GAMERS DECIDE - 2D

10 Fun 2D Zombie Games

Tom Sewell — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 19:50:56 +0000

Zombies. One of the most famous members of the horror movie rogues gallery: doesn’t matter if its by curse, by disease, or headcrab, zombies hold a uniquely special place in the cultural zeitgeist. Some think they scare us because they reflect what he don’t like about ourselves - the mindless mob, driven by gut instincts. Others think they scare us because they eat brains. Whatever the reason, their slow-moving, hostile nature has made them easy prey for video game developers as enemies.

While zombies are usually the topic of 3D games - i.e. shooters, survival horrors, etc. - there are equally tons of classic 2D zombie games that deserve more attention! Whether it’s tower defence, strategy or even straight up horror, here are ten fun 2D zombie games that you may or may not have played before!

Plants Vs Zombies – 2009 (PC/X360/PS3)

Set during a zombie apocalypse, Crazy Dave is just your average incoherent homeowner when a horde of the undead come a’ knocking on his door! His only hope from being eaten alive? His GARDEN, of course. With an arsenal of hostile plants ready to attack, decorate your lawn and keep the zombies at bay!

One of the most iconic browser games ever – so much so that it spawned multiple sequels and a shooter spin off – Plants Vs Zombies may not be scary, but it’s damn addictive. Before long you’ll be caught up in the strategy between picking another Wall-nut or a Peashooter. If you feel like killing some zombies in between work or just need to kill ten minutes, Plants Vs Zombies is the game to play.

Fun Factor: 85/100

With plants like these by your side, who needs friends? Or zombies, for that matter.

Zombies Ate My Neighbours – 1993 (SNES/XONE/PS4/SWITCH)

After the mad scientist Dr Tongue wreaks havoc on the neighbourhood – running the streets rampant with zombies, werewolves and other monsters – Zeke and Julie have to use any weapon they can find and save the street from Dr Tongue’s tyranny in this loving send-up of the campy creature features of the fifties!

A nineties classic, Zombies Ate My Neighbours squeezes as much B-Movie camp and monster madness as can fit in an SNES cartridge. The game’s quirky art style is well matched with its story, which has you leaping across trampolines, rescuing cheerleaders, and even fighting a giant baby (?). And with the rerelease packaged with sequel Ghoul Patrol, it’s even easier to play this retro classic!

Fun Factor: 75/100

Julie on the run! Make sure to always stay three steps ahead of zombies – at least!

Organ Trail – 2010 (PC/PS4)

Set during a widespread zombie apocalypse, Organ Trail is a survival simulator that follows your journey to the safe quarantine zones away from any hordes. On your way, you constantly risk life or death – and not only from the living dead! Hunger, disease and fuel constantly have to be on your mind as you travel from highway to highway in search of hope.

A parody of the famous educational series The Oregon Trail, Organ Trail is a very close recreation of the dysentery simulator save for one minor difference: zombies! While the original freeware release was a close recreation of the original game – albeit in a modern setting and with the added undead - the later version included boss fights, random encounters, and achievements to better distinguish itself from its iconic inspiration.

Fun Factor: 80/100

Is it really worth it for the resources?

Project Zomboid – Unreleased (Early Access)(PC)

After a zombie epidemic hits Knox County, you’re left with only one option: survive. It won’t be easy, and the odds are against you – it’s not just the zombies that’ll get you. It’s the depression, the hunger and the people that often finish you off. Project Zomboid isn’t like your typical zombie game, it’s a sim that just happens to be set during a zombie apocalypse.

Perhaps as close to living through a zombie apocalypse as you’re going to get, Project Zomboid even has a depression and loneliness metre to check how your character is doing! The game lacks an ending, instead having your character try to survive for as long as possible in the middle of an infectious outbreak, making it quite unique in this list and well worth a try.

Fun Factor: 90/100

See if you can do better than this guy!

Dead Estate – 2021 (PC)

After picking up a nearby hitchhiker on a dark and stormy night, your truck breaks down, leaving you trapped and lost in the woods – surrounded by the undead! You and your new friend quickly escape to a nearby mansion, only to discover there’s even more menaces inside! Now, with the help of a local friendly witch, the two of you must fight off the endless hordes and blast them back to hell!

A fun 8-bit twin stick shooter, Dead Estate combines the campy gorey horror of Evil Dead with the run-and-gun action of games like Enter the Gungeon. Throw eight playable characters, sixty weapons and RPG and rogue-like elements in? Now you’ve got an endlessly replayable mansion filled with devils, demons and the undead. Good luck!

Fun Factor: 75/100

Looks like a massacre in progress!

Endoparasitic – 2022 (PC)

Lost on a faraway asteroid – trapped in a research facility infested with mutant zombies – and missing three of your limbs. Not a great start to the day, that’s for sure. Endoparasitic is a game of balance: with only one arm left, you only have one limb to shoot and ward off monsters, to inject yourself with vaccines to prevent the titular parasite from reaching your brain, and to crawl around the laboratories in any effort to escape.

A real experiment in game design, Endoparasitic lets you do all the things the average survival horror game lets you do. The only difference is, with one arm left, you can only do them one at a time. In a split second you must decide whether to shoot an approaching zombie or quickly crawl to safety. The unusual control scheme makes this an exciting and interesting play for all fans of zombie games.

Fun Factor: 75/100

One arm to reload, shoot and even vaccinate yourself to stop the parasite!

Plague Inc – 2012 (PC)

Unlike other games in this list, Plague Inc has you working on the side of the zombies! By controlling the disease’s evolution and development, you must try and infect the world as fast as possible – spreading the zombie plague by growing the virus yourself and adding more skills and benefits as you go, such as increasing the plague’s deadliness, changing the symptoms and increasing the rate of transmission – anything to complete your goal and end the world as soon as possible.

While not strictly a zombie game, with expansion packs like Necroa virus and (arguably) the Neurax worm, the game quickly becomes quite apocalyptic in nature. With both packs creating hordes of undead, mindless hosts that spread infection like wildfire, it’s tough to resist giving this game a go.

Fun Factor: 80/100

You’ll have to grow and evolve plagues like this one to end the world.

The Pulse of Evil – 2023 (PC)

Set in an old, abandoned mine shaft, you – the unnamed player – discover something living down deep in the Earth. Using any tools and makeshift weapons you can find on your way, you must take on the infected, destroy the living limbs and vestiges that scale the walls and floors of the mine and find the source of this disease at the deepest, darkest end of the mine.

A free game on steam and Itch.io, The Pulse of Evil is more akin to a demo than a full title – taking the average player maybe less than an hour to beat. In spite of that, the game is just pure 2D horror fun all the way through. With an addictive gameplay loop and an inventory system inspired by Resident Evil and other survival horror classics, The Pulse of Evil is short but deadly!

Fun Factor: 90/100

Who knows who – or what – is lurking somewhere in the shadows?

DEADBOLT – 2016 (PC/PS4/SWITCH)

It looks like Hell is full, and the dead aren’t dying. As the Grim Reaper, it’s your job to explore the overrun and infested city and put a stop to the recent zombie uprising. One catch: all it takes is one hit and you’re dead too! Only one question remains: can you take on the apocalypse and come out standing?

From the creators of popular rogue-lite shooter Risk of Rain 2, DEADBOLT is an early 2D title from Hopoo Games and one that is begging for reassessment. A stealth and action game and one as formidablely challenging as Hopoo’s other games, DEADBOLT will have you running around and using your unholy powers to stop the end of days by any means necessary.

Fun Factor: 65/100

You’ll have to fight your way through blood and bone in each building!

Charlie Murder – 2013 (X360/PC)

Punk Rock has never been so deadly! Take on rival death metal band (emphasis on death) Gore Quaffer’s legions of zombies, hellspawn and general undead monsters in this arcade-style rhythm/beat-em-up adventure. As the titular punk rock band Charlie Murder, it’s up to you to stop the apocalypse!

With a soundtrack that seems more fitting in a moshpit than a video game and gritty comic book visuals, Charlie Murder is a unique and experimental title that more people need to check out. Originally released for the Xbox 360, the later release on steam made this game more accessible for the modern audience, and its inclusion on the platform is a great addition to the brawler genre that is currently oversaturated with easy, filler titles.

Fun Factor: 85/100

Panic on the streets!

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Halloween's round the corner, so grab your pitchforks/torches/guns!

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[Top 10] Best 2D Racing Games Right Now

Dedalus_27 — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 08:51:38 +0000

10. F-Zero

F-Zero gameplay

F-Zero is a SNES classic. I remember playing this for hours as a kid, joyously taking in the simplistic yet colourful graphics and the sci-fi futuristic soundtrack. One thing about this game has stuck with me all these years later, and that is the sound design, particularly the noise that the various vehicles make as you turn corners and collect boosts. The sound effects really help to sell the illusion of the sci-fi theme and give the vehicles a real sense of speed. Luckily, thanks to emulators, you no longer need to wrestle with a tiny SNES controller to play this game today.

9. Earn to Die 2

Earn to Die 2 gameplay

Earn to Die 2 departs from the familiar desert setting of the original game and ventures into the overrun and decrepit urban environment. In this 2D racing game your goal is to get from one end of the track to the other. Sound easy enough? Well, add in hordes of zombies and physical obstacles and the task very quickly becomes more difficult. The mechanics are simplistic yet addictive, and there are 10 different vehicles to unlock, all with their own unique upgrades.

8. Ultimate Racing 2D

Ultimate Racing 2D gameplay

Despite its simplistic appearance, this game is surprisingly substantial, with hundreds of cars, more than 30 different racing classes, and around 45 tracks. Gamers can race around 2D tracks in go-karts, formula 1 cars, monster trucks and much more. The career mode is also surprisingly robust, with tons of progression and customization options. What I love about Ultimate Racing 2D is that every car behaves slightly differently so you always feel like you’re being challenged, and the game never gets stagnant.

7. Joe Danger

Joe Danger gameplay

I find the premise of this game very appealing. You play as legendary stuntman Joe Danger, whose death defying and daredevil stunts have earned him a reputation as one of the most legendary stuntmen alive. Equipped with Joe’s famous motorbike, you’ll be put through the gamut, jumping over flaming obstacles, doing loop-de-loops, and flying over dangerous gaps. The visuals and the mechanics of this game all seem incredibly polished, and although the career mode can get a little repetitive, it’s long enough and varied enough to be satisfying.

6. Grand Prix Story 2

Grand Prix Story 2 gameplay

Grand Prix Story takes a different approach to the racing game genre. Instead of actually racing cars around the track yourself, you play as a manager, creating your own team and managing everything from sponsors to the types of cars your team drives. Imagine Football Manager mixed with F1 2021, add in some retro-style pixelated graphics, and what you get is Grand Prix Story 2. I love this charming little game. It’s my go-to when I fancy a more hands-off racing experience.

5. Hill Climb Racing 2

Hill Climb Racing 2 gameplay

Created by Fingersoft, Hill Climb Racing 1 was a fun and chaotic 2D racer. This sequel follows in the footsteps of its predecessor while adding a number of significant changes to content and mechanics. Hill Climb Racing 2 feels generally much smoother than the first one, with cars that feel weighty and balanced, and there’s also much more customization on offer here, with a huge selection of cars all having unique upgrades. An added bonus is the character customization, which is surprisingly extensive, offering up a handful of quirky outfits for you to collect.

4. Circuit Superstars

Circuit Superstars gameplay

Circuit Superstars isn’t strictly a 2D racing game. The game features 3D modelled cars and highly detailed tracks, but the camera perspective is top-down, which gives it the impression of being 2D. For that reason, I’d say that this game is somewhere between 2D and 3D (2.5D maybe…?). This is a high-quality game, with really solid mechanics and great attention to detail. I particularly love how rubber marks form on the track over the course of the race, showing the line that most cars have followed. It’s a minor detail, but something that really demonstrates that this game is a polished product.

3. Rude Racers: 2D Combat Racing

Rude Racers: 2D Combat Racing gameplay

This fast and furious 2D racing game features entertaining gameplay that is accessible yet always challenging. The combat mechanics are fun, and the driving mechanics are simple and balanced. To me, this game recalls classic road combat games like Road Rash, and personally I’m all for it! This particular subgenre of racing game really gets the adrenaline pumping, and you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat giving it your absolute everything just to survive to the end of the race.

2. Roadclub: League Racing

Roadclub: League Racing gameplay

The developers of this game claim that it was developed in a custom 3D engine to provide realistic handling mechanics. Now while I usually urge people to take what developers say with a pinch of salt, the handling mechanics of the cars in this game certainly do feel top-notch. The game features a season-based career mode, where you attempt to ascend the league racing ranks until you reach the reigning roadclub master and battle it out with him in a tense 1v1 race. You can also collect upgrades and new cars as you go along to give you an edge over the competition.

1. 80’s Overdrive

80's Overdrive gameplay

I could speak and speak about this game all day, but the name and the gameplay tell you all you really need to know about this game. It’s a beautifully crafted 2D racing game that’s designed to take you back in time to the 8- and 16-bit era. The game features two game modes, 6 retro supercars, and even comes bundled with a track editor, so you can create and race on your own custom-made circuits.

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Top 17 Games Like Terraria (Games Better Than Terraria in Their Own Way)

linkpwns13 — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 03:38:19 +0000

Terraria is one of those games that defines its genre. It just keeps surprising you.

No matter how many thousands of hours you fork over or how good you get, every nightmare and poltergeist that’s been waiting at the edge of the light is still let loose when night falls, and the blood moon will never tire of watching them drive you to your knees.

Terraria has something for everyone; it’s the penultimate sandbox, survival, RPG, and hack-n-slash, all rolled up in a delicious, two-dimensional video game burrito.

If you like Terraria, you’ll be pleased to know you aren’t alone. There are lots of games that take inspiration from the freedom of an open world and the teeth-gritting thrill of giant boss battles and overwhelming swarms of monsters.

These games are Terraria-esque at their cores, but take some creative liberties that make them stand-out experiences all on their own.

17. Starbound

Ohm Plays... Starbound - Gameplay Overview / Impressions - PC / Steam

Stranded in space with a busted ship, you must collect materials to get your ship up and running again. Once you do, the whole universe opens up to you, and no two planets are alike.

Starbound’s universe is incomprehensibly big - I have over 800 hours clocked, and I find something new every single time I play. Surprisingly nuanced combat coupled with randomly generated weapons make for a personalized loadout without the need for a class system. Planets are populated with NPC villages, trap-riddled dungeons, and hundreds of other structures whose decorations would look very nice on my ship I’ll take that thank you very much.

Destination unknown: an algorithm generates trillions of weird, wonderful planets, with unique treasure, dungeons, and wildlife

Shut up, Wesley: as the captain of your own space vessel, you can expand your ship, hire crewmembers, and travel in style

16. This War of Mine

This War of Mine Gameplay Part 1 – "Day 1 Dawns Upon Us"

Three civilians are suddenly thrust into a dire survival situation as war breaks out right outside their front door.

Anything can happen, and your traumatized survivors can’t afford to make a single mistake. The atmosphere is tense, as you attempt to piece together a functional shelter, never quite feeling in control.

The game forces you to make harrowing moral decisions, whittling away at your crew’s morale and turning them on each other or even themselves. It’s difficult, realistic, and eye-opening, sending the most hard-hearted players desperately Googling puppies to try and ease the ache in their chest.

God of a shrinking universe: you may have control over what your survivors do, but in the heat of a violent conflict, there are some situations you just can’t salvage

Harsh reality: random events and sudden deaths can send a stable community whirling towards disaster in minutes

15. Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation

Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation - (Colony Building Survival Game)

All Hell has broken loose, and your party was camping when it happened. You and your friends are safe for now, but your city was destroyed by demons, and you have to build a defensible settlement in the wilderness before they find you. Scavenging for supplies is a risk, but vital to your progression, and a delicate balance must be formed when rationing resources to your crew and their efforts.

Your survivors are smart - they know what they’re good at and will place themselves where they’ll be most helpful. And when it comes time to fight back against the demon invasion, you’ll have to keep each other alive with careful strategy, as you’re no match for the forces of Hell alone.

Not what they had in mind: your band of survivors must learn how to not only stay afloat, but thrive and grow stronger

Hell’s angels: break up the grind with real-time strategy shootouts against the armies of Hell

14. Fallout Shelter

Fallout Shelter PC - Ep. 1 - Fallout Shelter Vault #314 - Let's Play Fallout Shelter PC Gameplay

The Fallout series has historically focused on what happens outside the shelters. In this app game, we’re given a glimpse into the life of a vault-dweller.

Each dweller has a proficiency, and you’ll have to play to their skills to accrue resources for your vault. As your population grows, you build new rooms to produce more resources, and send your dwellers out into the wasteland to find caps and gain experience.

For Bethesda’s first foray into app games, Fallout Shelter is a friendly and addictive debut, with virtually no pay-to-win mechanics and that classic Fallout whip-smart charm inside every dweller… or maybe that’s just the radiation.

Hotel Wasteland: if you’re going to be trapped underground in the wake of nuclear war, you might as well be comfortable

Text adventure: exploring the wasteland is dangerous, but yields outfits, weapons, and supplies

13. Dig or Die

Let's Play Dig Or Die - Early Access - Co-Op - Ep. 1 - Night Time Is Scary Time!

A botched exploration mission has led to your exile on a hostile alien planet.

You need to use the world’s resources to build a ship and get back home, but first, you need to defend yourself against the deadly night - it’d be pretty hard to pilot a ship with all your giblets scattered across the dirt.

Dig or Die marries the tactile grind for materials in an open world with the intense, fast-paced strategy of tower defense. The game takes a more linear approach to building games, emphasizing fending off the relentless hordes and clever resource management.

Don’t even try it: create a base that makes invading monsters regret their whole existence

Hello world: automated firepower and transportation make you a force to be reckoned with

12. Kingdom: Classic

Kingdom: Classic - Gameplay

I highly recommend that you play this game for yourself before you watch any footage. You are an ambiguous monarch, building up your kingdom coin by coin, day by meager day.

Your only method of affecting the world around you is by trotting across your land on horseback and giving orders to your villagers, and you aren’t given any quantifiable way to keep track of anything, including your money.

All that’s clear is your defenses need to be up before nightfall, or else something as nameless and mysterious as the monarch themselves will rip your budding kingdom from history.

Roughing it: your kingdom starts with little in the way of… well, anything

Ancient mysteries: the story is told through environmental clues, but raises more questions than it answers

11. Craft The World

Craft the World Ep 1

Dwarves get to doing what dwarves do best in this quirky take on crafting games. Dig for ores, learn new skills, and defend your base against invaders. Your settlement gains experience from going about tasks, but the dwarves’ individual skills are honed with use, and you can pick their specialties from a sprawling skill tree. As you progress, you find tech and rare materials that allow for better weapons, more efficient machines, and deeper layers for your merry little dwarves to pierce.

It’s in the name: crafting in Craft the World is complex, but easy to understand

It’s off to work we go: relax in between mining trips by decking out your base in colorful adornments, making it a cozy place for your dwarves to come home to

10. Oxygen Not Included

Oxygen Not Included: Oil Update MEGA EPISODE

Being shipwrecked on an uncharted planet might not be so bad, if only it had a breathable atmosphere. Your determined crew of clones must retreat underground and build a habitable shelter.

In addition to making oxygen, you need to produce food, find water, and make sure everybody keeps their head on straight while they work. Resources will run out, and the smallest of oversights can send the whole operation into a spiral as clones scramble to section off rooms leaking toxic gas and take out their frustrations on your expensive machinery.

A priority system keeps the important irons in the fire, but when half a dozen different equally catastrophic emergencies arise at the same time, try to refrain from asking what else could possibly go wrong. I swear, it can hear you.

Three’s a crowd: as you warp in new community members, your workforce is increased, but so is your workload

Breathing gets harder: we take air for granted here on Earth; your clones don’t have that luxury

9. Crea

Familiar, But Different- And That's Good! - Crea 1.0 Gameplay & First Impressions

With little explanation and few guidelines, Crea presents you with a fantastical, vibrant world waiting to be explored. A tall crystal serves as your spawn point, and the further you wander, the less friendly things get.

Crea’s beautiful, mysterious landscapes beg to be investigated, and your curiosity is encouraged by gentle learning curves and little punishment for failure. Your base can span biomes with the help of the strange crystals’ teleportation powers. Despite the easygoing atmosphere, combat is in-depth, with spells, weapons, and skills that can be mixed-and-matched to your preferred fighting style.

Make a house a home: making your abode fashionable is one of Crea’s specialties

Turns out money does grow on trees: Crea’s currency is golden leaves, which can be farmed late in the game

8. Raft

MAN GOES CRAZY ALONE AT SEA | Raft #1

The game’s titular raft is but a pitiful two-by-two palette of bare wood when you start out. Resources drift by on the current, and you can use them to build tools, cook food, and expand your raft.

Fishing for plastic and potatoes might sound doldrum, but it’s surprisingly therapeutic, and it can quickly turn into a fierce struggle as you race the heaving ocean for precious crafting materials before you die of starvation. If the vast, unyielding, merciless ocean wasn’t enough to scare you, there’s also a shark circling your raft at all times, and it’ll chew off bits of your float if you don’t deter it in time.

Your raft can be just enough for the barebones necessities, or it can be a luxurious castaway mansion - either way, the ocean won’t hesitate to remind you of your place.

Alone together: multiplayer allows for cooperative survival, but you might have to fight over rations

The lap of luxury: come as close as you can to comfort while you’re drifting on the endless expanse of the ocean

7. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley Gameplay

Your day job has you feeling like a cog in the machine, so you quit and move into your late grandpa’s farm in Pelican Town.

Farm to make money, build relationships with your neighbors, and uncover several strange, magical goings-on brimming just under the town’s unassuming surface. Stardew Valley is often described as an improvement on the Harvest Moon series, with twelve romanceable villagers that aren’t restricted by your chosen gender, intuitive new mechanics, and a compelling narrative that places the farmer’s moral compass under scrutiny.

It’s relaxing and engaging at the same time, and you’ll find yourself daydreaming about tending to your strawberries while your honey waters the roses when you’re supposed to be working.

Country livin’: growing crops and tending to cute farm animals becomes a peaceful, comfortable routine

Community building: the inhabitants of Pelican Town are bursting with personality, and they’ll open up to you if you pursue a friendship

6. Planet Centauri

Planet Centauri - Introduction - Let's Play Planet Centauri Gameplay Part 1

I’m a sucker for any game with a nice art style, but Planet Centauri’s breathtaking, masterful pixel art is unparalleled. Set in a wild, untamed world, you’ll build your base, recruit NPCs and tame monsters to aid in your exploration.

Weapons, armor, and custom spells can be crafted to smite the unlucky beasts that don’t earn your favor. Any creature on the planet can be captured, and some, like the dinosaurs, can be ridden.

You can program robots and villagers with the user-friendly coding language LUA to execute custom AI - you could just program them to hunt or dig, but there’s the potential for entirely automated factories here.

A whole new world: Planet Centauri is strikingly beautiful, so anything you build is gonna be pretty by default

Put that thing back where it came from or so help me: don’t worry, he doesn’t bite. Or, at least, his jaws can’t reach me from back here.

5. Junk Jack

Junk Jack How to Survive Your First Night | PC Gameplay!

Junk Jack is an honest sandbox, giving you the key to a lovable new world. You’ll build structures, tame animals, and find rare collectibles to display. Items are ranked by their rarity - the rarer an item is, the less utilitarian its purposes, but that won’t keep me from displaying my lava lamps with undeflatable pride.

The game features 12 different dimensions, all with unique environments and inhabitants, and animals you catch can be displayed or set to follow you around. At the end of the day, it’s about collecting shiny things, and making your friends feel inadequate because you have more shiny things than them.

Recycled materials: Junk Jack has a consistent, appealing art style that uses the limits of generated worlds to its advantage

Stargate, eat your heart out: explore lovingly rendered dimensions stocked with new monsters and treasures

4. Don’t Starve

Where are they hiding the gold?? - Don't Starve Gameplay - Part 1

I think Maxwell said it better than I can: “Say, pal, you don’t look so good. You better find something to eat before night comes!” In Don’t Starve, you juggle your hunger, sanity, and health, and try to prepare for winter, when everything will be even more scarce.

This game is stressful as all hell - if the volatile weather, vicious spiders or bloodthirsty hounds don’t kill you first, your fire could die out and you could be swallowed by the things that live in the dark, or your hallucinations could come to life and shred you with their claws.

But don’t get me wrong; you’re going to love every second. It’s witty and plays like a dream, and you’ll be addicted to the excited dread it makes you feel faster than you can say beefalo.

Don’t get in over your head: even if you do manage to get this far, an errant lightning strike or untimely hound attack is all it takes to ruin everything, and then you have to start all over

Untraditional interests: each of Don’t Starve’s delightfully gloomy cast has their own special abilities and inclinations. Wendy, for example, likes fire. A lot.

3. Minecraft

NEW AQUATIC UPDATE GAMEPLAY! - Minecraft 1.13 Ocean Update Snapshot 18W07A (gameplay)

This comparison is obvious, but only because it’s still very relevant.

Minecraft is a survival game, with an emphasis on… everything. I’ll never, ever forget my first night in Minecraft - I holed myself up in a mountainside and felt my heartbeat in my ears as I tried to will the creeper outside my door to go away, still aching from the awe I’d felt cresting the mountain thirty seconds earlier.

Combat, farming, survival, crafting, exploration, and building are Minecraft’s core mechanics, and all of them are well-rounded, a one-size-fits-all of playstyles. Minecraft was a big moment in video game history, and if you haven’t played it yet, I urge you to go see what all the fuss was about.

Sea to shining sea: Minecraft’s nigh-infinite worlds are the perfect sandbox

Passion project: one of Minecraft’s greatest assets is its community - there are thousands of user-created mods, maps and servers that can change the face of the game entirely

2. Planet Nomads

Planet Nomads Ep 1 First Look ! Base Building, Space Survival and MORE ! Z1 Gaming

You crash-land on a remote planet, and as these things go, you start to work the land around you for resources.

Harsh conditions and aggressive fauna are a constant threat as you explore your crash site. The environments and animals are gorgeous, if unfriendly.

You can build ground or sky vehicles to your specifications that make traversing the planet safer and faster, and eventually you’ll duke it out with other spaceships.

Familiar, but not too familiar: alien life is different enough to be interesting, but earthy enough to feel like home

Ridin’ dirty: vehicles are built totally from scratch; your rod can look like a Mars Rover or a souped-up four-wheel drive

1. Feel the Snow

Feel the Snow - (Open World Survival Adventure Game)

Set in a glimmering wintery wonderland, Feel the Snow’s protagonist is an adorable little snowperson. The game’s story, however, is not so adorable, occuring in the wake of an apocalypse that brought nightmarish invaders with it.

The isometric point of view already makes this game stand out against others like it, but its integration of RPG elements like mana and skill trees are its biggest experiment, and it more than succeeds in adding nuance to the combat.

You build your own house after the first couple of nights are spent safely within the city gates, and you’ll have to defend it against the nightmares, all the while trying to understand their appearance in the first place.

Trouble in paradise: a narrative unfolds around you that’s far darker than it seems on the surface

Keep it frosty: you’re made of snow, so you have to keep an eye on your temperature as well as your other stats