Winter Survival Review – WHO WAS THIS MADE FOR?
Do you want to play a survival game that features infuriatingly nonsensical mechanics? How about a survival game that actively prevents you from protecting yourself against its various dangers? Well, if so, you’ll love Winter Survival.
Winter Survival has a story…
Winter Survival is Drago Entertainment’s latest outing, coming out of early access on March 7th, 2024. This is the same team that brought us the surprisingly entertaining Gas Station Simulator, which is much better than it sounds, trust me… But this latest release is a whole different story. Winter Survival puts you in the shoes of main character Danny. His introduction is interesting, being invited out on a trip with his friends, whilst his partner Sara, who is pregnant, remains at home. The guys go out on a trip and something has clearly gone wrong because suddenly you are attacked by a wolf. Admittedly, this is a decent way to begin the adventure, but unfortunately, that is about the best thing I can say about Winter Survival. From here, it goes severely down hill…
The Downfall of Winter Survival
Survival games are known for their brutal mechanics and dangerous worlds. Winter Survival is no exception to this. However, instead of slowly finding ways to overcome these dangers, this title offers you two choices. Either you can face it head on and die, or you can run away and die. That is really it… And I am not saying this because the game is that difficult… The game itself actively tries to prevent you from progressing. For one, you are thrown into wolf infested snow lands with no way to defend yourself.
You are thrown into wolf infested snow lands with no way to defend yourself.
You may get away with sneaking by them for a little while, but if they even get a sniff of you, you might as well restart. Because, sure you can run and hide, and that is what you will be doing 90% of the time anyway, but these pests just seem to appear everywhere and will chase you for ages until you find a decent hiding place. Half the time these hiding places won’t even work either, even though that is their sole purpose… I have had wolves glitch into the hiding spaces and then stun lock me repeatedly till I died… That was definitely a fun experience…
Maybe fighting back is better?
So you would think that maybe it would be better to stand and fight. I too thought this at first… I had just unlocked a sturdy axe and I thought “hey this might do the trick”… But, as I painfully found out, this axe is only for chopping trees. So, it can’t be used to fight off any threats. How marvelous…
Admittedly, the game does give you a fiery torch that they say is helpful for scaring off wolves. Except that it isn’t! Not only do wolves flat out ignore you waving the torch at them half the time and attack anyway, if they do get scared from the torch, it’s only after they have scratched or bitten you half to death anyway. So to be honest, the torch is pretty useless. I understand that a survival game is supposed to be brutal, but seriously, this isn’t brutal… It’s just unplayable.
This isn’t brutal… It’s just unplayable.
Other big issues in Winter Survival
If you are thinking that you might still like to give Winter Survival a go despite the issues above, well, let me introduce you to the game’s next big issue. It’s over the top debuffs. Winter Survival is full of various illnesses and status afflictions to hinder your progress, and some seem to be added for no other reason than to frustrate you! This can best be seen in the home sickness debuff. Its effects: Moderately Increases Trauma. It’s caused by: Waking up in a shelter. It’s treatment: You can’t avoid this.
So basically, the game rewards you for finding shelter by giving you a debuff that increases your trauma. Yeah, that’s fun and makes total sense. You can also get debuffs for staying in a shelter for too long, which again, makes no sense, especially given that shelters provide you a space to rest safely, as well as warm you up and dry your clothes.
Decision
Honestly, there is no real point for me to go on anymore about this train wreck. I had hope for Winter Survival when I first saw it and it genuinely looked like it might have a unique approach to this style of game. However, it is very clear that the game is a mess, even without looking at the never ending bugs and glitches. So, don’t waste your time on this one. Go play Green Hell instead… You’ll have a lot more fun with that!
By Samuel Incze – Reviewed on PC
Broken
Winter Survival is honestly a complete waste of time. The story might give you some initial intrigue. However, the stiff gameplay mixed with unreasonable survival mechanics leads to a frustrating experience that will deter you from being able to make significant progress. Do yourself a favour and pass on this one!
This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Drago Entertainment. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.
