly fall off the roof you are building and tumble to the ground.
However you bite it, it’s inevitable, and it’syour fault.
This is how you died.
you could easily turn the game into an action game or The Sims post-apocalypse or something in between.
The engine has been my biggest issue but even that is getting a major overhaul later this year.
This is the game I have the most hours in by far now.
This is The Sims for me.
Janis Petke:An isometric zombie survival RPG that’s hard as hell!
necurbanapauperem:Some of the earliest criticisms of Project Zomboid were mine.
I was quite loud about the lack of NPCs ruining a game with incredible potential.
But they just kept chipping away at it slowly and the years have added up.
And now we’re almost on the cusp of NPCs and it’s a game with an incredible foundation.
John:This is such a surprise hit for me and many others.
But boy oh boy is it an indie darling par excellence!
A true sandbox with a modding community that will support any self imposed goal or desire.
A game that most other games aspire to be.
Drew:The only game where misplacing my can opener has killed me.
Calmputer:No Man’s Sky has come so far since its release.
The new-ish difficulty tweaks lets you customize exactly how hard you want your experience to be.
Explore several trillion planets across hundreds of galaxies.
Gunmetal:Expeditions constantly draw me back to pour more time into the game.
Hawkinson:Low key survival at its finest.
Just you, the surprisingly hostile weather, and the odd rogue drone or space pirate.
Not a ton of threats, but it’s crucial that you be ready when they do surface.
Sledgehammer:Great game, well supported, fantastic array of things to do.
Wytefang:An incredible achievement in gaming.
Tons to do and see.
eggsnbeans:Finally becoming good.
Chucklebags:An evergreen game that will always be installed on my PC.
I can’t wait to try the sequel when it’s out of early access.
Also the endlessly respawning crash victim luggage was a crutch I ended up leaning on too often.
Ljotur:Beautiful and manageable.
It’s pure, tense and fun.
necurbanapauperem:We built our house on an island near the yacht, far from the cannibals.
Forays to the main island were rare and tense affairs.
Our boats bristled with resource holders, and even the caves were gentrified.
One of the few survival games we’ve ever finished on a dedicated server.
roguewithwhimsy:This was one of my best multiplayer experiences with friends.
The horror element does add a nice touch.
The marketing talks up how the cannibals feel like real people.
But still, the way that they scope out your camp before attacking is a great touch.
Minecraft
Evolve:Minecraft?
Do I really need to describe it?
It’s a sandbox survival building simulator in a pixelated world.
Get some survival mods and enjoy dying against dragons!
:)
Ljotur:This is the best.
Freedom incarnate, brimming with possibility and beauty.
I spent 100s of hours building bases and discovering new lands.
Caff:The ultimate survive-the-night simulator.
skeletortoise:It’s Minecraft.
RimWorld
hightouch:Last year Rimworld took the spot of my most played game of all time.
It’s the mods.
Go deep, go wild, and never look back.
Intrepid132:There is literally infinite capacity for different stories to emerge.
JERZYN:Colony simulation at its best.
Crazy sophisticated, but the stories it creates can be really amusing and funny.
Caff:Absorbing and accessible.
Much more personal than Dwarf Fortress, but without the depth.
explosionforgov:AKA “mad scientist soap opera plot simulator IN SPACE”.
Gunmetal:Colony Survival refined to perfection.
MyrddinE:This game took Dwarf Fortress and made it accessible.
Zachary C. Sneddon:RimWorld is an endlessly entertaining procedural drama generator.
Another game that has a strong modding scene that improves the game quite a bit.
ARK: Survival Evolved
Dapearl:It is a game that is fun on so many levels.
There is if course the survival aspect.
Craft, explore, and build on this mysterious island.
Uncover the mystery and huntandtame dinos to assist you!
Blackrook:You get to tame and ride dinos, and then you might paint them!
FancyPants:It is janky.
Instead of continuing to add additional dinos, they needed to fix the building to be better.
No other survival game has clicked for me the way this one did.
I’d never, ever, ever consider logging onto a public multiplayer server in this game.
But playing out my childhood dinotopia fantasies in a gorgeous single-player or co-op sandbox?
matthew mumbrue:Building grand structures and taming dinosaurs?
Their presence in ARK is awesome, in the truer sense of the word.
roguewithwhimsy:I haven’t beat this.
I feel like it is too easy to die and lose some work.
Still, it is a nice sandbox and the RPG-style level gaining does help with the progress.
As such, we have never ‘truly’ experienced ARK and all it has to offer in island-wide warfare.
But that’s okay.
We play it as a dinosaur-based version of Pokemon: Gotta catch ‘em all!
An Tran:Animal taming is the best!
Sean:It has dinos.
Lars Westergren:The environments, the playful mood, and the way it rewards exploration.
Bryan Moser:Microscale concept is very fun.
Building process is very well done and create many opportunities which are unique to this game.
Although it seems more orientated to team play, it’s still good in solo.
An Tran:A lovely world, detailed and with many things to do.
Ljotur:Wonderful premise, awesome world, good survival mechanics.
Thank God for Arachnophobia mode.
DoctorDaddy:It reminds me that Rick Moranis exists.
Every expenditure from your resources and every long trek you take is a strategic decision.
I could say so much more about this game, but the genuine survival experience is my highlight.
eggsnbeans:I love that you will always inevitable die, just a matter of when.
More games should be like that,.
Cameron B.:Evocative.
Beautiful with a unique art style.
It keeps me coming back time and again.
Fenix:It is the game that I think about the most when I am not playing it.
Loved sandbox over the story mode, but both were exceptional.
The Long Dark continued support with the upcoming season pass it has given it a good lifespan too.
Also, no zombies or modern combat is a plus.
O healey:It’s un-forgiving brutal nature, a true hard-core survival sim.
Bobtux:Canadian simulator.
(but those wolves can just fuck right off)
2.
Valheim
cpt_freakout:Survival is a myth.
Its a fantasy of eternal return, every reincarnation a promise of mastery over life.
What if I use the peak of this mountain to build a castle?
What if I just set sail into adventure and forget about the past?
Bobtux:Nailed the survival genre without boring bars.
Blackrook:Beautiful but low res graphics, nice progression of bosses and difficulty.
Evolve:It’s Minecraft in a modern old Viking vibe.
You have the freedom to do anything in the world.
THEY CAN’T really enjoy a good Viking game.
Fenix:It is just so peaceful, but also brutal at times.
Loved my time building bases in it.
Cut:Atmosphere (I’ve never felt wetter or more lonely).
Dapearl:Survival in the mystical land of Norse mythology.
Dunno what else to say.
Valheim is the only other game to give me that same feeling.
I like the progression loop, but being out on a raft in the ocean gives me genuine fear.
Joel MacDonald:Unlike most survival games, Valheim respects your time.
No invisible rolls behind the scenes deciding if what you are crafting actually turns out.
It is fast and fun.
Not to mention how fast and seamless the building is in the game.
I love building my compound and checking out community builds online.
JonnyCigarettes:Total freedom of agenda in the most beautifully lit world in gaming.
Troll with a stone axe, anyone?
The graphics, despite being deliberately low res, are so atmospheric and artistic that they can be breathtaking.
pandiculator:Beautiful, and crafted with very smart design, Valheim learned many lessons from preceding survival games.
Plus, excellent multiplayer, great ships and water, and joyful discovery make Valheim a supreme survival game.
Paul L:It’s the perfect balance of realistic and fantasy.
It’s magic basically.
Sentegraphs:I’ll always remember when I decided to chart a path to the second boss in Valheim.
I played with a group of six people, including myself.
It was absolutely mystifying.
Another point in its favor: the weather system is amazingly thematic and actually impacts gameplay.
Never before has being on a boat during a storm been so awe-inspiring and terrifying to me.
So many little things about the game combine to make it an amazing leap forward for the survival genre.
necurbanapauperem:1905.8 hours played over three dedicated server worlds.
Some 8000 Valheim days.
I have raged at update delays, bargained on Steam reviews, and come to accept the slow release.
Subnautica
Zachary C. Sneddon:Subnautica scratches my burning itch to be Jacques Cousteau.
Playing it in VR was a sublime, transcendent experience.
Smingleigh:A game filled with danger and death that nevertheless makes me feel incredibly free.
It entices you to swim a little further, a little deeper.
And so, deeper you go to find your fate.
Sledgehammer:Atmospheric, original and deliberately constrictive by not relying on big weapons.
A great and original setting.
MyrddinE:This game is so beautiful.
It’s a wonderful mix of relaxing and stressful that really resonates with me.
Subnautica lets me stay beneath the waves.
It lets me watch the plant and animal life as they co-exist.
hightouch:I never bothered to get back around to playing the story once it was done.
RIP all the bubblefish that kept me alive.
TheAngriestHobo:Few games manage the ebb and flow of tension quite so masterfully as Subnautica.
For those painfully curious:it’s a solar eclipse.
Nic:Nothing gives you the feeling of initial terror followed by familiarity.
Then followed by, “Oh hell what was that thing?
Lars Westergren:The environments.
From the shallow coral-reef likes, the pelagic openness, the terrifying abyssal depths.
Tbe satisfying base building and crafting.
Lots of Oh wow!
moments when finding new sights followed by Oh ****!
as you bump into dangerous creatures.
Greglefox:Beautiful environments within a well built adventure, I cannot hold my breath long enough.
The only aggravation was the texture pop-in.
FancyPants:Pinnacle of success.
Ethan:I think Subnautica has one of the best atmospheres I have seen in a game.
The other thing I love about Subnautica is how the story and exploration blend together.
It really created a sense of being on a beautiful and dangerous alien planet for me.
pandiculator:The best horror game on PC, Subnautica, works because of its sense of being finite.
Such depth (ho ho), such world-building.
I do seem to be the only person who prefers the Sea-Truck to the honking big submarine, though.
It had beautiful tranquil locations, terrifying exotic depths and exciting alien structures to find and explore.
Detournemented:Gorgeous and unique setting.
The story elements hold the game together without being too intrusive.
The wildlife is amazing and so are the vehicles you use to interact with the environment.
Absolutely polished game play that elicits genuine terror on your first play through.
Replay value is suspect after you have seen everything the games has to offer.
JERZYN:It gives an amazing sense of exploration and has a good dose of mystery.
First part also has great pacing where the game gives you goals and direct what to do.
Calmputer:I have a phobia of deep dark waters, but this game is just so pretty.
10/10 game, would have a panic attack again.
It’s not just survival, but tells a great story in a truely beautiful setting.
Plus it all ends with a banging tune.
Bryan Moser:Amazing sounds and visuals.
Shows that almost anyone can have some amount of thalassophobia.
Constant fear of running out of oxygen is the greatest psychological element of this game.
Base building is very well done and gives purpose as opposed to being mostly cosmetic in other games.
Anon:It is perfect in every way.
The survival aspect is present, without being crippling.
The environment is the best I’ve seen in a survival game, and in many normal games.
The atmosphere is PERFECT.
The music is great.
The base crafting is wonderful, particularly when paired with the amazing views.
A triumph of gaming.
Chucklebags:I’ve never been so happily terrified in such a chill game.
thetime:Seeing the rescue space shuttle go down was traumatic in real life.
10/10, will swim again.
