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I figured this is the best place to ask for additional game recs that will scratch that same itch as TLD. Lets see what y'all got for me....

- I love vast exploration. That discovery of something new around the next corner.

- I enjoy crafting within reason & improving my character.

- I need a decent story & prefer set goals/quests - I'm at my happiest in TLD when playing Wintermute for this reason, I feel a bit aimless in Survival sandboxes.

- I enjoy building things a-la Minecraft, or just setting up a cool base from which to set out.

- I prefer the minimal combat of TLD, but don't mind getting my hands dirty (I'm a sniper/ranged player at heart).

- My fav games of all time were the HalfLife games so I don't mind when my exploration is on rails. But at this stage in my life I'm not sure I'd enjoy the volume of combat that HalfLife had.

- I can't play games that constrain your ability to save, or have real-world time passage; I have 3 kids & no time for that nonsense.

- I have a Switch & a decent gaming PC.

I've looked at No Man's Sky but reviews have told me that the exploration starts out seeming vast & limitless but quickly comes down to a few repeated biomes & the novelty wears off fast.

I would happily play endless episodes of Wintermute if the plot & new regions kept on coming. But with around 250 hours in the game, I'm getting a bit tapped out on Survival mode.

Any suggestions gratefully welcome! 😊

Edited by Sherri
Typo.
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This might be an odd one for you, being a vehicles game, but Spintires: The Original Game has some of what you listed.   The play areas are pretty good sized with uncloaking zones you have to travel to in order to reveal the overall scene on your map.  And they don't make it easy to get anywhere.  Mud, fallen trees, water, bogs, the lot..

The objectives are straight forward (get logs from one place to another),  but also not easily done.  The physics of heavy loads on tough terrain is there... but so are winches 😀 (life savers).  The other nice thing is that you can quit anywhere and it will set you right back into the mud where you left off the next time you start the game.

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Hi Sherri

I'm currently having yet another spell in The Forest.  I'll run through how I think it meets your criteria:

 

- I love vast exploration. That discovery of something new around the next corner.

A huge island with interconnected zones, plus caving systems. Easy to get turned about but also to set bases and waypoints.  The option to use zip wires or rafts.

- I enjoy crafting within reason & improving my character.

Some gathering of resources and mild crafting to create new items/ upgrades.  Fairly frequent travel to resupply required due to storage/ inventory limitations.  Character builds up stamina etc. as you exercise, and various health bars etc. to attend to.

- I need a decent story & prefer set goals/quests - I'm at my happiest in TLD when playing Wintermute for this reason, I feel a bit aimless in Survival sandboxes.

A good mix of story/narrative to push you to explore more and the ability to play as sandbox/ do your own thing.

- I enjoy building things a-la Minecraft, or just setting up a cool base from which to set out.

Definitely a high scorer on this count- lots of custom base building and traps- however can be fiddly and time consuming. There's a custom build mode unlocked for completing the story mode too.

- I prefer the minimal combat of TLD, but don't mind getting my hands dirty (I'm a sniper/ranged player at heart).

Lots of combat, but it's fun (especially the traps), and there are vanilla modes.

- My fav games of all time were the HalfLife games so I don't mind when my exploration is on rails. But at this stage in my life I'm not sure I'd enjoy the volume of combat that HalfLife had.

See above.

- I can't play games that constrain your ability to save, or have real-world time passage; I have 3 kids & no time for that nonsense.

Probably a similar passage of time to TLD in terms of in game hours.  Can't just save, but relatively easy to set up a temporary shelter to do so.  No pause option though.

- I have a Switch & a decent gaming PC.

Don't think it's on Switch, but runs equally well on my partner's decent (although 5yr+) gaming pc, and my newer but by no means state of the art laptop.

 

Other points- we play exclusively multiplayer, it's the only decent survival co-op we've found (Stranded Deep is on the list though)- just makes building and dealing with ambushes less stressful. 

The game can be also very glitchy and looks like it has now been pretty much abandoned as it is for work on the sequel.

Overall I think it may be worth you checking out, it's not exactly what you're after but if you can live with the flaws it's a lot of fun. 

 

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On 10/18/2020 at 7:21 PM, ManicManiac said:

@Sherri

Stranded Deep comes to mind.  It's sort of like "Cast Away: The Game"
Subnautica is another one where the exploration can get pretty interesting. :)


:coffee::fire::coffee:

Holy smokes Stranded Deep looks awesome! How did you know I'm a huge Robinson Crusoe fan? lol

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  • 2 weeks later...

I must recommend subnautica, at least with the popular mods. It pretty much covers all your bases and I liked it better than Stranded Deep ( Though in fairness I haven't played it since it was in development). Don't Starve is a great game with lots and lots of crafting from resources. It also has a multiplayer if you're interested in that.

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On 11/3/2020 at 4:51 AM, Grignard_TN said:

I must recommend subnautica, at least with the popular mods. It pretty much covers all your bases and I liked it better than Stranded Deep ( Though in fairness I haven't played it since it was in development). Don't Starve is a great game with lots and lots of crafting from resources. It also has a multiplayer if you're interested in that.

Is this worth to try? I want to try another game also.

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On 11/17/2020 at 9:29 PM, Fars said:

THIS WAY OF MINE. It's available on Steam n mobile. Excellent survival game similar to TLD.. Managing inventory and surviving in an unforgiving environment. Also check out frostpunk by same devs.

Cool thank you!

 

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On 11/17/2020 at 9:29 PM, Fars said:

THIS WAY OF MINE. It's available on Steam n mobile. Excellent survival game similar to TLD.. Managing inventory and surviving in an unforgiving environment. Also check out frostpunk by same devs.

Do you mean This WAR of mine?

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Green Hell has been treating me well. It's a bit harder than TLD survival-wise and a bit more... um.. graphic? Like you get infected wounds you have to treat and it's photo realistic. You also can get 'worms' from sleeping on the ground and you have to... uh.. .remove them.

It has a story mode and challenges just like TLD and the game is gorgeous. There's a bit more crafting than TLD, mostly by way of shelters. But there's fires, cooking, and hunting. Predators like snakes and jaguars and tribal folks that want to eat you.

It's a fun game. You might enjoy it.

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20 hours ago, Gracia_WolfSlayer said:

Green Hell has been treating me well. It's a bit harder than TLD survival-wise and a bit more... um.. graphic? Like you get infected wounds you have to treat and it's photo realistic. You also can get 'worms' from sleeping on the ground and you have to... uh.. .remove them.

It has a story mode and challenges just like TLD and the game is gorgeous. There's a bit more crafting than TLD, mostly by way of shelters. But there's fires, cooking, and hunting. Predators like snakes and jaguars and tribal folks that want to eat you.

It's a fun game. You might enjoy it.

lol sounds... interesting. :D

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On 11/2/2020 at 3:51 PM, Grignard_TN said:

I must recommend subnautica, at least with the popular mods. It pretty much covers all your bases and I liked it better than Stranded Deep ( Though in fairness I haven't played it since it was in development). Don't Starve is a great game with lots and lots of crafting from resources. It also has a multiplayer if you're interested in that.

  

On 10/18/2020 at 7:21 PM, ManicManiac said:

Subnautica is another one where the exploration can get pretty interesting. :)


:coffee::fire::coffee:

 

@Grignard_TN & @ManicManiac... I must extend my sincere thanks for the recommendation of Subnautica, I bought it on sale last week and hooo boy is it ever fun. It feels like the spiritual sister to TLD with the added bonus of base construction. I am really loving it so far.

@BlinkMoFried absolutely give Subnautica a try. It's hitting all the same feels as TLD ... it's almost an underwater clone. :D

Caveat that the new player onboarding is pretty sparse in that game, you might need some new player tips/guides to get rolling. lol

Edited by Sherri
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/30/2020 at 6:28 PM, Sherri said:

  

 

@Grignard_TN & @ManicManiac... I must extend my sincere thanks for the recommendation of Subnautica, I bought it on sale last week and hooo boy is it ever fun. It feels like the spiritual sister to TLD with the added bonus of base construction. I am really loving it so far.

@BlinkMoFried absolutely give Subnautica a try. It's hitting all the same feels as TLD ... it's almost an underwater clone. :D

Caveat that the new player onboarding is pretty sparse in that game, you might need some new player tips/guides to get rolling. lol

Have you gone up to the crashed ship yet? It gets quite interesting where the water gets murky

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22 hours ago, Grignard_TN said:

Have you gone up to the crashed ship yet? It gets quite interesting where the water gets murky

One pod was located x distance from the rear of the ship. So I went over to the engines to drop a waypoint and I got chomped by a reaper and almost destroyed my seamoth. LOL. I haven't gone close to there again... but I almost have to board the ship soon because I now have the tools to explore inside. I have a location to visit that is apparently 500m deep and I'm trying to figure out how to get that deep. Pretty damn fun... and a lot of tension when exploring!

Edited by Sherri
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I don't want to spoil things but when you go to the Aurora make sure you bring cutting tools, the repair tool and something that can move heavy objects.

To get down to 500 meters you'll have to do something to the seamoth. If I remember correctly what you need is in a certain cave beneath the red grass area. It's very large you'll need the seamoth.

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On 12/15/2020 at 8:53 AM, Grignard_TN said:

I don't want to spoil things but when you go to the Aurora make sure you bring cutting tools, the repair tool and something that can move heavy objects.

To get down to 500 meters you'll have to do something to the seamoth. If I remember correctly what you need is in a certain cave beneath the red grass area. It's very large you'll need the seamoth.

I've upgraded the Seamoth to 300m and started exploring the glowing mushroom cave. Very exciting! :D

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For exploration I'd say theHunter Call of The Wild, there isn't really a survival aspect, but it's a really beautiful game with many large maps, (problem is you have to pay for most of them) The other issue is you really have to play a lot to unlock the better weapons, and tools for hunting. Also, if hunting isn't you thing than the game isn't for you.

Another exploration game with a set story is Snowrunner, I saw someone recommend Spintires higher up in the thread, but Snowrunner is basically the sequel. Again, this is a game about delivering cargo with trucks, so it also isn't for everyone. You have to make sure you don't damage your truck, along with not flipping it over. And like theHunter, you have to play a lot to unlock the better upgrades for your truck. 

Kona is also a very story driven game, it takes place in Canada, during the winter. It's a puzzle, survival, and all around fun game. DO be aware, it's a short game so you should not buy the game full price. I'd wait until it's on sale on steam, which happens somewhat often.

I'd highly suggest you to take a look at these games, they are all fun games. theHunter, and Snowrunner both have multiplayer if your into that, but you can also play alone. More than likely you've heard about at least one of these games, but for your criteria, I think they fit well. (even though they don't fill everything.)

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  • 1 year later...

I am currently playing minecraft game and It is probably the single-most successful indie game in history. Originally designed by Markus "Notch" Persson and developed by the Swedish company Mojang, the game has sold something like 54 million copies across all available platforms (PC, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita). This makes it the third-best selling video game here of all time, trailing only Tetris and Wii Sports.

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I will also throw in my vote for Subnautica.  The exploration is very interesting, and the crafting and base building elements are top-notch.  Good story, too.

Also a "hardcore" mode for you interloper types.

edit: Also, "The Forest" is excellent.  My all-time biggest "WTF" moment in gaming came after many nights of hearing weird distant cries, and then finally seeing the source, shambling along the beach in the moonlight.

Edited by I_eat_only_wolf_meat
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  • 3 months later...

For some good survival games, I would recommend:

  • Mist Survival: Guns, zombies, bandits, farming, and base building. What more could one ask? Matches are scarcer than on Interloper, but are craftable. There is quite a learning curve, but in time, it gets kind of fun.
  • The Forest: For gun-free (except for a flintlock pistol) combat, story, and base-building, this is what I would recommend. It is kind of lacking in survival elements, though.
  • Subnautica: I have not played yet, but the trailer looks really good.
  • The Infected: Another early-access zombie survival game, this looks like it has promise.
  • Medieval Dynasty: Hey, what can I say? A whole array of skills, beautiful photorealistic graphics, farming, crafting/building, dangerous animals, and a story. For a TLD-ish experience, I would recommend setting the season length to a single day, then maxing it out when winter hits. I could lose myself all day walking in the beautiful forests and watching the wildlife.

Now for some of the more obscure (not necessarily survival) games:

  • Cryostasis: A horror game set on a crashed Soviet icebreaker ship in the arctic, where your warmth level is your health. The ship is massive, with a creepy atmosphere, and the character has a special ability (not going to spoil it).
  • Dinosystem: A cute top down survival game. You play as a castaway on an island filled with dinosaurs that want to rip your face off (brutal!). There are many stone-ager skills to progress in, and the strength system in particular is the most realistic I have ever seen in a game.
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance: With excellent combat and an epic story, this gives off some Conan the Cimmerian vibes. The huge map allows for plenty of exploration, and there are many interesting nooks and crannies to check out. The only survival elements are that Henry must sometimes eat and sleep; saving is accomplished by drinking a special brew called Savior Schnapps, of which there is usually enough to go around.
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