Winter Survival Preview - A Pure Survival Experience

Survival games are a dime a dozen these days, but pure survival games without any fantastical elements such as magic or zombies are something of a rarity. Winter Survival aims to give gamers a new challenge that's grounded in reality, and its Early Access launch shows that it might be able to pull it off.

Winter Survival is a new survival game that does away with any fantasy elements or zombies — it is simply you versus the harsh elements, wolves, and the occasional bear. I found this game to be a welcoming challenge, although it's far from perfect.

The Worst-Case Scenario

There are two ways to play Winter Survival. The first is Story Mode — a series of scripted quests and events where you'll slowly unlock new crafting recipes and have to deal with unique scenarios as you try to stay alive and find your friends.

The second option is Endless Mode; this is essentially the Sandbox of Winter Survival. You can choose from a variety of different starting scenarios, and the Day 1 patch added the ability to precisely customize the difficulty of your game to your tastes.

You'll largely experience the same gameplay mechanics regardless of which of the two game modes you pick. In the Early Access launch, Endless Mode arguably has much more content and more of the map to explore, but Story Mode provides a richer, guided experience that feels more like an adventure.

The environment will be the same, too. Story Mode and Endless Mode both take place on the same map; it's just used in different ways. Some of the structures and points of interest are slightly different, but you're otherwise going to be running around the same slice of wilderness.

A Genuine Survival Experience

One of the key things that makes Winter Survival stand out is, well, the survival. There are no aliens in the woods or zombies crawling out of a city to fight. There are no magical spells that you can learn to heal your character. It's just you versus the elements and the hostile wildlife.

I've played more than my fair share of survival games over the years and some of the earliest examples relied on these fantastical elements to keep the player engaged. Recent years, however, have seen more and more games come out with a focus on actual, realistic survival to some degree such as The Long Dark.

You'll accumulate "Trauma" as you deal with bad situations and these can lead to hallucinations.

Winter Survival certainly manages to make living in a harsh environment a challenging and entertaining experience. Surviving the cold and getting enough food and supplies to stay alive over the long term is tough enough in its own right.

Though Winter Survival leans heavily towards realism, there is one mildly fantasy element: you'll accumulate "Trauma" as you deal with bad situations and these can lead to hallucinations. Though this may seem fantastical, hallucinations are a very real symptom of living through an extreme survival situation in terrible conditions.

A Surprisingly Short Story

Survival mechanics aside, part of the appeal of Winter Survival lies in its story. You and two friends have decided to go camping and you end up splitting up after things go badly wrong for the three of you.

Staying alive in the harsh winter climate is a key part of the game (and the story), but the mystery surrounding your friends Joel and Mike provides a compelling motivation to move forward. You'll often come across footprints, a blood trail, or some abandoned supplies; did these belong to your friends, or were they the leftovers of some other unfortunate soul?

Combined with the hallucinations that you can experience, this mystery adds an air of paranoia to the game. Did you really see your buddy on the other side of that rope bridge or is your mind gradually going to pieces? What happened to your friends? Will you ever find them again?

The writing isn't groundbreaking, but the story is interesting enough. Unfortunately, only a small slice of it is available for the game's Early Access launch — you can blow through all of the story content in the space of 2.5 to 5 hours. That's pretty short, all things considered.

Winter Survival Preview | Final Thoughts

The Story Mode alone couldn't carry Winter Survival; it's over far too quickly and there's not much variation in it. If you're looking for a robust narrative to explore, it's probably best to wait until one or two more Acts become available in future updates.

If you are instead searching for an interesting new survival game to check out, you'll find something worthwhile here — Endless Mode gives you plenty of opportunities to explore, experiment, and build yourself a custom base in the harsh wilderness.

Considering the price, fans of survival games will probably get their money's worth out of WInter Survival at launch. Gamers new to the genre, though, might want to spend their time seeking out something a little more well-developed such as Green Hell instead — at least until Winter Survival gets more content.

Winter Survival was previewed on PC with a key provided by DRAGO Entertainment over the course of 26 hours of gameplay before the Early Access Launch. All screenshots were taken by the previewer during gameplay.