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Survival game battle royale: The Forest v Stranded Deep v The Long Dark

Simple question, GAF: which do you think is the better game and why?

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I've been on a binge lately on survival games and after doing a search this thread came up and more_badass said I could bump it.

I've put in some time with The Long Dark, The Forest, and Subnautica. I don't have Stranded Deep but I'll get it at some point.

I actually really enjoy all three games but I think each is different enough to stand on it's own. I'll list some things about each game with it's traits.

The Long Dark is incredibly fun exploring, investigating an abandoned hydro electric dam, ruined farm steads. Your constantly on your toes while exploring outdoors because even if you have a rifle or bow to fend off wolves or a bear. A blizzard can just as easily freeze you to death.

My Biggest issue with TLD is if your playing the long game in sandbox mode. While there's plenty to see, if you decide to hunker down a specific spot things get kind of old. There's no structure building in the game and there's few items to actually craft. So after day 50+ you're basically just cooking food, boiling water, or chopping wood. I know that the devs are working on story mode but I would love it if they could give sandbox mode a little love with some new crafted items and possibly some more wildlife. As it stands there's only wolves, bears, deer and rabbits in the game.


The Forest is vastly different, food and water is way easier to come by than the TLD. The game is way more combat oriented since the main antagonist is the cannibals that live on the island. The combat is kind of like a faster paced version of Condemned focusing on melee, although you can craft a bow which is really good against the mutant cannibals. The cannibals are relentless as well, constantly probing and attacking your base and seeing what your up to. Their AI can be unpredictable at times as well.

To combat the cannibals you can build elaborate bases with traps and using walls to protect yourself. Other than the bow though most of the useful weapons you'll use are found in caves, items like a powerful axe which is used for chopping down trees and a powerful melee weapon or you might find a cache of dynamite.

The Forest has come a long ways in development but it still has quite a way to go. It seems like there is some type of end game planned though with a story. The devs do constantly update it and just released a new build today with some new stuff. My thing with the Forest is compared to TLD, is that other than the caves the actual island of The Forest just isn't that interesting to explore.


Subnautica however, is just simply amazing. It's still fairly early as well, the risk vs reward of exploration searching for materials is really well done. Often times pushing you into dangerous areas so you can look for something to upgrade your sub or base.

The aquatic wildlife is so amazing and cool. You'll often times see something and go "wtf is that?" in astonishment and wonder if it will hurt you. The environments are gorgeous, the water looks gorgeous.

The dev is also incredibly transparent showing what they are working on, and what they plan to do next. https://trello.com/b/yxoJrFgP/subnautica-development

I would recommend each title based a persons preferences.

If you want something that focuses on exploration and don't care for base building. Go The Long Dark.

If you want something that's more combat oriented where you can create sprawling bases and traps, go with The Forest.

Subnautica is just really freaking cool.
 

Raguel

Member
I've been itching to play a good survival game so thanks for the write up. I'm wary of the forest cause of the cannibals and what seems like limited exploration. The long dark looks good to play. Is Subnautica just ocean life exploration?
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Of these The Long Dark is the best game right now by a huge margin. It actually feels polished and every update just adds more. The others feel like truly incomplete games that have so far to go before they'll ever feel like a real package.
 

DocSeuss

Member
The problem I have with this genre is the lack of objectives and the constant stress of having to keep basic hunger stuff up. The constantly depleting meters aren't fun for me. I did a whole big article on it a while ago.

Anyways, my favorite survival game so far: Subnautica. The Long Dark guys seem cool, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a great game. I did not enjoy The Forest or Stranded Deep all that much. There's no real structure to either back when I played it, just kinda... build... stuff. It doesn't work for me. Subnautica has it too, but that game's weird environment and chill approach are awesome.
 

Raguel

Member
Of these The Long Dark is the best game right now by a huge margin. It actually feels polished and every update just adds more. The others feel like truly incomplete games that have so far to go before they'll ever feel like a real package.

Really? Im definitely gonna grab it then when i build my gaming pc. Whats the best survival game that lets you explore, hunt a variety of animal, build/make camp, etc?
 
I've been itching to play a good survival game so thanks for the write up. I'm wary of the forest cause of the cannibals and what seems like limited exploration. The long dark looks good to play. Is Subnautica just ocean life exploration?

There's base building and crafting. You can also build a tiny submarine to travel around in and upgrade with it torpedos to kill aggressive marine wildlife. There's also a stasis rifle, but I haven't found it yet so I can't really comment on it.

The problem I have with this genre is the lack of objectives and the constant stress of having to keep basic hunger stuff up. The constantly depleting meters aren't fun for me. I did a whole big article on it a while ago.

Anyways, my favorite survival game so far: Subnautica. The Long Dark guys seem cool, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a great game. I did not enjoy The Forest or Stranded Deep all that much. There's no real structure to either back when I played it, just kinda... build... stuff. It doesn't work for me. Subnautica has it too, but that game's weird environment and chill approach are awesome.

I found managing thirst/hunger in the Forest pretty easy. There's tons of lizards/rabbits around you can kill and hang on a drying rack. Water collectors and blueberries make thirst a non issue.

It seems to me that thirst/hunger is the most demanding in TLD. Even with a huge stockpile of meat and wood I felt like I was either cooking or boiling water an awful lot. As far as how quickly your meter depletes, it felt like TLD was the biggest offender in that matter.

Subnautica seems alright with it but I wish some of the fish would give more nutrients and they degrade so quickly. Water isn't that big of a deal with the suit that gives you water. I know you can build aquariums and farm stuff but I just died in a hardcore game after getting one set up because I was a dumbass and didn't pay attention to my oxygen while grabbing fishies for dinner.

They did add a "to do" list for The Forest and it seems like they have some sort of end game planned with "finding Timmy" and the bottom of the giant sinkhole. Also maybe some things with the snow biome they added on the mountain.

edit: I actually wish they would change it in Subnautica where once your O2 depletes it would drain your health until death. Currently it's just "once it hits zero you got three seconds to get air or your screen blacks out and you die"
 
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