Sunday 14 July 2013

Steam Summer Sale: Don't Starve

I'm a big fan of deals and a big fan of good PC gaming. So it's not a surprise that I am particularly fond of the digital distribution platform, Steam, which is notorious for it's sales. Right now, tons of great games are on sale for anywhere from 15% to 85% off. I've managed to snag several for $2.50 so these will make great gifts in the future.

I however, will not disclose how much I've spent so far, or how many of these games are going to sit untouched. I have a tendency to stockpile games and let them gather dust. I am also told this is a common occurrence.

All hail Gaben!

But one game I have been spending a lot of time with is Don't Starve. You are a scientist, and for whatever reason, someone or something has dumped you in the middle of the wilderness to fend for yourself. Now you have to make sense of the new world you've been placed in, gather enough resources to survive each passing day, defend against wild animals, and most importantly, don't starve.

It's such a simple idea but it has a lot of depth to it. With each passing moment, it gets closer to night and you need to make sure you have enough light to dissuade monsters from taking a bite out of you. You need to constantly hunt and forage for food but not everything is edible. And being alone in the dark can really take a toll on one's sanity, resulting in hallucinations which can eventually manifest and attack you.

And they never leave you alone!

But you are a scientist afterall! Find the right materials and soon you can craft better forms of light, research farming methods, and build armor and weapons to help in your fight for survival. Cook food to make it more nutritious, build and bait traps to catch prey, and begin to tinker with magic that can freeze your enemies or even bring you back from the dead.

Speaking of death, Don't Starve is in the genre of of rogue-like. This means that if you die, your entire world is deleted and you need to start all over again. While it does ramp the difficulty curve up a bit, it makes survival that much more pressing. You need to explore to get food, but running through a dangerous swamp could be deadly. Chopping down trees for fire is necessary, but it's hard to do when besieged by a swarm of spiders.

This also gives the game a lot of replay value. You are given a completely new world to run around in each time you start over. Plus, after playing through a few times, you'll unlock new characters, each with their own quirks and traits to mess around with.

For example, Willow starts with a lighter.

For a game that's only in the beta, it runs very well, has a lot of content, and is continually adding more content with each passing week. New areas like caves are being expanded on, as well as new characters and gamemodes to try. I highly recommend taking a look at this game, especially since it's currently 40% off until July 22th.

Anyone who isn't convinced so far can watch the trailer below. If you'll excuse me, I have more games to buy.

26 comments:

  1. That does sound like a pretty fun game and I love the Steam Sales. I got myself quite a good haul last year and I'm telling myself the only reason the games go untouched is because I got things my computer can't handle as an investment.

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  2. Don't Starve sounds really good! A Steam sale is the sort of thing that's right up your street for sure mate, I'm glad that you've made adequate use of it, 85% of is an incredible saving!

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  3. Sounds like many hours of gameplay will be spent

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  4. Sounds like something my son might enjoy. He has a Steam account, I shall have to ask him if he has the game already

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  5. They look exciting it's a pity I'm not a gamer :(

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  6. Ah yeah, Steam Summer Sale. Spent a lot of money on this last year, and most of the games went untouched, or only got a few hours of playtime. I haven't booted up Steam yet, and I think it's the smartest move: not to play.

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  7. That actually sounds fun, though I think I would lose my mind if I had to start over....

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  8. Kinda like a strange version of the professor from gilligan's island

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  9. Gah, I've been trying to avoid this Steam Summer Sale like the plague, because I know I'll dump unreasonable amounts of money into it. So even though this looks awesome, I'm going to pretend I never saw this game. Nope, didn't see it...

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  10. I'm thinking I should maybe go make myself a sandwich....

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  11. Not a gamer but this one actually sounds interesting!

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  12. I don't even play video games and "Don't Starve" actually sounds pretty legit...

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  13. Not into video games, but I totally thought of you when I was tricked into seeing "This is the End," and James Franco called them art!

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  14. Wow, thanks for the recommendation, this game looks incredible. I love beautifully designed problem-solving games. Really good stuff.

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  15. I wish I played games on PC. Steam sounds too good

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  16. It actually does sound appealing. My computer is just not built for games though.. and that's money I could use for music! I.. I don't think I could ever truly be a gamer.

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  17. I thought about getting a Steam account... but then I realized it would probably consume all my money.

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  18. not a game for me, but we do love sales!

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  19. This looks awesome! My brother is a Steam user so I'll have to recommend this to him. And yes it's antihistamines-a-go-go come Summertime otherwise the hayfever gets me. - Tasha xxx

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  20. I'm not fond of any :p
    It's just writing,watching shows and studying online makes me happy :)

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  21. Makes me wish I had time to game...sounds like fun!

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  22. I've never ever played a video game. Sad but true.

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  23. I still miss the original Super Mario :)

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  24. I'm glad you're taking some time to play this summer!

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