I’m Starving!
I’ve been playing Don’t Starve since it was on Early Access with Steam. Since it was announced for PC and I have had a chance to play it I have been in love with it. The style of the game and concept have always grabbed me and kept me hooked on it.
The main premise of the game is to survive. Finding Food and exploring the world that you are in. Sounds easy? Well, it would be if it wasn’t for the wildlife as well as the harsh conditions that you have to put up with in the world.
There are 3 elements to the characters you play as. Hunger, Life and Mental Stability. All of which must be kept as high as possible to keep your character happy. Which sounds easy, but when your mental state is decreased by Rainy weather and picking evil flowers, its no easy task. Put that with finding food while not being attacked, again can make life tricky!
When this was ported over from PC to consoles, I did wonder how they would do the inventory and creation bars as these were controlled by mouse and fit really well on the PC. When ported the RT and LT triggers are used and it works out really well making it easy to access both menus.
The style of the game isn’t your conventional look and some would think that it is the brain child of Tim Burton as it looks like one of his films… Just play this game and watch A Nightmare Before Christmas and you will see what I mean.
I think its absolutely beautiful and is perfectly done to reflect what is going on in the world and game in general.
Part of the survival aspect for the game comes from the science machine that you build from materials found within the world. This allows you to build new and different items to help you survive, but you can only build them when you have the materials in your possession. Some items as well require more elaborate or rare materials, so these things are going to take a while to find.
In the several games I’ve played I’ve found it better to find yourself a nice little area and build a base out of it. Makes it easier to go hunting in the area you are set, as well we protect yourself from wildlife. Nice little retreat to go to. Also you can build chests to hold items when your inventory starts getting full. This again makes it easier to keep rare items at your base in case you should die while being out on an adventure.
I have to say as well that when you die… You die… You have to start all over again from day 1. The only way you can get a second chance in your world and get all your items back is by activating life stones. These will allow you to respawn at them, however its a one shot deal. So if you only find one, you will have one go to respawn… Until you find the next one. Which as far as i’m aware is very random and depends on world to world and how its been generated. All worlds are generated when the game starts so no 2 worlds will be the same. Every game you play is different, even if you die and come back, it will be a new world. Its the game that keeps on giving in a way… And also will take away from you in a heart beat.
Fire is quite important in the game, keeping the place light at night will definitely keep you alive. If you let it go dark, you will die. Monsters of the night will get you and theres nothing you can do. So always light and keep lit a fire.
One last thing im going to touch on for this review, and I slightly touched on it above, is the mental state you have to keep your character in. The lower this gets your character will start to hallucinate and see monsters, as it gets lower and lower these won’t be hallucinations anymore and they will start to attack and probably kill you. So its best to pick flowers, keep out of the rain (if possible) and make sure you health and hunger is up.
Overall, this is wonderfully brilliant game and Klei the makers have released the beta for Don’t Starve together on PC, which allows you to play the game with friends. I hope this is going to come to consoles as it would be amazing to be able to play this with friends.
I would highly recommend it and I’m going to give it a wonderfully brilliant 9
