The Survivalists

Review

Upon starting a new game, you find yourself face down in the sand beside your broken raft on some unknown island. There are some Coconut trees near by which can help you survive, both by eating the Coconuts and by using the Timber and Palm Leaves you gain from cutting down the trees. Searching your broken raft will also reveal resources that can help you survive for a while until you can explore your surroundings and find new resources. Away from the sandy beach coastline you’ll find other regions, lush fields of grass and flowers, swamps and deserts. There are resources everywhere you look that you can gather and then use to craft and build tools, weapons, walls (sausages), doors, windows, food etcetera.

Certain items can be crafted by hand, such as Hand Axes, Multitools, Handles, Wooden Rods and a few other basic items to help you on your way. For crafting more complex items like Flimsy Shovels, Axes and Pickaxes, and weapons such as Bows and Arrows, Spears, Clubs, Animal Traps, Training Dummies etcetera, you can do so using the Crafting Bench. Crafting as Campfire will allow you to cook Raw Meats and Fish, make Smoothies which will allow you to relieve your hunger more than trying to survive on Coconuts and Berries alone. Crafting a Forge will also allow you to create new items such as Glass Sheets, Nails, Stone Slabs, Glass Bottles and Bowls. You also have Blueprints where you can build Straw, Wooden and Stone Walls, Tables, Storage Chests, Campfire, Forge, Raft, Fence, Bed etcetera.

Running around the world are monkeys; you can tame these monkeys by giving them something they want and then they’ll trust and follow you. You can then have them mimic your actions, such as giving them an axe and having them chop down trees and shrubs, and they’ll keep going until the axe becomes worn out. You can assign another monkey to collect the resources and drop them somewhere for you. The monkeys can even craft tools and cook food using the crafting bench, campfire etcetera. You can also train them for combat to fight any enemy which raids your base. The more a monkey performs a task, the faster and more efficient they’ll become at performing that task.

Scattered around the land you’ll find some chests; they’re locked, but smashing them with a club or something will allow you to collect the lovely loot inside. You can also find old ruins, wrecks and skeletons, all of which can be searched and you may contain loot. Every now and then a Mysterious Stranger will arrive who will open his doors and allow you to sell some of the loot that you’ve have found, as well as buy new items. The stranger will have a quest for you, which when completed, will allow you to claim a reward. You may also come across Vaults and Labyrinths; these places are dangerous, have puzzles to complete and treasure to be found.  If you find the end of the labyrinths, you may receive an item that will help you escape the islands.

Crafting a raft and sails will allow you to set sail and explore the seas around your island. However, it will be hit and miss as you search for new lands. To help you try and spot new lands you can use a telescope (if you find one). Finding new lands can bring you new resources and treasures, although they can also bring new dangers.

You can customise your character, their body colour, hair and clothes, and you can also customise the colour of your monkeys so that you can have a certain coloured monkey performing a specific task.

The game can be played solo or with up to three friends in co-op. When playing co-op, you can take up to five of your monkeys from your solo game with you. There is also a storage chest which you can fill with items and resources and can take with you from a solo game into a co-op game with friends.

In the Options, you’ll find the following settings: Sound Effects and Music Volume, Resolution, Windowed, Constrain Cursor, V-Sync, Region Names, Dyslexia Assist and Background Animations.

To begin with I was finding the game a bit frustrating; I was trying to build a base and collect resources when all of a sudden, I was raided by about seven enemies. It took me totally by surprise so I got my botty handed to me, I died and respawned only to find myself still being raided, and as I had dropped all my weapons the first time, I didn’t have much of a change of anything other than dying again. This happened four times before the raid was over, my base was ruined as it was only made of straw walls (sausages). So I decided to try and build multiple walls. However, before I managed to complete my walls (sausages), I was having Déjà Vu and got my botty spanked again.

I took me a while before I managed to build stone walls which led me to another problem . . . when crafting the items for creating the stone walls, it kept saying something like “The monkeys should do this job”. It took a while to create the Stone Slabs and then to build the Stone Wall. I tried to have the monkeys mimic me in doing the tasks so I could get on with other things but the time limit of the monkeys kept running out before they could learn how to create the stone slabs and walls. I found it frustrating getting them to craft other items as well.

The only other problem I had was that an item that was shown in the on-screen inventory wasn’t actually there. This problem disappeared later.

The game is growing on me the more I play.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!