Don't Starve

Here is a game that might tickle the want-to-be survivalist. Don't Starve is a stylish and unforgiving game that one might think came from the mind of Tim Burton. You are Wilson, "an intrepid Gentleman Scientist" that wakes up in a strange and perilous world that will most certainly kill you within days. What you as the player has to do is to make sure that Wilson gets food and light, because in this world monsters are real and they are always waiting to come for you. Collect sticks, straw, wood and flint for your basic needs. Then go hunt for food and always keep watch of the hour. Then one more thing, keep your sanity or else you will see exactly what the meaning of Poe-ian and Lovecraftian horror is.

I really love this game. The gloomy atmosphere and steampunk setting really tickles my interest. The style and art is fantastic, as well as the music. My initial thought was that Wilson sure looks like a more gentle and kind version of Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, plus he gets an awesome beard after a few days in game. Everything looks sort of like being cut out of paper and put in layers to give the feel of depth. This works really well and gives a special nice feeling in the artsy part of the mind. Music is slow and moody but with that special late Victorian twang (if one may say so)that makes things feel a bit giddy. There are no voices in this game, instead speaking is illustrated via a sound much like a whimpering trumpet. Sound effects are great and some sounds, like that of the panicking Gobbler, always make me chuckle. Guess I'm easily entertained. The controls are easy and the mechanics are good. You can steer Wilson by either the Diablo-principle (point and click or hold mouse button)or you can use WASD. You can change the camera angle with Q and E, though the angel and position of things change they still face towards you and zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. For everything involving standard action, the left mouse button is your friend. Secondary or special action will be indicated and activates with the right button. Pressing TAB brings up the map, which at the start of each game is randomly generated.
But trying to survive is a challenge, or maybe it should be said that getting enough resources is the real challenge. You need to manage three main gauges; food/hunger, sanity and health. The hunger is the one that changes the most rapidly, going one or two days without eating will make it go really low and when it hits bottom you start loosing health. That naturally lead us to the health gauge and it's the one that will be of moderate difficulty to refill. Eating food will replenish the hunger gauge but also sometimes your health, from what I've gathered it comes with cooked food. The sanity though is trickier. Standing in light will help decrease loss, but things like picking flowers and making certain headgear will restore some points. Letting sanity go low will make Wilson see monsters appear. I've only let the sanity go halfway down but that is enough to let monsters appear in transparent form around him. I dread to find out what zero sanity results in. Shoggoth, maybe? The best way to get back sanity is to sleep on a roll, which you can craft, and this will also make it the next day instantly. Beware though as this also will make Wilson very hungry.
To get food, you either collect edible stuff like berries and carrots or you hunt. Place traps with bait and catch small critters or if you manage, craft a weapon and go hunt some larger prey like a Beefalo.




After getting a full stomach it's time to start unlocking blueprints. You'll need to find gold nuggets for this but with enough exploring you'll be sure to find some. Research takes a lot of resources so you should be ready to make a lot of running around. But in running around, sometimes you forget the time, even if Wilson will tell you when it's getting dark. If Wilson stands in the dark the monsters get him, therefore always make sure you can make a fire for the night. But that won't mean automatically that you're safe! Oh no, I experienced that when Wilson suddenly starts asking about a sound. I couldn't hear anything that could be any danger but then out of nowhere two Hounds, mad wolf like creatures, comes charging out of the darkness. Only by pure luck, the time was right to become day and I could have Wilson run a bit and counter attack with his axe in hand. That was no walk in the queens garden I tell you, good riddance! But death is hard to escape and soon I had a dead Wilson falling to the ground, scattering all things he had collected over the ground and the game was over. Down on the screen comes a results board and a experience meter filling up depending on how many days you've survived, to unlock other characters. Only thing is that when you, err... Wilson die, you have to start all over again, which at some points can be really frustrating. But to be honest, it fits and I'd not have it any other way.

But the world is large, I still have a lot to explore and unlock. So there is a lot of replay value even if death certainly is a pain in the royals... I recommend anyone that's into survival, crafting, steampunk and/or indie games to try this jewel of a game. I might do a let's play on this later on.


Cheerio!


Link-ety-links!

Don't Starve official game site: http://www.dontstarvegame.com/
Klei Entertainment: http://kleientertainment.com/