We're lost on an island, with nothing but our wits and crafting skills to keep us going... oh, and some friendly monkeys to help us!
Video Review:
The Survivalists is a casual survival game from Team 17. If you are familiar with The Escapists and The Escapists 2 then you know what art style you are going to find, pixel graphics and a top down view of the world.
The Survivalists follows the same formula of many survival games. You are dumped in a randomly generated world with nothing but the clothes you arrive in, and with crafting skills of the gods, your only objective is to survive.
The game takes place in a world that is made up of many islands, which you get to by crafting a raft, and besides day and night cycles there are no weather effects to speak of so no need to worry about freezing or getting wet.
Islands do contain different biomes however, so come with that biomes related issues, such as volcanic islands being really hot and swamps containing mosquitoes that attack you and degrade your health. That being said, there are not too many biomes, which is a little disappointing, but that does leave plenty of room for extra continued content that can be added to the game later.
One of the big differences between this game and other survival games is the addition of monkey helpers. Throughout the game's islands you will find wild monkeys wandering around or trapped in cages. By giving the monkey a resource they require or by freeing the trapped ones they will follow you around, which lets you use them to automate tasks around your base or to give them weapons and have them with you on expeditions.
The Survivalists is definitely on the more casual side of survival games, there is no degradation of items and resources, so place something on the ground and it will be there forever, but you still run foul of hunger and stamina, but not thirst, so keeping a few meals on you at all times is really called for. Especially since you'll be meeting a variety of enemies on the games many islands.
The islands also have resources you won't find on your starting one, so most of the games ores, which let you craft advanced recipes are found on other islands, as well as the games Labyrinths which are part of the games story and require you to complete to advance it.
In addition to Labyrinths the game quickly introduces you to Vaults, these are mini underground dungeons that you can complete to get resources, money and craft special weapons you wouldn't normally be able to. They are generally not too large and do contain some strong enemies so bringing some armed monkeys with you is a good idea. There's nothing quite like a gang of armed monkeys cutting a swathe through enemies as you explore new islands, vaults and labyrinths.
The Survivalists does contain a story of some sort, there is a mysterious shop, whos owner gives you quests and keys you can use in Labyrinths. This leads you to actually complete the game by Escaping... Which kind of makes this The Escapists but now with survival elements. You can return to the game after you escape so can continue exploring if you haven't finished going to all the islands.
The game is really enjoyable, especially in co-op mode, which lets you get together with 3 other people to explore and complete quests. While the game is limited in the number of resources you can gather, the items you can craft and build, as well as biomes, there is plenty of room for the developers to add extra content and continue to support the game.
There are many hours worth of gameplay, the world is large enough that you will spend hours going from island to island on your raft and exploring them to find what treasures they hold. The game never gets too difficult, especially with many armed monkeys by your side, there are no major bosses to defeat so improvements can, and by all accounts, will be made by the developers to increase the content of the game and make exploring and controls better, which is where the game falls down a little.
That all being said, The Survivalists is a great game and is definitely worth investing your time into. I enjoyed playing it on my own and with friends and is a much fun as The Escapists 1 and 2.