Who are we?

Our Mission is simple.

"We want to help people find the best of open world survival games out there."

-a quote from “Survival Siv”

founder of OpenWorldSurvialGames.com

What is an Open World Survival Game?

This is not a simple a question to answer and it is certainly up for interpretation. I have been gaming regularly for over 40 years, since the dawn of PC gaming so hopefully im well placed to attempt to answer this. Open world games were always one of my favourite types of game. I guess i loved to escape into another world … the larger the better. To answer the question “what is an open world survival game?” first we need to ask what an open world game is and then we will ponder what makes a “survival game”.

What is an open world game? (click here for an in depth article on the subject)

 If you asked me what was the 1st open world game i played I’m not sure i could give you a definitive answer. It was probably elite(the original release in the 80s from firebird) this game let you explore a vast galaxy in various space ships . Maybe is was another game from the 80s called Valhalla which was set in the world of Nordic mythology. It was a large world to explore but you used text command to move e.g. go north, go south , go north east etc , does that lack of free movement exclude it from being called an open world game?  Even a game called scuba dive from the 80s made me feel like there was a huge underwater world to explore. in that 2D game you could move in any direction on screen. Or was it Morrowind a more recent elder scrolls game that was more like what younger gamers would consider an open world game? This world was vast, how important is the size of the world? Maybe for some it would have been one of the grand theft auto games or assassin’s creed games.

I have played 100s of open world games over the years and i would say there are a few factors that make think of a game as an open world game.

1 The ability to explore the huge world and feel like you are exploring freely.  Not being push along a track/tunnel to a destination.(non linear) It helps if the world sparks your curiosity and compels to want to explore as you want to see more of it or find better gear/loot. There are many ways that a game can compel you to explore, the best open world games use many ways to feed that desire to explore the world. 

 

a) Character or story progression often fuels that desire to explore the world. Finding that rare loot that improves your character.
b) A beautiful /interesting world to explore. What’s beautiful/interesting is very subjective. Some people will love one open world game just because it is a world/era/time in history/biome/architecture etc that fascinates them. Some people loved assassin’s creed 2 because they really enjoyed spending time in renaissance Italy. I personally was more drawn to assassin’s cred blag flag which is the only assassin’s creed game ive played despite owning quite a few assassin’s creed games. Even though i would say Blag flag was an open world game i didn’t feel it was best open world to live in.The world was beautiful to look at and I loved the time period. Who doesn’t want to be a drunken pirate sailing the seas in search of booty? After a few very enjoyable days play I found it a bit repetitive and there was that much variety to it. I would recommend it as a game, but it has its flaws.
c) A variety of things to do and ways to play in that open world. Freedom!
d) Has characters you find interesting and draw you into the world. Again, very subjective and will vary from person to person. Some open world games have literally no other characters but somehow the world/story/challenging environment keep your interest.

2 The ability to navigate large areas without feeling locked out of an area unnaturally. Lots of open world games wont let you progress to an area until you complete a quest but if its a recurring theme and if the area you are locking into feels small then i don’t feel you can call it an open world game. If you keep hitting invisible walls or impassable terran in what feels like a small area (subjective).  One tricky question is how large an area does an open world need to be?

E.g GTA San Andreaus locked you out of large parts to the map ( i know because i remember trying to get to those parts) until you had progressed the main quest line/story to a certain point. I love exploring in open world game so almost as soon as i feel i can i take a break from he main story/quest line and try to explore the world.  In gta san Andreus despite briefly feeling disappointed i couldn’t explore all the map it is definitely an open world game. The areas you got to play around in before you noticed those locked areas  was huge and there was so much to do in that world.  

I really didnt like those invisible walls blocking my character. Very immersion breaking. So gta san Andreus was a open world game in my opinion. A very good one at the time of release but I do feel its dated a bit now. Or maybe one of the strong point was the story and characters. Feeling down trodden thanks to Samual l Jackson ordering me around.. a great gaming memory. Once you have completed it the going back just to revisit the world was not as much fun as I expected. Well voiced characters paired with a good script = a better open world.

While pondering this subject i started thinking about BioShock infinite. A game i loved because of the story/characters/brilliant voice acting. I want to say it was an open world game because i love open world games but its hard to justify calling it an open world game. Its been a long time since i played it. I do remember playing in large open world areas but the structure of the game often didn’t feel open worldy. More story/ level driven (as in you complete an area and move on the next level/area). You sometimes returned to an area you had already visited but there was not enough freedom in the game for me to call it an open world game. Great game though. I was interested to see if steam tagged it as an open world game. It didn’t. I dont always agree with steams tagging but they are right here. What do you think?

I must mention mass effect 1. This is like BioShock infinite in some ways. Even though its been many years i still recollect loving the characters / gameplay / story but with me there always comes a point i want to explore freely if i can. I couldn’t. invisible walls a ahoy! Its still a classic but not open world in my opinion.

The Wither(1st game) was another great game  but i have the same memory. I was Loving the game, the characters, the story and the world. This made me want to explore the world. Even though it was over 10 years ago I remember wanting to improve my characters gear/skills so I could save a witch from a pitchfork wielding mob of angry townsfolk. So I thought lets leave this area, explore and get stronger. Bosh i bang my head against a invisible wall. <sad face> … Despite this happening in both mass effect 1 and 2 plus Witcher one and 2 i still think of those games as classic games. Just not open world games sadly. There were some larger areas that felt almost like an open world game like Skyrim but from memory I don’t think they were big enough to allow these games the tag of a open world game. In my mind they would have been better as open world games but who knows… I do notice that a lot of the best open world games that have do lack good stories. Maybe gaming studios find it hard focus on making a huge open world and also add well rounded characters with a good story line. This doesn’t not apply to rockstar games it seems. Those guys know how to fill a world with fun characters and things to do and explore.

Ok just went and checked steam and when it comes to the Witcher steam doesn’t agree with me. They have called it an open world game. Hm it was over 10 years ago when i played that game so maybe im wrong. Then again google the subject and most people conclude that most people agree with me that mass effect 1 and 2 plus Witcher 1 and 2 are not open world games.

I will come back to the great “what is an open world game” debate at a later date. It’s a question that deserves its own article. I havnt even mentioned the word “sandbox”.

What is a survival game?

Ive played a lot of survival games. (1000s of hours). It would be almost easier to mention the survival games ive not played. Rather then the ones I have.  I always loved open world games but about 15 years ago I got into watching Ray Mears on TV. I really preferred his shows on survival (famously he stopped doing survival shows as he felt he was being pigeonholed). I watched all of them and plenty of his non survival shows to. Hes great. Then I got into watching les stroud…HEs almost as great. Then theres bear grills .. he ok 😀

So when more and more survival games started appearing I had to play them. I must mention the long dark here. That game is one of the reasons im writing this article. If you play a lot of games from all genres its so refreshing to play a “new” game. The long dark didn’t feel like any other game ive played at the time. Now there are quite a few that are similar but its still a unique game to play. Especially visually.

When I started building OpenWorldSurvivalGames.com in 2023 steam did not have a survival category which I kinda felt was sad. I though it deserved its own category partly due to the popularity of survival games. Steam classed survival games as a sub genre category. I know it didn’t have its own category as while I was building this site I though it would be easier to follow all survival games if steam had its own survival category.

Steam read my mind as a few days after I started working on this site they created a new category. “Survival Games” it’s a sign I thought. Now you can view all the survival games (that steam class as survival games) in one place and list them my sales. Rust is top , proabably due to its broad appeal.

The term survival games a relatively new term when it comes to gaming. Ive been gaming many decades but have only heard the term used to describe some games in the last few years. Ofcoase survival games have been around a long time.

Lets bring Wikipedia.org into it…

Survival games are a subgenre of video games which are usually set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by crafting tools, weapons, shelters, and collecting resources. Many survival games are based on randomly or procedurally generated persistent environments; more recently, survival games are often playable online, allowing players to interact in a single world. Survival games are generally open-ended with no set goals and often closely related to the survival horror genre, where the player must survive within a supernatural setting, such as a zombie apocalypse.”

Well they are not a subgenre according to steam any more but I do agree with the majority of what wiki say.

I don’t feel its right to say “survival games generally are open ended with no set goals” I do like these types of survival games but for a start the goal is to survive , then thrive in an often in a hostile environment. All Zombie games are not survival games in my opinion so I don’t think its wise to mention them apart from to say some zombie games are survival games.

Elephant in the room time!

NEARLY ARE GAMES ARE SURVIVAL GAMES ON SOME LEVEL! I.e the goal is to stay alive. (I wonna talk about the original plannetscape: torment here but I would go seriously off track if I did. Also heavy spoiler territory.)

For me survival games are games that have some (if not all) specific elements. Survivalist elements if you like. Here in the uk you can go on survivalist courses.

1 Surviving against the environment/elements. Where the enemy is often the cold or the lack of food resources. Or the wildlife (ok yes in a zombie apocalypse that means zombies. Damn zombies)

2 Shelter/Base building

3 Crafting

4 Resourse management. Collecting/crafting often scares resources (eg food , water or tools) and storing maintaining or managing them. Food(hunger) and water(thirst) often play a major part in  survival games.

For me a survival game must have most if not all of these elements. I do think there needs to be a health to food mechanic . Or a water to thirst mechanic. Or a cold vs warmth mechanic. IF they are not present then all the other elements I mentioned must be there.

 Just last week on the BBC on a lunch time tv Robson green (an ancient signer you probably haven’t heard) of was show casing the joys of the north east of england. He went of a survivalist course which people go on for fun. He learnt some basic foraging skills and fire making via a bow drill. Hes no ray mears let me tell you.

I mention this because survivalist courses teach skills that some of which should be in a game for it to be regarded a survival game. Think Ray mears bear grills or les stroud.

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